Fall is Here

Suddenly overnight, Fall has fallen. Right on time the 23rd of August for a change. We went from 90 plus temperatures to highs in the 70s. The daily rains have a lot to do with that. The leaves are changing colors and falling all over the place which is a good thing for an organic gardens like ours for composting.

Part of the problem is that I've spent since April, in and out of the hospital and recovering from this or that surgery or injuries. I'm  still not done yet. The upcoming cancer surgery and treatments are still left to do. It's been a bad year for the both of us at the Cockeyed Homestead medically speaking. It's got us down to one vehicle and away from the homestead for the most part for most of Spring and Summer.

With the cooler temperatures, come thoughts of the coming winter. The plans  were to lay in a cord of firewood a month for the colder months ahead during summer (buying 1/2 a cord and cutting another 1/2 a cord from our property) each month. Well, that didn't happen. All that went to hospital and pharmacy bills. We just have not felt well enough nor been here to tend to this yearly issue.So we're stuck with buying most of our firewood again, our only source of heat, for the homestead. It's a big ouchie when it comes out of our pockets each month. Last year, we went through five full cords of wood. Which isn't that bad but that's up from three in previous years. At $300 a cord, a month, runs into a big chunk of change. Still, it's cheaper than heating with gas or electric. In other places in the country, a cord of wood runs $500 to $700 so in that respect we're luckier than most.

With the garden and orchard for the most part put to bed until spring, there's little for us to do besides tend to the animals. With the deaths of so many hens and rabbits this year, the workload has decreased significantly. But there's always spinning and knitting to do for me. It's just too hot here to even think about messing with wool and fiber during the summer. We've harvested three seasons worth of angora fiber and other fiber to spin to make into yarn. 3-10 ozs of fiber, and every three months times nine rabbits, you do the math. Plus the purchases of a fleece of alpaca and merino wool for blending with the angora. Adding to this is the two fleeces of other wool, I suint cleaned this spring. I've got my cooler weather activities cut out for me once I'm no longer radioactive, 28 days worth.

I love the suint method of cleaning sheep's wool! It;s a no brainer method of cleaning wool. No fussing with temperature changes of the water and very little labor. It does have a smell, but if you've ever washed whole fleeces the other way,  this is so much simpler.

The steps...

• Find a container with a lid big enough to hold your raw fleece. I use the 55-gallon tote from Lowe's ($15) does two whole fleeces at a time.
• Enough rain water to soak and cover the fleece by 4". We harvest rain water with our rain water catchment system in 400-gallon containers for flushing toilets, watering our animals, and gardening efforts.
• A piece of plastic big enough to cover your tub.
• A weight to hold the wool down, I use washed rocks from our creek. But a couple of ironstone plates that you care nothing about will work too.
• Cover. and let sit for two weeks in a shady location to let ferment. For subsequent batches using the same stinky water only one week is needed. I'll so several batches adding more rain water as needed.
• Fish the wool out of the tub. This is the stinky part. I do strongly suggest dish washing gloves. A long handled colander is also helpful in scooping out the little bits. The wool will still look grungy.
• I place 1/2 the wool into another tub. Rinse the wool in copious supply of rain water. Gentle press the wool under the water a couple of times, let sit a couple of minutes and repeat. Empty the rinse water, press then the fleece to remove as much of the water as possible and refill the tub.Within three rinses, the water will run clear and the wool will be clean. The smell will almost be gone. I do add a cap full (about 2 tsp worth) of original Dawn to the second rinse just because.
• Place the clean wool out to dry in a sunny location to dry. I stretch out a flat, queen sized sheet over the rails on the deck. This way it keeps the dogs, cats, and chickens out of it while it dries. The fermented suint smell is gone after it dries.
• Then just bag it up for carding, selling or spinning, or ready to use.

Although this method takes longer, it's maintains the locks better. Even the rough tips are gone without extra work. All the organic debris is gone. No clumps of feces nor lanolin are in the cleaned fleece. The lanolin and rain water make the "soap" and the fermenting process breaks down the debris  works as a fabric softener. There may be bits of hay or straw left in your wool but that is easily removed picking your wool or carding it.

So around here, we're doing our cooler weather transition. We are moving back inside. The television and DVD player are connected in the living room again. Are we ever glad for flat screens.The plastic on the screens are rolled down and locked into place. The back porch changes back into a greenhouse until next summer.

It's our purposeful transitions for the seasons...

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 American Standard Version (ASV)

"3 For everything there is a season, and a time for every ^[a]purpose under heaven: ² a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; ³ a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; ⁴ a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; ⁵ a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; ⁶ a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; ⁷ a time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; ⁸ a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace."

Y'all have a blessed day!

Cockeyed Jo