It’s time to knit up “Riley”

Posted on December 28, 2011 by laura

“Riley,’ a Shetland fleece, I got from a nice lady in Pennsylvania, is ready to knit. After spinning over a mile of single-ply yarn, I worked it into 3-ply yarn and it’s ready to go!

The yarn is DK weight and is working up beautifully. It spun into a beautifully balanced yarn; soft and delicious.

My sweetie will benefit from Riley’s lovely fleece and should have a wearable sweater in about 3 weeks, if I don’t get too destracted, which happens all too often!

I have started working up “Ink Spot” a lovely black and white Shetland fleece that I got from the same source as Riley. Ink Spot is pure white with pure black spots; hence the name! There is not a lot of crimp in the fleece, but it is spinning up nicely, having about 4 inch fibers. The fleece is amazingly soft and I can’t wait to crawl into the sweater it will become!

I carded all of Riley’s fleece and now Ink Spot’s fleece by hand, which takes quite a bit of time. As a result I am looking at getting a drum carder, but they’re so dang expensive. I’ve gotten plans to build a drum carder, but the carding fabric itself is pretty pricey. I’d hate to think about botching up the project when the supplies to build it cost an arm and a leg!

I’ve looked at all the ‘name’ brand carders and they all get great reviews, but again… so pricey. I have found a nice little carder, made in the USA called a Fancy Kitty (http://www.fancy-kitty.com/carders.html) . All reviews are very good and the price is much more affordable than others I’ve looked at. I believe I’ll get one in March, just before the fleece I’ve ordered shows up… call it a belated Christmas present to myself!

Fancy Kitty carders come in several varieties, including fine to coarse pins, as well as decorative features. I suppose if you’re gonna have a drum carder it ought to be a ‘good-looker’ as well as being functional.

If any of you good folks out there have any feedback on the Fancy Kitty drum carder, I’d love to hear it, as well as any reviews on other makers of carders.

Well, the dishes and the vacuuming await… heavy sigh!

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Spinning… again!

Posted on November 8, 2011 by laura

After almost 35 years, I’m spinning again! Happy Days are here again.

After the loss of my folks, my sisters and I also lost many of the wonderful goodies that were part of all our lives, including mom’s spinning wheels and niddy-noddy. I was heart-broken. I kept waiting for the wheels to turn up, but they didn’t; I knew they were truly gone, but just couldn’t believe it in my heart.

So, I went out looking for a spinning wheel and found a wonderful used Ashford Traditional, single pedal. She’s wonderful. For a chair, I’m using the stool that goes with our wonderful 1900′s era Drow & Christopher piano. The stool works perfectly, as it adjusts down to a very low level and is so very comfortable.

I’m carding the wool by hand at the moment, although I’m using a most wonderful picker to open the fibers and get out a lot of veggie matter. The picker is a Lil’ Dynamo, which can be purchased at www.woolpickers.com

I recommend this picker to anyone who is tired of picking their wool fleece by hand. It’s fast, efficient and very safe to use!

I’m in the process of gathering parts to build a drum carder, as my hand-carding is not very fast or efficient. When I have the plans together I will gladly share the ‘how to’s ‘ for anyone who wants to build a carder, as those babies are very, very expensive!

Also, when I’ve knitted my first sweater from ‘Riley’s’ fleece, I’ll post the results. ‘Ink Spot’ grew the second fleece I have and will make a few posts when I work his fleece up.

I am looking for a local source of wool, as the above two fleece were shipped to me from Pennsylvania. If you raise sheep in or around Kitsap County and have fleece to sell, please let me know!

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Chickens & Eggs!

Posted on November 8, 2011 by laura

Howdy Neighbors!

The ‘girls’ are laying more eggs than we can possibly use ourselves, so we are making the extras available!

Brought to you by Matilda (‘Tille), Molly, Maggie, Margot and Mercie, free-range, fresh, brown eggs. The girls are fed healthy chicken feed, corn, and rolled oats! Now that cold weather has set in, the girls get a nice warm bowl of soybeans, multi-grain cereal and rolled oats; cooked and yummy! This protien-packed, warm bowl of goodness first thing in the morning, helps keep them warm in the winter as well as not depleating their strength while laying!

Eggs are $3.00 a dozen for their big, beautiful eggs. When pullet eggs are available they are $2.50 per dozen.

We have some cartons for the eggs, but feel free to bring your own carton, container or basket. If you have extra egg cartons, we’d love to have them! Feel free to knock on the door to ask about eggs or drop off cartons.

If you’d like to be notified when the ‘girls’ eggs are available, send e-mail.

If we’re not at home, feel free to leave a note in the mailbox!

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Red-Tailed Hawk Down!!!

Posted on March 23, 2011 by laura

www.ostrichbay.com
This past Saturday, early evening, my husband, neighbor and the neighbor’s son found a downed red-tail hawk. The young hawk had a bad wing, no doubt broken, along with a missing talon and an infected foot. It
was hobbling along the side of our road and made no move to escape when approached.

One minute I was going about the business of making dinner, the next, my husband was at the door saying I should start “working the phone,” as there was a hawk in a bad way. I gave him a blanket in which to wrap the hawk and he grabbed a pair of heavy leather gloves on the way out the door.

The three men, working gingerly managed to wrap the hawk up as gently as possible while I started finding out what could be done with this injured soul and where he should be taken.

My first thought was of a lady who comes to our street every couple of months or so to watch the eagles that live nearby; at some point she had given her card to us. I dug out the card and called her and left a message. I contacted animal sanctuaries and veterinaries, but was not getting a human to talk to… just answering machines.

I finally decided, since raptors are under Federal protection and laws, that I would call 911… that was the correct thing to do. The lovely lady who took my call had the phone numbers I needed at her finger tips. I made a few more phones calls to the numbers she had given me. Bingo… the phone was ringing off the hook!

We learned immediately that we should put the hawk in a box, not much bigger than he was, which would keep him from injuring himself further, and put him in a dark environment where he would be calmer. I would imagine all these humans around him, was not very comforting for the hawk.

We learned from another call that All Creatures Animal Hospital, Bremerton, WA was able to take in injured raptors. Not only that, but they were open, unlike the other veterinaries, on Saturday evening! What a blessing.

We immediately jumped in the truck and took the hawk and placed him in their care. The veterinary gave him a good looking over and made him as comfortable as possible. Federal laws forbade her from tending to him until she contacted them; which the staff was in the process of doing while the hawk was being tended to.
She told us that one of two things would happen, if he survived (he was terribly underweight, dehydrated and indeed, had an infected foot). If he could not hunt for himself, he would be taken to a sanctuary; if he could be brought back to full health, he would be rehabilitated and turned loose back into the wild.

As of today, we do not know what the outcome will be for the young hawk; but I will post the results when and if I know them. The veterinary said she would contact us when she knew.

In the meantime, I thought it would be wise to share the information with others. Should you find a downed or injured raptor… be very, very careful… it will be frightened and can be quite dangerous with a beak meant to rip open small animals and talons with which to tear the meat apart. Wear gloves or better still contact the local or Federal authorities to take the raptor in for care.

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Transplanting Geraniums

Posted on March 13, 2011 by laura
Dervish Irish Band

Dervish Irish Band

The weather in the Great Pacific Northwest this past couple of weeks, has been as crummy as it can get. Rain, rain and more rain, along with wind. Just plain nasty.

But… it’s a great time to work in the greenhouse, as it is brighter and cheerier there, than any other place I know. I covered the greenhouse with Solexx panels which make whatever light there is, bounce around… a truly amazing product.

So today was a good day to transplant the geranium seedlings to larger containers.

First I made a pot of coffee, grabbed a new bag of potting soil and then headed up the hill to the greenhouse. I started a fire in the little woodstove I use to heat the place (I have a little electric heater I use overnight and as a back up when I’m not around), and heated some water for tea; another great use for the little stove.

Then I turned on the radio and it was time for A Prairie Home Companion! Good timing! This week’s show is a compilation of old shows recorded for the most part in Ireland… apt, as St. Paddy’s Day is just a few days away. Well… one of the funniest skits I’ve ever heard was part of the show, featuring Martin Sheen as James Joyce. In said skit, James Joyce meets Billy the Kid and calls him a silly bugger… Billy the kid thinks James Joyce said silly ‘booger,’ and so the skit goes. It’s wet-your-pants funny.

Another segment included ‘Dervish’ a wonderful Irish group; it just so happens we had the pleasure of seeing them last evening at our local theater (The Admiral Theatre, Bremerton, WA). Needless to say, it was a treat to hear that they had been on A Prairie Home Companion.

If you want a good evening attending a great show… go see ‘Dervish’ when they come to your town. You won’t be sorry. My hands are still sore from all the clapping; my legs are sore from thumping my foot on the floor; and my voice is hoarse from hooting!

What seemed like a moment later, all the geraniums had been transplated. Perfect!

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Taco Seasoning Mix

Posted on March 13, 2011 by laura
taco shells

Soft and hard taco shells

This evening is one of ‘those,’ that I know I will run out of time and not be able to tend to making dinner. As such, tacos become an easy, tasty blessing. I usually have corn shells or flour tortillas around; both, which will hold burger, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, sourcream etc quite well. If I use flour tortillas as the ‘holder’ of the goodies, I serve tortilla corn chips on the side so that lovely, crunchy corn taste is there.

I digress… back to the taco mix. I detest those packaged mixes for taco seasoning, gravy etc., as they are basically salt bombs. I make my own from scratch. It’s easy, cheap and tastes better.

So here ’tis….

1 tablespoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon minced dried onions
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon sea salt (any salt will do)
1 teaspoon coarse ground pepper
1 teaspoon corn starch

This is enough for about a pound and a half of burger, chicken, beef strips… whatever you have. Make up a double or triple batch to keep on hand for those quick dinners!

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Home-made Laundry Soap!

Posted on February 24, 2011 by laura

Today the snow is blowing, it’s really cold, and I’m out of laundry soap! Seems like a good day to me to make a batch.

This soap is very cheap to make and cleans like no man’s business!

The basic recipe is as follows:

1 cup grated Fels Naptha
1/2 cup 20 Mule Team Borax
1/2 cup of Arm & Hammer Washing Soda

The batch I make, so I don’t need to make it but once in a while, is:

4 bars Fels Naptha
1/2 box of 20 Mule Team Borax (4 pound box – so use 2 pounds of borax)
1 box of Arm & Hammer Washing Soda (3 pound 7 ounce box)

Grate up the Fels Naptha… I use an old Muli-grater… the big one with the flat disc, not the little kind with the drum (you’d be grating the rest of your life, if you used the little one).

Mix all ingredients up and store in a plastic container. Use 1 to 3 tablespoons per load of laundry. I use 2 tablespoons for regular laundry and 3 if I’ve got really grubby stuff, like yard-work clothes to wash.

This recipe works out to about 1-cent a load to wash your laundry! Not bad, huh!

Give a try. I think once you’ve used this laundry soap you won’t buy what’s on the shelves in bottles or boxes again.



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Smoked Salmon Dry Cure

Posted on February 9, 2011 by laura

We love getting our salmon in the fall, and we love smoking it! The funny thing is, we aren’t real fans of salt, and salt is part of the cure. So, after many revisions we use this recipe. After folks have tasted our smoked salmon, they want the recipe. One fella said after tasting it “Man… you have that reallyl dialed in!” And then ate more and took some home with him. Others have noted that you can really taste the salmon… not just a big salt bomb.

Do mind, that we do cure and smoke our salmon, and then we freeze it after sealing it in Food Saver bags.

Here is the recipe we use:

3 cups brown sugar
1/4 cup salt

To smoke your salmon, if you’ve never done it… there are a gazillion methods out there. We use a Weber bullit-shaped smoker. We modified the smoker by putting in two extra racks, making for 4 racks.

Get a batch of coals going in the bottom (be sure your water pan is filled), and then toss on some wood chunks… we’ve used pear, apple and mesquite… we like apple the best.

About every hour, toss on a handful of charcoal and another chuck of wood. You want a low fire, so don’t put too much charcoal in there. Work your dampers so air is going through, but just enough to keep the fire going.

When the fish is a golden brown… it’s done. Enjoy

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Food Saver 1075

Posted on February 9, 2011 by laura
Food Saver $6.50!

Used Food Saver from "St. Vinney's"

Saturday, my sweetie and I went to St. Vincent de Paul, “St. Vinney’s,” to look for new dress shirts for him… he found at least 6 absolutely new ones, and whatever else struck our fancy.

While he was off digging through racks of shirts I started wandering around and found a Food Saver 1075 in perfect condition. It was $6.50! As you can see in the photo, it works perfectly and is like new.

A Food Saver to us is like absolute gold, especially during salmon season. It takes two of us to put up all the salmon we get from Salmon Creek Hatchery. These are not salmon raised in captivity, if that’s what you’re thinking. No, these salmon swam from the ocean, after living there for approximately 4 to 6 years. They followed their nose when the time was right and found the river, and then stream from which they left years before.

Once home they collect in a pond where the Suquamish Tribe net them, milk the males for sperm and cut open the females for the eggs. These are then sloshed together in the correct ratio and put in the hatchery tanks to germinate. Upon germination they are moved to bigger tanks and come the appropirate time are put back in the river to swim downstream.

This process of letting what comes natural to the salmon has been instrumental in bringing back the number of salmon in our oceans; making for plenty to breed and make more and plenty for sportsmen.

In September when the salmon return, the process I talked about happens and the salmon themselves become the bi-product; so to speak. The tribe takes what they need and then the hatchery is open to the public. The King Salmon come home first. Stand in line with a cooler and you can buy whole King Salmon for $1.00. Not $1 a pound… a fish. Some of these guys are so big I can’t even lift them up.

As a result, my neighbor and I go up there every September and bring home as much salmon as we can. We take these huge salmon down to our dock, where we gut and bone them. When my husband gets home, he totes the great fillets of salmon back up over the hill and tucks them into the fridge for me. The next day, I cut them into portions and freeze them; or cut them into pieces for smoking and tuck them in a bin of smoking cure. Recipe to follow.

I think we put down about 60 pounds of salmon in the freezer last fall… smoking about 2/3′s of it before tucking it in the freezer. You cannot believe the money we save getting the salmon this way… but also the eating… oh, the eating.

Most of the unsmoked salmon we toss on the grill and eat it straight up. Sometimes I make salmon cakes or some such thing. We have so much salmon I have to look up new recipes each year.

Now, back to the Food Saver. So, as you can see, finding a second Food Saver is fantastic as with both my sweetie and I working together, we can get the salmon processed all that much more quickly.

The whole process is a lot of work over the course of several days, but is it worth it! Yeeha!

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Welcome to Ostrich Bay!

Posted on February 3, 2011 by laura

Welcome to Ostrich Bay!

We’ve got so much going on and so many great new additions to the site!

We’ve moved to a new host Fat Cow, which is powered entirely by wind! How’s that for ‘Going Green!’

We are also uploading new used books and videos on a daily basis, making sure you’ve got a great selection to choose from!

We are making new hand made goodies available to you as quickly as we can get them up. Lovely hand-made cornhusk dolls are on the site (www.ostrichbay.com). They come in natural, red and blue. Use them to liven up a wreath, a table setting, or just stand them on a table.

Also, we’ve got a wonderful bunch of Red-heeled Sock Monkey’s, Bears and Horses coming. We’re just working out the shipping details. These critters are beautifully made with wonderful details that you’ll not see anywhere else.

Hand-made notecards especially created for knitters and those who know knitters. Classic paintings created by artists from Monet to Michelangelo. Beautiful images of women through history knitting. If you need a gift for your knitting friends or want some lovely notecards for yourself, you can’t do anything finer than buying these cards.

Please be careful wandering around Ostrich Bay, as there is a lot of sawdust flying! It’s pretty noisy too, with all those hammers banging saws a buzz! We’re working hard to make sure you can easily navigate the site and find your favorite hand-made goodies and used books!

Go green folks and buy used books and movies, as well as supporting talented artists and craftsmen!

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