Milking goats, building a cold frame

Last week I visited my new homesteading friends again and remembered to take picture of the goat milking experience. Here goes!

Tuna, Tulip, and Cheddar

They know exciting things are about to happen.

Cai is excited as well. We worked on NOT barking at the goats.

The handmade milking station.

Cheddar walks into the barn and jumps onto the milking station all by herself.

She gets a special snack during the milking.

I think I was rubbing her smaller teat to get more milk out in this picture. The one on the left (closer to the camera) has a healthier milk gland and produces more.

At this point in her life she produces a bit more than a quart of milk per day.

After milking Cheddar (which was, inexplicably, SO MUCH FUN), we set about building a cold frame. This is like a raised bed, but is covered with something translucent at the top (such as a window) to create a tiny greenhouse.

They taught me how to use a miter saw! This was super cool! They let me do a majority of the cutting as well.

Cai did not care at all about the noise of the saw.

The bottom row of planks. They put this one together, but then I took over the job of drilling and putting in screws.

Almost finished. After I left for the day, they put together a row of wood which slanted at the top, placed the window over it, and attached it with hinges. It will be oriented so that it faces south to maximize sunlight.

I am so grateful to have made friends who will teach me as we work, and don't get annoyed if I'm slower than they are!

Butternut squash

I spontaneously purchased a butternut squash at the grocery store, and roasted it with garlic and rosemary.

I had never eaten squash before, and was amazed at how sweet it was. Too sweet, actually - I left the pan for my housemate.

Worm bin

I sent a picture of my worm bin to a new homesteading friend.

I pulled back the top layer of fresh food scraps, and a multitude of wriggling worms were right underneath. They are happy worms. I think it's time to set up a new bin and let them finish off all the food scraps in this one.

Crochet flower

I added a flower to the cloche hat:

Apron

I started sewing this apron in the 101 class I took a few months back at Stonemountain and Daughter. Once the class was over, I was busy with other work and the unfinished apron lay in a corner. I finally took a few hours here and there to complete it.

I love the fabric. I reminds me of Q*Bert.

Crochet cloche hat

I used most of a skein of Red Heart's "Magical" yarn in the color "abracadabra" to make this cloche hat. It switches between various shades and textures of brown, purple, and grey. I loved it as soon as I saw it. It was a fun challenge, since some of the grey and purple contained larger tufts that made it more difficult to see the different loops I was supposed to pull through.

The entire hat is done with half-double crochet except the brim, which is sc, sc, 2 dc in the next 3 st. I like how it sticks straight out.

 There is one little stripe of glittery purple on this side.

So many tufts!

Tree sweater forest

"Yarn-bombing" artists hit a number of Bay Area cities with unexpected and whimsical knitted creations

Most recently, the city of Livermore decided to dip its toe into the movement by hosting a Tree Sweater Forest -- a more mainstream example of this trend, yarn bombers say. The "highly organized and sanctioned" event as Rosendin described it, will decorate the trunks of more than 30 trees located on First Street between Railroad Avenue and Maple and L Streets. San Jose and Santa Rosa have hosted similar events. Installed on Saturday, the tree sweaters will be up until Nov. 22 and then donated to the Valley Humane Society for comfort pieces or bedding for shelter dogs and cats.

I made a trip to downtown Livermore just to see the tree sweaters. It was a Saturday and there were many people walking by and wondering about the sweaters. Here are my favorite nine sweaters (the first two pictures are of the same one). Click on any picture to see it come up in a larger size.