The further adventures of The People Quilt!

A few months ago I introduced you to the People Quilt - A wonderful comfort quilt made for me by my family members and delivered to me at a family quilt retreat.  I said it was going to be my personal version of "Flat Stanley" in quilt form and it has been!  So far it has had a few adventures - most recently it went with me and mom to a medicinal plant class in Palmer called "Herbal Helpers for Tumultuous Times".  The class was an overnight at  "Artemesia Acres" off of Farm Loop Road and part of the "Good Earth Garden School".

The class was wonderful - we did some crafts using flowers and fabric (right up mom and I's alley), we made some food, and we learned how to harvest and use devils club which is something I have always wanted to do but wasn't quite brave or knowledgeable enough to do.  We tested out Ellen's new sauna (it was delightful), and we also shared great company with 17 other people who are like minded in wanting to know more about medicinals and plants.  It was badass!  Ill have more on that later in another blog - stay tuned!

Here it is in the tent with mom.  We took a blow up mattress along as well and I had a little fleece blanket that I had also taken to use underneath me.  The blow up mattress was great but it has one small problem - it had flocking type material on the top and so everything stuck to it!  We decided next time we use it we will bring a sheet to put over it to prevent being stuck to the mattress all night in one position!  Who woulda thunk it?  Not us!  It was beautiful weather - 80+ degrees during the day, but at night it got right chilly and the humidity was up so everything drew damp!  By 5:30 in the morning mom had had enough and she got up - I didn't realize it at the time but she was cold!  I would have shared the people quilt if I knew because I was toasty warm, but I though she had to go to the bathroom.  

After the class was over and we were wrapping up the tent and our things the People Quilt got a little show n tell.  Some of the ladies who knew I was struggling commented that there is sure a lot of people who love you - and it is true.  Literally a blanket of love!

Stay tuned for further adventures of the People Quilt!

Its in the Bag!!! A grocery bag upcycle.

Recently an article ran in our local newspaper discussing the issue of plastic grocery store bags and what a bane they are to the planet.  The article discusses a 10 cent tax on them here in the Matanuska Borough.  You can read it here:  https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/mat-su/2017/08/01/mat-su-will-hear-proposal-to-tax-plastic-shopping-bags/

After my oldest son passed away we had a lot of his clothing (in addition to the SOCKS) to go through so some of my family came to the shop with me to help go through things.  What I wanted to keep or donate or things that needed to wait until I could see them without crying.  One of the people who came to help was Aunt Deanna - she is my aunt by marriage and is younger than either Chad or I.  Its funny how it works.  She asked if she could take some of the T shirts for she and her daughter. 

On my birthday she brought me a couple of these:

They are reusable grocery bags made out of old t shirts!  They are awesome and if you don't have any Im going to show you how to make them.  There are also tutorials on YouTube and on Pinterest as well.  

My son was a welder so a lot of his shirts had slag holes in them, so we had quite a few that were available for use in this instance.  

Start with the sleeves of the shirt and cut them off leaving about 2" on each side of the shoulder seam.

Then do the same at the inside (collar) part of the shirt.  On this one the shirt has words so I just cut down to that level so you can still read the words on it - "harden the F*#k up" it says at the bottom - not a school shirt and it had a big welding slag hole in the back too.  That was one of my sons favorite sayings so I had to keep it.

I discarded the sleeve parts but Im sure there is some use for them - Ill work on that - you know how I hate to throw anything away that might have a great upcycle!

Once the sleeves are cut away, turn the shirt inside out, even out the bottom of the shirt and start making cuts - about the length of your scissors all the way across the shirt through both layers. 

Begin at one edge and tie the layers together like you would tie the first knot of a shoe.

 

After you have gone all the way across start back across the shirt and tie together every other tie - alternate them so that they sort of braid across the bottom.  You may have to make a double knot - I did on this one as the material is a little bit thin and has a slippery finish kind of.

It will look something like this when you are done.  

Turn your bag right side out and you are done!  

These two on top of the one I just made are two that Aunt Deanna made for me.

You can sew them and hem them if it makes you crazy that they have raw edges but it is not necessary.  You can wash them just like you would a t shirt.  If the knots come out you can just tie them back up - easy.

Not only are you saving money but you are working towards a better day on the planet too!  

These are light weight as well and they hold about 4 plastic bags worth of groceries as well - as long as you can carry that much.  

Happy Shopping!

Squash it! Go beyond the Zuchinni.

I am a fan of squash of all types and it grows well here at Wicked Raven Farm once we get it going!  I have always grown Zucchini here and we have fixed it a lot of different ways recipe wise.  Always a good filler or a side dish for us or in breads and cookies even.

This year I was turned on to a new kind of squash, and I had old Zucchini seed so germination was very poor for those - I just didnt get around to ordering new.  My Aunt Nancy had given us a few Grey Griller squash last summer to try from her plants and they were so wonderful that I did order seed for that this year so we could have our own!  Below photo shows one of the plants and you can just see a new squash forming in the center of the photo.

We do have to do some working at getting squash to grow here so they always get started indoors - either greenhouse or in the house and then usually they move out to the cold frame outside the greenhouse.  This year however, I didn't get the cold frame fixed from the rock-from-
the-mower-breaks-a-cold-frame-window incident, and the soil needed to be rotated out and I didnt get that done either so... the squash went into containers this time around and then I set them into the cold frame so they had a little wind protection at least.  They have done ok.  They are a little behind due to the cold spring and when I set them out I didnt put them in the cold frame at first and the wind broke off part of the plants and I had to start right over!  Second time is a charm for this crop!

Above photo shows two of the plants in the containers.  They are in plastic black pots and then set into the wooden "whisky barrel"  style containers.

This is a Grey Griller squash.  They are a bit smaller than the Zucchini but very tasty and they are easy to use.  Slice them about 1/4" thick and drizzle with oil on both sides.  Im not a very good drizzler though so I generally put the oil in a dish and dredge the squash through it.  Put it on a plate and sprinkle with a little salt and pepper and they are ready to grill.  We have also used Kodiak seasoning and separately we have used a little Hot Hawaiian salt on them and they are so delicious!  Have fun with it - use whatever seasonings you like. 

Grill for 10-15 minutes and serve with your meal.  We have a Traeger style grill oven so I don't get the grill marks but they work well on any type of grill.  We have also used the left over (there are rarely any left) on sandwiches like a tomato slice.  Yummy!!!  

You can get Grey Griller seeds from Territorial Seeds, Daves Seeds, or even Amazon.  Put this on your seed list for the next time you are ordering seeds.  You will not regret it!

Lets drop a bomb 2 - A cleaning one!

We have hard water here at Wicked Raven Farm - which means that it has a high mineral content and it sometimes leaves stains and buildup on things - namely the dishwasher!  We also have the issue of electric hot water (no natural gas here in our area) and so if someone showers once - or two people take a shower and I run the dishwasher there isn't enough hot water to get the dishes clean.  So about twice a year I have to clean the inside of my dishwasher.  So I worked up a recipe - loosely based on my hand cleaner recipe - only this is a powder and not a paste.  It also works great for cleaning toilets if you have let them go for too long in between deep cleans.  Happens here a lot - so you are not alone - or at least I hope I am not alone!

Dishwasher (or toilet) Cleaning Powder

3/4 C. Baking Soda

3/4 C. Citric Acid

3/4 C. Cornstarch

20 drops of Lemon essential Oil

20 drops Spearmint Essential Oil

10 drops of Eucalyptus Essential Oil

Mix all the ingredients in a glass or plastic bowl and use about 1/8 cup at a time.  Sprinkle it on the area that needs to be cleaned - it will fizz up  and just let it sit and fizz for a minute, then you can wipe off the grime!  For toilet, sprinkle it in the bowl area and let it fizz and soak for a few minutes and then brush as you normally would.  Saves on the scrubbing and I haven't had to use pumice stick for a while either!  Yay!  I hate that part of grown-upping!

This is the inside of my dishwasher - at least the parts that come out and are the ones that do all the filtering and getting out of the gross junk - usually!  Right in this picture though you can see how grimy the parts are!  Yuck-O!

 

Above photo shows those parts with the sprinkle on them soaking and fizzing a little before the simple scrub.

Above photo left shows the newly cleaned parts and above right shows them back in the dishwasher where they belong - almost sparkly!  You can see in the above right photo on the left hand side the orange area - I haven't used the powder on that yet - I ran out of time. 

Store your powder in an airtight container - I use an old protein powder scoop for mine - baby food scoop or even an extra laundry powder scoop will work to make it easy to shake it out with.

I hope it makes your life easier!