Snowy Surprise

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! We had a much needed, super low-key day that included naps. Ah yes, glorious napping. 

Today we woke up to smooth gray skies and a chill in the air. The forecast called for snow, but they really down played the whole ordeal. Then, just before noon, it started snowing, and it didn't stop. 

Just as it started to stick

And it kept snowing!

All in all, we got, 2 inches tops. But it was enough to make everything pretty. 

Happy new year!

SG

Lip Balm - Burt's Bees Style

Rainy days are perfect for working on those indoor projects that you've :really: wanted to do, but the great outdoors call. Today, this past week, actually, has dumped buckets with no break in sight. Things have been cleaned up inside leaving time for other things such as trying my hand at making my own lip balm. I've had the recipe pinned to one of my boards for a very long time, I've had the supplies in the cupboard... I just haven't had time to dedicate to figure out how to make it. 

And now I'm wondering why I didn't try this sooner because it's a cinch to make.  

I followed this recipe and only changed out the shea butter for cocoa butter which is what I had on hand. My only regret is not having purchased more plastic tubes because I ended up using some tins as well. 

Until next time!

SG

Fall Term

 Apparently it's been a long time since I last posted. 5 months to be exact. 

School certainly has taken a lot of time and work fills in the other days, so between those two things and whatever moments I have to work on things around the farm, I don't have the mental or willpower to even think about writing a blog post. I was thinking that I could be posting all the papers that I've written for classes, but it would have to be a show-stopper and not some quickly thrown together excuse of an assignment that seemed to be the theme of this last term. I was ready for the term to be over before it even started because of how tired I was. Yeah, it certainly has been a long haul the last 10 weeks. But it is almost over! I have my last final tomorrow, and then I'm free until January. Well, free to catch up on all the things that I've put off. 

My fun class this term was a fall flower arrangers garden. Just about every week we did some sort of an arrangement featuring different techniques used in the floral industry to bring home. My mom loved Tuesdays because she never knew exactly what sort of creation I would come home with. Because the class was smaller, we were also able to cover other topics that the instructor had researched such as the flowers of Jane Austen's world. I nearly died of happiness when my number wasn't called for jury duty, so I would be able to go to that class.  

One of my other classes (food harvest) did a farmer's market with produce harvested that very morning by the students in the class. The leftovers from the market were up for grabs for those that helped with the market clean-up. I was just hanging out at the college waiting for my next class, so those days I was able to bring home all sorts of vegetable goodness. Mom loved seeing what stocked the fridge after I came home from class. The day before Thanksgiving, the instructor essentially let the class loose on the farm site at the school and we divided the spoils between everyone to supplement the meal the next day. Fresh brussel sprouts, cabbage, salad mix, chard, butternut squash, cauliflower, bok choy and more were brought home that day. We pretty much didn't have to buy any vegetables for Thanksgiving because of all that I brought home. 

This last Saturday, I had a workshop that featured different herbal products that you could make yourself and use as gifts. 12 ladies sat around the tables in the classroom, and we just had a blast. We made an herbal tea, spice blend, a fines herb mix, diffusers, sprays, wreaths, and more. I was in heaven, and I can't wait until the actual herbal products class that they'll be having next term.

An herb wreath on the left and a Christmas wreath on the right 

Until next time!

SG