Spam – Are You Kidding Me?

Reflections

If you are a fellow WordPress blogger you probably are aware of this, but let me explain for those who are not bloggers. WordPress has a feature built into the comments section that filters out spam. I really wasn’t aware of this for quite a while when I first started blogging, but when I did discover the spam box I also discovered that occasionally comments from regular readers would end up in the spam box. It was then that I began checking the spam regularly because I didn’t want to miss comments from my readers.

Recently I received a spam comment (not from any of my regular readers) and I just don’t know what to think of it.

I have copied the message exactly as it was written, and the only change I made was to add quotation marks at the beginning and end.

It said –

“Pease let me know if you’re looking for a writerr
for your blog. You have some really good posts and I believe
I would be a goiod asset. If you ever want to tame some of the load off, I’d absolutely love to write
some articles for your blopg in exchange for a link back to mine.
Pease blast me an email if interested. Cheers!”

Do you see the problem(s) with it?

Personally I hope that this message was written as some kind of a joke. I find it disturbing to think that someone would send a sincere message inquiring about a writing position with that many spelling errors.

What do you think?

 

Soap Making Season

Reflections, soap

If you have been following my blog for a while and are wondering why there haven’t been any posts about soap on a blog that is called “Don’t Eat It! Soap”, I guess the answer is that it wasn’t soap making season. As farmers our lives revolve around the seasons; our daily activities depend largely on the time of year, the number of daylight hours and the weather. While soap making is not an activity that is necessarily dependent on any of those things it seems for me that soap making, too, has become a seasonal activity.

If you were to go back through my blog you, as I just did, you would find the last mention of soap making in this post from June and that soap was actually made in May. I have discovered that the months of June, July and August are not soap making season for me. I get a good supply of soap made up over winter and spring. Then when we get busy with summer activities I don’t have to take time away to make soap.

IMG_3527

I started making soap again a couple weeks ago when I got orders for two batches – one batch of “Chamomile/Lavender” and one batch of “Just Soap”. The customers that order these are basically buying in bulk, since a batch is 16 bars and they do not come individually wrapped or labeled. They also know that they need to place their order well in advance of when they will need it, since the soap takes approximately 6 weeks to cure.

The next soap that I needed to make was “Turmeric – Yogurt .  My trial run of this soap yielded positive feedback with people telling me they would want more. When I cut up this batch I decided to try out the soap stamp my daughters bought me for Mother’s Day. I only stamped a couple of bars, but I like the way it turned out. I am just not certain yet if I want to commit to stamping every bar because it could be quite time consuming. IMG_4507

The soap I made this week is called “Salad Bar” Soap. I understand if you are thinking “that’s weird”, but I do prefer the term “quirky” – LOL! The ingredients include cucumber puree, yogurt and rosemary. These are all potential salad ingredients – hence the name.

Soap making season will continue throughout the month of October (probably one or two batches per week) so that I can have a good supply ready for the holiday shopping season when I tend to have a higher volume of sales. (Handcrafted soaps make nice gifts.)  During this time you can expect to see some more posts about the weird quirky soaps I make. Who knows I might even add something new.

In November and December I usually don’t make new batches of soap, but I spend a lot of time packaging, labeling and even gift packaging the soaps as they become ready to sell/use. In January, after the holidays, I will again begin making soaps to replenish my supply before the nice weather returns and the farm calls.

If you would like to know more about the varieties of soaps I make or how/where to purchase Don’t Eat It! products you can view them all on my Products page.

Thanks for reading.

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday

Autumn, garlic, Reflections, The Farm, Weather

Yesterday the weather was perfect for working outdoors, so we decided to get busy cleaning the rest of the garlic.

IMG_4495

Cleaning the garlic requires cutting the dried (top) leaves off and trimming the roots. (An interesting fact – to be sold in the United States garlic that is grown in the U.S. is not required to have the roots totally removed, while garlic that is imported into the U.S must have all of the roots removed.) After removing the tops and trimming the roots we then use a scrub brush to remove the dried dirt that is still clinging to the bulb. We also sort the bulbs at this time – the largest will be saved for seed, any bulbs that have a damaged clove or are too small to be sold are set aside and will be used to make garlic powder or sold as seconds to a customer who does the same, and the rest will be sold as culinary garlic either to individual customers or to the retail locations that are selling our garlic.

IMG_4497

The beautiful weather motivated us to do other fall activities like airing out the beach umbrellas so that they can be stored for the winter. The wasps had begun building their nests inside the umbrellas.

After a few hours of cleaning garlic my husband and I both decided to shift gears, so with about 500 bulbs still hanging in the barn we packed up our garlic cleaning project and moved on. I spent the next couple of hours cutting grass while he cut up some fire wood for last nights fire then dragged downed trees to the wood lot where they will be cut into fire wood.

Quite honestly the best part about working out doors yesterday was the beautiful sky. It was as blue as I’ve ever seen it yet filled with fluffy white clouds. I couldn’t help snapping photos to share with all of you.

 

IMG_4502

 

IMG_4500

 

IMG_4498

 

IMG_4503

 

IMG_4505

I hope you enjoyed this. Thanks for visiting. 🙂

Ready or Not…

Flashlights, Weather, Winter Prep

If you have been following my blog for very long this post may look familiar to you, however as a mom I know all too well that some things bear repeating. If you are new here please consider this some friendly/motherly advice and if you have read it before, it is just a reminder to be ready.

Fall has arrive in our part of the world and winter will be here before we know it. Whether you dread the cold, snowy weather that winter brings, or say “bring it on” and are ready to play in the snow; whether you are ready or not here it comes. I personally prefer to be ready.

One of our greatest threats during the winter is a power outage. There is much information out there about how to be ready to survive a power outage and if you are not sure that you are ready for such an event you might want to check out these websites.   http://www.theorganicprepper.ca/getting-started-prepping-for-a-two-week-power-outage-06292013-09282014

http://www.backdoorsurvival.com/prepping-for-an-unexpected-power-outage/

If you would like you can read about our experience when the power was out.

I’d like to offer just one suggestion that might make your life during a power outage easier and safer. Have flashlights ready. When I say flashlight, if you think “I have a flashlight – somewhere,” if you have to search for a flashlight when you need it, if you don’t know immediately where to reach for one, or if there is not one within about 5-10 steps from where you are at any given time, then you do not have your flashlight(s) ready.

Lets face it, during the winter the hours of darkness are greater than the hours of daylight, so chances are greater that the power will go out when it is already dark. When you are left in the dark a flashlight is your first line of defense. With flashlight in hand you can then go on to activate your other systems for providing light like lighting candles or oil lamps, or starting a generator .

My advice is to have at least one flashlight in every room. Place flashlights where you spend a lot of time and can naturally reach for them. In our case flashlights are located on a shelf near the main entrance of our home, on my bedside table, in the living room on the entertainment center and one in the drawer of the table between our recliners, and on the kitchen counter. I also carry a small flashlight in my purse and my husband wears one attached to his belt. When the kids were at home I gave them each a flashlight for their bedroom. They were told to put it somewhere in their room where they would automatically know where to reach for it if the power went out. It was to be kept in that spot and if they used it for something it needed to be returned to that spot. They knew the importance of having the flashlight at the ready.

With 100’s or perhaps thousands of types of flashlights on the market you may ask “what is the best flashlight?” If you want good quality, long lasting, bright light, or other such features I suggest you do some research and read some customer reviews. My answer, in this case, is simple, “one that works”. I do suggest that you check your flashlights periodically to make sure that they work, and while having extra batteries on hand is important, having another (working) flashlight near by is just as important. Another thing is to make sure that you know how to use the flashlight. This might sound silly but I have discovered over the past few years that not all flashlights can be turned on and off with a simple slide or click of the button. Figuring out how or where to twist a flashlight to get it to turn on can be tricky. I have actually taken battery covers and light covers off while twisting a flashlight trying to turn it on. So do become familiar with how to use the flashlight before you really need to use it.

Speaking from a previous experience I have one final thought on what type of flashlight(s) to have. It was an evening several years ago when my daughter and I were home and the power went out. We each grabbed flashlights near by and met in the kitchen. I then lit an oil lamp and got a fire going in the fire place. The next thing on my list was to bring in more firewood. I knew that carrying a flashlight and a bin  full of firewood was not going to work. I was thankful that I had a headlamp flashlight. I used it to light my path while having my hands free to carry firewood. I realize I  could have had my daughter hold a light for me that time, but if I had been home alone that would not have been the case. I don’t use my headlamp very often, but I do consider it a wise investment and I keep it ready for when I need it.

While you may find my advice extreme or think it is totally unnecessary to have that many flashlights sitting around, it is too late to change your mind when you are tripping over the cat, walking into furniture, or falling down the stairs while trying to find your flashlight in the dark.

Whatever this upcoming season brings your way, I do hope you are ready.

 

My Thoughts About Bee Keeping and Honey

Bees, Bees Wax, Filtering Beeswax, Honey, Reflections, ,

We started our bee keeping ventures in 2013 and to date it has been the most frustrating farming activity we do. Hive losses are heartbreaking and we have had many. Probably our worst experience was when the bees we ordered did not even make it to our farm alive. You can read about that here. If you read that article you may understand when I say that bee keeping is also one of the most thrilling and rewarding activities that we do. Capturing swarms, observing the bees while they forage and pollenate our crops, harvesting honey and wax all make this so.

As with everything we do our bee keeping efforts are done on a small scale. We often use the word boutique to describe our farm. Since we started bee keeping we have maintained at least one hive and at times had as many as seven hives. Each year we have harvested honey and for the last 4 or so years we have harvested and processed our own wax as well. If you are interested in learning how I filter bees wax you can  read about that here.

IMG_4097

Beekeeping has given me a whole new understanding and appreciation of honey. Most of my life I have used store bought honey and never thought much about it. The color and flavor were pretty consistent. Honey was just honey. It wasn’t until we started harvesting our own honey that I realized that honey is not just honey. In fact we have yet to have any two honey harvests where the honey tasted the same.

When people find out that we are beekeepers they often have many questions. Below are some of the points I make when talking about bees and honey.

  • Each honey harvest is (should be) a wonderfully, unique blend of nectars and pollen from various plants that have been in season.
  • The color and flavor of honey should vary between harvests.
  • Mono cropping, the practice of moving bee hives to a particular location where a specific crop is in blossom in order for the bees to pollinate that crop, may be detrimental to bee health. (how well would you fare if you only ate one food for the majority of your life?)
  • Feeding bees sugar syrup is probably not good for the bees.
  • Local honey may or may not be effective as a treatment for allergies depending on what the bees were foraging to make their honey.
  • In the U.S. honey suppliers are required to put their address on the honey label. Buying honey that has a local address does not necessarily mean you are buying honey that was produced locally.
  • Raw honey is honey that has not been heated above 110 degrees Fahrenheit.
  • Honey can be stored at room temperature and has an indefinite shelf life.
  • Honey might crystalize but it is still good.
  • Honey that has crystalized can be turned into liquid again by slowly heating the jar in a pan of water. Do not microwave!
  • Because the honey may crystalize and you may want to heat it to make it liquid again do not buy honey in plastic bottles.

Do you have any questions or thoughts about honey bees or honey? Leave me a comment and I will be sure to get back to you.

Thanks for reading and have a great day! 🙂