Class and Soap

7:30 am

                My class starts today.  4 kids for 3 ½ hours a day, I am kind of nervous. We’ll see how it goes. I still have a few things I need to get on the way in to the Bangs Center. And before that – I need to feed buns, clean out some cages, see if the wasps are finally gone (had to power water spray again last night, if that didn’t do it I may have to poison spray). Then I will wind off the last of the blue skeins that I finished spinning last night. I say last, but there is still an ounce of the blue/green, so I will spin that and ply it with gray angora. I should hang out some laundry as it looks like it might actually be sunny today. I had a load that I hung out and took back in twice yesterday. I finally gave up and threw it in the drier.

                K was very busy cleaning and sorting in the garage yesterday, which is great and very helpful (it would be nice to be able to reach the tools). At one point he asked what was in the big metal pot…. Well that is the goose fat that I’ve been saving to make soap. It was all fine in the winter when it was frozen out there, but not so great now. Ok so I took it in, heated it up, will try to pour the fat off, or ladle it off since there is water in there, too. Then I will put it in the fridge to solidify, pour any water left off, and see, later this week, if I can actually make soap. I think there is some other fat in there, too, but it is mostly the goose fat, so I’ll go with the amount of lye called for with goose fat. Then of course it will need to sit and age for a long time. I have no idea where I’ll be able to do that. The basement is a disaster and I truly must decide on which piles of fabric I can just say enough and get rid of. I have a few boxes like that, but I’ll need to decide on the rest of the rugs and sort what I need for them out.

                I started another batch of dried melon. It is a bit odd, but comes out interesting enough. I am doing it in the oven, not as good as a solar dryer. I need to get in touch with Gabor and see if I can come look at his solar dehydrator. I did order the reflective foil and when I can (later this week?) I will make some panels – plywood and the foil – to set around the dye bins to see if I can get them to heat up more. I have a lovely bin full of goldenrod that I was trying to extract dye from, and it got all moldy. I must somehow dump it out but it is not easy at all to carry a bin full of foul liquid. I guess I’ll need to avert my face and scoop some of it out. Speaking of averting my face, I really need to look at what is in the tanning baths. See if anything can be taken out to dry. Ugg. I really hate that stuff. Reminds me of when J worked at the tannery in No. Adams. Nasty place. And it is such a pain to stretch the skins. And I have yet to do anything useful with any of them. Many great ideas – a hat, gloves, a bag – but haven’t spent the necessary time to do it.

                Speaking of time, it will very soon be August, meaning that very soon school will be starting back up and I need to think about what I need to do to get myself ready. I would like to find the text I got and start looking over the material she will be covering.

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