Beware the Yule Cat

Is all your autumn spinning done???

I was doing some reading about old solstice and yule celebrations and came across the Icelandic Yule cat. Apparently, if you don't get all your autumn wool spinning done by the winter solstice, the Yule Cat eats you in the middle of the night.


So, you've got about 20 days...

You all know the Yule Cat
And that Cat was huge indeed.
People didn't know where he came from
Or where he went.

He opened his glaring eyes wide,
The two of them glowing bright.
It took a really brave man
To look straight into them.

His whiskers, sharp as bristles,
His back arched up high.
And the claws of his hairy paws
Were a terrible sight.

(More here)

Bill and I are off to purchase a spinning wheel this morning, so we can avoid this freaky feline.

This sounds like New Years

...but with more goat.

The 36-Hour Dinner Party

Turkeys!

Getting bigger...

 

 

Chickens are cuter than snakes

Milk Snakes

Guess what I found in a pile of slate? A gaggle (5) of milk snakes, about 6" long! The kids, mostly Thomas, thought they were pretty cool. He is still looking for them. They are pretty cool, once you look them up to make sure that they are not massaqua rattlesnakes. Kelly did not appreciate a tangle of snakes so close to her kids, poisonous or no, so we relocated them to the neighbors yard. And no more piles of slate in direct sun exposure next to the house. And no more compost heap within 300 yds of the house.

I can't wait to tell my mom, she won't come near our house until Christmas.

The bestest most funniest T shirt I ever saw

In perusing the site of a local hop farm, from whom Jon and I wish to procure new rhizomes, I came upon this little gem at the bottom of the following page: http://www.pmihops.com/products.php

How appropriate given our lenten season, No?

Floating Island Commune

I can't decide if there is something wrong with this idea but right now outside all the snow melted and Syracuse looks like it was just ejected from the bowels of a creature with amoebic dysentery and I just got back from a beautiful week in the sunshine state so this is looking pretty good...

http://www.why-yachts.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl4sbM_O_WA

Who is with me?

Interesting take on national debt

Debt seems to have taken a front and center role in politics (again). While reading this very interesting article on gold, I came upon this little gem of a factoid:

"If you’re worried about massive deficits, recall that our country was founded with debt, debt that was ultimately paid back."

Honey Oatmeal Soap

This weekend we made honey-oatmeal-goatsmilk soap, in a wooden mold.

This is the soap mold.

These are the bars of soap after they are cut up.

Now we have a lot of oatmeal soap... any volunteers to try it out and give feedback?

(We made a 4 pound batch...)

Ingredients: lard, coconut oil, olive oil, goat milk, oats, honey, beeswax, lye

More sunshine

So nature has created smart plants, like the sunflower, that will follow the sun's path through the sky. Well, what about a house (and more season verse daily)? Check this out!!!

New Paltz, NY is where it's at!

This poor, neglected blog...

Needs some sunshine.