No-Sew Handkerchiefs

Have you ever wondered what to do with all those T-shirts?  You know the ones I mean... you can't wear them anymore in public, but you don't really want to save them for a T-shirt quilt (one can only have so many T-shirt quilts, after all), but you hate to throw them away?

Two winters ago, I was appalled at how many tissues we used in the winter, even when no one was sick.  Our house is approaching its 90 year mark, and with the original windows in place until a month ago, winters were cold, and that meant drippy noses.  Why buy tissues, I thought, when I could make them?

A pile of T-shirts had been aging nicely in my "someday" pile, the pile of things I will do "something" with, "someday."  In search of a good use for the soft fabric (and noticing my children preferring to wipe their noses on their clothes rather than stiff tissues), I decided to try a few no-sew handkerchiefs.

Two years in, I think they're great!  Because we have a shoe-box full, they don't have to be reused all day like traditional handkerchiefs.  I have to wash cloth diapers and make sure they're sanitary, so the cloth tissues can go in the same wash and be germ-free. (The tissue to the right is old and no longer a tissue... it was commandeered as a rag for an ink spill, and has only gotten more stained with time!)

Here are two old polo shirts that I cut recently.  One was too worn for my husband to wear to work, and the other had a large grease stain.  Neither matters for tissues!

I use a 6.5" quilting ruler and a rotary cutter, but you could cut a template to your preferred size out of cardboard, mark with a pencil or chalk, and cut with plain old scissors.

The important thing here, to avoid needing to sew the edges, is to cut on the bias, or a 45 degree angle from the straight edge of the fabric.  There is a little raveling the first few washes, if you use something like an old tea towel, but T-shirts don't ravel at all... as long as you cut on the bias.  Also, if you have a t-shirt with a large plastic logo on it, I would not use the plasticy part for a tissue.  Just cut around it.  Tea towers also work (that old, stained tissue is one of the originals, now ink-stained from some long ago spill...), or flannel receiving blankets that have one of those permanent stains on them.

You don't have to be too scientific about where to start cutting... I managed 9 new 6.5" squares from a medium polo, and 16 from an extra large! 25 new tissues from a few minutes work for something that I wouldn't give away and couldn't use anymore in it's original form.

Until next time, remember, this is not paradise.  It's Purgatory Ranch.

Jam and Jelly

Peach, strawberry, mint, and blueberry.

The peaches are leftover from last year and have been biding their time in the freezer.  In order to use them up, we made a batch of jam.  I think next time we'll blend it more...

Two batches from strawberries we picked this summer.  These have also been waiting use in the freezer, pre-measured and pre-crushed.  It was just TOO HOT this summer to even think about canning.

Three batches of mint jelly that Myle picked and saved.  The mint is the ONLY canning today that didn't gel, and I suspect, in retrospect, that we used too much of the mint liquid.

One batch of blueberries we picked this summer.

It's amazing that we picked/harvested all the fruit included in these beautiful jars.  We filled 37 8-oz. jars and 2 pint jars (we ran out of jelly jars... we didn't realize we would fill so many!  Pint jars aren't recommended for canning jelly or jam, so we'll be popping these in the fridge and consuming them first).  Our goal each year will be to can at least a year's worth of jelly.

One realization we have had is just how much fruit we need to grow to be able to keep up with our kids... dozens of apple trees, gaggles of fruit bushes, hundreds of strawberries... WOAH.  I bought 80 pounds of apples a few weeks ago.  Where did it all go?  I think my kids ate 10 pounds.  Then there were a few pounds of peelings (our kids eat them dried), seeds, etc.  6 pints of apple pie filling.  3 quarts of apple juice.  1 quart of apple leather.  Only 11 quarts of apple sauce, which, when split between two families, is only a few weeks of apple sauce!

So far, the reusable Tattler lids are sealing properly.  Let's see how they work over the next year!

Until next time, remember, this is not paradise.  It's Purgatory Ranch.

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Apple Preservation

Start with a "few" pounds of apples...

Use one of these fabulous gadgets (by Norpro... I b ought mine from Pleasant Hill Grain as I love their fast shipping!).

Make it look like this...

and this...

Use a few of these...

And of course, a lot of this...

Our apple pie filling did not gel... Ah, well.  I think I was too impatient.

Our apple sauce is much smoother than last year, but also juicier (you can see the juice at the bottom).

Until next time, remember, this is not paradise.  It's Purgatory Ranch.

Sweet Potato Harvest

... 3 slips, leftovers from the ranch, produced 17 pounds of sweet potatoes, ranging from a bitty 3 oz. to over 3 pounds!

The Assistant is modeling our largest sweet potato.
Yes, it's dirty.  I don't want to scrape the fragile skin any more.

I think this one is as big as Jimmy's head.

Planting, hacking, and weeding

A week late is better than never, right?

Our garlic was supposed to be planted by Columbus Day, but I forgot.  Then, I received a notification that our Jerusalem artichokes had shipped, and since those were due to be planted at the land too, maybe it was a good thing I forgot.

After school on Tuesday, we packed up and drove to the land, where I marveled at how quickly weeds will grow.

After hacking down the honey locusts attempting to control the drive, we hacked the foot + tall weeds (yes, next year, we'll be planting a cover crop.  Immediately. after. digging. potatoes... speaking of which, we uncovered another 2 pounds).

Then we planted our artichokes, garlic, and tree onions.  I love planting, freshly dug ground, and doing something to further our self-sufficiency goal.

Until next time, remember, this is not paradise.  It's Purgatory Ranch.

Canning Adventures

Last week, I picked up my order of 80 pounds of "juice quality" apples from the Azure Standard route.  I love apples for $.50/lb.  What to do with all these fresh goodness?

I prefer to can with Myle, but I wanted to cut down on the four crates of apples hogging the counter space in my kitchen, so...

8 pounds, still cutting

half done cutting!

 I made apple juice.  24 pounds of apples and a chunk of finger later, I have three beautiful quarts of juice.  Do you know what I REALLY want to know?  Why, even when I follow a canning recipe precisely, I have significantly less yield than expected.  This time, I should have had 6 quarts and only have 3.  What am I doing wrong?

Isn't it beautiful?  (Ignore the dirt... there's a pile of tomatoes from the the garden just out of sight!)

Apple leather in progress.

With 56 pounds in my basement, I see lots of applesauce in my future, and I might even branch out and try apple pie filling or some other tasty variation.

Didn't you ever play in the dirt when you were little?

Check out her stance.

Lacking-a-Name Pond
also lacking water

Hard to see, but there's a pesky stump in the middle of the picture.
It had to come out before we could safely drive on our new access point.

See how much trouble we would have been in?
We are grateful to "Uncle" Bruce for loan of his tools and teasing.

After.  Isn't it beautiful?

First use of our new access point to the land.
No more driving over the neighbor's hayfield!

Until next time, remember, this is not paradise.  It's Purgatory Ranch.