Honey, Onions and Garlic

We have been busy little farmers! After collecting and assembling flowers on Thursday, Sue and I spent the first part of Friday selling bouquets at the Charlestown Farmers Market for our friends George and Cathy. Lucky Cathy was dancing her way around England with "The Ladies of the Rolling Pin". Always a pleasurable place to hang out, we indulged in fresh pastries, bought peaches, apples, steamers and fresh cheese, met new folks, got invited to some end of summer parties, and had a very relaxing, perfect weather summer morning!

George and Sue with Fresh Eggs!

Sue was up and working in the garage on Saturday AM before my eyes even thought about opening. It was shortly after 6 and she had already cleaned up 37 lbs of onions and was on her way to completing 11 lbs of garlic. We started picking blueberries about 9 and it took us about an hour to collect 8 lbs!

The next task on the list took us to the towers of bee power to extract what turned out to be 70 lbs of honey! It is truly a remarkable, miraculous substance...amazing to spend just a few moments watching the bees arrive with their little legs packed with pollen, or watching them at the pond gather up minute amounts of water, building cone, attending to eggs and the queen, filling in little spaces with propolis, jetting around their territory, chewing, building, storing...

Then get the frames, brush off the bees, haul them home to the extractor, cut the comb, hand crank the extractor, honey into the bucket through two filters, clean the jars and tops, fill 'em up, print and stick the labels...beautiful!!!

Now off to make yogurt and scarves!

What are you making with zucchini???

Chickens like zucchini!!

Now What????

Greetings from Steamy Breezy Rhode Island and Welcome to the #1 posting on my new window to the world! I have been hanging out in our cool (as in temperature) basement, (former secret location of Artgirlz World Headquarters) organizing every little bit of arty crafty stuff that has been in my life for years!! The felt, fabric, beads, threads, papers are all stacked and packed by color... I must say that I am very grateful to have a drooly dreamy studio space in which to work in the said basement. To take advantage of the space, I will be putting some fall classes together. Will post them as soon as I get them organized. And, I am hoping to actually do some of my own work down there and get back to mixing up materials.

 Linda Willis and I have been taking a wet felting class at RISD. We have both been layering and manipulating roving making practice shapes, mixing materials because we can't help it.

 I have spent many hours this spring and summer working in the garden. We have flowers and vegetables, chickens, rabbits and bees. All seem to be doing well so far. We have a month old chick that seems to be adjusting to the big girlz very well...sleeping on a roost and cruising around with the group. Other than one cranky neighbor that doesn't like our chickens exploring her yard, all is well here on the farm!!