Hey you guys! How are you? How was your week? Mine wasn’t as busy. I’ve actually had some time to slow down, take stock, and relax. I’ll tell you all about that in a minute. But first…snow! We had our first big snowfall of the season last Sunday into Monday. Sunday was all freezing rain and then overnight it turned to snow. And it snowed all day Monday. It was so pretty. Anna and I took a walk up the hill as far as we (or rather, I) could go. She, of course, could have run all day and not been bothered by it. Anyway, it snowed. It was pretty. And quiet. And we stayed inside enjoying it all (except for that one little walk to take pictures).
We’ve got some good things going on here at the homestead. First, I restocked my shop for the rest of 2019. I’m working on adding gift certificates, but if you want one to give to as a Christmas gift, just let me know and I can speed the process up. I also restocked my lip balms. I have two sizes (here and here) and about 3 or 4 different flavors. They’re fun. Funny story. I’ve made lip balms off and on for years. I used to use lip balm tubes exclusively but when I started Chicken Librarian, I moved over to the 1-ounce tins. They’re easier to deal with. Not as much mess. You really have to have a steady hand when pouring into the tubes. Then I saw where people were using pipettes to pipe the balm into the tubes. And I thought “DUH!”…I have pipettes. So easy peasy, right? Then I thought, well I’ll pipe the essential oil into the tubes first, then the balm and let them meld together. Easy, right? Well….I piped about 20 tubes and started looking at them and thought why do I have to keep adding more balm to the tubes? Because the essential oil was running out the bottom! Yikes! Needless to say, I wasted all that product. So back the drawing board, so-to-speak. Another round of balm and this time I piped in balm, then EO, then balm. That worked much better! So…lip balms have been restocked. LOL.
We’ve also been working on seafood stock this week. Did I ever share the pic above with you? It’s from an event we hosted at the fishing lodge this past September. I’ll give you more deets on it in another post once I submit the photos to the host. I know, that’s really bad to not have them done yet….I took probably 400 pictures. Then I have to edit them. Thankfully the host is our dear friend, but still. I’m getting them done. Soon! Anyway… we had a lot of leftover crab legs and lobster parts. So we put them in the freezer and just pulled them out to make seafood stock. We boiled everything in our water bath canner because we had so much seafood to boil down. I added bay leaves, carrots, onions, and celery. I didn’t add any salt or pepper because I thought the seafood would have enough spice to it. So we boiled and boiled and got all that good juice from the seafood. Then it reduced down and we ended up with 11 pint jars of yummy goodness.
I think I told you guys we are growing our own mushrooms from these kits. I bought the white button mushroom kit and the portabella kit. Another funny story. I set everything up, got the mushrooms tucked into a nice warm spot in the back room (craft room/office). I checked the mushrooms and harvested the white buttons. I checked the portabellas and thought they could use another couple of days. When I went back to check on them…I found 4 huge mushrooms! The Mister and I were surprised! And delighted. But umm…we ordered baby bellas. So I was writing this post and I was going to be all cute and clever and say something like: what happens when you don’t pick baby bellas? They become adult bellas! Then I was linking to the website where I purchased the kits and realized that I’m pretty sure I ordered the portabella kit rather than the baby bellas that we like so much. But that’s okay. A mushrooms a mushroom as far as we’re concerned.
The next pie along will be tomorrow. I have a few surprises for you on that one. So tune back in tomorrow. And I have a really funny…well, wasn’t funny at the time, story for you about last month’s pie!
We’re hosting our friends gathering tomorrow night too (the one that was canceled because of all that aforementioned snow!). It should be lots and lots of fun. I need a night of fun and laughter. Not because things are down, but because I’ve been working on the business non-stop. The other night the Mister and I laughed because it was literally 9PM and I told him I got sucked down the rabbit hole while updating the webshop.
Speaking of getting organized, updating the webshop, and other updates, I think the time has come to slow down on social media. I started the blog because I really, really wanted to blog. I love it. I mean, it’s hard and time consuming, but I do love it. I’ve come to realize that it’s an extension of me teaching. And I do the social media as a kind of extension of the blog. And I’ve met some really wonderful people through social media. But I’d like to start focusing mostly on the blog and have the interaction be here. Not everyone will join me so I’ll still check in on social media a few times per week, but I almost feel like I have to be on social media 24/7 because of their algorithms. Then they have a nifty little habit of telling you you’re spending too much time on social media! So which is? Either I have to be on there posting, posting, posting, interacting, interacting, interacting, but wait a minute…you’re spending too much time on here. It’s not good for you. And honestly, I’ve spent some time away from it lately and it felt good. I spent all that extra time putting it into my business behind the scenes. Maybe one day when chicken librarian really takes off I can hire someone just to do social media for me! But in the meantime, I’mma just gonna focus on this little blog. I’ve read blogs such as Posie Gets Cozy and Small Things for years and they focus on their blogs and have a smaller presence on social media. I’m going to try that model for a few weeks and see how that goes. Of course, they have both been blogging for years…way before social media was a thing but they’re making it work. Can you tell I feel a little guilty for walking away from social for a while?
I’d also like to start providing more content here. I know I talked about my blog and where it was going and was I doing what I should be doing in this post. And I’ve been thinking a lot about it. Because I started my business this year I spent a lot of time working on it and blogging and homesteading really took a back seat. So now I want to get back to that teaching aspect of the blog and provide that content more. The past few months have seemed like: Wordless Wednesday, Weekly RoundUp, and then one other post hastily thrown together. So I’m going to start branching out more. I also feel guilty if I post too much during the week. Like I should keep it to 3, maybe 4 posts per week. Is that a rule? Can I share more throughout the week if I have something to say? I’d like to. I don’t want to necessarily stick to a blogging schedule. If I have something to post, I want to post it. I like the quick Wordless Wednesday, but maybe I have something else to say too that day. I’ll figure it out. And hopefully won’t annoy you, my lovely blog friends.
Okay. Moving on. Let me know what you think about the blogging. I have my last class of 2019 on Tuesday. We’re doing another Beeswax Food Covers class at Kutik’s. I just finished my last class in Middletown. We did lip balms and it was such a great class! Everyone seemed to really enjoy it. I had some repeat customers and then made some new friends as well…just what I was hoping would happen…see old friends and meet some new ones! I updated my class a little. We made two different kinds of lip balms. One lip balm was Peppermint-Rose. I soaked dried rose petals in sunflower oil for a few days (you can see it in one of the pics above), then strained it through cheesecloth. It was so yummy. I have some leftover so I might add some to my next round of lip balm updates. I sent the participants home with 6 recipes so they can try them out if they’d like. I used to hand out a powerpoint presentation but to simplify things a little more, I laminated the carrier oils and essential oils options. I printed out the 2 recipes and laminated those. I set the room up a little different so they were walking around and hands on more. It was good. I’ll make a couple of small tweaks for next time, but I liked this layout much better.
I’m gearing up for our next book for the Chicken Librarian Reads Book Group. So far I’m the only partaking so I’m not sure if it’s the subject that isn’t drawing people in. Anyway, I have Mastering Pasta by Marc Vetri. I think we’ll tackle that one next. Part of the reason I started the book group was because I have all these books on my shelf that I’ve never read. So I thought it would be fun to read and then talk about it with other people who want to learn some of these things!
And I know I’m a couple of days late and I haven’t joined in the past couple of weeks, but I think we’re long overdue for a Friday Favs roundup style. I even updated the cover photo with a winter scene.
1. In an effort to get even more removed from plastic and because I like most things old-school, I put these ice cube trays on my Amazon wishlist.
2. I also added this apron to my wishlist. Isn’t it cute? I would totally wear it as a top over with leggings and a shirt!! I can just see me at my 2020 summer markets wearing it! How fun.
3. When I saw Kutik’s was offering a free class with every purchase of a nuc (or beehive) before December 25th, I told Santa that I was a very good girl and that is what I wanted for Christmas.
I’m linking up with the co-hostesses of Friday Favorites. Click the links below to see what they’ve been up to this past week!
A Little Bit of Everything / Momfessionals / Grace and Love
Well…that was quite the roundup for someone who said they didn’t do a lot this week! HA! I can’t help myself I guess. ‘Til next time friends! Have a great week!
xoxo
-k
Penelope
Love your updates! I would love to hear more about how you’re getting away from using plastic because that is something I am working on too and I love seeing how others accomplish this!
chickenlibrarian
Oh! Thank you! The roundups are fun! I love just kind of rounding up the week and seeing the accomplishments. And I’m definitely happy to do a ‘kick the plastic’ post! Thanks for stopping by ❤️❤️
Tracy
So many wonderful items in your post to comment on, Kristin. (As usual!) 😀 But I’ll keep this brief… I hope! Bullets help me become more succinct.
* I’m with you: I love to blog, I love to write, I love to read (and look at photos) other blogs. Social media… not in love with it. Although, I do like Instagram for looking at other people’s photos / worlds. Anyhow, if you are focusing on your blog content mostly moving forward, I will certainly keep coming by!
* Don’t know if it’s in your budget, but I took two different courses (an SEO course and a social media marketing course) at MarketMotive.com. Very useful. (Ugh, I just looked at their self-paced prices… Fees have increased. Still, if they run a discount at some point…) Food for thought.
* Years ago on my old blogsite Reasonable Season (long gone) I was going to put up a post on using foil over plastic wrap – because plastic’s so bad, right? My research revealed that using foil uses way more energy than plastic wrap. (With regards to production and recycling.) I was so disappointed, but at least I learned something.
* Photos you posted are awesome, as always!
* Mushroom kits. we’ve used Smugtown (Rochester, NY) and they might be better priced. We did the oyster mushrooms and they were awesome. Link: https://www.smugtownmushrooms.com/growkits
* OMG I love me a shrimp and crab boil! Yes, please!
* Future book club pick? Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, by Barbara Kingsolver – if you are so inclined. It’s a book I started, but got side-tracked and plan to return to in 2020. Just a recommendation!
Hope you had a fantastic holiday party with your friends! Looking forward to hering about it!
chickenlibrarian
thanks Tracy! As always your comments are thoughtful and well laid out. I looked up the marketmotive.com and it’s a little out of my price range right now. But it’s good to know these opportunities are out there and it’s always nice to have a recommendation. I think by just spending more time plugging away at the blog, it will hopefully grow. I also think visiting other blogs and commenting/interacting is helpful. Not only do you meet fabulous people (like you! And Daenel! and Bekah! And Shugunna! And Melinda!) you get to learn new things. Things that I wouldn’t normally know. Like the plastic vs foil thing. I would have assumed that foil was better. You can’t really recycle either one but I would have thought foil was much, much better. I need to do some research. I think the plastic wrap and foil will be the hardest thing for us to kick. I’m working my way towards ditching paper towels. I just bought some really cute red and white gingham cloth napkins plus picked up some other ones with chickens on them from the thrift store. I’ll continue to look for them at thrift stores (I bought the red and white gingham via Amazon because I needed some kind of immediately. I got 18 for about $20 and I can use them year round). Of course all bets are off when the guides are here. No way can we live without paper towels. Maybe the thing to do is find some that can be composted as long as they aren’t used to clean up gross stuff.
And I am investigating the mushroom log growing options. I’ve bookmarked the site you suggested. I started reading about the logs and it seems like something you do in the fall but I was reading another blog where they started them in the spring and then checked on them and harvested in the fall. If that’s the case, I know what one of my spring chores will be!
And I’m taking your recommendation re: book group. I’ve updated in my newest weekly roundup! I think the book is very appropriate for things that are going on in my life right now. Sorry to be so cryptic but I’ll have a new blog post this week explaining what I’m talking about.
Thanks again for always having a kind word to say or a word of encouragement.
xoxo
-k
Bekah
The snow looks beautiful! I hope we get a good snow this year and not just rain. My husband asked the other day if I was ready for five or six months of our ‘rainy season’, and I told him it couldn’t possibly rain for that many months. We’ll see.
If you pick Animal, Vegetable, Miracle as Tracy mentioned, I would be up for that discussion! I read it years ago and have been wanting to reread it!
And social media…ugh! I have all but quit Facebook since this summer. Partly because there was just too much anger from all sorts of people. People who in daily life would not act or say the things they do on Facebook. I just couldn’t take it anymore. But it also feels like it’s just not possible to ‘keep up’ with that many people. I don’t think we as humans were designed to maintain that many relationships, even as loosely as FB. Does that make sense? For example, I recently logged onto FB to get in touch with a family member and saw that an acquaintance who had moved to a different state two years ago now has cancer. I spent the rest of the day feeling guilty that I hadn’t known about it, sad that there was nothing I could do, and essentially depressed/in a funk over the whole situation. What an awful diagnosis for anyone. But after a couple of days of thinking about it all (feeling awful for her), I realized that she has a whole network of family and friends who will be there with her in real life to support her through this. There is nothing I could do other than send a card or a message. I guess my rambling here is a way to say that we need to care for those who we are connected to in daily life. Not every person we worked with/went to school with/lived nearby over the years and now follow on social media. At least I can’t. My mind and heart cannot.
I have a different opinion about Instagram. But I think that is because very few people from my real life know that I am on IG. So it’s a different experience on there. Most of what I see are either people I know through blogging (hello you!), businesses, or posts from hashtags. But, I have noticed that many of the posts/pics feel so staged (mostly from one particular hashtag I follow). Much of it feels fake. Is this just me ? Wow. Ok. Sorry for that. Probably not the ramble you expected from your weekly round up and not really what you were addressing in regards to social media 😉
Well, I’ll just shut up now! I hope you have a fantastic week. Are you ready for Christmas? Do you bake a bunch or make a lot of gifts? I have been busily sewing up some gifts, but I haven’t gotten to my baking yet.
chickenlibrarian
Oh Bekah! I hear you loud and clear! And I agree with you. I’ve never really thought about in terms of ‘not meant to be connected’ to that many people. But now that you’ve said it, it makes sense. I actually recharge by being alone. I don’t like being alone all the time…I do tend to get lonely. But having some time to sit, read, knit, reflect, just be always recharges me. In fact that’s what I’ve really done this weekend.
But in terms of social media, maybe that’s what’s bothering me. Being connected to people without really having a connection. I think that’s a big part of why I’m always reevaluating who I’m following on insta. And why I’m always yammering on about connections and interactions. I’ve never had a lot of friends. I prefer to get to know a smaller group of people rather than know a ton of people a little.
And you’re right about the facebook situation. It stinks that you didn’t know your acquaintance had cancer and that they are battling this awful disease, but other than a kind word or note to them, there isn’t much you can do. I think they’d like to know that you are thinking of them but I bet they don’t expect you to drop everything and visit. They (hopefully) have a support system in place.
I get so tired of facebook and everyone with their political opinions. I’ve allowed a lot of new friends, even though I don’t know them. They’re local to me so I know they’re real but I don’t actually know them. Facebook is supposed to be a place to stay in touch with my family and those who I don’t see on a regular basis but it’s grown to more than that. How do you now go through and unfriend them? It’s constant complaining or sharing of their political views and that’s not what I’m there for. I get enough of that via real life and TV (not that I watch a lot of TV because I don’t. But I read my news app on my tablet).
Anyway, I think you bring up some good points. Some I’ve given some thought to this past week. I appreciate you taking the time to write such a lengthy, thoughtful response.
xoxo
-k
Tracy
PS: Off subject, Kristin, but I saw your question on my Coconut Balls post and I use the free version of https://easyrecipeplugin.com/ – you can install the plugin into WordPress and it’s pretty easy to use!
chickenlibrarian
thank you!! I’ll take a look at this and other options!!
Shugunna Alexander
Your snow pictures are beautiful Kristin and taking a walk in it had to br relaxing. I do love a good boil I bet it was good!! I think you should blog however and whenever you feel, I have a schedule but I deviate often. Social media, the good and bad, I too struggle with it’s time consumption and I understand fading back. So happy your classes are doing well my friend!!
chickenlibrarian
thank you sweet friend! I think I’m still learning how to balance it all. I’ve enjoyed not being on social media and giving myself permission to focus on the blog. I really enjoy the process and hope to continue to find that balance!
Melinda
Well, first of all, I love the ornaments 😉 Second of all, I hear you on the social media. It’s a fine line to walk and I’ve tried walking away several times, lol. At this point, I seem to have found a balance, but honestly, who knows how long it will last? I have a different relationship there, more personal, then I do while blogging. Blogging seems to be about sharing what I know (which I really, really love and am so grateful to others who do the same) whereas I’ve found Instagram to be more about the relationships. The words are limited (which is almost a nice challenge for me ;)) as it forces me to get to the point without all of the other supporting words I love so much! My goal would be to find and maintain that perfect balance where they help one another without thoroughly draining me. I’ll let you know if I find it. 😉
chickenlibrarian
AH! My word for the year is balance. I find that I have a hard time with that. I do agree that you get a more personal connection on instagram but I’m also striving for that here on the blog too. It’s slowly coming around to that. I have a few insta friends, like yourself, who follow me over here. I also feel like I write more personal stuff here on the blog. I mean, I write personal stuff on social media but I really jump into a topic here. I’m thinking about doing away with facebook. I only had facebook in the beginning to keep in touch with my family but since they’re not posting on there anymore I’m thinking it might be time to just let it go. Anyway…I feel ya! And I love those ornaments too 😁