Welcome Little Stranger

Asa Bedford Graham

September 22, 2009

6:28 A.M.

8 lbs 12 oz 21" long

Long looked for, come at last! We decided to get the show on the road a little early this time. We knew he was going to be big (albeit, not that big!) so we opted to have him by my due date as normally I go at least a week and sometimes 2 weeks over my due date. I am so glad that we did as he easily could have topped 10 lbs! He has a 14.5" head which is my biggest ever (no problems though with that, thankfully!) but I wouldn't have wanted him any bigger, as it is he can't wear the smallest baby caps that we made. :-/

And the gowns........... well, instead of wearing them for 3-4 months as I'd hoped, I think I'll be doing well to get 6 weeks use out of them. Oh well, I like to sew, right? :-) They fit perfectly right now.

I came home yesterday afternoon, I hate being away, that's the hardest part. We did manage to keep him with us the entire time and in addition to everything we knew we were going to refuse (antibiotic eye drops, PKU test, Vitamin K shot, Hep B shot) there was a ton of proceedures that we hadn't anticipated. They wanted to heel stick him to blood type him, heel stick him to check his blood sugar levels, heel stick him to check his bilirubin levels, give him a hearing test, give me a rubella shot...... anyway, we escaped unscathed! They were really nice about everything though, I couldn't have asked for better. Still, there's no place like home! We are so thankful to be able to enjoy the blessings of a baby in the house again! :-)
Thanks for all of your well wishes and prayers.
Paris

All finished!

It is with great satisfaction that I can write "my sewing's all done!", great relief as well as I was nervous that I wouldn't have it completed and then what would I do? I finished the final little gown at the end of last week, it is a really beautiful terra cotta color and not pink like the photo seems. I put calico buttons on it, I don't know if that's a no-no or not but white china gets boring.


Following are photos of the baby sacque and bonnet that I finished a while ago. I know a lot of you have already seen it but my family hasn't. The outside is light blue tropical weight wool, the lining is champagne colored silk poplin and the embellishment is peach silk embroidery

Katie has been sewing more little caps and if I feel like it I'd like to make a fancier cap from Batiste. I guess that I just can't knock it off with the sewing!

:-)

The boys gathered about 60# of apples today. We will eat a lot, dry some and make apple butter for the year. Early apples don't make good cider so we'll wait to press until October, I think. This weekend we did another 15-18 dozen ears of corn and we are *hopefully* done with corn now!
I am 39 weeks on Wednesday but since I go late I could actually have close to 3 weeks left. I am so eager to meet our "little stranger"!

Corn and a nightgown

Katie finished the baby's nightgown yesterday. It is flannel on the inside and smooth on the outside (I'm sure there's some technical term for that). We drafted the pattern ourselves and I'm pretty pleased with how it looks. It was Katie's first try at a placket and I think she's really glad that it's over, lol. She did offer to sew another though, so maybe it wasn't a horrible experience after all!

We're big fans of composting and adding manure to the garden in the autumn, it has really increased our soil fertility. Our neighbor who is a conventional farmer has soil that's pretty well dead, his yields are about half of ours. Here are some examples of healthy soil and what it will produce. Below is the first of our corn harvest. We grow open pollinated corn and grind it for cornmeal; this was not by any means the largest ear, merely the first to ripen!

Aleks also trained the pole beans to climb the corn stalks. The problem now is that the corn stalks are 10-12 feet high and the beans dangle high overhead. :-)

Happy Day

I have been eagerly awaiting a package this week and today it came! My dear, sweet friend Sarah Jane had inquired about making a baby gift for us and so I had her make a few baby petticoats, however, she also wanted to sew something for me. That was such a treat! I had her make a wrapper so that I would have something comfortable to wear now and afterward. I put it on and it was *perfect*, she is a very talented seamstress to do such an impressive job on a garment she's never sewn before, for a person she's never made anything else for! So, I endeavored to get some pictures of it for you to see.

We were doing tomatoes today and Katie took this while I was watching the little girls run around.

This is the quintessential "belly shot". I look like I swallowed a medicine ball. :-/

And these are the adorable, tiny little petticoats. They are made with a yoke and snug right up under the baby's arms for added body warmth. The one on the left is cotton and the one on the right is wool. They tie in the back for the greatest possible adjustability, I love to look at them, they're so sweet!

4 down......

I've completed 2 more gowns for a total of 4 and that only leaves me 1 more to do! I will leave the 5th and last gown until everything else is done though since it's the least of my worries. The white gown has a tucked front and the skirt is pleated, it reminds me of a tuxedo so that's what we call it, the "tuxedo gown". I will finish up the last bits on the chemises by next week and hopefully the sacque (the bonnet is already done) and that's it!!! I'll be done with the baby's layette with time to spare! I need to order some diapers, I had quite a few newborn sized fitteds but I loaned them out and they never came back. I need another wool soaker or two and some diaper pins...... but I am truly almost ready. Your 9th baby might as well be your first; by the time you have that many most of your clothing is worn out and has to be replaced anyway. I made some diaper rash cream last week with comfrey, plantain, chickweed and shepherd's purse. We also use it for wounds etc. and I want to make a batch of unscented soap to use on the baby, I'd like it to be done before I go to the hospital so that I can give him his bath. I don't want him leaving my sight the entire time. We are printing out our "refusal of care" forms worded the way we want them instead of the standard form that implies that you're negligent for refusing. We basically refuse everything: eye drops, vitamin K, hib shot, PKU test, all of it.


We picked up 15 dozen ears of corn yesterday and will get 15 dozen more on Saturday. We are drying it all like we did last year, I want a total of 60 dozen by the time it's all said and done. Katie did all the corn yesterday, the younger ones husked it and she did all the blanching, cutting, and stirring it every 15 minutes in the oven. It's easier for me to sit and sew than it is to bustle around the kitchen these days ("bustle" seems kind of comical considering how slow I am these days :-)) We missed "sewing hour" yesterday but Katie did get another baby cap sewn this week, it's like the other only in a bigger size.

We also brought home 40 zucchinis. I really like zucchini but you can only eat it so many days in a row so we looked for other recipes and found Zucchini Pickles, I hope that we like them! I will add zucchini to our relish and I suppose if I can't find enough ways to use it then the animals can have it.

I noticed that the cicadas started singing a few weeks ago, a sure sign that Summer is waning along with the goldenrod in bloom. Public school started this week although we won't until after Labor day. Usually I'm all excited and so ready to be doing school again, this year however, I'm not ready! It came too soon, the garden is rather late this year and the baby's coming and I need more time! We'll be gathering apples before long to press into cider and making sugar beet syrup as well. Will there be enough hours in the day? To every season there is its own work and unique pleasures. Here's to you enjoying and appreciating yours and us to enjoying and appreciating every moment of ours!

Projects projects everywhere....

We have a "Sewing Hour" after lunch where the girls and I work on our projects. Today I was working on the baby's wool winter bonnet, Tabitha was stitching on her tea towels, and Rebekah was practicing her techniques on some designs that I drew (the little girls went to town with Dad). Katie whipped up this adorable little cap for her project. It is a double layered flannel newborn cap, isn't it too cute for words? It has a 3 piece body like some from the Wisconsin Historical Society collection. She finished it with twill tape ties, I can't wait to see how it looks on the baby!

In our family the girls are required to be competent with hand sewing before they are allowed to use the machine, I'm a big fan of samplers! I like the quiet time spent with just the girls and I while they work on such important skills. The boys work on some project with Dad or Aleks while we sew, today it was building movable turkey roosts.

We picked this bed up about 8 years ago from somebodies garbage, Aleks has been using it but because it's a 3/4 bed no standard mattress fits it. I needed to get Abby out of our bed and used to sleeping with Elisabethe so we decided to make a straw tick to fit the frame. The bed is square nailed and dates from the 1860-1880 range, I think. It was originally red, then black, then yellow and most recently green. ;-) Anyhow, Katie sewed most of the tick together and then we filled it and made it up so you could see it (yes, it's outside in the picture but it's too dim in the bedroom to see). I thought it would be a hard adjustment for Abby but she loves it! Elisabethe took it much harder, she is used to sleeping with Katie and she was a little tearful about leaving Katie to sleep alone. Isn't that sweet? ;-)

This white gown is the latest completed baby article. I'm sorry that it's so hard to see details but white on white is tricky. There are 4 vertical rows of 100% cotton lace on the bodice as well as some lace on the sleeves.

I received my milk paint order yesterday but before tackling the cradle we decided to paint this shelf first. It wasn't a priceless antique so if we really messed it up it wouldn't matter. We painted it 2 coats of Federal Blue and I really like how it turned out. Milk paint is supposed to look faintly streaky, that's the nature of it and it feels very chalky to the touch. There were zero fumes and I helped to paint it even. I love milk paint!

A time to every purpose

This has been a busy and productive week for us thus far so I thought I'd blog about the highlights. The green beans and sugar peas are still in full swing, we dehydrate/can some every 2 days and will continue for a few more weeks. I'm expecting our corn to be ready any day now and so then we'll have 30-40 dozen ears to process, but in the meantime we haven't been idle. ;-)


When my sister Dawn brought out the cradle she also brought along loads of comb honey. A man that they know does bee removal and some of the honey he takes out of buildings he gives to them. As you can see, it was not the most aesthetically pleasing honey I've ever seen, so we strained out the liquid honey and got well over one gallon. With the remaining comb we rendered out the wax by repeated boilings and strainings. The house smelled so wonderful during the process!


The final rendered product all ready for candle making or salves. Quite a contrast to the "before" picture, isn't it?

These are Aleks' first Jacob's Cattle beans that he harvested. They are an heirloom dried bean good for baking and soups. They were easy to grow and prolific to boot! He has several other heirloom varieties that aren't quite mature enough as of yet but should be ready soon. After he has all the seed stock that he'll need for next year, we get to eat the rest. The thought of homemade bread with soups and chowders to accompany it almost makes me wish for cooler weather. ;-)

We have been making peach jam quite a bit this week. I made it the same way as the other jams we made: with very little sugar and no added pectin. We added cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg and it was delicious (we ate some this morning on cornbread)!

And, on the sewing front: I found this piping cord and I just love its tiny size for baby gowns, the scale is perfect! I used it on...........

My first completed baby gown! I have several white Pima ones almost finished but I was running short on white thread after my chemise marathon so I decided to make up a printed gown.

This gown has a total length of 21" which seems to me to be a more practical length for a gown that will see a lot of use. I believe it was Sarah Jane that mentioned that longer gowns tend to trail about and become very dirty. The skirt is a very full 60" to more easily facilitate diaper changes and the sleeves are plenty wide so little arms will slide in easily. I'm really enthralled with it, I hung it on the jelly cupboard so I could look at it often. :D

So, what do *you* think?

My Mom and Dad sent me out this cradle to use for our new little one. They weren't really sure of the age or even if it was the natural wood or if it was painted. We decided to use a little stripper in an inconspicuous spot to see just what we were dealing with and if it was the "original finish" we would leave it as is, but if it wasn't, we would refinish it. That seemed the safest course as we were concerned about multiple layers of lead based paint. As it turned out, it was multiple layers of paint, 3 to be exact. Brown then black then green. Really bright green! Below is the cradle partially stripped, you can see the green running down the side.

So, we stripped it all the way and sanded it, but the best we could get it is pictured below. We wanted a more accurate date for it so we asked an antiques dealer that we know and an antiques restorer for an age estimate. They place the date in the 1840-1850 range, we also found out that it was definitely homemade, hand planed, square nailed and the original color was green. Since the paint is milk paint that explains why we couldn't get it all out. The restorer said that we now have basically 2 choices: leave it as is, add a light stain and seal it. You will always be able to see the green this way. Or, choice #2, paint it again as it originally was. The original color of milk paint can be viewed here, it is the one called Tavern Green. Or I suppose we could paint it some other color.

Almost nobody likes the idea of repainting it, it runs contrary to our 21st century sensibilities that prefer natural looking wood. However, even though I wouldn't want a whole house full of painted furniture, I do like it for some pieces. When this cradle was built it wasn't fashioned from oak or cherry or another "beautiful" wood, it was made from utilitarian poplar which isn't really considered pretty. It was designed to be painted and brighten the home where it was used, as painted furniture is very, very common from this era.
So, the question is: what do you think I should do? Please tell me truthfully, I really want to know! If everybody thinks painting it would be hideous, then I'll probably bow to your wisdom and not repaint it. I'm starting to doubt myself here. ;-) I'm inclined to paint it mostly so it will look as it was intended to look but I'm afraid that I'll wish I hadn't once it's done. Oh, the indecision!!! Opinions please. ;-)

State of the Farm Address

Rebekah had her 9th birthday on Monday and of all the things that she wanted, a pet was first on her list. Now, I'm not much for "pets", animals that pay their own way and earn their keep? Sure! But not getting an animal just for the sake of having it. We used to have ducks and though I haven't missed them since they've been gone, the children did. So, I heard a lot about how ducks would keep the fly population down and other enticing statistics. ;-) There *are* tons of flies here; the man who keeps his heifers here in the big barn rarely cleans it and it is a gigantic fly incubator. Anyhow, we got her 2 Black Swedish and 1 Blue Swedish duckling. She was thrilled with them!

The garden is really producing well, we're racing to keep up with it. As you know, I'm a big advocate of dehydrating foods but I do can some as well. I look on the canned stuff as "convenience" food since it's quick to prepare/heat up but I like to use it sparingly as it is nutritionally depleted. I think jars of canned produce do look pretty though!
And! The big news is that Tansy calved yesterday!!! She had a heifer calf which is Aleks' as part of his graduation gift from us. She is named Senna. The birth went just as I wished it would: outside in the fresh grass, with no problems. Tansy cleaned her up and she went to nursing.

We've worked on numerous dairy farms and were pretty sure that we didn't want the conventional dairy model as it relates to birth. On some of the farms the laboring cow is put in a headlock and gives birth there on the concrete. When the calves hooves are showing they tie chains to them and yank the baby out. The calf is them beaten on the chest and cussed at until it breathes, taken away from its Mother and thus begins the life of a dairy cow. :-( On a different farm every birth was attended and the calf literally did not touch the ground before it was taken away, on still another farm the cow gave birth in with all the other cows, usually right in the manure. You would find the calves completely coated in manure, unable to stand with only the tip of their noses showing. Makes you want a glass of milk right now, doesn't it?

The little children weren't there for the birth which I was glad for, but they did watch her eat the afterbirth. Most farmers don't allow this but we do. The placenta is loaded with oxytocin which will slow down any excessive bleeding and it's full of calcium which helps prevent Milk Fever. I actually wasn't worried about Milk Fever as cows who don't eat grain (i.e. grazing cows) rarely get it. After we put the Mama and baby in the barn for the night we gave her warm molasses water and a quantity of comfrey leaves. Together they give an iron boost and an immune system boost. Life seems abundantly good right now! ;-)

We welcome thee

We attended worship services a week ago in Salem, Ohio at the Wilbur Friends Meeting House. We had a very blessed day and enjoyed both the Sabbath School and the service itself. As you know~ or maybe not~ Conservative Quakers employ what is called "waiting worship". As you take your seat in the meeting house you begin to pray and meditate, when someone feels led to share some words or a prayer then they stand and do so. Consequently there can be long stretches of silence. It paints quite a qontrast to the "programmed" worship generally found in churches. Still, we enjoyed ourselves. The littlest children did very well sitting through the 2 hours of combined services, I was very thankful! We don't "play" in church and since we've been home churching I was afraid that they might not do very well in a new situation.

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The meeting house itself is a gorgeous old brick structure that was rebuilt in the 1870's. The huge white shutters are opened to emit the light which is pretty distorted by the original wavy glass of the windows. In the cloak room are several original bookcases with bound volumes of Quaker writings and treatises that seem to be as old as the cases they're housed in. A gal over on the Sewing Academy had recommended a book called American Grit which are the compiled letters of Anna Briggs Bentley. Mrs. Bentley was a Friend (Friend is the preferred term, "Quaker" is derogatory) who settled in eastern Ohio in the early 19th century. Her home meeting was the Salem Monthly Meeting. We visited Hope Cemetary after services where she and many of her family are buried. In many ways things haven't changed all that much in the 200 intervening years, some Friends today still use "thee" and "thou" and the calenders in the Meeting House really do refer to the months and days as "First Month" and "Fourth Day" etc. ;-)

Maybe Anna would still feel at home there, I know we did.

Hands to work and hearts to God

It all started with the question "is a Shaker spool a religious artifact?" A seemingly benign question that led to days of conversation as we worked out the answer as it relates to our own lives. The Shaker philosophy about work so closely resembles ours that I was taken aback when I read it, "Do your work as though you had a thousand years to live and as if you were to die tomorrow." I want the things that I create to be things that I can be proud of, I don't like looking at something I've created and wish that I had taken the time to do a better job. If a dress takes 3 hours but a better quality dress takes 4, is not the extra hour one well spent if it yields a thing of greater beauty? Since we see our lifestyle choices as a way of living a life that allows us to focus more on God and less on popular philosophy, all of our work indeed becomes a religious act. As we tend the garden it is so easy to see that our daily bread really does come from the hand of God. Every garment sewn becomes a religious artifact because of the spirit in which it was undertaken. Every jar of jam or pickles reflects the ultimate and eternal provision with which we've been blessed. Every day is then a communion with God.

Aleks bought a new scythe recently which came without instructions. He called the company to make sure he was assembling it properly and they told him that the upper handle should be screwed or nailed in place. Screwed or nailed? No, he whittled a peg and used the bit and brace to drill the hole. Every step with the knowledge that it was a tool he will use for a lifetime and pass to his own children. He then proceeded to finish it with many coats of linseed oil, a time intensive process that meshes well with the scythe itself. Is it a religious artifact? Yes, I think it is.

I have been fashioning tiny garments for our eagerly awaited baby. Miniature chemises and gowns, coats and tiny caps. I think about the little one as I take each stitch, what a wonderful thing it is to welcome a baby! Every garment that touches his body has been lovingly made by the people who will love him the most, isn't that exactly as it should be? Mr. G has been preparing the cradle that the little one will nap in, it will be next to the stove where it's the warmest, right in the center of household activity where he will be looked in on as every one passes by. My Mother has said truthfully that the baby will not spend too much time alone as there are too many arms that want to hold him! ;-)

To look at our labors in this light makes the mundane holy. An act of worship instead of a chore. The Shakers eventually died out due to mass production, their hand crafted items could not compete with the new cheaply produced competition. Today we esteem what they made because anything hand crafted is such a rarity, most of us have rarely seen anything lovingly constructed by a true craftsman. Each step we take toward ease and convenience leaves us less able to provide for ourselves as knowledge is invariably lost. We yearn for what we know should be and are unsure of where to even begin to retrieve it.

Summer ritual

Today kicks off the official beginning of Jam Making, a very much enjoyed (and tasty) summer ritual. The various pastures around our place boast several Mulberry trees which we attempt to harvest ahead of the birds and raccoons. The children's summer ritual involves eating enough Mulberries to give them diarrhea ;-) Actually, I'm glad to have them do this, it works as a sort of early summer cleanse.

I have never really been interested in making jam from them though because you can't easily remove the stems but we decided to try it anyway. The results were very pleasing!

When I first began making jam I made loads of freezer jam, a super tasty method that is probably the most popular right now with home canners. I did make one batch of strawberry freezer jam for my folks, my Mom likes it on ice cream. ;-) But the majority of our jam this year will be the good, old fashioned cooked version. Also, I really want to get away from store bought pectin because it costs money and has ingredients that I don't like in it, so I made our jam without added pectin. This results in a different "set" than what I'm used to, but I wonder if that's because the artificial, mass produced product seems "normal" whereas the real deal seems "off" to us? I've found that to be true in so many cases, for instance, what does corn really taste like? Likely you've never had anything but the super sweet, hybridized candy thing that we call corn. It's such a shame how much we've lost. The biggest down side to cooked jam is the loss in yield, we ended up with about half of what we would have had by doing freezer jam (and I can just hear Angie now saying that she's not going to all that trouble to only get half, lol). I also added very, very little sugar, this gives a tarter taste but is more in keeping with our philosophies about sugar consumption. We all loved it when we did the taste test though, so apparently no one misses the sugar.

The other new thing I did this year is to replace the traditional bands and lids with Gulf Wax. I really debated this one because paraffin is a petroleum by-product which I don't like but lids are a constant expense and I don't like that either. Just so you know, the USDA does not recommend using paraffin wax to seal anything because of mold contamination. But I think the USDA is suspect anyway, probably representatives from Ball sit on its advisory board...... but I digress. The nice thing about the wax is that it's endlessly reusable! I really like that, plus it looks quaint and old fashioned which is a nice bonus. Aesthetics are important, right? The USDA representative did say that the only real danger would be mold, which is easily seen upon opening the jar, so it's not like you'd be playing around with botulism or something that can't be seen or tasted. I hope that I will like it as much as I want to like it!

I have found that I can't make too much jam in the evening because it makes my feet swell up, so I try to be finished before noon. I can then go and enjoy the breeze on the porch which is where I've also been doing my sewing lately. I'll have Mr. G or Aleks carry my "sewing table", which is actually my Great Aunt Elizabeth's canning table, out to the porch and I can sew with a comfortable breeze blowing. I like to be there and watch the children play and depending on where Tansy is I can watch her graze. It is a very peaceful feeling. ;-) All of my "work" (should I even call it that?) brings me such a sense of satisfaction. The cooking, canning, dehydrating, sewing, hanging laundry, mending....... none of it is a chore. I'm so thankful that I don't have to leave home to earn money. I really sympathize with those who are compelled to do so!

My life lately

I am now finished with the last of Abigail's dresses. This is the pink/red print that I bought recently from Zinck's. I wanted to do something a little different so I pleated the bodice and added 100% cotton ribbon on the stitch line. The skirt is pleated as well to keep the theme going. We tried to do sausage curls but that didn't work out very well, they were just too limp. ;-)

This is a better shot of the sleeve detail. I pleated the sleeves just like the skirt and added the same trim.
This is a close up of the pleated bodice. I really like the look and I think I'll make this style again!

The boys also got new homespun shirts which I have yet to put the buttons or buttonholes on. They prefer their homemade shirts to storebought as does Mr. G, they are more comfortable I guess!

I've also gone on a button buying binge as of late. I use china buttons on dresses and pinafores and metal on shirts with the very occasional mother-of-pearl thrown in when I don't have anything better. I buy mostly from E-Bay but that can be hit or miss especially with china calicoes as they tend to get snatched up by collectors. I purchased these below along with 118 plain white china buttons not pictured. I also have about 20-30 ringers coming by the end of this week. I'm pretty happy with my purchases especially in light of how expensive new buttons are, I had to buy new metal buttons for the shirts and they were $.66 a piece. That's more per button than the antique ones which are better quality too.

This is Katie and her new green dress. It's the first one that she has sewn entirely by herself. I'm very proud of her and the job she did!

She and I also hand washed the boys' wool winter coats. Dirty! Ugh, I could not believe the water, but they are all fresh and clean now and packed away. We also gave the girls' winter dresses a heavy scrubbing, mended them if needed and put them away until the weather cools. That's a job that I feel good about once it's accomplished.

Aleks, Levi and Micah got new overalls this past week. They are rather partial to overalls and really dislike the fit of modern jeans. I suppose if that's all they owned they would get used to it, but for work wear nothing beats pants that don't fall down! ;-)

In addition to all this we harvested over 1000 leeks and got a gallon of powder from them. The garden is doing well and we're eating sugar peas now. Mmm!

I had some blood work done and found out that I'm pretty anemic and I have a low platelet count. I have never been anemic before and was pretty surprised to hear this, although it sure explains why I'm so tired. I'm supposed to take it easy. ;-) Also, I have consistently been measuring big this time, which is again something that never happens to me (except for the twins of course). Anywhere from 3 to 8 cm bigger but we're pretty sure it's not twins so.... what is it? It seems odd to me that you could have 8 children and each pregnancy would be pretty much the same until your 9th and then boom! everything is different. Time will tell, I supose.

Things have been so crazy here that I hardly have any computer time. Blogs that I used to check frequently now don't get visited. I miss hearing about you all and hope to be back when things settle down.

Elisabethe's pink dress

After a long wait, to a 5 year old anyway, Elisabethe's pink dress is finally done! This is the fabric she picked out at Zinck's when we were there a few weeks ago; it was marked as a reproduction print but I'm unsure as to whether that's true or not. It's the same basic style as the other girls' but with no neckline gathering. The skirt is a very full 86" and the red silk ribbons match the red dots in the print. It has the requisite 3 growth tucks. ;-)


But, far more importantly, Elisabethe lost her first tooth last week!!! She has now officially entered the realm of "big girlness" and thrown off the trappings of little girlhood. I'm not really sure what all that entails except that she carries herself with a new dignity befitting her status. The proof is pictured below. ;-)