Greetings everyone ..
We took a drive to Cambridge yesterday to have our official Christmas/New Years visit with Ken's sister Sarah and her Husband Dave.
Our christmas gifts from the were candles ,candles ,candles. Oh and wax to make more candles...do they know us or what?
So the wax pot will be doing double time to get more dipped candles made.
On our way to Cambridge we sort of took the scenic route.... highway number 3, we managed to stop by and see Shelley at Cobblestone Galeries. Shelley is one our newest followers and if you like art, her work is incredible and her use of colour is simply amazing. Visit cobblestonegalleries.com for more info. Thanks to our visit with Shelley, we discovered a whole "route" that led us to antiques, apples, bees, honey and a myriad other things here in Elgin County. Things dealing with Victoriana and skilled crafts which are all local to Elgin County. The route is on her web page.
We have a question for you, pretend there is a real Victorian mercantile, specializing in everything Victorian. What would you like to see in this mercantile? Victorian hardware ie. hinges, door knobs, window hardware, candle sconces and the like? What about period patterns for clothing? Period fabrics? Perhaps period furniture. Kitchen wares?
Please let us know.
Thank youhave finished our supper now and the pots of water on the cook stove are hot and ready for our bath.
Our 7 course sunday dinner consisted of potatoes mashed with a yogurt, peas with butter,turnip with apple and onion, stuffed pork tenderloin with a bacon crust, served with an apple jelly,creamed cheese herb stuffed chicken , dinner rolls and to finish a chocolate cake...
To everyone who has written to us regarding our spring dinner , we have decided a tenative date of March 24th...please let us know if that will suit you .
Again this is a strictly period dinner where everyone will present themselves in proper period garb and will have read up on corrent events of the time and date , we will all be 1st person for the entire visit ...I have received wonderful letters written with quill from a few people and it is cool that you have done this...
Talk to you soon
M&K Cook
We
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Feels like early spring
Wow , you couldn't make the chickens happier than they have been lately. Outside everyday , chasing the cats around the yard..They are laying eggs like crazy which is unusual at this time of the year. Chickens generally slow down in the winter months . So we have an abundance of lovely eggs. And our young chickens are starting to lay , we are getting small beautiful eggs , some in blue ,some in green and some white.Got more wood brought in today,especially for the kitchen stove. Other than that just using the day light to clean and get some sewing done. I try to take advantage of the day light for sewing because it is very hard on my eyes to do sewing by candle light.I can do it but my eyes get tired quickly.
Talk to you soon and thank you for visiting.
M
Talk to you soon and thank you for visiting.
M
Saturday, January 7, 2012
January thaw???
Well this is some weather we are having isn't it?
We took advantage of the day to bring in some wood & do some necessary things outside. Inside I washed the walls in the kitchen.They get very dusty with the kitchen stove going all of the time. So if I do not keep it up they look dusty. I remember the mention that the Victorians used old tea leaves to sprinkle on the floors . They sprinkled them then swept the whole mess up. I am assuming this is to dampen the dust. Something I have noticed is the dust level is high especially during the winter months. So I am assuming this is why they did this. Anyone have any ideas on this or comments??
I have noticed that this is the time of year that grand pieces of pork appear in the grocery stores, especially in Guelph. Sausage making time again. Sure enough I ran into a friends Mother who happily announced "we are making sausage". Now we also want to make sausage and had every intention to do so .My concern is the lack of freezing outside. With no freezer we cannot keep the sausages. Also we haven't had sufficient snow fall to use snow during this January thaw. Normally we would have our meat or whatever outside and it would freeze , during a thaw period we would just pack snow around the container to keep it frozen , this we cannot do without the snow. Our warmer weather surely would have caused a real problem 150 years ago. So that is all I have to say this evening .Speaking of we have longer light during the days now so I can get a few more things done before I am lighting the candles ...which is wonderful. I really miss longer days.
See you soon
We took advantage of the day to bring in some wood & do some necessary things outside. Inside I washed the walls in the kitchen.They get very dusty with the kitchen stove going all of the time. So if I do not keep it up they look dusty. I remember the mention that the Victorians used old tea leaves to sprinkle on the floors . They sprinkled them then swept the whole mess up. I am assuming this is to dampen the dust. Something I have noticed is the dust level is high especially during the winter months. So I am assuming this is why they did this. Anyone have any ideas on this or comments??
I have noticed that this is the time of year that grand pieces of pork appear in the grocery stores, especially in Guelph. Sausage making time again. Sure enough I ran into a friends Mother who happily announced "we are making sausage". Now we also want to make sausage and had every intention to do so .My concern is the lack of freezing outside. With no freezer we cannot keep the sausages. Also we haven't had sufficient snow fall to use snow during this January thaw. Normally we would have our meat or whatever outside and it would freeze , during a thaw period we would just pack snow around the container to keep it frozen , this we cannot do without the snow. Our warmer weather surely would have caused a real problem 150 years ago. So that is all I have to say this evening .Speaking of we have longer light during the days now so I can get a few more things done before I am lighting the candles ...which is wonderful. I really miss longer days.
See you soon
Saturday, December 31, 2011
New beginnings
It feels like a dull day here at the farm. The chickens are happy to be running around in the yard picking away at who knows what...but they seem happy doing it. The are chattering away at everyone including the cats, it is a funny thing to watch as a chicken runs up to a cat chatters away then runs away....it is no wonder that Miss Potter was inspired by her farm animals..they are most entertaining.
The end of the year 2011 is nearing and there is lot's to do before the day and year is over . I am tired today, we have been sick all week. Started Christmas weekend , Aidan our Grandson was sick and I guess I caught it from him. Monday I could barely function but still managed to prepare meals for my seniors. Being self employed has many advantages with the exception of paid sick days...if you have them I hope you truly appreciate them...just saying.
I have been up since abound 6, got the fires going again . I made bread and the loaves are now sitting for their final proof while the wood cook stove is getting hot and up to temperature. I brought in some more wood and did some outside wood sorting. We have literally a mountain of wood out there .Unfortunately alot of it is wet.
I have also been cleaning all day. Being the good Victorian that I am it is traditional to have a perfectly clean home to bring in the new year. So that is what I am busy doing today, hopefully I will get it all done. Including sweeping the only carpet in the house ,which is in the dining room,A lovely Asian rug. It has been swept clean and hopefully will stay that way until I can pull it out for spring cleaning and give it a good wash outside. I have polished all of the silver and it is happily in the cabinet awaiting our next dinner party. I think a good goal would be to have a dinner party before I need to re polish the silver...Don't you think?
Just so you all know I am writing this throughout the day. So if it reads like I have just gotten a new thought , you are correct. I am trying to remember all of the things I wanted to tell you before the day and ultimately the year is out...
The bread was wonderful...
We have accomplished much this year. Especially with this project. While we do have some things we cannot unhook from the hydro grid ,they are few. Especially the blower for the furnace, we have no idea how that could be eliminated . We still have 1 electric light bulb in the basement . Which we use when we go down to fill the furnace. The stairs are original and steep,quite dangerous in fact so 2 hands are needed to go down. So it is one area I will not take a chance on. And it is only 1 small bulb. I figure if I fell down those stairs especially if Ken is away no one would find me for days. So I think it is better to be safe.
All of our rooms have excellent light with our candles and candle wall sconces. We are kept fed and warm with our wonderful kitchen wood stove and our wood furnace . We have jars and jars of preserves to help us through the winter. We have plenty of books and projects to keep us busy when we have time to relax with a book or sewing. We have scrabble to keep us challenged .We have each other , walking in the same direction. Excitedly discussing our upcoming plans . We have our friends who are lovingly following us on this journey,giving us advise, asking us questions, and challenging us to try different idea. To this we feel blessed , and we Thank you ...
Happy New Years everyone !!!!!!
The end of the year 2011 is nearing and there is lot's to do before the day and year is over . I am tired today, we have been sick all week. Started Christmas weekend , Aidan our Grandson was sick and I guess I caught it from him. Monday I could barely function but still managed to prepare meals for my seniors. Being self employed has many advantages with the exception of paid sick days...if you have them I hope you truly appreciate them...just saying.
I have been up since abound 6, got the fires going again . I made bread and the loaves are now sitting for their final proof while the wood cook stove is getting hot and up to temperature. I brought in some more wood and did some outside wood sorting. We have literally a mountain of wood out there .Unfortunately alot of it is wet.
I have also been cleaning all day. Being the good Victorian that I am it is traditional to have a perfectly clean home to bring in the new year. So that is what I am busy doing today, hopefully I will get it all done. Including sweeping the only carpet in the house ,which is in the dining room,A lovely Asian rug. It has been swept clean and hopefully will stay that way until I can pull it out for spring cleaning and give it a good wash outside. I have polished all of the silver and it is happily in the cabinet awaiting our next dinner party. I think a good goal would be to have a dinner party before I need to re polish the silver...Don't you think?
Just so you all know I am writing this throughout the day. So if it reads like I have just gotten a new thought , you are correct. I am trying to remember all of the things I wanted to tell you before the day and ultimately the year is out...
The bread was wonderful...
We have accomplished much this year. Especially with this project. While we do have some things we cannot unhook from the hydro grid ,they are few. Especially the blower for the furnace, we have no idea how that could be eliminated . We still have 1 electric light bulb in the basement . Which we use when we go down to fill the furnace. The stairs are original and steep,quite dangerous in fact so 2 hands are needed to go down. So it is one area I will not take a chance on. And it is only 1 small bulb. I figure if I fell down those stairs especially if Ken is away no one would find me for days. So I think it is better to be safe.
All of our rooms have excellent light with our candles and candle wall sconces. We are kept fed and warm with our wonderful kitchen wood stove and our wood furnace . We have jars and jars of preserves to help us through the winter. We have plenty of books and projects to keep us busy when we have time to relax with a book or sewing. We have scrabble to keep us challenged .We have each other , walking in the same direction. Excitedly discussing our upcoming plans . We have our friends who are lovingly following us on this journey,giving us advise, asking us questions, and challenging us to try different idea. To this we feel blessed , and we Thank you ...
Happy New Years everyone !!!!!!
Friday, December 30, 2011
Stove Pipes
Greetings everyone. I have just spent the last 5 hours removing, cleaning and replacing the stove pipes for the cook stove and the furnace. A filthy dirty job if there ever was one. I look like a chimney sweep which, in essence I am. The furnace pipes came down first, I then took them outside to clean. Since we are living as close to 1865 as possible, cleaning the pipes means NO CHEMICALS!!!! This meant I had to come up with a period method of cleaning. I built a small fire and set the pipes on it one at a time. The creosote built up inside the pipes gradually heated up and then (as I secretly hoped) burst into flame! This melted the creosote and burnt it off as well, leaving an easily removed ash.
Took about an hour to do this and the pipes are remarkably clean. So much so that I noticed one of the elbows will need replacing beause it is full of small holes. The furnace pipes have been re-assembled and the furnace lit and it is drawing quite nicely thank you.
I must also mention I cleaned a good deal of ash from the furnace fire box. We want to make soap early in 1866 (2012) so this ash will become lye water, one of the ingredients of soap the other being animal fat.
The cook stove also got a good cleaning, pipes and all. I took the top off the stove, remove the pipes for cleaning and set about removing creosote and accumulated ash. The pipes were not as caked up with creosote as the furnace pipes so I simply wacked them on the outside with a stick, shook out the loose creosote and soot and re-assembled them to the stove. Inside the stove there was quite an accumulation of ash and soot, all of which had to be removed mechanically with a brush and scrapper. That being done, the top of the stove was cleaned up and re-assembled. I have yet to build a fire in the stove but it should draw much better now.
Margaret has a book which contains excerpts and quotations from letters written durintg the Victorian Age in Upper Canada. There is mention of cleaning stove pipes which apparently was a job which made folks testy to say the least and was dirty to boot! It would seem that my foray into pipe cleaning was a simple little re-enactment of a dirty Victorian task in Upper Canada.
It may seem an obvious thing but good dry wood is a must if you want to keep the build up of creosote and soot to a minimum. I have been guilty of leaving our wood out and partially uncovered. In a normal winter this would not be such a problem. However, this year has proven to be a wet one to say the least and it has continued to be so right up to the present time. So bad me, we have some wet wood to deal with and I'll be cleaning pipes again in a month or so most likely. My penance I guess. (Insert dramatic sigh!) :-)
That's all for now, talk to you soon.
Ken
Took about an hour to do this and the pipes are remarkably clean. So much so that I noticed one of the elbows will need replacing beause it is full of small holes. The furnace pipes have been re-assembled and the furnace lit and it is drawing quite nicely thank you.
I must also mention I cleaned a good deal of ash from the furnace fire box. We want to make soap early in 1866 (2012) so this ash will become lye water, one of the ingredients of soap the other being animal fat.
The cook stove also got a good cleaning, pipes and all. I took the top off the stove, remove the pipes for cleaning and set about removing creosote and accumulated ash. The pipes were not as caked up with creosote as the furnace pipes so I simply wacked them on the outside with a stick, shook out the loose creosote and soot and re-assembled them to the stove. Inside the stove there was quite an accumulation of ash and soot, all of which had to be removed mechanically with a brush and scrapper. That being done, the top of the stove was cleaned up and re-assembled. I have yet to build a fire in the stove but it should draw much better now.
Margaret has a book which contains excerpts and quotations from letters written durintg the Victorian Age in Upper Canada. There is mention of cleaning stove pipes which apparently was a job which made folks testy to say the least and was dirty to boot! It would seem that my foray into pipe cleaning was a simple little re-enactment of a dirty Victorian task in Upper Canada.
It may seem an obvious thing but good dry wood is a must if you want to keep the build up of creosote and soot to a minimum. I have been guilty of leaving our wood out and partially uncovered. In a normal winter this would not be such a problem. However, this year has proven to be a wet one to say the least and it has continued to be so right up to the present time. So bad me, we have some wet wood to deal with and I'll be cleaning pipes again in a month or so most likely. My penance I guess. (Insert dramatic sigh!) :-)
That's all for now, talk to you soon.
Ken
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Thursday, December 22, 2011
The house is warm and quiet.
The week is almost over , will be nice to have a couple of days off. The house is especially quiet tonight. My lovely boy is away at work and will not be home until tomorrow.Good thing the house is nice and warm. I spent the day baking and preparing Christmas cookie and sweet trays for my seniors. Putting the parlour back together and washing clothes. I have literally hundreds of cookies.
I made sugar candy also,which the kid's will love I am sure.
The chicken's are loving this weather , and are happy to be out roaming around . Fantastic for this date of the year.But the yard is a mud hole near the coop . I have never seen it so muddy. I believe we have a rat in the chicken coop. Seems to have chewed a hole conveniently right near the feeder.. I put something heavy over the hole until Ken gets home...hopefully the little bugger bangs his head . He seems to be just after the grain because the eggs are all still in tact. Our newest chickens are starting to lay and we have lovely peewee eggs arriving daily,in a beautiful green colour. We call these Zoe eggs as they are just small enough to grace a little girls breakfast table.
I was thinking today that we have been doing this project now for over 6 months, these have been the easier months , the harder ones might be coming, although I think we are coping well. Wish we could do this full time . I have had many people refer to a TV show called Victorian Farm. We watched a few episodes and it was a very cool project and a very successful TV program. Which I am sure was the whole idea.
My Grandson Aidan loves the program. But also points out they have lots of help and a good financial backer in order to do what they are doing...smart boy.
We will head back to Guelph Christmas eve,in order to watch little ones open their packages on Christmas morning . So I would like to take the time to wish all of you a Very Happy Christmas!!
I will let you know how our Christmas Crackers did ...Jude was very pleased to have made them with me .
M
I made sugar candy also,which the kid's will love I am sure.
The chicken's are loving this weather , and are happy to be out roaming around . Fantastic for this date of the year.But the yard is a mud hole near the coop . I have never seen it so muddy. I believe we have a rat in the chicken coop. Seems to have chewed a hole conveniently right near the feeder.. I put something heavy over the hole until Ken gets home...hopefully the little bugger bangs his head . He seems to be just after the grain because the eggs are all still in tact. Our newest chickens are starting to lay and we have lovely peewee eggs arriving daily,in a beautiful green colour. We call these Zoe eggs as they are just small enough to grace a little girls breakfast table.
I was thinking today that we have been doing this project now for over 6 months, these have been the easier months , the harder ones might be coming, although I think we are coping well. Wish we could do this full time . I have had many people refer to a TV show called Victorian Farm. We watched a few episodes and it was a very cool project and a very successful TV program. Which I am sure was the whole idea.
My Grandson Aidan loves the program. But also points out they have lots of help and a good financial backer in order to do what they are doing...smart boy.
We will head back to Guelph Christmas eve,in order to watch little ones open their packages on Christmas morning . So I would like to take the time to wish all of you a Very Happy Christmas!!
I will let you know how our Christmas Crackers did ...Jude was very pleased to have made them with me .
M
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