Weekend Wrap Up!

Hey friends!

 Hope everyone has had a good weekend so far. Mine's been busy, full of classes and cleaning mostly, with a teeny bit of crafting thrown in.

This semester I registered for two classes: Fruit and Vegetable Production, and a Sheep practicum at the EKU farm. That means that every day except Saturday, I'm at work or school. Whew! Busy season again. Fruit and Veg is looking to be an awesome class. We plan out a large market garden, and we also try raising and selling a crop (ours are some Chinese cabbage types.) Sheep is HYSTERICALLY FUNNY. It's run by the sheep and pig manager, but there's definitely more to do with the pigs (the beauty of sheep is that they are super-low maintenance. Doesn't make for a very action-packed class though.) So I've been learning a heck of a lot about pigs. Mostly about how much they smell. Can I tell you how much they smell?

They smell so much that even after coming home and washing my clothes and SEARING the smell off myself, I CAN STILL SMELL IT. I catch whiffs of it EVERYWHERE. The smell of lard is overpowering when I cook. All I have to say is that I will never. NEVER. buy commercial pork again. Commercial pork raising is possibly the most disgusting thing I've ever seen, and EKU's farm is tiny in comparison to most, and pretty cutting-edge with technology. It's still. effing. gross. I've raised pigs on pasture, and happy free pork is incomparable. Pigs love to root. They love to roll in mud. They like to run around. Sometimes, they even like to catch and eat birds (true story.) Things pigs should never have to do include roll in their own poo instead of mud (pigs are actually fastidious), or stand in one place for their entire lives. Or be artificially inseminated.

It really looks like this.

 I'm all about pork, I love bacon, and I am all about eating pigs before they eat me, but I'm pretty sure I will go out of my way from now on to find pork that is pasture-raised. Anything is better than pork that lives on concrete and only eats corn and soybeans. Even if it means they snack on the occasional sparrow. 

In other news, we've already had a set of twin lambs born. Effing cute. Hoping there are more coming this week! There should also be piglets by Tuesday! Baby season! I think by now I'd actually feel better about eating lamb than pork. At least sheep aren't raised in barns without access to grass and sunshine and air. Ugh. People, this is why farming has a bad name.

Meanwhile, in Craft World:

Sebastian found a new bed. That's a dress I'm supposed to be hemming for a friend. I blame him for my slow turn-over.

I also cut out pieces for my next big project, a tshirt quilt. Everyone should know by now that I'm pretty much a hoarder (ok, there's no "pretty much" about it.) I've been lugging around dozens of tshirts for years because they mean something to me (bands I like, places I've been, gifts that have been given to me.) With the prospect of moving again looming on the horizon, I've been trying to do something about the "stuff" situation, starting with clothes. Friday, after pig class, and a butt-busting Zumba class with all the girls, they all came over to rifle through all the clothes I've decided to give away (the girls, not the pigs.) I definitely made a significant dent in my collection, but couldn't give away my beloved tshirts. And so, with friendly chatter cheering me on, I cut out 31 12" tshirt squares to be made into a quilt. If I can find 5 more, I can make a quilt that is 6'X6', which is intense. Or I can make a 5'X6' quilt and a pillow. Can't decide. Any thoughts, dear readers?



The stack!

I also finally found myself a cake plate! I've been looking for one for quite some time. Throwing cakes on a dinner plate never works out quite how I imagine it will. And so I christened it with a cream cheese banana cake, which is delish!

I'll leave you all with that!

Have a happy start to your week, everyone!

~Sarah