Early June rains & mushroom picking

Well, June is finally here.  That means it's chanterelle mushroom time.  We are blessed with many patches of these yummy mushrooms.  I looked on line this morning & the going price is $100 a pound!  Wow!

So, Ariel and I get out our boots, long pants, and tons of bug spray.  Now we are ready for mushroom hunting.  And we head out...

Ariel & Cricket head down the driveway.

Peanut comes along too!

We found a good amount for the first day.  We saw many small ones too, so we'll go back for them in a few days. Here's our first day's haul.

Mushroom & a crawfish cast carapace.

Notice the crawfish carapace?  Ariel found this at the edge of the pool where the spring starts.  I was very happy to see this, because I'd never seen any crawfish or minnows in the spring.  Since this one is rather large, that means our little spring is a viable ecosystem.  I feel very good about that.  Since our spring doesn't flow all year long, I assumed the crawfish & minnows were only located further down stream.  I'm glad to see I was wrong.  

We've also been working on the interior of the Hobbit Housse (now christened Underhill). We're using a faux painting technique.  As the cement is rather rough, we wanted a smoother finish.  So, we are applying tissue paper to the walls & ceiling to give it a more finished look.  I like it, it's rather like the look of finished plaster.  Here's a Youtube video on the technique.

Tissue paper wall texture technique.  Here' how the first step is looking.

Sleeping alcove with tissue paper on the walls

 Rather green, I know.  But this is NOT the finished color.  The alcove will be a deeper sage green.  The sitting room will be a rich, golden color.

Family visit, grand-daughter is here for the summer

Our daughter, Tammy, and grand-daughter Ariel arrived last Thursday from Georgia.  Tammy will be leaving today or tomorrow.  Joshua & I will be taking Ariel back to Georgia sometime in mid-July.

While we're all together, we been having wonderful "family time".  We did some shooting....

My family

Peanut LOVES shooting.  She is wondering where the critters are...

Ariel and Cricket investigated a large tree that came down during some wicked wind we had...

We had a nice cook-out on Memorial day... No pictures.  Duh!

Yesterday, we did some dyeing. It was a lot of fun.  Friend Gena came over.  We dyed, ate, talked & dyed more.

Gena and Ariel

Gena, John & Joshua checking out the water tank (with tadpoles)

Tammy and Ariel collecting flowers for sun dyeing

We each did a silk painting.

Tammy's lily

Gena's koi fish

Ariel's interesting lady smelling flowers

My steampunk White Rabbit

Then we did some sun dyeing (it's really sun "painting", but heck, I don't name these products!).

Ariel's shawl

Ariel's second piece of the day

My rectangular shawl

This is a fun technique.  Wet the item to be dyed/painted.  Apply the desired colors.  Lay it in the sun.  Place leaves, flowers, branches... whatever on the item & leave it in the sun for a few hours.  The shadow of the objects leave an impression in the color intensity of the paint.  Allow the paint to "set" for 24 hours, then iron with a hot iron (no steam). We got our sun dyeing supplies at Dharma Trading Company.  In fact, all the silk scarves, clothing, silk painting kit & sun painting supplies came from Dharma.

Then we played with our favorite technique.  Microwave dyeing.  Again, wet your item to be dyed.  Lay it out & sprinkle dye powder on it, randomly or in stripes... whatever. Roll it up or crunch it up or wad it up... and place it in a ziploc bag.  Add a small amount of water.  Now put it in the microwave for 3 minutes.  IT WILL BE VERY HOT WHEN YOU TAKE IT OUT!!! Add some cool water to the bag. Now, swish it around.  Pour it out & refill the bag with cold water.  More swishing & refilling until all the excess dye is out.  Hang on the clothes line to dry.  Our results...

My yellow shawl

My blue shawl

Ariel's rectangular shawl

Another rectangle by Ariel

My greenish-yellow wrap

Tammy's tiered skirt

Tammy's dress

Dyes for these items were purchased from The Woolery.