The market, the hay and the runny mashed potatoes..... The Hutterite Life.

We got Poppie to help us set up the tent/gazebo at the farmer's market.  He was grumpy and mean he didn't want to be there and he was sure that he would miss the hay mans coming.  Turns out we were home before the hay man came so he should have been nicer.  I digress.  We finally got him to settle down and he finished helping put up the tent, got the girls some tea and was off to home.  The morning was very dreary so much so that my friend Flower Child, who runs the farmer's market, let us all have a fee free day.  It was very nice of her to do so, I gave her a bar of bubble gum soap for her kindness, the girls gave her a foccacia. The day became much sunnier before noon and people came out.  The girls had a normal day or sales, they usually sell pretty consistently about the same amount of bakes goods. I sold actually more than normal, but the more was probably due to the sales to Herbalist.  My new friend, Granola, dropped off a couple of cookbooks for us to read and enjoy.  She also picked up some feta I had brought for her to try, I usually give a sample the first time so they can decide if they like it.  A couple of real nice girls dropped by, not actually girls but young ladies about my older girls ages, one is running for House of Rep in our area.  The candidate has goats and we had so much to talk about and share, I didn't even know she was running until she left and her friend that is into sourdough told me.  They were there as part of a fundraiser washing cars.  The two ladies were working hard at car washing when we packed up, looked like they had some other volunteers but didn't seem like they weren't that much help. The two ladies seemed to be the heart of the event with some people who were there to tag along and take up space as we never saw them even attempt to wash a car.  All is all a great day.  Poppie came to pick us up, Grandpa blessed us with Swiss chard and lettuce, we had the lettuce wilted with bacon dressing for dinner, with one of Booboo's 5 bean salads, which was fabulous and Poppie grilled a chicken.  The hay came in the afternoon and is super wonderful hay and was delivered so a win win. 

Red and his to younger boys stopped by in the afternoon, it was nice to see him, he was in the area and stopped by to see all of us sisters.  The boys had fun in the goat pen and with the girls.  They got to take home some peacock feathers, it is shedding season.  Poppie and Yogie had spent the afternoon weeding and Red had seen their diligence as he had passed to go to Drama and Sister's houses.  He said his garden seemed to be lacking fertilizer to grow in, we offered him some of our girls manure so will take him some in the fall so he can till it in for next year. It was truly nice to see him and boys.  They are soon to be going on vacation to the Oregon coast.  That will be so nice for them.

I spent the afternoon making what I hope to be my first successful batch of liquid laundry soap that is not made by grating bar soap.  I mixed it up, and it did trace, Poppie helped with some of the time holding the drill, he is working on a wrack to hold it in as it is heavy for me to lift, not as fast as the stick blender but I don't burn them up.  I put it in the double boiler to cook, my crock pot is still full of my shampoo as I have to bottle it with the lovely bottle I got from Belle, I have to order more.  I started reading a wonderful book that Mokie bought me. The Hutterite life, a wonderful book written by one of the girls from the colony starting when she was 15.  It was originally a series of articles in the Havre Chronicle and then in the Great Falls Tribune, I think.  There was a great recipe for laundry soap bars, they take a year to dry before you can grate them, may try them some time.  There were also two recipes for buns, but they are written for 60 people so will have to cut the recipes down to try.  The book reminds me of reading my blog, connected but each story is about a different time or aspect of the colony and isn't really connected to the story before.  My soap was finally to runny mashed potato stage at bedtime so I turned it off and will have to work on it today, I may end up splitting the batch and put it into my rebatcher crock pots.  We will see, I do so hope it is a successful endeavor but only time will tell at this point. 

Off to worship the Lord and commune with our Church family this morning.  The Preachers youngest daughter will be there as she is visiting her folks so it will be so nice to meet her.  If she likes it here, we are told, she may decide to stay permanently, but that will be up to the Lord to speak to her heart.   Off on our day of praising the Lord... tomorrow.