Hand Made Products

1. Bun Cover Creme Colored Cotton $7.50
   has elastic to added to being able to hold the cover on.














*Special* passing on our savings to you.. 

2. Oak Peg Loom - 11 pegs, Pegs are 6", in a 5" span
    6 1/2" length
    $15.00

3. 1/2" Oak Peg Loom - 6 pegs, Pegs are 6", in a 5" span

    6 1/2" length

    $15.00

For ANY ORDERS or Requests PLEASE Call or Email at: 406-992-4069 or Heritage Hills Homestead

Raw Wool & Fiber -

I have several different raw fibers available to you.

Wool - Blue Faced Border Leicester, Border Leicester, Romney, Rambouillet, Shetland, Jacob, Finn, Targhee

Hair - Alpaca

Rabbit - French Angora, Giant Angora, English Angora

We will be offering Naturally colored Wool, Dyed, Rovings, Yarn and other specialties.

Comfrey Salve

Comfrey Salve, is a valuable asset on the Homestead used for both Humans and Creatures that are here. It is also known as the following : Comphrey, Symphytum , Symphytum asperum, Symphytum officinale & Bone Knitter

This is dedicated to information for the use of comfrey in your home/farm to help both 2 legged and 4 legged creatures.

One of my favorite uses for the salve is for cuts and bruises. When I add Arnica with it the bruises are gone before they show up it seems. To me it better than the triple antibiotic salve that everyone seems to use.




References:
1. Comfrey Central - Clearing House for information

2. Comfrey the Miracle Herb -

3. Medical Review of Comfrey -Pub Med. gov


Where to buy it:

1. Heritage Hills Homestead - Yep Right from us here just email at: Heritage Hills Homestead

2. Mountain Rose Herbs - Comfrey

Mealworm Adventure

 

As one of the many projects here on the Homestead, sustainability is one of the utmost priorities for all of us here, both 2 legged and 4 legged.

Mealworms are expensive to buy in the bag to feed to our chickens.. I started looking at redworms for composing and then mealworms also came into play. After watching a few mealworm videos Meal Worm Beginning Video 1 and the ones after that I have modeled my set up from those videos.  The toilet paper rolls cut in half are for them to escape the light, the carrots are for moisture, the rolled oats are for their food. They are in the middle drawer for now.  I had gotten the drawer setup at the Goodwill in town. The whole set up was approximately $20.00 for all of it. 

$3.00 for the drawer set up

$5.50 for the 100 meal worms

$7.00 for the screen on the top, although it obviously will not use all the screen roll

$5.00 for rolled oats, depending on if you want to use organic or regular.

need to use tape, hot glue and box cutters

We shall see how this looks in a week.

The other reason why I wanted to switch to mealworms in the winter is to keep the predator load down.. I feed kitchen scraps which include everything that is extra. That smell of meat in the air could be a potential problem with predators.

#mealworms #Sustainable

 

The above two pictures are dated for 1/23/2016, they are thriving! How exciting is that?! I should have measured them to show the difference in the time that we had gotten them to now. I do believe that we have lost some of them to death. Which will be fed to the chickens, obviously no loss then. It will be exciting to see how long it will take for them to get to the beetle stage now.

Excitement Everywhere?

As I was talking with a girlfriend this morning about things she of course pointed out the obvious to me and she actually used an example I have in the past.. I was talking to her about the looms that I make. I was over excited about it. She was looking for a peg loom and I responded.  She asked me about sizes and what not, for me to reply I don't have one ready right now.. I told her I was so excited about things that I didn't even take pictures of it. She made the comment, "hahaha, it's fun to see an adult act like a kid in a candy shop! I can feel your excitement!" I share her same passion! I Love it when you get to see that excitement come back to a person. It is a Joy that we need to see more of! Of course I'm feeling rather goofy at that point as well as the realization when I told her I make looms and to order that I didn't have any on hand at the moment to sell. Open Mouth insert foot.

I Love all the possibilities of the growth that we are experiencing. IT just confirms that being in fear of the unknown just is a waste of energy and time. I was afraid to dye fiber. Something that I'm sure I've never done before. So far.. Great Success, maybe in not the way that I thought it would be but then again have you ever met a quilter that can't spot their first flaw on their quilt? I haven't. Then to carding and blending what I had. Boy I was surprised yet again. No different then when I built my first rug loom. Boy was that a rough draft but that allowed me to get out and learn so much more about what I would and didn't want to do.  My point, Embrace that of what is new and go forward. Do what you must but go forward in any case. You never know until you try what kind of art you will create. More importantly do it like the kid in the candy shop jumping up and down, who cares who is watching! You live life only once! Embrace what you have been given!

Border Leicester Wool Washing

Here is a Step by Step guide to wash sheep's wool by hand.

 Raw Border Leicester Fleece, Unskirted, Unwashed  

                                                                                               Upclose

 

1. Water needs to be 120 degrees or warmer than just warm so it doesn't cool off fast. (I do not have a thermometer to test the temperature) I pick the big debris or VM (Veggie Matter from the fiber before going into the wash)
You can use Ovus Paste which you can find at a ranch store, Eco Soap or Dawn. Today I used Dawn. Placed the fiber in the water and did not agitate it, just pressed down on it.

2. Dump Water from the wash into a bucket if you want to keep the Lanolin.. When it cools off you will have top Lanolin. DO NOT pour the water down the drain so that doesn't cause clots in the pipes

3. First wash

 4.Some of the VM that I didn't get from just placing in the water

 5. Rinsed in the same temp water without agitating  
                           6. Repeat steps 1 through 5

The Fiber on the Left is the washed fiber from the fiber on the right. Can you believe they are one in the same?