We’ve been resting this month, taking some much needed time off from our looming homestead projects in favor of creative outlets to fill our cup. For me, that means trying my hand at hand-dipped beeswax candles, which is something I’ve been wanting to do for years. My husband happens to work with the guy who sells us raw honey by the gallon, so I asked him to check and see if they sell filtered beeswax too, and turns out they do!
Honestly, it was a little hard for me to melt my bricks of beeswax when it finally came time to make the candles because they smelled so fresh and sweet sitting on my counter. Alas, the candles needed to be made, so I asked Matt to build me a contraption made of scrap wood and a curtain rod to hang them to dry, and spent an entire glorious day dipping wicks in wax. My arms were a little sore at the end of the night, but it was worth it.
As for Matt, he used up some of those same wood scraps to make a simple, sturdy dollhouse for the girls for Christmas. He’d sneak out to the garage for a couple hours every night after they went to bed and putter away at it while watching Star Trek. I think the girls are going to love it, and if they don’t, that’s ok because I love it. Honestly, though, I think it’s one of those things we’ll continue to use and build on for years to come. Time to learn how to whittle!
One of our most significant moments actually occurred at the end of November when we made the beautiful four hour drive (one way) to Bend, OR to pick up our newest family members, two fluffy French Angora bucks. If you’ve been here for awhile, you have probably heard me ramble on and on about wanting to get started with Angora rabbits, and although we weren’t completely set up for them, I honestly just couldn’t wait any longer.
So without further ado, meet the newest members of our family, August and Bear.
August is the black self, and although he’s the smaller of the two, he’s definitely the sassy one. Bear is the chestnut (though don’t ask me anything about rabbit colors because I still know next to nothing) and he’s a bit more cautious and sweet. We really love them both, and would eventually like to get a doe or two, but we aren’t in any hurry.
This coming spring or summer, we plan to build a rabbitry either on our front porch or back deck (or both) to keep the rabbits outside, but also right near the house so we can easily bring them in for grooming and handling. As it stands, our front porch roof leaks badly, so we keep them in the house and only let them outside in their pens when it’s nice and dry, but they still get some supervised exercise in the house every day. I’ve really enjoyed having them in here with us, but they’re definitely a little stinky, being that they’re bucks, so it’ll be nice to get them out of the house and settled into their new homes once we reach that point.
If you’d like to see footage of all this and more, check out our latest vlog below. Enjoy!
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