Beet Juice Dye

When boiling beets for canning or pickling about 3/4 of the beets are covered with water and boiled until they are tender.  Yesterday it required over an hour of boiling.  This produces a rich red juice.  Draining this from the stock pot we were able to bottles 6 wine bottles of scalding hot juice for future use in fibre dyeing.  Old wine bottles work well – they are free, resilient to temperature, and are easily sealed and stored.  We recycle old corks for this and use a mechanical corker.

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Re-Sealing Fleece Bin

This former grain bin hopper has been sealed with silicone to make it insect proof and waterproof.  Following a wind storm we had to re-seal one of our fleece storage bins.  Heavy gauge plastic is topped by a fitted plywood cap, which has plastic sheeting placed on top of it, and is then battened down with a heavy tarp.  Moth balls are placed inside the bin.

Wool Fleece Storage

Yesterday we had a wind storm…90 kph/55mph winds that ripped the roofs off of two of our sheds and lifted the lid on one of our fleece storage containers.  Sealed with plastic, plywood, and a tarp, I was pleased today to find that in its three years it has not moulded or experienced insect damage.  I will seal it again tomorrow…