Making Beeswax

Two weeks ago Nathan brought fresh raw honey home from work. He processed the honey at our house and set aside the wax and the cappings for me.  I researched a little online on how to make beeswax and was daunted. Many people said that beeswax will ruin your pots, makes a mess of your kitchen and that wax is dangerous to melt because it is flammable. I delayed making the wax for two weeks and let the container of wax sit on the counter but then the honey in the wax started to ferment. So yesterday afternoon I decided I would make beeswax today.

First I needed to clean the wax so that I could get all the honey out before I melted it down. I put the wax in a square piece of muslin cloth and brought up the corners and made a sort of "pouch". I rinsed the wax by running warm water over the pouch and I also dunked it in a bucket of warm water. After the water running from the pouch was clear I put the wax on a cookie rack with muslin over the top of the rack and put the rack on top of a 9x13 pan to catch any water. After I cleaned all the wax I let it dry over night.

The wax drying

Clean Wax

Today I started making the beeswax by putting the cleaned wax in my double boiler. (I bought two aluminum pots yesterday just for making the beeswax.) I boiled the water and then put my pot with the wax in the larger pot. I made sure that the wax did not get too hot but that it was just hot enough so that it could melt.

Wax in double boiler

After a few minutes of stirring the wax it all melted. I did the next steps outside so that I would not have to worry about ruining anything :-)
Before I started melting the wax I prepared a couple of plastic containers for straining the impurities from the wax. You can use plastic yogurt containers or carton orange juice bottles.  I found that the plastic yogurt containers worked better. Then I put a new knee high hose over the top of the container so that the wax would drain through the hose but the impurities would not get through the hose. I also put about an inch of water in the bottom of the containers so that the wax will form on top of the water.

Straining the wax

After I strained the wax I let the containers sit for an hour or so and then took the solid beeswax out. The first container of beeswax looked really clean but the second container of beeswax had a lot of impurities in it because we had stirred the impurities around trying to get all the wax to drip into the container.

Wax from the first container

 Wax from the second container. See the impurities in the wax?

I decided to melt all the wax down again and restrain it and make it into a large bar. I did all the steps again but this time I poured the melted wax into a bread pan that we did not need. I put a little water in the pan before I poured the wax in.

About an hour later the wax was solid and looked ready to be taken out.

The new bar of beeswax turned out so beautiful. The beeswax is very clean and it has a faint smell of honey :-)

 

Cleaning the pots was difficult because the wax does not come off. They looked cleaner than I thought they would but I definitely know why you would not want to use these pots for cooking dinner with :-)

I used boiling water and I tried to buff the wax off but I did not spend too much time on them :-)

It was a lot of fun learning how to make beeswax and I hope to be able to do it again!

Blessings,
~Rachel

Making a doily

The last couple days I have been working on a doily for a friend's bridal shower. I finished the doily on Thursday after lots of taking out and redoing  :-)
I will admit that making doily's takes a lot of patience and the ability to read a pattern correctly... which I am slowly learning :-)
One thing I learned about reading patterns is that it is a good idea to get the correct gauge before you start your project.
I usually skip the gauging part, but I learned the hard way last time I made a doily that it does help if your doily does turn out the size it is supposed too:-)
So this time I figured out my gauge and found that I needed a crochet hook 7 times bigger than the pattern called for!   I have always had a problem with my projects coming out smaller than they were supposed to so I guess I now know why :-)

Blocking the finished doily

Blessings,
~Rachel

Ordinary People

I have been joining in on the Detwiler Christian Academy's history lessons for the past couple days as Mom reads a book on Theodore Roosevelt. While Mom was reading today I was struck by this quote from  G. K. Chesterton…

“The most extraordinary thing in the world is an ordinary man and an ordinary woman and their ordinary children.”

The author adds:

 “...Ordinary people are the ones who determine the outcome of human events in the end- not kings and princes, not master and tyrants. It is laborers and workmen, cousins and acquaintances that upend the expectations of the brilliant and the glamorous, the expert and the meticulous. It is plain folks, simple people, who literally change the course of history- because they are the stuff of which history is made. They are the ones who make the world go round."   -George Grant from Carry a Big Stick - The Uncommon Heroism of Theodore Roosevelt

We don't have to become famous in the world's eyes to make an impact. But we need to follow God's commands. And by following God's commands we will change the course of history. It was not the famous or the popular who sailed to America, but it was ordinary people who wanted to serve God according to the dictates of the Bible and their conscience. It took ordinary people to found this nation and it will take ordinary people to turn this nation back towards God.
The course it not easy but we nevertheless have to take it; and it takes ordinary people who are willing to sacrifice for what is right and honoring to God; it takes ordinary people who are willing to lead in the small ways and in the big ways!

Blessings,
~ Rachel

Spring!

Yesterday Nathan and I planted lettuce in our raised garden.
This year I'm in charge of our family's vegetable garden. I'm really excited but a little nervous as I have a tendency of killing plants :-(  Hopefully this year I'll keep up with the garden, and be able to harvest lots of fresh vegetables.
I went outside to take pictures of the lettuce and then I saw the beautiful crocus's and snowdrops in the garden. I love how there's so much color in each plant. We truly have a wonderful Creator!

 Blessings,
~Rachel