projects

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Egg Blowing 101: A Tutorial

Have you ever wanted to decorate eggs that you could keep forever?  You can empty and clean the eggs quickly and easily so you won’t have to use your creations for egg salad!

I use an egg blowing tool (available here), but you can also use a tack or small drill bit and a syringe (without the needle).  Along with the supplies I have pictured below, I also use a large bowl for collecting the egg whites/yolks and another large bowl for cleaning (if you are emptying a lot of eggs you could also use your sink).

Egg Blowing Supplies

Step 1:  Using your drill tool notch one end of the egg and drill a hole.  (If you are using a syringe you will need to make a hole on each end of the egg.)

Drilling Egg

Step 2: Take the cap off of the pump and insert it into the hole (which is facing down).  Put your thumb over the hole and squeeze.  As you squeeze the pump you will begin to empty the egg.  When you squeeze all the air from the pump into the egg, take your thumb off of the hole and pump again.  (If you are using the syringe to empty the egg place the tip in the top hole and squeeze so that the egg contents come out of the bottom hole.)

Use caution during this step because if your egg is cracked at all or too thin it will break as you pump air into it.  Also, if you pump too much air into the egg too quickly it may break.  I usually poke the end of the pump tool into the egg now and then to help some of the material come out and also to pierce the yolk sac.  This step will take a couple to a few minutes, depending on how big your egg is.

Emptying Egg

Step 3: Once your egg is empty it’s time to wash it.  Using warm, soapy water wash off the outside of the egg.  Submerge the pump tool into the water to fill it.  Insert it into egg and squeeze the water into the egg.  Repeat this until only clean water comes out of the egg.  Rinse the egg in clean water and shake out excess water.

When your egg is clean you can microwave it to sanitize it, if you’d like.  I place my eggs on a paper towel-lined plate and microwave on high 3 times for 10 seconds each.

Washing Eggs

Step 4:  I cook all of the egg whites and yolks and give them to our chickens, turkeys and ducks.  The cooked eggs are a very nutritious treat for the birds!

Scrambled Eggs

Step 5: Once the eggs are dry they are ready to be decorated.  Be creative and have fun!

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Tour de … Fleece?

I’m sure you’ve all heard of the Tour de France, the 22-day long bicycle race across France starting on July 2nd … but how many of you have heard of the Tour de Fleece?  I’m sure if you’re familiar with Ravelry you’ve heard of it! 

Many handspinners around the world spin yarn while the cyclist are racing.  That’s right … 20 days of spinning at least a little each day with 2 rest days.  For some, it’s simple.  Others have it a little more challenging, especially those who have 2 young children, animals to feed and a growing garden. 

I did manage to spin every day that the cyclists rode.  To kick off the Tour I even made a special dinner on July 2nd…  One of our homegrown turkeys, rubbed with a mixture of olive oil and herbs de provence (brought home from Paris by my aunt!) rotisseried on the grill.

I also watched a lot of the race and really became interested in it.  Noah loved watching it with me in the mornings, and Dave and I watched some of it at night, too.  We all gasped when Johnny Hoogerland crashed and cheered for him when he continued racing.

Some days I only managed to squeeze in 10 or 15  minutes but most days I spun for 30 minutes or more.  A few days I spun on my drop spindle because I didn’t have time to sit down at my wheel.  We also left for camping a couple of days before the Tour was over so I packed my drop spindle to take with us… it takes up far less room than my wheel!  I posted photos of my daily progress to my Flickr account, but here’s a collage of my work:

Tour De Fleece collage

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Catching Up…

I have been neglecting my blog because of all the “stuff” that’s been keeping me busy.  Here are some highlights for now:

*went to Ohio for the Great Lakes Sheep and Fiber Show, and organized the Tunis Wool Show.

*did a spinning demo for 3rd graders’ Colonial Day at a NJ school.

*plant, weed, water & mow garden.  (….repeat)

*moved Hannah into a toddler bed.

*help stain deck / help keep kids out of stain.

*looking at new tractors because lawn tractor caught on fire and is now dead.

*still spreading around the 3 truckloads of woodchips that I got from a tree service (for free). 

Stay tuned for pictures and stories!

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Fixing the Oven

Noah and I decided on little quiches for lunch on Monday since he’s learning the letter “Q” this week at pre-school.  Well, about 5 minutes after I turned on the oven to warm up I heard a weird banging noise from it.  I looked over and saw something glowing in the oven.  I jumped up and turned it off and saw the problem…the “bake” heating element seemed to be melting in one spot and that’s what was glowing. 

Broken Heating Element

After finding something else for Noah and Hannah to eat, I sat down at the computer to search for a new heating element.  Apparently our oven is old because I couldn’t find the model number anywhere I searched.  I called GE and got a part number, and went back to the internet to find it.  I ordered the part from partselect.com and got it the next day!  Dave switched the 2 and the installation took less than 5 minutes.  Here’s a step-by-step for the installation:

Empty Oven

Step 1:    TURN OFF BREAKER TO OVEN!  (do this before removing old heating element)

Step 2:  Screw wires on new heating element to stove wires.

Attaching wires

Close-up of Wires

Step 3:  Push wires into hole so silver plate is on back of oven.  Tighten lag screws.

Tightening screws

Step 4: Put door back on oven.

Replacing Door

Voila!

We have heat!