For a couple or a few years now I have had in mind making a military inspired dress and had been looking for some gray cloth. A few days after purchasing a bolt of gray wool flannel for military vest, I was in the store and was puzzled to see what looked like a bolt of gray wool flannel. I thought I had bought all the flannel? On closer inspection, I found it was not wool at all, but cotton. It was not too heavy, looked like wool, yet since it was cotton it was washable. Just perfect for my dress! I thought. Now, a couple of years later I am not so sure it was perfect. I have since found all things cotton, such as cotton flannel, were not necessary manufactured back then. So it is possible cotton produced into this type of cotton cloth was not made. Oh, well, it is a natural fiber and perhaps most folks passing and going will mistake it for wool as I did at first. Maybe at some future date I can make another one in a light weight wool.

So, a few weeks ago, I pulled the cloth out of the closet and set to work on my dress. I used a basic bodice pattern and altered the sleeves to hang with a more military coat look. After a couple of attempts, I finally got a military looking collar drafted and fit to the neckline.

For the sleeve braiding, I considered black or tan/gold. I decided on black even though gold would have been more military. I did not want to have to order any special trim for this dress which was one influence for black, another was it would match my black hat. The only thing I could find at a local store for the trim was half inch cotton twill trim. This was really too wide, plus a more historically knowledge lady said she had never seen cotton twill used on a dress in such a manner. She suggested bias strips. This would have worked, but I wanted something with more dimension and more braided texture. At last, I decided in order to get this texture, to keep authentic, and to keep from having to order any trim, I would just have to crochet my own strips.

I was rather pleased with the result. It gave the look I wanted and since I already had a little black cotton crochet thread for which I had no use, it cost nothing but the time to crocheted them. I placed the design on free hand though I tried to measure it some to get them as similar as possible. It did not occur to me until I was nearly through pinning them on that if I had drawn a pattern first and traced it onto both sleeves I could have gotten them identical. Oh, well, I wasn’t going to go to the trouble of un-pinning them and re-doing it. They are not perfectly the same, but I have not lost any sleep over it.

At first I wanted to use “CSA” buttons even though I had my own doubts about this. After discussing the matter with other re-enactors, I concluded the chances of having CSA buttons on a dress would be slim and date the dress to late war. Instead, I went with GA State buttons bearing the GA state seal. After a good bit of researching, this seemed the best choice for documentation. It works well anyway since most Southerners were loyal to their State first above the Confederacy.

When my Dad first saw the bodice before attaching it to the skirt, he said it looked like a Spanish matador’s coat. Hmm. Well, it is supposed to look like a Confederate soldier’s coat. Regardless, he said he liked it, but did not want me wearing it to church. I wonder how many father’s have to tell their daughters not to wear certain of their re-enacting clothing to church!? Well, I told him this was one dress which I had no intention of wearing to church. This is strictly re-enacting or Confederate memorial wear.

For the lining, I used some scrap left from a drab tan circle skirt I made recently. For the bottom skirt facing, I used some tan cotton twill or canvas left over from making my brother a pair of trousers a few years ago.

Speaking of which, I do not know how I am going to attach the feathers to my black hat. In this picture, they are just laying on it. I sometimes wear this hat to church and do not want the feathers on it then, so I do not want the feathers attached permanently. Yet they must be attached some way or they will get blown off. Any suggestions?

I can hardly wait until a re-enactment to wear this dress or perhaps to a Confederate memorial service in April. This is also the first time I’ve taken pictures wearing my new kindly-given-gift glasses with a period dress. You can’t really see them well in the pictures, but I like them better than my regular glasses and would wear them all the time if they were not so fragile. I am much looking forward to wearing them this re-enacting season. I hear many re-enactors complain they have fitting problems with original frames or they slid down and won’t stay in place, but mine fit and wear great.

Georgia usually doesn’t get more than one good snow a year. Several days ago, we got about four inches of snow. You still have to get hay and feed animals, no matter the weather. Which in this case, I did not mind as it was a warm snow.

The afternoon is snowed, Stonewall was the only one who would come out to meet me. The rest stayed under the barn. I had to tote Sweet Surprise out to the stumps for a picture.

She stood there looking at the barn and crying, so Mama Anna had to come out and walk her back to the barn.

When my Dad came along with the camera a while later, I had to tote her out again for a picture. She is nearly a year old and getting heavy to carry.

The next morning, we took some more pictures. I have to rest her on my knee because she is getting too big to hold comfortably.

Stonewall was not much in the huggin’ mood, but I had to get a picture with my handsome boy anyway. A cripple he may be, but as dear and handsome as ever!

Mrs. R. has been telling me I should separate and fence off my pasture. In this way, the goats could be kept off portions while it is limed to help kill parasites. It used to be so, but over the years the fencing and been broken and pulled down and in great disrepair. Once I read a book on the old South where a gentleman was complaining to his wife about the gate hanging on only one hinge. She responded, “Well, Dear, if I could mend it with a needle and thread, I would fix it for you.” That is the way I sometimes feel about things around the farm. Here everything is just about held together with the proverbial, “duct tape and baling wire.”

Anyway, I was determined to see what could be done. I started with the smallest and easiest to repair pen. The post were still fine, only large holes or gaping sections of the fence were gone. Using old tin torn from a roof, aluminum stakes salvage from a trash pile, and some wire, I did get one pen mended and patched. It resembles a patchwork quilt, only tin is the patches and wire the thread. Regardless of the looks, it works. I cleaned the pen and Dad plowed it up for me. I want to plant grass as soon as possible, but with almost constant rain and cold I haven’t been able to yet.

One of my friends suggested giving the goats garlic as it might help with the deer worms. Garlic is good for a multitude of things, so I figured it could do no harm even if killing worms was not one of garlic’s many qualities. Yesterday I was thumbing through some herbal book mother had just requested from the library and lo and behold, I found garlic is used for worms! The book was for humans, but I should think it might work similar in animals. It seemed the garlic was for regular internal worms though so it might not work in worms which get into the bones. This is the problem with deer worm. Any kind of wormer has trouble penetrating the bones even though they might easily kill intestinal parasites. Regardless it might work and it does no harm. At first I cut the garlic up and wrapped it in bread with cumin seeds, but I have found Stonewall will just eat a garlic clove out of my hand. A paper also came in saying sweet potatoes had anti-inflammatory stuff in them. So, I have fed them sweet potatoes as well. The anti-inflammatory medicine is so their bones do not become inflamed when the worms die in them.

Last winter I started piecing a “flying geese” quilt.  Here and here. This winter I am hand quilting it. I did not start until the new year, so it was rather a late start to get it finished this winter, but with all the cold rainy days we have had, I have made very good progress in January. This is my first full sized quilt to hand quilt and when I first started it seemed daunting. It has worked up well though with the help of listening to many sermons.

“I dreamed of Stonewall with his dark-red head.” (Sung to the tune of “Jeanie with the Light-Brown hair.” 1854) Well, not really. I’ve not been dreaming of him, which is good since dreams are not usually pleasant. I have long admired the pretty embroidered pillows with the rhyme, “I slept and dreamed that life was beauty; I awoke and found that life was duty.” The only thing is, I’ve dreamed that life was beauty. Dreams usually are more like reality.

Thank y’all who have been praying for Stonewall and the others. It is greatly appreciated. Providing the worms have been killed, I think Jeb will be fine for cart work still. The difficulty with this spinal eating deer worm is, it is hard to know if they have been effectively killed. Stonewall is still walking with a halting gate, but he may do that the rest of his life even if the worms do not prove fatal. I spoke with the every kind animal doctor, Dr. R. again this evening and she said there is no cost effective way to test him to see if the worms are dead, and that now he needed TLC. Ah, now that, I can give him plenty. So, I told her unless he gets noticeably worse, I would just give him a hug. With a chuckle she said to give him one for her too that she felt like she knew him.

Here is a picture of my whole little heard right now. It is the best and most amiable little group I have had. Each is as precious as they are pretty. I sold Georgia sometime back and though I liked her name, I do not really miss her as a goat. She was nothing particularly special. It is different with all these. They are the best. Normally, I always have at least one bossy goat which will fight at the hay trough and keep one of the others away. Not so with these four. They get along as pleasantly and peacefully and any group I have ever had.

Recently another re-enactor was making a negative remark about goats, commenting about the awful ones they had as a child. It made me want to start singing,

“You ought to meet my Anna,

She lives away down South,

And she’s so sweet the honey bees,

Just swarm around her mouth.”

I don’t know how many others have a habit of adapting words to a song to their own use, but we did this often and with great fun as children. There are so many verses of “Cindy” which can be applied quite nicely to my goats, except the chorus, of course, cannot be sung about a goat.

“Oh, if I was a sugar tree,

A growing from the ground,

Every time my Anna passed,

I’d shake some sugar down.”

Anna has plenty enough sugar of her own. I call her white sugar and Sweet Surprise brown sugar.  If Sweet Surprise was any sweeter, honey would drip out of her when you hugged her. If in doubt, just as my friend. She agreed. Not that such an absolute fact needs anyone’s acknowledgement.   Anna is the sugar, Sweet Surprise the spice, and between the two of them, they are “everything nice!”

It is so funny to watch Anna and Sweet Surprise. Wherever Mama goes, baby is sure to follow, even though baby is not really a baby anymore. Usually the babies always lay leaned against Mama. Now that Sweet Surprise is so old, Anna sometimes lays her head on her to sleep. It is just too cute.

Does anyone have any information on Miss Maire (or Maria, I’ve seen it spelt both ways) Louise Eve of August, GA, or her following “Dixie” poem? I am trying to find more about her and especially to find the date of when she wrote this “Dixie.” In vain I have search online, books, the GA State archives, and the August Chronicles archives as well. I have only been able to find a tiny bit about her, such as she was born in 1848 and won $100 for an essay when eighteen years old. I was able to find her “Conquered at Last” poem in the August Chronicles and stumbled upon another “Dixie” poem she wrote and published post-war in a Milledgeville newspaper, but nothing on this “Dixie.” The only source I have found this poem was in the Library of Southern Literature: Miscellanea. The wording of the poem strongly suggests it was written during the war, maybe late war, and this is a probability since she in later years wrote a post-war “Dixie,” but I’d like to find the date if at all possible. If anyone has any information or any ideas on ways to find this information, I would be most grateful.

I wish I was in the land of cotton,

Cinnamon seed and sandy bottom;

Look away, away, away down South in Dixie.

Her scenes shall fade from my memory never;

For Dixie's land hurrah forever;

Look away, away, away down South in Dixie.

Chorus:

I wish I was in Dixie;

Away, away;

In Dixie's land I'll take my stand,

And live and die in Dixie.

Away, away,

Away down South in Dixie.

Her lot may be hard, her skies may darken;

To Dixie's voice we'll ever hearken;

Look away, away, away down South in Dixie.

The coward may shirk, the wretch go whining,

But we'll be true till the sun stops shining,

Look away, away, away down South in Dixie.

[chorus.]

By foes begirt and friends forsaken,

The faith of her sons is still unshaken;

Look away, away, away down South in Dixie.

For Dixie's land and Dixie's nation,

We'll stand and fight the whole creation;

Look away, away, away down South in Dixie.

[chorus.]

The Dixie girls wear homespun cotton,

But their winning smiles I've not forgotten;

Look away, away, away down South in Dixie.

They've won my heart and naught surpasses

My love for the bright-eyed Dixie lasses;

Look away, away, away down South in Dixie.

[chorus.]

Then up with the flag that leads to glory;

A thousand years 'twill live in story;

Look away, away, away down South in Dixie.

The Southron's pride, the foeman's wonder,

The flag that the Dixie boys march under;

Look away, away, away down South in Dixie.

I'll give my life for Dixie;

Away, away;

In Dixie's land I'll take my stand,

And live and die for Dixie.

Away, away,

Away down South in Dixie.

Not quite two years ago my darling Esther became ill and weak in the hindquarters. Shortly thereafter Stonewall came down with a bad case of parasites. Plenty of wormers revived him, but he has never seemed quite as sturdy as his former self and I have lived with a foreboding that what took Esther would track my dear Stonewall. I have awaked from dreams just as his back legs would give way and he fell. At last, my nightmares have almost become a reality.

Stonewall first appeared to have injured a front leg and limped, then it grew to a gradual unstableness on his feet, and lastly settled into an awkward walk in his hind legs. I was getting milk from Mrs. R. when she “happened” (providence) to ask about my goats. I told her I needed to take Stonewall to the vet, but it was too cold. (The weather here has been terribly, exceptionally cold for GA. So cold he might catch his death of a cold in an open cage in the back of a truck.) When she heard the cause, she suggested deer worm.

I looked up information on deer worm and indeed all the symptoms Esther had and Stonewall is getting does seem to be Meningeal worm, commonly called deer worm. It comes from white-tailed deer which we have in abundance around here. After reading online, I also called our vet and she said the little devastating parasites are eating holes in his spine, not something to make my dreams any more pleasant.

Please pray for Stonewall. It pains me to see him walk. I have given him high repetitive doses of two different kinds of wormers and anti-inflammatory shots, but there is no guarantees with deer worm. It can be fatal. Also, some have told me what damage has already been done may never completely recover even if he lives. Very probably his cart pulling days are over, yet if the Lord wills, I desire his life spared.

The deer population has greatly increased here over the past few years. Three to five deer often come to graze in our yard and Dad saw seven passing through yesterday. I used to enjoy watching them, but now find no pleasure in them as I consider them a dangerous threat to my goats since they are the carriers of this destructive parasite. (Not to mention a threat to my pocketbook. Extra high doses of wormers are not cheap.) It is illegal to gun hunt here, and I am not strong enough for bow hunting. So, getting rid of the deer is not an option for me, and preventing the deer worm through constant wormers can make the goats become immune to the wormers for regular internal worms. Please pray for all my goats. Jeb may have it, I am not sure yet, and at time any of them could get it.

Anyone who follows my blog regularly knows I’ve been wanting a pair of original or re-production glasses for re-enacting. Well, one blog reader/friend who has relatives in the eye-glass business decided a pair of original frames fitted with my leans prescription (a little inside help and information from my dad was obtained for this to keep it a surprise) would make a perfect gift for me. It did. The frame is gold and similar to my modern pair only smaller, more fragile, and without the nose pieces and turned ear frame. The original tattered glasses case makes it an interesting piece of history. I am so happy to now have a pair of correct glasses to wear to re-enactments and living history events, and am also happy I no longer have the headache of looking for a pair. I wore my latest re-enactment dress to services this past Sunday and my “new” old glasses.

Some ideas for a goat themed dessert has been rolling around in my head and I was looking forward to the Dec. goat meeting to give it a try. I have a goat stencil and decided to try a goat shape pie crust topping. The pie need to be a flat smooth pie, not something like apple pie. The only thing I could think to fit was a pumpkin pie. Thinking about this, I was a bit mortified to realize I’ve never made a pumpkin pie before. I’ve made lots of different kinds of pies, but never pumpkin. I can only vaguely recall a pumpkin pie ever being made in our home.

I gamely set out making the bottom crust and filling. The fun began with the goat topping. I rolled the dough out and gently pressed the stencil into the dough. I removed the stencil and carefully cut the dough along the lines and then neatened the shape up a bit. The pie was already cooking to firm the center before placing the goat on. After placing the goat on top, I cooked it a bit. . .too much longer. Having never made pumpkin pie I wasn’t sure how long it was supposed to cook, but decided the wrinkles in it, which I had never seen on any other pumpkin pie, was a result of being cooked too long.

I was not too terribly worried about the taste though. The look of the goat was my priority and it was duly appreciated by the other goat folks. I was pleased with their obvious pleasure over the goat toped pie. I don’t know of any other place besides a goat folk gathering where people would have properly appreciated it. The taste was fine too, I was told.

I was mostly going to see the girl who had rescued me amongst all those strangers last year. Knowing her and having met some of the others at another dairy goat meeting made me a bit more at home this year. Yet there was once a passing comment about me still standing around by myself and not finding someone to talk to. I enjoyed it anyway. Observing and listening to other people can be very interesting. I learn more by listening than talking. . .and manage to eat more that way too.  I ate goat meat for the first time. Mrs. R. pointed out some sausage to me and told me it was goat sausage. Since the goat was already dead, I figured I’d try it. Had I not been told, I would not have known it was goat meat and it was actually good. I guess goats are just good all the way around.

I finished a riding jacket and skirt in time to wear to the meeting. It can be seen on my western blog. I think Mrs. R. was surprised so see me in western style dress clothes. Usually when I go to her barn, I am wearing old boots, work skirt and shirt and a denim coat almost too faded, torn, and ragged for description or imagination. Since this meeting was to be held in the house, I decided for once to appear not just as a farm girl, but a farm girl seamstress!

A few weeks ago, I set out to make Pepper Jack cheese which was a variation from Monetary Jack cheese. Well, I forgot to do the variation step (Is anyone surprised? Sigh.), so I turned it into a spiced cheese at the end.

The next day or so, I started over and made Pepper Jack. After it pressed, I cut it in half so half could be eaten and half could be waxed to cure for a month. This was my first time to wax goat cheese. Mrs. R. kindly offered for me to come over and wax it at her place. After showing me how to start, I finished waxing her large cheese round, then waxed my small round. For some reason after a couple of days, a crack appeared in the wax on my cheese and grew bigger over the next few days. I took it back to Mrs. R. and she did not know why, and had never seen wax split open before. Leave it to me to mess things up that most folks would not even know could be messed up!

This past week, I made Feta cheese. It is too salty to eat by itself. Since I do not eat a lot of salt anyway, I have to cut it up in tiny pieces and mix it well into my other food to knock off some of the salt taste. It may look like it has seasons on it, but it is just the kind of salt we use, its not white. It is pictured on a unique cutting board a friend gave me. A small goat head is etched into the center and special cheese knives are held in a compartment inside the board.

When I was a wee lass, a three tiered heart shaped cake was my birthday cake. I have not made it in several years until about a week ago. I made a strawberry cake. How many of you other girls traditionally make your own birthday cake? We had some little flag poles with national flags. I took off the flags, printed some Confederate battle flags off the computer, and glued them on. There are twenty-five CS flags to represent 25 years in Dixie. . .Yes, I’m a whole quarter of a century. The one cheerful thought is, I’m one year closer my heavenly home.

In the spirit of Confederate hearts, I wore my battle flag heart-shaped belt buckle and my homemade heart-shaped CS necklace.

 Either the heart layers or a strawberry cake has been traditional for many of my birthday cakes, but a new one might be started next year. My brother gave me a Hobby Lobby gift card for my birthday and I figured I’d end up spending it on cloth. Instead, I came home with a pony head shaped pan, so a horse cake may be made next year. I don’t think I want to wait until then to try it though. If it turns out presentable, I may picture of it on my western blog. In vain I have searched for a goat cake pan.

Speaking of goats, one of my friends gave me these cute novel goat head salt and pepper shakers. The more I look at them, the cuter they get. Maybe someday I’ll have a whole collection of goat themed stuff.

So, how did I spend my birthday? Well, I started it by making my cake, and ended it by helping repair the back chicken coop! Sound like a real country girl way to spend the day, doesn’t it? Lord willing, by Monday we’ll have a rooster and chicken again.