The snow has come and gone, and then come and gone again.  It’s been a wet fall but with the transitions from rain to snow and back again, we still don’t have a lot of the white stuff on the ground.

The chickens are happily pecking away in their new coop and run, and I do feel better having them in a fully insulated coop, now that the night temperatures are getting into the single digits.  They’re all huddled on the perch, snuggling to stay warm.  At least now I can flip a switch and they have heat.  Last winter it was warming a piece of granite on top of the woodstove and then running it out there to try and keep them warm.  I like that they won’t be in my living room this year.  At all.

But the weather has limited the outdoor activities.  I don’t mind warm rain or cold snow, but cold rain is annoying.  I don’t want to go hiking and there’s no snow for skiing, and with such a little piece of property, even mine and Pico’s walks have to be on the road.  It’s not too bad, but he is still getting used to the leash again, and I miss being able to just let him run around unattended.

One benefit of this type of weather though is that I don’t feel too bad doing indoor projects.  A couple months ago I made a new cutting board for us and read that it could be sealed with beeswax.  I had a huge block of wax around, and so I spent the evening melting wax, rubbing it on the board, and then heating the whole thing in the oven over and over to make a nice sealant for the cutting board.

I used the board the next day, and most of the wax came off when I washed it.  Seemed like a good idea, but in reality, it just didn’t pan out.  I got some mineral oil and treated the board, and it’s now nice and waterproof.  But I still have a huge block of beeswax just hanging around.

So I had to figure out what I was going to do with the wax.  I didn’t want to make candles, as I used to make them all the time out at the cabin.  I would make them all the time by melting down the little stubs of the candles I burned for light.  So as I was sitting on the couch one day, my stepson asked if we had any lip balm.  His lips were chapped and he wanted some relief.

I ordered empty lip balm tubes and picked up some peppermint essential oil and coconut oil in town, and waited patiently for the tubes to arrive.  And as soon as they did, I thought I’d have my answer of what to do with all that beeswax.  Making the lip balm should have been really simple.  Melt the oils and wax together, pour it into the tubes, and let them cool.

I would have done the whole melting process on my woodstove, but hey, now I have a microwave!  We gathered all the materials, and he was pretty excited.  After making him wash his hands a couple of times (who knows what a nine-year-old is doing when out of sight) we got into it.  After thirty seconds in the microwave, the beeswax was barely melted, but that was apparently enough for the microwave.  It was dead.  It was also bad timing, since I had promised this kid his very own lip balm.

We moved to the range top and managed to melt enough to make a few tubes of the lip balm.  It’s got a menthol-coconut taste that all three of us love, and it actually works really well.  Plus, since it’s in tubes, he doesn’t have to stick his nasty fingers into the stuff to put it on.

I love having the convenience of modern appliances, and the fact that whole process didn’t require a headlamp was a really nice touch.  But I was reminded of the fraility of those electronics.  Sure, it would have been slower to do this on the woodstove, but at least the woodstove wouldn’t have died in the middle of it.

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