Monthly Archives: February 2005

Lion, Tiger, and Bear

Posted on by

These past few days have been filled with fun projects! On Thursday night, I got to go to my monthly herb class/meeting! One of the local herbalists holds a monthly class out of her home and this months topic was “Pain and Herbs”. As always, I felt like I had gone home when I was there (does that make sense?). The smell of the fire burning, being surrounded by wise women who were all wanting to open their minds to the power of plant medicine, it was so calming and nurturing! I love these classes. One other fun thing about the class is the samples. As we discuss an herb, we pass around a tincture of that herb and those who want to can taste it. So, as you can imagine, I was without any pain by the end of the night!! We discussed White Willow, Meadowsweet, Kava, and Jamaican Dogwood to name a few.

When I got home from the class Thursday night, I noticed that the neighbor’s sheep (she has 3) were making a lot of noise. I commented about it to Toby as soon as I walked in the door, but thought, maybe they were just braaaaaying at the full moon or something 🙂

Today, we got up early to start working on the garden again. We have been digging post holes and clearing the area for most of the day. As you can see, K and Suki helped.

In the afternoon, my neighbor dropped by to apologize for all of the sheep noise lately. She said she came home on Thursday night to find one of her sheep, Dorothy, had given birth to triplets!! She hadn’t even known that Dorothy was pregnant! (That explains all the sheepy noise when I was coming home from my class) Since the mama’s name is Dorothy, she named the babies Lion, Tiger, and Bear. Tiger was much smaller than the other two and passed away. But, here are Lion and Bear, doing well and growing strong!

One other final fun note… we picked up our beekeeping equipment today! A local beekeeper made our hive bodies for us out of Cypress. So, I am going to give them a coat of my beeswax varnish and hopefully we will have them up and running in the next month!!

Today in the garden

Posted on by

This afternoon, while Toby was out of town and K was playing at her cousin’s, I went and got a facial!!! (Thanks mom for the gift card!) I had never had one before and it was heaven. I actually fell asleep! After the facial, I headed home for some alone time! I got all my seeds in the mail today, so I broke out the potting mix and planted some kale, lettuce, chard and tomatoes in flats. If you are reading my site for clues as to when to plant stuff in your flats, don’t do what I do. I have no idea what I am doing. I have never grown stuff from seed before. I usually run out to the garden shop at the last minute and grab whatever scraggly vegetables they have left. I have never been ahead of the game with my garden. Here’s why: early spring 2004 – house on the market, traveling every weekend to house hunt, finally took our honeymoon in April…in Tobago for 3 weeks. Missed every planting opportunity. Early spring 2003 – very pregnant, put a few veggies in the ground but let them get taken over while I tried to care for a newborn. Early spring 2002 – spent 3 weeks traveling out west, too enthralled with my new boyfriend to care if my veggies were covered in powdery stuff. So, you see, this year is going to be different!! Wish me luck!

Deer control

Posted on by

K and I went out today searching for deer fencing for our garden. The plot is going to be 40’x40′. I am only going to have 6 raised beds to start with (triangle shaped 8’x10’x10′), but I would also like to have a sand box for K to play in while I am gardening. Plus, this leaves lots of space for more raised beds. But, deer fencing is either very expensive, or flimsy, crappy, plastic stuff. One salesman told me about this stuff called Plantskydd that is suppose to be this fantastic deer deterent. But, it is basically pig and cow blood. Aside from the Mad Cow thing, why would I want to use pig and cow blood on my plants? The directions also said not to get it on anything that would be ingested… isn’t that everything in a vegetable garden? So, I started thinking. If blood is supposed to deter animals from eating the garden up, why couldn’t I just use my own blood? (I do ‘shed’ once a month…) I could mix my own very diluted healthy blood with garlic and mint or other repellant plants and spray it on the garden. Sound too gross?? Menstural blood is full of nutrients and minerals since it was supposed to support a baby. I’ve actually known a few women who would use the Keeper, catch their menstural flow, and then use it in their plant fertilizer. Their gardens were gorgeous.

What do you gardeners out there use to keep deer away?

Grandma moon

Posted on by

I’ve been working with K to try to cut down on the amount of times she nurses at night and it’s going very well. I just told her that after she gets her bedtime booby, she can nurse again when the sunshine is out, but not while Grandma Moon is up. The first night this was pretty hard for her and we did a lot of snuggling and crying. But, after that she was fine.

Last night, K started asking for booby around 7 pm. So, we went in her room and read a little. But, she was more interested in snuggling up and getting her bedtime booby. She didn’t want to stop nursing. When I finally told her it was time to go to bed she cried. I told her that she’d had both boobies and that we would nurse again when the sun comes up. She got annoyed and started pushing stuff around on her bed and telling her pillows to “mooove!!” Then, as she calmed down I heard her saying, very quietly, “sunshine, sunshine, no. Gamma moon now.” What a smart cookie!!

Manly men

Posted on by

We rented this monstrosity of a machine today to chip up all the pine brush that was left from cutting down the trees to make a garden space. We had a lot of work ahead of us, so we invited friends over (Thanks Eric and Mark!) to help out, and Toby’s dad (Thanks Vick!) came up from Charleston to lend a hand. I, of course, was on baby duty. I tried to find someone to watch K so I could get out in my soon-to-be-garden and do some work, but no luck. I felt pretty guilty having all these other people doing my work. I know Toby wanted the trees down as much as I did so that we could get some sunlight in our house. But, I was the one who kept pushing to get the chipper so that I could get my garden going, and there I was sitting on my kister playing in the sun. My plan was to get the area organized and straighten up the grounds where the garden will go. The men’s plan – destruction!! When I saw the look of utter happiness on their faces as they tossed tree limbs and shrubbery into this metal monster and watched it chomp the wood into tiny pieces, all feelings of guilt diappeared. Once K went down for her nap, I got my gloves on and went to work. The smell in the air was fantastic! It was like someone had dumped a truck load of freshly cut orange peels in our front yard!

Now, I have to start working on putting up the garden fence and building the raised beds. I am thinking of building 6 triangle shaped beds that all point to a center area. I’m not sure what will go in the center yet. I may put a perenial bed there… we’ll see.

Beeswax Varnish

Posted on by

I got K this great little natural wood table and chair set today. Since she will be drawing and playing on it, I want to protect it from getting too marked up. But, I don’t want to put nasty chemicals on it. So, I decided to try this Beeswax Varnish recipe that I have been wanting to try out for a while. Here’s the recipe:

BEESWAX WOOD FINISH (for bare wood)
1 pound beeswax
1 pint turpentine (odorless, if you can find it)
1 pint boiled linseed oil
Melt wax. Remove wax from heat source, then stir in turpentine and oil. Before applying to bare wood, warm the mixture to achieve better penetration. Apply with a soft cloth, let dry, then buff with a wool cloth. Old coats can be removed with an organic solvent such as turpentine. This can also be used on leather. (Another wood finish can be made with 1 pound beeswax and 1 pint turpentine, omitting the linseed oil.)

I quartered the recipe since I didn’t need much. But, it turned out really well. I just varnished the top of the table and it was pretty simple. Just dip the rag in the warm mixture and rub on the table. Then, buff it down after a few hours. (It’s like taking of car wax… you really have to buff “wax on, wax off”)

Here are Toby and K buffing the wax off (Yes, it is nudey time, but she was too cold to take her shirt off 🙂

And here is K enjoying her new table and chairs with some cool wood fruit. The pieces are held together by velcro. So, when you ‘cut’ it with the wood knife, it actually sounds like you are choping vegetables.

She Poops, Too!

Posted on by

K is a wonder child! Tonight she asked to go potty and as soon as we sat her down, she pooped!! Then, after taking a bath, she got back on the potty and peed!! I can’t believe she is figuring this out so fast! No more diapers, here we come!!

Wonderful Evening!

Posted on by

What a perfect end to the evening! K had a great time playing in a bubble bath. Then she got out and began her nightly ‘run-around-the-house-nudey’ time. But, instead of running around, she went to her potty, sat down and peed! All by herself! For the first time!! She was so excited that she spent the next 20 minutes getting on and off the potty saying “pee gen (again)!” I am so proud! 🙂

Being a mom is hard work!

Posted on by

Many of my blog reader friends are moms already. So, I’m sure I’m not telling you something new. But, before I became a mother, I had this view of me as “xena -warrior princess mom” able to accomplish anything in record time, while still loving nurturing and caring for my family. HA! More like “xena – too many loads of laundry, rarely showers, cranky in the morning, never accomplishes anything on her list mom” So, I only write the following entry because, though K is 19 months old, I am still stunned by the realization that being a mom isn’t more simple, and that it is accompanied by so many emotions (like rage, joy, saddness, enlightenment, exhaustion) that always seem to hit me, all of them, with in a very short span of time – say 20 minutes. I have some mom friends who say that becoming a mom has made their life simpler and easier…I say either you are fooling yourself, or you are on some really good meds! I thought that after a few months of being a mom, I would get things under control and have this gig figured out. No one ever told me that you give up your independance because now you have a twin who goes everywhere with you, needs everything from you and whom you love with such a fierce passion that you don’t ever want to think about what it would be like if she weren’t in your life. I love K so much that it hurts. I cry to think about the day when she won’t ask for ‘boobies’ anymore (but I desperately want to wean). My whole body feels lighter when I see her at my bed side in the morning saying “all done napping mommy” (but after being up all night trying to get her back to sleep, all I want to do is say “Come on! just go back to bed and give mommy a little more time to sleep!”) It’s such an amazing roller coaster ride! But, I feel like no one ever talked about this stuff before I had kids. I had no idea what I was in for. Or maybe I just didn’t listen. For the past few months I have been slowly reading this book “Operating Instructions” by Anne Lamott. (It’s actually a very fast read, but I haven’t had the time to devote to it). I would like to recommend this book to anyone who thinks they might have kids, are in the process, or who have kids! It is a mothers journal of the first year of her son’s life, no holds barred. And I love it. I find myself laughing so much because she can put into words the things that I have been feeling for so long but didn’t know how to express. And I find it very comforting to know that I am not the only one who thinks motherhood is hard. And though there are many moments that I feel like the worst mom in the world who just can’t hack it, I look at her and feel so lucky to have been blessed with an amazing daughter with a fantastic personality. Sometimes, when I feel off my rocker and start acting a little nutty, K approaches me with this ‘wise man on the hill’ look, tilts her head, puckers her lips and leans in for a kiss, as if to say, “It’s ok mommy. You’re doing just fine!”

planning

Posted on by

So, I’ve been working on my garden plans for this year. The pine trees have been taken down in the front and we now have a great sunny space for the bees, vegetable garden, fruit trees, herbs, and all the other stuff I want to plant! I have a busy spring ahead of me. Once we have cleared all of the tree debris, I am going to start by throwing out a bunch of wildflower seeds. We got a huge amount of seeds for our wedding 2 years ago. So, hopefully some of them are still good. Then I need to make a path the where the garden is going to be, fence off the garden (we have a lot of deer) and build some raised beds. We are going to hit the local lumber mill and see what scraps they might have available for the raised beds. My old way of gardening was to just put stuff in the ground. But, this year, I would really like to become more aware of which plants are beneficial to others and which plant families go well together. I would like to learn to plant by the moon signs. I also want to learn more about soil composition, organic fertilizers and beneficial insects. I feel so far behind.

Anyway, I don’t know the design of the garden yet. I’m going to wait until we have all the lumber for the raised beds before planning where they go. But, here’s what I would like to plant. It’s very ambitious and I will probably cut back some, but here it is:

  • Provider Bush Bean
  • Frodhook Bush Lima Bean
  • Trionfo Pole Bean
  • Cannellini beans
  • Midnight Black Turtle Soup Bean
  • Tomatos -Cherokee Purple -matt’s Wild Cherry -Brandywine -Juliet -Striped German -Golden Sweet
  • Ithica Carrot
  • Double Standard Corn
  • Painted Mountain Corn
  • Diva Cucumber
  • Fairy Tale Eggplant
  • All Greens mix
  • Watercress
  • Toscano Kale
  • Envy Lettuce
  • Magenta Lettuce
  • Brightlights Chard
  • Athena Melon
  • Festival Watermalon
  • Sweetie Melon
  • Zephyr Squash
  • Buttercup Squash
  • Evergreen Winter Hardy Onion
  • Boldog Hungarian Spice Chiles
  • Rockstar Pumpkin
  • Tyee Spinach
  • Reverie Zucchini
  • along with some chives, basil, parsley, cilantro and other edible herbs and flowers

Wow!! What happened to just planting 10 things this year and starting out slowly??

Glued to the TV

Posted on by

I have something to confess. Yes, I have been busy with the business and all. But, things have recently calmed down and I still haven’t been keeping up my end of the blogging. You have my husband to blame. Two Sundays ago (the 20th), we were all feeling tired and in need of a good ‘veg-out’ night. So, he decided to give me my birthday present early…the first season DVD of ALIAS. See, I have just gotten into the show, now in it’s 4th season, and I am totally lost. Who is Rumbauldi? Why was Sydney missing for a year? Is Slone a good guy or a bad guy??? So, for the last week and a half, all of our spare evenings and most lunch hours have been filled with double-agents, plot twists, and lots of kick-boxing! We are both totally hooked! Everytime we hear the theme song we get a little adrenalin rush and one of us will pick up the cat and make him do the “ALIAS dance”. (We’re not so sure he likes it, but he needs the exercise). So, Monday we finished the first season…all 22 episodes. 🙂 Last night, Toby went out and rented the first disk of season 2…4 episodes…done! AHHH, I’m an ALIASoholic!