Hello out there! Leif here!
Check out this cool chair my mommy got me (well she calls it my ‘throne’… does that mean I’m a prince??) Every so often, but not often enough if you ask me, mommy lets me sit on it. She even takes off my clothes and lets me sit nudey! She makes faces at me and funny noises. She’s such a silly lady. I think we are supposed to be having ‘fun time’ together or something. But I have to admit, I’m just in it for the chair. It’s really cool and very comfortable. And, don’t tell mommy, but when she takes my diaper off and puts me on the chair…
I pee in it!!! 🙂
Monthly Archives: March 2009
His Perfect Smile
This one I call “Elvis& Lisa Marie”
Leif’s eyes
Kaia’s eyes
I still can’t believe how much alike they look!
hello…
… I’m still here 🙂 I’ve just been away from the computer a bit… It’s hard to type with a baby in your arms 🙂
We are all doing really well! Leif is a total sweetie! He’s very laid back, although he is a total snuggler and doesn’t like to be put down. Kaia is still in love with him and is taking on the role of ‘big sister’ very well.
We’re getting some much needed rain here. Looks like the week ahead will bring even more rain! Maybe the spring will start flowing again (it dried up last July with the drought). With the rain, I’ve gotten a few shiitake from my logs. They dried up last year and hadn’t produced in a long time. I really need to move them to a more moist and shaded area, too.
In the garden, I’ve planted asparagus. I’m the only one in the family that likes it, so I should have lots to enjoy! I planted the crowns last Sunday, under capricorn, an earth sign good for planting roots. I know asparagus isn’t a root crop, you harvest the spears, but I thought it might be good to plant them under an earth sign to get the roots established well for better harvest later. We’ll see…. I have 10 more crowns, maybe I will plant them under a leaf sign and see which patch does better.
Kaia thought she’d try out the chair to see how well it works to calm you down.
The most awesome home baked bread EVER!
I love home made bread; The aroma that fills the house, that first bite that permeates the senses, the crisp crust and soft, warm interior! Mmmmmm! I use to think that I couldn’t bake bread well, so I bought a bread maker in hopes that I would have more home baked bread. The results were mediocre and I stopped using it. Then I found a recipe for home baked bread that seemed pretty easy and realized that kneading the bread wasn’t really that bad. I made that recipe for a few months, but with the time it took to mix it, rise, knead, rise, bake…. I had to be home for most of the day to tend the bread. So, that recipe fell by the wayside. That’s why I was so excited to hear about this book. I can’t remember where I first learned about “Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day” but I was really excited when it finally arrived in the mail the other day. Their website had a number of contests to win a free book, but I couldn’t leave it to chance and bought one instead 🙂 Today I tried my hand at their master recipe and was Very Happy with the results! At 2 pm, I mixed together the flour, yeast, water, and salt, and let it sit on the counter. Then I planted some onions and picked up Kaia from school. When I got home, the mix had risen over twice it’s size and pushed the top off the container it was in. I cut off about a pound of dough from the mix, shaped it and let it rest while I feed Leif. (The rest of the mix, enough for 3 more loaves, went in the fridge where it can stay for for days, until I’m ready to cut off another hunk of it to cook up!) Then I plopped the dough in the oven and went out to plant the leeks. When I got back inside, the house smelled fantastic and there was a perfect loaf of bread ready for the tasting. I let it cool a little while and heated up the soup and greens for dinner. Here’s what the bread looked like just out of the oven
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Thirty minutes later, there was still some soup and greens on the stove, but…
… the bread had disappeared! Kaia even ate her salad without a complaint because she knew she could have more bread once the salad was gone! She said “Mommy, this is just like store bought bread, and that’s a good thing!!” Ohhhh, it was so good! It had a great crispy crust and was soft and fluffy on the inside! The taste was almost sourdoughy!! I’m a little worried that I’m going to have to put limits on the amount of bread we eat in the house, ’cause at this rate, we could have a couple loaves of bread a day!! MMmmmmm
After the master recipe, the book give you lots more recipes that work off the main one… sweet breads, peasant loaves, flat breads, etc…
Now I have to decide which of the tons of recipes in the book I’m going to try next!!
Gardening 2009-7
With the moon in Virgo, an earth sign, the onions and leeks went in the ground today. It wasn’t so easy planting with Leif attached to me by sling, but we managed 🙂 I only put in 16 soil blocks of onion (with 3 or 4 seedlings in each block) and 12 soil blocks of leeks (with 3 or 4 seedlings in each). I just don’t have the garden space this year for more. Plus, they are so tiny and spindly, I may get some onion starts to plant elsewhere just to make sure we get some onions out of it all.
Oh, here is another great guide to planting by the signs. They have a weekly newsletter too with reminders of what to plant when.
Gardening 2009-6; Signs to garden by
Living in the Appalachian mountains, I’ve heard some of the older farmers say things like: “I won’t be planting corn today… moon’s in the heart” or “Best be planing your collards today… moon’s in the feet” I had no idea what they were talking about, but I really wanted to understand them!! It sounded so neat to be able to garden by the moon signs.
This is my first year gardening by the signs. I am mainly working with this book. It’s easy to use since it spells it all our for you; when to plant what and why. A very general overview of the signs if this:
Pisces, Cancer, and Scorpio are water signs (wet) and are generally good times to plant leafy things.
Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius are Fire signs (warm/hot) generally good for planting fruiting things.
Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn are Earth signs (cool/cold) generally good for rooting things.
Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius are Air signs (light/bright) generally good for flowering things.
So according to the book, these signs, mixed with other aspects of the stars and moon, tell me when it is best to plant my garden.
This past fall, I attended a class on Healing by the Signs, given by Phyllis D. Light. Her family dates back many generations in Alabama, and she is lucky enough to have generations of relatives who have passed on their herbal and gardening knowledge. Though her class was primarily about healing according to your sign and what sign the moon is in, she also touched on gardening as her ancestors taught her. This is where I finally understood what it meant to “plant things when the sign is in the feet”. Here are some basic notes:
(notice as you go down the zodiac, you also go down the human body… The first sign starts at the head, the the last sign ends at the feet. A person born under a certain sign, if out of balance, may have afflictions related to the body parts that their sign rules. Also notice that the first sign is a fire sign, then there is earth, then air, then water, and it repeats down the zodiac.)
Aries (the first house) rules the head and sinuses. It is a fire sign good for pruning, turning soil and killing weeds. It is not a time for planting or starting new projects.
Taurus (the second house) rules the throat and thyroid. It is an earth sign good for sewing seeds and planting root crops. It is a good sign in which to start projects, and build.
Gemini (the 3rd house) rules the breath, lymph, and blood. It is an air sign good for weeding, cultivating and harvesting. A time for cleansing.
Cancer (4th house) rules the stomach, breasts, and upper liver. It is a water sign good for planting seeds or root crops, watering the plants, pruning/grafting.
Leo (5th house) rules the heart, spine, arteries, spleen, and lower liver. It is a fire sign good for pruning, killing weeds and cultivating.
Virgo (6th house) rules the intestines, solar plexus and carpal bones. It is an earth sign but is considered a barren earth sign because of the dry/hot Leo sign before it. It is good for killing pests and weeds.
Libra (7th house) rules the kidneys, skin, and lower back. It is an air sign for planting above ground crops (things without big roots)
Scorpio (8th house) rules the genitals and bladder. It is a water sign; prune for growth and plant seeds.
Sagittarius (9th house) rules the thighs, hips, glutials, sciatic and motor nerves. It is a fire sign good for tilling and cultivating. You can also plant some over-wintering foods such as garlic, onions, and greens.
Capricorn (10th house) rules the knees, joints, skeleton, and skin. An earth sign good for pruning for growth, planting seeds, bulbs, rhizomes, and greens.
Aquarius (11th house) rules the calves, ankles, blood, and circulation. An air sign for harvesting to store food, and weeding.
Pisces (12th house) rules the feet, lymph, synovial fluid, and glands. A water sign for sewing seeds, transplanting, grafting and fertilizing. Considered a very fertile sign.
So, I’m taking detailed notes as to what I’m planting when and will report back at the end of this gardening year to let you know how things went. If any of you out there are gardening by the signs, I’d love to hear your experiences.
Gardening 2009-5
Yesterday, The moon was in Cancer… a water sign, good for planting grafting and pruning. So, I went out and pruned the fruit trees that needed a little trim. And many of the trees that I planted last fall also needed to have their limbs weighed down. The limbs that are growing at too close of an angle to the main tree will not be strong enough to support a full load of fruit. So, the limbs are weighed down or pushed down to at least a 45 degree angle from the main trunk to encourage a stronger crotch angle/structure. I chose to weigh down the limbs since I have lots of twine and rocks; I don’t have any limb spreaders/spacers. So, for those limbs that were too close to the main trunk, I tied some twine to the limb and weighed it down with a rock. The sap is rising in the trees right now, so they are more pliable and hopefully, after a few weeks, I can remove the weights and the limbs will stay in their new positions.
I had also hoped to start more seedlings yesterday, but that didn’t happen. So, I starting them today. The moon is in Leo today, which is generally thought of as a very hot and dry fire sign, not good for doing anything but killing weeds and pruning, but, I’m hoping that if I plant the seedlings in the garden in a good fertile sign, that they will grow well. (According to my biodynamic planting book, today was still a good sign for planting fruiting things… must be because of other aspects of the stars and planets that I don’t understand). So, I made 4 more trays of soil blocks and started broccoli, kale, spring lettuces, greens mix, celery, and parsley.
The onions and leeks are doing great since I started watering them from below and added the peat. So, I think they will go out in the garden on Thursday… the moon will be in Virgo… an earth sign good for planting root crops.
Vera’s new apron!
I took Judy’s advice and went on the internet and found a really simple pattern for a chicken apron 🙂
Here are two simple patterns… I used the second one. Chicken apron 1 and Chicken apron 2 (Scroll ~3/4 of the way down).
I had some extra green fleece from Leif’s leaf blanket, so I just cut an 8×8 inch square and cut two holes in it for the wings. She doesn’t seem to mind having it on.
Here’s her poor back:
And here she is modeling her new and stylish apron:
I guess I’ll just take it off to wash it occasionally, and once her feathers come back, maybe I’ll take it off for a little break…
Rooster picking favorites
Our pour hen, Vera, is a little worse for the wear since we got our rooster. He really seems to favor her and now she has no feathers left on her back. His spurs have been cut, so he’s not hurting her, yet. But with no feather protection from his feet, I’m sure it won’t be long until she gets injured. I know that there are ‘saddles’ to put on chickens to keep their feathers from falling out, but that seems like a bit much for a hen to wear 24/7. What do you all do?
I love this comparison!
this is from a newsletter that I receive from Susan Rubin:
If you had purchased $1000 of shares in Delta Airlines one year ago, you will have $49.00 today.
If you had purchased $1000 of shares in AIG one year ago, you will have $33.00 today.
But—- if you had purchased $1000 worth of beer one year ago, drank all the beer, then turned in the aluminum cans for recycling refund, you will have received $214.00.
Based on the above, the best current investment plan is to drink heavily & recycle.
I’m not a big beer drinker, so this investment plan wouldn’t work well for me. Here’s a strategy that I like better than the beer. For example, if you purchased just $2 worth of tomato plants, your yield would be over $100 worth of fresh organically grown food that has no carbon footprint. While tending to your tomatoes, you’ll also benefit from additional Vitamin D in the form of sunshine, thereby reducing your risk of both cancer and osteoporosis. Saving you costly medical bills.
Want to make an investment that pays higher return than any Wall Street stock? Invest in seeds and grow some food. It’s easier than you think. Community gardens are springing up everywhere. Containers like the Earth Box can easily work on a deck. Teich Garden Systems can help you to create a state of the art animal resistant garden for your yard or school.
Spring’s a comin’!!
Though we had a big snow fall this past week, the chickens are telling me that spring is on its way! They have really picked up their laying and our little Welsummer, Rosie, laid her first egg today! It’s the dark speckled one… isn’t it pretty?
The top pink egg is from our Easter Egger, Biscuit, (supposed to be an Ameraucana). Clockwise, the next egg is from Buttercup, our Buff Orpington. Next is the small pink egg from (I believe) Vera, our Salmon Faverolle. It’s a really small egg, but I don’t think our silkies are old enough to lay yet, and I saw Vera sitting on one of the small ones…
The fourth, and largest brown egg, is from Rudy, our 2 1/2 year old Black Australorps. The 5th egg is Rosie our Welsummer’s egg. And the Blue one is from our 2 1/2 year old Americauna, Sweetie.
We’re still waiting on the two silkies to start laying… probably in the next month or two.
These are from the last snow we had… aren’t the icicles lovely!
And Leif in his starring role as “the Littlest Gnome”
