I’m posting over at Homemakers Who Work today on how to make teas, infusions, and decoctions. Join me over there…
Monthly Archives: September 2009
The 5 kingdoms
Kaia has been studying the 5 kingdoms of life at school for the past 4 weeks. So, we thought we’d take a trip out to the Nature Center to see what in the Animal, Plant, and Fungus kingdoms we could find.
Poor little papa peacock is moulting and has no tail feathers. But you see behind mama Peahen’s legs there is a little baby??? Once that little one gets big enough, he/she will be coming to live with us!!!! Do any of you own peafowl?? If so, do they live with chickens?
When we got home, we found this:
We aren’t really sure what kingdom it belongs to… It seemed to enjoy eating non-living things.
But, it sure was friendly.
And it enjoyed hanging around with us
Oh, and the prize for naming Louise has arrived safely at it’s new home. Isn’t it cute?
And the winner is…
LOUISE!
Kaia loved all of the names for our sweet car chicken. She couldn’t choose between 6 of her favorites, so we put the final choices in a hat and she picked out Louise! I think it fits her perfectly! She’s a feisty little hen that would definitely chose a convertible given the opportunity.
So, BrentN keep your eyes open for a special treat coming your way!!
Tea Time
Today I’m posting about crafting herbal teas and have a contest over at Homemakers Who Work. And there is still time to enter the Name that Chicken contest, too. So get your entries in!
Heidi’s Home!
YAY! We are so excited to have our friend Heidi back home after 3 months overseas! She was nannying for a family in Scotland and we missed her dearly here. While she was gone, we had grand plans to transform her little cabin. Well, we all know how our grand plans tend to take much longer than we think. But, we were able to get a wood stove in her place (so she doesn’t have to freeze again this winter) and we were able to paint the exterior. It looks so cute! There are still a few finishing touches needed to the outside, but it’s mostly done. Cute, eh??
Kaia and I have also decided to try our hand at needle felting. Ever since we saw the insanely adorable stuff that The Magic Onions creates, we’ve wanted to learn how it’s done. So, I got a book on needle felting pets and got to work. We started with something simple, little bumble bees and lady bugs (and I poked myself a few times with the needle! Yowza!).
Then, I got a little crazy and decided to make Kaia a mermaid!! It was actually much simpler than I thought it would be and lots of fun. But, man, my arm got tired from all the ‘poke, poke, poke’ of the needle! As soon as I was done, Kaia said, “I bet if you started right now you could have her mermaid friend done by dinner time!” Ha!
Traveling Chickens and Contest Time
I headed in the house after picking up Kaia from school today. She took a while getting her stuff gathered up and then followed me into the house a while later. When she finally came in she said, “Mom, there is a chicken in the car. I tried to get her out, but she wanted to stay.” Suuuure, I thought! Kaia likes to play joke and it would be just like her to make me go all the way out to the car only to yell after me “just kidding”. But, she seemed serious, so I headed out there and this is what I found:
Apparently, my son’s car seat is a very comfortable place for an afternoon nap!
Now every time I open the car, she jumps the chicken fence, runs up to the car and hops in. Maybe I’ll take her along for the ride the next time I go pick my daughter up at school 🙂
This is one of the chickens that I got from a friend last month. She is an Ameraucana, so I’ve just been calling her “one of those ameraucanas”, but a sweet little bird like this needs a proper name. Contest Time!
Name That Chicken
Here are her details:
Like I said, she is an Ameraucana and lays blue/green eggs. She is a deep golden brown color. She is very sweet and lets me pick her up and carry her. She is smart because she can get out of our 6 foot fencing, somehow. She is sociable and would come into the house to hang out if we let her. And she is not a fan of male attention (she runs away from the rooster any time he tries to have his manly way with her). So what should I name her? Send me all of your suggestions! Kaia is the contest judge and will pick the winning name. The winner will get something I’ve made. I’m not sure what yet… but it will be great!! :-) Make sure you leave a way to contact you if you don’t have a blog. Have your entries in by Sunday, Sept 20th. I’ll announce the winner on the 21st. Good Luck!
#*%$%&#& Bear!!
Well, that funny little bear that was knocking over my chicken food bin decided it was hungry. Wed. night, at about 1:30 Suki started going crazy. She was inside for the night (dumb me for keeping her in) and was whining and pacing at the door. Toby went and let her out and heard a commotion at the chicken coop. By the time he and suki got to the coop, one of the doors to the egg boxes was ripped off of it’s hinges and Sparkle (our little gray silkie) had been stolen off of her nest and all of her eggs were eaten. I’m very angry… at myself for not leaving the dog outside and at the bear for taking my sweet little hen!
I’m headed to get some electric fencing today and may put some around the bees too.
Last night, Toby saw the bear again, sitting on a trail just off of our property. It was just waiting there. Suki was outside barking and making a fuss, but didn’t see the bear. I think the bear was waiting for the dog to go inside. Once Toby came out, it got up and walked back up the trail.
Needless to say, none of us slept well last night!
Fairy self portrait in the zucchini?
Moonflower
Potato art
Leeks
Just took 7 quarts of potato leek soup out of the canner!! Mmmm, Mmmmm, Gooood!
Winterizing
This weekend we got started on the project we’ve been dreading for the last year… winterizing the house. With a cordwood house, there is a lot of shrinking in the wood that goes on the first year. So, after the first winter, you need to go back and seal the nooks and crannies that have opened up. We weren’t looking forward to this large amount of detail work.
Well, I’m happy to say that it’s not nearly as bad as we thought it would be!
We purchased some Permachink (a sealant often used on log homes) from a dealer not too far from us. It comes in huge tubes that you squeeze onto the wall. Toby would squeeze the ‘caulk’ around each log end and I would go behind him and smooth it out. The color is an exact match to the white of our walls… unfortunately, the lower part of the exterior walls has some red mud splash back from the rain… so the caulk really stands out here. I figure I’ll get Kaia to go splash in puddles near the house next time it rains and that caulk should be nice and dirty in no time 🙂
spreading on the permachink
permachink on left, none on right
Smoothing it out
We were able to do almost 2 sections (out of 8) this past weekend (with many interruptions!) So, we will hopefully be able to finish this in a few weekends. Then, it’s on to the chicken coop!
rhythm to our day
I’m a creature of habit. I like things organized. I like routine. Yet, my life has little of this.  So, with Kaia starting the first grade and homeschooling part time, I thought it might be nice to create a basic rhythm that we can count on. Even if things get adjusted here and there, we know we can jump back in the next day.
In the morning, I tend to get up before the rest of the crew. This is a time that I like to read through my emails, catch up on blogs, and get breakfast started. Once the kids get up, we have our breakfast and take care of feeding the animals (cats, dog, and chickens). If Kaia is able to get up a little earlier, I’d love to make time before breakfast to read to her. If she has the choice, though, she is a late sleeper.
After breakfast, we will take a few hours for our more ‘formal’ schooling….. working on math (she has a math book from school that we work with), language arts (I’m looking into curriculum that might stimulate her to try reading on her own more, we’ll see… I want it to be self-directed as much as possible. She does much better with learning if I’m not too encouraging. She likes it to be her own decision.)
We’ll make lunch, do some clean up in the kitchen and then clean one room in the house (we rotate like this so that cleaning never seems to overwhelming. The whole house is cleaned by weeks end).
After clean up, if we have errands to run, we will head out. If not, we may do some baking, gardening, laundry, play with friends. This time is left more open and flexible.
Then it’s time to make dinner, harvest the eggs, feed the animals again.
After dinner, the kids may have a bath. We try to read everynight, but sometimes the days get away from us and it’s time to get the kids to bed.
Kaia, Toby, and I also all take Tae Kwon Do. So, often one of us is out doing that in the evenings.
I think this will be nice for all of us to have a basic schedule that we can rely on. When Kaia is in her formal school (3 days a week) I will try to stick to the schedule and get some of my own schooling or work done in the mornings, and errands in the afternoons.
The weekends are kind of crazy. We have had so many projects to finish up since we started building on our land. Every weekend seems to be filled up well in advance. Toby and I have made a pact not to start any new projects (after the new chicken coop is built) so that we can try to relax on the weekends this winter! That would be very nice.
I would love to hear what your homeschool rhythms are like. How do you get it all accomplished each day?
Building a Fairy Garden
When Kaia saw the Fairy Garden Challenge over at The Magic Onions, she just had to take part.
We started by going for a hike into the woods to the area where fairies have been known to party. We gathered some fairy moss, with their permission, some acorns and mushrooms and headed back to the house. She picked out a box for the main garden structure and cut and decorated the grand entryway. Then she created a mossy beach for them to relax on when they weren’t bathing. And realizing that the Autumn Equinox is coming up soon, she decided to make an area for dancing and eating, since they would surely be celebrating the equinox with a party! Kaia was unsure if the Queen Fairy danced or if she just liked to watch the party happenings, so she made a small sitting area on the dance floor so that she could sit and enjoy the festivities (the chairs are decorated with bling of course!) There is an area to hang your coats while dancing and bathing, there is a small swimming/bathing pool and a dipper to get water. There are fairy bells to ring when you arrive, a table set for a feast, and a bed for napping on in case you have danced too hard or eaten too much. Oh, and don’t forget the beaded high wire for doing acrobatics!
I’m sure the fairies will come to visit!! How could they resist?
Daily to do list
I’m posting over at Homemakers Who Work today about creating a “to do” list for kids. See you over there…..
August Garden Roundup
Things are petering out in the garden…. well, I’m letting them peter out. The weeds have taken over, the tomatoes gave in to blight, the green beans are collapsing. The squashes have all succomb to mildew of some sort. The chard and kale are still going strong. There’s probably 10# of it out there, but we just don’t eat it much. I have to say, we are all kind of tired of food from the garden :-) I need to get more recipes, but when do I have time to cook with canning all day? And MAN, the cucumbers just won’t quit! I finally found a recipe for a hot cucumber soup, so I will probably be putting more of that up for the winter. So, here’s the august harvest:
- Eggs – 148 (about half of the ladies started molting)
- Cucumbers – 56# 4 oz.
- Chard 5# 2 oz
- Tomatoes – 15# 9 oz (all of the tomatoes that I have put up for the winter were from a local organic farmer who sold 30# boxes of romas for $10 a box!!!
- Dill seed – a few ounces
- green beans – 11#
- Culinary herbs – ~2#
- Winter Squash – 12#
- Summer squash – 16# 2oz.
- Potatoes 25#
- Melons – 11# 6oz
- Raspberries – a few quarts
- Cherry Tomatoes – did fantastic, but we threw all of them to the chickens as treats… many pounds worth!
- sunflower seeds ~1#
- Apples – 3# Our first harvest from our baby trees!
It rained at least 5 1/2 inches last month, although I forgot to write it down a few times. Seems like it’s been raining every day!