Exploring Life In The Grit Of The Earth
Posted in Organic Gardening on Mar 11th, 2010
YAY!! I’m so excited!! I can’t wait to have fresh food from the garden. This past weekend, we set up a straw bale cold frame to start our seeds in and seeded kale, lettuce, cabbage, and parsley! We are using a pane from a glass door as the top. The greenhouse in our [...]
Posted in Do It Yourself on Mar 2nd, 2010
Kaia has been waiting, and waiting, for this project to happen. She picked out her fabric last month, but we had trouble getting the fins. They finally arrived today, so I had to get right on it!
Behold – Mermaid Kaia!
This was a fairly simple project to do. We got the swim fins from Metro Swim [...]
Posted in Sustainable Living on Feb 28th, 2010
We’ve finally got it all figured out and are happy to announce that we have some of our land for sale! We would love to have some other families out here with us!!
Here’s the schpiel:
10+ wooded acres for sale! We are a homeschooling family of four (6 year old daughter, 1 year old son) attempting [...]
Posted in Beekeeping, General, Mothering on Feb 22nd, 2010
Mmmmmm, the smell of warm beeswax is so yummy!!
Leif’s view of his new mobile in the warm afternoon sunshine
Here it is! My first official sewing project from my lessons! I’m calling her the “You are a Sassy, Sexy Housewife-Mama, and you Know It!” apron.
And Look! It’s reversible!
Isn’t it cute??!! If you want your own, you can get the pattern from Pretty-Ditty.
While I wasn’t working on the apron, I made some big boy bibs [...]
Well, I think the internet might be back up… maybe… it’s slow and keeps going up and down, but maybe they are fixing it.
We’ve been snowed in, without phone and internet since the last snow 5 days ago. Let me tell you… After all the snow and indoor time in the past month, I’m getting [...]
Posted in Holistic Medicine, Mothering on Jan 29th, 2010
I finally did it! I’m taking sewing lessons! I’ve been wanting to learn how to sew for a long time now. I can do a little on the sewing machine, but I’ve wanted to learn from a professional. Well, as luck would have it, I won a raffle for 7 sewing lessons from a professional [...]
Posted in Chickens, Home Schooling, Mothering, Organic Gardening on Jan 16th, 2010
Finally, it’s gotten above 35 degrees!! The snow has been on the ground for a month and it seems like every morning I’ll wake up to a little more! The past few days it’s gotten up into the 50’s and it’s been wonderful! The chickens are having a field day taking dirt baths and stretching [...]
Well, my intention was to knit myself a new hat… one that completely covers my ears, because I can’t seem to get one that keeps my head and ears nice and warm. I found a great pattern and saw the finished hat in my local yarn store. But the pattern didn’t have a gauge (how [...]
Posted in Do It Yourself, Mothering, Pets on Dec 26th, 2009
Kaia and I crafted felt doughnuts, stuffed with polyfill and catnip, for some of our favorite feline friends! There are all different icing and sprinkle types, for your cat’s specific tastes. We gave the first one, a raspberry icing with chocolate sprinkles, to our cats as an early gift. As you can see, they are [...]
Posted in Knitting on Dec 23rd, 2009
I’ve put up my pattern for Leif’s Mossy Mittens
And if you are looking for a fast gift, here is my pattern for Paper Clip Ice Skates
Posted in Do It Yourself, Knitting, Mothering on Dec 21st, 2009
We have had such a wonderful last few days. Being snowed in has been a great adventure for all of us. The power was out for 24 hours, but we enjoyed the peace it brought and we kept ourselves fully entertained! There was tent building:
There was lots of snow play (sledding, snow men, snow ball [...]
Posted in Mothering, Sustainable Living on Dec 18th, 2009
Well, it looks like we will be hanging out on our land for a few days, possibly weeks We are getting more snow that I’ve seen in 16 years! It’s a beautiful winter wonderland here, and Kaia is having the time of her life! She’s been in and out all day, coming in [...]
Posted in Do It Yourself, Home Schooling on Dec 15th, 2009
We’ve had the crafting spirit in our home lately! This weekend Kaia and I made some santa ornaments after seeing them at Write-It-Down. We just happened to have everything we needed and couldn’t resist the cute little guys.
Then we had a few friends over for more crafting. We made beeswax ornaments with beeswax from a [...]
Posted in Holistic Medicine, Mothering on Dec 8th, 2009
OK, I’ve been hearing about this board game for a while now and, I have to admit, I have been very resistant to it! I’m not totally sure why, but I think it has to do with the feeling that if I’m a good herbalist, I shouldn’t need the aid of a board game to [...]
Posted in Do It Yourself, Home Schooling on Dec 5th, 2009
Creating our holiday cards…
Posted in Do It Yourself, Knitting, Mothering on Dec 4th, 2009
Here it is! Kaia’s Flower Fairy/Pearly Mermaid/ Blingy Princess skirt! It is a holiday gift for her and I can’t wait to give it to her!
I’ve published the pattern, for free (yay!) in the links at the top of my blog! Enjoy!!
Posted in Do It Yourself, Home Schooling on Nov 10th, 2009
I have great memories of my elementary school art class. The room was dark and and crowded, but our teacher always had the greatest projects for us. One of my favorites was linoleum print making. You trace a picture onto a linoleum block, carve it out, roll paint onto it and press it onto paper, [...]
That’s the only way I can describe the way I felt this weekend at my first fiber festival, the Southeastern Animal and Fiber Festival It was sensory overload as I walked through the huge arena full of rainbows of yarn, roving, fleece, and knitted garments. I had to touch everything and heard others moan and [...]
I’m writing over at Homemakers Who Work today! Stop by and see me there! You’ll find out what makes a sweet boy smile…
Posted in Do It Yourself, Knitting, Mothering on Oct 15th, 2009
When I found out I was pregnant with Leif, I had a blast creating a basket full of hand made toys for him. They are so fun and squishy! And something he can pass on to his children if he wants!!
Garden Mama is interviewing Down in the Meadow about her hand made toys and having [...]
Posted in Organic Gardening on Oct 1st, 2009
Things have mostly stopped producing in the garden now. I still have kale, chard, snap peas, a little bit of tromboncino squash, and some arugula that reseeded itself. But, I’m not doing much harvesting. I’m so over the kale and chard. I haven’t felt like eating it in months! My plans for any type of [...]
Posted in Organic Gardening on Sep 9th, 2009
Just took 7 quarts of potato leek soup out of the canner!! Mmmm, Mmmmm, Gooood!
Posted in Home Schooling, Mothering, Sustainable Living on Sep 6th, 2009
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 [...]
Posted in Organic Gardening on Sep 1st, 2009
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 [...]
Posted in Mothering, Sustainable Living on Aug 28th, 2009
My original intention was to make this post a photo montage of all the crazy things that we’ve been up to this summer that have kept me from blogging, but I didn’t have the time to do even that
The pressure canner is going almost non-stop. I get up early in the morning to [...]
Posted in Organic Gardening on Aug 10th, 2009
The other day when I went out to harvest the zuchinni, I found this:
I swear, no one carved this! Kaia’s explanation… Bartelby Barnes, the fairy of the garden, carved it to claim his zuchinni. I think he was just letting us know that he has been hanging out in the garden beds.
Posted in Chickens, Mothering, Organic Gardening on Aug 5th, 2009
Of course, we’ll start with the cutest!!
Leif had a few bites of rice cereal yesterday, and he downed it!!!
“Hmmmmm, I think I might have a bite, thank you!”
“WOW! I LIKE! Give me that spoon!”
“Mine!! ALL MINE!”
“Yes, boys can too play with Barbies! They are very tastey!”
I finally got around to harvesting most of the chard. [...]
Posted in Sustainable Living on Aug 3rd, 2009
Ashley over at Small Measure is having another give away! This time it’s a cherry marmalade!! Ohhhh, Yummy!!! Go over and check her out!
Posted in Organic Gardening, Sustainable Living on Aug 1st, 2009
From the garden this past month I harvested:
Eggs – 70
Lettuce – 1oz
Chard – 1# (although there is a bunch out there that needs harvesting… we just haven’t felt like eating it)
Herbs (culinary) – 4 oz
Summer Squashes – 15# 2oz
Peas – 6 oz
Kale – 3# 4oz
Green Beans – 6# 2oz
Cucumbers – 50# 7 oz (!!!)
Onions – [...]