Exploring Life In The Grit Of The Earth
Posted in Beekeeping, Mothering, Organic Gardening on Apr 13th, 2009
We had one of those wonderful weekends where you stay really busy with all kinds of fun stuff! Though we don’t really celebrate Easter, Kaia and I wanted to do something crafty for spring. First we made sweet little birds nests (and ate way too many M&M’s) We brought a few to a birthday party [...]
Posted in building our home, General, Organic Gardening on Apr 10th, 2009
I put out some roots yesterday while the moon was in Virgo… potatoes of all colors (red, blue, white, yellow fingerling, new potatoes). I did intensive planting of 50 potatoes in a small raised bed, each potato was placed 9 inches apart in all directions. We’ll see how it goes. I also planted beets (Lutz’s [...]
Posted in Organic Gardening on Apr 3rd, 2009
I set out my broccoli, kale, and lettuce/greens seedlings today. (The moon is in Cancer, a water sign good for planting leafing vegetables.) And tomorrow the moon moves into Leo, a fire sign good for planting fruiting plants, so I am going to start my tomatoes and eggplants. From reading other blogs it seems like [...]
Posted in Mothering, Organic Gardening on Mar 25th, 2009
… 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 [...]
Posted in Organic Gardening on Mar 12th, 2009
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 [...]
Posted in Organic Gardening on Mar 9th, 2009
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 [...]
Posted in General, Organic Gardening on Mar 9th, 2009
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 [...]
Posted in Organic Gardening on Feb 27th, 2009
The leeks and onions aren’t doing so well. They started off great, sprouting in 2 days, but since then they haven’t done much. It’s been 2 weeks since they were planted… they should be about ready to go in the ground! Only one seed has grown to ~2 inches. The rest still look like sprouts. [...]
Posted in Mothering, Organic Gardening on Feb 17th, 2009
Things are chugging along here. On the gardening front, the leeks and onions started sprouting after only 2 days! It’s exciting to see our little window greenhouse working so well! On the baby front, I’m still VERY pregnant, and really starting to get tired of it. It’s wouldn’t be so hard if I wasn’t so [...]
Posted in Organic Gardening on Feb 12th, 2009
I seeded the onions and leeks today. According to my calendar, yesterday afternoon through Saturday the moon is in Virgo and it is a good time for planting/seeding/transplanting rooting crops. I have two different kinds of onions: Copra and Red Bull. For each kind I planted 5 seeds in each 2″ soil block. I will [...]
Posted in Organic Gardening on Feb 9th, 2009
We made some soil blocks today in preparation for seeding our onions and leeks. I used the soil block recipe from Eliot Coleman’s The New Organic Grower book, and did decide to buy a 2″ soil block maker from The Peddler’s Wagon. We mixed up the soil in a large rubbermade tub. I will have [...]
Posted in Organic Gardening on Jan 1st, 2009
I’m very excited to get back into gardening, but I’m also very nervous. I really want to make my time and efforts count and be able to grow as much as possible to feed my family. Still, I feel like there is so much that I don’t know. Everyone seems to have their own ideas [...]
Posted in Organic Gardening on Dec 25th, 2008
…and when I look at what I’m wanting to grow next year, even though I’ve planned out the whole garden, I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed. I like having things organized and it’s been a few years since I’ve gardened (since we’ve been building). Now, I don’t remember all the stuff I knew… like starting seedlings, [...]
Posted in Organic Gardening on Dec 7th, 2008
I’m starting to plan out my garden for next year and trying to figure out how to get seedlings grown. It seems like we will need to buy warming mats (to keep the temp. constant) and maybe even grow lights (since we are on the north side of a mountain and may not get enough [...]
Posted in building our home, Do It Yourself, General, Mothering, Organic Gardening, Pets on Nov 7th, 2008
Here’s all the lard after it was canned. Looks like creamy milk, doesn’t it! I’m really enjoying using it to cook up eggs, veggies, etc… Kaia and I spent some time making some holiday soaps. This was a batch of Wintergreen/Sweet Orange soap, and she’s mixing in a little cinnamon powder ‘to make swirlies!’, while [...]
Posted in building our home, Chickens/Ducks, Hooping, Organic Gardening, Sustainable Living on Oct 1st, 2008
You can call me that if you like! This Sat. Toby helped me finish up a new little chicken hut that I’d started. It’s a 3′x4′ shed that sits at the edge of the fencing of their run. The back side opens so I can put their food and water in. That way, their food [...]
Posted in building our home, Organic Gardening on Sep 22nd, 2008
We had our house party (/birthday party/Equinox celebration) this past weekend. Finally! The house is complete, the yard is tamed, the trash is gone… Whew!! So, this past Saturday, we invited our friends and family, and anyone who helped on the house, to come over and see the finished product. I think there were over [...]
Posted in General, Mothering, Organic Gardening on May 30th, 2008
I was happily surprised that our little berry patch is doing well this year. After the chickens scratching all around and kicking up so many roots, I didn’t think it would survive. But last week, I saw some red coming from the weed surrounded strawberries and found ~1 1/2 quarts of ripe, red strawberries! I’ve [...]
Posted in Holistic Medicine, Mothering, Organic Gardening, Sustainable Living on May 4th, 2007
Would everyone please mark you calendars to email me next year to make sure I get my butt into the woods the first week in May. The woods are bustin’ out!! Kaia and I went to the annual WNC Herb Festival today and shopped for 4 hours! I gave her 25 one-dollar bill in a [...]
Posted in building our home, General, Organic Gardening on Apr 5th, 2007
Here is what was accomplished this past Tuesday on the house! It feels like what I imagine standing in the middle of stonehenge to be like when you are in the house And here is a beautiful dogwood flower! It is supposed to be 17 degrees this sat. night, so I hope they all make [...]
Posted in Mothering, Organic Gardening, Sustainable Living on Jun 4th, 2006
I heard a statement in the news the other day that makes me want to scream!! Generation Y, the young kids today (which includes my baby) are predicted to be the first generation to die before their parents! You know why? Because of all the shit we feed them! Kids under 20 are already starting [...]
Posted in General, Organic Gardening, Sustainable Living on Apr 2nd, 2006
OK, I am totally over yesterday! I just scored 100 organic strawberry plants on WNCBarter (an online bartering community in my area). So, hoop class is a faint memory! Now, I have to put a raised bed in ASAP! Oh, and we close on the land this coming Thursday, FINALLY!
Posted in Organic Gardening, Sustainable Living on Oct 5th, 2005
I just went out to look at my shitake logs to see if they are getting too dry, and found 3 mushrooms growing! And the logs all look like the are about to bust open with more!! yay!! My first ‘shrooms! Now I need a good recipe. I can’t let them go to waste! Maybe [...]
Posted in Organic Gardening on Jun 11th, 2005
Today we headed out to the local lavender farm, Sunshine Lavender Farm, for it’s annual lavender festival!! (Every town should have one!!) There were foods made with lavender, lavender wand making, pick-your-own lavender, even artists there drawing the scenery. And, it smelled so good!! Here are a few shots of the day: Check out this [...]
Posted in Beekeeping, General, Mothering, Organic Gardening, Ponderings on Jun 6th, 2005
OK, there are going to be lots of pictures in this one! First, the bees. They are doing well. Though one hive still has a moderately high mite count, both hives are growing rapidly!! The queens are laying really well and the population is just exploding, which is great! They are bringing in lots of [...]
Posted in Mothering, Organic Gardening on Jun 1st, 2005
We have been staying really busy here! After delivering my order to Weaver Street, I got 3 more orders through my website and wiped out my stock. So, I have spent the last 3 days making soap, ordering supplies, labeling, etc. Toby went out of town for work, and I would have been sunk trying [...]
Posted in Beekeeping, Organic Gardening on May 25th, 2005
We did our 3rd and mite treatment for my hive yesterday. The girls are looking great! Lots of pollen and nectar stored, some capped honey and lots of worker brood. We also spotted the queen, which is always a plus since we are looking in a hive of about 50 thousand bees! My 24 hour [...]
Posted in Beekeeping, Organic Gardening, Sustainable Living on May 17th, 2005
I’ve been filling in my spiral garden and it is looking nice. It’s going to be stuffed with plants! So far it has Comfrey, Motherwort, Bee Balm, Johnny-Jump-Ups, Chives, Marjoram, Thyme, Magenta Lambs Quarters, Yarrow, Lemon Balm, and Zinnea. I moved the Jeruselem Artichoke and Bay Laurel to another bed once that was set up [...]
Posted in Do It Yourself, Organic Gardening on May 10th, 2005
I’ve been trying to make another raised bed for some poor little herbs that are in desperate need of a home. But, I seem to keep finding reasons to put it off. Well, I have finally been inspired by Stella and Steph to build a spiral herb garden. I needed to build something more creative [...]
Posted in Organic Gardening on Apr 30th, 2005
For this mornings snack time, we had strawberries. Then, for lunch, we had more strawberries. For afternoon snack, we had fresh strawberry muffins. For dinner, we had fresh strawberry pie! Can you guess what K and I did for our morning activity?? You got it – Strawberry Picking at a local organic strawberry patch! And [...]