Category Archives: Sustainable Living

Weekend in review

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Well, while I was away, I journaled all of my thoughts and feelings with the intention on blogging them. But, I think I would end up losing all of my readers if I bored you with that. (Plus, when I was just typing this, I misstyped and wrote “…with the intentions of flogging them…”)

Anyway, in synopsis, Earthaven is a wonderful place with some great people who are trying to make a difference in the world by living off the grid and as sustainably as possible. They have created an intentional community, but it felt lonely to me. They get so many ‘tourists’ that I’m sure they get tired of catering to all the questions. Plus, everyone is working very hard at making the community function, that many just don’t have time to socialize. But, those who did were gracious and kind. The grounds there were bursting with herbs and wild greens. So, I didn’t have a problem with my pre-cleanse diet. Plus, the food that was cooked where I was staying was almost always something I could eat. I think the main thing I took away from the weekend was that I am ready to make that leap to selling our comfortable, typical american home and buying land to build a sustainable, off the grid place. I am tired of paying a mortgage that will end up costing us twice as much because of interest!

I missed K desperately while I was gone! Sometimes I just felt like crying it was so lonely without her at my side. But, I know if was good for her and Toby. He said that he really felt like they had some bonding time.

Well, I am off to make my cleansing lemonade for tomorrow…Day 1 of the cleanse!

Cleanse Prep Day 1

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Ok, I’m not even fasting yet and I am starving! I keep walking in to the kitchen and looking at the bread and cheese and yogurt and thinking “just one little bite” 🙂 I love eating fruits and veggies, but my system is so use to more than that. This morning when I was fixing K’s breakfast, I kept wanting to toss pieces in my mouth. I’m so use to eating my food and part of her’s. It’s amazing how I have gotten into such a food routine! (With having a child and through my whole like, always munching) I’m surprised that I don’t actually have a more significant weight problem. Hmmm…

Off for the weekend, I’ll touch base soon. OH, and I may be able to pick up our bees on the way home from Earthaven!! Pictures coming soon…

Cleansing

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OK, well it looks like the weaning is official. K woke up this morning and didn’t even mention nursing. My little girl is all grown up! So, I decided to start the cleanse tomorrow. I will try to post each day how things are going and what I am doing. I will be gone this weekend to Earthaven for a little time away, and won’t have a computer. But, I will post when I get back.

Why am I doing a cleanse? A bunch of reasons: all the daily pollutants I encounter that my liver has had to deal with processing over the years, feeling sluggish after being indoors all winter, desire to lose those last pregnancy pounds, decrease my allergies and asthma, break the cycle of overeating due to needing more calories while nursing (and really enjoying food), and I’m sure there are more reasons I am just not thinking of right now.

So, here is the schedule:

Preparation Days

  • for three days before beginning the cleanse, drop all spicy foods, cheese/dairy, fatty/greasy foods, all meat, sugar, caffeine, alcohol and salt. (Basially you are eating fresh fruits and veggies, raw salads, boiled/steamed veggies, and whole foods)
  • Drink at least 10 glasses of water/herb teas per day
  • Make a pact with yourself to see it through the cleanse
  • Confirm why you are doing it
    Cleansing Days

  • Begin every morning and end every day with a 10 oz cup of laxative tea. I am using Get Regular by Yogi Tea. It’s a good formula. Since you won’t have any fiber in your diet, this will help your bowels move the toxins out of your body.
  • Throughout the day drink 6-12 10oz cups of cleansing lemon/limeade. (If you are trying to take off a little weight, drink 6-8 cups.)
  • Lemon/Limeade Recipe (Here is the recipe per cup and per 6 cups or half gallon)
    Organic Lemon or Lime Juice – 2 Tbsps(/cup) 3/4 cup (for a half gallon)
    Grade B Organic Mapple Syrup – 2 Tbsps(/cup) 3/4 cup (for a half gallon)
    Cayenne – 1/10 tsp(/cup) 1/2 tsp (or a little more for a half gallon)
    Water – 10 oz or 1/2 gallon (or 6- 10oz cups)

Lemons and limes are very rich in minerals and vitamins. Maple Syrup is a balanced form of sugar and shouldn’t make your blood sugar bounce. It is also rich in vitamins and minerals and will help give you energy (grade B is richer in vitamins and minerals than the other forms). Cayenne helps pull out the mucous and toxin build up in the body. Water helps keep the toxins flowing out.

  • During the day I will also drink lots of water and herb teas (without any sweetener). I also plan to use the following cleansing formula: 1 tsp each of Flax Seed, Fennel Seed, Fenugreek Seed gently simmered for ~15 minutes in 2 cups of water. Take off heat and add 1 tsp of Spearmint.
  • Before bed, I will also take 60 drops of Milk Thistle Tincture to help my liver cleanse

I’m not sure yet how long I will do this. Maybe 7-10 days. We have a big anniversary party weekend coming up the 22-24th. So, I don’t want to be fasting then. But, I could be coming off of my fast. That way, I can join in on the eating, but only good, healthy foods. Also, each day of this whole process I will either take a nice fast walk, or go to the gym.

Breaking The Cleanse

  • Day 1 – Freshly squeezed organic Orange Juice all day! This helps prepare the digestive system to begin assimilating food
  • Day 2 – Breakfast – OJ, after that I will add freshly juiced veggies and maybe a gently veggie soup
  • Day 3 – Breakfast – OJ, then raw fruits and veggies and soups
  • Day 4 – Normal (healthy) meals

So, now, what to do with that bag of chocolate chips in the cabinet. I don’t want to be tempted during the cleanse. I’d better go eat them!!

Deer Control 2

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Well, the deer have found the garden! I don’t think they know there is stuff growing there, just that there is a fence around it. I found a huge rip in the fencing where I think a deer got caught. But, there was no sign of a struggle, or tracks. So, I think they took off as soon as they got free. So, this morning I pulled out all the stops! I tied pie pans to some of the fence posts to make noise in the wind. I tied a bar of Irish Spring (which I hear deer hate) to each post as a deterant, and I wove red and silver “bird flash tape” through the fencing to make sure the deer saw it and didn’t try to run right through it! I hope that works! Everything is starting to take off with the warm weather we had this week. So, I don’t want the deer to try again and find a smorgusborg(sp?). I checked the 10 day forcast and there are no freezing temperatures in sight. So, since April 15th is the average last frost date and the lowest predicted temp in the next 10 days in in the 40’s, I planted some summer squash, pumpkin, zucchini, and cucumber seedlings and also some corn, bean, aster, zinnea, and radish seeds. Wish me luck!

For dinner tonight we had a salad with fresh greens, chard, arugula, and parsley from the garden (there weren’t many to harvest, but enough to say “we had fresh greens, chard, arugula, and parsley from the garden”). I also added some chickweed, violet leaves and flowers from the yard. Non-home-grown stuff added was spinach, tomato, strawberries, kalamata olives, walnuts, feta cheese, sprouts, and broccoli. I have to say, it was very yummy!

Now, I am sipping on some sage tea to help dry up my milk. I’m not really engorged, but I can feel a fullness. K didn’t ask for ‘boobie’ all day and I am doing pretty good mentally. I have heard that there are certain astrological signs that are easier to wean under. Do any of you know about this?

Drinking my own urine!

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* Many years ago I heard about Urine Therapy and was pretty grossed out. Why would you drink your own urine if your body is trying to get rid of it and the toxins it carries. But, the more I read about it, the more it makes sense! If your urine carries some of the toxins that your body is battling with, why not use your urine, in small doses, to homeopathically remedy yourself? I think I will try it and see if I can’t get rid of my asthma, or allergies. In fact, while I’m at it, maybe I’ll try a little of my feces too! Hell, why not go for the gusto!

*This post is dedicated to my mother, whom I love dearly. But, who openly, and sometimes with a bit of a hand-on-the-hip-finger-shaking air about her, disagrees with some of the decisions I make in my life/lifestyle and forgets sometimes that I am a big girl who does a lot of thinking/meditating/researching of issues before making decisions. And though she has said she is not going to read my blog anymore, “Hi Mom! No, I will not use shampoo on my hair! I can still get it clean and healthy without shampoo. If I die from lack of ‘shampoo hygeine’, you can stand over my grave and say ‘I told you so’ as loud as you like!” Oh, and don’t worry, I still think Urine therapy is gross and I certainly don’t intend on eating my poo. Just thought I would ruffle moms feathers a little 🙂

My first harvest

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I harvested my first vermicompost today! As some of you may remember, one of my first postings to this blog was about my new worm bin. Well, I finally got in there and dug out some of the compost. I wasn’t expecting much. I’ve been dumping all of our food scraps in there since last July and the pile never seems to grow. So, I assume the worms are eating it up. But, I just never see much going on in there. I see all kinds of other bugs and the occasional mouse, but I thought there would be more worm action. Well, I figured out today that I just wasn’t looking hard enough before. ‘Cause, when I dug down to the bottom, there was a ton of compost and lots of worms. I started off with ~2 1/2 pounds of red worms (Eisenia foetida), and I must have pulled at least that much out of the compost that I sorted, which was only ~1/4 of the bin!! Plus, there were lots and lots of baby worms and eggs, too. I ended up with ~15 pounds of compost, nice and black!! I put in some fresh bedding for the worms into the bin and tossed them back in to the side that still has all the food.

Other happenings today: Puddle jumping (or as K likes to call it “Walk on water!”) and bread making!

Monsanto Sucks!

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I can’t believe that we can ban people from smoking in public places and we can’t get rid of crooks and killers like Monsanto!! I try so hard to make my home and environment a healthy, nurturing one. It makes me sick that these huge corporations are out there dumping filth into my world! When I hear about all of the babies in Vietnam that have been effected by Agent Orange (an herbicide made by Monsanto), it makes my body shake! What if things had been different and I was born into a vietnamese family? That could have been me or worse, K!! AAAARRRGGGHHGGHH!! And they have just been let off the hook for all the horror that has been caused by this herbicide. We have got to take a stand!! (YES! I am screaming!) Now this company, who is huge into genetically modified crops, is sueing small farmers for saving their own seeds! (It cuts in on their profits, ya know.) What the F*%#?? Go away Monsanto! You Suck!!

Paneer

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I made my first cheese/paneer this morning and it turned out pretty good. I can buy some really tastey paneer at the local co-op, but it is hard for me to pay $12/pound if I can make it myself! So, here’s the recipe I used:

  • 1 Quart milk (I used low fat) warmed on med. high just until it has a good rolling boil (I stir it a good bit to try to keep it from burning on the bottom).
  • Add 2 1/2 Tbsp of lemon juice /or vinegar (I used a mix of both) and a dash of salt and give it one good stir.
  • Remove it from the heat and let it sit for 15 minutes
  • Line a colander with cheese cloth and pour the curds and whey over the cloth. (you can reserve the whey for soups, too)
  • Tie the ends of the cheesecloth around the “ball” of curds and hang it over the sink to drain. Leave it over night.
  • The next morning, remove the cheese from the cloth and (if needed) wrap it loosely in plastic wrap. Place heavy objects on top of the ball to flatten it out and drain the rest of the water.
  • Once it is done draining, put it in a tupperware in the fridge.

I tripled the recipe. My paneer didn’t need to be drained after it was hung up to drip. It came out fairly dry, but still really good. Maybe I will add a little less vinegar next time and see if it will stay together better. I may also try adding some spices, too.

Tonight, I am going to make Palak Paneer (or Spinach Curry):

  • 1 C (~4oz) Paneer, cubed
  • 20 oz fresh or frozen spinach, chopped
  • 3/4 C onions, finely chopped
  • 1 tsp. ginger, finely chopped
  • 2 tsp. garlic, finely chopped
  • 1 green chili, chopped (I am not a fan of spicey food, so I use a few roasted red peppers)
  • 1 tsp. Garam Masala
  • 3-4 Tbsp. butter
  • Salt to taste
  • Oil for frying

Heat the oil (for frying) and fry the cubed paneer until light brown. Set aside.

Boild the spinach with ginger and garlic. Drain and puree. Heat the butter in a pan and add the chili (or red pepper) and onions. Saute till light brown. Add the garam masala, spinach puree and salt and cook for ~5 minutes. Finally, add the fried cheese.

Serve with heavy cream and flat bread if desired.

Haven’t pooed in 12 days

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I’ve got your attention now, eh?? No, really, I am doing an experiment with my hair called No ‘Poo. And I haven’t shampooed in 12 days. I have washed my hair, I just haven’t used shampoo. See, Toby hasn’t used shampoo in his hair in years and it looks great! It is thick and shiny and he doesn’t have all that shampoo/chemical build up. So, when I read a little more about it, I decided to give it a try. Now, when ever I take a shower, I use a little baking soda and apple cidar vinegar on the ends of my hair, and give myself a great scalp massage. I thought it was going to be an oily mess, but after a few days my hair has already started to adjust. My scalp isn’t over producing oil anymore and my hair has lots of body and wave and looks like it’s been styled. The only thing I don’t like is that it feels heavier. Maybe that will go away after the full adjustment period. We’ll see how it goes. The baking soda and vinegar are supposed to pull out all of the daily build-up of sweat/pollution/etc, but I really use to like sudsing up my hair and the smell of it after using a good fragrant shampoo. But, I also like not putting the sodium lauryl crap in my hair.

Ok, other happenings…
Today in the garden I planted some Cosmos, Sorrel, Fennel, Love-in-a-mist, Cilantro and Arugula (all seeds). I hope all this stuff that I am putting in so early grows well. I could wait a little longer, but I am so antsy to get in the garden that I am taking a risk with frosts and cold weather. I got a report back from the State Ag. Center about my soil and it has a pH of 6.8 and great nutrients and minerals. All it needs is a little more Nitrogen!! Yay!! (Good thing I put in the raised beds with new soil ’cause the soil on our land has a pH of 5.1!!)

So, I am hoping to take a weekend away. Meaning, for the first time since K was born, I hope to get some quality time by myself and leave Toby and K at home. I have put it off for this long since K is still nursing. I didn’t want to force her to wean. But, she is almost two, and I am desperate for some time independant of my little side-kick. I love her, but 24/7 365 days a year is a lot of time to spend with someone! So, what should I do?? Any ideas from my fellow bloggers? My first thought was to head just north of Asheville, and get a cabin at the hot springs up there…

Fasting– Another thing I am desperate for is a good fast/cleanse. I use to do a cleanse every spring. I would either juice for a week or do some form of a cleanse to clean my body out after ‘hibernating’ for the winter. It always felt great! But, with being pregnant and nursing, I didn’t want to fast and have all those toxins get in my breast milk. So, maybe, if K does wean with my weekend away, I will get a good cleanse going. Has anyone ever tried the Master Cleanser Fast? I think I am going to try this one. I like the juice fasts, but they always mess with my blood sugar. The Master Cleanser, is supposed to be different and so far I have only heard good things.

Today’s plantings

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Happy Spring Equinox!

Today in the garden, I’ve been busy! Here’s what I’ve been planting:

In raised bed #1 -Seeds of white clover to use as an undercrop (corn, summer squash, radish, aster and pumpkin will be added later)
Bed #2 – Potatos and parsley seedlings(bush beans, cilantro, dill, and a zinnea will be added later)
Bed #3 – (watermelon, cantaloupe nasturtium, and radish later)
Bed #4 – Onion, carrot, and beet seeds planted, Chard seedlings planted (eggplant, pepper, cosmos, calendula, blackeyed susan, and blanket flower to come later)
Bed #5 – Sweet Alyssum and nasturtium seeds planted (cucumber, zuchini and marigold later)
Bed #6 – Lettuce, Spinach, Kale, and Arugula seedlings planted (tomato, basil, borage, and cosmos later)

I also have some sorrel and other yummies that I want to fit in somewhere. I will probably start a big ‘perenials’ bed with herbs and more too. Busy, busy, busy!

more plantings

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We back from our conference, which was wonderful! I really enjoyed all of the classes I took. The “Planning your vegetable garden” class was a great refresher and synopsis of the things I should be doing now! The “organic beekeeping” class, again, a great review of all the things I have been reading. (We mainly focused on how to tackle varroa mites without using conventional chemicals. We went over screened bottom boards, mite resistant bees, organic methods like removing brood frames, 4.9 cell foundation…) The class on “high-production raised bed gardens” was actually the same class I went to last Fall, but it was a good review. Then I decided to go to a class on cooking with medicinal and culinary herbs. It was great. We ended class with a herbal pesto (made with chickweed, green onion, mustard greens, toasted sunflower seed, and a few other things!), and an herbal salad dressing (made with herbs and a vinegar prepared from blueberry wine) on top of greens. Mmmmmm…

The weather was amazing today. It was supposed to be chilly and overcast, but instead we got into the 70’s with sunshine all day. We finally got all of the posts up for the garden fence and got up the fencing. Good thing too, cause I found some deer poop just outside of my garden!! Hopefully they will stay out once I get things planted. I have been holding off on putting anything in the garden until we got the fencing up. But, tomorrow, I hope to get Kale, Lettuce, Spinach, and Radish in the ground. I just finished putting some hot peppers, cosomos, alyssum, marigold, calendula, aster, and nasturtium in flats (I’m using all the flowers as companion plants in different garden beds). We’ll see how it all goes. I’ve never tried flowers in flats before. I usually just throw them in the ground and rant and groan when they don’t come up 🙂

Feng Shui Gardening

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We got out in the yard early today and finally got the garden beds put together. I still need to put down more mulch in between the beds, and we need to put up the fence. But, the beds look great, don’t they? Very Fung Shui!

We cut some cedar to make as fence posts. But, the water level seems to be really high in this part of the yard. So, the bottom half of the post hole is just mud. We need to rethink what we are going to use… I guess metal posts.

Most of my seeds seem to be doing pretty well. The kale, lettuce and tomatoes are growing great. (Except my cherry tomatoes). The chard isn’t putting on a great show, so hopefully I can get a few more growing before time to transplant. This is my first attempt at growing from seed. So, so far so good, really.

Well, my body is exhausted from working in the yard all day! I’m off to veg in front of the TV!

Lion, Tiger, and Bear

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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

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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

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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?

Manly men

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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

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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.

planning

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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??

Hello

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I just wanted to say hello to everyone out there! Things have been so hectic/frantic/spastic here, but not in a “hey, that’s cool, I should blog about it” way. So, I’ve been silent. Toby and K have both had colds, and I am frantically trying to get everything together with Full Circle Herbs before the article comes out. (Which, by the way, you can preview here. Of course they went with the one picture that was taken where Toby was in front :-))

I’ve also been getting really excited about this beekeeping thing! I have applied to be a part of a cost share program through one of the local universities. If accepted, they will provide me with two hives and two packages of bees. The university is conducting research on a specific type of honey bee (Russian) that is supposed to be more mite resistant. I’m excited, but nervous! I know that you don’t get stung much if you do it right, but I am still nervous. I also spoke with a woman today who runs Sunshine Lavender Farm, just north of me, and she said that I could bring my hives out there when the lavender is in bloom and harvest some lavender honey!! That would be AWESOME!!

Have a great weekend!

Beekeeping

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Did you know that there is a “Beekeeping for Dummies”? There is! I love the “dummies” series.

I started taking a beekeeping course last night and it is a blast! The main speaker last night was a sweet old farmer who seemed to run off track with every other sentence, but he was still so much fun to listen too.

Many of the bees in NC are dying because of a honey bee mite. So, aside from having a decrease in the honey production, farmers are having a hard time getting crops pollinated without the bees around. So, I thought it might be a good idea to learn to be a beekeeper. Plus, I get all the honey and beeswax I could ask for!!

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Check out this awesome scarf I made for K. I am certainly not a seamstress. So, I am very proud of myself for completing this scarf. And isn’t the fabric great!! It’s so cute!! K hates it! 🙂

Hot Porn Tree

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We have cut up a hardwood tree from the front yard and it is ready to innoculate with shitake spawn. I did a little research and figured out that it is an Eastern Hophornbeam. So, I yelled this fact across the living room to Toby, who was in the kitchen washing his hands…”What?? A Hot Porn Tree?? Awesome!!” he said. He is very excited to see what pops up out of this tree:-)

She’s a mean one, Mrs. Grinch

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So, I decided to play the grinch today. We (Toby, K and I) are supposed to go back to Asheville on the 10th for Toby’s Office Holiday party, and then back to Asheville again 2 weeks later for Christmas. I told Toby today that I would travel for one of those weekends but not both…and that means K would only be traveling for one too. Here’s why…of the past 4 weeks, we have traveled 3 of them (to NY for the Marathon and to Asheville, twice), with, let me emphasize, the 17 month old. During this time, we have had to find someone (and it was a different person every time, poor animals) to watch the animals, the house has become a complete wreck, and none of the stuff that we were supposed to have done before winter has gotten done. We still have 75 trees to take down in the front before our house can get any solar heat, I still have to sew up the insulating curtains, and let’s not forget about Christmas cards!!! I know, bitch and moan, but I decided that I have had enough. I almost popped yesterday (that’s popped, not pooped!) after tripping over the stroller, in the middle of the living room. So, since I am a little tightly wound (is that how you spell it?), I decided not to go to Asheville on the 10th. And since I don’t want to wean K yet. Toby will make the trip by himself and I will have the house, and K, to myself. At first glance, you might think it is harder to have to take care of K by myself, but I actually think it is easier. Because we don’t have to worry about anyone else’s schedule, or clean up after anyone else…I’m not saying that Toby is a needy pig, but you now what I mean, it’s just easier by yourself, even with a toddler in tow. So, once next week is over and school is done, maybe I will have some time to put my feet up and chill…I hope so!

On a happier note, I talked with my mother tonight and she said that the Herbal Ulcer Syrup that I made for her has her feeling 95% better! It’s always so good to hear when things work well. Even though I know what these herbs are supposed to do, it’s nice to hear good feedback.

Halloween 2004

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We had a jam packed weekend with parties, family and friends visiting, and soap making! On Friday night, we went to a Halloween costume party being thrown by the Biodiesel Co-Op that we are a part of. Toby actually went dressed as one of the head-honchos of the Co-Op and it was hysterical!! He put on glasses, brushed his hair down and wore a Biodiesel t-shirt. That’s Toby on the left
I was a Flower Fairy and K was a bumble bee. Here she is with her cousin Meredith at the local Halloween Carnival.

Before the Sunday festivities, Toby and I made some soap. We haven’t bought soap in over 4 years!! Our favorite recipe is Pepermint-Poppy Seed Soap. MMmmmm Although, sometimes we put a dash too much peppermint essential oil and it gets a little too tingly for those ‘special’ areas 🙂 I am thinking about making a coffee soap…for those of you out there trying to cut back on your caffeine. Just shower with the coffee soap and the smell with perk you right up!! Like those ‘zest-fully clean’ commercials.

Winter Medicine Making

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Every Fall, I try to prepare for the cold and flu season by making some herbal remedies to help get me through the winter. I always make some Elderberry syrup and maybe a garlic tonic…things to nip a cold in the bud. This year, I thought I would invite some people over to share in the fun of making medicines. So, I had a small group of people at my house today for a winter herbal medicine making class. It was a blast! We made a huge batch of Elderberry syrup, some nutritional vinegars, and some herbal cough drops. They all turned out very yummy! Here are the recipes we used if you are interested in trying them out.

Smelling the Elderberries cookingLaura smelling the cooking Elderberries.Straining the elderberriesRachel straining the Elderberries.Stirring the cough drop teaAndrea stirring the cough drop tea and supporting her back (She’s due anyday! :-))nutritional vinegarsThe nutritional vinegars with Astragalus, Ginseng, Shitake mushrooms, and Umboshi plums.

Dazed and Confused

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Well, Toby and I have been talking at length (my mouth is dry!!) about our goals and priorities for our family and life. On our way to Raleigh today we wrote down our priorities. Here is my list, in no particular order:

    Have time to spend with my family and my friends(what’s the point in having a family if you never get time to spend with them)
    Raise my family (meaning I don’t want to have to put K in daycare or have someone else be the mother figure to her so that I can spend more time at work)
    Creating a healthy family (I want the time to make cook healthy meals for the family and make herbal medicines for them, etc.)
    Work toward self-sufficiency and a sustainable home (homesteading) this one is a biggie!

When I read over my list I realized that no where in there did I mention anything about being a librarian or getting my MLS degree. And any jobs that I think I would enjoy doing after graduating probably wouldn’t even require an MLS degree. So, I am really trying to hash out why I am in this program and if it is beneficial to my goals or just a side step. I am really enjoying it. The intellectual stimulation and the people are wonderful. But that’s no reason to pay thousands of dollars. If what Toby and I want is to live more simply, more sustainably, to work the land and to get the word out to other people about living more gently on the earth, then what will an MLS get me? Contacts, yes, knowledge, yes, but I could also be taking classes at the CCCC that are directly related to sustainability while still developing contacts and gaining knowledge. I just don’t know. I know I will ultimately be happier if I get out of this rat race, but I grew up in this society and it’s hard to get rid of that little voice that keeps saying “make more money”. “buy more things”, “you need recognition from your job”. Being a mother and living simple and healthy lives gets no recognition in the society. Plus, I know that there are many things that I could learn from this program and I feel like a failure when I think about quitting, but, like I said, I feel like I am taking side steps instead of walking a straight line. Usually there is some over riding factor that makes it easier to make a hard decision like this, but there is nothing here. I just don’t know which decision would be more beneficial for everyone involved. I’d love to hear your thoughts… (if it’s too much to put in the comment section, please email me directly

Rainbow dinners and vegetable cars

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Lately, many of the blogs that I read have been posting about food, especially fall harvest foods. So, today I was inspired to head to the Farmer’s Market and get some of the local goodies. Then, I went out into the back yard and picked some herbs to add to the mix. For dinner we had eggplant, sweet peppers, tomato, and shitake mushrooms stir-fried up with some garlic, ginger, lady’s thumbs, lemon verbena, rosemary, brown rice vinegar, tamari, sesame oil, and a splash of orange juice. MMmmmmm, tasty!

On another exciting note, I just found out that our car is going to be ‘featured’ at the Shakori Grass Roots Festival this Sunday, to show people how to convert their cars to run off of vegetable oil.

Cooler Weather

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Wow, what a beautiful day! The sky was blue, the air was crisp…

I took K out to run some errands and she fell asleep in the car seat before we got to the store. So, I took her out of the seat (we were in Carrboro, by a nice, green patch of grass) and we laid down under a willow tree while she slept for a while. I’d almost forgotten what it was like to have her sleep on my chest. I love to kiss her head while she sleeps…

With the cooler weather, it is time to move some of my plants indoors. This usually makes the house feel a little more crowded. But, also, more like a little tropical paradise! Here’s the bedroom:
plants
Check out the banana. It’s only one year old! I’m hoping it will fruit this next year.