DH, SIL and I worked till midnight getting the galimoto’s framework ready for the birthday party. It was fun, chatting, listening to music on the porch while bending and wrapping wires. Â And the kids, mostly aged eight, really got into it, though some parts were pretty challenging. With some help they stuck with it. In …
Author Archives: kaat
Homemade Goody Bag: Galimoto
Amie’s birthday is coming up and so is her party. We always do small parties at home with homemade cake and games. For many years we’ve asked the guests not to bring presents, but then I noticed how proud and happy Amie always is to give her present to her friends when it’s their party. …
A Study in Contrasts with Kombucha
On this rainy day, reading Thompson’s Growth and Form (“Nature works true to scale, and everything has its proper size accordingly”) while  listening to Beethoven’s Seventh, second movement (Allegretto) over and over again and sipping sumptuous kombucha tea (I’m getting the hang of it). All three are sumptuous, of course, but one is cerebral, the other mournful, …
An Afternoon with the Chickens
I am so glad we started the free range experiment, because I have learned that being with all those animals, doing what they do, is very relaxing and amusing and just plain good for the soul. I used to indulge in “chicken tv” through their fence, but it’s so much nicer when the characters come …
Designing a Garden
A group of us hammered out the mission of our Community Garden plots today. What a lovely meeting, dreaming, brainstorming, opening reference books… and all the while freeing the oats. So good to have something to do with the hands while conceptualizing. We started by putting together a mission plan, a dream: Â why this garden? …
Hens and Frog
The weather being sunny and not too hot, we sat outside, watching the hens enjoy a free-range stroll. No lawn is complete without chickens, I say! That’s why you have to watch them: they’ll mess up your lawn in no time with their scratching. The monster on the trellis is actually two hardy kiwis. The …
Living Foods
August is all about food. All the colors are coming in now: deep green collards and brussels sprout leaves, yellow squashes, red tomatoes, orange peaches, purple eggplants, and blueberries are holding in there. The bees are turning the orange and yellow nectar (over)flow into oodles of honey. At the end of the month there will …
Of Axes and Goats and Sumac
The purple loosestrife and the goldenrod are blooming (*), and the sumac is on fire (**). Life is good. I’m researching axes. I am sorely lacking in axe skills, which I think are the perfect skills to have: good for fitness through meaningful physical work, good for the mind as an exercise in mindfulness and …
Riot for Abundance – July 2013 – Month 57
ALMOST FIVE YEARS OF RIOT! This is the Riot for Abundance for July 2013  for the three of us. Edson fixed the calculator: all go tither to crunch those numbers! Gasoline.  Calculated per person. 15.9 gallons pp. 39% of the US National Average Electricity. This is reckoned per household, not per person. We cook on an …
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Hulless Oats
I pulled the oats – Terra Hulless Oats, Avena nuda, literally “naked oats” - from their bed mid July. The plants were falling over (“lodging”) and still somewhat green (10%), which is when Logsdon recommends harvesting them. I stuck them, straw and all, in buckets to let them ripen and dry in the sun-filled protection of my porch. …