Plans for Next Year: Chickens, Bees, Frogs

Next year I want would like: a second colony, in a homemade top bar hive. chickens, 3 of them. the beginning of a dwarf fruit tree orchard. a guild around the cherry tree. an earth oven in a straw bale shelter, a strawbale low wall with welcoming arch up front, and  some strawbale benches, shelters …

Summer Hoop House to Winter Hoop House

We finally have a winter hoop house. We moved the thing from its summer to its winter position yesterday and today. It took us, 2 adults and 1 5-year-old, 6 hours, and about 2 hours of that was spent on making new parts. Not bad. Those end walls weigh a TON! Our trusty Radio Flyer …

A Five-Year-Old’s Physics, Biology, Meteorology, Etc.

Amie drew her family for school (DH, Mama, Amie) ~ A: Water isn’t heavy. It’s just air that’s blue and wet. ~ I found her hiding behind a tiny notebook.  I asked her if hiding her face makes her entirely invisible. Incredibly, she did seem to believe this. Then she thought about it for a …

Daily Bread No. 13 and Hot Box Update

I joined the a team of parent and teacher volunteers who are working to make the school system in our town greener. We’re working on getting the recycling going. Especially lunch time is a problem, a big black hole that apparently eats only trash. ~ I’m still baking, only not as much – a bread …

HUMONGOUS Pumpkin Haul

Today we came home from Amie’s cello lesson to this: We could not believe the size of that giant pumpkin! There were also bags of more pumpkins, goopy pumpkin guts, and a couple of gourds. The latter I would have to cut up somehow,  they’re so hard, or maybe I’ll try drying them for bird …

Dandelion Tincture – Part 2

Today I pressed the dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) tincture that I started on 14 October (roots and leaves). It has been sitting in my herbal medicine closet (dark, cool and accessible) for over three weeks (14 days is the minimum). I shook it twice daily. It has become a saying in our household: “Mama’s shaking her …

Amie’s Latest Drawings

Amie’s drawings are always changing – see the Drawing As It Develops series to follow her drawings from the beginning. She is nowadays mostly interested in human figures, especially herself, and is experimenting with movement and joints, etc. And there is also always text, in invented spelling. Amie picking up a leaf.This is a month …

Peas Anyway, and Daily Bread No.12, Rain Barrels, Pumpkins

The Fall peas never had a chance to blossom – my fault, I planted them too late. But during a garden tour a friend pointed out I could still eat the shoots. Lovely just like that and in soup and salad. Also baked Daily Bread No.12. It sang when I took it out of the …