I am happy to say that I will never need to worry again about having enough wildlife in my wild life. We discovered a whole colony of wild honeybees inhabiting the wall of our shed, merrily pollinating the hazelnut orchards with a flight path aiming right out over the tops of the trees. Since I have been an aspiring bee keeper for some time, and still working through my discomfort with being ...
Home is Where the Hearth is
Farewell to the Farm
As Spring is a season of growth and change, it seems fitting that we should be reflecting that growth and change in our lives. As the blossoms were emerging and raining fragrant, white petals from the cherry trees, I packed up my household in the little farm cottage that I rented the last year and a half, and moved on to a homestead of my own. Although this was very different from the sad goodbye ...
Do-it-yourself Rustic Ladder Kitchen Rack
I am happy to share a project that has been a long time in the works, and has been so enjoyed in it's completion, I haven't even had a down moment to write about it. In fact, I think it's so exciting, I have made it into a little how-to building project post. For those of us folks who spend a lot of time in our kitchens, it is well known that you can never really have too many places to ...
Pumpkin Pie
...
For the Love of Lavender
With the mornings and evenings getting chilly, I decided it was time to bring some herbs indoors and begin Autumn nesting. My mother brought me all of her lavender she had harvested in her garden when she was here for a visit, which was good since my few plants aren't very established yet, and I began tying up little bundles and hanging them wherever I could find a good spot. I put it in vases ...
A Homestead Tour
On the way to a day outing to the beach last week, we stopped by to visit my homesteading friends, Jeff, Taryn and Bracken on their place up the Siuslaw River. They are some of my favorite, inspiring people in this world, and it is always a treat to have a visit with them and see what they have been up to on their land. Between raising their son, making and selling art with ...
First Snow
We finally woke up to some white winter mornings this week that were so silent and still you could hear a crow's call clear as a bell from across the fields. As soon as the sun would peek up over the hills it all began to sparkle like thousands of little diamonds. This is one of my favorite parts of Winter that we only seem to get a little taste of around here. It's important to appreciate it ...
Goodbye to the Homestead
Reading the passage in Little House on the Prairie where Laura Ingalls Wilder recounts leaving in the wagon and watching out the back as their homestead grows smaller and smaller, becoming a tiny speck in the distance has always had a profound impact on me. When I read it as a girl, it seemed more tragic than the ending of Old Yeller. When I read it as an adult, it blew me ...
A Girl and Her Banjo is a Beautiful Thing
I've got a confession to make here. I'm madly in love, and I'm going to tell the whole world about it. After twelve years of waiting, I finally got a banjo, and I've been smitten ever since. I don't remember exactly when the banjo fever took hold of me, but when I was about 18, I started entertaining visions of sitting out on the back porch picking away. College kept me pretty ...
Hot Stuff!
You may have noticed these snazzy new tags on my blog giveaways, in my Mountain Hearth Handcrafts Etsy shop, or in my booth at recent festivals. This is my idea turned into reality through my husband's artistic abilities. I have often said that I write because I can't draw or paint, so it's a good thing knowing an artist of that sort. For some time now, I have been stitching these cast-iron ...