When we were reading the mountains of paperwork involved in buying our new place, we discovered we had a spring with holding tanks and grandfathered-in water rights on adjacent BLM land up the hill. The fellow who lived in the house told us that about once a year, we would need to go up and clear out the pools of leaves and debris, and check the pipes in case an elk kicked them loose, to get the ...
Homesteading
A Sneak Peek at the New Homestead
Moving has been keeping me busy...too busy to write a blog post about the new place. But, I thought I'd give a sneak peek at the new homestead which will be the future subject of many, many writings to come. Every day it seems, some new flower opens up. Currently there are several colors of rhododendrons, wild irises, orchids, lilacs, roses and the list goes on and on... I feel ...
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 ...
Fall on the Farm
There are so many things to enjoy about Autumn time. The trees put on their brilliantly colored mantles of red, orange, rich brown and golden hues. The abundance of fruits, vegetables, nuts and mushrooms is ripe for the picking. Gardens are tucked into bed for the winter. Flocks of Canada geese sing travelling songs overhead. Creatures and humans alike nest and settle into their homes and burrows ...
I Wood and I Could: The Story of Heating a Home
The rain has set in, I have a warm, cheery fire in my woodstove, and my woodshed is piled with neatly stacked wood. Now, I love wood heat, and tend to really thrive on it in the wintertime, so these things are pretty exciting to me all on their own. This year it is much more exciting because it is not only the heat supply for a winter in my home, but I gathered, cut, split, and stacked that ...
Miss Thena’s Easy Applesauce
This post goes out in honor of my friend Thena, who got herself a homestead this weekend. She's been working hard towards it for YEARS and when I was up in Washington visiting her in June, she showed me around this lovely bank-owned acreage with an orchard, outbuildings, chicken coop, a pond, fenced pasture, and a woodstove. She and her partner had just made their offer on it that day and ...
September Harvest
It's harvest time, and now that I've shown you the macrocosm of the organic farm around me, I'll share some of my favorite things happening in my own modern micro homestead. First off, there is the rainbow of potatoes the kids and I dug up the other evening. I tried to plant the most colorful array possible, and cram them into a fairly small area. It seems the gophers thought this patch of ...
Another Wild Night on the Farm
I have a favorite magnet on my refrigerator that says "Wild Women Don't Get the Blues." Well, I can tell you that I still get the blues, but they can always be worked through via late night canning with a delicious beverage. Tonight's wild late night involves 18 pints of corn relish (another basic recipe from the Ball Blue Canning Book) and Elysian Brewing Company's newest addition to the 12 Beers ...
A Wild Night on the Farm
What passes for a late, wild night around here: 14 quarts of Dilly Beans canned and cooling, and two bottles of Elysian Brewing Company's Night Owl Pumpkin Ale. My new favorite fall beverage. You can find the recipe for these delicious Dilly Beans in your Ball Blue Canning Book. I add extra red pepper flakes to make them spicy. And speaking of favorite fall beverages, look for more to ...
Morning in the Fields
I was doing some blog housekeeping, and came across a handful of posts that never made it up or were quite finished. This is a passage from one of my favorite novels by Virgina Woolf, The Waves, that reminded me of misty mornings in the field behind my farmhouse. I still get a little pang of homesickness from time to time for mornings on my Elmira homestead, and this really captured my ...