I can't really say when I got the bird raising bug, or tell you how long I have wanted quail, but I sometime over the past ten years, I started dreaming and scheming plans to raise these little game birds. Maybe it was the delicious speckled quail eggs I always picked up at Morning Glory Farm on my way out to the coast, or maybe it was the free rustic chicken coop a friend gave me that was too ...
Homesteading
I Eat Bears for Breakfast: A Bear Bratwurst Recipe
Last year, some homesteader friends of mine who live out in the coast range gifted me with many pounds of frozen bear meat. It was so delicious, that it was very hard for me to ration it out. There were bear steaks, the bear ribs that went into a mouth watering Ethiopian dish at Thanksgiving, bear lard for pie crusts, and then there were some 20 pounds of random bits of bear meat. I had big ...
Life is a Garden. Let the Growing Begin.
May is here, the sun is shining, the days are mild and everywhere you look, things are growing. I am happily getting back in the routine of early morning watering with my first cup of coffee, and every day I see something new germinating. Potatoes are up, radishes and carrots are emerging and my peas finally made it. It's a smaller scale garden than I have been used to working with the last two ...
What’s New and Exciting in my Bed!
Okay, now that the title has grabbed your attention, I just wanted to share my sheer joy over all the greens coming up in my raised greenhouse bed. Every morning when I go out to water, I see new green leafy things pushing up out of the dark, rich soil and unfolding into luscious salad greens. Lettuces, mustards, kales, arugula, and cilantro are on their way to becoming many delicious, fresh ...
Digging In
As a new growing season begins, I find myself digging into new soil. Every morning when I wake up and look around, I am happy to be living in the middle of a farm. Granted, I'm not on a farm of my own anymore, but it feels good to get my boots muddy, my fingernails dirty, and create something with the sweat of my brow. Evenings, early mornings, and snippets of ...
Mountain Woman Haircut
Sometimes, you just have to do something wild. Whether it comes from an inner sense of artistic expression, or just because it's something you've always wanted to do, from time to time it's good to go with the idea. It makes for a good story. Although this one is slightly old news, for those folks that know me, I finally got the photographs from a friend and couldn't help but share. ...
Winter on the Farm
We've been waking up to some cold, frosty mornings around here, and I decided all of Queen Winter's marvelous artwork need not go un-noticed. I also figured it was high time I wrote a post about the permaculture farm where I currently reside. I've been here for about three months, and between farm work, parenting, a job coordinating volunteers at the kids' school, and orders for my ...
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 ...
August on the Homestead
Life has gotten a bit hectic lately, as it seems to do from time to time, and I realized it has been a while since I've written a blog post. I thought it was time to give a homestead update. Summer is moving along, the days are hot and dry, and things are ripening on the vine. There has been plenty of adventuring, camping, swimming, cooking, banjo picking, backpacking and life happening along ...
Having Fun With the Pits
After many years of spending hours with a handheld cherry pitter, I listened with great interest whenever I heard tales of the cast-iron hand cranked cherry stoners of days gone by. Where were these contraptions to be found and why wasn't everyone using them today? The idea of simply feeding in cherries and turning a crank to separate fruit from stone made much more sense than hours of punching ...