I am pleased to announce that we are in a time of fruition on the homestead, with all the hard work over these last couple of years paying off in cherries, blueberries, strawberries, marionberries and thimbleberries. The cherries are especially exciting because it is the first time I have ever had my own crop of homegrown cherries. There was a cherry tree here when we moved in that never fruited, ...
DIY Barbed Wire Trellis
The rose bush in the front flower bed was beginning to fall over with the weight of all the new growth these past weeks, and was in serious need of a trellis. Rather than buy a trellis, I felt up to the task of making one myself. One of my favorite approaches to the creative process of garden art is looking around my sheds to see what is on hand that could be re-purposed. In this case, we had been ...
Hiking Rainbow Falls
The next best thing to a vacation is a stay-cation, and we enjoyed a mighty relaxing one over Memorial Day weekend. Some friends came to visit from my hometown, and with one of them recuperating from a broken ankle, we decided to pick a short, flat hike to share a local outdoor experience. The Rainbow Falls overlook is about 1.5 miles from the trailhead, making it a perfect easy excursion. Parents ...
The Rhodora
The Rhodora On being asked, whence is the flower. In May, when sea-winds pierced our solitudes, I found the fresh ...
New Growth
Whether in the garden, or in general, new growth is an encouraging thing to observe. All these little wild Arugula sprouts, for example, mean the start of something fresh. It can feel like a huge leap of faith to plant a garden. You get it all prepared and plant the seeds, and there is nothing left to do but water and wait. It's hard to imagine sometimes that an entire garden is going to emerge ...
DIY Garden Flags
I have always enjoyed hanging flags out in my garden, and it was time for some new ones after the Tibetan prayer flags we put up around the garden fence for housewarming finally disintegrated this winter. I discovered Pinterest not too long ago, and got some great ideas looking through garden art pins to make my own flags out of old ratty fabric and quilt scraps. I have to be honest that I am not ...
Mother’s Day
Maude is having a very happy Mother's Day. After she went broody last week, we got 5 Production Red and 3 Bantam chicks from the feed store and snuck them under her late at night. When Maude woke up in the morning, she was the proud mother hen of 8. A mother's love knows no bounds, and Maude doesn't seem to mind one bit that she is being used as a living jungle gym. When she isn't all ...
More Chicken Chats
Sometimes I can't help but wonder what the girls are talking about. The way they cluck and carry on, I am certain it must be interesting stuff. I wrote a post a while back called Chicken Chats about our old rooster, Paul Bunyan being such a good listener. He would really look like he was leaning in to listen and lending an ear while he walked along with the hens. The other day, I noticed a ...
Two Kids and a Dude
Every May, when the garden is prepped and seeds are planted, the kids get the fun job of building Dude the Scarecrow. Dude has been with us quite a few years now, watching over the garden and scaring away marauding birds and pests. Occasionally he gets something new, like a straw hat, or overalls when the old ones fall apart. Honestly, I am not sure where the rainbow suspenders came from, but they ...
Gratitude
"Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul." ~Henry Ward Beecher ...