While taking some quiet moments early this morning to appreciate the shortest day, I came across a favorite quote that I often associate with this time of year and was compelled to share. In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer. ~Albert Camus In the spirit of contemplating darkness and light, I would also like to share this excellent article ...
An Indoor Winter Wonderland
When the weather turns cold and the trees are bare outside, people through the centuries have been bringing greenery indoors to deck the halls. In milder climates (like this part of Oregon), we don't often have snow around the Holidays, so sprucing up the inside of our house adds a lot to the festivities. Holiday decorating has been a favorite pastime of mine since childhood, and I always ...
Winter Mushrooms
We went out for a hike to enjoy the sunny winter day, and came back with some fun fungus finds. Not only did we get to appreciate the tranquility of the mossy woods, but thanks to the mild weather, we managed to fill our basket with chanterelles, hedgehog mushrooms, and white matsutakes. It was one of my more diverse mushroom hunting hauls, and in the middle of December to boot! The ...
A Homegrown Tree
Last Sunday, like so many other families, we set out to find our Holiday tree. What was most exciting about this is how short a distance we had to travel to find it. At the top of our 7 acres of land, someone at some point planted a little forest of mixed Douglas-fir and true fir, and many are just the right height for bringing indoors. Last year we cut our first tree for this homestead on a snowy ...
Trail Work
When the weather turns cold, and things slow down, it's time to bust out the really fun projects! With the garden put to bed for the winter and the woodsheds filled, we could finally turn our attention to some trail work. Most of our property is forestland accessible only by trail, and between downed trees from last year's wind storm and a couple of slide areas, it was getting pretty inaccessible. ...
Snow Turkeys
In honor of the family gathering, my son made a fine looking family of snow turkeys. I've heard it said that birds of a feather flock together, and this must be true, because I saw a few other snow turkeys hanging around out there having fun... ...
Cornucopia
November is a time of finishing up the last of the harvest, taking stock of what we have grown, storing away the fruits of our labors for the year ahead, appreciating what is abundant in our lives and spending time with family and friends. I have been enjoying seeing a full root cellar with baskets of potatoes, onions, pumpkins, and squash; braids of garlic hanging from the ceiling; jars of canned ...
Little Sadie and The Sundance Kitten
This past week we were happy to welcome two new members of our homestead. Meet Little Sadie and The Sundance Kitten. They are a rowdy pair of dilute calico sisters who take their job of house mouse patrol very seriously. A shelter had adopted them out as small kittens to an elderly couple, but when the husband recently passed they went back to the shelter and were in need of a new home. Since ...
First Frost
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To Heat a Home
If you have ever contemplated what goes in to heating a home, you may have thought about your electric company or natural gas company and wondered about the resources the energy came from. You may have thought about things like wind, water, oil or coal. For those of us who have a woodstove, however, we know exactly what goes in to heating a home. We can measure it out in cords, months of ...