This really resonated with my feelings about the new year. The secret life of bears… I am in the process of migrating A Mountain Hearth from Blogger to WordPress, so if you have run into any technical difficulties, now you know why. We’re almost there, and I’m learning some new things along the way. Just working on reacclimating to the wild over here. ...
Snow For Days
On New Year's Day, we woke up to snow. We don't get a lot of snowy days around here, so it was a lovely way to start out the new year. We expected it to melt off by the afternoon, but in a very unusual turn of events for western Oregon, the snow is still here! The temperatures have remained below freezing for almost a week now, and everything, including the New Year's snow, is frozen in ...
Homebrewing Elderberry Wine
I have enjoyed plenty of other people's homebrewed elderberry wines, but never made my own, so last weekend we went for it. I had picked dozens of gallons of elderberries in October with a friend, who suggested we pick while we could, freeze the berries, and subsequently brew when we could. I meant to brew that wine many a time throughout the fall, but life was just so darn busy. The final ...
Family Tree Day Traditions
Family tree day is a tradition we have enjoyed every year since we moved onto this homestead. Up on the the hill behind our house, we have a small lot of replanted Douglas-fir and Grand fir. They're planted pretty thick, and need to be thinned out, so we feel like taking one every year as our Solstice tree is at least a good start. One day we hope to really thin them out and build some kind of ...
Winter Conifer Tonic Syrup
This weekend while we were cleaning all the elderberry harvest out of the freezer to brew elderberry wine, I decided to make this conifer and wild berry tonic syrup recipe from my wildcrafting heroes at Gather Victoria. While the elderberries were boiling on a burner outside for the wine, I filled a pot on our stove with elderberries, Douglas-fir needles, grand fir needles, spruce tips, ...
Chickens in the Snow
We had our first snow day of the year yesterday, and I thought I would share some pictures of the chickens in the snow. Most of the flock refused to come out of the coop, but these two rogue chickens spent the night out roosting in trees, and were unfazed. There was cracked corn to be had, after all. On this homestead, even the chickens are wild. ...
Clear Lake on a Cloudy Day
On the weekend after Thanksgiving, we decided to take a break from building the chicken coop and get out on a hike. I had been seeing everyone's amazing pictures for #Optoutside on Black Friday, and was feeling a little jealous while I was stuck inside working. I had always wanted to explore the trail around Clear Lake, the headwaters of the McKenzie River. Aside from admiring photography other ...
New Chocolate in Mountain Hearth Handcrafts Etsy Shop
Good chocolate is important, so with the holidays approaching, I made a push to re-stock the Mountain Hearth Handcrafts Etsy Shop with bean-to-bar artisan chocolate. These handcrafted chocolates are made from scratch, bean to bar, with fresh roasted cocoa beans. These bean I use primarily are a tiny, wildcrafted variety from Bolivia where they are harvested by canoe during the rainy ...
A Chicken Coop Raising
You've probably heard of a barn raising, right? Friends come over, help build your barn, and maybe have a hoe-down afterwords? Well, this weekend we had ourselves a chicken coop raising. Since a chicken coop is considerably smaller than a barn, we only needed one friend to come over and help raise the walls. We did not have a hoe-down, but I think a rowdy chicken coop party will be in order when ...
Pumpkin Perfect
Wishing you and all your pumpkins a Happy Halloween! ...