For the second time this year, we woke up to snow! This doesn't happen around here too often these days, so it's a big event! Everything outside the window was white. And the big flakes just kept on falling from the sky. We piled up the woodbox to keep the house warm... And kept the fire roaring in the woodstove. I made some hot mulled cider on the stove with our last jar from this Fall's ...
Old-Time Fun at the Frontier Fair
This weekend I took the kids to our local Frontier Heritage Fair. It has become a much anticipated annual event for our family, with demonstrations of traditional skills and all sorts of practical, useful things you can find there that they just don't make anymore. It's kind of like a trip to the shopping mall for homesteaders. My daughter talks all year about picking out a new ...
Seeds are Here!
Time to get busy! ...
Signs of Spring
On a cold February day amidst the snow showers and hail, I'm thinking of all the signs of Spring I've spied around here lately. Nettles popping up, camelias blooming, green daffodil leaves emerging from the mud, and blossoming trees are all reassurances that winter will not last forever. What a welcome sight they are! Out at the coast, things are especially moving along, and on a recent camping ...
Rhubarb, Strawberries and Asparagus: Planting Foods of the Frontier
This weekend we planted two of our 12" x 4" raised beds with Strawberries and Asparagus. The rhubarb will be in at the feed store in early March to fill the third. Many pioneers and settlers brought dormant asparagus and rhubarb crowns and seeds with them to plant on their homesteads because they transported well and produced food in varied climates. I once found rhubarb ...
The Snowdrop Fairy
The Snowdrop Fairy Deep sleeps the Winter, Cold, wet, and grey; Surely all the world is dead; Spring is far away. Wait! the world shall waken; It is not dead, for lo, The Fair Maids of February Stand in the snow! ~Cicely Mary Barker ...
To a Snowdrop
To a Snowdrop Lone Flower, hemmed in with snows and white as they But hardier far, once more I see thee bend Thy forehead, as if fearful to offend, Like an unbidden guest. Though day by day, Storms, sallying from the mountain-tops, waylay The rising sun, and on the plains descend; Yet art thou welcome, welcome as a friend Whose zeal outruns his promise! Blue-eyed May Shall soon behold this ...
Have a Heart: A Wild Mountain Recipe
When my dad came back from his annual Idaho elk hunting trip this year, he said he had a surprise for me. What, I wondered, could be a better surprise than coolers filled with packages of ground wild elk, steaks, sausage, roasts and summer sausage? Well, my dear old dad saved me the heart. Feeling honored to eat such a vital part of this wild creature, I decided to save it for a special ...
“Made From Scratch”: A Homesteaders Must-Have
With all the things to do around this homestead, reading has definitely taken a back burner this past year. However, I am proud to say, that after a handful of stolen moments here and there, I finally finished Jenna Woginrich's inspiring do-it-yourself memoir called "Made From Scratch: Discovering the Pleasures of a Handmade Life." I have to say that not only do I wish this book had been around ...
Animal Tracking at the Oregon Dunes
It's quite a feeling to be out walking on a wild stretch of beach and realize a whole array of wildlife was walking in the same place just before you came along. People tend to be so bumbling and noisy, we may never see the other creatures occupying the same space, but if you look closely you can find signs of who was there. Beaches and sand dunes are excellent places for animal tracking ...