Homesteading | Self Sufficient Living | Living off the Land
New calves are exciting... But that's only half of the excitement when you have a milk cow. A new calf means a cow bursting with fresh milk. (OK... not literally bursting. That's probably a bad choice of words.) FINALLY, after several months of either being milk-less, or having to buy it at the store, we are celebrating! In another week or so, once the calf and Oakley get fully settled in with each other, I'll start milking once ...Continue Reading
Our Valentines Days' usually look a little different than most folks... Town is 35+ miles away, and finding a babysitter that day is all but impossible. Not to mention, I just don't get excited about heading to a crowded restaurant on a specific day because that's what we're "supposed to do". (I get really rebellious when it comes to holiday expectations sometimes... anyone relate?) And so, we usually stay home and eat homegrown ...Continue Reading
It's extremely hard... To convince me to leave my cozy little house on winter evenings. Between the flickering fire, the Christmas tree lights, and my favorite Douglas Fir essential oil wafting from the diffuser, I'm pretty content to be a winter-time hermit. And when you add in a mug of homemade hot chocolate? Forget about it. You'd be hard-pressed to get me to venture out even if Joel Salatin himself was visiting our town (Okay, ...Continue Reading
My mint is trying to take over my life right now. Now I'm not exactly complaining, because with the gardening year I've had thus far, I'm just happy to see something, anything, growing out there... It hasn't been a good growing season for my poor little garden. I suspect I have an issue with contaminated compost, and while I can't say for absolute certain yet, it ain't pretty... As I wrote in my newsletter last week, my carefully ...Continue Reading
As you may know, my gardening year was less than successful. In fact, I did so poorly that I actually killed my zucchini plants. (Betcha didn't know that it was possible, huh?) I was thrilled when my neighbor Jana offered to give me a baseball-bat zucchini. And since this is the first one I've had access to all year, it was kind of a treat, believe it or not! So I decided to make an actual treat, zucchini bread. Zucchini ...Continue Reading
