a little crafty nest

pondering

After several years of on and off discussions, we took a leap and began a project.  A big project.  A project that we have spent much time wondering and pondering over, ahem.

Tucked behind our blackberry spiral, in a quiet, unused part of our property is a marshy area.  Josh is an avid fly-fisherman and he has always had a vision of a pond.  As we tossed the idea around over the years, it became obvious that my idyllic vision of a pond is definately not the same as my husband's.  At all.  However, like many things in marriage, compromise is needed and I let it all go...so we moved forward to create a small trout pond with lots of plant life and animals. 

So this is where we are at...a giant, gravelly hole in the ground.  I have to swallow hard and look away from the mountain of sod (and topsoil!) that sits behind me in this photo.  I do have faith in my ever-optimistic husband and that he will create something beautiful out of this crater.  He envisions trout and lily pads and ducks, while I see turtles and a dock...and winter skating ~ yes!

Perhaps the word got out that there is a new habitat to explore as the children found this enormous Woodhouse toad on the wrong side of the creek.

The children delighted in following the wee hops this fella did throughout our kitchen garden.  He was about 4 inches long and made the sweetest bleating sounds, just like a lamb ~ really!  I find I have to constantly remind the children to be gentle with the creatures, and they did a great job with Mr. Toad.  At lunch, we came inside and looked through this book, which is a wonderful beginner book for 3 and 6 year old biologists.

I hope to find more of these over the summer to make a science basket filled with magnifying glasses, field guides, binoculars, and more.  With a pond in our backyard, I feel we will have hours of studying, identifying and learning right out our door.

Having said that, I am very cautious and concerned regarding the danger of water, and I am relieved that the pond is still a bit of a walk from the house, especially for little ones. 

As far as filling it goes, we are looking into natural ways to keep the water from seeping out.  It is fed by our creek with a drainage back into it, and we will be catching the trout to eat from the pond, so it is important to us not to use plastic pond liners.   We've been told to use clay and let it settle, and we are looking into a local source for that.  Does anyone have experience with this?

For now, there remains a big hole.  And while it is not exactly how I envisioned it, just this picture alone tells me this is a good idea.  A very good idea, indeed.

notes from the garden ~ second week of may

On this lovely, sunshiney Mama's Day weekend, I wanted to be outside as much as possible, with family by my side.  Being in the garden is just about the perfect way for me to spend my time, and with Papa minding the littles nearby, I got to dig and plant and water to my heart's content.

Garlic's thriving...

Blueberry bushes budding out...

Granny's maple tree seems decorated for this special day ~ I love the garlands it is wearing!

I have been spending much of my time on this patch of the garden beside our two big garlic beds.  This is the back gate (though, the gate is still in Josh's shop being made), and I am digging and digging and digging out the couch grass and tenacious bracken.  After this monotonous and finicky task, I lay landscape fabric and then gravel and then woodchips.  I guarantee this insures no weeds get in.  It is a tremendous amount of work, but it is so worthwhile for there are no weeds to be battling.  My window for finishing this 12' x 11' space is closing as soon the mosquitoes arrive and surely I am not that crazy to do this while fending off hungry bloodsuckers!

Other garden chores happening around here include breaking down the eggshells we have collected since January.  If anyone visits my home, they often quietly note the overflowing pile of eggshells toppling over in the cookstove warming oven.  We save all the eggshells to be ground into somewhat of a powder to sprinkle generously in the soil as we plant out the tomato starts.  Apparently, the calcium in the eggshells prevents blossom end rot...and I think it works because I've never had that problem with them.  I also add it to the beds that will have tomatoes the next year, and then the compost gets the rest.  But, the job of grinding the shells is a popular one...

I'm a believer in using what you have around your home to help your garden grow.  Eggshells for fertilizer, comfrey leaves for garden teas, toilet paper rolls for collars against cutworms, matchsticks for pepper plants, manure for making the black gold...it goes on and on.  I am always testing out folklore advice, and jotting notes down in my gardening journal. 

This week, we also planted our greenhouse full of tomatoes, peppers, basil and cucumbers.  And wouldn't you know it...that first night we had a spring killing frost!  I scrambled out of bed and raced down to the greenhouse to assess the damage, which wasn't too bad.  Somehow the frost crept in and claimed two tomatoes, two peppers and four basil plants ~ all of which I have replacements sitting under the lights inside here.  Thank goodness for being cautious!

Do you see all that green mossy looking stuff on the right and at the bottom?  That is volunteer dill plants...thousands of them!  A few years ago, I didn't take the plants down before they seeded and now we have so much dill it is ridiculous!  Even after all the stepping on it (though we try and be careful), it still springs up anew...hardy stuff, that dill!

And finally, Josh and the children went to a local planer and filled up the truck with sawdust.  Such fun to back it into the spot by the blackberry spiral and jump into the mountain of sawdust they scooped off!  Well, such fun the first time, because sawdust down your boots and shirt and even in your undies is a wee bit uncomfortable.  Lesson learned, this year.  Next year, they will undoubtedly relearn that one...again.

I moved almost the whole pile onto the pathways of the spiral in under 24 hours...oh, my back is tired!  It is a little crazy this whole spiral, but I confess to loving it!  Last year, we had 3 canes give off berries that allowed a few desserts and one freezer bag filled, in addition to a lot of eating.  3 canes!!!  I have already counted 12 canes for this year, with over 30 growing for next year.  I look forward to the jungle this will become.  It is a lot of work to maintain the pathways here, but while the children are little, it is so worth it.  They have such fun in here and that keeps me going.

It is incredible the amount of work that growing food requires, but it is such honest, hard work that I love!  My body aches now, but this past weekend of digging and hauling was so incredibly satisfying...with papa taking care of the littles nearby, hooting and hollering.  Indeed, a blissful mama's day for me.  I hope you all enjoyed your days with your sweet ones, too!

notes from the garden ~ early may

Already my garden note-taking is falling by the wayside as there are so many other things to tend to right now.  Between watering the indoor starts, digging temporary beds in the newly fenced in Big Garden, transplanting some timid flower starts (that are not liking the morning coolness it seems), and setting out lots of veggie starts...my garden journal has remained closed for far too many days now.

Ah, well, it all grows upwards right?  Eventually I'll see evidence of what I've done...(I like to give myself positive affirmations when I know I "ought" to be doing something that I've neglected).  But I do have a few pictures from the garden.

I did plant out the potatoes into a makeshift bed in the Big Garden.

Because we have a creek running through the property, there is much too much gravel in the soil.  I prefer the raised beds for so many reasons, but I thought I'd try 70' of potatoes directly into the earth.  There are yellow, red and purple varieties straight from the shelves of our local organic grocery store.  I always use these spuds for my "seed" potatoes, but in the future I hope to save my own.

These last few weeks have been cool and damp, giving us a bounteous nettle and morel mushroom harvest. 

These photos show the first harvest of both nettles and morels, right from our property.  My little Sunshine is an expert morel spotter as her eagle eyes don't miss a single mushroom!  I'm so happy she loves to go morel hunting every day...Yum!

Last year we moved our driveway to give us more privacy from the road and it created a little spot for a very special tree.  My granny is 101 years old, and every birthday we get a little money to spend on ourselves.  Usually, I use it to pay bills but last summer, I bought a Sunset Maple tree and planted it right on that newly created spot.  My granny was an incredible gardener, and back then, it was not only a necessity to grow your own food, but it was also only organic.  They didn't call it organic, of course, they just called it food.  Funny that now, in a supermarket, that kind of produce is labelled "organic" while conventionally sprayed and treated and fertilized and chemicalized produce is unlabelled.  I wonder what granny would think if she thought about that!

Anyhow, we also planted 40 daffodil bulbs last fall around granny's tree.  It was hard work breaking the gravelly and rocky soil to place the bulbs, but we perservered...

Late in the winter, I began to think about those sleeping bulbs and every day I got more excited about what we would soon see.  Last weekend, they started popping up...and now...

Affirmation.  (At last count, 23 little bits of affirmation out of 40...not bad).

Isn't gardening all about affirmation?  Hope, promises, fulfillment.  'Tis a miraculous thing, indeed.

notes from the garden ~ end of april

There has been a magical transformation over the last few weeks here...you can see it, smell it, hear it, feel it.  A truly sensory experience as Spring just sprung into every little cranny of our property.  The creek is thundering and washing up over the banks, the birds are chattering amongst themselves, and blossoms are peeking out ~ all over!  If anyone doubts the power and magic of Mama Nature, this is the season to become a believer!

Lately, sweet peas have been planted around the children's tipi.  We alternate between sweet peas ande scarlet runner beans, and Sunshine and I are very happy it is a flower year...the smell is intoxicating!

In our little kitchen garden, this is the time I mulch the pathways.

I layer several thicknesses of newspapers and then top with some straw.  It seems to keep the couch grass out for nearly the entire season.  In the past, I have also tried cardboard which is rather stubborn to bend into the right shapes.  Also, there is often glues used in the cardboard, so I try and avoid that from leeching into the beds.

We also repotted our tomato starts into bigger pots...they were looking to stretch out a bit.

Almost all our root vegetables are in the ground (onions, leeks, carrots, beets), though parsnips and potatoes have still to be planted.  We have a larger salad bed this year mixed with various kales and broccoli and spinach.  Oh, and the spinach and peas are up and thriving!!!  That never fails to excite me  :)

Forrest loves to collect chives for the dinner salad...he is the salad fella, and eager to help!

In the woods by the creek, we spotted a most welcome friend that suggests Spring Pie is not too far away...

Oh, lovely nettles, how I've missed thee!

The most exciting garden progress these last few weeks is in our Big Garden.  For years and years, while our family grew (and grew), the Big Garden has sat a little idle, waiting for many busy hands to nurture it into the garden of our dreams.  We have two big garlic beds in there that we know the deer don't touch, but otherwise, it has been a dormant place, beckoning me with dreams of the future garden I want it to become.

Finally, our temporary garden fence to protect the blueberry patch was extended, and we now have a fenced in Big Garden.....eek!

To the upper left is our blueberry hill, surrounded by a temporary deer fence.  We dug a trench around the Big Garden years ago to put up a weed barrier (sheet metal), and now Josh is doing the hard work of re-digging it to put in the cedar posts he harvested last year.

Our main entry into the garden...it just needs a gate now.

Tonight, Josh asked me how I like the feel of the Big Garden with the fencing up.  I told him it was my sanctuary.  Oh, the possibilities...

moments from the week

While the sun was playing peek-a-boo with the clouds for most of the week, we found ourselves outdoors for longer and longer stretches.  There is so much to do right now...aside from gardening chores which are delightfully endless (yes, I really think so!), there were also ziplines to be attempted from scratch...

And boats to make and float at a homeschool nature group...

There is always a little one beckoning mama to follow him about...

And a girl by my side, reaching for my hand.

We were so lucky this week to have papa around a few more days than we thought...so we jumped right into some projects on our little piece of land that we have been meaning to do for a few years now.  It was wonderful to get to it, but mostly, it was wonderful to be outside together ~ digging in the soil, hauling rocks, raking rocks, sorting rocks (do you see a pattern here?), clearing brush, having several bonfires, creating garden spaces, making dams, and swinging about on our new swing.  We were all so very busy and immersed in activities, but there was such a sense of family and connection happening...bliss!  Even Forrest, who likes to share his heart's thoughts, remarked, "I really like this.  I really like being out here and doing this with everyone."  Indeed, me too.

I noticed that this week I have several photos of togetherness, something that seems rather rare...

And my favourite, (and not just because the littles are sitting on my new compost bins)...

Mind you, it wasn't all perfectly smooth and lovely, but I do hope my children will remember that this week, we were all five together a lot, and we shared a wonderful time making our land more into our home.  I am so grateful to all of them!

May you all a wonderful weekend!  Happy Earth Day on Sunday!!!

notes from the garden ~ making black gold

Every gardener knows the importance of good, nutritent-rich compost in their garden.  Kind of like feeding your children good food so they grow strong and healthy.  Well, compost is just the same, you feed your garden plants this black gold and they grow strong and healthy so your family can grow strong and healthy.

Really, it's plain old common sense.  But, in all my years of gardening, I have never had the proper, or ideal, composting system.  Until this week.

Sure, I've had a compost bin that sat in a neglected corner of the yard, with kitchen waste rotting in a stinking heap of a mess.  Yuck.  I'd be lucky to scrape together a shovelful of the black gold all year. 

A few years ago, we bought the fancy shmancy garden brackets from Lee Valley which cost a pretty penny.  They worked but you have to buy three sets to make a proper system and we skimped and just went for two.  Well, one hot pile and one working pile always leaves a gap as to when you can harvest some of the good stuff.

This winter, the bears got into our bins and it was the motivation I needed to get it together and build the proper system.  A three bin system where one is working (you add your kitchen and yard scraps), one is hot (cooking), and one is the black gold ready to be used.

We cleared some hawthorn bushes out of our site, which is no easy task.  Boy, they are tenacious!  And you have to be careful because the thorns are terribly painful if they poke you in the foot!  With ten wooden pallets collected (for free!) from our local nursery, eight stakes, a pocketful of nails and some twine, we built the three bin system in under an hour.  (I say "we" because it was entirely my idea and project, which my husband was all too thrilled to step back from.  However, after banging some nails for a bit, I realized I had overdone some hauling with my wheelbarrow and my elbow was not  cooperating properly.  I had to ask for help, and he graciously stepped in to bang a few nails for me.)

But I did the unpleasant and tedious job of hauling the old compost to the new bins...and in the process realized that we were on the right track with these two because there was very little stink.  And the children loved seeing all the busy little wrigglers...a real homegrown science class!

Altogether, we spent a few dollars on the nails, the rest was free.  Those Lee Valley garden brackets will make a nice leaf mould bin and a straw bale bin to throw on top of the kitchen waste. 

Yes, that is our scavenging pup, Cocoa, inspecting the inside of the bin.  The dogs easily hop right in, despite our discouragement!

There was a bit of a festive air as the first compost bucket was brought from the kitchen to be dumped in the new working bin...it doesn't take much around here for excitement.  I just wish taking the compost out was always such a sought-after task!  Josh chuckles a bit at my giddiness over the new system...I just love it!  And oh, the veggies will too...just wait and see, dear husband.

moments from the week

We are feeling that quickening pace of spring already, with more activities beckoning us to leave the comfort of our property and venture further afield.  This week, we have had friends come play with us, we have visited our favourite goat farm, we participated in a children's nature walk along the river, we (nearly) finished a little home renovation (details coming!), and we accidentally found a lovely new place to play on our land that has us very excited indeed!  Phewf!  Yes, it was a busy, full, lovely week of clear weather sprinkled with spring storms...I love it!

Little boy blue come blow your horn...

Dancing on the pallet tower (soon to be our newest compost bins).

Snails and slugs are still rather sweet at this point in the gardening season.  By August, not so much.

On the spur of the moment, we decided to clear an area lower down our creek for a better compost system.  Josh used his brushsaw and his chainsaw to take out some stubborn hawthorn bushes and suddenly we discovered a whole new world.  As we raked and stoked a fire to burn all the nasty little thorny branches, Forrest used the clippers to make a path into the woods beside the creek, whereupon we discovered the perfect branch for making a swing.  With a quick hole drilled into a branch and a piece of climbing rope slung over teh branch, we had a daring little swing that even holds me!  Our little creek has begun to swell, and just overnight with the rains washing down some snow further up the mountain, the quiet murmur has been replaced with a raucous babbling.  How exciting to swing out over the rushing water on a branch swing...

Huckley insisted on trying it, too (of course), but I couldn't take a photo as I was holding him upright!  Besides, he preferred to be close to his chainsaw-wielding papa...he truly loves big, loud, noisy machines.

I do think we will be using this swing often in the coming months...it is within sight of my big garden which is exactly where I want to be right now.  I can see some fun weeks ahead of us, for sure!

Friends, I wish you a lovely weekend in the fresh air, nurturing whatever gardens you find yourselves in!

notes from the garden ~ early april

Easter weekend brought some beautiful weather, and I'm hoping it will stay!  Most of the snow is melted away, except for in the darkest parts near the forest and creek's edge.  The newly emerging crocuses invited visitors from our neighbour's farm...

The children and I spent some time watching these busy honeybees ~ the first of the season ~ asking them to make wonderful honey for our friends, Corky and Helen. 

Our biodynamic calendar calls for very little garden activity during the Easter week, but we were so eager to plant our peas and spinach in the just-thawed soil.  It amazes me how each year brings different weather, and our pea plantings can vary up to nearly 2 months depending on the snow load.

This year we will be planting sweet peas around the children's tipi.  Last year was scarlet runner beans...we like to switch it up.  It was a great adventure to find eight branches in the forest by the creek to make new pole supports...the last ones endured four years of all season weather before rotting.  Papa and Forrest did most of the work, and then everyone lent a hand erecting the whole tipi.

I once read somewhere that it is customary to plant seed potatoes on Good Friday.  That is not an option around here as I'm planning to dig a new area for more potatoes this year and the snow just disappeared yesterday.  However, we started our potatoes, local organic ones from a nearby farm.  After slicing them in half, we set them out in the light by the window for a few weeks til the soil has warmed up.

I also started a second batch of flowers today, as it was a biodynamic day for flowers ~ calendula, marigolds, globe thistles, more strawflowers, elephant amaranth, and cosmos.  Yes, we do like lots of colour with our vegetables!  Already, the hollyhocks from a month ago are looking strong and green and beautiful!

In the garlic bed, the shoots are beginning to gather strength, too, and push through the leaf mulch.  Oh, I've been waiting for you, my lovely garlic tops!

This week, while little was planted, there was great progress in tidying up what we have.  I do most of the real work in the fall, knowing that in the spring I just want to dig into the earth and not weed so much.  All the weeding, manuring, and mulching happens in October and November, just before the long winter's rest.  Now, in the spring, I just top dress the beds with some aged manure compost and wait for good days to plant.  I also put rocks around the beds, as two dogs and three little ones running around the garden can damage corners. 

Here is our humble little kitchen garden, all ready to plant.  Each year, I am just as excited to see how our garden will transform over the next six months.  We are ready to go!

moments from the week

As the snow recedes, though not disappearing quite yet (it snowed today!), we are expanding into recently uncovered areas to play.  Once again, we found ourselves drawn to the shop, to be close to papa and hear the buzz of his saw.  Before he begins his first contract of the season next week, he is working on a little home renovation ~ of the inexpensive variety...love those!!!

But over the bridge and to the shop we go...to climb, chisel, and teeter-totter ~ country style!

When I moved the long board over, I asked the children to stay clear, and it looks like they took it to heart.  I suppose they are not used to seeing mama move big boards around, but they look nervous, don't they?

Indoors, this little bug is as snug as one can get...he loves to get cozy in tiny little spaces, and there he sits until he is discovered, upon which he gleefully giggles!

We have been spending the last of our homeschool money...for science experiments like this worm garden.  Indeed, it is fascinating to watch the wormies compost the leaves and dig their tunnels.  Forrest was right into this activity, trudging out in the pouring sleet to dig up some critters from our gardens.
We also purchased a beautiful "real" guitar for Forrest to begin Suzuki guitar lessons in the fall.  I had intended to hide it away til September, but he asked me if I had bought it yet, so I showed him.  He is thrilled!  He really seems ready to begin...and, as he says, "rock out!"

Oh goodness, do you see his haircut?  He hadn't had a trim since a family event at my parent's last summer, and it was really getting too long.  So, I just began to trim it up here and there before realizing that I should NEVER cut my family's, or anyone's, hair ever!  Luckily, he doesn't know any different, but Josh reminded me of the time I managed two distinctive clearcuts up the back of his head with the clippers that forced him to buzz his whole head.  Yes, I can manage to shave hair, but not trim it.

And finally, we spent a few moments here and there this week in our garden, reconnecting with the soil that is coming alive again!  Critters of all sorts are visible, waking up and greeting this new season.  My little girl preferred to help mama in the kitchen garden while the boys tended a bonfire across the creek. 

Yes, indeed, it feels good to be back in this space...how I've missed it!

notes from the garden ~ april fool's day

Three weeks has passed since my last journal, though day by day, there are little miracles popping up and inciting a riot of excitement in my green thumbs.  Finally, we are seeing daily progress on our snow melt ~ hooray!  Our creek is directly beside our home and with all the windows closed, we can still hear the not-so-quiet murmuring of its uncovered waters.  Oh, that babbling burble, how I missed it!

Early in March, I started the first round of flowers indoors...hollyhocks, foxgloves, Shasta daisy, Sweet Williams, straw flowers, calendula, and pumpkin-on-a-stick.  These are the hollyhocks today, three weeks after sowing.

This was our pea bed on March 12...it required desperate measures.

This was far from the easy task we have performed on other big snowload years.  After shoveling the top layer, we reached four inches of solid ice.  And after we cleared it, the ground stayed frozen for another week.  It is only now ready for us to begin planting our peas.

Today, on April 1, this is our little kitchen garden all naked and ready for the fun to begin...

Across the creek in the big garden, there is still a lot of snow.  But beneath the lingering snowy pillow, little garlic shoots are emerging, slender and pale.

We really, really like our basil plants.  They are one of our easiest crops to grow and we eat from the bushy plants all summer long.  I often make pesto each week during the summer, saving it in muffin tins in the freezer, and by the first frost, I bring the whole plant indoors to hang upside down and dry for our gallon jar.  This year I started 90 plants of lettuce leaf (our favourite), genovese, and lemon basil.

And now I have my first disaster story of the season...and it's only been a few weeks!  I planted two long rows of spinach in my greenhouse in early March and waited and waited and waited.  Nothing seemed to be happening, until one day, hauling the water buckets in, there were flecks of green emerging.  Hooray!  I have babied these spinach plants for a few weeks now, compulsively checking on them every day.  Well, today I went out for my visit and I could not believe my eyes...not a speck of spinach anywhere!  After close inspection, I saw the tell-tale signs of several cutworms.  They are so incredibly destructive, and I knew we had a few in the greenhouse every year, so I religiously collar my baby basil and tomato plants.  I never even thought about the tasty, tender spinach.  Of course!  Sighs.  One thing with gardening I have learned over the years, is that it has a very humbling learning curve.

 
We finished the week with a little cottonwood bud harvesting from a tree my husband felled beside his shop.  A third jar of oil sitting in the kitchen bay window, soaking up the sun's goodness.  I can feel Mr. Sun getting stronger, coaxing new life to spring forth.  We are more than ready...

notes from the garden ~ still early march

I must say that this weekend was the quintessential blustery March kind of weekend where you might want to wear a hat and a raincoat, but be prepared for unexpected snow and slush and wind - oh, the wind!

It was a weekend for making potting soil out in the woodshed, protected from March's moody temper.  My children mixed up some equal parts potting soil with peat moss and worm castings, with a wee bit of perlite for breathability.  We brought the bin inside to warm up by the cookstove before planting.  We started our roots, onions and leeks, and just for fun, we began some more lettuce, this time for indoors.  Our greenhouse is still not showing signs of little green sprouts...were our old seeds too old?

We've been so preoccupied awaiting the return of crocuses and snowdrops beneath our beloved oak tree that we didn't notice other shoots awakening.  I found this poppy stretching awake and was inspired by its tenacity despite the chilly weather. 

Well, we may yet to have seeds sprouting in the greenhouse, so we jumpstarted some fresh greens by doing a little kitchen sink gardening...sprouts. 

We haven't done this in ages, but I'm really hankering for some tasty greens and these will be so nice this week on some fresh bread with a little hummous or homemade butter!

What are you doing while you wait for your gardens to awaken?

moments from the week

Thank you to all of you for your well wishes with the flu that some of my family battled this past week.  It was intense, but relatively short-lived and we enjoyed taking care of Papa.  He received lots of teas, hankies, cuddles and kisses over the four days he was in bed, and this Mama had a few moments here and there to share some quiet time with one child at a time ~ so special!

Between intense sweats and dozing sessions on the couch, Papa read to whoever would listen.  I love that!  He is back at work today, not nearly 100% but good enough.

As always, Forrest has been drawing and drawing and drawing.  He particularly likes to draw knights and castles and dinosaurs and skiers.  For a change of pace, I saw him quietly setting up a desk by the south-facing wood door.  He told me he wanted to "capture the sunset". 

Unfortunately the sun was behind the mountains before he even began, but I reminded him to try and take a photo with his mind and draw from that.  He set to work and drew a lovely picture of the sun setting...beautiful.

Sunshine, Forrest and I are each beginning to sew a doll.  Sunshine really loves handwork ~ oh, this just brings such happiness to my heart! 

I really love sitting beside her and hearing her chitchat away while she works.

I was so eager yesterday to plant our greenhouse full of greens, yet I seem to have not thought this out thoroughly.  Our creek is still frozen over and the soaker hoses are unhooked and the garden standpipe is buried in snow...oops!  So I'm hauling water to our greenhouse for our wee little seeds ~ garden dedication at its best!

And my oldest boy found a Viking battle-axe from a party we had six years ago...he is in heaven (that would be Valhalla)!

And one last photo...here is my toothless boy.  Honestly, it is so sweet listening to him talk right now!  He lisps slightly and I can see he is a bit self-conscious about it.  Oh, if he only knew that I would love to just bottle up this fleeting moment of his boyhood, so I might savour it in the years to come. 

It is almost like he is at the threshold of innocence and losing his baby milk teeth is symbolic of him entering into a whole new realm of childhood.  The tooth fairy has let me keep his teeth in a little container, though I'm not sure what I'll do with them yet.  I just know that I find myself looking at this boy an awful lot right now, quietly lingering a little longer with admiration and awe.  He is one fine six year old, that is for certain.  I love him so!

Enjoy your weekend, friends!  May you have one filled with sunshine, family, and perhaps a little garden planning! 

my special happy place

There are some up sides to this horrible flu bug hitting our household.  Papa was still home yesterday, and was able to watch the younger children so Forrest and I could have a little date.  The best kind of date...a gardening date.  Despite heavy, wet Spring snow, we sowed a few seeds out in the greenhouse.  It was a bit of an adventure getting there...

After shovelling our way in, we saw that the tremendous snow load from off the roof had insulated the interior and the ground was thawed to more than a foot ~ wonderful!

Our little rickety greenhouse has certainly gone the distance.  This is our sixth season in here, and it still stands, despite wobbly supports and duct tape holding the plastic together.

I love being inside the greenhouse, especially while a winter rain is falling on the roof.  I feel cocooned in a gardener's world where soil and seeds bring me right down into the present moment.  With my son by my side.  This is my special happy place.

To be honest, it was a spontaneous date out there.  Using up the remnant seeds of last year's lettuce and greens was brilliant.  And now, we get to venture out to my specail happy place more often to peek in on our little seedlings-to-be.

Yes, this is indeed a good place to visit on stormy, wintery days.  The pulse of Life in the soil is just a short venture away...it's coming!

pantry goodness

The seed orders have been placed and now we await the lovely little packages to arrive in the mail.  Oh, just the kind of excitement needed right about now!  The days are lengthening, but it really feels like we are in the thick of it, still.

I find at this time, just before placing my orders, I survey the freezers and the pantry shelves.  Doing a little mid-winter inventory on our harvest season last fall, and wondering what we need more of in this year's garden, and what we could let go of to make way for something else.  It's rather exciting for me ~ perhaps that is rather telling of just how quiet and simple our life really is.

Every month, I bring up a box full of pantry goodness from the cellar.  It might seem like a rather, ahem, *careful* way of putting food by, but it works rather well for us.  Last fall, I stored all the canned goods by the month, ensuring that even in May before the garden is producing anything other than greens, we still are eating lots of canned fruit and chutneys and jams and relishes.  I often do way more applesauce and there weren't even any canned pears this year...that will have to change!

And then there's the monthly large shopping bag full of fruit and veggies from the freezer...

This is our February stash and these two couldn't be more excited.  They have grand ideas for Valentine's cherry tarts and chili with corn  in it, and frozen peaches to munch on before bed.  It is like a little holiday on the first of the month when I bring up the harvest from the cellar.  It is also a huge affirmation of all the hard work that went into preparing this harvest.  Good thing every year this gets easier with more helping hands itching to work!

And at this time of year, I love any feeling of holiday at all!

fancy that!

There is nothing like giving a gift that somehow finds it's way back to you, even if it is in a different form.  I'm not talking about re-gifting your favourite scarf or sharing that bottle of wine with your best friend over handmade chocolates.  While both those things are wonderful, what I truly appreciate is giving a gift to someone you love who transforms it into something you would love.

Last week, my daughter received a package from my mom, Nana.  In it was a sweet baby doll blanket and a lovely hat that she had made with yarn I had gifted her for Christmas.  She loves to knit as I do, and this gift has become a sort of tradition from me to her.  One year I would love to knit her something fabulous and "fancy", as Sunshine recently reflected that Nana is just about the "fanciest" person she has ever met.  But for now, I give her yarn.

Ahhh, pink...was there ever such a fan of yours as this girl?!

My mom also returned the leftover yarn to add to my stash...but really now, that yarn never stood a chance!  Within a few sittings, Sunshine's favourite little friend, Maya, had a matching hat and scarf.  Sort of fancy, don't you think?

Yes, indeed, Nana, your hat was very appreciated!  Thank you for your beautiful knitting.

Yarning along this week with Ginny, here's a little update on my shawl.  I feel like I'm sort of wrestling a bit with this one, but in a playful sort of way.  I have undone several rows several times (!) because if I'm not paying attention to the textured stitch, it suddenly becomes very apparent in a very uncharming way.  But it is ok because it is beginning to look more and more like a shawl.

As for the book, my inner geek is delighted!  My husband gifted me this little book a few year's ago, and it seems every year at this time, out it comes...just as the seed catalogues are getting dog-eared and ready for mailing off orders.  I admit to being totally intrigued by little known facts about plants and it does come in handy when shopping for seeds or plants at the local greenhouse.  My grade eight latin skills are dusted off and I spend a few days each year pestering my husband with trivial details such as purpurea is a purple coloured flower and pruriens is stinging or itching ~ oh, how I love this!  My mind stretches and yawns a little...until it dutifully rolls over and goes back to sleep until next year's seed catalogues arrive.

Happy knitting, friends...enjoy your week!

Tomorrow, I am excited (and a little nervous) to be a guest blogger at the Homespun Waldorf Winter Carnival!  There will be many Waldorf inspired homeschoolers sharing ideas and inspiration over the course of four weeks...come and check it out! 

goodness from the garden

With a few cooler nights, our mosquitoes are finally decreasing!  Once again, we are embracing life outdoors and I am able to venture back into the garden.  Gasp!  It was such a tangled, overgrown mess I was surprised anything worthy of being called a vegetable was lurking in there.  But vegetables, and fruits, I found!

 
 
Cocoa is my faithful berry-picking companion.  I had thought we had some sort of mutual love going on, but then I recently discovered she has an amazing ability to find the perfect berry and eat it right from the vine!  

 
I wade along the edge of our creek to find the juiciest, choicest raspberries...trying to stay one step ahead of Cocoa!  I pick every other morning as the children eat their breakfast and Josh gets ready for work...I love these quiet, sunny moments at the beginning of the day ~ mosquitoes or not!

 
Our little greenhouse has been around for five years and it is weathering quickly.  Every year we hope to get one more season out of it before we have to rebuild it.  With the intense bug season, I rarely came down here except to grab some dill, basil or cucumbers.  After a few days hiatus, I arrived to this...

 
It's difficult to find anywhere to walk!  The squash vines you see on the left are volunteer zucchini/goblin's eggs, and so are all the dill plants.  We like these uninvited guests...every year the dill reappears like magic!  The middle bed is filled with basil which has had an excellent season this year...we have bags and bags of pesto "pucks" in our freezers.

And, oh, the cucumbers!!!

 
Nearly every day this week, this is what our cucumber harvest looks like.  Every single day.  Hmmmm...Cucumber mutiny, I tell you!  From this batch alone, I made a huge pot of cold cucumber soup.  We soon realized this was an acquired taste.  Forrest exclaimed, "Wow, mama, this is really ga-roe-deee!"  Ahem.  (Secretly, I might agree).  So the children got creative with the cukes and today while dinner was being made, they were snacking on them trying to create various sculptures using only their teeth.

 
I've been fairly busy in the kitchen this week freezing fruit, making jams and jellies, using up last year's leftover chicken parts to make litres of stock and to make room in our freezers for this year's harvest.  And finally, I managed to finish braiding all our garlic. 

 
We plant 300 bulbs, setting about 70 heads aside for next year's crop...which we plant on Thanksgiving weekend in early October.  The rest is made into braids to last the whole year.  Like I've said before, we think of garlic as a vegetable around here.  It's not unusual to eat almost a full head of garlic each day. 

 
The children's scarlet runner tipi was recovered from some choking bindweed, and now they can have their fort...and eat it, too.  We've got some long canning afternoons ahead of us this next month with plums, peaches, pears, apples and tomatoes beginning to ripen.  Really, this has not been an overly productive year for our gardens, but I am so grateful to grow such wonderful food...however little it ends up being.  My heart feels so good when I see my family eating so much goodness from the little seeds we started months ago. 

 

heavenly blackberries

I adore berries...strawberries, blueberries, elderberries, raspberries, saskatoon berries, huckleberries...and especially, blackberries.  So large and plump and sour-sweet...mmmm...heaven!

So you may understand why I tried to move heaven and earth to bring a blackberry patch to our property.  First, they are not a native species in these parts.  Most of the brambles grown here are imported from the coast, often decades ago.  My mother-in-law, who lives 10 minutes away, has a big tangle of a bramble and when I was first lucky enough to sample a few choice berries, I noticed so many perfect ones just a hand's width out of reach.  I knew that when I planted some canes, I wanted to make them more accessible.

For the past five years, it has become a ritual of mine to call up our neighbour, old Hughie, and ask him if he'd mind if I dug up a few of his canes.  If you saw his bramble patch, you'd know why he chuckled each time I called...it's ENORMOUS!  I picked a spot on our property across the creek where the deer like to cross into the flower garden and then up into our kitchen garden.  I'm thinking there's no way they will try and make their traverse once the brambles thicken up.

After many transplants, this was the year to go for it!  I had had enough of my tender little canes being suffocated by the encroaching couch grass, and I knew that the only way to make a blackberry patch that really produced was to make it more cultivated. 

I enlisted my husband's help a wee bit (chuckle, chuckle).

 
As I've mentioned before, I am fairly comfortable in my envisioning role and my husband is a bit resigned in his carry-through role.   Forrest also offered up some enthusiastic digging, too!

 
These holes were dug in April...see the snow?  Last year's couch grass lies underneath this even more tenacious canary grass...it is so invasive and drives many a gardener mad!

 
The posts are cedar that Josh found standing dead in the mountains.  Our raised beds are also made from the same standing dead cedar using a chainsaw mill.  Cedar is so much more rot resistant than other wood, which we need for our deep snow loads in the winter.

 
Here the trellis system is attached at 3' and 6' heights.  Blackberry canes are so heavy when they are laden with fruit that the canes may end up in a big tangle upon the ground, unless they are trellised.

The next part I didn't take any photos of as I was so busy transplanting canes, hauling composted manure, mulching with straw, placing a dripline, laying landscape fabric and then mounding heaps and heaps of (untreated) sawdust upon the fabric to prevent the grass from invading.  This will help impede the weeds, but only maintenance of pulling any stray grass up and continual layering of mulch and sawdust will prevent.

 
Here, Josh is twining the wire through the trellis.  You can see the new transplants, which aren't leafing out like the established canes as all their energy is going into strengthening their root system (I hope)!  In two or three years, there ought to be a thick wall of canes here, preventing the deer, and dogs, from running through.

 
The promise of juicy berries to come in August...just in time for my birthday ~  I always have a blackberry pie as a birthday cake!

 
Now here's the very Virgo part of our blackberry patch...it is a spiral.  You cross over the creek and enter the spiral and you may pick and pick and pick blackberries as you wind in and then back out again.  Josh raised his eyebrow (he can do that and he does do that!) a few times when I told him my spiral idea.  But I just knew the children would love it!!!  I know I would have when I was little...but then again, I'm a Virgo, and all three of my children are go-with-the-flow Water signs.  Hmmm...anyhow, I love the spiral and time will tell when it fills in.

 
So if any of you find yourselves in our neck of the woods in August, please drop by to go blackberry picking with us...there's sure to be plenty of berries!

if you build it...

The past few weeks we've seen a little more of Papa as he is transitioning from his winter work into his summer work.  That means a few projects are crossed off the "Honey-Do List".  Like adding the swings to the children's playground.  Josh built the main structure with a slide, a lookout, and a sandbox three years ago, but the swings were put aside.  I think I may have been the only one really waiting for them to be added.  I just knew how great it would be for the children. 

We really are fortunate with this property as we have a lovely creek meandering through it, but it's still too dangerous for a 5 year old, let alone a 2 year old to play alongside without supervision.  We also have a small forest across a little meadow, but again, the children are a little young to be traipsing through it on their own.  However, a swingset right beside the Kitchen Garden in front of the house sounds just about right!  I can putter away in my garden and still be visible and present with the children.  I love that!

 
Josh smirks a wee bit when I suggest we should build this or that, as I am more of a director when it comes to some of the building projects.  He is the grunt labourer, and while he rarely complains, I am well aware of the unbalanced nature of this part of our relationship.  Thank goodness he enjoys working with wood so much!

 
And he did have some enthusiastic helpers...

 
 
 
A volunteer was needed to test it out...

 
Ten days later, this swingset has become the place to be.  If I wonder where either of these two have wandered to, I just look out my kitchen window and see them here.

 
From the lookout, they have a pretty great view of the Kitchen Garden, excellent for spotting whales or pirate's treasure or knights approaching.

 
 
Miss Sunshine loves her swing.  She is often seated there, contentedly and quietly moving rhythmically back and forth.  On the weekend, I was in the garden with little Huckley and I heard Sunshine loudly singing, "Happiness...Happiness...Happiness!"  Later I asked her why she was saying that and she replied, "Oh, because I love you, Mama!"  After everything she's been through in the last four months, this is indeed music to my ears.

 
Like I told my husband, if he builds the swingset, the children will come.  They will come to a place to dream, to play, to watch the birds swoop and glide, to see the clouds drift by.  They will come for a moment, or for an afternoon. 

 

This little piece of our property is sure to experience a lot of happiness.  Thanks be to the strong and capable hands that built it!

green thumbs

Oh happiness, it is gardening season again!  This weekend was our second weekend outdoors digging, smelling and experiencing the sounds, smells, textures, and tastes (ahem!) of the awakening earth.  Truly, there is very little that makes me feel as alive...or as calm, serene, and content.

Though, we have been gardening for several weeks around here.  The indoor kind of gardening...seed starting.  While this is a photo from last March, it is a pretty typical activity in any early March day.

 
The children are becoming really good at helping me place the tiny seeds in the packs.  It is truly fascinating to identify each seed, carefully holding our breath so as not to blow it away, and bury it in the soil.  it's so hard for even me to imagine the plant it will become.  And, in a few weeks...

 
...the plants are taking on a life of their own!  Both Forrest and Sunshine love to help with the seeds, eager to spritz the plants each day.  If Sunshine sees I am headed out to the garden, I can count on her accompanying me.  She loves playing in the earth as much as her mama!

 
This is their own garden bed...right in the middle of our Kitchen Garden.  It is hard to tell here, but it becomes transformed into a mini paradise with a bean tipi, flowers of each colour of the rainbow, plants with funny names like Goblin's Eggs, Dragon Carrots, Teddy Bear Sunflowers and Pumpkins-on-a-Stick.

I realized just how much Sunshine loves gardening when I saw her create this scene one afternoon a few days ago.  We were both disheartened by the snow falling from the sky, and this is where she really wanted to be...

 
Forrest is also a big help outside.  I was honoured to have the help of a fairy friend.

 
 
 
I think this is one of the most useful lessons in homeschooling that my children are experiencing...how to grow their own food.  It is something I did not grow up learning, but acquired as a young adult.  That very first garden I tended on my own sparked a passion that never dwindles, never grows stale.  It is one of my biggest hopes that my children's passion for gardening only grows.

And speaking of growing...all those seed starts are spilling out of their shelves and covering all countertops, tabletops, bookshelves, and various other surfaces in our home.

 
Yes, indeed!  Gardening season has officially begun and Life is springing forth all over the place!

world peas

I glanced at a newspaper headline on my way out of our little market the other day, and it saddened me.  In fact, everything on the whole darn page was pretty much depressing, frightening, horrifying, or tragic.  Then I went home.  It was the right day to plant our peas.  After I prepared the beds and Josh built this year's trellis, I spent some time with Forrest then Sunshine and together we planted peas.

 
It was rather peaceful in the garden with a child by my side.  We didn't speak very much as we were each deep in our own thing, together.

 
Thoughts of my children's future were on my mind, after reading those newspaper headlines.  What kind of world will they inherit?  It is so easy for me to get wrapped up in the worry and fear that those headlines generate.  How do I prepare my most precious loves for a world that doesn't seem to make any sense to me?  Oh, yes indeed, it was a good day to plant those peas and get my hands into the earth.  To get grounded again.  Really now, I'll follow my children's lead and try and be more Present.  To be Here Now and be grateful for this moment and the simple task of planting peas.

   
And in a few months, we'll eat those peas, and that's all I need to think about as I watch their tiny hands carefully, lovingly, place a seed in the earth.

Nothing is worth more than this day.

~Goethe