a little crafty nest

time for a change

Hello friends out there!

After six years of blogging here, I have decided to make the move.  You may find me here now, and I hope you come and visit!

See you soon!

xo Jules

around the homestead

 A month ago in the Big Garden...

Mid-February in the Big Garden...

My husband took the boys up into the mountains to do a little snowboarding down a logging road.  They rode for nearly 3km and despite falling lots, they had a wonderful afternoon.  When Sunshine and I returned from ballet in town, the boys had cut some pussywillows for me.  Pussywillows in February!!!  This is a few weeks earlier than I've ever had them before and it is such a treat to have a freshly cut bouquet on the table...the season has begun.

And what a difference a month makes...the drifts of snow have melted away to reveal garden beds, with the sheep manure visible from when I mucked out the barn the last time in October or November.  In the next while, I hope to muck it out again...before the shearer arrives at the end of March for sure.

Late February also means bringing the rubbermaid full of seeds out from storage.  I dug around for some onion and leek seeds and Huckley, Sunshine and I were able to get several cells started on the ideal day, if you follow a biodynamic calendar, like Stella Natura.  Sunshine is particularly enthusiastic, wanting her own flat of starts this year.  While spritzing the seeds this morning, she told me that she loves to be gardening already, even with snow on the ground in patches outside.  Me, too.

Our homemade hulking seed start shelf is just inside the front door and we will soon fill it with all sorts of seedlings...next up will be herbs and broccoli...

This is the time of year when we decide what animals will be arriving to the farm, when, and how many.  We will have 8 or 9 piglets coming at the end of April and 100 meat birds will come in early May.  We are going to try a dozen turkeys this year, which we are excited for.  The cost of feeding all these animals is quite a lot, so we have slowly begun acquiring grain from our supplier when he does a shipment to our valley.  The feed shack has begun to be filled, which is always promising.

The hens are glad for more bare ground, too.  This is one of my favourite girls, a Speckled Sussex.  They are such good-natured hens, and so pretty.  While most other hens will get disgruntled and try and peck our hands, these lovelies don't mind us checking beneath their bottoms for eggs.  We only have two of them, and I think this spring we will find two more.  Sunshine also has her eye on a Polish, like this one...so ridiculously cute!

And of course, there will be a kid or two born in June sometime, as well as several lambs.  My girls are slowly swelling at 3 months, but I'm told it isn't til the last month that 70% of growth happens for lambs.  Not a day goes by that I don't dream about what the lambs will look like!

 

And here sits Sugaree, filling up the dooryard of the barn.  She is my most skittish sheep, but she was enjoying herself so much that afternoon, that I had to step around her to fill up water containers.  She was busy growing a lambie or two!

What homestead projects are you up to right now?  What are your plans for the season ahead?  I'd love to hear from you!

spring melt

 

Yes, look at the calendar...it is still February!  But by the sounds of the creek rumblings, spring melt has begun. The snow on half our property has receeded to reveal the ground beneath, with all the promise of spring on its way....like the first snowdrops!

The boys managed to find an icy patch on our mountainside for a little outdoor fun on some newly inherited snowboards from their cousins.  They were out before breakfast but came tromping back indoors rubbing their behinds...they need the sun to soften the ice a little and will try again after lunch.

Huckley can hardly wait to begin guitar lessons in the fall...he is diligently practicing walking his fingers like his big brother.  Often, he bursts out with inspired and enthusiastic singing.

Do you remember this post in which Sunshine could be found mostly on her head?  I walked past her bedroom the other day and saw her dollies were also learning headstands and it made me smile.

Sunshine is eating up any schooling she can get...and then wants more.  We follow Waldorf indications of waiting until the child is 7 to begin formal lessons in letters and in numbers.  For my two oldest children, this has proven to work exceedingly well, and they soak it up effortlessly, and then wish for more.  Sunshine is currently learning place value with number gnomes after spending some time with Roman numerals and learning her little letters of the alphabet using the wonderful book The Wise Enchanter.

Forrest is working away on fractions and long division, surprising both of us that my artistic, imaginative boy is drawn to mathematics.  Because he goes to a local school for two days a week (one day is outdoor acitivities all day), we are working on his math and reading the most lately.  Sometimes we sink back into the Norse world of Viking stories, which is such a treat, but often we have a hard time carving out time for this busy, social ten year old.  This weekend, Forrest chose to stay home and have some quiet time rather than go on the play dates that were offered...much to my delight!  

There was a big build up to Valentine's Day in our home, thanks mostly to Sunshine.  Every spare moment she was decorating and hanging hearts and cards and making gifts for all of us.  It reminded me how much my children love festivals, even when I have lost some enthusiasm for such holidays.  A sort of pulling up of my socks, if you will.  On one of Forrest's Away Days, Sunshine and Huckley spent a good amount of time stitching hearts with me...and it reminded me of how much I enjoy just sitting with my children and creating, rather than fussing about in the kitchen or folding laundry.  These fleeting moments are gifts to be treasured, indeed.

Huckley requested a photo of him wearing my barn jacket...

 The spring melt is coming on full force right now, with the rhythmic sound of dripping just outside the windows from the eaves.  It is just about time to plant some lettuce in the coldframe in the greenhouse as well as to start my onions and leeks.  Loving the warm weather as much as we are, the sheep are bouncing around the pasture,despite their bellies full of lambies.  If you have ever seen a 150lb ball of wool, heavy with babies leaping and twisting in the air, it is an amazing sight to behold.  Sheep are very graceful, I find.  And their joy is so apparent.

This pause before the spring fever sets in is just the right thing so we can sit with our plans for the gardens and farm and activities that lay ahead.  With bare ground growing in patches all around, finding a moment to snuggle up to your faithful friend in the warming sunshine is just about exactly the best thing to do...soaking in the glorious (almost spring) sunshine.

Why I Wake Early

~Mary Oliver

Hello, sun in my face.

Hello, you who made the morning

and spread it over the fields

and into the faces of the tulips

and the nodding morning glories,

and into the windows of, even, the

miserable and the crotchety –

best preacher that ever was,

dear star, that just happens

to be where you are in the universe

to keep us from ever-darkness,

to ease us with warm touching,

to hold us in the great hands of light –

good morning, good morning, good morning.

Watch, now, how I start the day

in happiness, in kindness.

socked in

When you live in the mountains, you get used to unexpected weather coming up over the ridge and settling in the valley bottom.  Then you turn your back for a moment, and look out again, and there are clear patches up above which grow into a great blue sky...showing just how fickle the weather can be around here.  Our little local airport is known as Cancelgar for you never know til your plane has come or gone if you are getting out that day at all.  Chances are, you won't be.

Things change rapidly and where we are in the valley can be very different from ten minutes south and around a few bends.  But winter especially is known for being quite dreary and dark.  The ceiling is low, my husband says.  My mom used to say that the clouds socked us in for the day.  And that is the best description, I think...for this heavy cloud covering has socked in the visibility, with no change for a few days, and we are snuggled at home, watching the snow recede with the damp air and infrequent sprinklings of rain.

Good thing we are housebound, too.  A nasty stomach bug found us and took us out, one by one.  Ten days (and counting) where each of us felt intense tummy pain and nausea and all the wonders our bodies do to rid of unwanted viruses.  Even I succumbed to a day of horizontal bed rest, feeling so completely awful and quite down.  It is incredible how one's spirit and attitude are tied so intrinsically to good health.  That was the second time in ten years of mothering that I actually took a sick day as my husband just happened to be home the day I was slammed with Hurricane Stomach Flu 2016.  I think his presence allowed me to let the queasy illness overwhelm me so I stayed put, not even being able to read or do much more than nap and feel awful.  But it passed, as they always do, and now I am back to mothering the last of my babes who was up all last night.

These mellower days have found us mostly indoors, of course, stitching and painting and playing board games.  Valentine's Day is Sunday and papa will be home for dinner and so there is a flurry of creations being attended to while books on tape are played for whoever is sick on the couch.  When my kids are ill, unlike me, they choose to be on the couch surrounded by their favourite things.  Always a pile of good books at the ready, some water or tea not far from reach, and mama quilts and pillows to create "a good nesting spot", as Sunshine told me this morning.  From the couch, it is easier to look after the sick child and they feel part of the family still.  If they need to sleep, others go to play upstairs in bedrooms, or outside.  Sometimes, my oldest son will go be alone in his room to rest, but he really prefers to be close to the action.  This also allows me to putter and tidy or cook or if I'm lucky, do a yarn dye bath or spin some wool, while keeping a good eye on my child.

I'm really in awe of those mamas with larger families who face flu season...it must go on forever!  The longest stretch our family of five ever faced was 23 days and I thought that was a long haul!

Please stay healthy, friends...surely this weather won't stay socked in for much longer!

mid-winter days

In our house right now, this is most often how you'll see Sunshine.

All 5 of my sheep in one frame...success!

Our mid-winter days consist of a fairly predictable routine.  The phrase "plodding along" comes to mind, but it isn't at all mundane or uneventful.  As the days are just beginning to noticeably lengthen, we may appear more home-based and quieter.  Breakfast, farm chores, and homeschool work take us to late morning, at which point I'm often in the kitchen, making up lunch.  After we eat, we read a bit or do some handwork, then head outdoors for a walk or just to play by the animals.  It amazes me how the kids are drawn down to be close to the calm and observant critters, who quietly chew their cud and watch the energetic humans have fun at the creek's edge, or have wrestling matches in the snow.  Before we were a farm, almost four years ago now (whooooosh! that went fast!), our play was in the front yard, close to the house.  Perhaps we spend so much time with our animals, we have adopted the communal space just outside the henhouse and paddocks as our new front yard.  Besides, there's always an audience down there.

Our studly visitor is leaving tomorrow.  Hershey is returning to his farm after having been here over 3 weeks.  While I certainly won't miss his trademark aroma blowing all around the farmyard, I have to say that as far as billy goats go, Hershey was stellar.  A true gentleman who was so discreet with his amorous feelings for our sweet doe, Heidi, that we aren't even sure she was bred.  When I asked an old time farmer how to tell for sure if your goat is pregnant, he replied, "Well, when there's a baby kid on the ground in 5 months, I reckon she's been serviced."  And so the wait begins...

Meanwhile, my four ewes are halfway along, due in April...at least, I'm fairly certain Romeo did his job!  It really is so hard to tell, but in another few weeks, I will be able to palpitate their bellies and feel lambies inside!  Not a day goes by that I don't think about who is growing in there...what colour fleeces, boys or girls.  I won't let myself think about the lambing itself...I've got time to read about becoming a sheep midwife yet!

Indoors, there are all sorts of projects in progress...a littlest boy is having a bedroom makeover with a new coat of paint, kindling pieces are whittled into spears, our holiday puzzle of 1000 pieces was finally finished just today ~ and oh, the loud whoop of joy and happy dance from Sunshine when she laid that last piece had me laughing so hard my belly ached!  

I've been keeping my own fingers nimble with a little embroidery work and wool dyeing...though, the truth be told, I am really experimenting and getting familiar with dyeing again after a long hiatus.

It is a cozy time of year, to be nestled all snug at home with the fire crackling and our hands busy.  And whether it be drawing or stitching or knitting...or playdough...it is a wonderful way to pass a wintry afternoon, together.