Bringing Forth with Joy and Gladness

What's a Chibi?

2011-06-17T08:29:00.001-07:00

See the needle with the curved tip? That is a chibi

Because the tip is blunt and curved, it makes it delightful to weave in the ends on knitted items.

barrelponics frame complete - almost

2011-05-24T14:54:00.000-07:00

OK, we got this all done today, and the drill battery died with only ONE screw left to complete the support for the flush tank.

warping for andean pebble weave

2011-05-23T18:49:00.001-07:00

So, I splurged and bought warmi's Andean Pebble Weave book. This woman has inspired me and deserves great credit for the time and energy she spends sharing and teaching!

Working with natural color fibers

2011-05-23T15:05:00.001-07:00

May 21, 2011, I decided to measure out 1 oz each of my Navajo-Churro and shetland (the red/brown and white have some fiber from both breeds, the other 4 colors are Navajo-Churro).

Then I decided to see how much 1/2 ounce looked like spun up and 2 plied. Came out to 18 wraps around the niddy noddy at approx 17 wpi.

Chicks arrived!

2011-05-20T13:20:00.000-07:00

Thank you Lord for cackle hatchery and the USPS. We have some polish, assorted japanese bantams, and some mille fleur bantams. Put the polish in a separate box as they're twice as big as these guys.

Sweet Potatoes

2011-05-18T08:12:00.000-07:00

We moved to this home a bit over 4 years ago and while I've added some soil amendments in some areas, we're really on a rock with a high water table. This means that root crops need more soil than I may have, so a visit to a friend's garden has me thinking about planting sweet potatoes in buckets. He's planting them in containers because rats ate his ground planted sweet potatoes in prior years attempts.

Well, soil prices are up, so my decision will have to be ground planting! Just doesn't make financial sense to me to purchase unknown 'organic' soil in a bag. Perhaps its justified if one has no soil or too wet a ground, or contaminated soil, but I'm thinking if I simply tuck these slips in areas that have had some building up mulch, we should get some good sweet potatoes.

2011-05-16T13:10:00.000-07:00

Right up there with watching fish in a tank, watching my sheep graze is so peaceful.

Livestock waterers

2011-05-14T14:16:00.000-07:00

One of the other fiber farms (owned by a water gardening expert) really impressed me by how each livestock tank had water plants and fish in it. Last year we began implementing this at our place by simply adding cheap goldfish ($6.52 lb at our local baitshop) to each waterer.

I never managed to get any water plants besides one with water hyacinths and minnows, yet the goldfish survived on just mosquito larva. In the fall, I didn't think ahead enough to bring them inside and we lost them. This year I plan to bring the fish into the hoophouse for overwintering!

http://www.pondplantsdirect.com/ sent me beautiful water lettuce, a giant sensitive, and a water hyacinth lickaty split last week, so I have 2 1/2 barrells in the garden now with a few goldfish and plants in each. I'm thinking I will buy 3 larger livestock waterers for easiest management over this summer (I had smaller waterers last summer and that was difficult) as we've completed the interior fencing for rotational grazing which means I need to not have to worry about moving the waters where the sheep are.

Soap milling

2011-05-09T18:20:00.000-07:00

Last month I did several demonstration classes showing people how to make soap from basic fats, lye, and water. These batches of soap I didn't have time to properly turn out and slice into bars, and one of them ended up very lopsided from the trip home!

So today I milled them into pretty bars and boy, I've missed this relaxing process.

Probiotics = Healing Foods

2011-05-09T07:26:00.000-07:00

Jordan Rubin continues to transform lives!

Back around 2001, I first learned about and started consuming goat milk kefir. It radically changed my health for the better. I had systemic candida and mold in my body. I took quite a few Garden of Life supplements for about a year, while transitioning to learning how to make my own kefir, milk my own goats for raw goat milk, lacto-ferment vegetables, and butcher my own homegrown livestock for our freezer.

Now, Jordan is making it possible for people to purchase and afford green fed healthy animal products, probiotic water, probiotic infused drinks that bring healing to replace sodas and energy drinks!

Get an acct and start sharing this new supplier, now so you have a team in place long before launch date in October.

Sheep Shearing May 3rd, 2011

2011-05-08T09:51:00.001-07:00

This is Thunder, my Navajo-Churro Ram, who threw predominantly black lambs this year. So happy to get the sheep shearing done, we've had some hot afternoons and with them NOT getting sheared in the fall, a few of the fleeces were felted.

my ram

2011-02-09T13:49:00.001-08:00

Knitting with color

2011-01-26T08:30:00.000-08:00

My favorite online knitting supplier these days is by far Knitpicks.com Not only do I love working with their pink corded circular needles, before Christmas my dd#2 and I bought each colorway of their Sipalu bag kit. An amazing value, for about $50 including shipping, we got supplies for 4 bags, each kit came with more than enough yarn to knit two complete alternate colorway bags. I decided I didn't like the pattern's strap and wove one on my inkle loom.

Home is Where the Heart is

2011-01-03T16:11:00.000-08:00

This past year has been a whirlwind of activity and the funniest thing started happening this fall...I've been busy with anointing with oils and playing taxi mom with one in vo-tech not driving by herself yet. My husband was working way too many hours in town and out of town and sometimes out of state.

We kept getting water in the basement and it wasn't raining. Hot water tank cracked, so replaced that, only ruining one shopvac before realizing we were overfilling it before dumping. Dry floor for about a week, then the washing machine seal went, so we were back to sucking up water till we figured out the problem and then hit the laundromat for several weeks. At some point the dishwasher that's fairly new quit working first. Then the garage door opener refused to work. Then we noticed we couldn't shut the sliding glass door on the sunporch anymore. Turns out the whole porch settled an inch due to a 1/2 eaten by termites board that needs replaced.

Last year I heard about this book titled something like "My Car, Myself" in which the guy lists what health problems in the driver result in which car problems -- the gist of the book is that if your cars keep having the same kind of trouble, it might be the driver, not the car. I haven't read the book, just heard a book report about it. So when the house started fallin' apart I had to laugh because my husband is Mr. Fix-it man and it was like the house was saying it was done staying in order without him.

One of my friend says that computers will function IF her husband is home and that they can act up all day long and as soon as he's home, they suddenly work fine again.

Just as people can taste the difference in food made with love, I think our house knows I don't want to live in it anymore. I do however want functioning appliances and to make a home for my family wherever we live, so I'll endeavor to be sure my house doesn't take my wanting to move elsewhere personally. Dani Johnson has a story on one of her CD's about being a good steward and thankful for her smaller downsized home before she was able to move on again to a different home. I'm going to be more consciously thankful for the warmth and shelter my house provides us. Handwashing dishes still and the sunporch will get fixed soon, new hot water tank and new washing machine working well and the garage door is fixed...

Folks, Treasure your babies!

2010-08-29T07:57:00.000-07:00

OK, I ended my previous blog with this post and a number of events have occurred that remind me I cannot stay silent about what's happening to our children. We're in a major health and spiritual crisis in this country and every single person out there is responsible. If you see a young mom or a pregnant woman, every thought you think has the opportunity to bring life or death, just as every word you speak to her does. Folks, the youth of this nation are dying from cancers, crazy illnesses, and neglect and it doesn't have anything to do with poverty, we were the wealthiest nation, but our lack of Biblical values has turned the tide. Choose LIfe and encourage moms to raise their own babies in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

A tribute to a precious little one I knew:

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Last entry - Death by Pharmaceuticals and lack of mothering

Thanks folks, it's been fun to share this space for a season. My life has changed, and I'm moving from Glory to Glory.

Driving back from doing town errands yesterday, it hit me that my last post needs to be about a sweet little girl who is no longer with us. I first met this child via her pregnant mother as the grandmother was a neighbor of ours.

I was very happy to meet her because to me every pregnancy is to be cherished and nurtured with great gratitude.

The grandmother shunned my gift of some copies of Above Rubies, saying it would be condemning to this mom. Within 6 weeks of delivering a beautiful baby girl, the mom went back to work and shuffling baby to daycare and grandma and the doctor visits and pharmacy visits were in full force. Of course she didn't breastfeed because that's too inconvenient, formula is so easy. The entire family smoked, and so of course baby girl had breathing problems and was given 'breathing' treatments.'

One Friday night fellowship at our home, baby girl came with grandpa and grandma and danced and danced before the Lord and us as people played guitar and sang praises to the Lord. Thank you Lord for this sweet memory of this babe who came before you just as she was.

At age 3, the mother found her body in her crib one morning. The autopsy said it was a brain aneurism, and nothing could have been done. I choked when I heard this and choke now writing it. Folks, this is another case of death by pharmaceuticals and a mother who preferred working and letting someone else raise her children. The mother Could have bathed her baby girl in love and the Word and breastfed her and stayed home with her and NOT given her baby toxic medications.

May those of you with girls to influence give them a vision for MOTHERHOOD, it saves lives and brings JOY. And those of you with young men around, teach them the importance of providing for and encouraging women to raise their babies in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Children are an heritage from the Lord.

Lord forgive us

New Seasons of life - homeschooling transitions

2010-08-16T06:40:00.000-07:00

My children are now 21, 16, and 12. When my oldest was merely 3 (I had made a stupid choice in marrying a man I thought was 'spiritual' when in reality he was one the Bible tells will always be like a wild donkey) and I prayed for the Lord to bring me a 'Christian' husband, I had no idea what a journey I was beginning. It's a journey that I do not regret, going from glory to glory is never dull and yet I've had peace that passeth understanding through a series of trials and come out singing still I will say "blessed be the name of the Lord!" His Word endures forever and He is the way, the truth, and the life.

My oldest daughter recently thanked me for raising grown-ups. At a time when most don't have a clue what they want in life, she pays her own bills, works 2 jobs, goes to school, has her own young living business, and still manages to prioritize family gatherings. DD#2 started office computers and multimedia classes at vo-tech and is really excited about the program. both girls are amazing self-starters, something I think is good fruit from the way we lived our homeschooling days using Charlotte Mason ideas, praying, letting the anointing teach.

So, now my job changes again as primarily my homeschooling job is now a matter of working more with my son. He's quite different from the girls in his interests and already reads fluently and can for the most part be reminded to do his penmanship and math lessons. I want him to grow in the Word and skills with tools and to find a few more areas of interest outside of computer gaming. I'm thinking we'll make the aquaponics project his to manage, if he shows more interest in it. He has enjoyed our goldfish in the livestock waterers.

The Lord's timing is so awesome and perfect. As my younger children are so close to leaving the nest, I've entered into new fields of healing studies and business ownership. As usual, learning all the time how much I don't know, but thankful I don't have to know it all, I know the ONE who does. I wake up excited to see what the Lord's going to bring next!

Young Living Free Lavender Summer Essentials Kit

2010-07-11T15:33:00.000-07:00

Young Living Free Lavender Summer Essentials Kit

Young Living has awesome specials each month, so easy to get your own account and business with them! (my member # 941653)

Night bloomers

2010-07-11T08:40:00.001-07:00

These are bush moonflowers that I've grown the past 9 or more years, since falling in love with them at a friend's parents house and the mistress of the house sharing the abundant seeds with me. Last night there were 59 blooms open, they're beautiful and smell so heavenly.

Sunflowers - Hopi Red

2010-07-06T08:48:00.001-07:00

The sunflowers are really beautiful this year, I'm growing more and the birds are happy! I had quite a few sunflowers re-seed themselves from last year in the front yard, and so I've transplanted about 3 dozen to the main garden. I attempted starting some mammoth gray from older seed, and I think only one has come up. The petals on this one are long and beautiful.

new landscaping :) uncluttering continues

2010-07-06T08:36:00.001-07:00

yesterday's work was very productive as 3 men took out the cattle corrals and a section of old perimeter fencing (the new perimeter fencing was completed last month, but the old section was still in need of taking down so the kids and I helped take off t-post clips and roll up the fencing while the stronger guys pulled up the t-posts and one on a tractor pulled up corrals and any posts too stubborn to pull by hand.)

I've wanted this done for a while. When we bought this place the 2nd owner back had been a welder and had collected a lot of scrap metal, the previous owners cleaned up some and then we also had a man come haul off a LOT of remaining odds and ends metal. Now with just another couple hours work, there will be 3 nice sized and now beautiful clean pastures to rotate my sheep through. We have one small section of fenceline that we still need to move, but for now the fencelines are much cleaner and the sheep aren't down at the neighbors every other day where they feed their cattle!

garlic, onions, chives

2010-06-22T11:27:00.001-07:00

This first rather messy looking photo has lambsear, moonflower, horseradish, onions going to seed, and parsley going to seed. I love parsley and have never seen it flower and go to seed, so thought it would be fun.

I pulled up the elephant garlic today and am happy with the production I got for the limited effort. This garlic was just plunked into the beds I created by just putting a shovel in the sod, planting something, then mulching around it. My rather OCD gardening friend just can't believe that I can do that and something will actually grow and produce -- he's got perfectly tilled, perfectly lined up, perfectly labeled, perfect rectangle gardens. My gardens are sort of like island jungles a lot of the time, I get one under control and then forget about it till harvesting something brings some order again.

After pulling up the garlic, I clipped off the onion tops/seeds and chive seed heads. The chives are starting to bloom a second time. I love growing things that I don't have to re-purchase seeds or starts for the next season.

Welcome to The Raindrop Room!

2010-05-13T12:33:00.000-07:00

Our houseguest of 5 weeks just moved out this past Saturday, so I took over her room for my raindrop room! I decided that the existing curtains look pretty royal and some of us have a dream of working together to run a 'Castle Spa' retreat, so the decor is pulled together from stuff I already had and not complete yet, but I'm very pleased thus far. The children helped me move and clean things yesterday and we got it done before 3 showed up for raindrop instruction and 2 raindrops. Perfect.

Meet Chloe and Balloo - the new LGD's

2010-04-27T11:47:00.000-07:00

Since losing our 1/2 Pyrenese 1/2 sneaky neighbor dog male guard dog recently, I've been worried about simply raising lambs for coyote bait. In praying about what to do and not wanting to spend money on a guard dog that could potentially experience the same fate, I began looking at craigslist postings for potential replacement guard dogs instead of ONE guard dog.

In just a few days time, these were available and free. So far we've lost two chickens to the larger male 1yo's curiosity and I may have to pen my chickens back in the garden coop to keep them safe. So far so good though as the female isn't interested in the chickens at all and is routinely patrolling the exterior fenceline. While I would like for the dogs to stay with the sheep, they're unrelated and young, so I should be able to get some good pups that will be raised with our sheep and chickens. These dogs have such a wonderful peaceful presence and have settled in with our bordercollie/aussie and tiny Cricket already nicely. Cricket is daunted by their size, and tucks her tail and stays out of their way for the most part.

Chloe is too thin, looking like she recently had pups (the man we got her from said she'd been with his sheep and they'd let her raise on litter of pups which they sold), so I picked up some drumsticks and am transitioning them to a raw diet. Balloo basically inhaled his first 2 drumsticks without chewing, Chloe acted like she'd never had a raw meal and was quite cautious at first, but then was happy for seconds. Balloo came covered in cockleburs to the point I'm going to have to give him a haircut to clean him up and keep him from skin issues. I tried picking some of them out, but they're too numerous and matted in spots. Balloo wants to herd the sheep back into the barn, so for now the dogs are fenced OUT of the sheep's pasture. Chloe is a houdini and will climb, dig under, or simply go through any openings in a gate or fence. Balloo's head is too big and not as bright, but learning quickly from her. We attempted penning them at night in a cattle panel area in the barn till they knew this was their new home, it was merely a suggestion to her. She's out there watching everything, laying where she can eye my daughter working in the garden, and the sheep in the pasture and beyond. Every so often she gets up and they both go round the property line again. Cool dogs, thank you Lord!

irises in bloom

2010-04-27T11:33:00.001-07:00

My Grandma Jessie always had irises surrounding her yard, and those I brought with me from the old house have survived and multiplied nicely.

weeding and mulching

2010-04-25T17:00:00.000-07:00

We've lived here now almost 3 years and the things I planted have done well multiplying and growing. Since we had so much going on when we moved, I would simply stick a shovel in the sod, plant something, mulch around it and go on. I created some beautiful garden beds in this manner and now they're really filling in so there's not much open space in them. This makes it very easy to pluck something in without any chickens or dogs really knowing I've been there.

Today I was able to transplant 6 gorgeous Hopi red sunflowers to a new bed. If they're happy, pics will follow later. These sunflowers happily seeded themselves from last year, only I've decided that this year since they're so tall I want them down the hill closer to the larger summer garden instead of in the front yard. I'll probably let a few go ahead and grow in the front yard to the side, it's amazing to me how many are coming up freely.

I mulched the 4 earliest potato plants well and discovered lots of freebie sage babies coming up. Took 4 of the sage babies out and potted them up for transplanting elsewhere. DD#2 picked out some pink yarrow seeds, so I sowed a few of those in some pots and planted a few fennel seeds in pots also. Dill is coming up in abundance now, I can be seen grazing on it, walking onion, and parsley now, and if you see me doing this, pray with me that the dog hasn't been there since the last rain.

Homeschooling Musings

2010-04-08T13:26:00.000-07:00

I haven't talked much lately about homeschooling because for us it became just a way of life quite a few years back. I thought some of you might enjoy a short "day in the life" post about this though. First, my early bird used to be our son, and the one sleeping in was the middle child. Now, that's flip-flopped and slightly bizarre as things are even more quiet in the morning now.

My son detests handwriting and that includes signing his name and dating math worksheets. He detests being laughed at even more though, but sometimes we just can't help it. This afternoon for example when I asked to inspect his math sheet, of course, it had no name and no date. I've tried to tell him that at the least he must know how to efficiently sign his name and write the date on things. He tried to tell us first "I can't figure out the calendar" then says "I'm not stupid." which promptly brought up belly laughs from his sister and myself....it might have worked as an excuse if he weren't almost 12. Even he had to laugh though when he realized how ridiculous that claim was just after attempting to claim he couldn't read a calendar.

Katie rather seemingly spontaneously got in the kitchen and started whipping up a cake to which I had to inquire "what's up with you in the kitchen?" Her response with a grin was "well, you said you would only give me a 'B' in home ec." laughter again from me. She's working on a high school transcript to turn in with her application to the computer/office skills program at the vo-tech and trying to earn a better grade. I even saw her doing math on her own again.

We're reading aloud from Around the World in 80 days and enjoying that together, finally traced the journey on the world map in the kitchen. Interesting thinking of travelling around the world using the ocean so much. This morning we had a morning 'shout a long' that really wasn't much shouting using some marvelous I Am confessions. This afternoon I picked up dd#2's very own violin from the music store, where they very kindly and affordably re-strung and tweaked things/rosined those knobs, and tuned it. This was really a fab bargain from ebay and I was scared it would sound like a bargain from ebay, but it actually sounds decent! It's beautiful, black, came with a nice case, brand new bow, and straps and chin rest too! DD#2 had taken lessons for a season or two on a borrowed violin, then gave it up for a bit and took painting lessons, and just recently decided she missed violin after we got the piano. Now we're set to attempt some piano/violin stuff, just as soon as I get that piano tuner back to fix the middle C that went quite sour shortly after he tuned it.

Some older friends of ours stopped by around lunch with some beautiful and tasty potato garlic bread, fresh green onions, and some beatiful red potatoes and garlic. They enjoyed walking out to the pasture to see all the baby lambs and seeing my flowers, roses, apple trees, and cherry trees in bloom. The cherry trees came from their garden, so it was nice for me to have them see the nicer one in full bloom right now. They took home a couple sage plants from my garden as sage really likes my garden and has multiplied nicely. My thyme has really taken off and is covering about 3sqft now! The mint would take the whole yard over if I let it. We've got our first large asparagus stalk up out there too.

Now on to the rest of the evening with a ham in the oven, bread dough to set out to rise for rolls, 2 to take in to TaeKwonDo practice, and I might just squeeze in an hour or two of knitting on these two at a time socks for dd#1's birthday that was back the end of Jan.

Spring Flowers!

2010-04-04T19:05:00.000-07:00

Valentine's Day - cherishing the time

2010-02-14T15:40:00.000-08:00

Every day is a gift. My hubby bought me a new phone, mine was several years old and thus a tadbit outdated, though functional. For just a few bucks and a few bucks more each month, I have a much better phone from which I can access the net and email. Now I just have to learn how to use it :)

The women in the new testament were the first hospice workers, I've decided, bringing emotionally cleansing oils to those men on the cross helping them to confess and repent and showing them such compassion and love, before meeting the Lord, what more merciful act could there possibly be? I read a book of things that Mother Theresa said and about her life that changed my life when Cassie was very little. She said something to the effect that she saw Jesus in every person that had been basically dumped on her doorstep and despised and neglected by their own loved ones. Mother Theresa's unfailing love for whoever was put in front of her is still an inspiring example to me and her thoughts on the ill helped me to take care of Cassie even when I was exhausted and spent.

Someone close recently wrote to tell people to cherish their marriages, as her husband life fades away, she's processing and feeling the guilt of perhaps not relishing the time enough that they had, knowing it's coming to a close. May the Lord help her to list and praise Him for the Good Good times they've shared and release him back to the Lord.

Thank you for the sun and your son, Lord!

Lambs 4 and 5 of the season

2010-02-07T11:47:00.000-08:00

The white one is a little ewe and the black with white is a little ram lamb.

First Lambs of Spring 2010

2010-01-25T07:33:00.001-08:00

Twin boys were out there this morning, both already dried up and walking around mommy!

Off the Needles

2010-01-08T07:19:00.001-08:00

Made over the last few weeks for dd#1, on size 1 dpns borrowed from dd#2's knitpicks sock needle collection with superwash wool/nylon blend sock yarn from our LYS - Unwind in Claremore, OK.

I used the toe up generic sock pattern and these fit her feet exactly.

Sprouts day6

2010-01-08T07:09:00.000-08:00

We've eaten most the sprouts already, so I definitely still need to work on my ratios of seeds to jar size. These were delicious and the seeds came from Azure Standard. Most of the sprouts we ate on raw hummous with olives and pita bread. I'll serve these in a salad today. The dark area is the hulls plus a few late sprouting seeds.

Sprouting with Mason Jars

2010-01-02T06:20:00.001-08:00

You're looking at a wide mouthed quart sized mason jar with a small-sieved plastic lid upside down resting in a funnel, balanced in a coffee cup. In times past, anytime I tried sprouting, I would inevitably think too many seeds and end up with a musty smelling mess in the middle or too many sprouts for my family's taste buds to tolerate. I finally got it that with sprouts, you don't need a mega-meal of them to get the nutrients you need. So, for this batch, I used one rounded tablespoon of alfalfa and one rounded tablespoon of broccoli. I soaked them last night in filtered water, drained, rinsed, and have them sitting now on my counter.

According to the Azure Standard website directions for sprouting, I may need to move them up to a larger sized jar, but I think they're ok for today in this one. I'll rinse several more times today.

Long Neck Squash - talk about food storage!

2010-01-01T12:18:00.000-08:00

We think this squash is actually two years+ old now, but even if it is just one year old, it's still in excellent shape and I'm cutting into it today to make some pumpkin pies and Garbanzo Lamb Stew (recipe from my favorite dinner menu cookbook: Extending the Table). I've got organic chickpeas soaking. I love this variety of squash not just for its excellent keeping qualities, but it's taste, and ease of preparing as well. The seeds are in the small round cavity, and the entire neck is solid flesh.

I kept this squash and others in the basement on shelves and then moved it to the garage when we had company living in the basement for 5 months last spring and completely forgot about it until looking for some pumpkin to make dinner with tonight.

Swiss Chard

2009-11-15T10:59:00.000-08:00

Gardening IS possible almost year round in OK, if one is willing to learn how to cook with the marvelous abundant greens that like fall and early spring.

Oh boy, I need to learn how to re-arrange these pics! Anyway, You simply saute onions and garlic diced in 3 or 4 tablespoons butter, then add the diced stems, saute a minute, then add the rest of the chard sliced into 1/2" ribbons piling it high as it cooks down rapidly. Saute' just until softened and then sprinkle with some gomasio and tamari OR a bit of himalayan pink sea salt and enjoy.

I'm serving this with baked sweet potato (mashed with butter and maple syrup) and a baked homegrown ham.

Knitting Swiffer Covers

2009-11-11T07:36:00.000-08:00

Ravelry.com ought to get some sort of major award for what they've done in creating an awesome web community! Most recently some of the ladies there have shared their patterns for swiffer covers for those of us not into throw away lifestyles. I've just knit 2 different styles and dd#2 has caston and 1/2 knit yet a third style. http://www.elmore-pisgah.com/ and http://www.rmyarns.com/ are my favorite places to buy cotton yarn for dishcloths, washcloths, baby sweaters, and now swiffer covers. Great prices, quick shipping, friendly service, and no driving an hour to the store to be assaulted by toxic synthetic chemicals in the air from candles, cleaners, and potpouri.

Manuel's Rye Starter

2009-11-06T06:52:00.000-08:00

Making a sourdough starter isn't really difficult, keeping it going has been more the hurdle I don't always make it over. I'll let ya know how this one goes in a few more days, I hope to make sourdough tortillas and bread.

Rendering Lard

2009-11-03T16:17:00.001-08:00

Today's work was rendering 25 pounds of lard in preparation for some soapmaking. I'm doing a workshop later this month and need to replenish our home and a local store's supply of homemade soaps. Haven't gotten any further on my barrel-ponics setup yet.

Dividing chives

2009-09-08T07:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I dug up and made 4 new plantings of the chives. This is the first year my chives have actually done well, and they make a lovely little bush with purple flowers, so I figure that even if I forget to eat them, I do enjoy watching them grow, flower, and go to seed. I actually did dehydrate some for winter use and plan to do that again before winter.

We got the hoophouse frames up and while I was going to share photos, internet explorer crashed on my while attempting to load, so it'll have to wait another day when I have time. Today it's off to a gardening friend's house to return some pots and glean a few 'mater's and make either salsa or tomato sauce. I haven't put up anything to speak of food wise, and I would like to dry some more okra and make salsa and basil/garlic tomato sauce this week.

May everyone's fall gardens be bountiful!

Aquaponics -- cutting barrels

2009-08-07T13:02:00.000-07:00

After reading the entire barrel-ponics manual and printing off the lists of pvc parts, taking inventory of tools, etc... I couldn't stand not making at least what progress we were able to today. I don't have the right size holesaws for the drill, so those will have to wait till payday, but saw and ruler and a colored pencil (no sharpie was to be found) we could find.

I know we own a T-square, but it was not to be found, so this yardstick ruler did the trick.

We still have to clean up the edges and cut off the lips of the grow bed barrels, but I'm happy with our progress for the day. I finished the additional cuts in the flood tank section after the photo was taken, in case anyone notices only one hole is cut out. Don't know who made this adjustment from the original floodtank design, but after seeing it in the photos, it seemed 'cuter' and more lumber saving. Used that for a simple real work math example for the kids of how to use those equations: circumference = 2pir, so if we need 8 sections (drawing topview of bottom portion of floodtank yields 4 sections up and 4 'windows' how wide does each section need to be?

Aquaponics - great project to kickoff the new school year!

2009-08-04T10:22:00.000-07:00

Everytime I think about academics, look at textbooks, I'm reminded anew of why I do so many difficult, time consuming, and widely different things. I want my children to know how to Think, have wisdom, and have practical skills, and that just doesn't come without hands-on projects, living creatures and plants, real raw materials and real tools.

Years ago I heard of aquaponics, but had too many other projects going at the time, though I did have the hoophouses up, one had french angora rabbits in it and the other just a few in ground veggies. Since moving several years ago to a larger property and house, we've added sheep, gotten out of milk goats for a season (I want superior genetics and Saanens since that's what my chief milkmaid is interested in), added bees, and studied applied aromatherapy. The large hoophouse has sat behind the barn unassembled, we got out of the rabbits due to high feed costs and time required for chores/grooming, and the small hoophouse is setup for the chickens.

So, after reading quite a few posts and looking at some system setups from the Backyard Aquaponics forums, the kids and I started assembling these things to turn them into our very own fish and food farm in the backyard. I chose this location because there was an old concrete pad with a flat area of sand and an electric pole from the previous owners. I've been praying about that old permaculture adage of doing what you can with what you have where you are. Now just need to pray in the remaining supplies, pump,tubing, right growing medium, new greenhouse film, and get to work!

Dehydrating - chives today

2009-08-02T13:23:00.000-07:00

Fall gardening, sprouting, and green smoothies have all been on my mind lately. The dehydrator's going with a tray of chopped chives and I gathered some chive seeds and seeds from a yellow onion that went to seed today.

These chives came from the garden of a wonderful garden in Inola owned by some people who can grow and cook up some of the best eats I've had. I was gifted a small pot of them and that 4inch pot has now become about a 12 inch circle at the bottom and I must dig it up soon and divide it, perhaps bringing one inside later this fall. It's a bit too close to a rose, making clipping chives risky business these days and for the rose, it's not allowing enough breezeway. They'll both be happier once I move and divide the chives.

I read in The Secret Life of Plants that dried veggies or herbs emit the same living frequency when once again fully hydrated, while canned emit no life force at all, though picked and consumed as soon as picked emit the highest frequencies.

I've got adzuki bean spouts ready to start eating or throwing into green smoothies and mung beans soaking. The mission is to get more greens and more enzymes into my family's daily diet and sprouts just give you a lot of mileage for your money.

My okra sprouts just went into the garden and into some pots and a seedflat this morning. I sprouted them first to make sure the seeds from 2004 were still good, and most of them were just fine.

Fall planted onion space is next on my to-do list. Once weeded, there are several spaces on my southfacing slope that I can plug in a few onion seedlings, but I'll be starting them first in a pot in my cold frame with wire fencing to keep the chickens or dogs from un-planting long enough for them to get growing!

Chickens ate the 2 lucsious looking almost ripe orange heirloom tomatoes that I was longing to share with my family and I thought surely they were up too high and in a spot they couldn't reach...it could be wild birds dug into them, since I didn't actually catch the chickens in the act this time...I really need to just fix my chicken coop roof and confine them long enough to enjoy my own tomatoes!

Sennacherib

2009-07-22T11:33:00.000-07:00

This morning's life journal reading selection was really an awesome reminder of the battle belonging to the Lord. Often we miss God in our lives because we don't read the Bible for ourselves and have no understanding of His character. As my daughter read IS 37, the vision of the Lord putting a hook in the nose of someone just came to life, having raised pigs last year, I saw all those with ill-intent towards the Body lined up awaiting a ring in their nose!

A common way to control Bulls or pigs from rooting where you don't want them to is to put a ring in their nose. I could digress here about the idoacy of people now doing this to themselves...but that's another post.

Psalm 76:6
At thy rebuke, O God of Jacob, both the chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep.
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Thou, [even] thou, [art] to be feared: and who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry?

Thou didst cause judgment to be heard from heaven; the earth feared, and was still,
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When God arose to judgment, to save all the meek of the earth.

When I read this I'm again awestruck and humbly grateful that my redeemer is so ABLE and MIGHTY.

May my focus always be where it should be.

1 Peter 24-25 For all flesh [is] as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:

But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.

Where's the Food?

2009-07-20T07:18:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I needed to get something from Wal-Mart -- a store I normally avoid like the plague, but given the choice of driving to Tulsa or getting it there, I went to Wal-Mart. Since I was there already I thought I'd just go ahead and get the few other items on my list...

what a shocker. I wanted black-eyed peas and almost never buy canned, so went to the dried beans isle, where much to my surprise there were NONE. There were also no chickpeas, and very little of anything but pinto beans. The space for the dried beans also seemed much smaller.

Next shocker was the search for black olives and green chilis, only 2 brands offered (now I've heard for years, that canning companies typically use the same shipments of food for multiple labels, so I wasn't that surpised initially). So, I started looking around and realized that there were much fewer brands on the shelves, generally one 'store brand' and one name brand of many items and of those, the shelves didn't seem to be stocked nearly as full as what I remember from years ago.

By now, I was feeling very un-settled but wanted frozen peas to go with the new potatoes I had just bought from a local farm. Wow, was this sad to see, the frozen veggie isle was greatly reduced down to like 4 doors of stuff and very little was there in terms of variety. If I wasn't a longterm gardening catalog fan, I might not notice this as much, but if a person was to compare the number of veggies offered in the store to the vegetable seed varieties, and understood the limited nutritional options in the store, they might just get as upset as I was by that point.

It was a great reminder of why I want to garden in spite of the longterm comittment and day to day work involved. I want my kids to know what real food is and I want to nourish my family well for longterm health. Now back to working on fall gardening plans!

Basil

2009-07-08T17:09:00.000-07:00

Ok, there's no basil in this photo, it's just pretty and I'm trying to blog about my garden and couldn't find the photo of the bed with some basil in it LOL! The plants are from left to right: monkey grass, dusty miller in bloom, and celery.

Back to Basil, while lots of people enjoy basil and pine nut pesto , my family doesn't care for it. I think it tastes wonderful! My family did fall in love last summer with a get this, drum roll please: Basil cheesecake!! Evidently the recipe was printed in an herbal magazine and some friends of ours latched onto it and shared one with us at a potluck. It's their basil that's blooming and going to seed in one of my flower beds right now, they grow some from seed everyyear in their greenhouse.

In Raindrop Technique, it's the Methylchavicol chemotype of Basil that is used and until tonight, I didn't know there were so many chemotypes of basil. This is important to know when buying and using essential oils the different chemotypes do not have the same therapeutic properties.

Echinacea

2009-07-03T06:03:00.000-07:00

Something I like about echinacea is how tough the plants are once established. These just shot up out of the midst of a stand of peppermint and bermuda grass with no special care. I brought them from the other house 2 years ago and just stuck a shovel in the ground, dumped them in the hole and covered them up.

I love planting and growing plants with multiple uses, and while I've not used echinacea from my own garden yet for ailments, there is quite a list of common ailments that it can be useful for.

Ginger Ale

2009-07-02T05:57:00.000-07:00

From the recipe in Nourishing Traditions, last night we (as in dd#2 and I) assembled fresh grated ginger, sea salt, lime juice, filtered water, and in the cup/funnel/coffee filter is kefir letting the whey drain through. Using whey from kefir, yogurt, or buttermilk drops the acidity of your ferment, offering preservation while the veggie components have time to get culturing. It's been a while since we made this and I've been missing it. A few weeks ago, I did a wonderful tasting batch of ginger carrots. The carrots are wondeful to add a few tablespoons to a bowl of salad.

I attribute part of my own health recovery from systemic candida albicans and mold to the addition of lacto-fermented foods to my diet. This process is how people lived healthily without refrigeration, preserving and improving the nutrition available in the foods they had. And, it's actually a lot easier than modern canning methods.

The essential oil of ginger is also available through Young Living. Steam distilled from roots, it's great for arthritis, digestive difficulties, respiratory infections,/congestion, muscular aches/pains, and nausea (from EODR 4th edition). It doesn't smell nearly as good as fresh ginger, like you might expect, but has a rather more earthy aroma.

Last year I potted up a few fresh roots from the grocery store that had promising buds on them, and sure enough they grew lovely fronds. I brought them into the garage for overwintering, since our OK winters are a bit too chilly for ginger. At one point I thought I might have killed them, but the tubers were hard, fresh and had long fleshy roots extending downward into the potting soil. I moved the pot out of doors after the last spring frost and had almost given up hope, but there is growth again! I'll try to get a picture of it to post.

New Seasons

2009-07-01T06:47:00.000-07:00

Psalm 104:1 Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honour and majesty.
2 Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain:

As my youngest turns 11 in a few days, I'm mulling over motherhood and the ups and downs of giving children a peaceful home, while trying to raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. I've been distracted so many times from my work, by worldly stuff, by other people outside of family (we've practiced hospitality housing families often for months), by family tragedy (6 years of trying to keep a child alive and still meet the 3 other children's needs), by my own shortcomings, etc...but here I am after 16 years of choosing to be a homemaker first, still thankful to have a husband who wants a wife who makes a home, and still thankful that I've been able to raise my own children.

One of my favorite Charlotte Mason quotes is something like: "Mother sets the attitude of home" or the man's version "if momma ain't happy, nobody is"

I've found the only way to not grow weary is to Seek the Lord always, putting on the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, and rejoicing in the name of the great I am, who forgiveth all thine iniquities: who healeth all they diseases (psalm 103:3) and enjoying watching His wonderous works:

John 7:38 (King James Version)
38He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.