Birds

Whew, it's been awhile! I don't even know if anyone reads this blog anymore... but anyway! I have been busy with homeschooling and taking care of the house, etc.

Right now we're learning about birds in science, and I thought it was the perfect opportunity to read together a childhood favorite book of mine The Trumpet of the Swan. I had forgotten how much information about swans was in there, so it's been the perfect choice! And I also forgot how funny it is. My 5-year-old son has loved it so far. It helps that he's always loved birds and found them fascinating and fun. My kids have owl curtains hanging in their room that I made for them, and every now and then we go over to JoAnns and get a couple little wooden birdhouses for both our kids to paint which sit on their dresser. It's just one of those funny things that has evolved through their growing up.

And it just so happens that we have some woods at the back of our property with a terrific selection of birds that come to visit - and we don't even have a bird feeder!

Vulture - I thought it was so funny to just see him perched in our tree.

 

Blue Jay - Yesterday was the first time I've seen one around

Barred Owl - we hear them hooting pretty often. Really cool!

Quilt

Remember my Autumn quilt?

Well, it's taken a back seat to my other sewing project - some Regency-era historical clothing. But, I did finally get all the layers put together and it is now in the official quilting hoop. I hope to get to it before winter starts, but it's looking doubtful.

Our garden has finally been put to sleep. I've piled leaves on it and hope they will act as multi-purpose mulch/weed suppressor. I've been surprised by how well my compost it going. It is actually looking like rich, black dirt. I know the crickets and worms like it in there.

Strangely, the flower bulbs I planted in September have started to come up and bloom. Our weather has been a bit warmer than usual, but we still have frosty mornings. Maybe it was the 7" of rain from the hurricane that we got. Even the violets were out all over our yard! I hope it doesn't hurt them to be out prematurely.

I haven't started an new canning projects. The only thing I canned this year were the plain and spiced peaches. It was worth the work for those.

Sorry I've been a bit absent lately. I'm homeschooling my son, so not as much time for blogging!

I hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving weekend and Christmas ahead!

Busy Busy

I have been busy. Perhaps a bit too busy. I tend to overwhelm myself. Last week we went to Larriland Farm and picked the last of the season's peaches and tomatoes. A few days went by and I finally canned the peaches in a spiced honey syrup (YUM!). I had a lot of syrup left over, so the next day I reduced the honey syrup a bit and canned the rest of it to use for other things.

Finally, today, I cut up the tomatoes and boiled them. When they cool down I'll run them through my food mill, boil them down a little more and then make it into salsa. I know. It'll be a thin, non-chunky salsa, which suits me just fine! I am not a fan of chunks. I might add a few cans of diced tomatoes for more texture and to make my husband happy. He likes the chunks. Why go to all this trouble? Because I didn't want to skin the stinkin' tomatoes! It was too overwhelming to think about and because of that the tomatoes just sat there with a few of them rotting in the mean time. So I did what I could cope with and I just cut them up and boiled them. Aaah! I feel so much better! I need to finish it today. I don't want to be canning on my birthday tomorrow!

I've also been busy working on a Regency corset so I can get started on making some dresses. You can read all about it over at my history blog.

My garden is overrun with weeds, but I have 6 watermelons growing about about 3 pumpkins! I've been planting some perennial flowers and some spring bulbs (not daffodils, thank you very much!) so it doesn't look so bare around here. It's slowly starting to look fairly presentable! I have visions of a well established herb and flower garden in the same tradition of well established, old-fashioned kitchen gardens like you see at historical homes. It'll take some time to get there, but it'll be a beautiful goal to achieve!

Christmas?

So, for some reason my wandering mind has zeroed in on Christmas. I'm thinking about Christmas already! Maybe it's my subconscious yearning for cooler weather. Usually this Christmas contemplation happens in September when I start planning for gifts to give me plenty of weeks to prepare. Well, this time I was actually thinking about a new tradition I wanted to start in our family. I got the idea last Christmas at a friend's house.

Every day of December leading up to Christmas day, her children unwrap one Christmas movie. I don't have that many Christmas movies and don't really want that many, so instead I decided we could do Christmas books instead, supplemented with the movies we have and Christmas music CDs. (I actually buy new Christmas music every year. This year I'm getting Barbara Streisand's classic Christmas album I grew up listening to - my mom's fave. I can't wait!)

So, I happened to be at Goodwill and they had quite the selection of Christmas books! I bet if I had waited a month or two, they would have been gone. I wanted to focus on Jesus' birth, so I skipped most of the Santa books, making an exception for the classic "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" because it had gorgeous artwork. I'm a sucker for good artwork!

Speaking of art work, one of my most amazing finds was a pop-up book about the 12 Days of Christmas. The paper work is incredible!!! My jaw dropped as they got more and more complicated with each day of Christmas. And for 95 cents, that was a steal!!! I'll have to take picture of one of the pop ups just to show you what I mean.

So, when I got home I pulled the few Christmas books in the kids' regular book collection, added them to the stack and pulled out all our Christmas movies. My music is missing, but I think it might be in the Christmas tub. (That's right! My husband is adamant on keeping our Christmas things down to one large tub. Let me tell you, that is quite the feat for me. I LOVE Christmas!!)

Anyway, our Christmas movies are "White Christmas", "Little Women" (even though it's not all set during Christmas, it always makes me think about Christmas!), "The First Noel", "Mr. Kreuger's Christmas", "The Gift of Love" with Marie Osmond, "The Muppet's Christmas Carol", "A Child's Christmas in Wales",  and a few others. I even have some more movies on my wishlist on Amazon.

Wow, I had no idea I'd have so much to say about Christmas in August, but maybe I just need to get it out of my system. Another Christmas project: Sewing present drawstring bags out of Christmas fabric instead of using wrapping paper. I'll have to wait for an incredible fabric sale sometime in November though.

That's ok! I have tons of sewing projects stacking up. (Go to my historical blog at History:Preserved to see my costume projects.) I have 2 quilts in the works too, but I was waiting until cooler weather to continue on those. (One is a fall quilt with beautiful fall colors and seeing the new autumn fabrics at the fabric store is just killing me! I am just drawn to those earth tones!) Also, I just finished the last of the curtains needed for our house. Whew! I'm keeping my sewing machine busy! It feels good to be sewing again after a long haitus.

Healthy TV Habits in a Technologically Saturated Culture

I had my fair share of TV watching growing up of which I have fond memories. (I was a child of the 80s!) But I also spent a great deal of time playing outside, having loads of imaginative play indoors, and going for many long walks in nature with my family. (My mom was a huge advocate of exploring.)

I still enjoy watching movies and television shows I like - sans commercials if I can! And while my children and I enjoy being entertained like everyone else, I need to constantly remind myself that my children also need to learn to entertain themselves. I try to be cautious in how much TV face time they get, especially my toddler. And I try very hard to not let the TV be a babysitter, though I have resorted to it from time to time. The temptation to just sit them in front of a TV show is so strong sometimes, but I am getting better at ignoring that temptation by just telling my kids if they're bored they have to go find something to do or I'll find something for them to do. I'm met with grumblings of course, but eventually they're playing happily (with or without bickering). I've also tried to make an effort to only allow television on Tuesdays and Thursdays, although I've been slipping up the past couple weeks. I should consider it a good sign that my 2 year old daughter comes wandering in to find me instead of watching her favorite "doggy talk" show (Martha Speaks).

It's not that I want my kids to be technologically slow or ignorant. On the contrary. I just want them to develop healthy habits when using technology. (Which I need to be diligent in applying to myself as well! It's so easy to get sucked up into things...) To be honest, I am very anti-hand held gaming device, but I don't mind a few old-school video games (like Atari or Nintendo) for a limited time. My 5-year-old son knows how to work the TV and Netflix, but he is also finding his way around building electrical circuits using his Snap Circuits Jr. set. I am reluctant to have the internet on my phone because I know my own weaknesses! I spend enough time on the computer as it is.

I love technology. I really do! I just don't want us to be a slave to it. We are the masters over technology, not the other way around. At least that is my constant goal.

My mother sent me this article about why TV is a bad idea for kids under 2. It is positive encouragement for my efforts and gives me more determination to have less TV time in our family life in general.

http://eartheasy.com/blog/2011/10/why-tv-for-children-under-two-is-a-bad-idea/

One last thing, is that I am concerned by how many young children are plugged into technology - MP3 players, phones, texting, internet, TV. There is something constantly entertaining them. But what about being with their own thoughts? What about forming their own thoughts without constant exposure to someone else's? It is no wonder that children's attention spans are shrinking as the use of technology is growing.

I feel a valuable way to counter this is to have real quiet, contemplative time for children. This usually comes through unstructured play time. Even driving in the car, I've noticed my son quietly looking out the window or talking to himself as his way of using the car time. I am also a strong advocate against movies in cars - unless it's a car trip longer than 2 hours. I don't mean to put down people who use the little TVs in their cars. I just find that idle time in the car to be a good exercise for our children's patience and creativity in the enclosed space. I myself didn't grow up with movies in our cars for long trips (though my husband did, as well as listening to radio dramas). I remember much of the time spent playing travel games, eating, listening to music, feeling the wind on my face from the open window, thinking, and sleeping. (I was easily motion sick, so no books for me!)

Reading a lot of books to your kids and also having them read by themselves is great  in developing attention span. I also find using a different technology - audio radio dramas - develops great listening and imaginative skills. The mind is engaged, but because it is all auditory, their mind is left on its own to imagine the pictures, people, and scenarios. What a lost art this is becoming!

I'm excited whenever I come across audio dramas. I grew up listening to American History radio dramas and my son enjoys them now. Here a few links for audio dramas:

The Living Principles of America
My Audio School
Your Story Hour

We're looking forward to using these in our homeschooling.

I'm writing this post as much for myself as for anyone else - to re-encourage myself to stay strong against overusing the TV and to get the kids playing, reading, or listening!

A New Look

I was in need of a fresh, new look for summer. I just love the greenness of nature, especially out here in Maryland. Yay!

Keeping Busy

Yesterday the weather was glorious! There was a warm sun with a cool breeze - my favorite kind of weather. My kids and I went blueberry and plum picking at Larriland Farms which is now only 4 miles down the road! I almost went crazy and wanted to pick raspberries, but it was nearly lunch time and my daughter needed her nap, so I gave up that idea. It's hard work picking fruit! (and supervising children picking fruit. haha!)

The rest of the day was pretty much spent outside. We had a couple TV breaks for a rest, (My kids are only allowed to watch stuff on Tuesday or Thursday.) but for the most part my son busily dug up bricks, and I moved the compost pile, dug up more iris roots, weeded, and in general spiffed up the place. It was awesome to work outside all day! That's my kind of exercise. Yeah!

About a week or so ago, our family picked out a spot and dug a fire pit. We've had a few marshmallow roasting events already and there's another one scheduled tonight with a bunch of gals from church for a "girl's night out". I'm really excited! What I'm most excited about is that we were able to pick out the spot for our fire pit and just start digging! No permission necessary from anyone. I LOVE that about owning our own home.

Oh, you know what I discovered the other day? Our neighbor has the biggest, most beautiful OAK tree! Man, I've got the Knotty Oak Homestead, but we have no oak trees at all. Just pines and maples and a walnut tree. Even the giant fallen oak in our woods came from our neighbor's property and crushed our fence. But I took a picture of our neighbor's tree just to pacify myself. It really is very magnificent to look at.

One of THEM

Today I walked into a Tractor Supply Co. store for the first time with my kids. I had this strange giddy feeling looking at boots, chicken feed, and rabbit cages. I had never really had an excuse to go to a store like this except for painful wishful dreaming about the all elusive "some day". But now I'm one of THEM - those people that shop at farm stores because I need that kind of stuff. On the way out a lady walking in came up, squeezed my arm and blessed me for having two red-headed children. haha! I love small towns.

On the way home we stopped at a local farm that sells produce and I found out they raise their own pasture Angus beef. Sweet! Driving home on the back roads brought me such sweet happiness. I'm finally living in the country! That drive home is mine and we get to look at beautiful farm land and my kids get to see the other way to live - with fresh air, a pleathora of trees and fields, gardens and chickens.

Yipee!!

Moving to the Homestead

I wonder who's going to be plowing this steep driveway? Hmmm! 

I apologize for my semi-long absence. We just had a crazy couple of weeks with moving to our "new" 1900s farmhouse. It has already been quite the adventure and we've already learned a few important things about being a homeowner and about self-reliance.

1. Just because you have a well, doesn't mean you're totally set for water.

In the 5 days since moving in, we've already had a couple frustrating experiences with our water shutting off unexpectedly. It turns out that we had run the well dry. In Maryland?!? It rains a lot here, right? Well, it turns out we live on a ridge that doesn't get as much water as other places. The person my husband talked to said that she has two wells dug at her house, and her mother has three! Our house only has one for four people. I'm beginning to understand why we don't have an outdoor spigot and why the previous owners put gutters on the smokehouse to collect rainwater in a rain barrel. I'm going to have to take a leaf out of his book.

See, living in suburbia, I did think about our water consumption, but the water was always there in never-ending supply (unless there was a water main break). Here in rural-ville we are totally dependent on the water table and are subject to regulating our own water useage - until we dig another well, that is. Even though Maryland does get a lot of rain, we are going to need to be more cautious and prudent with our water use. That really means only one load of laundry a day! (I made the mistake of doing two loads of laundry, taking a shower, and then my husband tried to take a shower. The water shut off in the middle. Oops!)

2. No one is going to pay me to mow my own lawn.

Well, I never seriously thought that, but right in the middle of mowing the half of our .82 acres that isn't wooded, I thought, "Man, I should get paid for doing this. Oh wait. This is MY grass. No one's going to pay me to mow it!" hahaha!

3. There are more bugs in the country.

Huh. Go figure! Right now I really loathe earwigs (ew!), stink bugs, carpenter bees, and sugar ants. Hey, bugs, I live here now, not you!

I am totally stoked to have my own house where we can build and do everything I've always dreamed of doing. I even heard a neighbor's rooster crowing off in the woods, so I know I'm not alone. I'm really hoping to get some chickens soon. Where do you get some chickens around here, anyway? I even have my spots picked out for some raised beds. My poor itchy spring planting fever is going crazy! At least we've been able to pick some of our potted strawberries and lettuce.

A Name for the Homestead

So, when I started this blog I never expected to actually name our eventual physical homestead "Knotty Oak", only because it was a name that I came up with and my husband had no imput on it at all. I really wanted it to be a name that we both agreed on and liked and felt fit our land.

Well, after being out to the property a few times and getting a sense of the place, this is the name we came up with:  Rocky Pines. The land is very rocky, in fact the cellar of the house was hand carved out of rock and literally looks like a cave down there. And there are a lot of beautiful, tall pine trees on the property. So, the name seems to fit really well! When I mentioned the name idea to my husband he approved with a thoughtful smile saying, "Yeah... I like that!"

Of course, the land isn't ours yet. We're still awaiting word from the seller on a few things. But it's so close! I hope everything works out. I can nearly imagine us there already. :-)

Nearly There Homestead!

Isn't it cute?
The windows are a little small, though.

Last week we put in an offer on a house and it was accepted! This means that the reality of owning our own homestead is nearly within our grasp! Woohooo!!!

It was built in 1900, has a sweet little wood stove and sits on .82 acres. This means that I can have freakin' CHICKENS! And some rabbits and a cat and the sled dog I've always dreamed of having ever since watching "Iron Will" and "The Adventures of Natty Gann" as a teenager...

Okay, I need to slow down and take things one at a time.

The property is half woods and has, seriously, a functional outhouse in the middle of the woods. Seriously. Sure, I wish it had a little more land and another bedroom and a second bathroom would be nice (wait, it has an outhouse, so no big deal! haha!), but we are really excited. I'm trying not to get my hopes up too high in case the inspection reveals something too scary.

The thing is, is that as far as I can see there are no oak trees. There are quite a few pines near the house, and I can't tell what the deciduous trees are at this point of winter, but do you know what this means? I can't name it Knotty Oak Homestead. It would just be lame without an oak tree. I guess I could plant an oak tree, but I really want to use the space to plant some fruit trees instead. And lots of red currant bushes. Mmmm. Currants. :-)

So what should we call it? Any ideas out there?

Mother Earth News Comment

I just found out that MEN published a comment I sent in. Yay! It's so great to participate and feel apart of such a great, diverse, and educational environment! Check it out!
http://www.motherearthnews.com/modern-homesteading/dear-mother-february-march-2012-zm0z12fmzhun.aspx

Tuesday Links

Ever heard of Farm Dreams? It's a one-stop place for like-minded people to connect on things like gardening, homesteading, animal husbandry, farming, etc. It's a cool new homesteading mecca!

Trying to get away from using plastic? Here's an interesting article on how to freeze food without using plastics.

Ever wonder if your favorite cold-fighting stand-bys really work? Check out this article here!

Oh, and I just have to mention that hot water bottles are our new best friends! They are a great investment (the reusable silicone ones by Fashy are awesome!) and are not only good for keeping toes warm, they can help a tummy ache, or some achy muscles.

I used to dream of electric blankets and how warm I'd be in the winter if I had one, but I found out that they take over your body's task of keeping you warm. So, like in the summer when the AC is cranking, it is taking over your body's natural ways of keeping cool and therefore your tolerance for heat plummets. Likewise, with electric blankets, they lower your tolerance for keeping warm in winter. Interesting, huh?

A belated happy winter! I hope you're all staying warm. We've had rain all day, but I'm sure there's snow coming sometime. :-)

Top 5 Kitchen Gadgets for Home Cooks

I have been decluttering most of my house and getting rid of a lot of stuff. Unfortunately, the kitchen is a bit harder for me. I love cool kitchen gadgets that aren't one-trick ponies, but have a variety of uses. I thought I'd list my top 5 favorites that just might find their way onto your own wish list. But don't put them on your Christmas list. You don't want kitchen stuff for Christmas. It's stuff for the household, so it for sure needs to come out of the household portion of your budget. ;-)

1. External Oven Thermometer

A good friend of mine got an external thermometer for me. (I think because I was drooling over it so much at the kitchen store.) It's pretty embarrassing how giddy I get over this thing. You just stick the probe into your bread or your meat in the oven, sit the device on the counter or stick it to something magnetic and then it beeps when it reaches temperature! How insanely cool is that??!?! (Or am I just super geeky about kitchen stuff? Please tell me I'm not the only one...)

2. Convection Toaster Oven

I recently invested in one of these. And I'm seriously thinking of getting rid of my regular toaster. Why? Well, for one, I can toast 4-6 slices of bread at once and it actually toasts the bread in one go- no pushing the toast down 2 or 3 times to get it toasted enough. Yippee! And look! You can bake a small pizza in there, several potatoes, reheat some garlic bread or broil some fish... The possibilities are endless!

The things I love: it toasts, has a convection fan to speed up baking, it broils, and it uses a lot less energy than heating up your entire oven. Also, if you want to reheat something so that it's crispy, like leftover pizza, it's a better option than a microwave which leaves your pizza soggy and unevenly heated.

I thought I might get rid of our microwave because of this puppy, but no. It does a lot of things, but it doesn't thaw meat out in 10 minutes like I need to do sometimes. So much for decluttering.

3. Bosch Universal Mixer

This baby is on my wish list. We're saving up for it. Yes, it's pricey but I just have one thing to say: "Move over KitchenAid!"

I love that it doesn't have this huge honkin' thing hanging over the bowl. It's super powerful and easy to add new ingredients from the top. One of their newest improvements include suction cup feet so that it doesn't vibrate or jump around (like some gadget I know that starts with Kitchen and ends in Aid.) A friend of mine owns one and loves it. The downside with any type of mixer like this is that the attachments are separate. I want to get the meat grinder and the sausage stuffer! I've always wanted to make my own sausage! Of course it's main use would be to knead bread.

4. Dough Whisk

After all those electronic gadgets, this one is wonderfully simple, yet effective. I got one recently, but haven't used it yet. The dough whisk makes stirring heavy bread dough (or cookie dough) much easier than with a spoon and the dough doesn't stick to it either, apparently. It looks pretty darn cool too! I can't wait to use it!

5. Kitchen Shears

I have to say that this is one of my most-used tools in the kitchen. I have the exact pair shown above and I've used it to strip herbs, but mostly to cut food packaging, to cut vegetables and fruit (when I'm feeling lazy), and even to cut the tips off raw chicken wings when I make homemade hot wings. They are very sturdy and strong and I love that they come apart to be washed in the dishwasher. Another good thing is that their edge is smooth, not serrated, so that they are easy to sharpen at home with a good knife/scissor sharpener. I love my kitchen shears!

Okay, I know I only said 5 kitchen gadgets, but I had to throw this last one in there. I know so many women that have had a hard time finding good kitchen knives. I myself bought what I considered a "good" set of knives, only to be disappointed with how they felt in my hand and how they cut.

What you're looking for in a good knife is a solid handle that is a single piece with the blade, is comfortable to hold, and has a thin blade. In my opinion, the most perfect kitchen knives are made by Rada. These knives are amazing. My mom had one of their paring knives when I was growing up and that knife seriously lasted forever. And it was the perfect size. My husband and I got 2 sets as wedding presents (lucky me!) and I have love, love, loved them! Just be sure to have a good knife sharpener and those knives will last a really long time. Not to mention, I think they are pretty affordable and a great investment. Heck, they could become a treasured family heirloom! They stick really well to my magnetic knife bar too. :-)


Happy drooling!

Volunteering & A Soap Box

I just spent a couple hours at the Days End Horse Rescue farm this morning. Today I curried a beautiful chestnut horse and learned how to push him around (to get to his other side), and I mucked out two stalls. I really enjoyed these chores, lost in my own thoughts and enjoying the feel of my hand running across the horse's coarse hair as I brushed him. I even enjoyed the heft of the shovel, heavy with wet sawdust and dumped it into my cart. It's a good exercise, living in suburbia, to get a taste of outdoor work and taking care of animals. It gives me a glimpse into what I might want on our own homestead in the near future.

For a long time, it's been hard to look at houses for sale. It's this tortuous thing that my husband and I do every now and then. It's like we can't even help ourselves. After awhile I would get sick of that longing ache and tell my husband we had to stop. It's so hard to look at something that you can't have!

Well, the other day something changed in my thinking. Instead of focusing on what we don't have, what we can't do, I realized that right now is the time to be doing the research, to be finding out what we do and do not want in a home and land. At the Mother Earth News fair, I talked to one of the workshop teachers and her husband after her class ("Why Homegrown and Homemade"), and they warned me to be careful about buying land in the "country". Her husband said that a lot of times, farmers sell off bits of their farmland in parcels of 5 acres or so to people who want to live in "the country". But what you need to know is that a lot of these farmers have sprayed their fields with who knows what for who knows how long and when you buy that parcel of land neighboring a used field, who knows what they will continue to spray on it! I had never thought of that before and I am so glad they told me that. It's one more thing to add to our list of what to look out for as we're looking for a place to settle.

This morning on the radio I heard this advertisement for Monsanto (a big {evil} agricultural company) and
 it said "Monsanto - working with farmers in the U.S. and internationally towards sustainability". I yelled at the radio, "Yeah, RIGHT!" Monsanto is one of those big bullying ag companies that created the GMO crops out there - crops that aren't reliable, crops that cannot be planted from their own seed, crops that spread their contaminated pollen into unsuspecting farmer's fields that have saved their seeds for generations. I am all for GMO foods required by law to be labeled. Do you know why there's such a big fight against it? I think it's because 80% of what's in the stores would need to put "contains GMO food products" on their packaging. It's so scary and it is so sad that it's getting harder and harder to have pure foods. - Another reason to look for land away from farmer's fields so that my own plants won't be affected.

Okay... I'm off my soap box now.

Happy October!

Happy October everyone! I'm a few days late, but that's okay! October 1st for us was cold and cloud-covered - the perfect autumn weather! Just today on the radio I heard that in Sweden it's National Cinnamon Roll day. Hello! That's a day I'd like to celebrate. :-)

Speaking of bread, I'll be posting an amazing bread recipe I just found in a bit. But right now, I'm off to the Days End Horse Rescue farm!

Respect the Land

Have you ever noticed that some houses look like a big eye sore, no matter how beautiful the house itself, just because it doesn't fit with the land around it?

I've noticed that there is a difference between working with the land and forcing the land to submit to your use. Usually, the first option always turns out well. The second option not so well.

For instance, take this example: Down by Annapolis, Marland there are these gorgeous Cape Cod homes along the river. The problem is that there is serious cliff erosion. It's just dirt. And you can see how pieces of the dirt cliff just keeps falling into the water. It's natural erosion. The problem is that the house is inching closer and closer to the edge of the river even though it's standing still. I guess people don't expect the land to change. Funny enough, one of the houses that is closest to the edge of the cliff is for sale. No thank you! Eventually, those houses will end up in the river. It's a sad, sad thing and not much can be done, unfortunately.

During a geology class in college out in Utah, we took a field trip up to the side of the mountain to see a house slowly being squashed flat because of a slow land creep. There was nothing to do to stop it. Oh, and it was on an earthquake fault. And guess what? The house was for sale! It's important to do your geological research before you buy a house. Because legally, the homeowner or land developer don't have to tell you if your house is on a fault line or if there is a slow land slide at work 10 feet from the property line!

These two examples are cases of not working with the land, but trying to force it to act for you. Usually the land wins. It's older and smarter and does its thing not really caring what you did to the top of it. And sometimes men's interference makes things worse. (Like digging out the toe of a hill to build houses which can lead to a landslide!)

Now, I'm not expecting that if I live in the woods that I'll build a log cabin to camouflage into the trees. But I just love how some homes, especially ones older than 150 years seem to flow with the land, working with its curves and dips. Not bulldozing out the imperfections, but cherishing them for their unique aesthetic.

Take this 18th century building in Ellicott City, Maryland for example:

Notice how the stone foundation of this building is built around this honkin' piece of rock. And look at the brick sidewalk! That beautiful, ancient stone wasn't forced to make way for the sidewalk - that brick, man-made sidewalk bowed and made way for the older, more mature geological feature. Now, that's called respect!

I'll have to take more pictures of other parts of this city that illustrate this point beautifully. More to come!

Busy, Busy, Busy

After the panicked peach pitting party (don't you love alliterations?!), I've gotten the canning bug again. Thank goodness! The peak of the season is in full swing and will soon be waning.

And I've been a busy little bee. I was doing the buying for my produce co-op and the produce company had a great deal on local pickling cucumbers. So, I got together with 2 other ladies from church and we bought 2 bushels. Yes. 2 BUSHELS. That was really silly. I guess I really had no idea how BIG a bushel was! Haha! So, we had a ton of cucumbers. And cucumbers are delicate little things and must not be bumped about, be chilled (dry) and then canned right away. Something we learned: water + cucumbers = slime.

So I had my first ever canning bee yesterday. The three of us got together and from 8:30 am to 12:30 pm we canned as much as we could, which wasn't much with one electric stove. I came home and canned the rest of my pickles. I've got spears and chips, and today I'm planning on using the rest of my cukes for relish.

Let me tell you something. There is just something about seeing home-canned pickles in a jar that makes me so ticklishly happy. Maybe it's because they're not neon green. Maybe it's because with all the garlic and dill floating in the brine they look so fancy gourmet and upscale. Maybe it's because when you twirl the jar back and forth the spears look like octopus legs and the dill looks like seaweed and the garlic looks like little white fishes...

Don't believe me?!?

Seaweed.

Little white fish garlics swimming around the octopus legs.

Seriously, I am not crazy. Just imaginative!

A beautiful demure green, don't you think? 

I added peppercorns to a few. :-) How many neon green jars have those?

None.

Beautiful pickles. 

My pickle-loving son sure is happy!

Vacuum Sealing

We've been out of town for my brother's wedding and the summer has been a little crazy, so I haven't posted in awhile. Right before we left I used some of our budgeted "emergency preparedness" money and got a FoodSaver vacuum sealer. I found a fairly inexpensive one on amazon and am super happy! My 4-year-old son and I have had lots of fun sealing up jars of nuts, raisins, grains, etc. This vacuum seal thing is going to be great in helping me cut back on my plastic bag useage. Now I'm going to have to get some more glass mason jars!

We've also had a few trips to Larriland Farms to pick our own cherries and raspberries. I had to stick everything in the freezer because I couldn't mentally deal with canning that much fruit. (I picked waaaaaay too many cherries!) I finally got around to canning half the cherries as cherry pie filling. I was forced into it really, because I needed the freezer space. :-) Next I need to can my raspberries into jam, because I can't live without my raspberry jam! And then at the farmer's market yesterday they had a big box of tomato seconds (imperfect ones) for $10 and I couldn't refuse! I'm going to skin and can these as diced tomatoes and I'm going to do that sometime today or tomorrow.... (yeah right!) Here's hoping anyway, because I seriously do not have any freezer space. Man, it's hard canning stuff all by your lonesome. Where's the group of women that come by and can stuff all day together?? Please come to my rescue, ladies! haha!

Pie Crust Carving

My 4-year-old son loves birds, so I thought he'd like a bird on our chicken pot pie for dinner. I had no idea that he'd get upset about cutting the bird in 8 pieces!

Oh well. No one said creativity was painless.