Dirt Under My Nails

Kaia woke up early yesterday and couldn’t sleep last night ’cause she was so excited about starting school. She’s been going to a 3 day a week Montessori school, but this is a new school that goes through high school. We’re really excited to see how things go. The school looks fabulous! Kaia will actually be going 3 days a week and home schooling on the other 2 days. That’s one of their ’school options’ that she can do through the 12th grade if she wants! And check out the curriculum. It makes me want to go back to school (oh, and no, she’s not wearing any makeup)

Kaia and I spent most of yesterday canning up Jams of every sort… there was Raspberry jam, Strawberry-Raspberry Jam, Blueberry-Blackberry-Raspberry-Strawberry Jam… and they all came out perfect and delicious! We found great, simple recipes in the Pomona Pectin Boxes, and they only used a little honey.

Here’s the “Everyberry Jam” on the stove:

We’ve been canning all day today! Woohooo!
Friday we canned up 8-8oz. jars of salsa. It’s a fantastic salsa fresh, but not as tasty cooked. Still, it’s pretty good. Today, we canned up 12 pints and 2 quarts of Basil Marinara sauce and 6 quarts of Roasted Tomato Garlic Soup. The marinara sauce turned out good, but could use more oomph, so we’ll have to add a little fresh spice to it when we use it. The Roasted Tomato soup turned out absolutely delicious!!! I’m excited to have all these yummy soups to look forward to this Fall and Winter! So, here’s the soup recipe (we doubled it):

Roasted Tomato Garlic Soup
8-12 tomatoes (depending on the size)
2 carrots — cut in 1″ pieces
1 large onion — quartered
2 large whole heads garlic — peeled
olive oil
2 1/2 cups chicken or Veggie. broth
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil — (or 1 Tbsp. dried)
1/2 pint cream

Core tomatoes and cut in half. Place, cut side up, on foil covered cookie sheet. Use enough tomatoes to cover the cookie sheet. Then add carrots, onion and garlic to the cookie sheet. Brush with olive oil. Bake at 400F for about an hour, or until veggies are roasted and a little blackened. Place in a large saucepan with the broth and basil and simmer for about 10 minutes. Blend with a stick blender (or in small batches in a blender) until almost smooth. Add cream. To can: Process in a pressure canner, pints for 60 min. and quarts for 70 min. For dial gauge canners use 11 pounds pressure at 0-2000 ft., 12 lbs. at 2001-4000 ft., 13 lbs. at 4001-6000 ft. and 14 lbs. above 6000 ft. For weighted gauge canners use 10 lbs. pressure at 0-1000 ft., and 15 lbs. over 1000 ft. This makes ~3 quarts of soup.

Anyone have a good low sugar raspberry or blackberry jelly recipe for canning?

Kaia and I went Blackberry picking yesterday and got gallons of blackberries, and even a few raspberries. The vines were dripping with berries as big and juicy as I’ve ever seen. The raspberries weren’t ready just yet, but the farm owners had picked some of a different variety a few weeks ago and frozen them. So, I got a few gallons of raspberries too. So, we should have lots of yummy jam soon!!

Look at how huge these things are!

We’ve also been canning up some tomatoes. A local organic farm had some problems with their packing boxes and ended up with some bruised tomatoes that their buyers wouldn’t accept. So, they were trying to get rid of them and selling 20# boxes for $12!!! We got two boxes and I can’t find a bruise on them! They are perfect!!

So, tonight we canned some salsa, and on Sunday we are going to can some Pelati and some Roasted Tomato Garlic Soup. MMmmmmm…..

All is well on the baby front. I was showing so early and measuring ahead of dates, that we though we might have twins. So, we decided to go for an ultrasound just to be sure all was ok. Turns out there is one happy baby in there and one freakin huge placenta! From what I understand the main reasons for big placentas are moms with Syphilis (which I don’t have), diabetes (which I don’t have), Rh incompatibility (which we don’t have), and just because. I guess it’s just because. Big placentas often grow big babies… :-O

Isabella and Daisy went in to get spayed last week. Daisy came back her usual self and just bounced all over the place. We tried to keep her calm so that she wouldn’t break her sutures. She did fine, but for some reason Isabella’s wound opened a tiny bit, about the size of a pencil eraser, and she was having some swelling under one of her nipples. So, we took her back in and they put an adhesive on the skin to get the wound to close. But they also had to give her a cone to keep her from licking it.

She was not happy about it, walked around the house backwards, and somehow still got around it to lick the wound. Within a day it was opened up again, so I decided to do it my way. I cleaned the wound and put a sterile dressing with honey on it, then wrapped her belly in an ace bandage. So far so good. She’s able to move around and hasn’t tried to take it off. She’s eating well and I’m giving her some herbs in her food to keep down infection and to decrease the swelling (which is gone now).

Here’s a little recipe I put together yesterday in an attempt to ease a craving for mint ice cream. It came out very good and has no dairy or soy in it, so everyone in the family can eat it.

In a blender blend:
2 cans (13.5oz) Full Fat Coconut Milk
2 heaping Tbsp. cocoa
1 tsp. Vanilla extract
2 tsp. Mint extract
3 Tbsp Agave syrup

Blend until fully mixed. Then stir in 1/3 cup of chocolate chips. Pour into a bowl/dish/tupperwear suitable for freezing and place in the freezer. I stirred it every hour for ~6 hours, until I went to bed and left it in the fridge over night. It may do fine if you just leave it in the freezer without stirring, but I don’t know. (I don’t have an ice cream machine, and the freezer method seemed to work just fine) In the morning, I had a delicious spoonful of mint ice cream and was even better than the store bought!!!

You could make all kinds of variations to this, as long as you have the basic coconut milk…. like vanilla and fresh fruit, or vanilla and cookie dough chunks… etc.

Let me know if you come up with any that you like!

We have been without a good rain for months! The pond is dry, the plants are wilting, and everything is parched, and there is no rain in site! Please do a rain dance and send some our way!!!

Kaia, Toby, and I took the Amtrak up to RI and Mass. for a family reunion this past weekend! It was the first one in 22 years! It was wonderful to see everyone and hear so many family stories. I was 12 at the last reunion, so I didn’t remember much. All of my great Aunts had fun telling me how much like my great grandmother I am. I found out that she couldn’t work as a Nurse once she came over to America, so she got her certification in massage and worked as an herbalist and massage therapist. One of my cousins remembers her having 2 recipe books that she kept everything in, so he is going to go through some of the boxes of stuff in his attic (that have some of her old stuff) to see if he can find them. Wouldn’t that be amazing!! Some of those recipes would be from the 1800’s! She also read palms and tarot, which I think is pretty cool too.

We had a prenatal today and all is well. I’m 13+ weeks, but measuring ~16, so I may get an ultrasound, just to make sure I’ve not got two in there :-O We did hear the a heart beat though, nice and strong. And I’ve started feeling movements (Toby and Kaia felt it too). I felt them really early with Kaia too.

We’ve been trying to clean up the yard to get ready for our open house party in Sept. Toby’s mom came up today and helped chop up a bunch of construction wood for winter. The longer pieces will go towards making the raised garden beds.

A friend of mine is wanting to get ‘back to the land’ and has asked to live on our property for a year in exchange for house and childcare help! This would be an amazing help to us!!! She could help me get the garden beds prepared before the baby comes, help when the baby gets here, help with spring planting, etc… We are probably going to get a big family tent for her, and set up a propane stove and composting toilet for right now. And before the cold weather sets in, we will probably build a small addition onto the cabin with a separate entrance. That way she will have water, heat and electricity. I’m not really looking forward to more building, but it would be great to have her out here. And the guest house would be great in the future for friends/family, or WWOOFers or something.

Today I got a call from a friend of mine who also happens to be the president of the NC Herb Association. She’s asked me to be one of the main speakers at next years Wild Herb Weekend Conference! I’m really excited! I get to teach 3 classes that are a little over an hour long and she’s asked me to try to include classes that will draw a younger (20’s) crowd… stuff like ‘herbal mead making’, or ‘tye dying with herbs’ or stuff like that. This will be really fun for me, especially since I usually teach the more scientific stuff at the herb schools. The herb of the year is Bay Laurel, so I’m not really sure how to include that… (last year was lemon balm and this year is calendula… those would have been easy to build a class around… but Bay laurel???) So, you guys have any ideas about fun herbal classes you’d want to attend? It’s funny, when I’m not trying to think of things, I have all kinds of ideas, but when I need to come up with something, I’m blank.
I really wanted to go this year because James Duke was the keynote speaker, and I love him! But, it didn’t work out. Next year they are hoping to get Richo Cech (author and owner of Horizon Herbs).

Guess what!
Yep, our little soul is back again and it looks like he’s staying put this time! I’m at the end of my first trimester and feeling good. I’ve had very little nausea, moderate tiredness, and couldn’t get enough nectarines to eat. I am not really craving pickles and ice cream, I just happened to get both when I was grocery shopping… I did try a pickle when I was having some ice cream just to see if it fulfilled some pregnant need, but nope.

A friend recently had a dream that we had a boy and he had beautiful dark hair. She kept saying in her dream that his hair was the color of good dirt and she could grow a great garden on his head (she’s a gardener). Then, she decided that his name was Dirt. So, Toby has taken to calling the baby Dirt. Poor child! (oh, and no, we don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl, we just keep saying ‘him’)

I don’t know what else to do! About a month ago, with in a week, two of our chickens disappeared. First it was Ralph, so I thought that maybe she had gone broody again and was just laying on a clutch somewhere. But then Spike disappeared. I had a weird feeling that it was one of our neighbors, so Kaia and I went for a little hike down the valley. Suki came with us and ran ahead. She came back up from his house with Spike’s wing and dropped it at my feet. Then we found some feathers. I think one of his dogs came up on the property and got them. So, the four chickens left were put in the coop area and were no longer free range. But, today Faye was killed. From what we can tell, a dog pulled her head through the fencing and took it off. It tried to dig a whole under the coop, but didn’t get all the way in. Now I don’t know what to do! I’ve never seen them up here. Usually Suki keeps them off the property. But she comes inside now and then to cool off when it’s hot, and we don’t hear a thing. We may need to move the coop to the front of the house area, but I really don’t want to have to go through all that trouble if there is another solution. Electrify the fence??? We’re down to three chickens!

In 2007 I discovered the new Herbal Journal, written by UK Herbalist Zoe Hawes and her friends. It’s a weekly planner with fabulous pictures and write-ups about herbs, herbal history, and anything herbal! I love it! Well, the 2009 Journal has just come out and I have 4 entries in it! I’ve written about Usnea, making herbal root beer, children’s herbal pillows, and Blood Root (which is called red root in the journal). It looks fantastic! If you like herbs and are a planner, like I am, you should definitely get one!! You can get them through Pomegranate publishing, or through Zoe Hawes, though she doesn’t have her site updated yet, you can email her about the 2009 Journals! Tell her I sent you! She’s an amazing woman!!

Kaia and I have had a great day so far. We spent the morning watching old Bugs Bunny cartoons, then she got completely pruned in the bath, and this afternoon we baked ourself a treat!

The recipe is from an old restaurant that use to be in downtown Asheville. When I was in high school, down town Asheville wasn’t really a place you would go to, unless you were headed to the 2 antique stores that were there. Most of the buildings were run down and uninhabited. At some point, The Stone Soup, opened with an amazing bakery and fun sandwiches. It started bringing more people down town and more people became interested in transforming the place. Now Asheville has a fantastic downtown with great restaurants, shops, buskers, music, etc. I don’t know what ever happened to the Stone Soup. But, here is the recipe for the cinnamon rolls.

Stone Soup Cinnamon Swirls

2 eggs beaten, room temp.
2 T. dry yeast
2 ¼ tsp. salt
¾ cup brown sugar
1 tsp. nutmeg
¼ tsp. Cloves
¼ tsp. Allspice
4 ½ unbleached flour (I didn’t have any, so I used Oat flour and it worked fine)
12 T Butter
½ cup water
1 2/3 cup milk (I used rice milk)
2 ½ whole wheat flour

Filling
3 T. butter
2 T. sugar
1 T. cinnamon

1) Combine dry ingredients, except whole wheat flour, in a bowl and set aside.

2) Combine and heat butter, water, and milk until lukewarm. Put this in your mixing bowl. Add the beaten, room temp. eggs and the dry mixture. Mix thoroughly.

3) Add the whole wheat flour slowly until the dough pulls away from the bowl. You might not use it all OR you might need a little more. Be sure you check the dough’s consistency while adding the WW flour. You don’t want the dough to get too heavy, which is easy to do. Knead the dough in the mixer for 7 minutes OR by hand until the dough is smooth and elastic. Cover in a bowl and let double in size. This will take AT LEAST 30 minutes. It will probably take longer. Be patient. You will be rewarded.

4) Make the filling in the mean time. Carefully melt butter and add sugar and cinnamon. Put aside.

5) When the dough has risen, roll it out into a rectangle about 14 inches by 9 inches. Paint the melted butter, cinnamon, and sugar mix on the dough leaving the ½ inch bare at the bottom.

6) Carefully roll it up starting from the top, moving toward you. Pinch the seam together.

7) Cut the rolls into 1 inch (or a little bigger : )) and place them on a baking sheet (lined with parchment) evenly, at least 2 inches apart.

Bake in a preheated 350* oven until they have a light crust all the way around, ~25 minutes. The sides should not be soft, but golden brown and delicious!

9) Glaze as desired. I used powdered sugar, rice milk and a few drops of orange essential oil.

Enjoy!!

OK, so I finally got out on the roof and got some pics for you. Kaia and I woke up early and sat out in the hanging chairs on the roof to eat breakfast. It was nice and cool, and very leisurely
These pictures show the stones leading from the window/door to the chairs:

Here is some thyme that is thriving on the roof! (and a crazy kid who wants to be in every picture!)

Another shot. There is a dianthus blooming in the foreground. I love the look of this plant. We tried planting some little seedlings, but they didn’t make it. This was was a larger potted plant and did well.

Here is a blooming Monarda fistula, also called ‘wild bee balm’ or wild bergamot’ (sorry for the blurriness.. I have a crappy camera). I have two on the roof that were given to me by a friend. It’s one of the medicinals on the roof, though I’ve not used it much. I love the feathery purple bloom!

Here is a great patch of roof! The Delospermas (or ice plants) are doing fantastic. Here are a pink and a yellow variety. Later in the day, when it warms up a little, this part of the roof is covered in blooms!

Not all of the plants are doing so well. The Roman Chamomile have mostly died. The calendula are blooming and hanging in there, but scraggly. And you can see in this picture that some of the sedum seedlings just aren’t growing very fast. I’m hoping if they make it through the heat of the summer, that they will have time to settle in and establish roots in the fall, before the cold hits.

The California Poppies are blooming nicely, and the red yarrow is sending up lots of new greenery!

And here’s a shot of another area where the delosperma are taking off!

Guess what I got the other day? A huge Kombucha mother mushroom!! I’m really excited. I’ve been wanting to try it for a while, but just haven’t gotten to it. A friend was harvesting from hers yesterday and invited me over to get one. I made my own kefir for a while and we liked it, but paying $11 for a half gallon of raw goat milk just to make it in seemed a bit of a waste, and I never could get the flavor right. That’s why I love the kombucha. All you need is water, tea and a sweetener! We have Water, we have honey, and I’ve got lots of tea. So, right now, I’m making my first batch. I’m using 3 parts Rooibos and 1 part oolong tea, along with sugar and water. I thought I’d start with the sugar since that is what most sites recommend, and experiment with other sweeteners when I get more ‘baby’ mushrooms (a ‘baby’ grows each time you use the mushroom).

So, here’s what I did:
I boiled 3 quarts of water and then added a cup of sugar, and boiled for 5 more minutes. Then I turned off the heat and added my tea (~6 tsp Rooibos and 2 tsp. Oolong) and let that steep for 10 minutes. Then I took out the tea bags and let the tea cool to room temp. I poured the tea into a large glass bowl and placed ~ 1/2 cup of kombucha tea (that my friend had also given to me) into the mix as a starter. Then I placed the mushroom on top. I covered the bowl with a cloth and will let it sit for 7 days in a warm place. I’m excited to try it!! I’ve ordered some books to get more info. This one is specifically about what herbs you can use in making Kombucha.

This is the mushroom and a little of the tea. For scale, it’s in a gallon sized bag.

And here is the mix just before I covered it with a cloth. The Mushroom is floating on top:

The first time I ever tried Kombucha was way before it was an ‘in’ thing. It was in 1996 when I was studying Midwifery in Ireland. I was staying with a German midwife who practiced in Ireland and this ‘fizzy drink’ was about all they drank; and she talked about how healthy it was. I remember really enjoying the flavor until she showed me the actual mushroom and then I was kind of grossed out. (I believe she said it was a mushroom that her mother had given her, so who knows how long they had been making it in her family). But, since then, I’d always wanted to figure out how to make it.

Kombucha is supposed to have all kinds of benefits, but my feeling is if it does nothing by increase the absorb ability of the nutrients in food, that you will see a huge change in many areas of your body, because your whole body will be nourished more.

Do any of you make your own kombucha? What ingredients do you use?

I haven’t posted about the house is a while, ’cause, well, I was kind of tired of talking about it But, we’ve been in here almost 3 months and we are all loving it! I’m really looking forward to our first winter so we can use the radiant floors and wood stove.

So, in the last 3 months, we’ve finished up some projects, like shelving in the bath closet, built a computer nook desk, rearranged the furniture about 178 times… we have to mount the door to the secret nook, and finish building the kitchen book shelf and I think the inside projects will be pretty much done! Wahooo! Then there’s tackling the outside (if you can’t hear the dread in my voice, it’s there, believe me!) We’ve still got a boat load of construction waste to deal with. All the left over wood (that is not usable for building) needs to be chopped up and stacked for fire wood. There are big piles of gravel, sand, and roof dirt to deal with, and trash here and there. It’s not actually too horrible, it’s just dealing with it! We’ve given ourselves until the Fall equinox to get stuff cleaned up, ’cause that is when we are finally going to have our house warming party! I would really like to get working on preparing the ground for a garden next year, but I have to say, that totally intimidates me! Our ground is complete hard clay and nothing but ragweed grows in it! So, I guess I need to till it all up and add a ton or two of compost and minerals. We’re not sure if we are going to plant in the ground or use raised beds. Any thoughts on what you prefer? I’d like to pack as much food into as small a space as possible so the space is used as efficiently as possible. I’m also hoping to plant lots of fruit trees and bushes and maybe some nut trees. Right now we have one peach (with about 10 fruits on it), and one nectarine.

Oh, and we’ve had lots of rain in the past 3 weeks, so the living roof is really taking off!!

Well, Kaia has had her first big right of passage… Yesterday, we took a family trip to the Mall (which is a rare thing for us) to hit Claire’s boutique! And you know what that means!! Yep, Kaia got her ears pierced!! She’s been asking for a while to do it, and I kept saying ‘talk to your daddy!’. I got my first piercing when I was 3 and never had a problem with my ears and loved having earrings. So, I was fine with it. Toby, on the other hand, was not ready. This is his baby girl getting metal stuck in her ears so that she can look more like Barbie. So, I totally understand. But, yesterday, she talked him into it.

I happened to have a lidocaine cream, so I put some on her ears before we left for the mall. She was so stoic! She said it stung a little, but barely flinched and then wanted to look at more earrings. She chose her birthstone to pierce with.

Thank you Robbyn, for the beautiful Arte y Pico Award! It’s for creativity, design, interesting material, and contributing to the blogging community (in any language). I’m humbled. Thank you!

Though so many are deserving, I would like to pass this award on to:
-Daisy the Curly Cat - for keeping me laughing everyday with her creative thoughts!
-Suburban Tomato Liberation Front - for her beautiful and inspirational photography
-Greenwoman - again for lovely photography and thoughtful/informative herbal posts
-The Unusually Unusual Farmchick - for inspiring me to try new things
-Eco-Child’s Play- for putting lots of eco-friendly child rearing ideas out there for all of us!

I hope you enjoy flipping through some of these blogs.

Last weekend I spent 3 full days in Chapel Hill, NC for the second Hoop Path Retreat. I went to the first one last year and had such a wonderful time. The main teacher is a man named Jonathan Baxter and he’s been hooping for ~7 years. He has amazing hooping skills, but it’s his words that are so potent. It’s like going to a meditation retreat and using the hoop to focus your mind and get past your issues instead of just sitting. Here’s a video from some of the classes and jams. At the end of all the classes, there is always a “hooper’s ball” where we get dressed up and hoop our hearts out! I didn’t take many pictures this time of classes or hooping, but I did get lots of the outfits for the ball!
These are my hosts from last year and this year, Erica and Beth. They are both amazing hoopers. Beth has one of the most beautiful, graceful hooping styles I have ever seen.

This is Martine getting ready for the ball. She’s originally from Canada (and has a cute little french accent:-) ) but is living in MD now with her new hubby.

This is me and Geof. We didn’t get to hoop together too much, but he’s amazing… and I like his tiger outfit :-0

Here are Jessica and Victoria, beautiful hoopers from Alabama. Man, I need to whiten my teeth!!

And here are Natasha (san.fran.), Nicki (milwaukee), Khan (san.fran.), and I getting ready to hoop at the ball. (I know, my outfit isn’t as daring or sparkly as most… maybe next year:-)

Now that Kaia is 5, we’ve decided to start giving her an allowance to teach her about money. We tossed around lots of ideas of how it would work, but then we ran across this article. So, Kaia now has 4 jars and each week gets $2 to put into each jar. “Spending” is for immediate satisfaction… to spend on what she wants. “Savings” is when she wants to save up for big purchases (she can take her ’spending’ money and put into her ’savings’ jar if she doesn’t want to spend it that week. “Donation” is for giving to her favorite causes… maybe 2-4 times a year we will empty this jar out and give the money to whatever cause she wants. “Investment” is a more long term thing so she can learn about putting money away for the future when she gets older.
She already had a piggy bank where she would put money that she got for gifts and stuff. So she decided to break the piggy bank and buy a doll with that money. The rest of the money will be split between the jars.
Here is her new doll (it’s a porcelain doll she got for $10 from our local fabric store!) and her money jars.

A few weeks back I was tagged by Two Frog Home to tell the truth about the 5 things I won’t give up for the environment. This was a really hard one! Every time Toby would mention something I would say, “well if I had to, I’d give it up” But, here are 5 things that are not going green any time soon that I don’t want to get rid of:
1- my computer: There is a ton of waste produced every time one of these puppies is made and trashed, but I don’t see any green options on the horizon for this one!

2- my car: I’m still very reliant on my car and would have a hard time doing without. We have looked and looked for a more environmentally sound option, but they don’t (yet) make affordable family size electric cars that I could power off of a solar panel. Here’ hoping!

3- prepared cat and dog food: With all the food allergies we have in our pet family, I have no idea how I would be able to feed the pets without the already made foods I buy. I know that there is a lot of waste in the packaging and the shipping, but there ain’t no way I could make my own perfectly formulated rabbit and venison food! Believe me, I’ve tried!

4- Toilet paper: I’m with Two Frog Home on this one! It will be a while before I’m willing to give up the paper and use washable cloths. I know I used cloth wipes with Kaia when she was a baby, but I was glad when we ‘graduated’ to toilet paper.

5- I don’t know… I’ve been sitting here for 30 minutes trying to think of something else… What do you think? What should I give up??

My sweet baby girl turned 5 years old tonight!!! I can’t believe it was 5 years ago that she was born. I mean, I can’t remember life without her sweet giggle, but it seems like just yesterday that we met!

She had some grandparents and friends over to celebrate with pizza, cake, ice cream, and pin the tail on the mermaid. And she requested a Unicorn cake. I didn’t think I’d ever be able to outdo last years cake but I may have done it!

I made a 10″ round cake and 4 cupcakes, then cut and placed the cupcakes on top of the cake to form the unicorn head. The rest was done with icing. It was a Honey cake from a Winny the Pooh cook book Kaia has, and cream cheese frosting.

Ok, so I’m writing something that I can’t tell you too much about, just yet But I need some help from you! I’m looking for honest stories from the mouths of older siblings about what it was like when their little brother or sister was born. I’d love to hear their impression of the new baby. Any stories would be great! Things like: How did you prepare for the new baby? How did you feel when the baby was born? Did the baby make a lot of noise? Did you like to play with the new baby? Was the baby funny looking at first? Did the baby take over mommy’s lap? What funny things did the new baby do? etc… Any stories are fantastic!

These stories may be published, and of course, I will get your permission first.

I can’t give you too many more details right now, except that I’m writing something very special!

Please email them to maria at dirtundermynails dot com

Thanks so much! Oh, and pass this on to any friends with kids who may want to share their stories.

I harvested the rest of the milky oats today. Almost 3 pounds worth!!! I made a half gallon of milky oat tincture and laid the rest out to dry to use for tea later.

Milky oats (Avena sativa)are when the unripe seed heads can be squeezed and a milky juice comes out. At this stage, the oats are very high in minerals, particularly minerals that are good for relaxing the body and dealing with stress (like b vitamins and Magnesium). Taken as a tincture or tea, milky oats are wonderful for exhaustion and soothing frazzled nerves, moistening and nourishing the nervous system and brain, and helping get to sleep. I find I use it a lot in my practice. Good stuff!

It’s been a long while since we’ve really gotten into the bee hives and taken a good look at what is going on in there. After the swarms, we have 4 hives, but we have no idea how they are doing. So, Tuesday, a friend and bee mentor came out and helped me go through them. It took us 3 hours! But, I’m happy to say they are all doing well. Both swarms (including the top bar swarm that I thought would die) are settling in well. When we put the first swarm into their hive box, we left 3 frames out and forgot to go back and put them in. So, the bees built comb off the roof and in every different direction. We had to cut some brood comb off the top of the hive and rubber band it into a frame. We also had to cut out a bunch of honey and pollen comb to try to straighten up the frames. I will need to go in at least once a week to be sure that they are building along the frames.

We found all four of the queens and all the hives seem to be building up stores and making lots of baby bees! Yay! One of the hives had a full honey super from the great poplar nectar flow. So, I will take that box off and extract some honey this weekend.

I also took the comb that we cut out of the swarm hives and squeezed the honey out. There was a good bit of pollen in there, so the honey it pretty cloudy and strong tasting. But, still good! We got about 1 1/2 quarts. I also took the comb and melted it down so I could use the beeswax. But, I think there was too much pollen in the comb, ’cause it’s not hardening up…

Here’s the honey. I didn’t heat it… I just put it on the stove to take the picture.

Here’s the comb melting in a double boiler.

For Father’s Day, I wanted to give Toby something that he would really love. He’s always done so much for Kaia and I, and I wanted to find a perfect way to say “Thank you”. I remember once when we were taking a road trip, Toby mentioned that there were two things he really wanted to try before he died, one was Subaru rally car racing, and the other was to learn how to fly. So…
Here he is taking his first flight lesson. It’s called a discovery flight. You get the basic info about planes and the controls, and then you go up in the sky for ~30 minutes to see how it all feels. The instructor has the controls most of the time…
Here they are, getting strapped in. They talked for ~1 hour before taking off. This is a C-172 Cessna Skyhawk 4 seater.

And off they go…

Wait… here they come again???

They taxied down the runway, and turned around and came right back… I thought maybe the weather wasn’t good enough (it was sprinkling), or maybe Toby got cold feet. Turned out there was smoke coming from the control panel!!

So, the instructor decided to take Toby up in his personal plane. It’s completely different to fly than the cessna, so he got another little lesson. This plane is a 1946 Aeronca Champ. The center of gravity in this plane is much farther back, so it’s harder to control and land (yikes!).
Kaia couldn’t have cared less about what daddy was doing…. there were puddle to jump in!

And off they go, again:

They flew over downtown Hendersonville, where some friends of ours live. So, I called them up and they said they could see them from the house. Cool!
And here they come, in for a landing:

We all had a blast!

I’ve been feeling like making things lately. Kaia’s birthday is coming up and I have been wanting to make her a ‘princess canopy’ for her bed for years. So, I finally got around to it. It came out pretty well, but I have to secure the hoop on the inside better so that it hangs level:

I also promised her that I would make her a ‘hoop skirt’ for her birthday. We’d seen this design at a festival and she loved it, but they were $40. So, I decided to try my hand at it. The first one I made came out badly, so I planned harder for the second one…
First I cut out three panels of fabric all the same size (9″ on top, 24″ sides, and 21″ on bottom). Then I hemmed the sides of each piece and sewed them together (leaving a strip ~2″ in between two of the strips that was not sewn together. I hemmed the top, leaving a small gap and enough space to thread an elastic in. I threaded 19.5″ of elastic (since Kaia’s waist is 20″) and sewed closed the little hole that I put the elastic in through. I then hemmed the bottom so that there was a 1/2″ gap to thread in 1/4″ flexible tubing (I used some plumbing tubing). Along the hem, I used some lace for decoration, and to conceal the hoop. (Remember that 2″ strip on the bottom where the sides weren’t sewn together? Once you hem it, it leaves a gap where you can thread in the tubing, and take it back out if you don’t want to use the hoop.) Thread the tubing in (~5 feet of tubing) and use another piece of tubing that has an inner diameter the same as the outer diameter of the hoop tubing to hold the hoop together.
OK, so if I haven’t totally confused you, here’s how it turned out:


When she walks the hoop holds the dress out away from her… and it has ‘great spin’, which is very important to an almost 5 year old! And the whole thing cost me ~$10.

I also found a skirt in a magazine that I really loved, but it was way out of my price range. So, I tried my hand at making that too. First I needed 20 ’strips’ of fabric. I used 4 strips each of 5 different fabrics. I cut out a piece of paper to trace my strips from.
Here you see the paper and the pieces traced, before I cut them up.

Once I cut all the fabric, Kaia helped me put it into a design. This is what one of the four panels will look like

Then I sewed all the edges together, sewed an elastic the size of my waist into the top, and hemmed the bottom…

I like it, but it’s not as ‘flowy’ as I had hoped it would be… then I realized that the skirt in the magazine is made of silk, and I used mostly cotton.

I’ve also been gathering some herbs on the land for medicine.
Here’s a giant mullein that I got some flowers from to make an oil:

I also harvested some oats in milky stage to make tincture out of. The tincture is SOOOO green!

And here, just because it’s so beautiful, is a clary sage flower:

I’ve got a moment of reprieve right now, but it’s been go, go, go! The first weekend in June I spent 4 days at the Medicines from the Earth conference taking classes and assisting Rosita Arvigo. She was the keynote speaker and gave some great classes on fertility enhancement, and spiritual bathing. Then I spent 6 days (ending tomorrow) with Rosita assisting with her Professional Maya Abdominal Massage training. It’s a very intense learning time, not to mention all the things that come up with the students after giving and getting so many abdominal massages. It’s pretty amazing! This morning I went in to class completely exhausted, so she told me to go home and take a nap. (I just got up from a 2 hour nap, so don’t give me crap about being on the computer :-)) Tomorrow is our last day.

So, you can imagine that things are still not unpacked or cleaned up around the house. And the cabin is just full of unpacked boxes. I’m hoping to get the office/cabin set up this week (it’s funny how much I dread going in there now that we have the house built). Maybe I’ll put up some pictures tonight… or maybe I’ll go see a movie and eat some chocolate… hmmmmm, which should I choose…?

I was happily surprised that our little berry patch is doing well this year. After the chickens scratching all around and kicking up so many roots, I didn’t think it would survive. But last week, I saw some red coming from the weed surrounded strawberries and found ~1 1/2 quarts of ripe, red strawberries! I’ve since picked another quart or so.

I wanted to get lots more strawberries so we could freeze a bunch. So, Kaia and I went out for Flying Cloud Farm for a little berry picking yesterday, and got ~2 gallons! MMMMmmmmm!! Their berry patch is huge! The strawberries plants are all so big and healthy, and everything is organic!! (I need to give my berry patch a little time and attention so I can try to get them to grow as big as the ones at the farm!) the patch is surrounded by flowers that you can pick a bouquet of for just a couple of bucks! So, Kaia and I had a really nice afternoon!

Last night we has a pasta dish with a salad topped with strawberries and a strawberry vinaigrette for dinner, and for dessert - strawberries dipped in home made whipped cream.

How’s this for a yummy treat??

Now that we are living in the house, and the projects have slowed down (a little), I feel like Toby and I are taking on roles parents that we haven’t been able to yet. We are playing family games at night, taking outings without having to hurry back home to get some building time in, we are sitting down to healthy, home made meals. It’s been very, very nice!! Though there is still the stress of completing the home projects and paying off the bills, it has lessened.

Sorry for the long break in blogging. I’m enjoying getting settled into the house and not wanting to spend much time in front of the computer. Things are getting unpacked… mostly just books and pictures still to be put away. We’ve moved all the boxes and furniture out of Toby’s tool shed, so now he has a place for carpentry. Mice and squirrels had gotten into everything and there was poop and seeds everywhere! I think I did 20-25 loads of laundry. Seriously! I had to wash every piece of Kaia’s infant clothing and diapers! All the toys, furniture and books has to be washed/wiped down. Ugh!

We’ve almost got everything out of the little house. Toby has started using the upstairs for his office, and I’m setting up the downstairs for my office/clinic. So at the same time as moving into our new house, I’ve been boxing up and moving everything from Viriditas! The new tenants are supposed to be moving in on Sunday, so that is just about complete!

Inside the new house, things are looking mostly settled. There are still little projects here and there that need to be finished… shelving in the linen closet, back splash in the kitchen and bath… stuff like that. And the yard still looks like a war zone with construction crap everywhere! We had planned to have a house warming party on June 21st, but have decided not to. I want the house done and the yard cleaned before having everyone over! I think Fall time seems more reasonable.

The roof has been planted. We had some friends over a couple of weeks ago and we got most of it done in one afternoon! It looks nice so far, but the little plugs are hard to see in pictures. I will take more pictures when they start to grow and post them. I can’t wait until they have filled out and covered the roof. It is going to look so cool!!!

I’m really enjoying my space! I go back into the little cabin and think, “WOW, How did we ever live here for two years!!???!!”

Our plugs were delivered this past Thursday and I’ve started planting.
First, I took some stepping stones and made a path to where we will have two hanging chairs and a little patio area. In between the stones and in other areas of the roof, I’ve put in some accent plants. They may or may not do so well on the roof. I added more compost to hold the water, and put some “hollytone” to bring down the pH (which is ~8). I’ve put in Calendula, Yarrow, Roman chamomile, thyme, Sage, Rosemary, lavender, Dianthus, chive and nodding onion, lambs ear, and a few other things.

The plant plugs look fantastic! Very healthy! The man who delivered them said they should do very well on our roof, and will love the 4 inches of soil. He thinks they will really take off in just a month or so. We will water them every 1 1/2 weeks for the first year, if we have no rain, and put a 10-10-10 fertilizer on them to give them some food to start with. I’m planting them 9 inches apart to allow for spread, and I’m grouping them in clusters, so there will be big splashes of color everywhere (as opposed to totally random plantings). It’s going to be so beautiful!

They are so tiny… can you see them???

This year, for some reason, there seems to be a whole lot of swarming going on. Maybe it’s the bees way of trying to make a come back with all the hives that have been lost in the past few years. We started this year with 2 hives, and so far we have had 3 swarms! Toby caught the first one, but we missed the second one. We were actually outside talking about how it would be a perfect day for swarming when we saw them fly overhead, already having found their new home deep in the woods. Well Tuesday I caught my first swarm! All by myself! ME!! Who is just a little afraid of being stung because I tend to swell up like a tick, itch all over, get a little bit of a speeding heart rate thing going on. I was outside planting a few things on the roof when the air got louder. I looked over towards the hives and saw a swarm coming out and making a cloud over by the edge of the woods. They landed on a very low branch of a dead cypress tree.

I called Toby and he suggested we just let them do their thing. He knows how I feel about handling the bees, and he wasn’t able to come home from work. But I didn’t want to lose them, so I went out and put some Lemongrass Essential Oil on the top bar hive to try to attract them. Then I went over to the swarm and had a talk with them to let them know where the new hive is. They didn’t seem to understand. So, I started moving around, wiggling my butt, and doing a little bee dance for them. But that just seemed to make them agitated. (Maybe I told them to ‘get stuffed’ or something??) So I went back to my roof and had some lunch while contemplating what to do. I decided that I could do it and I wouldn’t get stung. So, I put on my thickest jeans, two long sleeved shirts, wool socks and hiking boots, padded winter gloves, and a bee hat and headed for the swarm. I brushed them into a bucket and dumped them in the top bar hive. It took two trips to get most of the swarm and when I went back for the third time they were all so angry that I couldn’t catch any of them. No Stings! But when i went to close up the hive, they weren’t really staying inside…

By that evening, they were all clustered outside on the front. Not a single bee inside. My happy high from catching the swarm started to plummet. I must have left the queen on the tree by mistake. Now I felt like a total heel! I’d doomed the bees!

I’d hoped they would go inside the hive, or at least fly off to find their queen. but they stayed that way for two days. So I called our friend Carl, a local experienced beekeeper. He said that he felt like they wouldn’t remain clustered like that if their queen wasn’t with them and that for some reason, they must not like the top bar hive. He suggested that we spray them down (to make them heavy so they wouldn’t fly off), and put them back in the hive with some sugar water (for food since they hadn’t eaten in 2 days) and open brood (to keep the bees in the hive to nurse the babies) and close them in for a few days, in hopes that they would make a home. So we did just that. We used sugar water to spray them off, so they would have some food to clean off them selves, and put a bag of sugar water on the bottom of the hive (with a little slit in it for them to collect the food). Toby tried to get some open brood from another hive but it had been raining and they were not happy to have their hive opened. Once the bees were in the hive, we taped the opening shut so they couldn’t just climb back out. Since it had been raining, the tape came off by the next morning, but it seems like they might stay. The true test will be to see if there are eggs in the comb in a few weeks.