A lack of outdoor lighting and a link posted by a friend on Facebook to these DIY Mason Jar Solar Lights at The Hand Me Down House blog gave me the bright idea to make these easy, inexpensive solar lanterns out of one of my favorite versatile things that I always have in abundance, Mason jars. I had plenty of wide mouthed Mason jars in the cellar, and some wire left from a chicken fencing ...
Life
February Flurries
Just when we were starting to see early signs of spring around here, and The Big Snow of 2013 was feeling like a long time ago, we got ourselves a February snow! Even though it may throw a monkey wrench in our weekend adventure plans, I'm still glad for the opportunity to slow down and take care of some projects around the house and the outbuildings that keep getting put ...
Good Fences Make Good Neighbors
I love having chickens for neighbors. I really do. But honestly, I do not love having them on my front porch. Having spent countless hours in the past trying to fence chickens in, the approach we took with this homestead was to let them completely free range outside of the fenced in yard and garden in the back of the house. This was working out just fine until our friendly, curious chickens ...
Finding Buried Treasure
One of the things I love most about this homestead is all of the buried treasure. That's right, buried treasure. Not quite the pirate kind, but it still makes me feel rich. The previous occupant left us a lot of amazing things behind, and it seems like we are constantly digging up and uncovering more finds. Even the chickens are unearthing all manner of things in their daily scratching around. The ...
Winter Nesting
I have often said that most of the work of keeping chickens involves either trying to keep them in where they're supposed to be or trying to keep them out of where they're not supposed to be. Chickens are inherently full of mischief, and you can always count on them being up to something you don't want them to be doing. Over the winter break, we lucked out with some warm, sunny days just perfect ...
The Woodcutter’s Song
Wood heat is a wonderful thing in the wintertime, so wonderful that folks like us are more than happy to do all the work associated with it. If you are reading this and wondering what benefits could possibly make cutting, hauling, splitting, stacking, weekly woodbox replenishing and daily fire building worth all the effort, I would say that it's a lot like the feeling you get from growing your own ...
Frost Flowers
On our holiday visit, I went out on a walk admiring my Mother's flowers, and was reminded that gardens have beautiful things to show us year round. ...
Yuletide Greetings
Wishing you a peaceful Winter Solstice from our mountain hearth. ...
Decking Out the Halls
On these cold, short winter days, I have been keeping busy around the homestead getting it spruced up for the holidays (pun intended) with greenery brought in from the outdoors. Wreaths, swags, garlands and trees are an age old tradition that I thoroughly enjoy participating in every year. Evergreen trees and boughs have a long, rich history in decking the halls, and standing as symbols of life ...
Finding Our Family Tree
Going out and finding the right tree is one of my favorite parts of the holidays. It has been a family tradition of mine forever, beginning with trips to the Lazy J Tree Farm and taking on many variations over the years including other tree farms, Forest Service permits, and even a tiny fir tree gifted in the Christmas spirit from a kind old man at a tree lot the first winter I was a single parent ...