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Life
Those Stubborn Mother Chickens
Ms. Frizzle, the bantam hen, had been broody since June. This was almost starting to become comical with her sitting on the other hens eggs all day with feathers all puffed out, emerging huffily with a string of prehistoric exclamations to eat a few bites of scratch every morning before her return trip to the nesting box. She lost enough feathers that she was ...
A Wild Night on the Farm
What passes for a late, wild night around here: 14 quarts of Dilly Beans canned and cooling, and two bottles of Elysian Brewing Company's Night Owl Pumpkin Ale. My new favorite fall beverage. You can find the recipe for these delicious Dilly Beans in your Ball Blue Canning Book. I add extra red pepper flakes to make them spicy. And speaking of favorite fall beverages, look for more to ...
For the Love of Lavender
With the mornings and evenings getting chilly, I decided it was time to bring some herbs indoors and begin Autumn nesting. My mother brought me all of her lavender she had harvested in her garden when she was here for a visit, which was good since my few plants aren't very established yet, and I began tying up little bundles and hanging them wherever I could find a good spot. I put it in vases ...
Mother Earth Festival 2012
It was a beautiful weekend out at Stillpoint Farm and I was one happy handcrafter to have my artisan booth there for the third annual Mother Earth Festival. Each year in August, Kathy and Gina open up their farm to a gathering of artists, healers, musicians, and teachers and welcome folks in for this benefit for the 13 Indigenous Grandmothers. I have been vending there since the first ...
Old World Rye
I've been on a bread baking kick lately, and the routine of starting the sponge first thing after I get up has been working out nicely. I can go about my morning and take care of the bread steps in between everything else, and by the time I'm ready to get rolling with my day, there is a fresh loaf coming out of the oven. I decided to try this Old World Rye recipe from my favorite bread ...
Backpacking Vulcan Lake
Nestled at the foot of a peak high in the mountains of the Kalmiopsis Wilderness in Southern Oregon's coast range, lies a turquoise blue jewel of a lake, and one of the finest backpacking destinations I've had the pleasure of visiting. I discovered Vulcan Lake a few years ago while on a dayhike excursion from Quail Prairie Lookout Tower and decided it was definitely a place I needed to come ...
The Blackberry Bushes String Band
I first heard The Blackberry Bushes Stringband when my friend Thena brought some of their albums over that she had bought at the Oregon Country Faire last year. In her ongoing mission to support independent artists and share good music, she had the stereo going with a pile of albums from various bands she had enjoyed that day. I hadn't payed them any mind beyond enjoying some good string ...
Morning in the Fields
I was doing some blog housekeeping, and came across a handful of posts that never made it up or were quite finished. This is a passage from one of my favorite novels by Virgina Woolf, The Waves, that reminded me of misty mornings in the field behind my farmhouse. I still get a little pang of homesickness from time to time for mornings on my Elmira homestead, and this really captured my ...
Backpacking Bullpup Lake
I couldn't even tell you how many hot summer days I spent swimming all day in mountain lakes on backpacking trips when I was growing up, and it is a soul satisfying experience to watch my children do the same thing. We spent the weekend backpacking with a group of friends to a little lake tucked in the forest up the Umpqua River drainage, and aquatic fun abounded. I always enjoy getting folks out ...