It's a good feeling when you put a lot of hard work into something and reach a point where you can finally enjoy the fruits of your labor. I recently felted this wool wall hanging with just that feeling in mind. I have been putting a lot of energy over the past year into revitalizing Mountain Hearth Handcrafts. It started out as a home craft business when I was a full time mother and homesteader, ...
Old Growth: A Eulogy for my Grandfather
My grandfather passed away last week and I was given the honor of writing his obituary. In doing so, learned a great deal about the story of his life and the story of my own. I learned that family roots are intertwined and run deep. What took shape from my conversations with the people who loved him was the story of an outdoorsman, forester, determined individual, and integral member of a ...
The “Home” in “Homesteading”
We enjoyed a warm spell this past week, and the 60 degree days have been delightful for working outside. It's tricky, because although it's only January, it was easy to feel like spring had arrived. Things are starting to bloom around the yard much earlier than last year, and I spotted a few honeybees buzzing around the witch hazel flowers. I have to keep reminding myself of the Spring Equinox ...
Snowdrops in the Fairy Garden
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To a Snowdrop
To a Snowdrop Lone Flower, hemmed in with snows and white as they But hardier far, once more I see thee bend Thy forehead, as if fearful to offend, Like an unbidden guest. Though day by day, Storms, sallying from the mountain-tops, waylay The rising sun, and on the plains descend; Yet art thou welcome, welcome as a friend Whose zeal outruns his promise! Blue-eyed May Shall soon behold this border ...
Free Range and Fancy Free
There is something very relaxing about watching chickens go about their wanderings. I have heard their scratching and foraging compared to Zen meditation, and although I'm not successful at sitting still long enough to meditate, those chickens look like they have it figured out. I recently got a copy of The Way of the Hen: Zen and the Art of Raising Chickens by Clea Danaan, and I will let you know ...
Ripples
"I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples." ~Mother Theresa ...
Oregon Dune Sledding!
When you live in a place where winter is not white, you either travel to find the snow, or learn to think outside the box and take up more creative forms of winter recreation . Last year we discovered dune sledding at the coast, and it was a big hit. We can usually count on a few snow days every year when we can sled at home, and we can always travel up to the pass for a snowshoeing excursion, but ...
A New Year, a New Adventure
Ringing in the New Year with an outdoor adventure is a good way to start things off, so we ventured out to the coast to spend the first days of 2015 yurt camping, dune sledding and playing on the beach with friends. We began our New Year's adventure sharing a 30-foot deluxe yurt at Umpqua Lighthouse State Park with some old friends. We have been camping together with our kids for many years ...
Keeping Company With Trees
“For me, trees have always been the most penetrating preachers. I revere them when they live in tribes and families, in forests and groves. And even more I revere them when they stand alone. They are like lonely persons. Not like hermits who have stolen away out of some weakness, but like great, solitary men, like Beethoven and Nietzsche. In their highest boughs the world rustles, their roots ...