Cozy-Homey.

What I love about our house,

It’s OURS.

Although it does present it’s challenges, it is such a pleasure running your own home. It gives you a sense of comfort and accomplishment when your husband tells you that he feels loved when he comes home.

Furnishing our home with things that I have made or collected, putting up food, even something as simple has making the bed gives my a little spring in my step to move onto my next chore whether it is an enjoyable one or not.

A few days ago, I harvested what I assumed was the last of the herbs. I am giving them a rest and when the frost becomes heavy I will be covering my more tender plants, such as rosemary, to try to winter them over. I brought in my stevia and the sweet marjoram that Betsy bought for me for my birthday. Though they might peter out because they are annuals I plan on seeing how long I can keep them. There is something about having herbs that is so enjoyable. They are forgiving plants, and they love you right back.

Aaron put up shelving in the closet of the unoccupied, unfinished front bedroom. It felt good to organize the filled jars. I told him that I loved his quality of being so handy, he warned me that I might not think so at times when he wants to fix everything. As of now I think that it is much better than being lazy, leaving projects unfinished or things falling apart. Along with the shelving, he fixed a wood horse shaped swing that my Grandpa made, and a bench that has been begging for his attention for a long time to be repaired. I am really looking forward to spending more time with him this winter.

Alley and Tuxedo have been well. They love goats milk. I give them  a small bowl full when the milk is close to a week old and is getting a more goaty taste. This is nice because I don’t feel bad for having it go to waste. Aaron only has milk on his cereal in the mornings, and I am not a big fan. The last few samplings I have had have been goaty. When I taste it I immediately think of Merry, the ‘boss’ of my brother-in-law Brian’s small goat herd.

I haven’t been online in nearly four days. I like this release, it’s freeing.

Happy Tuesday Readers!

Keeping your head clear.

Monday after doing my bags of corn, I began to develop a sore throat. Ugh, not what I wanted!

Yesterday I didn’t do anything productive, I rested and napped. I was also popping horehound candies, and I was amazed at how much mucus my nose was producing! Which was a good thing because I could blow my nose to get rid of the junk. I also sipped on a tangerine drink mixture and before bed I tried to clear my nose with the steam from chamomile tea. Ahh, I love herbs.

The second day of being sick is not fun either. I feel sluggish, lazy, tired. The house is a mess because we haven’t been home much these past few weeks so all we do is drop stuff off and run. I don’t feel like doing anything, but there is so much to do!

Dreaming of my Eden.

Two days ago I was pleasantly surpirised by a black raspberry bush that I found growing amoungst a lilac bush. The berry bush in taller than I am so it has been there for awhile. Today I thought about cutting back part of the lilac bush so I can access those sweet berries better. I would have to ask Aaron though. Any pointers on berry bushes?

I have been blessed to live outside of the city in a house that is 100% ours that we have to make no payments on which is a praise within itself. There is so much I want to learn and do!

Growing our food from salads to corn to watermelons to cabbage.

Canning, drying, freezing our harvest.

Making my own jams, jellies, relishes and other condiments.

Buying pantry staples in bulk.

Using hand powered kitchen appliances.

Planting and using culinary herbs like Basil to make fresh pesto and Tarragon to put in vinegar for salad dressing.

Planting and using medicinal herbs from harvesting wild plantains for postpartum relief to making white horehound lozenges and cough syrup to echinacea tinctures.

Digging a root cellar

Having a home library versus a video game collection

Cloth diapers hanging on the clothesline.

Going to pick…anything blueberries, apples, blackberries, strawberries, cherries…

Using my wood stove for more than just heating the house.

Patchwork quilts and crocheted afghans for everyone.

Home birthing

Homeschooling

Family devotions.

Little girls running around in home sewn dressies with little lacy headcoverings and little boys running around with ‘spa-menders’

 

What would you like to learn?

Sweeeet, totally.

Today I went to Farmer’s Market with Naomi and Betsy.

They visited with some of the vendors they knew and with the market master.

As for me I bought four new herbs

Echincea, Pennyroyal, Stevia, and Sweet Fennel.

The Sweet Fennel and Echinacea have their own spots over by the lilac bushes where they can spread out, and I put the Stevia in a pot because it is a perennial, so I’m not going to bother putting it into the ground and my pennyroyal in a pot because it looks wickedly invasive.

Freezing herbs.

So I froze some purple basil, sweet basil and cilantro by putting it in ice cube trays with a little bit of water. I hope it works. If it doesn’t the chickens will get some rancid herbs and the herbs themselves will produce more to keep them from getting leggy!

Herbs!

I started Rosemary, Cilantro, Basil, Dill, Lemon Balm, Lavender, and Chamomile today.

Chives, Oregano, Thyme, and Parsley are coming back up at the garden at my parents house. Hopefully my sage will come back too. I plan on putting my Chives in a big pot and having it on my side porch. I would like to have a few hanging pots.  I planted my annuals (like Basil, Cilantro and Dill) in small pots and my perennials (like Lemon Balm and Lavender)  in larger pots.

Libby showed a book to me from their family’s library of books. It is about gardening. I liked looking at all of the information they have inside. It was divided up in a way that made sense to me. I liked reading about the herbs too! I have a list of ones that I would like to try.

“March is a brute, April is a tease, May is a sweetie.”

Saturday Day

I think I waited a little too long trim my broccoli. A good number of them are floppy and don’t wish to stand up on their own.  I trimmed my tomatoes and they are doing well, which is good because I can make a lot of things with tomatoes. I wish it would get warmer already! I bought more herbs seeds. I have an interest in those types of plants. You can do different things with them. Make them into teas, potpourri, use them in cooking.  My watermelons are standing up proud. Too bad only two decided to emerge!