Our Third Overcast Day In A Row

So clearly we get out the big pink ball and play around the music room in our underpants.

coping

temper tantrum strikes.

continue on...

make double shot latte
take out compost
web search for coping with a 2 year old
breathe
utilize crib
breathe
drink coffee
listen to enya

The Best Part Of A Productive Weekend

See what Rafi and I did this weekend?  That's right, our front porch is framed in!  We have a pad down for the stairs to sit on and the goal is 2 weekends from now to be using the front door (fingers crossed).  This is a remarkable step for us, a monumental improvement to our home.  As we worked all weekend we reminisced of the falling in old porch with the 2x4's propped at an angle holding up the collapsing roof; and the sheets of plywood sitting across the soft sagging wood of the deck and stairs.  There we were, child with the grandparents for the weekend, building together, creating a sturdy foundation for a porch that will serve as the entrance to our home.  There were community members we hardly know driving by, cheering us on, an unexpected joy of living in a small town is that you watch these old homes in disrepair get breathed into with new life.  It feels like everyone's success to see fresh paint, replacement of rotten boards and beautiful landscaping happen; because it happens to the community, not just one family.

We were able to accomplish a lot with Cecilia gone for 4 nights in Freeport; a slew of hostas and solomon seal were planted along the driveway on the north side of the house.  The final garden bed was put into place with clean soil filling it in, green beans were immediately planted.  Sapling maples were cut into lengths and serve as supports for the peas trellises.  The winter squash seedlings joined the corn in the manure pile. 

We also had plenty of fun, slow leisurely mornings spent lounging in bed, eating scones and lattes; evenings out on the town with friends.  A warm night spent bar-hopping (!) and walking to the highest point in town, "The Top Of The World" by way of the dark cemetery.  An evening spent at Race Point, working on the flower bed there, eating a whole rhubarb pie and taking a sauna.

Then some of the sweetest moments of all, the return home of our girl and snuggles on the couch...

Put A Word On It.

The specific word I was thinking of is landscaping!  After shoveling for the better part of a month Rafi and I were starting to wonder if we were ever going to start working on the house.  The first big project we'll be looking at is getting a front deck and stairs under our porch roof.  Before we did that we needed to grade around the house to help rain filter away from the house, instead of into our basement like it is currently.  And before that we needed to build 3 new garden beds because those seeds couldn't wait to get into the ground.  And there we are a month later moving wheelbarrow load upon wheelbarrow load and Raf and I look at each other and realize we're doing some landscaping.  There was real relief to have a title for the job we were doing and to have a concrete definition of the last month's very real, very hard work.  What beautiful and tangible results we're seeing.  You'll be able to see them too.

This weekend we have a last bit of grading to do, and then on to the porch!  Then I'll be using the word construction...  It will be a grand day indeed when we can greet you on our front steps once again.  And no, it's not so far away.


I'll be silent until Tuesday, enjoy your long weekend.

I'm fine

As long as I don't think about talking to my mother.  As long as I don't listen to country songs about daughters.  As long as I don't picture the sparkle in her eye.  If I don't look at pictures of her.  If I don't imagine her as a grandmother.  If I don't imagine her as a mother, an environmentalist, a wife, a correspondent.  When I don't think of the family and friends that haven't been there.  When I don't pity myself.  When I don't feel.  When I escape.  When I focus.  When I hold Rafi's hand.  When Cecilia kisses me.  When I'm surrounded by friends.  When my fingernails are dirty in the soil.  If I look at the horizon.  If I breathe.  If I take my time.  Clicking 2 needles together.  Laughing. 

Twist, Balance, Twist

Ok, sit back.  Sit up straight, engage your core, allow your stomach to hold your vertebrae.  Breath.  Breath again, adjust your hips, extend your ribcage, engage your stomach again, square out your shoulders.  Allow them to drop, to recede, to balance.  Slowly breathe and raise your shoulders straight up, allow them to come straight down.  Again.  Again.  Breathe.  Hold your heart open, slowly lean to the side, allowing your ribcage to stretch while you drop your opposite shoulder, and the other side, good.  Now square your shoulders again, breathe.

Twist your torso, keep your shoulders level, turn your head, drop your arm, engage your abdomen, keep that heart center open and out.  Now the other side, good.  How's your back feeling?  Tight?  Allow it to rest, be concave, breathe, engage those abs again, open heart, open shoulders, even shoulders, breathe.  Now twist again, breathing, allow your arms to be free, to follow your body.  Allow your back to be strong and soft.  Back to center, now rotate the other direction.  Strong and soft.  Gentle and rigid.  Allow your body to be a duality.  Allow your body to breathe into the tension and release.  Now exhale and gently wiggle it all out.  Breathe in, stand tall and straight, move forward.

Dirt. Truck.

Delighted I tell you, jacked up on sugary ice cream and delighted.

How Does My Garden Grow

One of the exciting things about putting down roots somewhere and making it home is that all of a sudden you can really SEE the work you've been doing!  We've seem to have made a transition this year between doing not just what we need to do on the house to having a little room for beautification.  Placing perennial beds feels oh so good.  Moving an overgrown rose bush to where you actually want it is satisfying.  Seeing garlic and kale, peas and strawberries doing there this is gratifying.  To watch our Fireside Apple tree going from a a transplant 2 years ago, to a real tree with little blossoms on it, I cannot explain the joy it brings.  The first time Rafi and I put down roots together was with that bleeding heart, and we see it bloom with more and more lovely hearts every spring.

I hope you're finding your little patch of earth somewhere and getting some dirt under your fingernails.  Whether it be garden, flower box or counter top aloe.

Around

The trolls come out last night

The top of the stairs has begun its makeover.

Rainy days keep us inside.

Sniffly noses and sore throats seem to be persisting.

Cleaning out the freezer one meal at a time making room for the new.

Loving a fast, reliable computer which I can a) see & b) run multiple programs on!

On Dying Wool With Bracken Tops

First I got a .42# skein of pure white Icelandic Wool from Violet at Kilby Ridge Farm.   I tied it together every 6 inches or so, you can see the tightness of the tying, which ended up being a bit too tight in the end.

I then washed it 4 times in warm water using a non-detergent laundry soap.

I made a mordant (which helps set the color into the fiber) with 3 gallons soft spring water, 2 oz alum and .7 oz cream of tartar.  I started the steep at warm and brought it up to just before simmering for 1 hour, with occasional stirrings.  I then rinsed it bring it back down to a reasonable room temperature in decreasingly hot baths to try and prevent drastic temperature changes as my dye bath was not ready.

To make the dye bath I used bracken tops (fern tops or fiddleheads) I do not think these were an edible fiddlehead and I harvested them from the gully next to my house.  These were supposed to make a yellowish-green dye.  I gathered about .9# chopped it up into bits and simmered them in 4 gallons of spring water for 2 hours.  I then strained out the fern bits and topped off the dyestuff back to 4 gallons.

Before adding the skein I brought the yarn up to temperature in increasingly warm water baths in the sink.  When it was close to the temperature of the dye I added the yarn and just about simmered it for 1 hour.

I then rinsed the dye out of the yarn in decreasingly warm water baths until the water ran clear.  It dried in a dim room on a towel for 3 days.  It is supposed to dry in the shade.  This gave me an adequate amount of time to come to terms with the fact that the yarn was not yellow, nor green and it had felted together.

Nonetheless I was able to pick it apart while watching a movie and loosely ball it into this lovely yarn ball.  I then made a very simple birthday shawl/scarf for my dear friend's birthday present.  The neat thing about the color is that it keeps changing... sometimes it's peach or pink or orange or tan, this project left me feeling excited for the next experiment in natural yarn dyeing!

On Making Butter

First I pour off all the cream into a quart jar.  I use unpasteurized, non-homogonized milk, which makes it pretty easy as the cream quickly rises to the top of the milk in the jug.  I then allow the cream to sit in the fridge for a day or so to create  hard separation between cream and milk, can you see the cream line about 1/3 up the jar?  This is the cream from 2 gallons of Tide Mill Organic Farm milk.

I then pour only the cream from my jar into my food processor and let it whir until it looks like this.  The Tide Mill cream takes about 8 minutes,when I use Jersey Milk from Olde Sow Creamery it takes more like 4 minutes and the separation of butter and buttermilk is a lot clearer.

I then strain the butter from the buttermilk, sometimes some butter floats around on the top of the buttermilk and I simply skim that off the top and restrain it.

Milky butter plopped into a wooden bowl. 

I then use a wooden spoon to slowly "knead" the butter, pouring off the buttermilk as I go.

I then save my buttermilk for pancakes, breads and such.  This is when I add a scant teaspoon of salt to the butter and rinse it with water, I knead a few more times til the liquid comes out, this liquid I just pour down the drain.  (If you want unsalted butter simply omit the salt.)

I then place my freshly made butter into a small crock and am happy.

(If you want to make cultured butter & buttermilk simply leave your cream out on the counter for 8 hours and do all the steps the same)

For My Mothers.

I of course missed my Mother for Mother's Day, but let's be clear, I have no shortage of mothers.  I have an amazing, incredible ABUNDANCE of mothers.  My dear, dear stepmother Sandy (more affectionately known as Grammy these days) has been with me nearly my whole life.  She as always cared for my needs selflessly; she has kept me warm, loved and in excellent health my entire life.  She continues to provide unimaginable levels of support for me and my young family.  Sandy is a wonderful woman who I am unbelievably blessed to have in my life.  I love that woman to pieces.

 And then!  All of the mothers I have married into!  I get 3 of them! 3!  And they're all lovely and caring, helpful and supportive in their own individual ways.  Lisa, Elizabeth & Paula are a power trio of Mother-In-Laws to have in your camp and I am blessed 3-fold to have them.

And one final word of thanks and pride to my mother, Becky.  Thank-You Mumma.