Homesteading

“Why do farmers farm, given their economic adversities on top of the many frustrations and difficulties normal to farming? And always the answer is: "Love. They must do it for love." Farmers farm for the love of farming. They love to watch and nurture the growth of plants. They love to live in the presence of animals. They love to work outdoors. They love the weather, maybe even when it is making them miserable. They love to live where they work and to work where they live. If the scale of their farming is small enough, they like to work in the company of their children and with the help of their children. They love the measure of independence that farm life can still provide. I have an idea that a lot of farmers have gone to a lot of trouble merely to be self-employed to live at least a part of their lives without a boss.” 

~Wendell Berry, Bringing it to the Table: Writings on Farming and Food

Our little homestead is growing by leaps and bounds. Living in community we have the great gift of living among many farm animals; we care for them and in turn they provide for us. It has been our greatest dream to contribute to the provisions by having our own little team on our plot of land and this weekend, we began to see our dream to reality.

We welcomed six chicks into our family this weekend (along with the newcomers you'll meet below). Kiki adores them and has spent every waking moment tending to them, singing to them, holding them. For just three years old she has given us a glimpse into what amazing care she is capable of. Her tenderness, quiet, gentle devotion. It's almost like she goes to a meditative place while she is with these chicks.

We were also gifted this beautiful Lionhead bunny. While he won't necessarily produce anything akin to food or materials he has already produced a softening of heart, a smile within us all, a gentleness that we all needed after this long, long winter. His name is Little Lionheart.

This beautiful Black Sexlink is Beatrice. She is a wise old gal and happily and immediately made herself at home. She is gentle, sweet, and so far, has enjoyed begin carried about by various little hands. She also have us our first egg!

We have a Red Sexlink as well (her name is Ruby). It has been of utmost importance to her to figure out her new digs as she's feeling pretty broody. I found her nestled into the coop working on laying her first egg so I didn't want to disturb her with a photo op.

This is Max, our Rooster, and his lady love, Gwendolyn. She follows him everywhere. They are both still a bit nervous but have warmed up to us and have let us help them into the coop at night. Our coop is our old outdoor rabbit hutch, modified with nesting boxes and roosts to accommodate our brood. It will require a bit of assistance on our part to get them in and out of the coop, just until they're comfortable with the process on their own.

Our landscape is a beautiful one. The sheep add an element of olden days and when living off the land was how you survived. We're getting closer and closer to that place of self reliance. Our dream is not to live as if it were the 1800's but to embrace and accept our gifts and primal calling to be connected to  the land, to keep our children connected and focused on the sanctity of caring for and working the land, working with our hands, and allowing the realness of providing for ourselves to be at the forefront of how we build our home.

"The soil is the great connector of lives, the source and destination of all. It is the healer and restorer and resurrector, by which disease passes into health, age into youth, death into life. Without proper care for it we can have no community, because without proper care for it we can have no life.” 
~ Wendell Berry, The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture

  

Being a Waldorf inspired home we are fortunate to live where we do. The daily tasks of tending to the animals, preparing the garden for the season, integrating the childrens daily play and rhythms into the ebb and flow of the natural world around them is so beautiful and unique. 

"As child, one has the magical capacity to move among the many eras of the earth; to see the land as an animal does; to experience the sky from the perspective of a flower or a bee; to feel the earth quiver and breathe beneath us; to know a hundred different smells of mud and listen unselfconsciously to the soughing of the trees." ~ Valerie Andrews, A Passion for this Earth

It's beginning to look alot like Springtime

What gorgeous days we've been blessed with as of late.......70 degrees or warmer, sunshine, the return of our friendly songbirds and peepers, our grass is greening, and best of all......all our windows are OPEN!!!!

Sunday was an amazing day. A few days prior we had a cruise missle come through our home and leave 5 out of 6 of us with yet another stomach bug. We've been prone to these this winter for some reason and ironically I had just mentioned days before how I'd hoped we'd reached that time in the season where those types of illnesses are behind us! Nonetheless, Sunday was our big day out. Mostly everyone had energy but all were happy to be outside. We went on a excursion to pick up some organic seeds and a local potting soil mix that we enjoy using along with some winter hardy bulbs that I'll plant within the next few weeks once we've designed our newest flower bed. We were mindful to notice on our outing all the little bits and blossoms that have peeked their heads these past few day like coltsfoot, forsythia, daffodils, tree buds near bursting, crocus, and snowdrops. My husband joyfully aireated our vegetable beds while all the children began putting seeds into the soil in their own piece of the garden. The littles helped me start some seedlings that are now warming up in a corner of our neighbors hoop house. It was an oh so productive, Spring feverish kinda day!

Our Seasonal Table got a makeover as well. We added a fresh bunch of cuttings from our lilac bushes that are begin to leaf out and some branches of pussy-willow (their branches will soon hold a lovely ensemble of flower fairies, birds, and springtime flowers), our bowl of earth is awaiting seeds (which should be going in anyday so they sprout in time for Easter), our lone candle sits unlit in honor of the queit and solitude of the Lenten season, and 4 miniture empty terra cotta pots have arrived with the hope of being blessed to hold and nurture a seed or two. This time of year is so exciting and even though the warmth and newness of fresh blossoms and buds have arrived early we're diving in head first, understanding that March and April could still produce a frost or two or even a snowfall. But for now, our homes are warm and full of sunshine, our windows are open, and we are out of doors basking in the glory of this most amazing gift of Spring.

Since 'green' is still a newish word around here we decided to bring a little more of the outside inside by creating a terrarium. It's so much fun for the kids to watch as the little ecosystem inside the jar creates moisture and mist. I've hidden a few small bulbs inside (along with some succulent jade) in hopes that they will begin to sprout within the weeks ahead, maybe in time for Easter.

To Make a Terrarium

you will need::

A good sized jar (a lid isn't necessary)

rocks

activated charcoal

moss

soil

plants and/or seeds that will live in your terrarium

decorations like pretty stones, dragon tears, shells etc.

Wash and dry your containor

Fill the bottom with a good layer of stones

Add a layer of activated charcoal (this helps purify the water and keeps it from getting all slimy!)

Next, place your piece of moss over the charcoal and stones

Place your soil on top of the moss. Add a good amount so your plants have something to hold on to.

Add your plants and decorations as they fit and give your terrarium and nice healthy spray of water.

And there you have it! A mini ecosystem that can live on your table or in a window for all to watch blossom and grow!

March

from Around the Year by Elsa Beskow

March is an old man,

old and cold,

grey beard and weary.

He sits there

 melting the snow,

tempting the catkins,

the pussy-willow twigs,

watched by the coltsfoot,

the first signs of Spring.

Soon he'll be going,

the grass will turn green.

Soon warm sun

will melt him,

and he will be gone.

If it's beginning to look like Springtime where you are, how are you welcoming

the beauty of it all into your home?

Sunday

Here is my Sunday pictoral post. A little late, and not all the photos I had intended. However, the vision of our beloved Christmas tree standing in our barren garden is a beautiful sight. Our tree will provide a home for birds and other critters. Our tree's branches hold little balls of birdseed and peanut butter as a bountiful treat for our woodland friends. So, not only has our tree offered us such beauty within our home but now it will outside our home. We feel so blessed.