The Big Good

An Apple a Day

2010-10-09T19:14:00.006-04:00

Today Beth and I picked about 9 bushels of apples in just two hours time, with 1 bushel being donated to the local Food Finders organization. These apple trees were on a local farm where the apples were going to go to waste and a friend invited us to pick. We are hoping to turn a good part of these into cider to freeze for use through the fall and winter months. there is nothing as good as homemade unadulterated cider.

The trees were absolutely loaded with apples, with a large variety of types. I sampled quite a few different apples. At one time in our nation's history apples and apple trees actually became despised by "upstanding citizens". The reason was that apples were grown and used primarily to make hard cider whiskey, also known as "applejack". The benevolent Johnny Appleseed we learned about in grade school was actually very fond of hard cider, and made it his mission to plant the old, gnarly apples, not for eating, but rather for the purpose of making hard cider known as applejack. During the 1600 - 1850 years it was the most popular alcoholic drink in America. Even children and Presidents drank it at breakfast and dinner.

What ultimately led to the demise in the popularity of hard cider consumption was the Temperance movement. Because the Temperance movement was religiously based, many of the church going farmers gave up their drinking of apple cider. Many of them even went so far as to chop down the apple trees on their farms.

When Prohibition finally became the law, this marked the death knell for hard cider. Today, very few people in our country have ever tasted hard cider. I remember in high school that my senior agricultural and business class tried to make a batch of hard cider. Each week we would taste test the "nectar of the gods". We forgot about it over a school vacation, and returned to find it had turned to vinegar.

although we are not planning on making hard cider, we hope to turn these bushels into sweet cider, cut apples for pies, and applesauce, along with keeping some in the basement for eating over the next few months.

An apple a day keeps the doctor away indeed. I wonder if the saying "a glass of applejack a day keeps the doctor away" was in vogue 150 years ago?

Lost in Time...and Found; John W. Thomas and Turesa Jones Thomas

2010-08-30T14:06:00.012-04:00

This is my great grandmother. Her name was Blanche Olive McElfresh. We called her Mimmie; I thought that was her actual name for a long time when I was a little girl.

In 1919, long before I was around Mimmie married the "time study man." His name was Walter Jones Thomas. He wasn't Catholic, and he had been married before. But he was the one.

Blanche and Walter lived with Mimmie's parents in Anderson, Indiana. Everyone seemed to be working at the auto factory in one way or the other. In 1922 Blanche had a son named Wendell who would become my grandfather.

After that the family story becomes cloudy. No one is exactly clear about when Walter left. Some say it was right away. Others say it was years later. My uncle says he has a stack of letters that Walter sent home to Blanche and Wendell as he traveled around the country looking for work during the Depression. The 1930 Census lists my great grandfather as living in a boarding house in Toledo, Ohio. The 1940 Census won't be public until April, 2012 so we have a while left to speculate about what became of Walter after he left Anderson...until his death in Florida in 1960.

Because of Walter's departure from our family, we never knew where he came from or anything about our Thomas family origins. Starting with Blanche and Walter's marriage certificate, I began to unearth the clues that would lead me to discover my great-great grandparents. For years all I had was this picture.

I could see their faces. I knew that Walter had a mother, a father, and what appeared to be two sisters. But their names and where they were from remained a mystery.

Getting the marriage certificate opened the floodgates of knowledge. I learned the names of my great-great grandparents, John W. and Teresa or Turesa Jones Thomas as well as Walter's siblings, Verna (later Cottrell) and Veda (later Woodruff). AND I learned that Walter grew up only a couple of hours away from where I live! After some emails with a very helpful keeper of the Livingston County genealogy website I had reason to believe I might just find the grave site of Turesa Jones Thomas, my Great-great grandmother! And maybe even her mother Elizabeth Rachel too.

We set off on a country drive on a beautiful late summer day to Fairbury, Illinois. I love a drive in the country with Brent, so I was looking forward to the day even if our mission turned up empty I knew we would have a good time no matter what.

We found the Dominy Public Library easily and I realized that my ancestors also used this very library. Goosebumps! The librarian directed us towards reference books that listed everyone interred at the local Graceland Cemetery and told us that obituaries would be listed on the microfilms of the local newspaper. They were all labeled by year in a locked drawer, which she opened for us. I hadn't used a microfilm viewer since college and it took a while to acclimate ourselves to it. Soon we were zooming past funny ads for "formaldehyde on the farm" and other strange things, but once we had it figured out it took almost no time until we found the obituary for John William Thomas, my Great-great grandfather.

"John Thomas passed away on Sunday night February 10, at the home of his daughter, Mrs. B. L. Cottrell, in Peoria, of paralysis. ... Deceased was born in Swausea, So. Wales, January 23, 1846, and came to America with his parents when five years of age, locating in Ohio, and later lived in Danville, Ill., where he grew to manhood. ...Mr. Thomas was a man of sterling qualities, a peaceable citizen, and was greatly loved by all who knew him. He was a devoted husband and father. He was a Methodist by faith and before his health failed was a newspaper pressman for years." --Fairbury, Illinois, Friday February 15, 1918

I couldn't believe it was that easy! I was especially surprised because the census listed him as living in another town at the time of his death. But thankfully his funeral arrangements were in the hometown of his in-laws. I couldn't believe our luck. The cemetery book seemed to indicate that he was even buried in that town. That was more than I expected.

We went to the cemetery to find the grave, hoping that it would lead us to better information for finding obituaries in the microfilm later, but alas no better dates could be found. So plodding forward through the microfilm slowly was all I could do. This eventually led to the discovery of the obituary for Turesa Jones Thomas, my great-great grandmother...

"The deceased was a woman of kind personality, a devoted mother and the kindest of friends and neighbors. She was a member of the Presbyterian church and a regular attendant at its services and Sunday school." --February, 23, 1923

... and with 10 minutes to spare before the library closed, I found the obituary for Turesa's mother (my great-great-great grandmother!) Mrs. Theodore B. Jones, which revealed her maiden name, Elizabeth Rachel Popejoy. I couldn't believe it! I hastily printed the page as well as possible and reeled back the microfilm and replaced the cover so the librarians could go home, happy to have so much more information for future research, and knowing that just a little more time would have given me great-great-great grandfather Theodore Jones' obituary too.

We had a delicious lunch at a local restaurant called Lost in Time. That seemed like a fitting place to eat on a day of discovery of relatives who had been lost in time for so long.

Then we went back to the cemetery. We never did find a marker for Elizabeth and Theodore Jones, Turesa's parents, although they were listed in the book. We wondered if maybe there is no longer a marker? We put flowers on the grave of John and Turesa Thomas and took pictures so we can always remember and they will not be lost in time anymore.

Sorg Journey

2010-08-26T10:36:00.004-04:00

My Dad's mother's grandfather Ferdinand Sorg came to the US from Germany to avoid being conscripted into the Prussian military force that was consuming the region in his day. He settled for a while in Minnesota with other German immigrants but eventually moved south to Pocahontas, Arkansas where my grandma grew up. Here is a little bit of the story of their journey South...

"We moved to the Ozarks in the fall of 1894. People were typical hill people of that day and looked with suspicion on the 'durn furriners' that moved in from the north and especially so in our case, since we were German Catholics. There were five boys and one girl (myself) of us, two older sisters and one brother were married and did not come with us. The natives must have decided to make us leave. They would lay the rail fences down to let cattle into our crops or pull lower rails out and put rocks or chunks in to let their hogs in on the crops.

Mother raised turkeys and they would shoot them and they burned a field of clover that was giving hay and feed for our cows and of course abundant milk and butter. Mother churned 16 lbs. a week

One day a neighbor from over the hill came to see mother and told her his wife was in labor and asked her to help. She went at once and helped to bring the baby but it was either dead at birth or died right afterward. My father made a little casket for it and it was lined and covered with cloth.

From then on things began to change. The people became friendly and mother was called on quite often to deliver the newborn. She made no charge for her services and it was free to those she served and pay anything they were able. The people were all so poor, that the question of pay was not important. I have no idea how many mother cared for and she became known as Grandma Baur. ...

It was while they were living in the covered wagon near Carthage that Ferdinand and Anna Mary's first child was born March 28, 1889. he was a premature baby weighing about 3 pounds and they named him Herman Joseph. Ferdinand could spread his fingers and hold him on one hand. They laid him on a pillow and his grandmother Bauer wrapped hot bricks in blankets and placed them around him for warmth. And Indian woman came to the wagon, looked at him and told them not to worry; that he was a healthy baby and would live to be a fine man. How right she was! He lived for 82 years!"

And he was my Great Grandfather! (Pictured below, and standing above by that large unidentified crop.)

-An excerpt from the Sorg Family History Compiled by Erma White Sorg 1984

My dad's mother's parents; Joe Sorg and Anna Junkersfeld. Anna's Wedding Dress is made of curtains.

When it's Hot it's Hot

2010-08-14T14:53:00.004-04:00

Everyone has been complaining of just how hot and humid it has been the past month. And, I have to admit that I can't recall such a long string of severly hot temperature indexes (105-110) here in West Lafayette. But, it was not sooo bad that I didn't want to go out and pick some tomatoes, peppers, cilantro, basil, onion, and garlic and make some hot salsa!

I have been making a large batch of this salsa about every three or four days, and then subsisting on it with chips, fajita's, nachos, whatever...now that we are out of ripe tomatoes for now, we got several from my parents garden to make another batch!

Here is the recipe from probably my favorite cookbook "Simply in Season: A World Community Cookbook" by the same group that published the More-with-Less cookbook. Nearly every recipe we have tried from this little green book tastes awesome.

Fresh Summer Salsa Recipe

6 medium fresh tomatoes diced

1 medium red onion diced

1 large green pepper diced

2-3 hot chili peppers diced (vary based on how hot you want it)

1/4 bunch of cilantro chopped

2-4 cloves garlic minced (2 adds good garlic flavor, 4 if you love the taste of garlic long after)

3 tablespoons fresh basil

2 tablespoons vinegar

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon salt

Combine in bowl and let stand 30 minutes, then serve.

Nifty Nettles

2010-07-29T08:47:00.005-04:00

I first learned what nettles were in Girl Scouts on a hike. I had walked through them and my legs started to itch. That's why they're called "stinging" nettles. I didn't think much more about the plant until years later when I became interested in nutrition and herbs. I found out that nettles are full of chlorophyll, vitamin C and vitamin A, minerals, including calcium, silicon, and potassium chloride; protein, and dietary fiber. Nettles have been used as a nutritional tonic for many things including anemia and as a dietary source of calcium. They grow in my yard and I have used them on and off over the last several years. I find that I feel more energetic when nettles tea or infusion is part of my daily routine. Nettles rinse is also very nourishing for the hair!

So imagine my surprise when I found that this trusty plant had also been incorporated into a new yarn! Classic Elite Woodland is 65% wool and 35% nettles. The animal fiber and the plant fiber take on the dye differently giving the yarn a rich heathery look that is very appealing! And the combination of both wool and plant fiber together gives the yarn a quality that neither has alone. I very much enjoyed knitting with this yarn and think you would enjoy knitting anything out of this new collection.

Pickles Pickles

2010-07-21T20:09:00.004-04:00

I planted three hills of bush cucumbers this spring. Even with all the shade from the surrounding trees, cuks seem to do very well here. I was noticing the profusion of yellow flowers on the vines one day in early summer, with just some very very tiny baby cuks starting to grow. We had five days of rain in a row. I decided to check under the leaves and cuks were everywhere...large and small. We've been eating cucumber, tomato, and basil salads, and sweet refrigerator pickles.

Our son Wes requested some *real* dill pickles, so we cut up seven cuks into a gallon jar and added one hot pepper and some dill and garlic from the garden, plus some fancy spices we had in the cupboard. They sit on the counter for 2-3 days to ferment, then into the refrigerator until they are gone. Yum!

Nissen Fundoplication - one year later

2010-06-18T21:23:00.003-04:00

This is not really a post about homesteading, food, or nature...but it is about health. Exactly one year ago today I was in surgery for a complication that had nearly ruined my overall health. I thought I would post the details here in case someone else might be searching for information and experiences that others have had with the Nissen Fundoplication surgery that physically corrects major hiatal hernias. Mine has been a very positive experience overall. Much of what I found on the internet in my early search for solutions was very negative regarding the surgical procedure. Thus, I'm going to offer a detailed look in this post of my own experience hoping it may help someone out there with a serious GERD issue.

Back in the late 1990's I began having a lot of trouble with bronchitis conditions that frequently recurred. Doctors and clinics I would visit would always ask me if I was a smoker - I never have smoked. Often my energy level was very low and sometimes I felt like I was dying. I was finally diagnosed with GERD or Reflux disease - but encouraged to try medicine and other lifestyle adjustments. Let me say when the problem started I was not overweight. I was probably 10 pounds or so overweight midway through the disease...and certainly for folks that are overweight losing the weight may indeed help you or even could correct your problem. Well, since the weight was not the major issue for me I underwent just about every test, diet, special pillows, bed-raising, and medicine I could find of over the past ten years. Nothing really worked...until I started taking Prilosec.

I needed heavy doses of Prilosec, however, and in the beginning it helped. Gradually however after three years the doses were not helping as much, and I was starting to have increasing nerve and bone pain throughout my arms, hands, and toes. It became very painful and my intuition told me it was a result of the Prilosec. About that time studies were being published in medical journals demonstrating these same type of side effects. My dental health had deteriorated greatly and I had many dental problems all of a sudden. I was seldom able to sleep very much during the night, often waking not able to breath with horrible burning in my chest and throat. I was trying several alternative health therapy approaches - but unfortunately these were of no help.

Finally, I threw in the towel and started to consult with surgeons on what might be done. After several nasty exploratory tests the diagnosis was that I had a hiatal hernia at the stomach opening allowing highly acidic juices to flow upward burning the lining of my esophagus constantly. Nothing short of surgery would correct it. The doctors said it was likely I would end up with cancer if nothing was done. They recommended the laproscopic nissen fundoplication procedure that would physically correct the hernia and restructure the stomach opening such that it would operate as close to normal as possible. during the initial consultations I had misread the doctor in thinking he had said I would not be able to eat meat or bread forever after the surgery. Well, that gave me great pause, but I felt this condition would kill me so was willing to do it. But, later I learned he meant no bread or red meat for the first six - eight weeks. That was a relief!

I had to have a preliminary surgery test that was called a pressure test. This to me was more difficult than the surgery itself, but was necessary for the surgeon to plan the exact level of correction. The surgery required five small incisions in my belly. I spent one night in the hospital and was ready to leave at noon the next day. Elizabeth helped me through it all and slept the night on two chairs pushed together and read to me. I couldn't have gotten through it without her. Thank you, Honey.

My diet was liquid for several days, and then proceeded to introduce very mild foods. It took about three weeks before I began to eat "normal" food, and two months before I was going along pretty normally again. I had to learn to chew food very well and also not to drink too fast. The new stomach opening could only handle so much at a time. And if I went to fast the pain was there to slow me down. I ended up losing about 15 pounds, but in the year since I've gained back some of that weight.

One other side effect post-surgery is that people normally cannot burp or vomit. However, my surgeon was incredibly knowledgeable and adept with this type of surgery. He even had it performed on himself. Turns out he restructured the opening just right...maybe just a bit loose. So, I seem to be able to burp fine....which I can tell you it is very painful not to be able to do so. and this occured early on after the surgery. BeanO and Gas-X were my friends.

A year after the surgery, I only have a very slight indigestion feeling and this occurs only once or twice a week, and only a few minutes at a time. Over time I realize that the restructured opening could become loose and the need for GERD medication to control reflux...or worse having the surgery again...might be needed. However, for many patients the surgery seems to work for many years. My quality of life has improved immensly. I gained my energy back and became like a new person. I'm very thankful I met the surgeon and was able to have him perform this correction for me. I am also very thankful for my loving wife who saw me through thick and thin during this entire ordeal.

Hey, if you have a major reflux problem check out the procedure and make sure you get a surgeon with a lot of experience. It can change your life for the better. I can eat chocolate, drink beer, and even stand on my head without any problems now!

'Shrooms now and later

2010-04-25T14:25:00.004-04:00

One of my favorite foods is mushrooms...I'm not sure I've tried a mushroom I have not liked. Since I was a small child I recall going on annual mushroom hunts with parents and relatives. The past few years, I've either not had as much time to go looking, or the neighbors have already cleaned out the woods of the coveted morels. So, after doing some research, I decided to try growing mushrooms from some of the logs I had recently cut in our woods.

The basic idea is to use 4-8 inch diameter hardwood limbs that were felled in late winter or early spring. The procedure involves drilling 1 inch holes in a diamond pattern across the entire surface of the log, and then pushing mushroom spawn growing in sawdust into the holes. It's best to brush some melted wax over the inoculated sawdust sites to prevent them from drying out. Then, over the course of 6-12 months you manage the moisture level of the logs by keeping them shaded...and mushrooms will begin to appear. I am trying out shitake and oyster shell mushrooms on basswood and elm logs. Our youngest daughter Rhianna even helped inoculate one of the logs.

The fun really began when I was outside working with the logs and sawdust, when I heard our neighbor, Tyler, start exclaiming he was finding mushrooms with outbursts like "Holy Mother bleep" and "Oh My God". This was just below our house in our woods. Wes and I ran down the hill and joined him. Huge yellow sponge morels were everywhere. The three of us must have picked 10 pounds in less than 10 minutes. The timing was interesting, and gave me hope of not only having mushrooms now, but also later in the year. Then the rainstorm that was threatening all day finally let loose.

Last evening we dined on a dish of pasta with morels and asparagus sauteed in butter and garlic, with Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top, with Rhubarb crisp for desert. My parents are coming over today for a mess of traditional fried morels. Yum!

Beth Battles Rhubarb...

2010-04-24T14:47:00.010-04:00

....and wins!

Rhubarb. It's never something I have enjoyed. I vaguely remember the old people of my youth eating a bit of it in the Spring when I was little. I really don't know what they did with it. I wasn't interested.

When it started coming home in our harvest basket a couple of summers ago it was time to revisit this "old fashioned" plant. I think we might have put it in a pie or crisp but admittedly I was glad when it came no more. (Ironically what do you see if you follow my link to the Cooley Family farm, but some nicely arranged rhubarb on the picture on their home page. See what I mean; it's everywhere.)

This year we are trying to grow more food ourselves and haven't purchased a harvest basket subscription. We will buy what we want at the Farmer's Market to supplement what we can grow or glean ourselves. With Spring upon us we begin the odyssey of eating seasonally in a more enthusiastic way. Enthusiastic that is, until *rhubarb* finds us once again!

This time it falls into the gleaning category; while stopping by my in-laws' they asked, "Want some rhubarb?" Seasonal eating here we come. We couldn't say no.

What to do with this stuff? Looks like celery. Kind of stinks when you cut it up. Appetizing....

But after consulting my favorite "what to do with this weird -uh seasonal- vegetable" cookbook, I decided to try "Rhubarb Almond Flake." The almond part of the title was promising, and it looked like it had enough good stuff in it that maybe even rhubarb would turn out OK.

So I mixed up a pastry of flour, shortening, baking powder, eggs and milk. I covered it with 1/2 of a sugary mixture, the rhubarb, and the other half of the pastry topping.

THEN I remembered that I hadn't sprinkled on the other rather substantial half of the sugar mixture. Really. When dealing with anything as sour as rhubarb, forgetting half the sugar could be catastrophic. With Wes' help, it took 4 hands to uncover the bottom pastry and throw in the sugar; crisis averted!

Then I mixed up the almonds (a very good thing) with melted butter, sugar and vanilla

which gave me hope that this whole concoction could end up brilliant in SPITE of rhubarb.

AND IT DID!

100 things we've done

2010-04-14T15:47:00.001-04:00

The other day Beth and I decided to just list off the top of our heads things we've done that are homestead related...and we ended up with 100...I think there are more...but just for fun:

Things we’ve done ourselves (together or separately):

Gave birth to 3 children at home
Raised our own pigs
Butchered a pig
Butchered chickens
Raised egg laying chickens
Built a coop
Built a screen room
Made bread from scratch
Preserved all kinds of foods including pickles, dilly beans, apples tomatoes and jams
Grow gardens
Knitted socks, sweaters and more
Restored a prairie
Installed flooring
Installed a home theater
Installed slate flooring
Painted our own house
Installed a wood burning furnace
Felled and split firewood
Killed rabid raccoons and an interloping rat
Remodeled a basement
Built fences
Change our own oil
Repaired radiator hoses
Replaced alternators and spark plugs
Fixed flat tires
Removed stitches
Made herbal medicines
Dyed with Henna
Made a self-watering container
Made a raised bed
Herded pigs
Loaded pigs
Made apple cider
Do our own taxes
Did my own divorce
Started my own business
Fixed our own computers
Did electrical wiring
Made pottery
Recorded our own cd
Made an instructional video
Repaired brake and light hookups for trailer while on the road
Repaired weight distribution bracket for camper while in Missouri
Wrote poetry
Delivered babies
Made doughnuts from scratch
Created websites
Taught guitar classes
Taught outdoor skills classes
Taught childbirth classes
Spun yarn
Fixed bicycles
Got out of debt
Fixed lawnmowers (too many times)
Patched the driveway
Sprouted vegetables and herbs to plant in garden
Made dandelion wine
Planned conferences
Cooked a lot of meals from scratch
Recycle most of our waste
Built a composting toilet
Repaired toilets
Repaired drywall
Navigated with real maps not GPS
Installed egress window in basement
Installed programmable thermostat
Transported & raised bees
Extracted and bottled honey
Made bath salts
Foraged for wild foods
Built a trail through the woods
Hunted for mushrooms
Rescued an unhatched chick
Nursed injured animals to health
Groomed our dog
Biked to work
Trimmed hair
Disinfected our well
Tested well water
Watered animals from creek
Mastered pie crust
Created a recipe
Remineralized a tooth
Constructed a masonry floor with antique bricks
Cleaned our chimney
Repaired shower tile
Installed ceiling fans
Installed larger oven and resized wall opening
Put in whole house water filter
Installed & configured computer & phone network
Reclaimed outdoor furniture
Made yogurt
Sprouted seeds to eat
Did newborn exams and screening
Did community presentations on healthy homes and water quality
Coached softball
Built a birthing replica for demonstration
Did our own business accounting
Canoed the Wabash & Blue River and Big Pine Creek
Made homemade ice cream

Dyeing with Plants

2010-03-26T16:06:00.006-04:00

I bet you think this is going to be about fiber. You know, knitting, spinning, dyeing and all that jazz? Well it's not going to be about that. It's going to be about....HAIR!

Yep, that's right. Hair.

Maybe this doesn't seem like something you'd read about on a blog about homesteading, but I find that I am interested in anything that allows me to be more independent. In fact we were thinking of making a list of "do-it-yourself" things we have actually done ourselves, but I'll leave that for another day. For now I want to tell you about my natural dyeing experience.

If you haven't noticed, hair coloring is really hot right now. I think maybe more than ever before. A long time ago, I used to think that hair coloring was something fake that people used to make up for not being happy with themselves. Not blond enough. Not young enough. You get the idea. I rather prided myself on the idea that I didn't need to do that kind of stuff; I would just be happy with myself the way I happened to be.

Then I had kids. And they opened my eyes up to the fact that today changing your hair color is like deciding what color of fingernail polish to wear was when I was their age. My older daughter went from bleach blond, to BLACK, to her current black/red combo and she's really hoping for fire engine red this summer. She has helped me see that changing your hair color doesn't have to mean you are unhappy with the natural you; but that it's ok to have fun & experiment and try new things-- and that can be liberating. In her world your hair color can be as changeable as which concert t-shirt she chooses to wear--Kelly Clarkson one day; Iron Maiden the next. No boxes or boundaries!

Both of my daughters have been trying to get me to color my hair for quite some time. But really, even though I thought it sounded fun (and a little bit daring!) I just couldn't see me really buying a box of L'Oreal and doing that. It just wasn't me.

One day I happened across the Henna for Hair website. And I couldn't quit browsing and looking at all of those thumbnails of vibrant glowing hair color. I looked at "before & after" pictures; I looked at the individual mixes of herbs and everyday household items that people used to color their own hair. This was starting to speak my language. Like making herbal infusions for physical health, this was another kind of herbal infusion for hair health! I was hooked.

After lots of reading & thinking about which colors I liked, I ordered some henna and indigo. Being a very brave person, I tried them out on my daughters! Dare I say this was about a YEAR ago? After having fun with my daughters' hair, I left the henna & indigo packets in a closet in a back room almost forgotten. Fun as it had been I was still clinging to my purist, natural ideas--plus I was kind of afraid of doing something I wouldn't like. I like my hair. I know my husband likes my hair. I didn't want to mess it up. And when it comes to change, well I'm a pretty slow mover.

I'm not sure why I finally found my henna mojo. But a couple of weekends ago I got the urge to try it. I pored over the Henna for Hair website again reminding myself how to do it. Doing a henna treatment takes time and pre-planning. Unlike a commercial hair dye, henna needs to be mixed up the night before with several hours to let the dye release. Then you need time the next day to apply the henna, something I couldn't have done by myself. Then you need a few hours to let it sit on your hair. Then you need a rather major shampooing treatment to get it off. So with time ahead of me and a bit of courage, I mixed my henna with lemon juice and let it sit in a warm place over night.

In the morning I mixed in indigo to tone the red down a bit and make it darker. After a few minutes of trying to apply it myself I called on Colleen for help. She applied the henna paste layer by layer to my hair. To be positive, the mixture looked a lot like mud; to be more realistic it looked quite a lot like baby poop. The more my hair was coated the heavier my head became. After my head felt about 5 pounds heavier, we piled my henna coated hair on my head & wrapped it in plastic wrap and a towel. Then I just had to wait. And wonder. I didn't take any pictures of this process...I was still pretty chicken about the whole thing. I wasn't sure I'd want to document it publicly or otherwise.

A few hours later when I couldn't stand it anymore, I decided to take the plunge, literally, and got in the shower. I can't really describe what happened when the spraying water hit my head. I was suddenly immersed in a mud bath like I've never experienced before. It was really like being in a mud waterfall. Muddy looking water was running all over me, the shower, and everything. I was not prepared for that! It was quite a shock at first. But after a few shampoos and lots of conditioning, the water was running clear and I was ready to see how it worked!

I could only see my water darkened hair that really didn't look very different than it usually looks. But when I looked in the mirror I could see a glow around my face that was new and different. When my hair dried I could see that the grayest hairs, especially around my face and bangs, were a fairly bright copper. And the hair that was already brown was now a more glowing auburn. Plant dyes are different than commercial hair dyes in that they soak into the hair and actually dye it, instead of just coating and covering it. So with plant dyes, the hair retains it's natural pattern of highlights and shading nuances; they are just a different color, but the natural variation is still there. I really loved how my gray strands became coppery highlights! And my hair felt conditioned & soft and well ... just healthy!

Many people who have a history of using commercial hair colors say it is hard on their hair and leaves it feeling brittle and dry. But the natural henna and indigo are actually conditioning and contribute to hair health. Since I've never done the commercial dye I can't speak to that, but I can say that my hair has felt full and healthy since doing my henna treatment. I feel great about being able to care for my hair in a natural way. And I love being able to use natural plants and to take care of my hair myself. I do a lot of things that I like feeling ownership of, like making nettle infusions for their nourishing qualities or baking fresh bread for my family. It just feels good to know I can use things that nature provides to take care of my needs. And it feels good to know I can do it myself. Now I have found another one to add to the list! Henna!

Wood, wood, wood, how much wood could a....

2010-03-12T12:56:00.005-05:00

Lately I've been doing a lot with wood. Cutting trees, chopping wood, stacking wood, burning wood. If you have followed previous posts, you know that we installed an EPA rated wood burning furnace last autumn. It has been great! Our home feels warmer, and I estimate that we have saved about $1300 on the propane that we did not need to use this winter. After including the federal tax break, I believe this furnace will pay for itself in two winters of use. With the exception of one pickup truck load of wood that we recently purchased (and Elizabeth got to help with), all of the wood we've burned we have personally harvested locally from dead trees.

The past month, I've been cutting a few trees that are starting to die, or are increasingly blocking sunlight into our small clearing where our gardens are located. The cool thing is that we will be using the larger sections to split and burn in future winters. The smaller diameter limbs will be serving to produce a variety of mushrooms - something I've been talking about trying for several years. Cutting, splitting, hauling, and stacking wood is something I've done since I was a little kid - and now my kids can get a little of that "split-rail value" experience...they are not amused. There is just something great about the smell of newly split wood, the differences between species, the good feeling of the ache in your muscles knowing you are able to heat your home without the gas man next year.

I'll be posting in the future about the mushroom production....but next up we will be building some new garden beds with cold frames, and getting ready for honey bees. We are also trying our hand at sprouting our own veges....starting with sweet and hot pepper plants. Oh, and we just doubled our chicken flock with five new hens. Lots of exciting projects and photos coming up!

Really Old Green Technology - Hot Water Bottles

2010-01-01T12:10:00.004-05:00

If your sheets or feet feel cold on a winter's night, we highly recommend the use of a hot water bottle, sometimes called a hottie in the UK. This small rubber water bottle contains about 1-2 quarts of hot water heated on the stove, and we covered it with a flannel cover (cost about $10 for the bottle and a few more $ for a cover). This will give you instant warm sheets by your toes! Just tuck it in a few minutes before bed. It radiates the heat all night. Before we installed our wood burning furnace, we allowed the winter temperatures in our home to drop down to 60 F during sleeping hours. We used a hot water bottle nearly every evening. It allows us to save energy, yet remain comfortable all night. Our programmable thermostat kicks on the heat around 5:30am and gets the house warmed up again before we get out of bed. This is truly green technology that works, and the rubber bottle will last at least several generations. It isn't new, but it is a time tested way of staying warm all night while your furnace remains off.

Go one more step and cover your bed with a feather-down comforter. For cool spring or late fall such a comforter alone will keep you toasty. Add the hot water bottle once winter kicks in. You can't beat this combination (unless you factor in skin-skin contact). You'll save money and fossil fuels all winter and your feet will thank you.

Nectar of the Gods

2009-12-01T09:46:00.003-05:00

We had the good fortune of trading some of our pork for beef that friends of ours, Linda and Rick, had recently purchased from an area organic farm. We offered to trade more pork for some of the apple cider they made, when they said there were plenty more apples to pick! So, with our three children, and a few friends of Linda we all went and picked more apples two Sunday's ago. I do not ever recall being able to pick apples this late in Indiana. The trees we picked from were dwarf apple trees that were easy to reach. Some of the trees were absolutely loaded with amazing fruit. The abundance and goodness was almost mind altering, as I ran from variety to variety tasting the fruit. In less than one hour our family alone had picked more than 200 pounds of apples. I felt like this was a little bit of Eden that I was experiencing.

We proceeded on to Rick and Linda's homeplace to process the apples into cider. Making cider was a first for Beth and me. The elegantly built and conceived cider press worked efficiently with only our muscle power...and it was easy to use....as long as I remembered to close off the netting in the bucket and switch out drain pans on time. With a tasting glass, we sampled the various mixes of apples being squeezed into what I like to call the Nectar of the Gods. There is nothing quite like the delectable taste of fresh apple cider. Some batches were very light colored and smooth, and other batches were dark and hearty. We seemed to acheive about 10-11 gallons of cider with one hundred pounds or so of apples. We kept back the rest to process and freeze for apple pies and apple sauce, and a few for just eating through the winter as long as they last...an apple a day does the body good.

Heating Our Home with Wood

2009-11-20T12:53:00.003-05:00

This past summer we had our roof re-shingled due to the massive hail storm damage (see blog post from June). While the shingles were off and several plywood sections needed to be replaced, we had the contractors (my cousin's business Triple L contruction) insulate the attic. We brought the insulation level from R19 to over R40. This made a big difference in the energy needs of our house! It has felt cooler in the summer, and retains heat better thus far in the winter. Our windows are another story...single pane from 1969. Beautiful to look out of over the wooded landscape, but terrible in terms of energy efficiency.

In addition to the extra insulation, we also started to seriously consider using wood to help heat our home. Propane prices have increased greatly, along with all other fossil fuel prices. I don't think we'll ever see fossil fuel prices go back down. They are certain to increase greatly over time. The total price we pay now for LP each heating season has tripled in the 8 years we've been in the house! This, despite keeping nighttime temps quite low, and daytime temps low when we are not in the home during winter week days. We had installed a programmable thermostat which made things very convenient. However, we do live in a woods and do have some access to dead trees we could consider for heating our home.

Our ancient fireplace insert is quite small and not very efficient. It adds some ambiance and does help warm part of the living room area. After researching outdoor wood furnaces that can heat the home and the water we would use, we decided the $10,000 + investment was not the best choice at this time. We found an indoor wood burning furnace that will integrate with our current gas furnace for the best of all worlds. It is also EPA approved for efficiency (up 76%) and low emissions. We spent a lot of time working on the installation...and it still is not completely electrically installed. Beth has had visions of me as the father on The Christmas Story, going to the basement to kick, scream, and cuss out the furnace on a daily basis. The directions are very vague, and looks like we'll need to hire an expert to get it compeltely hooked up and running properly. It's really, really hard for me to admit defeat. But, I think we need to call in an expert before I get socked to death.

This has not deterred me from USING the wood furnace. Other than one day where the gas furnace malfunctioned and continously heated the house to about 85 degrees, we have not used any lp gas this season. The wood furnace does take more oversight, but I've been really impressed by how much heat and how long it will burn a load of wood.

The other aspect of this is that I need to get out there and cut, haul, and split wood a LOT more. this is a lot of time and muscle required, but also is good honest work (and might help keep me in shape). It feels good to know I can gather the necessary resource for heating our home locally. The trees are a renewable source of energy, as long as we harvest respectfully and utlize this sustainable source responsibly. On the economic side, I've estimated we'll save over $1,000 dollars a heating season (typically Nov - April) with the wood furnace. This is a big savings, and will basically pay for the indoor wood furnace in three years! Beyond three years, the savings will accrue.

I know not everyone can heat with wood, but it is an option that may end up being one of the better ways we can locally source our energy for heat. One of the best things we can do in current times is to re-forest the landscape. Trees do an incredible number of functions to made ecosystems healthier and more stable, and provide many useable products in the future. It used to be that a nation's wealth was accounted for based on the health and spread of its forests. With the vast increase in wood burning technology and efficiency, and if you have access to a wood lot, and research what you are doing, it can be economically and environmentally sound.

Our Pork Chops vs. Their Pork Chops Part II

2009-11-06T13:57:00.005-05:00

So, What gives? How can Payless sell pork chops for half the price that it takes me to raise mine from scratch? It has a lot to do with the cheap food policy promoted by the federal government and agribusiness corporations, cheap but wildly potent fossil fuels, and the dietary choices we each make.

Industrial U.S. agriculture produces the pork chops you can purchase at most grocery stores such as Payless. And, it produces those pork chops on a wide scale based on intensive use of non-renewable resources such as fossil fuel, minerals, and metals coupled with huge government payment programs to industrial agriculture. $11.3 Billion for commodity subsidies in 2006 alone. (An agricultural commodity, such as pork, is usually a food product produced on a large market scale.) This figure does not include "disaster relief payments or conservation ag payments...both of which would be unnecessary in a sustainable food production system. Some estimates show that the average U.S. taxpayer pays out around $300 annually toward agricultural subsidies to Uncle Sam...which then is distributed to the agribusiness giants. This amounts to $600 for most families per year.

Humans have been practicing agriculture for at least 10,000 years, but it is only in the last 60 or so years that heavy industrialization has occurred. So much so, that farmers are extremely dependent on synthetic chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and fossil-fuel powered machinery. As a result yields have greatly increased during this period of time, along with an increasing population of mouths to feed. Yet, the overall efficiency of production has sharply decreased when considering the amount of energy used in the industrial system. Scientists estimate that the industrial food producing system uses from 3 to 10 times as much energy as it produces. This means for every kilocalorie of food energy produced 3 to 10 kilocalories of energy were necessary to produce it and get it to the stores, where we drive to purchase it. (The ratio is much worse 35:1 for beef produced in feedlots compared with grains) How long can we keep this up?

What does this have to do with the price of pork chops in Payless? In order to keep the price of those pork chops low, in spite of the very unsustainable use of energy and non-renewable resources, our government pays out big bucks to keep this industrial system propped up and functioning. Who pays for it? You do. I do. We all do. And our children will pay dearly if we don't get it turned around soon. Although the pork chops at Payless were going for 97 cents a pound...you don't see the hidden costs behind those pork chops on the sticker price. If you account for all of the hidden costs they should cost us at least $6-8 a pound.

We very much need a level playing field when it comes to food production politics. If we had such an environment, I bet we would see a rapid move to sustainable food production. A system where we retain freedom of choice and quantity of foods we eat, but we pay the appropriate price for the food with the heretofore hidden costs included in the sticker price. My guess is that we would likely eat fewer pork chops and meat overall, but that when we do purchase foods they would be coming from local growers using sustainable practices. This would have the desired effect of creating more niches for local jobs, our dollars spent would circulate within the local economy strengthening our communities, providing healthier food and healthier people.

Somehow we the people must get our elected officials to support real change in food production policies. But, in the meantime, we can choose whenever possible to eat food produced locally...even though it means we pay out of pocket twice....once for the food and once for commodity subsidies of the food we are not eating. There should be no "cheap food policy" because there really is no free lunch.

Oh, "our" pork chops are pretty darn tasty! But I'm hoping to find a way to feed a pig or two more sustainably in the future such that the ratio of energy in to energy produced is even more favorable.

Our Pork Chops vs. Their Pork Chops Part I

2009-10-31T19:39:00.005-04:00

Our two pigs remained in their woodland pigpen until I opened their gate last Monday evening. They both walked right out, up a small ramp and onto an open air trailer without so much as a nudge from me. However, in preparing for loading the pigs I had jumped across the fence into their pen to retrieve a feed pan. I simply ran and sailed right over the fence into the mud. I grabbed the feed pan and made the same leap back over the fence, but my boots were sucked back somewhat by the mud. Once airborn I noticed that the ground was much lower on the pigs' side of the fence. I realized that I was not going to clear the fence. As gravity pulled my 180 some pounds down my boots caught the fencef violently, my pant leg ripped open on the metal fence post, jabbing into my leg. I hit the muddy ground and many protruding tree roots with my ribs looking every bit like a world wrestling federation champ free-falling onto a hapless victim. Once I verifed that nothing was broken my only thought was "Dang! I sure am glad I'm hidden from view back here in the woods and no one saw me do that silly-assed dive over the fence." What I didn't know was that my dear wife was peering down at me from the screen room on our house at just that moment...apparently quite impressed with my pig loading skills. Later she said, "I had never seen anyone jump straight up in the air like that. I thought it must be some pig whispering leap to get them to go out the gate and onto the trailer."

All things considered, I was quite happy that the pigs were safely on the trailer. The day before we had just finished eating our first ever homemade donuts. If you've never tasted homemade donuts you are really missing out (picture below). I saved two glazed donuts and apple peelings to serve to the pigs as dessert after their final meal. Hams and Bacon had led quite good lives at our homestead, but I wanted to give them thanks for giving their lives so that we can eat this next year.

Tuesday morning Beth and I rose from bed extra early and drove the pigs to the local butcher in Lafayette. It was still dark out when they walked into the abbatoir and across the scales. One bystander's mouth dropped open when he saw how large the pigs were...he bet me that the one was a 300 pounder! The man weighing the pigs gave us the weigh slips. Hams weighed in at 275. Bacon weighed in at 245 (an average weight for a market pig is 230lbs...so the 275 pounder is a heavy weight). They had started out life on our homestead at a mere 25 lbs each (see picture above) The total amount of actual pork, minus all of the inedibles, was a grand total of 370.8 pounds! That, my friends, is a lot of pork. We brought home the fresh pork cuts today. The hams, bacon slices, and other cuts that will be cured will take another week.

Although we have not fixed pork chops yet, we will soon. First on the menu will be a stir fry using small bites of pork steak along with greens, onions, and cabbage from our CSA basket. However, it was time to calculate just how much our pork chops cost us in dollars and cents. Here is how it came out:

Pigs $40 each = $80

Straw = $7.50

Nipple waterer = $5.00

Feed (1,300lbs) = $234.67

gas/hauling = $20

Butcher/processing = $326.91

Our pork chops cost us $1.82 per pound.

I cannot yet vouch for any taste differences between our pork chops and those that you can get at the local supermarket, but we have a hunch that our pork chops will compare with the natural raised pork chops from the farmers market. So when we compare our cost of $1.82 a pound with the $4.75 per pound price at the farmer's market, we do pretty well. But, pork chops can be had in our town for less, I found out. Much less! Payless has a "loss leader" on pork chops this week selling at a mere 97 cents a pound. These were their "mixed" chops...of mediocre quality. I know because I've had them before. Their better chops are selling at $1.69 a pound. Still less than ours cost us to raise, despite the fact that we had to provide daily care for our pigs, haul feed and water for five months, pay the butcher, while taking ownership for growing our own food. Now, Marsh supermarket, just down the road from Payless, is selling their good quality pork chops for $3.99 a pound which makes me feel better. More than double ours. Which makes me scratch my head a bit, too.

What gives? how can Payless sell pork chops for half the price that it takes me to raise mine from scratch? And, how can the good folks at the farmer's market command more than four times the amount that Payless gets for theirs?

It has a lot to do with the cheap food policy promoted by the federal government and agribusiness corporations, cheap but wildly potent fossil fuels, and the dietary choices we each make. At this juncture, I'm going to taste our pork before extolling any further on these issues. Be back soon!

Pigs Escape! or How I got my Pig Mojo Back

2009-10-23T14:15:00.009-04:00

This past spring we decided to add to our managerie of useful animals that help feed us by bringing home two piglets to our forest garden homestead. The idea was to raise our own pigs for pork. We would give them a good life in a modest pen in the forest, next to our chickens. They've been eating scraps from our table and excess garden produce, but mostly standard corn and soybean mixture feed. I happened to be home in the afternoon and not at the office when I received a call from our son, "hey, [the neighbor boy] just called me and said he got off the school bus and he was greeted at his house by pigs in his yard." I thought this must be some kind of joke, because I had checked on OUR pigs just two hours previously and they were lounging in their pen without a care in the world. This certainly had to be someone else's pigs. Yeah, right! No one in several miles of our house has a pig. Isn't it strange how our brains go into denial when faced with known, but terrible facts.

I tried to keep my cool as I walked (in a marathon walking sort of way) down the hill from our house to the pig pen. No pigs. I carefully inspected the pen, as if I really expected the pigs to simply sprout back up out of the ground and reappear. The fence in one corner was mangled badly with deep rooted out areas beneath it. It seemed such a small opening for such large animals to fit through. Unbelievable! How did this happen! I began to feel a slight panic feeling. A strange horror film flitted through my mind's eye. The frames of the film blurred by...our almost fully grown pigs running pel-mel, but unknowingly, toward brutal death trying to cross the highway in front of our subdivision to reach the corn field on the other side. The film slowed down and I see my pigs colliding with a BMW. I zoom in. I see the BMW is driven by a vegan suit and tie wearing CEO who's brother happens to be the chair of the local zoning board. The film's trailer ends with "Man jailed for pig neglect, disturbing the peace, and maintaining a common nuisance of the farmyard variety". The short film fades with an interview clip of our most skeptical neighbor..."the chickens we eventually tolerated, but this! they should throw away the keys." Now fully in panic mode, I phoned my wife pleading for assistance if she wouldn't mind closing her shop to come and herd pigs. What better way to spend the lovely afternoon.

Now sweating and in full panic mode, I ran down to the neighbor's house where sure enough our pigs were casually inspecting a whole new world known as the neighbor's front yard (see photo above taken by neighbor boy). One problem is that this yard was a quarter of a mile from our house. I ran back home, jumped in the truck, hooked up a small trailer I had just bargain purchased a few weeks before and headed back down the road. "How will I get these pigs back" was all I could wonder. Two neighbor boys were gracious enough to help me try to herd these porcine escapees into the trailer. No way were they going near the trailer. At this juncture, let's put this into context. We live in a subdivision. A unique, old, very forested subdivision, but still a subdivision none-the-less. I have neighbors who do not appreciate our chickens...and the clock was reading about 4pm...pretty soon people would be arriving back home from work. It was hard not to feel panic at the prospect of these dignified professionals arriving home at the site of pigs running amok in their neighborhood. I thought, "what in holy hell am I going to do?"

Then the neighbor boys, who were meanwhile pulling out their phone cameras and snapping shots to text and send to friends, family, and the police, started herding the pigs down the road back to our place. I stared with some astonishment, and little by little we got the two pigs in a narrow strip of land, heavy with briers and poison ivy, that lay between the creek and the road. We gently urged them on, me whistling and cooing as they curiously rooted and sampled every species of plant as they went. Then at the half-way point back down the road to our house I got my pig mojo back (side story: I raised various breeds of pigs on my parents small farm from age 11 through age 18, winning many awards, including best showman....which involves a very high level of professional knack with steering a pig exactly where you want it to go with the grace normally given to the dance floor - you might think wow, when would that skill ever come in handy, but...) Here I was herding two escaped nearly fully grown porcines down a subdivision road. Carefully navigating the flight distance between me and the two pigs, at an angle which would slowly move them in the right trajectory back toward their pen, we were only 30 feet from the gate. Elizabeth arrived in the Rav...deftly swinging the car at an angle to the road to block any hasty retreat of these swine...for a split second the Toyota Rav was a black suburban with tinted windows. My wife an FBI agent dressed undercover in black leather, sliding the vehicle 180 degrees blocking any escape. A sting operation, making sure these pigs would serve out their days where they belonged...in the pen! Meanwhile back at the ranch, the neighbor boy opened the gate, stepped aside, and sweet jesus both pigs languidly found their way back in to their lovely mud and straw covered pen.

They seemed relieved. I was overjoyed, but in shock. Pig mojo back. Ham and bacon preserved for future meals. Perhaps at least a couple neighbors none the aware. My wife said, "You are a pig whisperer," but wondered if the expense of the feed and the trouble to keep these pigs was worth it. I'll let you know in two weeks when we have pork chops covered with baked apples.

The Harvest

2009-08-19T21:25:00.014-04:00

As summer tilts toward autumn, our small gardens have done well, with little work on our part, providing us with respectable harvests of beets, cucumbers, tomatoes, green beans, peppers, squash, carrots, and several meals of sweet corn and broccoli. We will soon harvest potatoes from the "tator tires".

We have really enjoyed simply walking up to the garden and gathering what is there. I thank the soil, the rain, the sun that energizes it all. We put a fairly hasty (due to my looming surgery), but somewhat planned effort, into two small gardens this spring. One at the Purdue Village Gardens and the other at our home of one small raised bed, a small patch of experimental sweet corn, several tator tires and hills, and two summer squash plants.

The sweet corn was a trial and error plot at our home site. The plot only receives about 6 or so hours of sunlight a day. Not really enough to have healthy corn production. But, we did get a number of decent and delectable ears. Our garden at Purdue also grew sweet corn, slightly better than at our forest garden, but not much better. Corn needs a lot of nutrients to produce well. But the buttery, sugary taste of sweet corn is worth the wait and the effort. Fresh picked is the best there is!

After good soil and proper water amounts, the keys are plant spacing and mulching...with early weeding as needed. After the first several weeks of work, we've really not spent much time at all on maintenance. Most of it has been in harvesting, cooking, preserving, and enjoying! This photo shows my bias toward "natural gardening"...but I've actually gone to a more balanced approach with less chaotic wild growth of native plants and more space for sun and garden plants. Hey, it only took me 8 years to lighten up a bit.

Tomato-Cucumber Salad. Add dill, vinegar, salt. Simply Cooling and Tasty.

Canning beans and dilly beans! A taste of the summer will be hidden away for a winter's day.

Earthy Beets....and the pigs loved the tops...Brent did too. We pickled these.

And what to do with the squash after too many stir fry dishes and zucchini bread? Make squash brownies and cookies. Ok, they do taste like a "healthy" cookie. But, they were fun to try out. Actually, most all the cookies were consumed by our kids and me.

Brent sampling squash cookie.
Beth with grated summer squash for brownies.

Apocalyptic Hail

2009-06-10T20:51:00.004-04:00

There are so many cool things we could be blogging about. To whit:

Our trip to French Lick wherein a bird flew in the room of our B&B
Installing a new Queen Bee in our hive
Getting two little pigs
Attending Brent's permaculture course at Purdue
Looking for dandelions to make wine but finding only a few...

But June 1st we were pummeled with hail like I have never seen before. It lasted at least 10 minutes, maybe 15. When it was over this was what the steps to our house looked like:

The upshot of it all is that our camper is totaled, our car was close to being totaled (and thank goodness we had full coverage on both!), and our roof is shot. We're in the process of negotiating with two different insurance companies for the home & the vehicles and it is taking all of our time. Maybe in the end we'll have a new roof but it hasn't been a lot of fun.

AND the carpet we chose to have installed before Brent's surgery is back ordered and they want to subsitute with something we haven't even seen yet. I guess anything would be better than "Essence of Dog Barf" that we have now...trust me, you don't WANT a picture of that.

So hopefully we'll pop back in after Brent's surgery when we have lots of time to tell you about our adventures.

Bees leave home

2009-05-11T20:44:00.004-04:00

Back in mid-March we inspected our bees. We knew that one of our two hives we started last year did not make it through the winter. We believe it lacked the population of bees necessary to stay warm. The surviving hive, however, was teaming with bees. Our daughter Rhianna helped me find the queen....without her quick, sharp eyes, I never would have found the queen! Our dilemma was whether to split the hive and make two colonies, or to add hive space and attempt to grow the hive. We opted for growing the hive population in an attempt to get lots of honey this year....

However, the bees had other plans. They had been planning an exit for some time. They completely ignored the upper room addition I made for them in the form of a plush honey super. Yesterday they packed their bags and did something amazingly unique in the insect world...they swarmed. Swarming is where the queen ups and leaves her home with roughly half of the worker bees, who gorge themselves on honey first. They leave the other half of the colony to raise a new queen and carry on in the old home. You can see in the photo, that the swarm of probably 20,000 bees or more left the hive and ended up in a tree...unfortunately the branch was about 40 feet above us and out of reach. We feebly put out an empty hive with frames and wax, and dribbled honey around to try to coax them into one of our empty hive bodies...but alas they flew away. A cool thing was that the next day as I was finishing the raised bed in the previous post I heard a loud swarming sound about 100 feet away....it was our bees! I followed the swarm down the road. The sound was very loud and it was one of those ancient phenomena of nature that you don't witness very often. Despite my attempts to tell them to come back and reside in a nice cozy wooden hive, they sped on over the western ridge and toward the next wooded valley. Hope they make it and pollinate many a flower and tree.

Gardens Everywhere

2009-05-11T19:53:00.007-04:00

We've been working on a variety of gardens and ideas for this year. We began by sprucing up the hillside area behind our home with wave petunia's to spread out and co-mingle with the native flowers and shade perennials we've planted the past few years.

A Village Garden

Based on previous years' experience, we just don't seem to get enough direct sunlight into our small quarter acre clearing in the creek valley below our home. Since we tend to travel through Pudue University area to and from work, we decided to rent a garden space at the Purdue Village. This is an incredibly awesome place, with probably 100 families from all over the world planting many varieties of plants using diverse techniques. We rented a 12 x 25 plot and went to work. We use a lot of peppers in our cooking, and knew we wanted to grow a lot of these for freezing for year round use. Peppers in the store are usually pricey. We also like fresh salsa and the grocery store price is usually salty. So, our village garden is being nicknamed, Salsa Garden, and we added plenty of tomato plants, onions, and even a small patch of sweet corn. We planted climbing beans to utilize the fence and vertical space. It was fun to plant, and we are excited about its potential.

Zero $ Raised Bed

Just because we are very stubborn people (at least I am when it comes to growing plants that want sunshine in an area with a dearth of sunlight), I wanted to try out several new ideas this year. I wanted to build a raised bed with very fertile ingredients on the most southern exposed spot to see what will happen. I started by removing topsoil from an 3 x 12 area where I had established native prairie perennials the previous 4 years. I then used a pitch fork to gently open up and aerate the subsoil. I then placed partially rotted sticks, then a layer of partially composted chicken manure from our hens, then a layer of partially composted wood chips from the electric company had dumped the year before, then a layer of nicely composted dead wood that had turned to soil from a large pile of dead branches and wood I piled next to the forest four years ago. I did another layer of each of these items, then Beth and I used some old shelving boards and some redwood 2x4 from a dismantled deck that were here when we moved in for the sides of the bed. We shoveled on the topsoil, an wow....our first ever raised bed. Now we need to plant it with a variety of garden veges and see what happens!

Container Gardens (almost zero $)

Something I had come across in a fun book titled the Urban Homestead by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen is a functional porch garden idea known as a self-watering container. The concept is based on the commercially sold Earthbox...commonly sold for $40 or more each. It basically is made of an 18 gallon rubbermaid storage container (that we had on hand and were not using) and a few short sections of pvc pipe. The concept tries to mimic the topsoil, subsoil, and water table found in a natural garden, but contructed into a minaturized version for shallow rooted plants. The advantage over basic containers is that the water is wicked up by the plant roots whenever they need the water....and watering is done only infrequently, because the bottom reservoir is like 6-8 gallons of water. We decided to plant herbs in ours.

We came across something called TatorTires, where by cutting away the side walls of discarded tires you use them for containing potato plants...as potato plants grow upward, you need to pile on more soil, straw, etc. The tires are nice because you can utilize vertical space, contain the potato plants, and add old tires to the stack as they grow. The black rubber heats up and creates a warm zone for the plants to get a good start. At harvest time you simply start removing the tires one layer at a time to gather up the spuds! This idea could be used for a number of food plants.

Road Trip

2009-05-11T18:50:00.005-04:00

We decided to take a day and drive to covered bridge country earlier this spring. Parke County has always been a favorite destination for us, and we wanted to seriously consider if this might be a place to call home sometime in the future. The picturesque countryside, rolling hills, timbered ravines, and many pastures and creeks seem like the perfect match for our tastes. We drove around and looked at several places for sale. However, the more we looked at what is in our price range, it seemed there were dilapidated buildings, and meth-lab looking neighbors, and/or rebel flag waving strongholds and the fundamentalist religious right. We read the local newspapers, and started to get the feeling that we just don't seem to fit in anywhere very well....not the redneck Indiana and not the intelligentsia city areas either. Yes, we are Hoosiers and can identify with most Hoosiers. We want a sense of community, yet community that both respects the land and values open inquiry, creativity, the arts, and a spritual connection to earth and each other. Is there such a place? We are beginning to think that we must cultivate these qualities in and around us where we are now....but we still look forward to visiting Parke County, and many other Hoosier places.

Frugal Food

2009-05-01T14:37:00.002-04:00

It seems to be a sign of the times; everywhere you look someone has an idea for "frugal" this or "budget" that. I've always thought of myself as frugal; I'm wearing a watch I received as a school band award in high school, I have Birkenstocks older than my firstborn son and I just threw away a laundry basket that was my stepfather's before he married my mom sometime in the 1970's. (The cracks that had developed in it were finally pinching the fingers way too much.)

While I have been drawn to books on saving money, cutting costs, and living simply, I often find that there's just not so much I can learn. I can't cut out my Starbucks habit because I don't drink coffee. But I have been drawn to those kinds of books & websites because I have been in search of some magical way to attain nirvana - The Land. Mortgage-free lifestyle. Time.... the list goes on.

Just like everyone else we are starting to feel the pinch of this economy. Friends are losing jobs and we may not be far behind. As the reality of the situation that we are all in starts to be felt closer to home, I'm really glad that we have been working on ways of saving money every month. If our income remains the same, it will allow us to put a little money in the bank; if it goes down, well then maybe it will help us get by while keeping our house or at helping us avoid digging ourselves a very deep hole.

Over the last few months we have drastically changed our food buying habits. I thought we were frugal before; and sometimes we were. We ate good food, often seasonal food, and often from scratch. Except when we didn't. Like when we got home late and found it all too easy to call Papa John's. Or when it was easier to stop for Chinese carryout on the way home. Or when we looked in the cabinet and saw lots of good food but were too tired and hungry to figure out what to do with it.

In the course of my usual quest for money-saving, simple living resources I rediscovered the website whose name scares my children, the Hillbilly Housewife. I promise there's nothing shocking there even if the name is a little scary. The site has two meal plans for either a low cost week of meals or an extremely low cost week of meals. Being brave but only a little bit, we decided to try the $70 meal plan and see if we could learn anything about living a little lower on the hog.

I started by rediscovering Aldi, the no frills, bag your own groceries store that has the bad rap as being just for poor people. In spite of the fact that a lot more of us might BE poor people soon, I found that for basic ingredients, Aldi was full of many money saving items.

When I tried the $70 menu I also rediscovered another concept that I had gotten away from--sticking to the list! It was really hard that first time to walk by the chips, snacks, and packaged things like granola bars. My mind said, "But they're so inexpensive, I could just get a few anway." But I stuck to my guns & stuck to the list. My total was more like $80-something with the increased prices over the last year but all in all I thought it was pretty good. Our family had been spending close to $200/week on groceries and that's not even counting eating out. But could we really stick to it and do it?

What I discovered was that there is a LOT more food in that menu than we usually use. Since most of us are gone during the day I rarely cooked the lunches. Brent and I took leftovers to work with us and we ate well and heartily. I even discovered that the salmon patties were pretty tasty. For someone who doesn't like fish this was a revelation. About a week into this experiment my son said, "We've been eating some REALLY good food lately!" Yes, he really said that!

Since that first week on the $70 menu I have continued to make the Perfect Iced Tea every few days. I rarely bought soda before but I just don't buy it at all now. I didn't know I liked iced tea until I tried this. And I have made her Biscuits with amazing succes more than once! I have never ever been satisfied with any home made biscuits of my creation before; but these seem to work every time.

What I learned that week was that I already knew how to be a wise cook; but I had forgotten the art of menu planning and sticking to the list. Next time I'll share more about our specific "system" and how it's going for us. Also news about another money saving food find and how we are fitting it into the "system" and eating well while saving money!

Just Right

2009-03-24T17:30:00.002-04:00

Brent's Sweater
Originally uploaded by RiverKnits

I feel a little like Goldilocks. You remember the story of the Three Bears?

First I knit Brent a sweater that was TOO SMALL. (It's on the wall at River Knits - it's is lovely in every way with the perfect color of colonial blue and oatmeal with detailed stranded colorwork - except that it doesn't fit my husband.)

Then I knit Brent a sweater that was TOO BIG. It has cables that cross and meander all over the seed stitch textured background. It took at least 3 years of my life. I am not sure what happened. The gauge was ok, but when I blocked the pieces and put it all together, you could've put two Brent's in that sweater. All I could do was fall to the floor and try to stop laughing.

Last year I combined forces with another knitter to make a sweater for charity. It turned out nicely and Brent said, "Could I have one like that?" He must be the eternal optimist. Or maybe he just picked the perfect sweater.

Finally, I have knit Brent a sweater that is JUST RIGHT.

Culinary Creativity in the New Year

2009-01-10T18:16:00.004-05:00

Over the holidays we tried several new ways of creating new foods and herbal products. It all started with New Year's Eve, and champagne.

We each toasted, kissed, and drank a glass full of champagne while dancing in the New Year in our living room with an internet feed of Times Square...then Beth had an idea. She had always wanted to make vinegars for use on salads. Why not take the remaining champagne, add in frozen raspberries from this last summer's harvest basket that the Cooley Family Farm grew for us, plus herbs.

Beth decanting her Raspberry-Thyme Vinegar. recipe

It is good on salads, with a slightly sweet, mild taste. Add walnuts to the salad for a treat.

For more than a year now, we've co-owned two dairy cows at a local German Baptist farm. In return for paying for the upkeep and maintenance of the cows, we receive two gallons of organic raw milk each week. The cows have been giving approximately 4% butterfat...so there seems to be plenty of cream. Brent tried several, several times at making butter from this cream.

He finally was able to make a small amount, but decided the effort to make butter from the cream of 2 gallons of milk simply did not "churn out". The butter tasted a bit "barn-ey". We think the cream isn't heavy enough.

However, Brent redeemed himself by making an entire gallon of yogurt from the raw milk. It was really pretty easy. After bringing the milk to 190 F, allowing it to drop to 110 F. Then stirring in one cup of plain yogurt. Empty the yogurt spiked milk into clean jars and incubate around 90-100 F overnight (about 6-8 hours). The yogurt came out very well. I've been eating it with fruits and nuts for breakfast.

Our daughter, Colleen, decided on a unique science project for school. Having tasted chocolate cake made with beets (and liking it), she wondered how people would respond to an offer to taste beet chocolate cake A) if they didn't know it was made with beets, B) if they did know it was made with beets, and C) how many liked it after tasting it from each group. Her results show that fewer people wanted to taste it if they knew it was made from beets, however nearly 100% of taste testers said they liked it. What a culinary rebel she is!

We even decided to try our hand at making natural cosmetics and bath salts. We made astringents, creams, moisturizers, and aftershave. I don't think we've come close to a marketable product, but it was fun trying out our ideas. Here is a photo of us with our youngest daughter, who helped out in the production of the cosmetics.

So, we've set the stage for the New Year - rejoice and follow our inclinations to experience, try things out, pursue the things we cherish and love to do, and follow our hearts supporting each other along the journey.

Cheers!

Creativity

2008-12-24T14:05:00.004-05:00

There are so many creative things happening at our house right now!

Brent is knitting me a sock.

Rhianna made a journal.

Colleen knitted a scarf...

Then started a hat too.

Brent tried to make butter,

but we all thought it tasted like a barn. (I think he'll tell you more about it later.)

Wes' biggest challenge has been using his new driver's license while learning to use a stick shift,

but he's getting better every day.

The Jeopardy Answer: "YES!"

The Final Jeopardy Question: Are we having fun yet?

Good From the Earth Medley

2008-12-10T22:10:00.001-05:00

It was a busy evening. Our daughter's band concert was awesome on this weekday evening, but it meant most of us were hungry after returning home at 8pm. If you've been following our blog, you know we have been cooking and eating local foods for as many of our meals as possible. We had also just picked up earlier today our winter harvest basket from the Cooley Family Farm.

So, I got creative and used one or more of just about everything from the winter basket for a late evening meal. Everyone said "this is the best thing you've ever cooked!" Well, gosh, that doesn't happen very often (maybe they were just really hungry?). So this is my first "recipe" I've ever written down that I came up with *under pressure*.

Brent's Good From the Earth Medley.

1 onion chopped
2-3 garlic cloves minced
1-2 carrots chopped small
3-4 fresh potatoes - chop bite size
1 turnip - chop bite size
1-2 beets - chop bite size
1-2 celery stalk - chopped
1 small bunch Kale - cut up
4 T olive or peanut oil
1 T sesame oil
2-3 dashes cayenne
salt + pepper
shot of rice vinegar or other vinegar

note: any combination of root vegetables you have on hand will work.
Variation: you can add small amount of scrambled eggs to this for more protein.

Warm skillet over medium heat, add 1-2T oil, add onions, add garlic. cook until light golden.
Add carrots - cook 3-4 min.
Add potatoes, turnip, beets. Add remaining oil. salt + pepper. cook 5 min.
Add celery. add 1/2 cup warm water. Stir. place lid on to steam for 5 min. Stir
Add sesame oil, cayenne. cook until veges tender. stirring to prevent sticking
Add chopped Kale, shot of vinegar, and steam for 2-3 min.

Sprinkle Cheddar cheese over all. enjoy. yum.

One Week Getaway + Vow Renewal = Best Vacation Ever!

2008-11-16T16:59:00.018-05:00

Brent and I had an anniversary in October. It wasn't a 10th or a 15th or any of the usual "big" years. But we felt like it was time to mark that special day in a big way. We loved our real wedding ceremony which was informal and outdoors on the edge of Otterbein Lake at Brent's grandparents' home. But we felt that we would like to have the experience of getting all dressed up and reminding each other that we would be happy to do it all over again. So we did!

We planned a week long getaway to the Smoky Mountains. I told everyone how excited I was and I don't think anyone really understood why. Brent and I had never spent a week alone ever. I already had kids when we got married and it just never seemed like something we could do. We didn't mind this but we started thinking that maybe it was time. So we lined up grandparents and wrote out schedules. I found great helpers to watch River Knits for the week. And with much excitement, we headed south! Before we left Brent had secretly put a new message on our car. It took me a while to catch on.

We planned a lunch time stop in Berea, Kentucky and ate at the unique little restaurant called Papa Leno's. I never knew that it was possible for garlic bread to be called decadent, but this was before I had eaten at Papa Leno's! If you are ever driving by Berea, treat yourself to lunch there and find out why.

While in Berea we saw that there was a solar tour of homes going on. We didn't have time to take the tour but we did stroll around the EcoVillage on the campus of Berea College. This is what apartment living should be like!

We finally went on our way towards the Smokies, made our way through the bewildering assemblage of carnival like tourist traps that make up Pigeon Forge to find our cabin, the Snuggy Bug. We laughed that the Snuggy Bug was really a lot like our own house. Who else drives two states away to stay in a house that is a lot like home? Apparently we do anyway!

The Snuggy Bug was advertised as being a one bedroom cabin in wooded setting. This was a little bit of a misnomer since it was really a one ROOM cabin. It did show us that you can do a lot of living in a small space. The open beams in the ceiling made it feel spacious and open even though it was about the size of our living room. We loved it!

One of the first things we were looking forward to was our vow renewal. Amanda and Michelle had helped me pick out a beautiful dress. I even had something borrowed--Amanda's cashmere shawl! --to go with the something old, new and blue. I had a true Tennessee experience by having my hair done at a local salon. While I was there Brent rented a tux, bought flowers and waited patiently. It was really fun to have my hair done fancy, but I was really looking forward to seeing my handsome man in a tux. I wasn't disappointed!

Our vow renewal ceremony was simple and short but left me with misty eyes and an overflowing heart. We have a (not digital) picture taken by the photographer that I love. Brent and I are facing each other and he is looking at me with a smile and holding my chin as if he is about to kiss me. There is a special sparkle in that picture that sums up my feelings about our special day.

After our vow renewal ceremony we ate a delicious meal at a neat little restaurant called the Greenbrier Inn. It was a lodge for travelers long ago, but is now a restaurant overlooking the mountains. Brent found a description in a travel brochure, or we would never have found it since it was at the end of a dead end road that looked like it went no where. I surprised Brent by eating every bit of an enormous steak. The food was good, but the company was better! We strolled around Gatlinburg that evening in our fancy clothes. Well wishers cheered us on and newlyweds held up their new rings in a sign of solidarity. We didn't care that we had been married for years; it felt exhilarating. I especially enjoyed knowing that my husband cared enough to do it all again, and in some ways, for the first time.

The rest of the week was as leisurely and decadent as we could make it. We ate at the Applewood Farmhouse Restaurant not once but twice because we just couldn't stay away from the apple fritters with fresh applebutter. We toured the Great Smoky Mountain National Park--from Cade's Cove

to Clingman's Dome.

We stepped on the Applachian trail just to say we did.

In fact Brent jumped the Appalachian Trail...

We took a sky lift up the mountains, and I bought a pair of new shoes (that will show off handknit socks of course).

We decided we've seen enough of old farm settlements that are designed to recreate history though. We're ready to blend the best of the old fashioned ways, with the best of the new, so we can do it ourselves! So I made Brent promise that this stop at this farm recreation by the welcome center on the North Carolina side was the last time we really need to see how they farmed in the 1800's. We've seen it all, in every state we've ever been in, and really we've started to figure out that we already know all that stuff and more. How much corn do you really need to look at anyway?

My favorite thing we saw was the Motor Nature Trail, a winding one lane trip through rather dense forest. We saw ruins of old cabins,

dense forest,

primeval mountain streams

and even 3 bears!

All too soon our week was over and it was time to come home. As we headed north, looking forward to seeing our kids and thinking about what a great time we had, we realized that we were getting hungry. We figured we were pretty close to Berea again so the pull of Papa Leno's breadsticks guided our car into town once again. We were pretty used to being decadent by then, so it was an easy choice!

We were of course glad to be home but we returned a little different from when we left. We were happier, lighter, and we knew more than ever that we have something very special. Most of all we knew that we won't wait 11 years to do it again!

Sustainability Tour

2008-09-30T10:55:00.002-04:00

Last week we journeyed to Stelle, IL, a small cluster of homes about 100 miles from Lafayette. A group of folks in Stelle started an effort known as Center for Sustainable Community. They teamed up with the University of Illinois to offer a one day tour of sustainable agriculture and permaculture examples. Beth is shown in front of a herd of sheep that are rotationally grazed on land that borders Stelle. We had an interesting time herding the sheep to a new grazing paddock.

Later we toured the Stelle community gardens, poutlry flock, and orchard. Shown in the second photo is a solar food dryer. The goal of CSC is to provide sustainable alternatives for living. It was good for us to view first hand some of the practices, and we realized that we can do many of these practices ourselves. Mostly it was a great day for Beth and I to be together and learn new ideas for our own Big Good!

Enjoying the Wabash River

2008-09-30T10:45:00.004-04:00

In mid-August we joined with other NICHES landtrust members and canoed 16 miles of the Wabash River between Granville Bridge and Attica, IN. The day was beautiful. We stopped for lunch along Black Rock (picture). Prior to English settlement, Black Rock was an important strategic lookout for the Native Americans living in this area. It is now protected as part of the holding of the NICHES landtrust. After lunch we paddled down to the town of Attica. Along the way we spotted four eagles. We also marveled at the many small shacks and campers dotting the south bank of the river. Almost every spot had people camping out, fishing, or boating, and enjoying the summer and the river. Taking this canoe trip helped us realize the beauty of the river and the great natural areas that are near to us. Supporting efforts like NICHES helps to ensure that unique natural lands are protected, and made available for the public to enjoy.

Gloom, Despair and Agony on Me.

2008-09-10T16:00:00.006-04:00

(Did anyone else grow up watching Hee-Haw?)

If you've been following this blog at all you know that Brent & I were really hoping to be able to buy "the land" in Warren County along Independence Road. We were working with NICHES, who was going to get help from the Indiana Heritage Trust, and they were going to get the woods & creek areas & sell us the home site & barn. It was all working GREAT and looked like the deal was a-go! Until NICHES called the owners in Iowa; and found out that they had sold the land the week before. We were in a fog for a while and could hardly believe it. We really thought we had everything on our side on this one. But I guess it was not meant to be.

About the same time we killed our camera on a WONDERFUL canoe trip on the Wabash. Unfortunately we can't show you the pictures because they are still on the camera and we don't have a way to read them until we get a new camera or borrow someone's card reader.

We have been kind of glum & in recovery for the last couple of weeks. But we are trying to consider other ideas and put out more feelers about new possibilities. We went to the library and looked up the county planning officials & building inspectors in surrounding counties and Brent has been calling them. So far we've learned that the Vermillion County folks would LOVE to have someone build a strawbale house in their county and they were nearly beside themselves with joy when Brent called to ask about it. I guess they don't get a lot of inquiries about people wanting to move their direction. The White County official had concerns about fire so we would have some educating to do if we found land there.

But isn't that really the big question?! Where can we find land? We're back on the quest. If you hear of anyone who would like to sell 5-10 acres with meadow or pasture, some woods and maybe adjoining a creek, pond or river, we want to know!

Tastes Great

2008-08-26T19:44:00.005-04:00

We feasted yesterday on a locally produced broiler chicken, with local carrots, onions, and green beans. Early this Spring we took a pledge to attempt to eat half of our food from local sources (within 100 miles of our home). We believe we've been attaining this goal. Our harvest basket from the Cooley CSA provides us with almost all of our vegetables and greens. We have been getting apples, peaches, and tomatoes from my parents' place. We picked blueberries at Prelock's, and strawberries from friends Sharon and Tom. Our milk comes from a local German Baptist farm, and for the most part our meat is also from local small farms. Our bees we'll give an update soon...we still don't know how well or not well they are doing.

As much as possible we've been canning and freezing excess for eating this winter. It has NOT been difficult. We have enjoyed learning and trying out various techniques and recipes. We spend very little time or money in the grocery store, and more time at the wonderful Sagamore West Farmers Market in West Lafayette.

One of our goals is to raise a good part of our own food on our small farm, starting with Beef calves and chickens.

Wilderness Man No More!

2008-08-26T19:15:00.004-04:00

Letting go of things that hold us back help free that space in our lives to be real, new, imaginative, and see life with new vigor. For me it is time, finally, to move beyond the stigma of being known as the local wilderness man, primitive living expert, etc. In the mid 90's for a few years, I lived a mostly primitive lifestyle in the woodlands near the Great Lakes. I did this for many reasons, some seemingly noble, but some because I was also running from my own fears and emotional hurts. The skills I gained from this period are perhaps still good to know...like making a fire by friction methods, or medicine plants, building a shelter, etc. But being known primarily as "the guy who lived in the woods" is not a good thing....especially since this is not who I am today.

Coming to grips with all of this, I decided to rid my life of all the primitive "trappings" I gathered and have held on to for more than 10 years. I put them in a huge pile (except a few items we are selling on ebay for helping with land fund and farmer's market fun money), and gleefully burned them. I think it might be the biggest fire I've burned in 10 years. Ah, the release. The new freedom. I'm no longer wilderness man! Instead, I'm really marching forward with Beth on the Big Good Path.

As we locate items in our lives, we decide if they are useful or meaningful to us. If not, they are getting ebayed, given away, or tossed out....or even burned!

Ebay for the Big Good!

2008-08-19T15:06:00.008-04:00

What do an old wedding ring, a fetal doppler, a fraternity pin and a birthing stool have in common? They are all things from earlier eras of our lives that have needed to be let go.

You probably have a place like that too; a box, a closet, a shelf, maybe even a whole room. A place you don't want to go because you'd rather not think about what is in there. You close the door, the things in there get dusty or moldy and time moves on. But one day you realize that you really need to take a look, push aside the dust, and let go.

That's what we've been doing. Beth sold her birth stool, some midwifery textbooks, and her doppler. It was kind of hard both emotionally and physically to crawl into the closet under the basement stairway to sort out these things and send them out into the world where someone can use them again. But it felt great to turn what had become leftovers from another era of my life, into extra funds for the land quest. Just yesterday I took the final box to another local midwife for her to "redistribute" to other aspiring midwives.

Brent had delved into his unopened boxes & bins too. First to go--his first wedding ring. That put money into his pocket that he traded at the farmer's market for the the sweetest apple cider I've ever tasted and the most expensive chicken he's ever bought in his life. He said it was a good trade.

Next he sold a fraternity membership pin on ebay. The money from that has put lunch money in our son's pocket, bought us lunch yesterday at a cute little cafe we found just down the road from "the land," as well as sundaes at the Frozen Custard; AND he still has some in his wallet for this week's farmer's market.

So a new endeavor is set in motion. You could call it "Ebay for the Big Good." We're going to keep purging the things that we don't need anymore but that for some reason we have held onto. If it brings us a little cash in hand that we can trade for good local food and fun, all the better. If it gives us a lot then we'll put it in our land fund. If it brings us nothing other than peace of mind, we'll send it out into the world anyway and be glad that we're really moving on.

"You think by now we’d be a little further on
For all this tumbling we’ve been through...
I feel like I’m finally getting closer to you."
--Carrie Newcomer

Eating Locally - High Summer

2008-08-14T20:38:00.008-04:00

It's the time of year when it would be hard NOT to eat locally.

We realized everything on our plates at this meal was local! An heirloom melon, broccoli and "Slaw Chez Nous" (from the cookbook Laurel's Kitchen)all from Cooley Family Farm. Plus my favorite Indiana summer time sweet corn; this bunch was the best I've had all year (and I consider myself a tough critic on that topic!)

In addition to the fresh local abundance that fills our table, we are having fun working on our early spring goal to preserve as much local goodness as possible to take us through the winter. In addition to the early strawberries (jam & frozen), we now have blueberries (also jam & frozen), early transparent apples (sauce that really is more like apple butter because we cooked it down a little too much), and our first attempt at tomato sauce. This was easier than I thought it would be. We're planning a 2nd sauce production run this weekend.

I used what didn't go in the jars to make a never-the-same meal from what I like to call my "Cooking for Poor People" cookbook. It is really a booklet I got when I took a class sponsored by Purdue Extension as a part of a WIC program years ago. The most useful recipe in it is really more of a formula for using what is on hand. When what is on hand is fresh and wonderful, it is even better!

In addition to tomatoes, we got a sack full of green beans, some crisp winter apples and a bag full of peaches at Brent's Mom & Dad's. The green beans will get canned and if the peaches ripen successfully in a paper bag, some slices will go in the freezer. We picked the peaches a little early to save them from the Japanese beetles. I thought we would store the apples, but they seem to just be getting eaten right now, which is all the better.

Natural Building with Straw Bales

2008-08-14T20:12:00.004-04:00

One of our dreams is to build our own home using natural materials that provide energy efficiency, beauty, and elegant design, while allowing us to become mortgage free all in one. We spent two July weekends in a row near Kankakee, Illinois learning the nuances of using straw bales and earthen plasters for walls of building. The workshop was organized by Center for Sustainable Community in Stelle, IL.

The structure was a small guest/play house. It took much more labor and attention to detail than I had previously imagined. The bales of straw, once baled and dry, are stacked like large building blocks. The finished wall can provide up to R40 insulation value and this greatly reduces the need for mechanical heating and cooling systems of a building.

Here Beth is shaving a straw bale using a weed whacker to carve a depression so that the straw bale will fit the corner bracing. There was much attention to detail in terms of making sure that all crevices and gaps between the courses of bales were completely plugged.

This is a photo of Brent using earthen plaster to coat the inside walls. The walls will need two main coats and a final plaster coat. With 16 people in the straw bale workshop and the structure being only 13 x 15 there was plenty to do, but sometimes not enough room for everyone to get involved. We learned a lot about plasters and getting a solid, straight, strong wall using straw bales.

An nice benefit to the straw bale workshops is that Beth and I camped at the nearby Kankakee River State Park (sans kids). We ate a lot of good food, rode our bikes, explored the river banks, and greatly enjoyed our company together.

Independence Day Black Raspberry Cobbler

2008-07-05T20:59:00.006-04:00

A day before Independence Day, we made our way along Independence Road toward a place we are beginning to call "The Land"; an abandoned farmstead from the early 1900's. In our search for a place to grow, where we can swing into full tilt on our sustainable living plans, we discovered this hidden jewel. We had set out on our little journey to hike the pasture, and the woods that borders the pasture. We were elated to discover that in just about every nook of the farm, wild black raspberries flourished. Along with apples, strawberries, and blueberries to pick and preserve for the year, we very much wanted to find a good spot to pick raspberries for pies, jams, and such.

As we gobbled these small orbs of royal purple sweetness, we decided to pick enough to make a cobbler. We shared "Independence Black Raspberry Cobbler" with family on Independence Day. We also really hope things work out for us to secure "The Land" and we are saying our affirmations regularly.

Our hike through the pasture was enlightening, and I could envision cows grazing, chickens ranging, and deer nibbling at the edge. The soil smelled sweet, and the grass was healthy and chest high. We took a path into the woods to a rocky point above a creek that rushed on its way to the great Wabash River less than a mile away. Here on this overlook we had a great picnic break listening to the water and birds among the great oaks. Are we jinxing ourselves to want something too much that isn't ours? We can see ourselves making our home in this place, resurrecting the old farm and mixing in an elegant new production of food, spirit, and love. The owners are visiting here soon to make a decision about selling, so please cross your fingers and send good vibes for us!

Blow up yur t.v.

2008-06-30T16:25:00.003-04:00

"Blow up yur t.v., move ta tha country, eat a lotta peaches, try n find Jesus on yor own"...ok, I like John Prine songs. We didn't technically blow up our t.v., but I did call our cable company last week to cancel our service. Mainly because we simply don't watch t.v. and thought we could save $50 a month by canceling. The kicker is that we do use the internet service that the cable company provides. Well, before I hung up the phone, they had me signed up for 12 months of digital channels plus internet for $3 more than it would have been if we only payed for internet service.

Long story, but once I contacted the local cable office I found out about some hidden expenses, and canceled it right on the spot...but got the internet for quite a bit less than the national office quoted. Media expenses such as newspapers, magazines, cable t.v., internet service, cell phone service, data download for cell phone, i-tunes....when added up together it spells expensive! We are trying our best to cancel services we simply don't use, or don't need, while having the ability to stay "connected" to the larger world and network of people and ideas. So, today I am using our internet service to work from home (not commuting, saving gas). This gives me the ability to see my family, take a break to take a walk, play a game of basketball, eat home cooked local food, and still get everything done for my employer.

Eating Locally: Preserving Eggs?

2008-06-30T15:29:00.005-04:00

We have discovered that when you have 14 of these:

you get about a dozen eggs a day. This time of year anyway!

Brent & I were talking about what we ought to do with our surfeit of eggs and he suggested we find some ways to preserve them for the time of year when we won't have so many.

As I do in most situations I turned to Carla Emery's Encyclopedia of Country Living. Carla confirmed that hens lay more eggs in March through June than the rest of the year combined; that we can expect a shortage in December and January and a glut in the spring & early summer. She had a lot of recipes for pickling eggs and also suggested turning extra eggs into egg noodles. I haven't been adventurous enough to try the pickled egg recipes although the egg noodles sound good.

We were really interested in how we could just use the eggs as eggs later in the year. Drying them sounded drawn out & involved. Rubbing them in grease & packing in salt had its merit but we were lacking a five gallon bucket of salt. Freezing got our vote as the easiest method we could try because we alraedy had everything we needed.

Carla says to break them and mix them together without really whipping them. Then add either 1 T. of sugar or 1/2 tsp. of salt to each cup of whole eggs. Freeze them and label them as to whether they are intended to be used in sweet or salty recipes later. Another idea was to freeze them in ice cube trays and consider each cube to be about equivalent to half an egg. That sounded easy to me!

And it was--until it was time to get them OUT of the trays! Cracking an ice cube tray of eggs is nothing like cracking an ice cube tray of ice. Cracking is really a misnomer because they didn't want to "crack" at all. It was like having an ice cube tray full of jello.

Brent finally figured out a method involving hot water and force to get the egg cubes dislodged!

Now we have a dozen frozen "sweet" eggs. Tonight we'll try "salty." Until the excess in our fridge goes down a bit we'll keep experimenting with egg preservation methods.

I guess we can't tell you how it works out until our shortage season begins. Barring any chicken massacres or catastrophes, we'll give a full report on our preserved eggs come December!

Eating Locally: Strawberries!

2008-06-20T19:17:00.005-04:00

Our friends Tom & Sharon picked a GREAT week to go on vacation--the week their strawberries all ripened! Sure, we offered to pick some while they were gone. After all, what are friends for?

As it turned out, Brent ended up being the one with time to pick while I was away at the TNNA trade show, and again later in the week between the many rain storms. Once the berries were home, I got in on the action too.

We made 2 batches of regular strawberry jam and 1 batch sweetened with honey. The honey recipe was from Stocking Up. We haven't tried any of the honey jam yet, so we don't know how it tastes, but it made our house smell deliciously sweet.

We also froze several quart bags full for winter time smoothies, pies, and crisps. Not counting the rhubarb crisp we made or the many strawberries that we just ate out of the bowl this is what we ended up with after the first session.

Next quest: black raspberries! Does anyone know of a great spot for picking them?

Proposal: Ecological & Cultural Resilience for People and Local Communities.

2008-06-06T23:51:00.002-04:00

Recently I decided to write down what I would do as right livelihood if money/funding was not an issue. This is what I wrote down:

Learning and teaching toward the goal of how we as individuals, communities, and society can live whole, fulfilled lives with the smallest ecological footprint possible. (Does not presuppose sustaining the way we live now). This means outreach and education on issues, skills, capacity, knowledge, and life-cycle thinking regarding ecologically and culturally sustainable living. Helping to enable people to do what they can now, but also to take the long view and work toward the above goal. The primary focus will be on what individuals can do to transition lifestyles, with ties to how communities can support the move toward non-destructive, ecologically resilient living. The effort would incorporate current and growing knowledge of permaculture design, sustainable low-input rural and urban agriculture, local food systems, sustainable housing, indigenous knowledge and appropriate technology. The effort would have equal emphasis on cultural aspects including cultivating awareness and stewardship values, bridging ecology and religion, supporting right livelihoods, and incorporating valuable ecological literature and ties with the liberal arts; all of which lead to grounding people in the place where they live in order to understand who they are and how best to treat each other and the earth.

Why? Many signs point to ecological and societal collapse…if we continue our current course. But, even if the “Big Bad” doesn’t happen, we should be compelled to embark on the path to discover ways of living that are ecologically and culturally resilient. We are in an ecological and spiritual crisis. We must start asking the questions: “what are people for?, and how shall we live such that we don’t destroy the place where we live?”. Everyone can make small changes that make a big difference collectively. Making more money, having more stuff, and conquering more lands and cultures hasn’t done it.

Audience? Primary audience will be bio-regional – the Lower Great Lakes, Upper Midwest bioregion at the largest scale, but starting within our own local community first and doing these things in my own family. Local communities and watersheds, organizations, groups, and individuals for personal contact within approx. 150 mile radius of home...but could consider providing some assistance nationally via Web and distance learning. Possible inclusion into local courses.

How? Organize learning communities and people networks, workshop sessions, seminars, conferences, demonstration projects, Web, phone, possible in-person for homeowner solutions. Would partner with other specialists and organizations with ties to the above mission (local university, Midwest Permaculture Institute in IL, National Appropriate Technology Transfer for Rural Areas, The Land Institute, Institute for Local Self-Reliance, etc) .

Eating Locally

2008-06-06T23:39:00.002-04:00

We decided some time back to earnestly begin to obtain as much of our food as feasible from local sources. We signed the 50% Local Foods Pledge with the Earth Charter Indiana. I was thinking about how much of our food is coming from local sources (produced within 100 miles of our house). About 90% of meat we eat is now coming from local sources. About 75% of vegetables. Our milk is coming from a local small dairy. We raise our own chickens and eat and sell their eggs. We will be picking and preserving local fruits this summer such as strawberries, apples, blueberries, and raspberries (if we can find enough), and the odd wild plant harvest, etc. With our bees we will eventually have honey and other products. Mushroom production is also planned. It would be great to locate a local small grains producer for oats and such. Eating healthy can mean eating locally!

The Quest is On!

2008-06-03T13:18:00.007-04:00

As you know, Brent and I are looking for land to build an energy independent home. This weekend found ourselves with some free time on a beautiful Saturday. A rare treat! So we decided that we would take a meandering course through Warren County, writing down descriptions of any properties that caught our eye. With notebook, gazetteer, camera and picnic lunch in hand, we set out.

Getting just a few miles west of our current home we noticed that things changed almost immediately. The pace was slower; the roads more winding. At one point Brent said, "I feel my blood pressure is just lower here." We followed the river and took as many dead end roads as we could find. I said I would keep my eyes open for abandoned houses, never guessing we would see quite so many of them as we did!

All in all we saw three abandoned houses that seemed to be part of old farms. Two appeared to be part of small tracts of land and possibly not quite right for our particular quest. But one seemed to capture our attention.

We were driving down Independence Road and I saw a dilapidated mailbox. I looked over my shoulder as we drove past and saw an overgrown lane and a house with broken windows. We decided to turn around and look more closely. We drove up the lane slowly, afraid we were driving onto a property where someone lived and might not enjoy the intrusion. But the overgrown front porch and broken upstairs windows gave us courage that no one was there.

We found an old farm with a rolling pasture and a barn that looked in pretty decent shape. A door on the barn blew in the wind and scared me for a minute. But we saw that the electric meter was not turning so we felt that we were right in our first impression that no one lived on the site. The house looked in very bad shape though because the upper windows were broken out and the ceiling looked to be peeling and possibly caving in due to being open to the elements. It was hard to really tell from the outside. The only sign of activity on the place seemed to be some 4-wheeler tracks in the pasture. I guess an abandoned secluded farm would be a magnet for teenagers looking for a place to have fun with no adult oversight. Who could blame them?

We followed the tracks a bit and looked out over the rolling pasture. The sky was blue and the white puffy clouds moved along as the tall grass in the pasture waved. I felt not only the thrill of fear that came with wondering if the owner would burst out of the barn asking who we thought we were to be on his land but also a deeper sense of excitement that maybe a place like this could be our spot. The place we could come to love and make our own. We took a few pictures and wrote down the address in the old mailbox to look up against the plat book that we had ordered but hadn't yet arrived. We decided that there couldn't be a better place to go Mortgage-Free than "Independence Road."

We continued to follow the winding roads closest to creeks and "dead end" roads until we found ourselves at our lunch spot - the Potholes. This Nature Conservancy owned property is one of the hidden gems near our home. Fall Creek has created "potholes" in the stone below the creek, and it can be really fun to hike in to the waterfall by walking up the creek and sometimes falling into the "potholes." It being early in the summer we weren't sure it was quite warm enough for that, so we just hiked in on the path, which was really muddy. I noticed the people leaving before us had very muddy seats on their shorts. I found out why when we got onto the path!

Ignoring the "*no everything" signs, we waded over to a place on the stone embankment in the dappled shade near the waterfall. We enjoyed a picnic lunch of black bean salad and Brent's special avocado sandwiches, his own unique invention, followed by some super-delicious date bars. It really couldn't have been much better. A few people were wading and swimming in the water. After we had our food, we found a sunny rock in the middle of the creek where we sat until we were very hot and enjoyed cooling off by wading in the icy water again. We hiked back out and found our car almost blocked in by some folks with kayaks in their truck. Lucky for us, living at the top of a hill has honed our ability to back out of tight spots, so we found ourselves driving through the farm fields & winding roads once again.

We learned that two sports bottles of water are not quite enough on a hot day. We learned that the pop machines in Independence only take quarters and we only had one. We decided we didn't really need a corn syrup soda anyway. We learned that the outhouses in Cicott are open this time of year, and that is a really glorious thing. And we learned that black bean salad tastes even better on the banks of a waterfall.

When we finally got our plat book in the mail we found that the property we visited is owned by someone named Eve Refshauge who is not listed in the local phone book. We found that Eve Refshauge owns quite a bit of land in Warren County. If anyone reading this post happens to know Eve Refshauge or her family or how to contact them, we would love to find out if they are at all amenable to selling the property on Independence Road. If anyone reading this is from Warren County and has any information about this family and how to contact them, we would love to hear from you!
*********************************************************************************

*Footnote Regarding the "no everything" signs:
I think that posting signs saying "no swimming, no picnicking, no rock climbing, no breathing, etc." really serves to negate the whole concept of fostering a love of the natural world. A love of the natural world is developed by being a part of it. People need to be able to touch, feel and get dirty. I understand that the Nature Conservancy wants to preserve the spot and so do I. I think people will want to preserve it when they love it; and they love it by participating in it. A sign that said, "Please pack out anything you bring in; leave the place better than you found it; and swim and climb at your own risk - no lifeguard on duty" would be better suited to influencing people to follow the rules and enjoy the natural setting appropriately. As it is everyone knows that the posted rules are only good for ignoring.

Many Hands Make Light Work

2008-06-03T10:55:00.004-04:00

While we are looking for land, we are also taking care of the home we already live in. We have needed to paint the house for a few years now but have put it off; it just sounded like too much work and we didn't think we could stomach the idea of paying someone else to do it. It was just easier not to think about it for another summer or two. But alas we have discovered that denial doesn't really help anything very much, large or small, so it was time to paint!

We had a family meeting, got all the kids on board, and decided that maybe we could just do it! We decided to put some money in each kid's sharebuilder account and give everyone a little summer spending money. Balancing my need not to let it drag on all summer with our need to relax and play a bit sounded like a big task. But it hasn't been bad at all. We started on Memorial Day weekend. The kids had things to go to in the evenings with their friends, and we had leisurely mornings sleeping in. We put in about 4 hours each day and did a section at a time. We worked a few evenings during the week following the holiday weekend. And we're almost DONE! We have one section of house left to do as well as all the decks.

The best part is that we discovered that we COULD work together, no one was upset (except for a few occasional concerns from the girls about spiders--an issue that is not restricted to painting as far as they are concerned!), and we've saved the $5,000+ that it would've cost to have someone else paint the house.

It felt great to work together and put into practice the idea that "many hands make light work." Often our approach has been to "divide and conquer" thinking that getting tasks done separately was more efficient. Maybe it was efficient but I'm sure it wasn't more fun.

Working together is a way that we build connection and experience joy. I didn't think that painting a house would be "fun," but I've had a wonderful time being with my family and working on things together. I have renewed hope that as we round this corner at home & in the wider world, that the answer does lie in togetherness; supporting each other and enjoying the work that lies ahead.

Cultivating "practical" lifeskills

2008-05-30T12:31:00.007-04:00

Having previously lived for 2-3 years in the 1990’s a hunter-gatherer lifestyle (using less than $1,000 a year to live) in the northern Great Lakes area, I understand the benefits and the disadvantages of living a very sparse primitive lifestyle. I’ve also, like many Americans, been privy to a very opulent lifestyle where almost anything we want we can have. Part of pursuing the Big Good is about better understanding who we are, what is our purpose here on Earth, and to understand where we are in terms of the place we live. As we develop this understanding, Beth and I are also seeking a way of combining the wisdom and knowledge of different lifestyles from indigenous living, to homesteading, while incorporating appropriate technology in how we live.

In a recent book titled PowerDown by Richard Heinberg, the author writes, “We are in deep trouble, and it is essential we understand the nature of the trouble we are in.” Heinberg offers four scenarios or “…options available to us as a species during the next century.” I’ve been thinking about these four scenarios quite a lot over the past year. Somehow we want to be a part of option #4, while contributing to option #2.

Options for the Future:

#1. Last One Standing – The Way of War and Competition

(The “default” scenario if nothing changes from the present situation). A) Resource Wars: increased fatal competition for limited resources; B) widespread economic hardship and income disparity; C) destruction of infrastructure; military funding a priority while social welfare funding reduced.

#2. Powerdown – The Path of Self-Limitation, Cooperation, and Sharing

(What would happen if the Kyoto and Uppsala Protocols were adopted and implemented?) A)Coordinated global efforts toward cooperation and conservation; B) a cultural shift away from overconsumption of resources toward self-limitation; C) massive government and economic reforms; D) community solidarity rather than personal accumulation of wealth.

#3. Waiting for the Magic Elixir – False Hopes, Wishful thinking and Denial

(Plan Snooze: continued denial of “the Problem” in hopes that it will take care of itself): A) technological quick-fixes address the symptoms, not root causes; B) alternative hydrocarbon sources have serious problems; C) the Hydrogen economy is more a product of politics than science; D) continued distraction from the underlying problem of overconsumption

#4. Building Lifeboats – The Path of Community Solidarity and Preservation

(If the collapse of industrial society is unavoidable what can we do?) A) consider the long-term carrying capacity of environments in planning; B) create cultural preservation centers for education; C) cultivate “practical” life-skills; D) reconnect with cycles of the natural world.

Yurt Weekend Getaway

2008-05-25T17:24:00.000-04:00

We arrived at Mary Rose Herb Farm after a relaxing drive listening to Going to the Country and enjoying the vibrant yellow wildflowers standing in the fields. The yellow was so vivid it nearly made my eyes hurt, in a good way. After getting off the beaten path we found our destination and felt delighted to finally be in our little round hideaway. Our host left us to move in for the weekend and we sat on one of the beds to relax and think about what to do next. We didn't have a minute to decide because the front leg of the bed collapsed underneath us! Really--we were just sitting there. We laughed and laughed until finally Brent had the courage to call and tell the owners that we really needed to move into the other yurt because we needed a sturdier bed. (!) Our host told us there had been some "young whippersnappers" in the yurt with the broken bed. We chuckled and hoped we might still qualify for that description.

We made a delicious dinner of shish-kabobs on our little charcoal grill with a fresh salad sans dressing (because we forgot to bring any.) The beef was from Thistle-Byre Farm and the salad greens were from the Cooleys. We thought it was pretty close to perfect, even without salad dressing.
The rain held off long enough that we could eat outside on the deck looking across the winding road to the most lovely cow pasture I've ever seen. If I were a cow I'd want to live on that hill. I think the little calves who liked to run down the hill in groups must've agreed with me. It looked like great fun.

Time seemed to unfold. What is usually gone in the flash of an eye, an evening, turned into what felt like a whole day. Our weekend in the yurt became a world unto itself while the “real” world felt like a foggy dream. I thought that I could understand how Morgaine stayed with the fairies for years while it only seemed like days. I could easily have stayed there with Brent forever and felt like it was the only life I had ever known.

That night we got our wish - we got to sleep under the moon.

Breakfast was announced with the ringing of an old farm bell. Then it was delivered by our host in a cloth-lined basket. We had hashbrown casserole, sliced tomatoes, and a yogurt, fruit and granola cup with hot tea the first day. We ate every bite. Our host asked how we were enjoying our stay and said of Brent, “Well you have a smile on your face.” I thought that said it all.

Another amenity at Mary Rose Herb Farm is a Japanese soaking tub heated by an outdoor woodfired furnace, which incidentally also heats the yurts and the hot water at the owners' home. This tub was deep and warm but not too hot. We took daytime dips and even a night time dip that involved running as quickly as possible through stinging cold rain and escaping into the heat of the warm, steamy water. I think everyone should have one of these things. Isn't Brent cute?

We enjoyed a hike through the woods and hills to a spot by a little lake where we sat for hours and talked. Alas we didn't take a camera so we have only memories of that spot. We engaged in a very thorough tick inspection upon our return to the yurt.
(And I must say I’ve finally found an insect that likes Brent better than it likes me!)

Later that day we took a drive into St. Meinrad to walk around the grounds of St. Meinrad Archabbey. We saw a group of boy scouts camping on the berm of a little lake and we walked to a shrine in the woods. We ate Klondike bars from the little gas station/grocery store, (where we also picked up some salad dressing). An anonymous photographer seemed to be taking our picture as we walked along holding hands. So if you happen to see a picture of a happy couple walking along the bank of a little lake at St. Meinrad, it is probably us!

We also returned to Monte Cassino, a little shrine we had visited on a trip to this area a few years ago. Even though Brent and I don't know much about Catholic shrines, this seems like a special place to us. We lit a candle and said a prayer about getting our land. Seems like that is small potatoes compared to averting a small pox epidemic. So we figured it couldn't hurt. :-)

Back at the yurt, we had yet another delicious feast. Cleaver Farms pork chops and another incredible salad (WITH dressing!), applesauce and couscous. What a feast! All the more so because we are used to cooking for 5. We were astonished by just how little we needed for only us. We ate our fill and felt the satisfaction of good food, good company and a being immersed in a lovely place.

The only cause for worry during our trip came when we were enjoying the last of our meal in front of a cozy fire in the chiminea. We saw the flashing lights of EMT vehicles pulling into the drive of the owners' house. Eventually an abulance took someone away. We walked to the house to see what we could learn and found that our host had collapsed in the garden but was stable when he was transported to the hospital. We later learned that he had a kidney stone and we hope all is well now.

It did rain and the rain provided a soothing sound as we retreated to our round little world. We found a portable massage table stowed under the bed. And while I'm not sure it was supposed to be part of the package experience, we couldn't resist the chance to use it. Massages at home are great but there's never a perfect solution for what to do with your face. Either you crank your neck to the side or smother by burying your nose in the bed. But having a professional table was one of the most delightful experiences--I think everyone should have one of those too. In fact I think maybe I want to buy one! To the sound of the rain and quiet music I thoroughly enjoyed letting all my love and energy move from my hands into Brent. It have always enjoyed getting massages a little bit more than giving them (!) but I think I am discovering that it really can be more satisfying to give than receive, and in the giving I have received so much myself.

Our final morning brought more great breakfast; waffles with sausage from the farm across the road, baked apples and orange juice that was better than orange juice! (In fact it inspired Brent to look up a do-it-yourself orange julius recipe which we made twice after we returned home, and I can highly recommend it if you were a fan of the real thing.) I didn't really want to leave the soaking tub and the peaceful place. My deepest wish was that we take home the openness and connectedness that we found on our retreat and let that continue in our daily life.

Brent knew that I would especially enjoy a stop at the Overlook Restaurant in Leavenworth, so he suggested that we make a little detour there for lunch before heading home. He is a wise man and he knows his wife pretty well too--it was the perfect thing to look forward to and it made it not *too* hard to leave, knowing that we were going there. We enjoyed a light lunch overlooking the Ohio River and wondered if the people who live in the little farm on the Kentucky side even notice how beautiful it is each day. We sat by the river some more and savored the view, and the chance to share it with each other. Then we headed home.

Wanted: Land to Live On!

2008-05-24T23:25:00.003-04:00

We are very interested in finding land where we can live sustainably. Ideally we are looking for 5-20+ acres with woods, pasture or meadow and water such as a lake, pond or creek. This could take the form of an older abandoned farmstead with or without a house. This might be ideal because it could have established fruit trees and other perennial flowers and plants. It would be even better if it were adjacent to other natural lands such as land trusts, preserves and other protected public lands.
At this time we are focusing our search on counties surrounding Tippecanoe County, Indiana (Benton, Carroll, Clinton, Fountain, Montgomery, Warren and White as well as Parke).
If anyone knows of or hears of any land for sale or knows someone who may be interested in selling we would be very grateful if you would let us know. Please leave us a comment with any leads you might have. We can't wait to hear from you!

Yes, Yurts!

2008-05-22T10:04:00.011-04:00

When I started dating Brent, he lived in a tipi. It was then that I discovered the feeling of wholeness that comes from sleeping in a round dwelling. There is something indescribable about looking up and seeing tipi poles coming together and reaching towards the sky. It's been a long time since we spent a night in the tipi though, preferring the creature comforts of a cozy bed and a nearby bathroom especially when the kids were little.

But the kids are getting bigger now and we find that we are beginning to have time to really explore the things that interest us. Or maybe the time is the same but we are different. I'm not sure. But several weeks ago I remembered the beautiful pictures I had seen of modern yurts. I went surfing and found some like I was thinking of at Pacific Yurts and Colorado Yurts.

I showed them to Brent and said that maybe we should start making plans for the next phase of life; with one in high school getting his first summer job and the others growing up so quickly, we will be empty nesters before we know it. It seems that the last 10 years have passed in the blink of an eye. While I sometimes wish I could pin down time and make it stop, I really do enjoy watching my kids grow into interesting big people. While they are figuring out what path they will take, we are thinking a lot about what we will do when it's just us. Since some of our kids came to our marriage with me, we've never had a time that was just "Brent & Beth." It's hard for us to imagine. But part of making this transition easier for us as we let them grow is for us to plan what we would like to focus on as we move towards that time.

I asked Brent if maybe he would like to find that piece of land in the country that we are always dreaming of and put a yurt on it. I am drawn to the yurt because it has the round roof much like the tipi that I remember so fondly from our early days together. But it has a floor and can be easily adapted to include luxuries, like beds, bathrooms and a kitchen sink. Plus is it more impervious to things that should stay outdoors; like mosquitoes and frogs. It's easy to say that these things aren't so important...until you spend a night with stomach flu in the woods or wake up in a tipi with a frog on your face! The yurt looks like the best of both worlds to me.

Brent reminded me that he had heard of a place with yurts that you can stay in. This captured my attention and I wanted to know if there was a place we could lie awake and look at the moon through the dome in the roof. I thought that would be as close to idyllic as possible. It turns out Brent was right, you can stay in a yurt at Mary Rose Herb Farm. We called to make a reservation right away and I looked forward to 48 hours of just us under the moon.

Giving Voice

2008-05-15T13:13:00.006-04:00

I am primarily non-verbal in my approach to life (I read this is often considered "the norm" for men). Part of my own growth in pursuing The Big Good is that I am working to find my voice. To be able to express myself verbally, such that my words convey what I really feel or think. This has always been difficult for me. Being able to speak one's inner voice is very important in so many ways in life.

One of the early experiences in my relationship with Beth that connects me to her, and roots me to who I am, came flowing out in a poem yesterday. I know virtually nothing about writing poetry, but the words came out this way, so I call it a poem. The poem refers to an early spring day when Beth and I sat under a very old, lone cottonwood tree in a meadow overlooking a lake where my grandparents live. The large old tree had been struck by lightening more than once and wore some deep scars. I always felt like the tree held a type of tree wisdom, and by sitting beside it, I could feel that. I often would come to this place throughout my childhood, the same place my grandfather came to as a boy, and sitting there with Beth that day was so important to me. For me the moment was largely non-verbal, but the experience I felt has resonated within me ever since. I call it a vision, because the vision of the experience I hold in my heart and I come back to it often. Here I share a start at finding my voice as part of The Big Good, in a love poem to my Beth.

Thunder Tree Vision

Together we knelt
Under the thunder tree
Deep hearts felt
The wind moving free

Thunder spirit made its home
In this sacred thunder tree
Ancient chorus above us
Sandhills floating high in the sky

Our hearts touching
Becoming one with the place
Roots going down deep
Beauty love in your face

Lightening ripped open
This tree and this place
My soul once struck
Yet here I felt grace

With you
Your heart
Your soul
Open to me

I felt the tree
The soul of the sacred ground
That I had known almost forever
Here I had found

A place of peace
We share this sacred moment
My heart open
Reaching out

Becoming one together
A journey we began
Together
Under the thunder tree

This is my vision
I return to in my heart
To know who I am
Where my roots are deep

And how our journey began
Although thunder tree is gone
The spirit is planted within us
To grow strong and blossom

Forever
With Love

Brent Thomas Ladd
May 14, 2008

Beth's Version of this Tale

2008-05-14T21:57:00.002-04:00

Do you want to hear Beth's version of this tale? Then I highly recommend that you get on over to Tales from the River for the full story!

The Trouble with Honey Bees

2008-05-13T21:24:00.003-04:00

The trouble with honey bees is that they do sting. Beth and I had an eventful first inspection of our two new bee hive colonies. The good news we discovered is that they were thriving, and appeared that both queens were laying eggs so the colonies could grow and gather enough food to survive their first winter. Being new to bee keeping, it seemed we allowed a larger gap for the queen cage than needed. The bees tried to fill this gap with new comb, known as burr comb,...which I knew we had to remove so the bees could build comb onto the super frames. I never, ever dreamed I would be sticking my bare hand down into a hive of 10,000 bees. We decided to not use the smoker originally because we didn't want to disturb the bees. Well, we ended up needing to disturb them to remove all of the burr comb.

Largest Morel Discovered

2008-05-13T21:16:00.002-04:00

I came home to morel mushrooms in the sink...our son Wes and his friend Tyler had found them after school in the woods. I immediately went out and found the monster shown in the picture. We fried them, but since I'm the only one that likes mushrooms in the family, I had to eat them all! One of the projects we are starting in our woods is to grow several edible and medicinal mushroom species on elm trees. We have ordered the mushroom spawn and the logs are ready for innoculation.

What's Old is New

2008-05-05T16:45:00.004-04:00

I have this thing about knitting socks--I just can't stop! If you've never worn a hand-knit wool sock, then you probably won't get it. But once you have, well then you understand. There's just no going back. Warm feet; socks that fit--what could be better?!

When I had a regular American-style top loading washing machine, I just threw my wool socks in on "cold/gentle" and then threw them over the shower rod to dry. This seemed to work ok. But then I got a really wonderful front loader that uses less electricity and less water. But it must really push that small amount of water through the socks with great force, because much to my chagrin, I've noticed that socks handled this way have started to shrink. I just finished making Brent a really great pair of new socks using the Thuja pattern and Extra Stampato. These socks were a special knit for a special guy and I want them to last. What to do?

I really love the sight of my laundry hanging in the open air to dry--it just seems right! All the more so when the clothesline is full of colorful handknit socks.

It's a feeling of satisfaction and joy to see them all lined up in a row. I see many relaxing hours of knitting and a sense of a job well done; I see socks from fellow-knitters and I feel glad to have friends who knit me socks; I see a winter full of warm feet. So all would seem to be right with the world. But it's not.

Handwashing socks has always seemed to take an inordinate amount of time for the socks to dry. You just can't get the water out by hand like a spin cycle on the washing machine. In the winter, it works really great to set them on the register, but what about now in the spring when the heat isn't on, but warm wool in the mornings is still a welcome treat?

I finally remembered that Brent had an antique wringer washer he used to use in hide tanning. I had an idea that it just might do the trick! It turns out, I was right!

After decades of disuse, what's old is new again! And I'm happy to say that the socks dried QUICKLY on the line.

Our very own bees

2008-05-02T16:18:00.011-04:00

The last day of April 20,000 honey bees arrived by mail. I had received a phone call a few weeks earlier from a friend getting rid of old bee hive wooden ware and equipment. The next thing I know we are ordering honey bees for starting two colonies at our small "half-way" homestead. This is our most recent project on our journey of The Big Good. The idea is to eventually have honey to use and share as gifts, but also to do our part in furthering the numbers of pollinators.

The bees arrive in small cages and you actually dump the bees right into the hive with the queen. They really like the new home and space. We must feed them sugar syrup the first few weeks until they establish their hives. We didn't get the feeder set up correctly the first time, and so we had to make changes the next day. Unfortunately we lost about 200 bees, but we chalk it up to a learning experience. Beth was valiant in her first bee keeping experience and was stung by a bee. She is initiated. Brent somehow has escaped being stung so far.