This year has lacked a dry season, making the pastures already green and beautiful and filled with flowers. Walking through the cow-paths, the starry Erigeron flowers swirl past in a green galaxy of grass. It isn’t the usual hot, blue, open skies of May, but chased all over with piled up clouds shadowed with silver…
Category: Green Living
Sumac Lemonade
Early yesterday morning I heard the cold winds of a front rustling the branches of the naked cherry trees and making acorns rattle down on the roof from the oaks that grow all around and over us. I lay awake for a while, listening to the strange thumps and rumbling of paws outside. From far…
Women and the Land
I’ve been thinking lately, and one idea I have dwelt on quite a bit is the connection between women and the land. Not long ago (and in some places even now) women were seen merely as property, a form of wealth and resources. We generally like to think those days are in the past. All…
Wild Plum Harvest
This is the time when the wild plums are dripping from the branches. They are tart, glowing and fragrant. Some trees bear large fruits, some small. Some are red and some are yellow. It is interesting to taste each tree’s offering, getting a different mix of sweet, tart, and bitter plum flavor with each one. …
The Lost Art Of Clothing Repair
Clothing repair is a lost art, but I don’t mean to suggest that this post will replace all the art that has been lost! This is just one way that I’ve found to be a satisfactory way to repair clothes. I used to just throw away clothes with rips and tears, but when I got…
Home-grown Soap
Ever since we put our first beef in the freezer, I’ve wanted to try making soap. There were suddenly so many jars of creamy-colored tallow taking up the kitchen shelf. I read about it, and bought some lye, but I never was brave enough to make the attempt. Caustic lye, plus the possibility of an…
Hung Out To Dry
It’s terrible to watch this struggle that is going on between people, money, and our environment. It’s happening at Standing Rock, and it’s happening here in Florida. I’ve felt this strong desire to refrain from consuming fossil fuel energy as much as possible. One way I have begun striving for energy independence is by getting…
Yarn Along: Crocheted Rag Rug Tutorial
It has been awhile since I’ve had anything other than lace yarn to work with, but now I am jumping over to crocheting a few more rag rugs. There are several reasons for this drastic shift in handwork – 1) Lace requires WAY too much concentration for me right now. It is so sad to…
Painting and Whitewashing
One thing that we had been meaning to do for way too long was to paint the inside and outside of the barn. It was sheathed mostly with recycled plywood we salvaged from the brewery that supplies us with small loads of malted barley mash for the pigs. Bare wood in Florida does not last…
Toadstools And Fairy Rings 