Tiny Tips for Healthier Living

   Here we are on Earth Day and I find myself thinking about all the small thing we can do to live a healthier life helping our planet as we do so.

• Grow your own vegetables - good for you and good for the planet as it reduces our carbon footprint.  Transporting the food means walking from your garden plot, as opposed to shipping from other parts of the country or the world.
• Grow organically - a few chewed leaves should not deter you from keeping pesticides out of the garden and thus out of your body.  The Earth (and her honeybees) will thank you. 
• If growing your own food is not an option, shop your local farmers' markets, again lowering the carbon footprint, as well as helping your neighbors. 
• Eat seasonally.  I may long for fresh strawberries in February, but they are not coming from anywhere near where I live.  Get creative with apples and other fruits in storage, or use fruits you put up the previous season. 
• Hang your laundry on a line to dry.  Energy from the sun is free to us all and we have sweeter smelling clothing.  Line drying also causes less wear and tear on your garments. 
• Remember to turn off the lights as you leave a room. I can still here my mother's voice echoing out from my childhood, "Turn off the light/radio/television (pick one) - we are not supporting Connecticut Light and Power single handedly!" (Thanks Mommy)  This will also help your budget!

There are books about all this and more, but how many of us can go totally off-grid?   Try one or two things that you have not been doing and add them to this year's promise to help sustain our earth.

And now some earth facts.  I particularly like #16.

Happy Earth Day

Suddenly spring - or not

  Friday we were at 73 degrees,  so lovely.  Friday night a torrential rain storm hit with wind and tornado conditions in someplaces.  Yesterday it was 40 degrees, last night it went down to 20 here at the GS camp.  Brrr.
    Still, May is rapidly approaching so Spring tasks must happen.  Last year my bee hives became infested with wax moths - YUCK!  They are disgusting and leave a webby mess in the comb.  So before my two packages of bees arrive in May I need to clean out the hive, add new foundation to most of the frames, and figure out how to heat the plasticell foundation enough to kill the eggs that might be there and not melt the plastic.  This is one task I am NOT looking forward to. 
     My husband and I are going over the merits of various apple types as we look through all the catalogues.  He prefers some of the modern hybrids; I am all all about the older varieties.  Compromise may come with him having the hybrid apples and me eventually getting a few rare/heritage breed sheep. I have had my eye on Leicester Longwools and Navajo-Churros, but I also love the look of Jacobs and feel of Icelandic wool, so - who knows.  The planning is half the fun!
   

Tales of a hopeful farmer

     There is a part of me that has always wanted land.  A chunk of forest, a piece of the prairie; not fussy, I just want land.  Perhaps it is the genes from my Iowa farming ancestors, but I love the idea of land that is mine - to use or not, to hold intrust for my children and future generations, to be able to go to when I want to be somewhere not developed to within an inch of its life.
     After much consideration and too many hours of internet searching, as well as a fruitless day driving around with a realtor, my husband and I think we have finally found a spot.  The trick was this - find a place that is not too far away so we can get to it at least twice daily to feed any livestock we might have on it.  On our street there is a small farm with horses on it which has been for sale, on and off, for a couple of years.  It was back on the market, and we went to look at it and made an offer. We are now in the (un)enviable place of signing a million papers, waiting for appraisals and inspections. Waiting for this before we can do that.  Waiting.
    It is a small farm with a small house on it and a small barn.  Once a dairy farm, the classic large, red barn collapsed some years ago and the owner built a small 6 stall barn for his horses.  There are about 64 acres, and the layout is very narrow and long.  The property is about 2 - 2 1/2 acres wide and very long. There is pasture with hills and some flat, and then forest with a stream that goes straight up hill to the crest of Franklin Mountain. All in all, it is about a mile deep.
    The waiting is killer at this time of year.  While we do not think we are going to get our sheep just yet (a few classes are in order first) we do want to get some of the fruit trees planted before it is too warm.  I am itching to order the trees, but my husband  (always the reasonable soul) thinks it might be prudent to wait until we have signed the final papers, so we are not buying a dozen fruit trees and possibly ending up with no farm to put them on. We are researching plans for chicken coops and milking parlors.  Deciding the merits of a truck over a tractor. Discussing small ruminants - sheep, definitely; goats - debating. Do we move the bees there?  Maybe - but there is a fair amount of bear activity. Should we get a guard animal for the flock (once we start it)? If so, what - a llama? A donkey? A dog?  So many things to decide, but so much that we have to wait on.

    This new adventure will also make us landlords (Auntie Lynne and Uncle Dave - I am thinking of you!).  The house on the property is too small for our family, and already has tenants in it who want to stay, so, voila! Landlords and farmers all in one. 

View from upper pasture looking down at the house(rt) and barn (left)

The View from the big hill - upper pasture

Pasture is fenced all around, only needing small repairs

Anything that has all three children holding hands is worth the money

Walking down the mountain in the stream bed

The gate at the bottom of the upper pasture

Drew by one of the amazing trees

Such great texture!

Looking down at the barn

One section of pond - somewhat overgrown

I LOVE THIS TREE!

Our view

The stream bordering the forest and the pasture

alpaca

    Last summer/fall my mother bought me three (count 'em three) garbage bags full of alpaca fiber.  There were three alpaca blankets sheered from alpacas at a nearby farm. Two are the creamy beige you think of as typical for alpacas, and one is a gorgeous dark brown.  I am ashamed to say these bags have been sitting in the laundry room for all this time, waiting for me to get up the nerve to try to spin this fiber.
    I got some advise from a spinning list  I am a part of, but still waited.   One woman told me she would spin it without any processing - without washing or carding or anything, washing any dust out afterwards.  So, I tried it.  The fiber is amazingly free of v.m. - a few pieces of hay and some seeds, but not much more.
    The fiber experience is lovely.  It is more slippery than wool, and SO soft.  I think I may be a convert.  I will never give up spinning wool - there are so many wonderful types - but I do love alpaca. If I ever get my farm, I may just have to have a few alpacas as well as sheep!

Spring Break

  I am not a person who takes breaks.  Thus, I  have to find activities which allow me to slow down  while still thinking I am "doing something."  I keep bees for this reason.  One does not go work with the bees if you are feeling jumpy and agitated.  They will become agitated if you move too fast or treat them roughly (life lesson there).  So I have to slow down to work with them.  It is good for me as well as the environment to tend to them.
   For this same reason - the need to slow down - I spin.  Not exercise spinning, but fiber into yarn. It is a relaxing task, with a tangible outcome, but it forces me to sit for a while.  I can listen to the radio, or an audio book, or just be quiet. I have not taken the time to spin in a few month.  Too many "have to" tasks got in the way.  So I took some time on this first weekday of Spring break and plied some of the yarn that I have had sitting on bobbins since Christmas or earlier.  It is not fancy - just some Icelandic wool in natural colours, but I can hardly wait for it to be dry so I can start working with it.  What I will knit it into I am not certain, but I have plans to hold a little of it out for a small weaving project I have been hatching.

the first skein is a bit more nubbly than the other two

Hanging over the dehumidifier so the extra moisture won't wreck all the books!

Show Shots from As You Like It

   I went to the theatre last night and shot over 500 photos of the show - my new digital camera is so much fun!  I have not edited any of them -  and they do need the light levels adjusted on some of them, but here are a few examples of what the show is looking like and why I have been so tired lately!  A huge shout out to Scott Segar and Matt Grenier for helping to make this set look so lovely.  You built some fun trees, guys! Thank you

Orlando being thrown by Charles the Wrestler

Charles the wrestler and Orlando

Orlando and Adam

Duke Frederick, Celia, Rosalind

A lord and Jacques 

Phoebe and Sylvius

Jacques in the forest

Touchstone and Audrey on the fabulous swing

Oliver, Ganymede and Aliena - he suspects something!!

one of Duke Senior's lords in the woods

Orlando and Rosalind - Epilogue

Audrey and Touchstone

details in the nooks and crannies

the bottom of the "touchdown" tree

Hiding the musicians we have this

My favorite tree