the list

The March "Lion" is toying with us. Which, makes me a little stir crazy. It also means I'm getting frantic to garden. I spent some time yesterday looking at garden plans (not my own). The biggest thing I'm looking at right now is finding a few spots in my yard that have enough sunlight to garden in. Possibly the front yard. Likely the fence line in the back yard with the strawbale gardens again. And hopefully the driveway fence line (I really want to put in a few fruit trees there)

Last week I was toying with the idea of making a list of homesteading skills... For now, here's a list of the skills I WANT to learn.

Why? Well, once I started listing the things I could do, I started getting pretty cocky.

Animal husbandry: sheep, goats,
(with that, shearing, milking, cheese making)

chickens- how to brood/hatch

chop wood

hitch a team

plow/or better understanding of soil

spin (I heard I'll be learning this one soon!)

sewing machine sew/ follow a pattern better

other preserving techniques (pressure cooker canning/root veg cold storage/crocks)

whole food understanding

growing and milling grains (which I wrote as "milling brains" the first time, and couldn't figure out why it looked so funny on the list)

passive solar /solar power

cob/strawbale/earth building

I'm sure this list could should would be longer.

is it time yet?

SATURDAY, JUNE 19, 2010

if I could wake up every morning and still smell like campfire
my hair
my clothes
having tumbled into bed too sleepy to change
dust on my feet
marshmallow on my cheek
sore strumming fingers...
that would be the mark of a life well lived.

lazy days

I've been reading Jonathan Byrd's travel blog the past couple of weeks.

If you haven't had the opportunity to, I recommend it. The link is to one of his entries at the end of the most recent trip. Chosen at random. I've cried through a number of the entries.. because that's who I am.

The guy can write. (not just music, though I don't know how often I sing his praises for that gift too)

Anyway, the other day he posted his entry about heading to the Folk Alliance conference. It's like OCFF, but bigger if you can picture that. Non-stop music. Beauty. Creativity.

OCFF this year was one of those special weekends. An escape.

I'm just about ready for another escape.

Monday morning I received my e-version of his travel-log. It's fantastic.

head aches

There's one thing about the new job that pains me.

The music selection.

I support a young person who's taste in music is limited to the current top 4 songs.

If those 4 songs could be played on an endless loop, she'd be happy... thanks to the wonders of radio planning, by flipping the station after every song, she's found a way to play those 4 songs in endless succession.

Enter some awesomeness.

This may be the only redeeming version of this song.

Though, I'll admit- the "Elmo and I know it" tune is the alternative I sing when subjected to the radio version.

monday bunday

so regal.

so lazy.

fingers crossed

happy 25th week birthday littles!

The Bantam Cochins are 25 weeks today... know what that means? Eggs! Soon!

All bets are that the splash (Darlene) will be the first of the two to lay. The Blue, Maria N'coco, is a little smaller and her comb and face aren't as red as Darlene's is.

I've been trying to get Cheepers (the black hen) to use a new nesting box [re: crate from the clementines] I've even been putting eggs in it so she'll get the point. Today she rolled the other eggs out of the box and into the spot where her old box used to be... and laid an egg there. I'm still not quite sure HOW she did it.

One of my neighbour's homes is up for sale. This makes me nervous... what if they're really against urban chickens?

side note: did I mention the old couple next door to me? I offered them eggs and they turned them down, saying that they thought eggs should come from the store in packages, and that they "like[d] me, but who knows what might be wrong with those eggs". I also heard this from a friend of mine. Which, makes me wonder how we ever became friends in the first place.

Anyway, it means I've been keeping the girls in their run- no time out free ranging... I don't know when potential buyers are going to be going through the house. The backyard to that house meets my yard with about 20 feet of chain link fence... perhaps that's the side where I should be putting the hedge in first? I'll hold tight, they might be city folks who'll want a high privacy fence (it's a lovely expensive house, the sort that always ends up with a high privacy fence).

oh right.

right.

sided.

While in for my massage, there was some confusion as to why my right side was so screwed up. Until I started to think about it.

Pretty sure that's scar tissue and damage from that time I ruined my ability to breathe (tearing the muscles off my ribcage). The spot where it tore is hurting today. And some damage possibly from the twisting to avoid strain on my right leg (the leg that needs a new ankle and groin muscle).

I'm super hopeful to get my shoulder dropped back down- I don't really want to add physio to my weekly rotation. Pass the Naproxen please.

tubby

Next winter I'm not turning the hot tub off. (I know, the least green part of my life... we all have a vice).

Today however, after my massage, I'm headed to a friend's place to make use of their claw foot tub. Because, if you've ever been in the hobbit house, you know how un-tub-like my tub is.

I'm very grateful.

sew.

a day in the quilting/fabric store, and all I want are those cute buttons. forget the skeins of fabric... bring me buttons.

where are these stress hic-ups coming from?

in the gutter

When I call "sick day" there are two films I must watch.

Beetlejuice

and

Little Shop of Horrors.

I love them both so much. Too much. I've mentioned all this before... I have them memorized, the nuances and speech patterns, the movements, the everythings. And because of this- I tend to quote them, or see them in things around me. I cannot go to the dentist without the entire dental song running thru my head. When someone is talking about gutters, I translate it to "in tha gutas". I wait for shrimp cocktails to grab people by the face... These are films that have shaped me.

Tonight I went to see a high school production of Little Shop. It was lovely. And... it took everything in my not to jump up on stage and play every part.

Dave Foley has a kid? (he was in the play)(the kid... not Dave Foley)