Konah

This is the house my brother Konah and I grew up in. He just spent a couple of weeks in the middle of summer adding this front porch on with his friend Collin. It's Great! My mother Judy has been rebuilding the cabin. She is bringing life back into our family home in hopes we can enjoy it as we grow older and our children can know how we were raised. As I wrote before so much of our life was spent outside so this addition will probably be used more than any other space.

Rebirth, a year later

Well I dropped the ball about a year ago and just up and quit making baskets. Friends and family pasted away as well as a couple of chickens. We realized what a poorly built coop we had and gave our remaining 2 girls to a friend. My garden dried up and winter hit, so did the blues. Winter is always the hardest time for a gardener. There is a therapy for your soul that happens in the earth and dirt that nothing else can give you. I'm trying to lean to appreciate the gardening chores that are done in the winter but they just are not as rewarding as a ripe tomato.

Growing up in the middle of the Mountains, in a 200 square foot log cabin my family built, demanded a life outside year round. My husband is always worried about the kids getting sick if they go outside on a rainy or snowy day and I worry their brains will rot if they don't get outside and live life in all weather. I think it makes them strong, their creativity and their immune systems and he worries that they will catch pneumonia. I miss the chore of getting the firewood and working to make the fire before we could get dinner started and the closeness it can bring people when you work for the basic needs to get through each day.

So in hopes of bringing more joy to my life and my families, I am bring back Little Bird Baskets. Hopefully full of jams, jellies, eggs (from our new hens in their new coop) and an abundance of lovely veggies.

Baskets a Plenty

My garden is looking great! Veggies are bountiful and flowers are everywhere. I had some basket orders this morning, they are full and beautiful.

Childrens Garden Club

I volunteered for the garden club at my sons school last fall, its K through 5th and about 50 students. To say the least it was hard to get started, that's a lot of kids. Generally only about 30 show up but still its desperately challenging to keep them all focused at the same time.


After talking with the other volunteers and a friend who runs a few other local garden clubs we have decided to split the ages next year. K-2nd one day and 3rd-5th another. And possibly have a lasso to pull them in, maybe two.

Being our first year we have learned a lot, but a few key things to keep in mind for a successful garden club are,

• Keep the ratio of adult to children low 5 to 1 sounds good to me if you are working with lots of kids
• Teaching the basics of gardening is enough. They love to get dirty! Pulling weeds is fun! And worms a really entertaining!
• Use snack time as a teaching tool, they are quiet and ready to listen. Talk about recycling your water bottles or bringing your own from home (I hope to encourage this next year). Eat from the garden, make home made butter and enjoy things at there simplest.

Yesterday we took the Garden Club to Dunbar Community Gardens. Mr Damian showed them baby chicks, bees and compost, they loved checking the temperature.


Their excitement is worth all the wildness.









Baby chicks

Bees

Very smart looking club

Hot compost

Yes we can!!

I found this great T-shirt image HERE.
I love this!!

The country side in Wales

Just a few pics from my trip to the UK.

New Year

Its been to cold to get much done in the garden right now, so begins the indoor activities. I worked on a pile of clothes to be mended, finished a dress for my daughter, and have been making clothes for my sons stuffed animals.

January is full of birthdays, I had no idea I knew so many capricorns. So homemade gifts have been in the works as well.

This sweet little embroidery was for my friend Courtneys' birthday.

I was reading a bunch of forums and blogs yesterday looking for a homemade shampoo recipe and ended up getting really excited about "no poo" shampooing. Wash with 1 cup water mixed with 1 tablespoon bakingsoda then rinse with 1/2 apple cider vinegar 1/2 water. Its great so far, my hair is clean and shiney. We will see how it goes. A lot of people who have tried this have been doing it for months and years and rave about the managability and health of their hair. The baking soda mixture was like a conditioner, it got the knots out easily.