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.

Winter garden

Sweet little green house

protecting my mustard greens

Jerusalem Artichokes

winter harvest

I have been slowly creating a garden that produces year round. We have an exteremely small yard and I have expectations for a high yeild of food from it. This little green house structure is really doing the job. I have some mustard greens going strong and a few volunteer cilantro plants. There is one more green house row with a few more greens and some lettuce that probably won't make it through the low temperatures this week.

The jerusalem artichokes were plentiful! I planted a couple of rows against our back fence and plan on pickling the rest. Is nice to continue the garden work year round, it keeps you on your toes with excitement about the spring.

The cold weather gets to me pretty quick and I need a pick me up, so I have been looking at seed catalogs Burpee and Bakers Creek Heirloom Seeds.

These are both great places to find good standards and unique plants, I always want to try new veggies but have a hard time giving up space to my tried and trusted stand-bys.

Little Bird Basket orders

Frosty cabbage

Little bird baskets will not be taking orders December 23rd thru December 28th.

Have a great holiday and thank you for all the appreciation. Here's to the New Year and day dreams of a spring garden.

Gifting

The good thing about Little Bird Baskets Is that when a basket is ordered for my friends I feel like its from me too. I love knowing what kind of image to put on the tea towel and what color to embroider it so it will look the best in their kitchen. To know more than a name. This basket was ordered for my friend Kyran Pittman, from her sweet mama. It was great to gift it for her mom, I love being the one that hands the basket over. Its just immediate happiness. Kyran Is an inventive and very funny writer check her out Notes to Self. She also took these pictures of her basket, they are lovely.

Mason Jars

So!!! It should not be a hard thing to can, preserve or put things up and it should not be expensive. I searched Little Rock over and could not find affordable 8 oz. canning jars. That seems really silly to me. Our local food mart carries a variety of over-priced canning items and after today's venture on-line they seemed reasonably priced.

So I called my mom Judy, she is the lady of know, and told me to call Ace Hardware. They carry canning supplies year round at a reasonable price. Wow, I was starting to get worried.

For Christmas I am making Red and Green Hot Pepper Jelly, no food coloring added, and a variety of chutneys in the next week. I will also be making a mint jelly that should be great with lamb or pork. If you are reading this and will cook with mint jelly let me know and I'll try to get some to you. Maybe share a recipe.

Winter Little Bird Baskets

The baskets are taking off, I couldn't be happier. Each one gets better and better and the vision becomes more solid. I am starting to get some new ideas for holiday baskets with specialty breads and jams. I am going to do potted paper whites and crocuses instead of cut flowers for the winter months.

I have been preparing my garden for next spring getting it beefed up with good organic fertilizer and lots of wildflowers for cut arrangements. I can't wait to see what starts popping up next spring, and its to soon to be thinking about that yet I have all winter to daydream about my garden. There is a sweet little moss garden that has started on its own on the north side of my house I am going to add to it and hopefully start some terrariums and little potted gardens. Dakorah Designs has so inspired me and this should prove to be a good winter hobby for the cooped up gardener.

New Baskets

Here are a few of the new baskets I have made over the past few weeks. I love to see how the flower arrangements and goods change seasonally. Its always new and different.

I am waiting for my fall garden to take hold, there will be many greens and root vegetables. I planted fingerling potatoes, though It may be to harsh of a winter for them to work out.

I pruned my raspberry bushes the other day and plan on digging them and find a new home for them, I'm going to focus on my black berries. They have a much higher yield for me.

I will have some mulled blackberry vinegar ready in about a month, it sounds amazing and will be a great addition to future baskets.

Sweet Baby Basket

Fresh rosemary wreath

Winslow School

Here is my sweet logo that my friend Erin Arkie Style, made for me. Now how to make it fit properly at the top of the page. Resize is probably the way to go. I can't even imagine what my children will be able to do on the computer. My school, The Winslow Squirrels, didn't even have computers when I was there. The school k-12th consisted of about 300 students. The town its self was a little over 300 population. Lots of kids commuting in from way out in the sticks.

The school has consolidated. I feel sad that small towns and small schools are shutting down.

That is the way of the interstate. The whole town has lost what was left of its community life when the school shut down.

lavendar

Lavender, it should always be planted where it can be brushed up against and you can smell it every time you walk by. I kept mine by the front porch till it died this summer. This is a picture of it from earlier in the year. There is always a grieving when you loose a great plant that has been so well established. Time to find another one.

I am helping with my sons garden club at school, it meets once a month. I will be adding some pictures of the progress. We start this Thursday.

Summers end, to and early Fall

So here is my back yard about a month ago. Everything is huge! MY pole beans and gourds tried to take over the telephone line and the neighbor hood. I have to use a 6 foot ladder to harvest the pole beans. I'll rethink that next year, and probably stick to the bush variety.

Almost everything has been pulled up, its looking pretty bare now. If I didn't have children there would be no such thing as grass in my yard, but I guess they need somewhere to play.

I'm ready for fresh greens, I think naturally we crave vegetables and fruits seasonally. It keeps to a much more simple diet considering I don't have acres and acres of land to plant more varieties.

Today lunch is roasted eggplant and tomato soup. The eggplant was fresh from my family's garden in Pine Bluff and the tomatoes were stewed and canned earlier this summer.

Lovely Baskets

My new friend Joy picked up her little bird baskets this morning. Thanks Lennie for sending her to me. My mother, Judy has been making the crafts for my baskets, she is amazing. Since I was a little girl she has been making sachets and quilted hot pads for christmas presents and now I get to put them in these sweet little baskets.

I am planning out my fall garden. I will miss all the tomatoes and fresh basil, so to save some of the summers bounty, this week i am going to begin harvesting and drying herbs from around the garden. Basil, oregano, sage and rosemary. My garden is already at its end of summer transition. Getting ready for all the cold crops. I plan on keeping this fall planting pretty basic, greens and a few root veggies. Possible some cabbage to make sauerkraut. All this in anticipation to be used for fall and winter basket orders.