Abstract and Landscape
The Saturday after Thanksgiving, and Vermont and got its first foot of snow for the season. Skiers were giddy. The woodstove was roaring, and, almost five years to the weekend after we got back on the grid, the power was out (again). I'd gotten up at 5a.m. on to get the apple cinnamon oatmeal slow… Continue reading Good to Know
One of things I love about having two kids who are getting older (one is almost 20 the other is almost 14) is that, as their different strengths emerge, I am ending up with two very different and wonderful partners in crime. Thing1 one is my builder. I contract more and more construction projects out… Continue reading Garden Surprise
By the time I got back from the garden with my daily blueberry harvest, something had discovered the wild black raspberries by the woodshed, stripping the lower canes of every last bit of treasure. I picked the last half cup of berries by the shed and then did a quick lap around the yard for… Continue reading The Chickens and The Eggs
When we moved to Vermont, our ZIP Code sat in a solid zone four. Now it is comfortably into zone five, and we set out seedlings a week earlier on Memorial Day weekend. Our day and nighttime temps can still be a bit bipolar, so when it looks like the nighttime lows will be below… Continue reading Garden Journal – Straw Bale Update
Katie settles in from a comfortable distance to watch the chicks. She makes a practice of checking on them whenever they move from their indoor house to the outdoor home. She lolls in the grass as Jim tries and talk the chickens into squeezing through the holes in the wire. The chicks love to visit… Continue reading Katie’s Chicks
The chicks are really starting to feather out, but there’s still enough fluff that we only let them outside when the sun is strong enough to counteract any cold. Yesterday, we let them play outside while their enclosure was cleaned, and they cavorted and experimented with running up the gangway and then jumping off. Katie… Continue reading Everybody’s All Americauna
It was almost uncomfortably warm on Saturday so we let the chicks into the chicken tractor to play while they’re current enclosure was cleaned. It was a good chance for them to really meet Jim, Princess Jane, and Katie. Jane and Jim inspected the chirping babies and, discovering that the tractor was secured by wiremesh… Continue reading Are You Our Mama?
Peas and carrots are coming up in our straw bale garden. Carrots always seem to take a little while to germinate and don’t try my patience, but I confess, it never seems like spring until the first pea shoots appear. This is the first year I’ve tried Strawbale Garden. Devised by a garden writer by… Continue reading Peas and Carrots
I expected some savings during the quarantine from not driving, going out to restaurants or ordering takeout. I expected an equally big bump in our grocery bill when Thing1 returned to the nest, but, even with two giants to feed (13-year-old Thing2 hit the six foot mark this week), thrift, apparently, is part of our… Continue reading The Song Can’t Remain the Same
I love when the first shoots become somethings with leaves. It’s hope rewarded. It makes the morning check-ins better than Christmas.
I’ve been making out my list of grocery items to order from the local country store to last the next few weeks and noticing the dwindling availability of of luxury, prepackaged foods like microwave popcorn and cake mixes, as well as staples like rice or pasta. The recognition that this pandemic could lead to shortages… Continue reading Make Do
I am able to walk an extra lap around the house or drag a few branches out of the garden these days, but my real skill these days is corralling the boys into believing that all of the work they’re doing to get our house ready for summer is fun. This morning I got Thing2… Continue reading Faking It
Rachel Barlow Art 