Got Chickens? Need Nest Boxes?

Life On A Southern Farm is having a giveaway, one of their 2-chicken HenPals handcrafted nest boxes. Click here for details and to enter!

Life Is Good

Yes it is! And thanks to Michelle over at Boulderneigh, my day was just made a little bit better. Thank you Michelle!

The "Life Is Good" Award comes with a few fun questions to answer, so here goes:

1. What would your perfect day consist of?

Going for a long hike or bike ride on a partly cloudy day, temps in the low to mid 70s, dry, not humid.

2. How would you describe yourself if you were an item of clothing?

A soft, comfortable denim skirt. At least that's what I'm most comfortable wearing, though jeans and American jumpers would be a close second.

3. What hobbies are you currently working on?

We've already established we're not a hobby farm, so I reckon gardening, herbs, chickens, and goats wouldn't count anymore. That just leaves my fiber pursuits, of which knitting is it for the moment. Socks specifically.

4. Walking in the woods in wellies or barefoot on the beach?

Walking, woods, and wellies, without a doubt. I like water but I'm not a sun person, so beaches are out.

5. Have you ever hugged or sang to a tree?

Not literally, though I used to talk to my African violets. I think it helped.

6. Growing your own veggies or nipping to the supermarket.

Um, you guess. *LOL.

7. Have you found anyone exciting in your family tree?

Well, one of my ancestors was run out of town for "having an opinion."

I got that tidbit exploring my paternal grandmother's branch. If you follow my (sadly neglected) Fiber Journal, then you may have seen my post about my heirloom antique overshot coverlet which was given my by that same grandmother. Thanks to the internet, I found the Cape Cod History and Genealogy website, which was a gold mine of information on that part of the family. I've been able to trace our lineage back to three separate Mayflower passengers, so that was exciting to me.

8. Slap up meal in a posh restaurant or fish ‘n’ chips from the wrapper?

It would depend upon the menu. I suspect this is a formal versus casual question, but on that one I can go either way. I have lots of beautiful clothes because I couldn't pass them up at the thrift shop, but no place to wear them. The bottom line however is the food! If that posh restaurant doesn't have anything on the menu I want, then fish 'n' chips in a wrapper it is.

9. Which element do you most resonate with, Earth, Wind, Fire or Water?

That one's not so easy, as I cannot emotionally, physically, nor spiritually partition them off like independent entities. The earth needs water, as water needs earth, as wind needs earth, and fire needs wind (air, oxygen). One cannot exist without the others and their value is what they make up as a whole. Creation is the organism of which these elements are necessary parts. That doesn't really answer the question, but it'll have to do.

10. Do you believe in fairies?

Nope. I believe in a supernatural, spiritual realm, with supernatural, spiritual beings, but not the popularized creatures we think of as supernatural.

Now I'm supposed to pass this on.

Sara of Fabric N Fiber Fanatic
Alison of Yarn In My Pocket
Nina of Odette's Obsessions
Benita of Basically Benita

Would anyone else care to play along?

Life Is Good copyright May 2010 by Leigh at http://my5acredream.blogspot.com/

Independence Days Challenge: May 9 - 15

The thing is, changing someone's food habits is a big thing

Sharon Astyk ,Independence Days: A Guide to Sustainable Food Storage & Preservation

I reckon anyone who has ever tried to lose weight understands the truth of this statement. So has anyone who has resolved to eat healthier. Or as in our case, anyone who is trying to be more self-sufficient in regards to diet and food. For Dan and me, it's not that we don't like the foods we can grow or provide for ourselves. It's the things that we can't.

Some of those things I will continue top buy anyway. Tuna fish for example, it's favorite sandwich fixin's for lunch with chips and sauerkraut. Or grapefruit for breakfast. As much as we like these things though, they are things we could live without. Coffee and chocolate are another matter. Whether or not coffee is good for us depends upon what you read, and even if I did get a few dwarf coffee trees, I doubt they could supply enough for that daily cuppa. Chocolate, well, we just like it.

Other things won't be a hardship to change. Rice for example. Rice became my staple starch when I lived in Louisiana so many years ago. Now that we are growing our own potatoes, we will simply use those instead. We both grew up on potatoes anyway. In the future we may find ourselves eating more corn, as a vegetable and also corn flour. This is because corn is probably easier to grow and harvest on a small homestead scale than wheat, though it certainly is possible to grow one's own wheat. For more on that, click here.

Apartment living for three years before we bought this place didn't help our food habits. Not that I didn't still cook from scratch and buy wholesome, natural foods, but we didn't garden (except for this), and we didn't have room for food storage, I didn't can or preserve except for strawberry jam. Not that I haven't done these things in the past, but I've lost the rhythm of doing so.

I've learned that the best way to change eating habits, successfully is to go slowly. Some things, like lacto-fermented foods take time to develop a taste for. Other things can be eased in to. Homemade whole grain bread comes to mind. I gradually increased the amount of whole wheat until my family started turning their noses up at the store bought stuff. Cheeses too.

Change is about motivation and the key is mindset, I think. We are motivated by the idea of doing more for ourselves and buying less. For a little more on that, click here.

Here are the small steps we've taken this week:

1. Plant something –

• lavender
• thyme
• oregano
• buttercup squash
• okra
• black turtle beans
• sunflowers
• nasturtiums
• popcorn
• peppermint plants
• creeping thyme plants
  

2. Harvest something -

• strawberries
• broccoli
• lettuce
• radish
• spinach
• English peas
  

3. Preserve something -

• strawberry jam - 12 pints plus
  

4. Waste Not–

• scraps to chickens & compost
• collected turnip seeds
• Cut the grass field with our new scythe. Will dry & save it for hay
• Using leftover pieces of wire fence to section off the coal barn carport. We plan to gather and stack the hay there
  

5. Want Not –

• bought new hand tools: 2 new hoes, a snath & scythe, & a hay rake
  
• got our first goats

6. Build Community Food Systems –

• DH has had several chances to talk to our neighbors about what we're doing
  

7. Eat the Food –

• finished last jar of 2009 strawberry jam
• garden salads
• blueberry cake from dehydrated blueberries. Wasn't as good as the cake from my dried figs.

Have you ever tried to change your diet?
Now did you make out? Success? Failure?
I'd love to hear your stories.

Independence Days Challenge: May 9 - 15 copyright May 2010 by Leigh at http://my5acredream.blogspot.com/