Snow

We had about 4 feet of heavy wet snow this week. The picture is of the barn. The husband plowed or snow blowed twice a day for 3 days. We had 2 snow days and one early dimissal.

Molly's table quilt

New Quilt

I made this for a friend's child. She picked out the fabrics and I picked the design. It even has matching pillow cases and a matching doll's quilt.

The husband and I were discussing the end of 2009 and the previous decade. The biggest life changes for us happened in the 00’s. We bought land, built a house, built a sheep shed and pasture, built a chicken house and a barn. We filled up all these buildings with the appropriate animals. We had our child. I quit my job. On paper the past decade was awful for a LOT of people. For us, it was a culmination of years of dreaming and planning. Most everything has gone our way. I don’t know about my husband, but I have a little bit of survivor’s guilt.

For this New Year’s resolutions I have a few things I would like to try for. All of them are related. They are in no particular order:
1. I want to get my homesteader enthusiasm back.
2. I want to preserve more of my garden for winter use.
3. I want to make a bed sized quilt.
4. I want to waste less.
5. I want to drive less.
6. I want to do more hunting.
7. I want to get a dog to train for hunting (I’ll need more than moral support for this).

This past year our son started pre-school. The program he is in has the best of intentions, but, I can see the worker drone curriculum shining through. We do our best to help the boy think critically. I really understand why people home school every time I hear “WHATEVER” from my 4 year old. It seems to me that the school system is designed to suck in the parents and families too and turn us all into consumers. I’m fighting it without much success yet.

With regards to no. 4 above, I did order less seeds this year. Hopefully, I’ll get some tomatoes and we’ll have put the late blight behind us. H1N1 doesn’t worry me as much as tomato blight.

Latest work

More than 2 months

I've been getting into a routine. The boy started school and it's taken me almost 2 months to get going. About 2 days a week I am efficient and 3 days not so much. I've been quilting recently and I should be taking up knitting again soon. I need me some wool socks.

Independence day update

Plant something-nada
Harvest something-Eggs, cabbage, cukes, summer squash, peas, beets, potatoes
Preserve something-nada but soon
Reduce waste-fed stuff to chickens
Preparation and Storage-Started plannning with the neighbor for wood purchase and harvesting of wood, also started planning next year's garden expansion.
Build Community Food Systems-Sold some eggs, bought sweet corn from a local farm, gave away squash, peas and beets.
Eat the Food-still eating from the garden, eating eggs and the side of beef we bought from Morning Fog Farm.