Off The Beaten Path

To restate what I have said before: I am a scrounger. I will plant into anything that will hold dirt (and is not contaminated). This week, I created an herb tower for myself out of 4 tires I found on the side of the road, and one my neighbour threw away. Step 1: prepare the…

Today was earth and plants After breakfast, off to the garden center an hour away. They have the best vegetable sets and their selection of food-bearing trees is better than most. I was looking specifically for elderberry, because mine died, but they didn’t have it. I did get two heartnut saplings. The one I have…

Today was water. Pumping, hauling, heating, draining, hauling the drain buckets back out. First, dishes. A couple different washes as they were quite greasy. Then, a thorough cleaning of the sinks, both sides, with soap and soda and vinegar and force. Then, laundry. We have spent the last six months hauling our laundry out to…

This evening, we attended the graduation ceremony of one of our homeschool group. As you might expect, the crowd was relatively small — only 30 people or so — but it was a nice evening. And since there was only one graduate, the presentation of diploma part took about three minutes. I have to say,…

So, I wasn’t correct when I said nothing would happen while I was away. Immediately after we lost Dulcie, we packed Maggie up and took her (temporarily, I hope) back to mom’s. Maggie has been a lone goat for a long time, now, and that is a bad situation. Mom also has a lone goat,…

I just need a few days to get my head back on straight. It’s supposed to rain all week. Nothing exciting will happen. The driveway will be soup. The kids will be stircrazy. I will be frazzled. The end. I’ll be back in a bit.

First the mosquito apocalypse Then my first-ever traffic ticket yesterday Then our brand-new baby goat died this morning. So yeah…this week is not my favourite. I am hurting, a lot. I feel very defeated right now, and in the emotion of the moment, I dont really want to keep doing this. I’m trying to remember…

Well, to be frank, last night sucked. Big time. As soon as the sun set, we were entirely overwhelmed by mosquitos. They were coming in around the door, the windows, down from the loft (where they entered as a thundering army through the main loft door). There were hundreds of them. It was our own…

We bought this place about 11 months ago. We visited it for the first time 13 months ago. But we didnt move here until 8 months ago, so there is a whole season we havent experienced yet — summer. Also known as Bug Season. This is peatbog territory, after all. Lots of standing water. It…

This isnt the sort of lifestyle where you get to sit on your butt, much. There are days when I’d LIKE to – when my anxiety is high, or the list of things to do is overhelming and I don’t know where to start – but there is always SOMETHING that needs done. Bucket toilet…