Springtime is Around The Corner

I hate the cheesy commercialism of Valentines Day, the cartoon red and pink hearts, the overpriced chocolates, and the cheaply made stuffed toys.  A and I have never been big into celebrating the Hallmark holiday.  Instead, we often grab a reasonably priced bottle of wine from the liquor store and enjoy each other's company at home.  Each year A makes me an amazing vegetarian lasagna from scratch and this year we enjoyed it with a cold glass of homemade apple cider from October.  Afterwards,  we curled up in the loft and watch the mid season premier of The Walking Dead.  It was perfect.  

 

 

 

Mother Nature seems to have given up on winter and the last month or so has been extremely mild.  Most of the snow in the area has melted back the lilac and rosebushes are swelling with large buds.

The mild temperatures have given a head start on the work we want to do around the property.  This year we plan to build a large woodshed and fully fence out lot to keep little dog in and the aggressive neighbourhood dogs out.  It will also be nice to let our hens out to free range once in awhile.  

The weather has been so mild lately that I fear I have left it too late to cold sow my spring seedlings.  I spent the afternoon planting seeds into compostable peat pots and placing them into their mini greenhouses.   The idea is that the seeds will lay dormant until weather warms considerably.  The seeds will emerge from the soil as nature intended, reducing the need to harden them off.  Not completely convinced of the idea and afraid of losing my seedlings to late frost, I've planted only a modest amount of cold weather crops.  I suspect that in a few weeks time I'll be planting seedlings in the traditional method but this has given me an opportunity to get my hands in some soil and perhaps a head start on some springtime veggies.

 

The mild weather is almost too warm for wool sweaters and mitts.

 

Our chicken coop is nearly completed at this point.   The heat lamp has been hung and the PVC pipe waterer and feeder have been installed.  Bedding has been laid and the enclosed run has been fitted with multiple perches and even includes a swing for the ladies.   At this point we are ready for hens.  We have been busy phoning around and putting out feelers for sellers.  Hopefully by next weekend we have some birds lined up.

 

DIY swing and ladder A made for our future girls.



A few weeks ago my sister surprised me with a small package in the mail.  Inside was set of chakra dream catchers she had made for me.  Included with the colourful chakra catcher was another small dream catcher made from wool, leather and fitted with a blue glass bead.  The chakra catchers were inspired from a Pinterest post I had showed to her ages ago and hers turned out lovelier than the originals. 
I'm waiting to find the perfect spot to hang these beauties so that I can admire them.

 

The New Year

Handmade gift for a friend's new baby boy.

 

Suddenly, as if without warning, January is almost over.   The seasonal holidays have come and gone in such a blur and I have had neither energy nor the creativity to write here.    The Christmas holidays crept up, as they usually do, and arrived before I knew it.  A and I were able to secure a few weeks off  work for a whirl wind trip to the coast to see family and friends.   Although I was much looking forward to our trip, the chaotic hustle of travel and environmental allergens of different homes and pets left me with a terrible sinus cold that I am still feeling the effects of to date.

 

 

 

Visiting the Marina where I wanted to purchase a locally made fisherman's sweater.

 

The holidays are always kept low-key. Gifts are generally tokens, hand made or consumable, allowing the emphasis to be placed on visiting rather than consumer goods.  We were able to spend a lot of time catching up, which is what the holidays are really all about.  when the rain broke, A and I were able to sneak away to one of my favourite places on the coast, a small salt marsh that houses one of the largest wild crab apple trees I have ever seen.  With the salmon run finished not too long ago, the area was covered in eagles feasting on the decaying fish.   The marsh is always a haven for wildlife and I'm never quite sure what I'm going to see when I venture there.  

 

 

A's childhood home, tucked inside a dense forest of cedars.

 



 

In Victoria, my family humoured me while I shopped for necessity items not found in our small city.  After the terrible hustle of the big box stores they took me to the various metaphysical shops in the area and we stopped in at a small gemstone store near my sister's condo. My only purchase was a palm sized piece of labradorite stone that glimmers with different colours when you hold it to the light.  A, who has always been fascinated with geodes, tolerated my indulgent buy.  

 

Back home we were greeted with a cold snap.  Our first morning back I awoke to -39 and a thick layer of ice on the inside of the windows.  The heated aquarium had evaporated quite a bit while we were gone and the moisture of which hung thich in the air.  It took a roaring woodstove and days to get the house warm again.

 

The remainder of the holidays was spent enjoying time off.   Afternoons were lazy, curled up in front of the wood stove with a book or wool in hand.   The new year always stirs a change in me and although I'm not one to put focus on resolutions, I do always adopt a theme for the upcoming year.  Last year's theme had me focused on creating - food from scratch, plants from the garden, clothing from wool.  This year's theme revolves around nurturing - whether that's tending to myself, my family, or the things around me.   I feel a shift coming and I am certain that I am ready for a new chapter in life.   I have opened myself up to the opportunity of new things to come my way.  

 

Salmon stream that runs through the marsh.  A startled eagle came off the riverbank, so close I could almost touch it.  He broke several branches off the trees before finally finding the open sky.

 



In my next life, this will be where my home is.

 

The boys, not interested in shopping, visited the local miniature exhibit.

 



What focus does the new year hold for you?

Back home with little dog almost fully recovered.

Making Soap - A Tutorial

It was only a few years ago that I first discovered how to make soap at home.  I don't think I've purchased store bought soap since.  The entire process is so quick that I can easily whip up batch or two that will last me for months.  Around the holidays I tend to make a few extra batches to include into gift baskets.   There's nothing quite like pure, homemade soap.

Essentially, there are two different way that you can make soap at home.  The cold process method and the hot process method.   The cold process produces a lovely, smooth bar of soap that is pleasing to the eye.  The downside to this method is that it can take weeks for your soap to cure before you can use it.   Because I am impatient I use the hot process method in which you cook your soap, speeding up the curing time.  This process produces a quick bar of soap that can be used immediately.  The hot process soaps tend to look a little more rustic - which is okay with me.

After trying many different recipes I have settled on this simple one from the Holy Hen House.  Her recipe uses easy to find oils and produces a fairly smooth, white bar of soap.  The recipe can be easily modified to include scents, essential oils, and any other goodies like coffee grinds or oatmeal.

To start off with, your going to need a few supplies.   The most important piece of equipment is an old slow cooker.  I picked up a sweet vintage one for a few bucks at the thrift store.  Your also going to need a tempered glass bowl, a scale, a heat resistant spatula or wooden spoon, and a loaf pan (not pictured).

 

Ingredients:

9.4 Ounces of Crisco

6 Ounces of Olive Oil

6 Ounces of Coconut Oil

8 Ounces of water (or tea, coffee, goat's milk....)

3 Ounces of Lye

Any other goodies you might want to add (Oatmeal, Herbs, Essential Oils)

 

 

 

 

Its important to remember that all your ingredients need to be measured by weight.  If you modify the ingredients be sure to enter it into a soap calculator to insure that the oils to lye ratio will work out.  Sometimes a like to add an ounce or two of castor oil to my soap, it makes a nice hard bar that lathers well.

Start out measuring out the oils and adding them to the slow cooker.  While the oils are melting measure out your water and lye and slowly ADD THE LYE TO THE WATER.   Be extremely careful while handling the lye, it is very caustic.  The chemical reaction causes the water to heat up extremely fast and produces harmful vapours.  Remember to put your glass bowl on a heat resistant surface and to open up the windows for ventilation.  It can be difficult to find lye in the stores, it's usually located in the drain cleaner area.  I bought mine from Home Hardware. 



Once the oils are melted and your lye solution has cooled down a bit, turn off the slow cooker and slowly add your lye solution into the oils.    At this point you want to stir the oils and lye solution together until it comes to trace.  Trace is achieved when your oil solution has reached the consistency of pudding.   It can be really handy to use an immersion blender to bring the oil solution to trace.   Once trace has been reached, turn the slow cooker back on to low and let your soap cook for about an hour of so.   The soap will puff up and start to look like mashed potatoes when its finished.  Turn off your slow cooker, let your soap cool somewhat and feel free to stir any extras like ground oatmeal or essential oils.  

You can let your soap firm up in any shaped container that you like.  I like to use a silicone loaf pan.  The silicone makes it easy to pop the soap out once it has hardened, plus it has a nice design on the bottom of the pan.  If you use a metal or glass loaf pan, its advisable to line your container with parchment paper so that the soap doesn't stick to the sides.  

Scoop your soap into your pan and try to smooth out the top as much as you can.  Let the soap harden over night.  In the morning you can pop out your loaf of soap and easily cut it up into bars.  At this point, you can use the soap right away but I like to let mine dry out on the cooling rack for a week or so.  



My latest batch of soap: Plain, unscented.

 

In other news, things have been pretty quiet around the house.  We finally got our peacock stained glass window hung.   I bought it at a garage sale in the summer along with a pretty stained glass lamp for a few a few bucks.  The panel was built into a strange light box so we disassembled the entire thing, framed the glass, and antiqued it. We hung it in the kitchen window to hide the underside of the roof that overhangs our front door.  Eventually we want to do a small kitchen renovation and take out this window but in the mean time it provides some coverage.

A few weeks ago Little Dog had some sort of accident while I was at work.   A was away, working out of town, and in the middle of the night I was awoken by her distressed whining.  The vet thinks she had pinched a nerve and she lost the motor function of her back legs.   They sent us home with an anti-inflammatory, muscle relaxers, and strict orders of bed rest.   Slowly she has been gaining the use of her legs, but it's a long process and A and I have to be careful to constantly keep an eye on her.   When she goes out to do her business we have to support her back end with a towel under her hips.  My doctors have been kind enough to have her come into the office for chiropractic adjustments.  It will a frustrating next couple of months but we love our fur babe and would do anything for her.

 

The dog's lack of mobility has kept us all pretty close to home.  Walks in the bush just don't seem the same without her quick, short pace beside me.  Instead, we have been enjoying the comforts of home, cozy evenings close to the woodstove, comfort foods and baking.  I have a few crochet crafts and sewing projects on go to keep my hands from being idle.  We have been sampling the local craft beers in the evening.  I'm not a huge drinker these days, but a dark, malty ale is hard to resist. 
I plan on making a large pot of vegan chili for dinner tonight.   A has proclaimed this recipe to be the best chili he has ever had.  What type of comforts are you enjoying to stay cozy this winter?

 

 

Autumn

The temperatures have been changing and this morning I spotted snow on hills surrounding our community.  With a forecasted low this evening I asked A to change over the summer mudders on the jeep to my studded winter tires.   Last year, it was just after Samhain that we got our first good snow, honestly though, I would not be surprised if I woke up to snow tomorrow morning.  

Witchy Little Dogs.

Surprisingly, the garden still seems to be going strong.  The swiss chard is growing like mad and I pulled a few of many remaining lettuce heads in anticipation for the frost.   Potatoes and garlic were planted a few weeks ago and carrots will remain in the ground until the frost goes deep.  Although the wild asparagus around town has already turned orange, the asparagus I planted in the garden in only now just starting to change colour at the tips.  Now is the time to mark wild asparagus for spring harvest.  The fern like foliage turns a vibrant shade of orange and is easily spotted along the roadside or in the fields.

In preparation for Samhain, A and I visited the historical Padova City, an old deserted, self sufficient community outside of Kamloops.  In recent years, the town has been bought up and slowly renovated back to its former glory.   The current owners have opened a farmers market and offer a corn maze and tunnel tours during the fall season.  A and I picked up a couple of pumpkins for carving and then wandered down the property line towards the river.  

 The old barn refinished. 

 

 

 

The roadside is overgrown with hundreds of crab apple trees.  We stopped briefly to collect a large bag full.  At home, the tiny apples were washed, trimmed, and frozen for future jelly making.

Amazing views from the property overlooking the river and mountains.

On the drive home we stopped at a light on the highway and looked up to see this guy.  He was perched atop the hillside surveying the passing traffic below.  His beautiful horns formed an almost full circle with the points ending just at his eyes. 

Once home again A focuses on the chicken coop.  It seems to be hanging in a state of 'almost finished' for the last few weeks.   The hardy board has almost been completed and there will only be finishing touches to add next spring.   I am excited to get some ladies next year and I hope they will appreciate all the hard work we've put into their home. 

Autumn has always been my favorite time of year and I try to put aside time to savour the things I enjoy about it.  Our farm fresh pumpkins have already been prepped for carving.  The seeds have been washed and roasted with a sprinkling of pink salt and a generous coating of nutritional yeast. 
The fridge has been stocked with pumpkin ales from various craft breweries.  I don't drink very often anymore but pumpkin ale comes but once a year and I've definitely been indulging in the rich, spiced beer.  As an experiment, I've been trying my hand and brewing my own hard apple cider.  I've always been interested in starting my own home brewing and when I happened upon a case of old amber glass swing top bottles at the thrift store, I knew I had to start.  Currently I have two small carboys fermenting in the basement pantry.  One is filled with cheap filtered juice from the grocery shelf and another with the expensive freshly pressed cider that comes in it's own glass jug.   We will see which yields a better drink.  I plan to document the entire process in a future posting.  Until then...

 

In Our Backyard

 

When we first moved to the country we spent a lot of time exploring the off roads.  We would pack a lunch, bundle up Little Dog, consult the back roads maps, and head off in the jeep.   After over a year of living here, I feel like I have a fairly good idea of where each path leads off to.   The other weekend, we decided to follow a new path that had been cleared for logging.   A short drive down the path and we came to a large clearing next to a small lake that we hadn't visited before.  Obviously a popular camping site, the area was set up with multiple campfire rings and a long rope swing strung up between two extremely large pines.   A wobbly dock led through the cattails towards the water for fishing.   The area was breath taking in itself but made that much more wonderful by the bright oranges and yellows of the autumn season.

 

Follow the dilapidated dock to deeper waters.

 

Dragonfly sunning herself as I passed by.

A week later I learned that the entire area has been marked for logging.  We often take for granted the beauty that is just beyond our back door.