Home

We are just returned from a trip to the Pacific Northwest- San Juan Islands and Vancouver Island, specifically. All that water and sky was a sight to behold for these forest-dwellers, and we reveled in the lavender and salt-scented dry air. We arrived home unprepared for the humidity and mosquitoes, the muggy, buggy, ides of July. The wee one's little face is swollen with bites, and is freshly out of a baking soda bath with calamine lotion covering his forehead and neck.

Two ducks were lost while we were away; several injured. We have a gaggle of limping waterfowl. Jake discovered a hole in the run and last night he and the dog were out in the dark chasing away a family of raccoons, after having been startled awake by quacks and crows. A small raccoon was trapped and relocated to the nearby conservancy, and the trap is baited yet again for tonight with old salami. We'll see what comes.

We also came home to these, however!

And even more excitingly, these!

Both our colonies died out over the winter, of one or more of many causes much read about and discussed and shared with neighboring beekeepers. Given the other commitments and diversions we engaged in this spring and early summer, we had yet to clean the boxes, but some swarming or wild colony has moved in, and is very busy, as bees are wont to be. 

We are happy to have had room for them. 

Signs of Spring

Crocus are popping up!

The SUN!

Early Mother's Day gift: jogging stroller! 

Maple finally finished off and jarred.

Swingin'.

Such is Early Spring

Boiling sap on evenings and weekends... we've been so busy we haven't jarred any syrup yet, but we think we'll be done by tomorrow's end.

Hiking deer trails searching for antler sheds. No dice, still, although we did find an owl pellet, something I've also been hoping to find for a long time! Jake thinks this is a barred owl feather, but I haven't looked it up yet. Regardless, with the light from an early spring sunset shining through, its beautiful.

I spotted some daffodil leaves poking through muddy snow yesterday, and the calendar marches on toward the season of sun and heat. Spring is coming. 

Right? 

For now, I dream of trillium and morels. 

Why not?

Rubber duckies, you're the ones...

Naturally Dyed Easter Eggs

I haven't made Easter eggs in several years, and I was more than a little excited about them this year, because of Xan, our own fowl's recent return to egg-laying, and because I need some spring in my life.
Xan and I brought some onion skins and goose eggs to our friends' cozy home yesterday afternoon and had a lovely time. We visited, played, and egged. When I got home I couldn't stop, and tried several more methods. They're beautiful!

My favorites are the marbled ones, like the large goose egg in the center. My friend showed me how to soak onion skins and wrap them around eggs, then wrap them in a clean rag and boil them.

We also pressed dried violets and herbs onto the eggshells and wrapped them in cloth before soaking them in dye made from boiled onion skins.

Blueberries

Beets

Turmeric

Brown egg in onion skin dye

Red cabbage

Promise of Spring

It is coming, isn't it?

Water Cress & Maple Sap

March, now

In like a lion indeed! We're all home today- schools and roads closed due to Winter Storm Saturn. She
sounds scarier than she looks, but I say that from the cozy comfort of the wood stove's warmth.

We're spending the day playing outside,

Climbing stairs, 

Playing peekaboo, 

Bathtime/Booktime, 

Chicken-checking,

And finally shelling the rest of last summer's beans. 

Perusing of seed catalogs, a snowshoe hike, a nap for Xan, work on our new table/dining booth for Jake, and a lot of homework for me ahead. 

Snow days, oh how I love you.

Driveway Sledding

We can't drive on it these days, but it is a great sledding hill!

Strange Weather We're Having...

Freezing rain on Monday, ice on Tuesday, snow on Wednesday. Its been a strange week, and I've hardly been at school. My last post, wahoo-ing Jake and I for being smart about our vehicles and our driveway should be disregarded. We both drove our cars up on Monday night, and Jake went to work on Tuesday, meaning he drove his down. Mine stayed up here, and might remain here until spring. The combination of precipitation we've received has made our driveway an ice-skating rink, now with 7 inches of soft snow on top. Today we hiked down the hill through the woods, not on the driveway, because it felt safer, despite the steep pitch and deep snow.

Here's some scenes from the last few days:

Other discoveries made: dry beans can be cooked in the crockpot! Beeswax, olive oil, and eucalyptus oil works like Vick's VapoRub! Our house can be 81 degrees and still feel cold!

This weekend we're headed to the Westby Ski Jump with some friends- a rollicking good time, featuring amazing athletes. Truly an amazing thing, these guys. Google it!

We hope your shovels and snowblowers served faithfully today.