Adventures in Art Journalling

As if I really need another hobby, I have adventured into the amazing world of Art Journalling.  I have been drooling over some of of the journals I've seen over the past year (maybe two).  I even started a board on Pinterest for Art Journalling, which up until recently didn't have many posts.  Now there are many.

To be honest with you, for as much as I admired the work of so many others, I kept thinking I could never be as creative or colorful.  Yet I've continued to be drawn to mixed media artwork.  Recently, however, I joined a mail art swap.  Having no idea what mail art really was, I started doing some homework and found that there is (or can be) a lot of mix media involved.  Here was my chance.  

My husband, who has always been an awesome supporter of my need to create, travelled with me to the craft store to purchase a few starter supplies.  Fortunately, many years ago I had done a (very little) bit of scrap booking, and therefore already had some supplies.  

So I went to work!  I started by spreading some gesso over two pages of my journal, then layering some distress inks on the pages.  Once dry, I sprinkled some water droplets over the pages to give the effect below.

Amazing what you can do with just water and paint!

I knew I wanted to create a woodsy theme, but wasn't quite sure how to get there.  I don't have any fancy stencils or an embossing/die cutting machine with cool tree patterns.  I pulled out my Koi Watercolor set and tried painting a mountain scene, but wasn't feeling it.  

I searched the internet for some free tree artwork that I could print and glue into my journal, and while I saw some neat ideas, nothing really jumped out at me.  Then I remembered that I had a few books of printed craft paper that I use for origami.  And I found this:

Perfect!  I could cut out the trees and glue them into my journal.  Here they are before I cut off the excess pieces hanging over the edges.

And after...

I glued all the trees on using gel medium, a technique I saw on a YouTube video.  I still have a lot to learn, as it further mixed the distress stains and water splotches.  I didn't realize that would happen.  So I just filled in the spaces with some more color from my Fabrer Castell Gelatos, which are really nice to work with....

Then added some more trees, birds, stars, and leaves...

And I'm not sure how I want to finish it off, so I'm just letting it be for now until the remainder of the inspiration comes.  I'll make sure to post a picture of the finished page when it is, indeed, finished!

Back from Haitus

The Singing Tree, as we call him, stands at the entrance to the back pasture.
This time of year I imagine him singing to try to coax in Spring.  

Sometimes the things in life that bring us joy get put on hold, shoved aside, or boxed up and closeted altogether.  We all have times like these, and it's okay.  It happens for this reason or that, an illness, a new baby, a new job, a big move, or we just simply need to retreat from the world for a time.  I think of these as just seasons in life - go with it - don't beat yourself up - just accept it and move on.  It's all part of the discovery.  

So here I am, back from my little retreat and ready to move on.  I needed a little kick in the pants to get back to the more meaningful things in my life.  The things that keep me sane.  The things that let me create.  The things that give me joy.  It's been a journey and will continue to be a journey.  I've been learning to accept myself as I am, beautifully imperfect.  It's a process, and there are good days and bad.  But here goes nothing....

Sumac Tea

Staghorn Sumac steeping in 1/2 gallon jar.

For two years now I have been familiar with the fact that Staghorn Sumac berries could be used to make a tart tasting drink.  For two years, I have pondered when the best time to harvest would be and how to go about making the tea.  I watched the seasons come and go, and new sets of berries replace the ones from last summer.  I read literature and web information, and viewed countless videos of others making this tea.  This week I finally decided I was going to ponder no longer.  So I went out and harvested about five sets of berries, brought them home, stuffed them (only about 4) into a half gallon jar, filled it with spring water, and set it out in the sun.  I was so proud of myself.  I'm not sure why it took me so long to actually try it.  Perhaps because in this day and age, we tend to view wild food as...well wild and inedible.  We seem to have lost the teachings and skills of our ancestors long ago.  Foods they would have foraged for we deem inedible.  As a matter of fact, I think we tend to view anything not found in a grocery store as "poisonous".

I've spent the last year studying my local plants; working to identify as many as I can, and then determine if they have medicinal or edible qualities.  I've learned so much, but the one thing I find is that the more I learn, the more there is to learn.  I'm amazed by how many edible plants there are, and even more amazed by the medicinal qualities many possess.

After being steeped for four hours and then strained.

So here it is.  My Sumac Tea after steeping in the sun for about four hours.  I was pleasantly surprised by the flavor.  To me it resembles the flavor of a sweet tart.  I added a little bit of sugar this time as I wanted to know what it would taste with regular sugar before I experimented with other sweeteners, like stevia, honey, and maple syrup.  I couldn't believe how good it was!  I believe this is one of nature's best kept secrets!  So how did I make it?  Well there's loads of resources and videos out there on making Sumac Tea, and I highly recommend checking them out before you make your own, but here's how I made mine:

1) place 4 or 5 groups of berries into a half gallon jar
2) fill the jar with spring water
3) set out in the sun (again, I left mine for 4 hours - experiment with what tastes best to you)
4) strain through a clean towel (I used paper towels); this removes all the fuzzies from the berries and other debris.
5) add sweetener if desired, perhaps some ice if still warm, and enjoy!

Now a word of caution!  There are different "types" of Sumac.  Staghorn Sumac, Rhus typhinia, is what you want to use.  You can't miss it, really.  It grows everywhere around here, and can commonly be found in disturbed areas and roadsides.  However, there is also a Poison Sumac, Toxicodendron vernix.  So you need to make sure you get a positive ID on any plant before you use it as an edible.  There are many references out there like the USDA plant fact sheets, Wikipedia, Wildflowers of Western PA (search under families - C for Cashew family), and the Ohio Public Library Information Network.  These are just a few of the first websites that came up when I searched for Staghorn Sumac.  There are many more.  I can honestly say that I have never (to my knowledge) seen poison sumac.  But have read and been told that it has white berries.  These are (obviously) NOT edible; hence the name.  Staghorn Sumac and Poison Sumac are in the same family, and  actually in the same family as Poison Ivy, Anacardiaceae, though they look nothing alike.

Have any of you ever made Staghorn Sumac Tea or used it medicinally?  I'd love to hear from you, so please feel free to comment.

Yarn Along at Summer's End

FO: Octopus from the book Amigurumi Knits by Hansi Singh

Joining Ginny's Yarn Along

Okay, so maybe it's not really summer's end, but for me, the freedom of days to myself, working in the garden, spinning, knitting, and spending time with my two alpacas is sadly over.  The reality of having to go back to work is here, and I will be forced to be much more strict with time management, as I will have to carefully balance work and farm life.

The garden, early on.  Before my zucchini flopped.

Summer has been quite a busy one, and the busier I was, the faster it went.  The garden I didn't get planted until mid-June began providing us with food about four weeks ago.  While my zucchini plants rotted (totally my faulty for planting them too close), my beans have exploded!  I filled a five gallon bucket the last two mornings.  I was able to barter with my next door neighbors for tomatoes.  This was a good trade, as my husband got a bit too aggressive with pruning our plants and our tomato harvest is minuscule.

A mixture of wild flowers including Calendula, Poppy, Red Clover, and some other Composite.

I also spent much of the summer learning as many of my local plants as possible; figuring out which can be used as foods and/or medicines.  I've made a number of my own tinctures: Yarrow, Motherwort, Plantain, and Calendula.  I hope to take some time and write more about these later as some have curious stories to go along with them.  Lastly,  I've also focused on growing some of my own medicinal herbs: Calendula, Comfrey, Lemon Balm, Spearmint, Catnip, California Poppies, to name a few.  It's been amazing to watch these plants grow.

Bracken and Bramble, happy to be among their own kind.

We spent the summer searching for a farm of our own, with no luck, I must add.  So as my summer was coming to an end, we realized that it wasn't going to be feasible to continue to travel each night to the farm where we had been exchanging with a friend alpaca boarding for splitting the chores.  She has sheep and goats and took care of the morning chores; we did the night chores.  Since I will be teaching night classes starting this coming week, we decided to move our two girls to board at another farm where they will be cared for by the owners of the farm.  It was a good move, even if I'm sad that I don't get to interact with them on a daily basis.  They are with other alpacas and seem much happier.  And this makes me happy.

The summer edition of Mary Jane's Farm and my second Octopus

I'm still working on the book "The Snow Child" by Eowyn Ivey (I've actually renewed it from the library twice now).  And while it was a summer goal to actually 'read' it, new textbooks and lecture writing have become its replacement.  I may just end up finding the audiobook and enjoying it during my commutes.  We'll see.  I did pick the latest edition of Mary Jane's Farm magazine recently, however.  I love this magazine, but only purchase it occasionally as I already subscribe to Mother Earth News, Mother Earth Living, and Spin Off.  But this edition was packed full of articles on growing and using medicinal herbs.  I couldn't resist.  

From hand dyed, handspun BFL.  

I finished my hand warmers from the last Yarn Along and have been knitting Octopi (I actually think the plural of octopus is 'octopuses').  These were the reason I learned to knit few years ago, and have just felt learned enough to complete them now.  They are an amigurumi patterns by Hansi Singh in her book "Amigurumi Knits".  You can also find the pattern here on Ravelry.  If you enjoy knitting amigurumi, she has some other fabulous patterns as well.

And guess what?!  It won a first place ribbon at the Butler Farm Show!

Yarn Along

This is the first time I've participated in the Yarn Along, but one of my goals this summer (I've taken the summer off!) was to actually read a book; not just listen to it as an audiobook, as I so often do, but actually read it.  I even went so far as to (finally) get a library card to my local library just so I could borrow this book.

I saw this book recommended by SpiderWomanKnits in one of her Instagram photos.  I've only just begun reading, but from the cover's description, it is about a childless couple who moved from Pennsylvania to the wilds of Alaska.  Longing for a child of their own, they build a girl out of snow only to find that she magically turns into a "real" girl.  Here's the actual synopsis from the inside cover of the book:

I'm really looking forward to this book as there seem to be many parallels with my own life.

As for what I'm knitting: I'm working on a set of knitter's mittens or fingerless gloves.  But I'm knitting two at a time on the same needles and from the same center pull ball.

I've never done this before, but I always find that (since I'm usually making up the pattern as I go along) I forget what I've done on the first one, so the second is slightly different.

I figure that if I knit them at the same time, the pattern will be exactly the same.  I'm using some of my hand dyed, hand spun BFL that I had stashed away for such an occasion.

The summer has been pretty darn rainy so far.  On one hand, all the rain has been really good for my late planted garden (I didn't get it in until almost mid-June!).  My beans, squash, and zucchini are getting ready to bloom already!  On the other hand, everything is so incredibly wet and muddy.  I can say though, that when it's raining, I don't feel guilty about staying inside, reading a book, spinning, or sewing.  Those are things that are difficult for me to do when it's nice outside.  We had a pretty big storm this morning and then again this evening.  They were calling for flash flooding, and as you can see below, we got it.

Fortunately we live on top of the hill!  

A Facelift and Some Bees

Our new bees!

Where do you start when you haven't blogged in over four months?  I guess with a facelift, which is just what Sprout the Right Brained Bean got this afternoon.  It took some time and fenangling to get things just the way I liked - I'm certainly no computer genius (that's my husband's forte) - but I'm pretty pleased with the new look.  Sure there's still some work to do.  Life in itself is a work in progress?

A lot has happened in four months.  Life has felt a lot busier since we moved the girls to their new (temporary) dwellings.  We swap boarding fees for the nightly chores of taking care of not only our two alpacas, but a menagerie of 20 other sheep and goats.  It sure has been fun interacting with all of them - what personalities they have - but it is easily an hour or more out of each night, as they are 10 miles away.  We are still searching for our own home and farm (looking at a place today, as a matter of fact). And it will be so nice to have all our animals in one place one day.  But for now, we make this work.

We also added a hive of bees to our ever-growing homestead.  Last fall, at the Mother Earth News Fair, we purchased a top bar hive from Bee Thinking in Portland, OR, and couldn't bee happier with it (pun intended)!  Then in March we took a beginner bee keeping class from Christy Hemenway (who I also heard speak at the Mother Earth News Fair) with Gold Star Honeybees.  We learned so much, and it gave us the confidence to get ourselves going in a land where no one else keeps bees in top bar hives (or at least we don't know of anyone).  She's been such a wonderful mentor through the beginning of our beekeeping adventures!  I can't say enough about how available and patient she's been with us.  And it's seriously been an adventure - our bees swarmed a month and a half after we got them, leaving us with half the bees and a queenless hive (we accidentally destroyed the new queen cells left behind)!  It took us a month to confirm that we had no queen, and once we did, we immediately had a new on shipped to us.  Would you believe that in a mere 10 days, she had laid eggs in SEVEN full combs!?  We couldn't believe it either!

There she is!  With the shiny black thorax!  Our new queen!

We've been extremely pleased with our bees, thus far (other that the swarming).  They really are a calm bunch.  We never have to smoke them to examine the hive.  As a matter of fact, the one (and only) time that we tried, only agitated them.  So we said, "Enough of that!"  We've come to find that you can tell the mood of your hive just by the sound of their buzzing.  This was very evident during the month they were queenless.  They actually sounded frantic during that time.  Once their new queen arrived, they calmed down - almost immediately.  It was amazing.  They too are up with our alpacas, as my friend's farm has an abundance of flowering plants.  The bees seem very happy there.

Well, this doesn't begin to cover my four month absence and all that has happened/changed on the farm, but it's a start.  One last note:  I didn't completely disappear; I spend a lot of time on Instagram!  So come on over there and visit!  There's a link to my Instagram on the left side of the screen!

The App that Shocks the World

Time can really fly by fast.  I can't believe it's been over two months since we moved the girls to their new farm, the holidays are through, and everyone is well acquainted with the new year, eagerly anticipating spring.  I know I'm ready for spring!  I can't wait to see all the green starting to pop up, followed by the colorful flowers, the warmer breezes, and the bustling of farm and wildlife.

But that's not really what this particular post is about.  Instead, I just wanted to share a couple of fantastic new photo apps for the iPhone that I discovered this week!  Each of these pictures was just ordinary to begin with.  Then they were 'shocked' using ShockMyPic, and finally captioned with Overgram to create a work of art!  I truly love what can be done with photography nowadays, and I especially love ShockMyPic.  It creates sort of a "paint-by-number" effect with your photos, that really makes the details and color stick out.

I love photographing nature, but sometimes when I look at the pictures afterward, they just don't seem to have captured the color and contrast.  Now the details are drawn back out and enhanced.

And nifty little captions added with Overgram......

I seem to be spending more time on Instagram these days.  Check out the link on the right!  Have a great day!

Closer To Home

Bramble in front and Bracken in the back.

This weekend we moved our girls to a farm closer to ours. The reasons for their move are many (which I won't get into in this post). Sunday was the big day and my brother-in-law was so kind as to bring down his mini van to help in the transport (yes folks, two alpacas fit comfortably in the back of a mini van). The transport went well; both girls just laid right down for the ride. Once we arrived, introductions were in order.  We weren't moving to another ordinary alpaca farm, instead we would be boarding with a few sheep and a goat.  I did a lot of research beforehand to see if a farm of mixed company is possible.  Some say 'absolutely not', others have found it works just fine.  It all boiled down to the fact that we really had no other choice, and a friend was kind enough to offer her barn and pasture.  Sometimes we just have to do what we have to do.

Mamma, Leo, and Bracken

Introductions went surprisingly well.  And while the girls first reaction was a resounding, "You've got to be kidding me!" (they were quite pampered at their previous farm), and they reluctantly walked the perimeter of the pasture with us, they were in the barn munching within the first hour of being there.  Of course, so were the goat and sheep once they saw the yummy vittles.  Soon the other sheep joined.  Bramble laid down and could care less that everyone was sniffing her out.  She sniffed back.  Bracken was a bit more apprehensive but snobbishly tolerated her new acquaintances.  By nightfall, everyone was bedded down.  If its not pouring down rain, the sheep typically stay outside.  Bracken and Bramble stayed in the barn, and when my friend Lisel went out to check on them, her one male sheep BG (short for Big Gulp - a 7-Eleven thing), was bedded down with them, protecting his new girls.  And all was well at the end of day number one.

The morning after.....eating with sheep.

The next morning started out just fine.  The girls followed the sheep to the hay and snacked with them. By afternoon, however, we discovered our first issue: sheep and alpacas (at least on this farm) eat differently.  The sheep, as far as I could gather, get fed twice a day.  They scarf it all down quickly then mosey on their merry way.  The alpacas are used to having hay available 24-7, and don't scarf.  We had a feeling this would be a problem the night before and actually went to Tractor Supply and purchased a hanging hay feeder.  We think that if we hang in high enough that the girls can still get to it, but the sheep cannot, it will solve our problem.  In the mean time, I needed to get my girls fed.  I put a small amount of grain in their bowls to get them to come into the barn.  They did, but so did Mamma and Leo.  Problem number two.  To give the girls a bit of grain, I will need to separate them from the sheep and goat.  I'm not going to lie and tell you that I had this all figured out in a matter of a few minutes.  I did not.  The girls ran back out into the pasture and wanted nothing to do with the barn.  I knew they were hungry, so had no choice but to lure the sheep back in the barn with a small flake of hay, and take a bucket out to the girls.

Finally, food!

That bucket was gone in ten minutes.  I went for another one.  By now it had started to rain quite significantly.  My reaction..., "Really?"  I was wet and cold, the girls were wet and wanted to lay down.  It was supposed to rain hard into the next morning.  This just wasn't going to work.  So I got their halters.  Bracken, of course, wanted nothing to do with it, but Bramble let me put her's on with little fuss.  Off to the barn we went, and Bracken followed.  And so did the sheep.  And it just just poured!  Bracken decided she wouldn't come in the barn.  The two cried back and forth to each other, and I cried too.  I didn't know what to do, but finally said, "Pull yourself together, Rachael!  It's not like you've never dealt with livestock before."   Goal #1: Get them out of the rain!  Bracken eventually came close enough that I was able to get her halter on and bring her in the barn.  Goal #2: Get them their own space, at least for the night where they'll be safe and dry.  There is another stall that Lisel uses during lambing season.  Well, no lambs now!  I took them out of the pasture, and over into the second stall (you can't get to it from anywhere else in the barn).  Long story long, my husband eventually showed up (I had been soaking wet and cold for three hours now), we fashioned a gate across the doorway of the stall, moved the water in with the girls as well as their minerals, dried them off, and got them hay.  SIGH!  We did it.  At least for tonight.  I'm sure we are going to run into more obstacles, but all we can do is take them one day at a time.  Thankfully I am done with school until the middle of next month.  Hopefully by then, we will have (most of) the kinks worked out until we can find our own place.

In The Middle of Autumn

Zendala Dare #28 (template from The Bright Owl)

As always, I am behind....on everything.  That old saying "two steps forward, three steps back".  Yep, that's me.  Slowly I am getting caught up on things around the farm, the house, fiber, and other crafts.  And I have to admit that one of the biggest contributing factors is lack of organization or prioritizing my time.  (Okay...that was two contributing factors).  So I've started making myself a list of everything that I need/would like to get accomplished the following day.  I don't always get it all done, but it allows me to cross things off as they are completed, and there is something encouraging about seeing things crossed off your list. 

Here's today's list, and as you can see, I've still got a lot to do!  Most are in preparation for family that is coming to stay at the farm for the Thanksgiving weekend.  But others are 'long overdues'.  Like plucking (angora) rabbits - starting with Runtdungus Fletcher (aka: Runt), getting some custom (craft) orders finished, and attending to our Kombucha brew.  Oy!  That one's definitely long overdue.  Both of our SCOBYs are about 3 inches thick.  If there is anyone other there locally who is looking to start their own kombucha, we can get you hooked up with a fully functional SCOBY!  Otherwise, my sister read and shared with me yesterday that the extra SCOBYs can go to our chickens.  I think I'm going to try that.  

Above is my Zendala Dare #28.  I am also behind with my dares, but I do have so much fun with them!  Can you see the octopus in the center with it's arms branching out.  I really love this zentangle, called Suckers by Lizzie Mayne.  I played around with adding the sharp Cephalopod beak in the middle.  Then I kept with a sort of sea monster theme and added portholes, planks, and seaweed (in mooka form).  I was pretty happy with it.  I've only recently (within the last couple of months) begun participating in Erin's Zendala Dares.  If you are interested in participating, check out the link on the right side of the screen.  

Frankenstorm

A recent screen shot from The Weather Channel.  

Who would have thought that living on the western border of Pennsylvania we would be closing things up for a hurricane?  I certainly wouldn't have.  I was living in Virginia Beach during Isabel, and that was quite an experience, but I never thought that in moving back to PA, I would experience another hurricane.  And here we are.  In the middle of what is being called Frankenstorm - partly named for Halloween, I suppose, and the other part because its such a monster of a storm.   Now we tend to experience ridiculous winds up here on the hill, but these experienced today truly beat all.  Fortunately I was able to get all the animals fed, bedded down, and all closed up before the worst of it hit around 5pm this evening.  The sound of the wind outside is tremendous!  The house is creaking and cracking under its force.

Surprisingly, so far we only lost power for about an hour earlier this evening.  It was of course while we were making dinner.  We decided to run down into town and grab a pizza, and of course came back to find the electric restored.  What are you going to do?  I have a feeling, however, that another outage is imminent.  So I think I am going to call it a night, head to bed, and hope to wake up with the house still in it's original spot!  =)

Zendala Dare #27

Zendala Dare #26 - an October Zentangle

Zombie Eyes, Skulls, Spider Webs, and Fanged Grubbs!

I think this has been my favorite zendala dare so far.  I too love October!  The pumpkins, changing leaves, cooler days, warm apple cider, frost on the ground, indian corn, and did I mention the colorful leaves!?  =)

New Etsy Listings

I believe that I listed my largest group of baskets last night.  That's not really saying much...it was still only 13, but that is a lot for me trying to work full time + and maintain my Etsy store.  I have to admit, I really do love to see all that color on one page.  Two found new homes with in an hour!  That will never cease to amaze me.  I now have colorful cauldrons all over the continent.  Happily sitting on shelves, filled with fiber or other goodies (or so that's what I imagine for them).  That's what I created them for - a vessel to complement all my colorful, handspun yarn.  I found I just couldn't stop making them.  It is a great stress reliever for me after a long day/week.  I'm drawn to color, and these are just an expression of that passion.

Tonight is not a cauldron-making night, nor is it a spinning night, however.  It's been a long week and I'm quite exhausted.  I think I will just sit back and knit for awhile, until these tired eyes just can't stay awake any longer.  With only four hours of sleep last night, I think that time will come sooner than I think.

Zendala Dare #25

Just getting caught up on Zendala Dares!  If I'm lucky, I'll have this week's dare posted BEFORE the end of the week.  I have so much fun with these that I typically fill in all three templates!

Zendala Dare #24

From The Mother Earth News Fair - Part 1

This was my third year attending the Mother Earth News Fair at Seven Springs mountain Resort in Pennsylvania. I have to say, it gets better every year! And it grows every year. There were so many excellent seminars and interesting vendors that I think I'm going to have to write about it in parts. This being Part 1.

We booked our cabin at Kooser State Park last January. It was the same cabin me and my sister stayed in last fall only this year there were six of us staying there. My husband and I, my sister and her husband, and our parents. It's a small cabin, but we made it work just fine.  Here we are (well, minus me - taking the picture, of course, and my husband who still had to work) on our arrival at the cabin Thursday evening.  We wanted to get there a day early to get all settled in, build a campfire, and just enjoy being in the mountains.

DAY ONE - FRIDAY

The fair started at noon on Friday.  We, of course, got their early.  I know from previous fairs that the best seating is had from getting there early.  I could hardly contain my excitement!  The first seminar I attended was on Perennial Herbs by Tammi Hartung.  I have to say, I really enjoyed her talk.  She spoke slow enough that you could take tons of notes (I like taking notes), and showed lots of pictures.  We learned about all sorts of different perennial herbs (of course), their uses, and how to grow and incorporate them into your gardens.  And while her book was gone by the time I made it up to the bookstore, it was definitely on my homesteading bookshelf wishlist.  I ordered it as soon as I got home, love it, and highly recommend it to anyone interested in perennial herbs.   My mom and sister both attended this seminar with me.

Next I headed up to a Crafting Herbal Salves seminar with Sue Morris of Sue's Salves, a fellow Pennsylvanian.  She gave a brief intro to making herbal salves, showed a great video of a walkthrough of her herbal garden, and also passed along her salve making recipe.  I picked up a piece of comfrey root, which she brought in from her garden.  I planted it last weekend, and to my surprise, it's already growing new shoots!  With the weather cooling off, and being past the fall equinox I hadn't expected it to do much of anything until next spring.  You can imagine my elation to see that new little leaf sprouting up from the ground, and only after a few days.  I suppose that just speaks to the healing power of the plant.  We later purchased some of her comfrey salve, as I didn't think I would have a chance to make some of my own until spring.  I've already used it for a skin abrasion and was amazed and how quickly it healed.  I'm sure excited to have this plant in my garden now.

My 4 o'clock seminar was on (Medicinal) Mountain Roots of the Appalachias.  Seeing a theme here?  I am currently completing a course in field botany online, geared towards identifying medicinal plants.  My main focus for the fair was to learn as much about these plants and their applications as I could.  How interesting to learn of all the plants locally available to heal us.  I imagine that this was something that generations before us already knew.  How quickly we forget with today's 'modern' medicine.  I didn't get to stay for the whole talk, though, as my husband surprised me with his early arrival!  We walked around for about a half hour as I acclimated him with the location of the various stages.

We finally ended up back outside for our last seminar of the day, Planting By The Moon, again with Sue Morris.  What a fascinating talk.  I knew that the moon influenced many activities here on Earth.  That was evident as I watched the changing tides during the few years I lived on the east coast.  Initially I would have thought that it was a bunch of hocus pocus, but it makes complete sense.  Afterall, if the moon can affect the oceans like it does, how could it not affect other living organisms.  We are 70(ish)% water.  I will be curious to see how planting by the moon changes the outcome of my garden from hear on out.

So there's our first day in a nutshell!  There was so much to see.  I was so glad that we had another two days to meander around the vendors between our seminars!

Zendala Dare #23

It was a very crazy and exciting weekend!  We attended the Mother Earth News Fair in Seven Springs, PA.  It was excellent!!  I have a lot to tell, but wanted to get my Zendala Dare #23 posted (late again!).  I pondered over this one.  For quite a while.  But have to admit, this is my favorite zentangle so far.  I went for a steampunk theme, inspired by Molossus for the bike chain and gears, then added my own pipes, etc.  I finished it last Friday night but didn't have a way to post it from the cabin we were staying in.  Oh well, better late than never.  Here are a couple others:

I will tell about the Mother Earth News Fair soon!

Mother Earth News Fair

It's finally here folks!  This weekend at the Seven Springs Mountain Resort in the southern mountains of Pennsylvania people from all over will gather to participate in all sorts of sustainable living activities and seminars!  This is the third year for the fair to take place in this area, and I'm super excited!  The past two years have been incredible.  This year they have extended the fair from two days to three days; Friday - Sunday.  There are so many excellent seminars I can't wait to attend.  And you can find something to interest just about anyone.  What I love so much about this event is that it doesn't matter your walk of life, we all gather with a common goal: To live life more sustainably.  To become part of the solution, not the problem.  To rekindle that fire for a simpler life.  To share in our experiences.

I'm even more excited for this year as my husband will be able to attend with me.  Not only that, my sister and her husband, and both of our parents are coming as well.  My sister attended with me last year.  But I'm really looking forward to having the whole crew there this weekend.

So if you have nothing planned for this weekend, and your in the area (or if your not), hop on out!  It's sure to be a grand ole time, folks!