Tales From the Green Valley

For those of you who loved and enjoyed Edwardian Farm and Victorian Farm, here's another great historical BBC program starring your favorite historians, Ruth, Alex, and Peter, as well as other historical experts who have joined them.   Spend a "year" in the 1620s discovering what life was like in a time before all of our modern luxuries.  Could you have lived then?

In Comes the New Year

Whether we like it or not, the new year has crept in (for me) almost unnoticed.  I think the older I get, the faster each year passes.  Does anyone else remember how time used to pass slower when we were kids?  Summer breaks went on for ever, Christmas's and Birthday's couldn't come quick enough.  Perhaps that's just part of the magic of being children.

So with the advent of the new year, most people are busy making their new year's resolutions.  I will admit, I've never been one for new year's resolutions.  I think you should be able to make resolutions any time of the year, not just January first.  However, I do like to reflect on where the journey has led me, and where I hope to travel in the up and coming.

This past year we saw the birth of our very first alpaca cria, Bramble (aka "string bean").  She is strong, healthy, and independent.  Don't let the fact that I call her a string bean mean she's "lanky," she's a sturdy little thing - just all legs and neck!  If you're curious about what an alpaca birth is like check out this link to our YouTube site. 

The following month we did our own very first breeding while working out at the farm we board our girls at.  It was a success, and we can expect Bracken to deliver another cria next fall.  We are  very excited to see what this year's breeding will produce.  The funniest thing about breeding, is that it is quite literally a herd 'affair'.  All the unbred (and ready to breed) females cush next to the breeding pair.  The little up and coming herd sires 'practice' on all the cushing mamas.  Don't worry, they're not old enough to be successful yet!  Bramble wouldn't keep her nose out of the face of the breeding herdsire, nor would the other little females.  This is all a part of it.  It's a learning experience, so to speak, for the young ones.

I also vended at my first ever fair, the Johnny Appleseed festival in my hometown.  I was delighted and amazed by how well it went and can't wait to do it again.  Perhaps this has given me the confidence to participate in a few other events.  On top of this, I reopened my Etsy site, which has also done well.  It is sort of surreal to know that you've sent your crafts all over the country.  That my baskets and yarn are being enjoyed by someone other than myself.  I started making basket out of necessity.  I needed some place to put all the yarn I was spinning; something 'pretty' and colorful.  But once I started making them, I just  couldn't stop!  They are just so much fun to watch come together.  And while I'm a huge proponent of baskets, I realized that a girl could really only have so many.  So I reluctantly (at first) decided to offer them to others, though I wan't sure how I could bear to sell them.  The reluctance has since passed, and has been replaced with the joy of knowing that someone too will smile at my creations.  My advice to anyone who has always wanted to be share their creations with others - just do it!  Get out there!  You may be completely surprised by the support and encouragement from others.  I know I was!

Here are some of the other highlights of the year:

We hiked...

...gardened...

...canned...

...spun at festivals...

...grew pumpkins...

...learned to dye fiber...

...attended the Mother Earth News Fair...

...supported my sister's purchase of three meat
rabbits at the Mother Earth News Fair...

...found that we had quite the demand for our eggs...

...learned (or began to learn) to cook in cast iron...

...learned to play the banjo...

...learned to weave...

...and taught my sister and nieces how to weave...

...developed a love for blue cochin chickens...

...and ended the year with family (and pets!).

It's Just Part of the Journey

Morning farm chores were pretty miserable this morning.  The mild and sunny weather that graced us for the Christmas weekend has now allowed a large rain system to move into northwestern Pennsylvania.  They are calling for it's change into snow by evening, but for now it's just a lot of wet.  All this rain we've had recently has really turned this farm into a mucky mess!  Needless to say, the chickens have been 'cooped' up since Saturday, so they didn't much care what was going on outside, they just wanted out.  I can't blame them.  I propped  open the rabbits just a bit to let some air flow in, but that's the best that I could do.  I've always been told that "a wet angora, is a dead angora."  Sounds kind of harsh, but it's true.  All that fiber is great for keeping them warm in the winter, but it would be like trying to sled ride in a soaking wet snow suit.

It's supposed to rain all week...

While my farm chores only took all of 20 minutes, I feel worse for my husband, who is out working at the alpaca farm the next three days.  At least he'll get to spend most of his time in the barns.  All I could think as I was sloshing a fresh bucket of water down to the coop (half of which some how ended up in my boot) was how nice it would be to just have a barn to work in today.  One of these days.

On a 'sunnier' note, we were blessed by a friend who at the last minute offered to stop out and take care of the animals for a couple of days so we could go home for Christmas.  I was extremely thankful for her help.  We may only be three hours from home, but it's still too far to just swing back to the farm to close up the animals after that filling Christmas dinner.  I think sometimes it upsets my mom that I can't come home as much.  It upsets me too.  But becoming a "farmer" is a choice that I am serious about.   It's not just a ephemeral hobby.  I am a determined woman.  I know she understands that, and even looks forward to a day when she can participate in the whole process.

Christmas brought pretty much our whole family together; even those a half a country away.  We had 36 people at my grandparent's house on Sunday!  We chatted, played some music, and ate lots of food.  It was I good time.  But we are home now (as of yesterday evening).  It's sad to see the holiday's end.  If we were home, we'd spend most of the next week's days with family.  Sharing meals.  Chatting about old memories.  I do so look forward to the day when we will be homeward bound.  But for now, I will make the best of my life here.  After all, this is where many of my dreams have begun to come true.  I will never forget that.  Life is a journey.  We glean from our travels.  For me, this is a big part of it.  I have learned skills that I will have for a lifetime.

For now, I will take these (literally) soggy bottoms, soak in a nice hot bath, and reflect on the journey.

Unseasonable Weather

Gorgeous landscape on our way to Hell's Hollow

We live in a place were it can be sunny and 70 with a cool mountain breeze one minute, and the next has turned into a blizzard so windy you feel like, if you close your eyes for even a second, you'll open them up and be in Oz.  The weather sure can change fast around here.

This past weekend was gorgeous!  Beautiful blue skies with wispy white clouds, 65 degrees or better, cool breeze.  It was the perfect weekend to be outside.  We took advantage of this on Sunday, knowing that we're not likely to have too many more of these.  After breakfast we decided to go for a walk.  It was my husband's idea, to my surprise, and me and Kenai were all for it.  His first thought was just to take a walk to the back pasture, which is only about a quarter of a mile from the house.  I suggested we head down the the nearby park.  I had an ulterior motive of course, to gather some more osage oranges that were lying all over the ground down there.  I gave my sister my last few the day before.  It's a nice little walk down there, right next to the stream.  And most of the time it's pretty quiet there with a nice paved trail that I would guess is about a mile around.  We were graced with a special fly by from my favorite bird, the Belted Kingfisher as we meandered along the stream.  But once we had gathered the osages and made it back to the car, it just felt like it would be a shame to head back home.  So we decided to take a little hike up to Hell's Hollow near McConnell's Mill.  It too is actually a short hike, but it ends at a gorgeous waterfall and an old time furnace.  I couldn't help but take some pictures along the way to capture the wonder.

Fungi and Bryophytes are my favorite!  I love their crazy life cycles!

Look!  Sporophytes!!!  And when I touched them, spores went everywhere!  

Isn't nature beautiful?!

The weather has since settled into something, err..., more seasonable.  The temps have dropped, and we even had snow the other night.  Not a lot, but I hear that more is on it's way.  We've really been blessed with 'unseasonable' weather for the last month.  So I'm sure it's about time Old Man Winter to lace his icy fingers around this farm.  Bring it on, I say.  I don't mind.  Winter gives me the excuse to sit at my spinning wheel and spin, knit up a storm, and create to my heart's desire.  But for now, I've some fuzzy bunnies out there that need attending to.  They'll be receiving their last plucking before spring.  I do look forward to spinning some of that angora up!

Autumn's Final Hoorah?

This just came out of nowhere.   I checked the weather earlier this evening and (I'm not sure how) I completely missed this.  The storm is long, extending all the way from Oklahoma to New Hampshire.  By the the time I realized what was happening I was battling 60 mph winds in attempts to keep my rabbits covered.  See we re-tarped the hutches in preparation for winter.  Unfortunately the new tarp is not as heavy and blows all over the place.  It was our goal to construct sort of a suspended tarp weight that would help to anchor it during storms likes these.  I now fully understand it's necessity.  With the winds we get on an almost daily basis up here, it needs to be done ASAP.  In the mean time, I did my best to anchor it for now in the hopes that they will fair this storm at least.  I think the worst of it has past now.  I wasn't just wet when I came back in the house, you could ring me out!  I suppose this is autumn's last hoorah before winter sets in and those winds carry white outs instead of just rain.

I hope everyone else out there is staying dry.

Anachronism

I've often felt like I am a living anachronism.  Out of place in time.  That I should have lived some time ago, when life was simpler.  You worked hard for what you had, and still had little.  Yet those few things you did have were cherished beyond today's worldly comprehension.  My whole life I have been drawn to skills of the past such as sewing, gardening, and animal husbandry.  I remember as a little girl, tagging along to my mother's garden club meetings, and hours spent with her and my grandmothers teaching me how to sew and knit and crochet.  These used to be skills that every little girl learned as she grew up.  I raised quite a menagerie of critters too, from hamsters and ferrets, to chinchillas and lizards!

Today, most I my time is spent spinning, knitting, and sewing.  We have lived down here near Pittsburgh for two years now and have accomplished quite a lot.  We raise our own chickens for meat and eggs, have two alpacas, 5 angora rabbits and a big enough garden to provide some of our own produce.  This is small in comparison to most farms, but this one has BIG dreams.  We still rent you see.  We have been fortunate though, to be located far enough north of the city as to seriously live in farm country.  The house we rent sits on a working diary farm.  But still it's not our own.  Don't get me wrong, we feel blessed for what we have, but are so desperately hoping that we will find our own property soon enough so that our our farm can grow.  We've reached our capacity where we're at without getting ourselves evicted.  But our alpacas have to be boarded on another farm and there are sheep, pigs, and other livestock calling to us.  More like bellowing.  I have such a desire to become more of a farmer that it aches.  I sit at work dreaming about furry creatures, spinning wool, canning vegetables, and yes, mucking out stalls.  While most other girls are reading magazines about fashion and gossip, this girl scours the pages of her Grit and Mother Earth News trying to devise new schemes for building a cold frame, raising meat rabbits, and composting.  I collect buckets, mason jars, chicken wire, and books on homesteading.  I visit other homesteader's blogs trying to glean from their experiences and long for the experience to hold day old piglets in my arms.  Barn boots are not just the latest fashion statement, they are a necessity.

I realize that for most this may sound unusual.  Especially in this day and age.  But this is who I am.  In a day and age of uncertainty, of rumors of economic collapse and instability, this girl wants to be prepared for anything.  And even if these things weren't a possibility, I would still want to be doing exactly what I'm doing.  Farming.  Gaining skills from a lost generation.  And one day, perhaps helping others to learn these skills as well.  There are joys to be found in these simpler ways, and I intend to find discover them!

Another Season Gone

I realize that we are technically in the middle of autumn, really I do.  But Halloween, for me, marks the end of a season.  A season full of gardening and harvesting, sowing and reaping.  I can't help but to close my eyes and imagine what it might have been like for people a few hundred years ago - possibly even a thousand years ago.  And not just here, but in countries abroad.  My ancestors came from Scotland and Ireland mainly, though sadly, I have to admit I don't know much about them.  All I have is this information passed to me by my parents, grandparents, and other relatives.  Yet I feel haunted by the past.  I past that wasn't mine, than belonged to those ancestors I never knew.  In a new age where we take most things for granted, it's hard to fathom that there was a time when there were no grocery or other convenience stores existed.  People were thankful for the bountiful harvest, as it meant that they and their families would be fed during the colder months.

So, every year during this time between Halloween and Thanksgiving my thoughts wander to the ancients.  Yes, Thanksgiving is a relatively 'new' holiday to this country.  But I've read that the Native Americans before us celebrated their own form of 'thanksgiving' to mark the end of harvest, and with the arrival of the Europeans, these traditions sort of intermingled.  Regardless, history is full of stories of celebrations that mark the end of the harvest.   A time to be thankful for just simply the abundance that will allow them to survive another long winter.

November 1st comes as a reminder that old man winter is just around the corner and could reach out his icy fingers any moment now.  Heck, we had our first snow this past weekend!  Not a lot, mind you, but it was snow that covered the landscape, even if for just a few brief moments.  And while I feel that we could have accomplished more to store for winter, I do have two bushels of butternut squash and a few baking pumpkins in my basement to cook up throughout those cold winter months.  I had hoped to have some canned tomatoes, at least, lining my shelves, but that just didn't happen.  Our tomatoes seemed to rot before they were ripe for the picking.  Every year is another learning experience.  Last year we had jars of pickles and sweet potatoes.  This year it is squash and pumpkins.  Maybe next year I will have all of those plus the tomatoes!  The goal is to one day be able to grow and harvest enough to provide at least 75% (or more) of our food for the winter.

So stop for a moment and think.  What final preparations you will be making for winter between now and Thanksgiving?   For some of you, it might be just as simple as making sure the snow tires are on and the car is tuned up.  For others it may mean stocking food not just for yourselves but for all of your livestock.  Admittedly, we are somewhere in between.