We recently found out that there will be a new addition to our extended family this summer. The day we found out a baby girl is joining us I could not wait to pull out the girly yarns I had and make a little something for her.
A tiny pair of baby mary janes and a matching flower headband. Read the rest of this entry »
As you know, we have had a lot of rain/ snow over the last couple of weeks which means plenty of time indoors and extra time to crochet! I cranked out this lacey looking shawl made from Lion Brand silk mohair using their South Bay Shawlette pattern in a few evenings.
This was my first time using this thread-like hairy yarn made of 70% mohair (made from angora goat hair) and 30% silk. I chose this bright citrus color called Sunbeam. Read the rest of this entry »
During our glimpse of spring a few weeks ago, I tried to get a head start on my spring to-do list. On that list was pruning the unruly climbing rose bush pictured below with front and back views.
This tall climbing rose bush was in the ground when we bought our property. I have no idea how old it is but it is established, about 8-9′ tall, and looks to have been neglected for quite some time. Last summer in an attempt to pretty it up we braced it to surrounding trees in order to keep it upright. It was top heavy and leaned badly under its own weight.
I’ve read that these climbing rose varieties usually do best with a trellis or some sort of structure to climb but we’re going for more a bush shape that can stand upright on its own. Read the rest of this entry »
On my quest to rid my diet of chemicals, I began questioning the safety of my shampoo, soaps and lotions. Browsing through a few labels on the products in the bathroom, my stomach turned a bit at the thought of all the stuff I was slathering on my skin on a regular basis. But how harmful are products when used topically?
There is great debate about what percentage of substances your skin will absorb. With the use of transdermal patches for medication, cosmetic manufacturers boasting about deeper penetrating wrinkle fighters, and hair products using nano-technology there’s no question in my mind that at least some of the ingredients in the products I’m using are breaking the skin barrier and entering into my blood stream. A study done by the Environmental Working Group shows the presence of phthalates, triclosans, parabens, and musks in the urine and blood samples taken from 20 females ages 14-19.
So what are these chemicals?
Phthalates are used in a wide array of products but I’m focusing on their impact on cosmetics and body care products and according to The Environmental and Health Working Group in 2002 phthalates were found in 72% of beauty products. Dibutyl phthalate (butyl ester), diethyl phthalate, and butylbenzyl phthalate (BBP) are 3 of the more commonly used phthalates in cosmetics. Phthalates are sometimes vaguely listed as “fragrance” or “plasticizer” on labels. Phthalates in cosmetics are used to aid penetration, binding, and flexibility. They’re used in hairsprays, gels, and nail polish to make the product “stick” and perfumes so the scent lingers. Read the rest of this entry »
Apparently, Mother Nature wasn’t satisfied with the storm she sent our way last week. We had a short reprieve after the last storm I posted about: Northern Sierra Snow Storm. We were hit with about 22” of snow over a 3 day period and a power outage lasting about 72 hours the end of last week.
We just had the pleasure of enduring the 2nd storm. I apologize for the monotony but this is what’s going on in our neck of the woods.
It snowed steadily Wednesday afternoon – Friday morning with new snow accumulation totaling at least 18”. As always, this storm brought with it strong wind gusts which caused some visibility issues. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s that time of year again. Even with snow on the ground and cold gloomy days I know spring is not far away because it’s time to start my very early seeds! We ordered some perma nest sets a few months ago and I’ve been itching to use them. After buying a couple of the flimsy plastic seed starting kits the last 2 years we decided it made more economical sense to buy the heavy duty, easy to clean, reusable seed starting trays once since we can expect to get many years of good use out of them.
We have a planter window that I usually over winter a flower or 2 in but I really want to utilize this space for seed starting. We got smaller seed trays so they would fit comfortably in the window. Read the rest of this entry »
The other day we posted the current conditions midway through the snow storm. As of Saturday the clouds have parted, the sun is out, the snow is melting but only Sunday afternoon did we get back to “normal”. We’re enjoying a day or 2 of sun just to be hit by another (hopefully smaller) storm later this week.
The total snow accumulation totaled around 22″.
The power was out for a full 72 hours. Multiple trees gave way under the weight of the wet snow on the road leading up the mountain causing some traffic delays and contributing to the power issues.
To our surprise late Friday night headlights were spotted on the trail 50′ from our back deck. It turned out to be a snow rig, a cab on snow tracks, belonging to the electric company who was evaluating the outage and searching for downed lines. Apparently they took a wrong turn! Read the rest of this entry »
Earlier this week I found myself with a couple of brown bananas. That always means it’s time to bake and the recipe of choice was my sugar-free banana bread. My recipe calls for no added sugar…all of the sweetness comes from juice or fruit. This time I did add some chocolate chips but skip those if you want to keep it healthier. I use a combination of flours to make it dense and full of wheat. Here it is:
First things first: Mix the dry ingredients.
1 cup Whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup Wheat Bran
1/2 cup unbleached white flour. ( you can sub more whole wheat flour if you’d like)
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 heaping teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
sprinkle of salt Read the rest of this entry »
Well, the storm we prepped for here came in about 24 hours later than expected. We had roughly 3 inches of snow fall on Wednesday with spurts of hail and periods of calm skies. The worst of the storm was delayed until last night. We woke up this morning to this:
Surprisingly, with the strong winds of 20-30 mph we have not yet lost power (and I’m knocking on wood.)
The snow has been coming down steadily for hours now. We’re expecting an additional 6 inches between now and Friday.
This is the measure of snow accumulation at 9 inches:
Let me start by saving that quite frankly, pruning scares me. It’s intimidating. The thought of hacking off limbs and the possible damage I could cause is frightening. But I put on my big girl panties and got over it. I’ve nipped at various flowers before but the worst case scenario in that situation is losing some flowers…not losing food. It helped that I felt somewhat forced into pruning these blueberries because they had broken and split limbs from a past snow fall.
The blueberries never dropped all of their leaves from last year and it’s now nearly mid February. They were spotted, obviously dead or dying, and taking up room that the new leaves, which were starting to grow, needed. Most of these dead leaves fell off when brushed against and the others gave up their grip on the plant very easily. The ones that wanted to stay were allowed to.
Next, the broken branches were cut back. There are pictures of those in the post about snow damaged blueberries.
Branches with many twigs with brown withered tips were cut back or removed all together.
I tried to mindful of the overall balance of the blueberry bush. The picture above is of the Jubilee variety which has a compact upright shape compared to the Misty variety below which has upright shrub shape. The Misty has main branches which are much more open and spread out at the soil level compared to the Jubilee which has a very tight bunch of main branches at the soil level. I kept the shape of the bush in mind and didn’t try to make them identical in shape. Read the rest of this entry »
We recently added 3 more highbush blueberry bushes to our collection. Last year blueberries were an afterthought and needless to say we didn’t have a huge variety to choose from. This year we’ve balanced out the bunch by adding varieties that collectively will give us fruit all through summer and fall.
The added bonus to buying early this year was much cheaper prices. It’s a given that the plants weren’t as mature as the 2 we got last year but we paid about half the price. Score!
In order from left to right we’ve got:
Southmoon Southern Highbush blueberry which is a mid to late season producer, vigorous upright shape, will reach 5-6’ tall and should remain green through the fall and winter.
Oneal Southern Highbush blueberry which is a very early producer, upright spreading shape, 4-6’ mature height, and should grace us with orange/wine colored fall foliage. Can’t wait to see that.
Legacy Northern Highbush blueberry is on the far right. He is a late season producer with an open spreading shape, 4-6’ mature height, and beautiful crimson fall foliage. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s mid February and Mother Nature has been extremely gentle on us the past month or so. We’ve had high temperatures in the 60s and very few clouds. This year our snow fall started in November, giving us 3 feet of snow in 1 storm, with a hand full of small storms following with little accumulation.
Everything around here thinks its spring.
I’ve been telling myself since this spring-like weather started in January “don’t get used to it because old man winter will surely return.” And he’s coming tomorrow! You’d never suspect it by the gorgeous weather today.
The storm is forecast to arrive tomorrow afternoon and will linger through the rest of the week bringing with it 30-50 mph wind gusts, freezing temps, rain, freezing rain, and snow. Read the rest of this entry »
Even before we moved to our current property our standard poodle joined us on excursions on the trails. When he was just a wee little pup he spent the day tagging along with us in a dried up river bed with a bunch of 4×4 vehicles. He was too young to keep up all day and rode back to the truck on the quad.
If this is the first time you’re being introduced to our little boy, he goes by the name of Moose.
His experience has grown over the last 4 years and his absolute favorite (if I had to guess by his behavior) is trailing behind or trying with all his might to beat the atv.
You would think he’s the only kid that didn’t get invited to the party, by the heartbroken look on his face, when he’s not allowed to join. His snotty nose glued to the sliding door on the back deck, he stares and waits for his master to return or for the sound of the Polaris Sportsman 500 to die.
It’s routine in the summer time when the mud has dried up to take him on an almost daily run of a few miles on the winding trails on our property. He also makes a great running companion for me during the summer. With the heavy rains and snow fall we get in the winter he rarely gets to go for a jog during the colder months. The past few weeks have been an exception. We’ve had unusually warm temperatures and very little rain fall.
I took a few pictures of his adventure today. I swear he’s smiling in the one above.
Read the rest of this entry »
Preservatives, artificial colors, hydrogenated oils, artificial sweeteners…when did our food become chock full of stuff OTHER than nutrients to nourish and feed our bodies?
For a long time I’ve followed the old “if you can’t pronounce it, don’t eat it” rule pertaining to the ingredient list. I also eliminate foods if they have an ingredient 12 syllables long. No way can that be natural. If the ingredient list takes up 1/3 of the side panel, it has too much crap in it and most likely doesn’t resemble real food.
The easiest way to avoid the crud in our markets is to shop the perimeter where the fresh stuff typically is- easier said than done. Sometimes I want crackers and dehydrated pasta with pasta sauce. And occasionally, I WANT DONUTS *gasp*.
In the previous post Is our food toxic? The importance of eating organic, I outlined one way to improve the quality of what goes in our bodies while reducing our exposure to harmful chemicals.
Now, I’m going to briefly outline some of the other junk in our food that I think should be avoided.
Don’t expect a full list of every bad ingredient in our food supply.
Here are a few basics:
Preservatives: used obviously to preserve food, making it edible for a longer period of time. It’s a luxury to have the time and resources (or a nuisance depending who you might ask) to pick fresh produce everyday or bake fresh bread to make your meals.
Some common preservatives are:
Sodium Nitrate, which when ingested by humans, can convert to nitrous acid. In animals, nitrous acid increases the rate of cancer.
Read the rest of this entry »
At some point in the past few years I’ve become very aware of what we eat and what we’re exposed to on a daily basis. Maybe it’s the talk about pollution, or the constant recalls of commercially produced foods and prescriptions, or the possible long term health effects of eating antibiotic laced and hormone injected meat…the list goes on.
Whatever the reason, I’m aware and trying to reduce my exposure. I’ll tell you a huge part of my concern stems from the fact that I work in an industry where chemical exposure is the norm every day with most people making little effort to minimize that exposure.
So, where to start? How about FOOD! There are so many different aspects of food toxicity. I will break it down including the points I find most important for me in a few different posts so check back for the rest.
I remember years ago when eating organic was the new fad. I was still very young and convinced it was a new scheme to lure people into spending more money for a product, be it peppers, cheese, you name it, that didn’t taste a whole lot different than the “regular” version. So what gives?
It’s not just about taste. You’re paying for the conditions in which the food is produced.
There are numerous agencies; you probably recognize the USDA Certified Organic logo on many products, which inspect every company that wishes to label their products as organic.
