Christmas Tree 09

I am going to admit something terrible: we have two Christmas trees. We have an upstairs living room (when in romantic moods, I like to think of it as the Parlor) and a downstairs living room (... the Den) where we watch tv, etc. So it wasn't any fun to be in the Christmas spirit in one place and not the other. Last year we got a fake tree for the den. It's a nice, perfectly shaped tree with colored lights. So this year, for our real tree I wanted something that was perfectly misshaped, if you know what I mean. Something with a Scandinavian feel. Like we went out into the snowy countryside with a sled and a saw.

I decided also that because we have a nice tree downstairs just waiting for all of the beautiful ornaments of my childhood, I could continue on with the "theme" for the upstairs tree and use red/white/hearts/straw ornaments. I don't know why I am always drawn to heart-shaped ornaments, but I am. I also have tons of corn husk angels from Prague and various straw ornaments from other places...including Ikea, where I found the most gorgeous straw/hearts/red garland a couple years back.

I am so happy with how it turned out. It looks so great in real life. Why is it always so hard to shoot pictures of Christmas trees? I don't think I've ever taken a good one.

Skunked

I am so behind on my posts lately. We've been working on our handmade holiday gifts like mad. All of our free time is consumed by getting things done and mailed asap. All other spare moments are devoted to applications for grad school and some seriously deliberate cocoa-and-Christmas-movie time. I need to fit that in to feel like it's December. The good news is that it snowed yesterday, so everything feels a little better.
Anyway, in the early fall I was able to get some crafting done and I remembered I haven't posted my needle-felted skunk.


He's one of the first needle-felting projects I've done. Wool roving is a fun material to work with. I still haven't used the free locally grown roving I have, but I was in a parade with one of the sheep that produced it on Friday. What a town.

5 Happinesses for Friday, the 20th of November

1) This American Life, Sunday mornings over coffee and eggs.
It is somewhat of a routine at our house. WV NPR plays This American Life at some ungodly hour (totally sacrilege), so we usually listen to it free on the internet, found here.

2) The sleep after the sick is over.

3) Leaving work early on a Friday afternoon.

4) Being totally immersed in the beautiful works of children's author and illustrator, Jan Brett, for a work project.

5) Going home to Boston for Thanksgiving.

5 Happinesses for Friday the 13 of November

1) Free wool roving.
Specifically, free samples of wool roving from the most gorgeous farm I've ever seen. Victorian farm house, sheep, alpaca, peacocks roosting in huge fir trees, great Pyrenees, mini-chickens, fair prices.

2) Book Club meetings.

3) Kenyan Cafe.
One of the best new additions to Morgantown. Everyone should go there. Masala tea!

4) Books about Little Women.
Right now I'm reading March by Geraldine Brooks.

5) Co-workers who bake fresh sourdough bread and sell it to me.

Gnome and Friends

I finally finished my scroll saw project. Or, rather, the first batch of friends to come from it. I have more in various stages of done-ness. Completed and photographed are: a gnome, a tree, a bear, owl, and two hedgehogs. I had the best time just sawing around on a piece of wood and seeing what came of it. That's how the tree and the hedgehogs were invented.

The hardest parts about doing wood crafts, I think, are the many different steps you need to take before you get an end product. Sanding and finishing take forever. However, the results are totally worth the time and effort.

I would like to experiment more with the forest scene idea. Also, it would be neat to take a book and make the characters from it. What a cool gift that would make.

Willy

Over the course of the summer, Aaron and I befriended a local farmer named Willy. Every Saturday, Willy set up a table in the Southern States parking lot. (Southern States is like the farm/garden supply store. It's where you get seeds, chicken feed, donkey bridles, etc. In the summer, you can buy local produce by the peck and bushel. It's probably my favorite store besides Gabes.) Each Saturday, there is also a farmers market elsewhere, which is great if you're feeling rich, but the majority of those vendors are over-priced and too fancy. I like the idea of buying something directly from the farmer for a price that is good for him and for me. Willy's price is typically $1 for almost any pint of produce or bunch of veg. His maple syrup was under $3. His honey was $3, but we'd get 75 cents back if we return the jar. But why would we want to? Look how cool it is:


I think that what people have forgotten is that to buy food directly from the farmer, it doesn't have to be fancy stuff. It can just be things that you didn't get a chance to plant yourself. Another difference between the farmers market and Willy is that at the farmers market, they don't expect you to grow your own food. They don't really want to talk shop from the farming perspective, and if they talk shop at all, it's only from the business perspective. Willy gave us great tips on our garden all summer. He talked tomato blight with us. He asked how things were coming along. I wish there were more Willy's in parking lots everywhere.

lentil stew

It's fall and that means a different cuisine entirely. We've been on soup for about a month now, which feels so right. There is nothing more heartwarming than a big pot of soup on the stove.

I started making my lentil stew a number of years ago. I made it so much my last year in college that I had to give it a break the last two winters. It is really hardy, really flavorful and super easy. The secret is stuffing the pot with as many veggies as you can. Kale really adds to the experience and the vitamin content. Different kinds of lentils do different things. I like using the red lentils because they add a creaminess to the pot. If I have them on hand, I'll throw in a handful of brown or green. This time, I added a little bit of quinoa and it was great. It's really up to you. Violet gave us these beautiful bread bowls, so that was an extra special treat.

Lentil Stew, I'm glad we can be best buds again.

My Lentil Stew

6 carrots, sliced
3 potatoes, quartered
1 med. butternut squash, peeled and chopped into large chunks
1-2 onions, chopped
3 garlic cloves
as much kale as you like, leaves cut into strips, stalks cut into little nubs - separate the two
1 tbsp. fresh ginger, chopped fine
heaping tbsp each of cumin and garam masala
a respectable amount of ground cardamom
1 lg. can crushed tomatoes
1 1/2 cup lentils, red and other
1 can chickpeas
salt and pepper to taste, but don't skimp on the pepper
water (not sure how much, but enough to make it stewy but not soupy)

Saute onion in olive oil. When golden, add ginger, garlic, and the other spices, saute 3-5 mins. Add carrots and potatoes, cook a couple minutes, adding a bit of water if needed. Add crushed tomatoes and water. Add everything but the kale leaves. Cook until everything is just soft. Add kale leaves. Let sit for awhile before serving to give the kale time to soften. Makes enough to freeze some.

guard donk

A couple of weeks ago we took our friend Violet on an expedition to buy some alpacas and she came away with a donkey. Not only that, she's a pregnant donkey. And she's adorable. (However, I have to say that it was really hard not to get an alpaca ourselves and keep it over at Violet's. They are really cute, and their wool is really soft and sells for a good price. However, you need at least two because they are herd animals. I'll admit that I was a little heartbroken once again for living in town, but I think we'll have to have to have some one day.)


Donkeys are used to guard herds. They protect sheep, goats, alpaca, etc from coyotes and whatnot. For real! Daisy (that's what Violet named her) instantly took an active role in keeping Violet's dogs out of the barn yard, and as she's getting settled in, she's realizing that the goats are her herd. When Violet's little 5 lb. Yorkie got under the fence, we thought she was a goner for sure. Daisy keeps an eye on everything.

We keep telling Violet to call us the minute Daisy goes into labor so we can rush over and see the baby being born.

The more time that time goes on, the more I realize that I need a small farm. I'm not even kidding. Once we settle in to where ever we're going to be, we need have a place where we can have fun animals, but also be close to a city with real culture and the kind of values I believe in. I'm really getting tired of driving around in black clouds because people are actually proud to do environmental damage with their enormous trucks. If you need a truck (because you have a farm), fine. I can accept the need. Do you really need to have two huge pipes protruding from the bed of your truck that cough clouds black enough to obscure my view of the road every time you step on the gas? Do you really need to taunt me with your bumper sticker that says, "You just got sooted?" It really bothers me.

But enough about that. Back to Daisy.

"She's no longer with us!"

Before I go on, I have to say that Aaron is probably the sweetest person I've ever met.

That said, we've had a bit more sadness at the Double A this past week. Large Marge had a sudden and what looked like very painful death. I was going to give them their evening feed, and noticed that she did not look well at all, so I got Aaron and we tried to get her to respond, but it wasn't any use. Aaron was such a trooper. He held her while I freaked out, then she did a little spasm and collapsed and he looked at me and said, "She's no longer with us!" I wanted to cry (and I did) and I wanted to kiss him at the same time. He's just so cute.

We both wept and dug a little chicken grave.

We found out later that there is something called Sudden Death Syndrome common in chickens her age, so it was likely that, as she was in good health otherwise.

So we were back to where we started in the beginning of the summer, needing to find a friend for Henny-Penny. Luckily, we found one quickly this time. There is a newspaper called YOUR BULLETIN BOARD that lists all kinds of farm ads. I wish we would have known about it sooner. Anyway, we got another Red Star. However, she has a lot of white on her.

She's really pretty. She does seem to be quieter than Large Marge, but she has a different sound than HP. She almost sounds like a cat meowing. We haven't picked out a name yet. We need to give her time to adjust, as she's still a little scared.

Update 9/21/09

Tomorrow is officially the first day of fall. Summer was wild. Work was so busy, the garden needed constant attention, etc, etc. Where did it go? A couple of weeks ago I noticed that I finally felt like I came up for air and was able to take some deep breaths. I got some long-overdue reading done, some craft projects checked off the list, practiced yoga. I am hoping that with fall I will find more time to slow down. I spent the part of this weekend that I wasn't working actively trying not to think about anything important. Mostly, I spent some quality time playing in the wood shop.

Oh, the joys of the scroll saw! I wasn't planning on learning to use it just yet, but I found myself jigging away like a little elf.

There is something really healing about sawing through a hunk of wood. It's all about the feel and the smell. Working with natural materials is always special.

By the afternoon, I already had a few forest friends cut and smoothed out. I can tell this is going to be a new obsession. I am seeing some really beautiful things done with watercolors and wood online and I'm really excited to give it a go.

Speaking of forest friends, as a cheer-up gift (we all need one of those once in awhile, don't we?) my friend Joan gave me a set of just about the cutest things I've ever seen:
Forest Fairies, just in time for autumn. They are so precious! I keep setting them up and rearranging them. They're just too perfect. I really want to try this as a craft project. Oh, there are so many things to make! I can't imagine why anyone would ever be bored.

Chicken Love

Large Marge is LOUD. She starts squawking at around 6:30am before she even comes downstairs for breakfast. She squawks when she expects a mid-afternoon snack and outing in the yard. She squawks loudest at around 7:30-8am when Henny-Penny is upstairs laying an egg. Not sure if she's coaching her, singing an egg-laying song, warding off egg-snatching predators, or what.
I am not up on my chicken-logic.

Both of them love to eat the tomatoes that burst in the garden. Besides cracked-corn and beetles, it's their favorite snack. Elf likes them, too, and it's really fun to watch him try to eat a cherry tomato. He gets a look of surprise when it bursts open in his mouth.



They love venturing out and catching the bugs that you rustle up when you walk. They follow us around the yard, eating whatever jumps in their line of sight.

They have really incredible vision. They are aware of what is below them and above them, and spot hawks and ravens in the sky before we do.

They are really expressive, if you can believe it. Obviously, vocally, but otherwise, too. You can tell when they're happy and sad and nervous and content.


I think that I'll always have chickens after this. Aside from the piercing, irritating 6:30 wake-ups, they're really easy and they're really a lot of fun. Plus, they totally pull their own weight. We're averaging 12-14 eggs a week. Elf and Matilda better start fetching slippers and morning coffee. Well, Matilda told us about a mouse in the house (!!!) a couple of weeks ago, so she's off the hook. Elf, I like my coffee with a splash of milk.

curtains

I spent a little time last weekend making these curtains for the window by our table in the kitchen. I had the fabric for some time, but hadn't had the chance to make them. They are about the easiest thing to sew up; the hardest part is ironing the seams. Now I just need to make sets for the other two windows in the kitchen.

I really like sewing, but machine sewing isn't the easiest thing to take up. Seems like having something else do the work would make things more simple, but let me tell you, that is one heck of a machine. I am trying to find simple projects that will help me practice. Straight, rectangle curtains were a good thing to accomplish right now. I might have to take a class if I want to venture into sewing clothing. But wouldn't it be fun?

Blueberries

Aaron and I spent a recent Monday evening at a pick-your-own blueberry farm close to one of the library branches out in the country. What fun! The owners also raise bees, so it was really nice to watch the sun move while bees lazily and drunkenly gorged themselves on overripe berries.

I love blueberries. I think they might be my favorite berry. They keep well. They're not as fragile as most berries. Maybe I like them because of my history with them. They remind me of childhood.

I love going to pick-your-own spots. I don't know why. There is something way more enjoyable about getting 11 lbs. of fruit that you've picked yourself instead of buying it from someone who did the picking for you. Again, it's that closer-to-your-food thing.


We've been eating blueberries many ways, and freezing them for winter, as well. We've been eating them by themselves, with yogurt, in delicious muffins, and in a blueberry buckle (coffee cake meets cobbler), which is what Aaron made last night. He followed Alton Brown's recipe, here, except we used AP and Wheat flours instead of cake flour and it turned out dense and wonderful.

Tomato Season

Last year, most of our tomatoes were stolen. By humans. This year, either the people moved on, or the raised fence and locked door to the garden is working, because we are in the tomatoes! I planted so many plants, in the hope that it would just be too many for the thief to get around to, that he would leave us a few to enjoy. And now, we are swimming in them.

We've gotten too much rain for tomatoes this year and the last time I was in the garden, they were bursting, which is sad to see. However, We have more than we know what to do with at the moment, so we'll take what we can get and leave the rest for next year's seeds.


I know I've said this many times on the blog, but it is so rewarding to see something that you planted in the house, from seeds, while snow was still on the ground, turn into something edible, beautiful, delicious.

What is He Building in There? (Something Awesome.)

Aaron's been working diligently in his workshop since well before our anniversary on a mysterious gift made of paper, the traditional first anniversary gift. That's all I knew. Time went by and things came up. Chicken houses, birthday gifts (more on that later), and it has taken until this afternoon to finally see what it is he was working on. Aaron made me a beautiful paper lamp.

And it's not just any old lamp. He designed it himself. It is made of walnut and has little lattice pieces all around it and fine paper made with imprisoned mulberry leaves. It is really incredible. I couldn't believe it when he finally gave it to me.

The paper has little flecks of pink where the mulberries lay.

The walnut base has purplish tones.

It's so pretty. Like something I would want but wouldn't be able to afford. I can't believe he made something so lovely. Thank you, Thank you. Happy anniversary, darling.

Two Eggs

I don't think I've mentioned yet that we got a replacement chicken. We found someone willing to give up a Rhode Island Red. She's quite a bit bigger than Henny-Penny. And meaner, uglier, bossier, and mouthier (she's taken to waking up the neighborhood at 7am). We decided to name her after someone who deserves to have my meanest chicken named after them. We decided to name her Large Marge.

I don't think I would get another Rhode Island Red if I continue to raise chickens in town. Way too loud and too big. Also, interestingly, even though Henny-Penny (a Red Star) is much smaller, she lays eggs that are way bigger. They won't even fit in the egg carton.

Yesterday we got two eggs in one day for the first time. Marge's morning whining actually paid off, because it happened that we fed them twice in the morning, and came home to find two eggs. We fed them twice before we left for work again today: two more eggs. We've got a system and we're in business.

Birthday

My birthday trip to the U.P. was really, really great. Aaron loved Michigan in the summer. I loved Michigan in the summer. It's very different without snow. We did so many nice things. A photo recap:


We took a couple of hikes out to see waterfalls.





We went to Lake Superior.


My aunt made a caterpillar cake just for me! It was so cute and tasty!

Yes, that is a bear popping out of the wall behind me!

We saw more than one fireworks display

Hey there lonely girl...

So, for those of you that haven't heard, we had a chicken incident and Lady Bird is no more. All that was left was a pile of feathers. Poor Lady Bird. Poor Henny-Penny. She was hurt, but she'll be okay (no eggs since this happened, though). Aaron found the only vet in town that would see a chicken. Sweet Aaron.

I think Henny-Penny is lonely. She won't go downstairs and just sits at her roost all day until we take her down to eat and drink. If we're outside, we put her outside, and she likes to dig around and make nests, eat bugs, and preen. But we need to get her a friend, I think.