Better (Tree) Homes & Gardens

Last summer, we were fortunate enough to get a great deal on a playset for the kids.  They immediately set to making it their own little place.  I love watching them work on it. 

Over the past few weeks, as the weather has warmed up, the tree house has been getting a sprucing up.  Natalie is creating her own "homestead" out there.  She has added a firewood pile, for the "fireplace" a raised bed flower garden, a place to keep her little chickens, a compost bin, a clothesline, and a flower box filled with pansies.  It's likely that I'm completely and utterly biased, but I think she's one of the most creative little people I have ever met.

Here's a peek inside.

Welcome!

Putting the finishing touches on her window box garden.

 

 

A closer look at the newest addition to her "homestead"
 

The animal quarters, notice they have an escape route behind the barn.

The fireplace

The Kitchen

 

 

 

Sinks and storage for clean & dirty dishes

We hope you enjoyed our treehouse tour!  Happy Sunday :)

Just Another Day

Today is Tuesday. Just an average day.

When I thought I'd write, I was planning to focus on how many different (figurative ) hats I wore today. But then I thought, no, this was not an average day. This was an exceptional day.

It was exceptional because we had an awesome morning. Like I didn't think MY kids were capable of getting out the door so peacefully and efficiently. 

Nobody cried, not even me. 

Everybody had all their stuff, including a slice of pumpkin bread and a cup of milk (coffee for mom) to eat on the way.

We were on time.

Nobody cut me off in the school drop off line. 

The guy behind me didn't even flip me off for stopping in the middle of the street to avoid a family of squirrels involved in a heated domestic dispute. Maybe he was watching them with a grin too.

I had time to run a few quick errands and take a short, but brisk walk around the block before starting my workday.

I figured out how to solve a problem that I've been dealing with for two days at work, with help from my boss, but we got it done.

We ate dinner before 8 pm. And it wasn't cold cereal.

Both kids got all their homework done.  Not the easiest task in the world. And they're only in elementary school, Lord help me when they get to high school!

One kid got a bath.

Backpacks are ready, the coffee pot is set to wake me up in the morning and the laundry is folded.

Kids are tucked into bed. Time for the Mister to take one of his 45 minute showers and wash off the grease and grit of the day. Time for this mama to put her feet up with a warm cup of apple cinnamon tea and a book.

Maybe I'll even finish this book so I can return it to the friend I borrowed it from. It has been a good read.  Different than I was expecting, but worth reading. 

I know I will sleep well tonight.

Here's to ordinary yet exceptional days. :)

Homestead Happenings

It's officially Spring!  In Minnesota, we call this Mud Season.  This year's snowfall was far below average giving way to a mild, dry Spring.  When I say "dry" it's a relative term.  There's still mud.  But it's not deep mud.  It's not don't-slow-down-on-the-dirt-road-or-you'll-sink-to-your-axles mud.  It's still sloppy, but it has been worse.  Far, far worse.

Matt & Joey sawing up a little dry pole they found on the edge of the yard

Along with the mud comes the cleaning up of sticks that have blown loose in the winter and the season's first campfire.  And preparing the garden for the "last frost".  And ordering/starting seeds.  And this year, tapping maple trees.

Seeds, Glorious Seeds!

I ordered seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds this year.  I have never ordered seeds in the mail before.  Just gone to the fleet supply or Wal-Mart and picked up whatever looked fun.  This year, I did a bit of research and decided to go with heirloom varieties in the garden.  I already had some seed left from last year for peas, cucumbers and summer squash that happened to be heirloom varieties.  I purchased new varieties (for me anyway) of carrots, peppers, beans, tomatoes, and lettuce.  

One raised bed down, seven more to go.  Just add dirt.  And plants.

The other new thing in store for my garden this year is raised beds.  Tilling is really a hassle for us.  We don't have a reliable tiller, the weather has to be just right and we both have to be home to get the job done.  And it never fails that I manage to stir up some long extinct variety of weed seeds and single-handedly  bring them back to a thriving population.  So, I'm trying the raised bed method this year.  We have a pile of old pine boards leftover from when we ordered siding for the house a few years ago (This is plain untreated rough sawed pine).  The lumber is no longer in it's prime, but it will get the job done for now.  Natalie and I built the first one last weekend.  We have several more to go, but we've got a start.

Matt putting in the final tap.

Another First for our little homestead is the tapping of maple trees.  Matt and Natalie had been talking about it and he told her that his dad used to tap trees when he was a kid.  So, off to Grandpa's house they went for a hand drill and his homemade taps.  My job was to sort through the recycling and find enough empty milk jugs to put under the taps.  Once we had everything ready to go, they went out and got started.  The neighbors were coming over for the afternoon and soon enough, Matt had all five of the kids (our two plus the three neighbor girls) following him around like he had magic powers.  We have collected about three and a half gallons of sap in our first 24 hours.  I am saving it in my big stock pots in the shed until the weekend and we'll try cooking it down.  Frankly, I have no idea what I'm doing on this.  I'm just along for the ride.  But if the kids want to tap trees, then we'll follow the process to the finish.  We probably will get very little if any syrup, but the kids (and I) will learn another lesson in how to make something.  So, here goes nothing!  Wish us luck!  If you have any insight on this, please share in the comments section.

Random chicken shot.  They're happy to see bare ground too!

Happy Spring!

A New Year Already?

It's 2015.  What?  Wait a sec.  It was January 2014 about 20 minutes ago.  Crazy.

So, yeah, the year flew by.  I really didn't intend to take a break from blogging.  It just sorta happens sometimes.  

Since my last post:

Natalie turned 8.

My girl is growing up!

We made our annual trip to our neighborhood pumpkin patch.

I think I have a picture like this of the kids
from every year of their lives.

Natalie took a picture of us in the corn maze
to mark our 15 year wedding anniversary.

Matt went deer hunting. A lot.  To no avail.  For the first time in many years, we do not have fresh venison in our freezer. Joey tried out deer hunting this year too.  He even helped his uncle Danny haul his deer our of the woods.  It was a long walk for a little guy.

Joey headed out to go hunting,
pointing out deer tracks in the yard.

I started a second part time job as a substitute para for the school district.  I signed up for multiple districts, but have been busier than expected just with the schools right here in town.  I love it.

We hosted Thanksgiving.  My brother and nephew came.  Matt's parents came.  We had a huge turkey.  The whole deal.  It was yummy and fun and relaxing all at the same time.

The kids and I went for our annual Bon Bon day with Auntie Iris.  We made a bunch of different candy which was heartily sampled.

We butchered some roosters.  We wound up with 9 of the 10 chickens we hatched this spring being roosters.  That's way too many for a flock our size.  One went home to the neighbor's coop.  Six more went in our freezer.

We did lots of artsy projects and crafts for various Christmas gifts.  

Auntie Iris's tomato cage tree

Cookie decorating

We spent lots of time with family over Christmas.  Christmas Eve with Matt's family, Christmas Day with mine.  It was calm and relaxing.  Mostly.

The kids watching How to Train Your Dragon 2
on Christmas morning.

Joey gave Natalie a pink tip-up for Christmas.  They got to test it out on the day after Christmas when they went fishing.  She brought home a nice sized pike.  We ate it for supper that night and it was delicious.

Natalie's nice pike.  Caught at an undisclosed location
on a tip-up with shiner minnow bait.

Today the kids went back to school.  It is bitterly cold.  They weren't thrilled.  At all.  When I stopped by Joey's class after lunch to drop off his snack, the room was full of glassy eyed five year-olds.  I had a rare day off today.  Got some errands run.  Did some organizing of my recipes (an ongoing project for the past decade at least) and canned a quick batch of cranberry sauce.  

I don't do much in the way of New Year's resolutions, but if I had to say what my goals are for this year, they would be to blog more and spend more time in my garden.  We'll see how this pans out.

Happy 2015!

Marriage and Mayonnaise Cake

Yesterday was our 15th wedding anniversary.  It was a beautiful day.  One of the rare warm October 16th's we've seen. Matt had to work, but the kids and I were home.  It is fall break for them this week.  I took yesterday off, Matt took today off to be with them.

Our wedding anniversary hasn't been much of a to-do in quite some time.  It is generally quiet and just a simple exchange of cards and maybe a little hike or other explorations with the kids on the weekend after. That's pretty much how we roll.  Not a lot of fanfare.  Maybe someday we'll go on an exotic vacation.  Like the water park in Brainerd.  Maybe we'll just stay around home and walk in the woods forever too.  Either way is fine with me.  I kind of like the idea of the woods.  There are no bathing suits required to walk in the woods ;)

This year was much the same, but since I had the day off, I figured we should have a cake to celebrate.  We had just been talking about this cake his mother used to make.  The recipe came from his grandma's friend named Mrs. Renallo (I'm pretty sure I spelled that wrong) and was in their church cookbook.  I've always called it Grandma Brix's chocolate cake, because I got the recipe from her.  Anyway, it's a deep dark chocolate cake made with mayonnaise and topped with vanilla frosting.  It's one of those cakes that requires a glass of milk.   I'll share the recipe.  Everyone should have this.  It's a public service really.

A not so super great picture of a super great cake.
You get the idea though.

Grandma Brix's Chocolate Cake

4 cups flour

2 cups granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 teaspoons baking soda

2 Tablespoons cocoa

1 1/2 cups mayonnaise or miracle whip

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 cups water

Heat oven to 350 degrees

Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl.  Blend well.  Pour in a greased  9 x 13 pan.  Bake for 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  (I usually have to bake this a while longer than 40 minutes in my oven.  Maybe it's my oven, maybe the recipe needs adjusting.  Not sure.)

Top with vanilla frosting.

That's it.  It's pretty simple and straightforward.  I like that there's no scalding of milk or melting of chocolate involved.  

Make this for the one you love.  You'll be glad you did.

I think I Might Be A Hippie

Isn't this a neat daisy?  It is 2 stems & blooms fused and growing together.

Spring is finally here in all of its rainy, blustery glory.  We've had lots and lots of gray days lately, but we've also had a few beautiful sunny days.  Sunny days are not to be squandered indoors.  That said, its been mud boots on and everybody outside as much as possible.

My snappy purple flowered mud boots.  Good for tromping.

Being outside means that I am giving the chickens and rabbits a little extra care, getting gardens ready to go and hanging laundry out on the line.  The first load of wash went out to dry in the breeze yesterday. Line dried sheets, my favorite!

Saturday's eggs in a pretty blue bowl. 

Yesterday Matt built me a cold frame YAY!!!  I have been dreaming about one of these babies for YEARS.  He just has to hinge the roof and put it on and then watch out.  My trays of dirt are just waiting to have spinach, kale and leaf lettuce in them and under glass. (Hippie clue #1, I want to grow kale. in a cold frame.)

Last week, our local grocery store had tons of fresh produce on sale.  I stocked the fridge with fresh button mushrooms, cilantro, spring onions, red, yellow and orange bell peppers, cucumbers and carrots.  To be cooking with fresh ingredients is just so pretty and enjoyable to me.  Its really kind of ridiculous how excited I got to make a big pan of eggs scrambled with fresh mushrooms, tiny chopped spring onions, red peppers and ham.  Even more laughable is that the next night I used all those same vegetables plus some julienne cut carrots in a saute with kielbasa and served it over couscous.  I've never made couscous before and it has kind of an exotic/earthy feel to it for me.  (Hippie clue #2, I'm all jazzed over fresh veggies and tiny pasta.)

My couscous/sausage/veggie concoction with some of my canned peaches from last fall.

Recently, I ordered a few essential oils.  Just a handful of small bottles that seemed to be the most common.  I've used them a little bit so far, but not much.  I read that lavender oil and lemon oil are good for chapped skin, so I mixed some up with coconut oil and put it on my face hoping to get rid of a dry patch by my eye.  And, I made some bedtime bath salts for the kids.  We are big fans of "salt baths" around here. (Hippie clue #3, I am collecting essential oils.)

My tiny collection of essential oils.  I'm pretty excited about these babies.

I'm really trying to be mindful of what I put into my home.  I try to buy the best quality food with the fewest ingredients as I can.  I'm also pretty picky about cleaning products and plastics.  I almost solely use glass food storage, plant-based cleaners, cloth napkins and non-paper plates/cups.  I was proud of myself for finding a deal on granola cereal at the store last week.  They also had a smokin' deal on pudding cups.  I have not purchased these things in years.  The kids have never had them before.  I thought oh what a fun treat for Natalie's lunch and bought four packages.  Then after I got them home I started to panic that I bought my children tiny bowls of poison.  I got over it and let them eat it, but probably won't buy it again.  (Hippie clues #4, 5 & 6 Plastic is pretty much banished from my kitchen. I bought granola cereal on purpose.  And pudding made me panic.)

Have no fear, I'm not going to stop shaving my legs or anything like that.  I have found as I have gotten older that I am very interested in the way our bodies respond to chemicals.  I also like the challenge in finding out just how many things I can do for myself.  Living in the country means that we can't run to the store for every little thing.  I mean, I could, but then I'd just spend a lot of time driving which completely defeats the purpose.  Hence, the quest to find what can we do on our own and what basic ingredients/tools will be most useful to us.  So, I guess there's worse things.  I'm ok with being a little out there...

Its Been a Long Time

So, its been a while since I have tended my little blog.  The thing is this:  I have had a lot of heavy things on my mind and have not come to any conclusions yet.  I feel like I need to have the problem worked out and answered in order to write about it for it to be of any use to anybody.  So, I've written nothing.  Maybe I'll just set those things aside for now and think about something else...

It has been a long cold winter.  We've spent far too much time indoors and watched way too much TV. We finally had enough on a few mildly blustery days and bundled up and went out anyway. (These pictures are from early January) 

Spring is on its way and will be here soon.  I know this because I bought garden seeds today. Yay :)

Lately I have had some opportunity to spend some time with my nieces and nephews and it has been wonderful.  

My oldest nephew is in middle school and is on their archery team.  He's a great kid and I recently was able to attend the tournament that his school hosted.  He even sat by me while he was waiting for his time to shoot and we got some good visiting in.  He loves to read and was telling me about some books that will change my life, like the Harry Potter series.  After he was all done shooting, we went out for lunch.  Just the two of us.  It was a grand day.

My youngest niece got baptized yesterday.  It was such a special day for all of us.  Even though she was sick with a cold, she was awake and interested in everything going on.  Mostly I think she wanted to go for a swim in the baptismal font.  After the ceremony, we went out for brunch as a family and had a little celebration for her.  There is just something so peaceful and magical about seeing a baby baptized and I am so glad that I got to be there to witness it.  

Soon, the weather will be warmer, there will be green grass and flowers where there is now only snow and there will be a lot more to write about.

Until then,

Happy Monday!

Summer, The Highlights

Looks like its been a while since I've visited my own blog.  Apologies to my adoring fans.  Summer is coming to an end and so many things are changing in our household.  Since the peach canning wrapped up, we've celebrated birthdays, had a few visits from the tooth fairy, went to our county fair, welcomed a new niece, and started school.  In between there were lots of hot days spent swimming with friends, the building of a bird trap, a fish hook firmly embedded in the hand of our boy and our usual berry picking & canning sessions.  

Natalie swimming at her cousin's birthday party

Joey admiring his selection of tackle

Joey & Dad with the bird trap they built together

Close up of the bird trap and all its features.  The metal latch on the top is the trigger for when birds come.  The marshmallows are the bait.  The gator grabs the birds so they can't get away and the jumper cable thing is to shock any raccoons that try to get in.

Joey fishing with the Pocket Fisherman.  These are great for kids, by the way.

Natalie lost her first tooth!

Joey made friends with a goat at the fair

Natalie is a fan of the roller coaster

Our new niece.

Natalie's first day of First Grade!  Joey is really excited too!

Next week Joey starts preschool.  With both kids in school, I will hopefully have a bit of time to better keep up on things, like my poor neglected blog....

Wanderings- The Frog Hunt

With the arrival of spring we've been spending a lot more time outside.  Every day it seems there is something new to see.

One evening last week, we took the kids for a "frog hunt" down a nearby logging/hunting trail.  We had been hearing the frogs singing for a few days by this time and the kids were dying to catch some.  With nets and buckets in hand, we set out to see what we could see.  We did catch one wood frog (thanks to a daddy with sharp eyes and quick reflexes).  

But, we saw so much more.  Water spiders, fiddlehead fern shoots, deer scat, frog eggs, a female wood duck, tiny white flowers, wild strawberry plants, a buck scrape and a funny daddy climbing a tree like a monkey. 

The evening started out as a search for the elusive singing frogs and ended as a game of being Grizzly bears.  For some reason, this particular area had seemingly hundreds of dry poles from two feet to eight feet tall.  The kids got the biggest kick out of pretending to be bears knocking down trees.  Naturally, the batteries died in my camera before we got to that part of the trip.

We were only out for about an hour and a half, but we covered a lot of ground.  For me, the best part is always watching Matt in his element, teaching the kids what he knows about nature.

Spring at Last

I think I can safely say that it is finally Spring.  Since I last posted, a few feet of snow have melted, fallen, and melted again.  We have lots of bare ground in our yard and experienced our first rainfall of the Spring this morning.  The birds are slowly returning.  I saw this confused looking robin from our living room window last week.  I like to think it was asking the red squirrel what's going on.

In my head, their conversation goes something like this:
Robin says to squirrel "What's with the snow?  I heard it was all melted?"
Squirrel says to Robin "That was last week.  You missed it."

We've been busy during this time of waiting for green grass and sunshine.  We got an invite from some friends of my Dad's to go see their newborn calves.  A visit to a farm is always fun for us. We met a day old calf and her ornery mama, two big dogs, some bunnies, a flock of chickens and a duck.  The kids had a blast!  And, I asked them a million questions about their chicken and rabbit setups.

The General leads Matt and the kids into the birthing pen.

She does not look happy to see us.

We celebrated Easter.  The kids dyed eggs, we went to Easter Mass and out to brunch with Matt's family.

We've had a few birthdays in the family.  Joey turned 4 and had a party at the local bowling alley the same weekend as Matt's sister, Tina celebrated her birthday.  Their birthdays are two days apart and both of them were born on Good Friday.

We got our spring chicks. We added five Rhode Island Red pullets, five Marans pullets, one Buff Orpington, and one Brown Leghorn to the flock this year.  I am especially excited for the Marans because we've never had them before and they lay eggs that are very dark brown.  We've lost a few hens since the last time we bought chicks and a few more are getting pretty old and rickety and may not make the year, so its time to add some new ones.  I hope to add two more chicks this year also.  If I can get to L&M when they have them, I'd like to get a couple of Buckeye pullets.  They are a reddish brown chicken that looks much like a Rhode Island Red, but they were developed in Ohio and have a "propensity for catching mice."  I'm all for anything that eats mice.

One little Rhode Island struck a pose for me.  She kind of looks like Paris Hilton.

We have begun cleaning up from the winter both indoors and out.  Matt finally took down the deer bones that have been making our front yard look like a scene from a horror movie and I've been organizing.  We've finally taken down the Christmas/winter decorations from the porch and replaced them with more colorful cheery warm weather things.

Thrifted buckets, crate and flower art.  The chicken and silk flowers are from Walmart.
The red thing is a piece of sidewalk chalk that happened to be laying there.

  

The spring flowers are starting to peek up through their blanket of leaf mulch.  Seeing the peonies coming up always makes me smile.

I see a few more crowns than last year.  This is promising!

I've tried several new recipes.  Cinnamon Roll Cake is heavenly.  The recipe says to serve it warm, but I think it tastes better the next day.  Chicken and Dumpling Casserole got mixed reviews.  We'll see how the Rutabaga and Carrot Mash goes over tonight.  It looks tasty and Joey informed me this morning that he just loves rutabagases, they're from Canaba you know.

I've been doing some thrifting.  In my travels, I've found some clothes for the kids, a few more vintage bowls for me,  toss pillows for the living room, some metal and ceramic containers to serve as planters and several books for me to read.  I also picked up a family size George Foreman grill and a waffle iron for very reasonable prices.

I hosted my card swap group over the weekend. There are five of us in the group and we meet every other month to share cards.  We each take a turn hosting, have a potluck lunch, stamp and gab.  Its nice relaxing girl time.  And, the cards are always beautiful.  I'm very happy with this last bunch.

We've also checked out the new Cherry Berry frozen yogurt place in town, (it was ok, but over priced and not enough tables), been to the public library, had some play dates and a sleepover with the neighbor kids.  

Springtime is getting off to a good start.  I just hope it doesn't decide to be winter again until about mid-December.

Here's to Sunshine! :)