What's New and Exciting in my Bed!

Okay, now that the title has grabbed your attention, I just wanted to share my sheer joy over all the greens coming up in my raised greenhouse bed. Every morning when I go out to water, I see new green leafy things pushing up out of the dark, rich soil and unfolding into luscious salad greens. Lettuces, mustards, kales, arugula, and cilantro are on their way to becoming many delicious, fresh meals. I was excited to find that Territorial Seed Company had some wild green seed mix varieties this year, and I had to try them out. They seem very hardy so far, and I can't wait to eat them.

Here are a few close up shots of what's coming up.

Slo-bolt Lettuce

Wild Garden Mustards

Wild Garden Arugula

Kale

Cilantro

Heirloom Lettuce Mix

Now on to potatoes and seedlings. With a busy life and lots of rain, I'm feeling a little behind in the homesteading area of my life, but little by little it's coming together. This summer I'll sit out on my deck with my banjo and look down upon my garden, chickens clucking and scratching, quail coo-ing, drink some delicious iced herbal nettle tea and just enjoy the life I'm building.

Blog Giveaway at Wooly Moss Roots!

It's Springtime, and the birds are busy building nests in trees, shrubs, barn eaves and marsh grasses all around us. I, too, have been busy building nests in my craft room. I am giving one away over at the Wooly Moss Roots blog this week, so head on over there and put in your entry:

http://woolymossroots.blogspot.com/2012/04/giveaway-from-sponsor-mountain-hearth.html

Entries are open this Saturday through Wednesday, April 25, and the winner will be announced on Thursday. You can also fnd more of these nests, along with needlefelted wool art, seasonal fairy dolls, gemstone bead jewelry, and kitchen items made of recycled wool sweaters in my online shop:

Mountain Hearth Handcrafts.

Folks who visit the Wooly Moss Roots blog can find a coupon code for 10% off in my shop through the week after the giveaway.

I also feel I would be holding you all back from a wealth of inspiration if I didn't encourage you to visit Taryn's blog in general. Wooly Moss Roots , is a delightful account of a family's simple homesteading life in the coastal mountains of Oregon. She shares beautiful photographs, recipes, ideas, and reminders of gratitude for all the things we love in life. She and her husband, Jeff, are amazing handcrafters and artists, and you can find their work at their Mystic Orb booth at the Eugene Saturday Market, as well as on their online shops: Mystic Orb Shop, and Wooly Moss Roots Shop. You can also read more about their homesteading life  and art from Jeff's point of view on his blog: Mystic Orb.

Trillium

"The time when dog-tooth violets

Hold up inverted horns of gold,--

The elvish cups that Spring upsets

With dripping feet, when April wets

The sun-and-shadow-marbled wold,--

Is come. And by each leafing way

The sorrel drops pale blots of pink;

And, like an angled star a fay

Sets on her forehead's pallid day,

The blossoms of the trillium wink.

Within the vale, by rock and stream,--

A fragile, fairy porcelain,--

Blue as a baby's eyes a-dream,

The bluets blow; and gleam in gleam

The sun-shot dog-woods flash with rain.

It is the time to cast off care;

To make glad intimates of these:--

The frank-faced sunbeam laughing there;

The great-heart wind, that bids us share

The optimism of the trees."

~Madison Julius Cawein

Digging In

 

As a new growing season begins, I find myself digging into new soil. Every morning when I wake up and look around, I am happy to be living in the middle of a farm. Granted, I'm not on a farm of my own anymore, but it feels good to get my boots muddy, my fingernails dirty, and create something with the sweat of my brow.  Evenings, early mornings, and snippets of stolen time in my busy days have been spent planting, weeding, mulching, cleaning up and setting up my new homesteading endeavors. I am also enjoying watching the work the farmers are doing here on this land as it progresses. It's a view into the day-to-day of an organic farm I have never had the opportunity to observe, and it puts the planting of my own peas and potatoes into a whole different perspective of scale.

One of the most exciting parts of living on this 20-acre organic farm, is that I was turned loose with my own garden area, greenhouse to use, and materials for a chicken coop and run. I found a free chicken coop on a local permaculture list, and was given an old, funky greenhouse to turn into the frame for a chicken run. I was just thinking how it couldn't get any easier, when a windstorm came along the next day and blew the greenhouse across the garden and up against the side of the carport under my house!

Between the farmer, a good strong friend, and myself, we managed to cut the bent bottom poles off and move it back into place. We took off the plastic covering too, lest it should get windy again. I saved the plastic to cover a small portion for a rain shelter, and collected abundant amounts of free fencing and chicken wire from a friend taking a break from chicken keeping. It's coming along slowly, but I hope to move some of my old flock over here with me soon.

I got a raised bed put in the greenhouse and planted several varieties of greens, including wild arugula, mustard and various lettuces. In the coming weeks I will be starting my seeds for the garden. It's pretty much my dream greenhouse, so I'm very pleased with the whole situation.

I got my quail coop moved over and set in place, along with the chicken run from my friend who gave me all the wire and fencing. I am planning on having plenty of fresh, delicious quail eggs soon.

I transplanted starts from the herbs in my old garden, and put them in various beds and places around my house. Mint, sweet woodruff, lemon balm, calendula, rosemary, lavender, and wild oxeye daisy were just a few, along with some flowers like lamb's ear and wandflower.

My wildcrafted nettle rhizomes are coming up and doing quite well. I expect to have a nice nettle patch for teas and soups by early summer.

All around my house, the fruit trees are coming into flower and it is a beautiful sight to behold. I keep imagining all the fruit laden branches I'm going to look around at in the Fall.

The kids and I have also been enjoying all the wildlife stopping by to visit. This deer often beds down by the gooseberry bushes and I see her getting up in the early morning to head off and graze on soft orchard grass. A nutria frequently wanders around the meadow below the kitchen window, and the birds are everywhere singing their songs, including the low honking tones of Canada geese drifting my way from the pond. Not too bad for living a stone's throw from town.

Looking around me, I know I have transplanted myself to a good location. The more I dig in and stain my pants and fingernails with this soil, the more I feel like I have a place to tend and pour my hard work and heart into. And until the day comes along again that I have a homestead to call my own, this will do just fine.

Shades of Green

I saw so many vibrant green leaves popping out in the coastal forest on my backpacking trip last week, I couldn't help but catch a few of them in photographs. The thing I love most about leaf buds when they first unfurl towards the sun is the diversity of color and texture they display. When you think about the cycles that they go through every year, and how they regenerate the same leaves and buds and flowers each Spring, it's quite impressive. Plants are amazing.

Here are just a handful of my newly emerged finds.

Salmonberry

(Rubus spectabilis)

Skunk Cabbage

(Lysichiton americanus)

and

Horsetail

(Equisetum Arvense )

You can read a post I did about skunk cabbages last year here:

Ode to the Skunk Cabbage

Elderberry

(Sambucus racemosa)

Licorice Fern

(Polypodium Glycyrrhiza)

And speaking of wild edible and medicinal plants, my friend Taryn over at Wooly Moss Roots just wrote a great blog post about some of their delectable finds out in the coast range. My mouth was watering.

You can read that here:

Wild Spring Greens and Garden Gifts

And, look for my upcoming blog giveaway for my craft business, Mountain Hearth Handcrafts, on her blog later this month. I'll be giving away one of my eco-crafted handmade birds nests.

April Backpacking in the Oregon Dunes

I can't recall an April backpacking trip that wasn't characterized by being wet, so when planning a spring break backpacking trip with my kids and friends, I prepared for rain. We brought tarps, we brought ridiculous amounts of spare socks and pants, we brought books and things to pass the hours sitting inside the tent, we picked a hike in the sand dunes figuring the water would seep down into the sand rather than pooling around the bottoms of our sleeping bags..we were prepared, so of course, it didn't rain. What we ended up with was a clear, mildly warm, sunny three days in the Oregon dunes in April. It was a rare treat indeed.

We hiked the Tahkentich Dunes Trail in the Siuslaw National Forest, arriving at Threemile Lake as our destination. This is a favorite hike of mine to do with children, especially early in the backpacking season. You can read my trail review from a trip we did there in June of 2010 here:

(also a very nice time to go when wild beach strawberries are ripe)

http://mountainhearth.blogspot.com/2010/06/backpacking-trips-threemile-lake.html 

Getting out in the coastal forests in the Spring gives one the opportunity to see a lot of lovely things emerging from their Winter rest. Everywhere you look, plants are unfurling bright green leaf buds and fern fiddleheads are uncurling.

I was delighted to spy a few things flowering as well. Salmonberry, Quince and Trillium are a few of my favorite early Spring blossoms that I noticed while hiking down the trail.

The orange bellied newts were out and about, and by the end of the trip we had spotted 12 in all.

Most of the hike follows a ridge and switchbacks through mossy spruce forests, emerging at the edge of the sand dunes where the lake is tucked down and sheltered from the prevailing coastal winds. The water level was a bit higher than when I had been there on previous trips, which meant the big sandy beach we usually camp on was submerged, but there was still a very nice campsite tucked back in some shore pines near the present shoreline.

It was actually a good thing we camped in some trees because for the first time ever, I misplaced my tent poles! I was fortunate to have a friend along who likes to find solutions and rig things up in creative ways, so it wasn't long before we had the tent all strung up like it was hanging from a spider's web. You just had to be careful walking around it in the dark!

Dry wood was hard to come by, but my son was determined to have a campfire. It was a rather high-maintenance campfire to keep fed with the dry pine sticks we could find, but it was warm and pleasant to sit around on the lakeshore at dusk.

All in all, it was a good trip. Life is constantly filled with the unexpected, whether it's wonderfully gorgeous weather you hadn't planned for, misplaced tent poles resulting in creative tent pitching, or periodically grumpy children, but it all makes for some grand adventures. And when it comes down to it, eating grits and eggs with your Calvin and Hobbes by a backcountry lakeshore at dawn, that's really what it's all about.

Let the backpacking season begin!