Chick Days.

Have you ever run into Tractor Supply to get cat food, but then gotten side tracked by the tiny white chick that was cuddling with a duckling, and her tiny bantam friend...but then you remember that there is a six chick minimum so you pick out four more?...why not right?   Happy Chick Days!!!

It's that time of year people...chick days!  Some people have tiny chicks pipping and peeping in their incubators, some get a call early one morning from the post office that their chicks have been delivered...and some people just go to Tractor Supply and pick out chicks!

If you've never been to Tractor Supply, you should probably go.  Farm stuff, all matter of pet stuff, boots, kick ass jeans, goo goo clusters, peanut butter filled pretzels...we all have our favorites at TS.   It is the joke around here every year that your Christmas present is probably coming from either Value World or Tractor Supply.  I could hang out in there all day - especially when the chicks come in!

They have big metal bins set up in the middle of the store with all different kinds of chicks and ducklings.  You don't have to buy any (but you probably will), but you should probably take the kids in to have a look...it will make you happy for the rest of the day!

This year is my year to re-boot my flock.   My plan is to get 18 new chicks total (and maybe some ducklings a little later in the spring...don't want them in the house because they are a hot wet mess :).   I have specific breeds that I love/want, so in all of my driving for work I pop into the different TS's to see what kind each store has.  I've gotten 12 so far...but I need to pace myself.  There are a few more breeds that I hope come in to round out the flock!

Tiny chicks in giant bins...peep peep peeping!

And Oh the Ducklings!  They are getting so big that they are "on sale" for .50 cents.  They are hopping out of the bins at night, waddling around the store, and setting off the security censors.  God I love them.

Coco carrying her chick "to go" container :).

My babies!! "I'll just take a quick nap in the food" the tiny one said.

The Set Up - Chicks live under a heat lamp in your house till warm spring days.  The dining room excitedly gets turned into the nursery!

The Watchdog - Trixie jumped in once and layed down with them...she is a herding dog people!   It's her instinct!

xoxo, e.

Patience and Patients.

Some days, (most days), I have my own agenda.  I have a bunch of patients to see, in a particular order, all over the greater Michigan area.  In my head, every patient will be sitting in their room, smiling, and waiting for me to visit them.

Not even close.

Today, I had to be a patient little music therapist.  My patients were busy living life today, and I had to wait my turn to spend time with them.  I sat through the rosary, a communion service, a "four corners" and a "cover all" bingo...do you know how long a "cover all" takes in a nursing home?  ;)

It was a good thing that I had my school marm, or librarian, or "someone considering entering the convent" outfit on today.  (which is also appropriate because my first stop was indeed a convent!)  A solid peter pan collar and sensible shoes kept me grounded...and patient, all day.

Peter Pan Blouse:  thrifted

Cranberry Cardigan:  thrifted

Corduroy Duck Skirt:  best thrift of the week

Dansko Oxfords:  First purchase with first ever paycheck after college (wow these are old!)

Sensible shoes last forever people!

Chicken:  Dolly Parton, ran up to mom when I got out of the car, wanted to be held.

Wrapping up the work week with a "Cowboys and Campfires" party at a nursing home tomorrow 

(Yes to any excuse to wear cowboy boots to work!).  

xoxo, e.

And Then Summer Slipped Away.

The nights are perfectly chilly, and the days have that crispness that boldly announces the onset of fall.  Ladies are scurrying to dig out their cardigans and boots, and the squirrels are furiously gathering the black walnuts from my front lawn.  The change of seasons gives us a little kick in our step.  After the dog days of summer drag on through August and September, we are more than ready for something new..something that only October brings.

But, let us not forget the beauty that this summer gave us.  Here is a little summer round up of some of my favorite days!

The gardens were glorious this summer, the dahlias and zinnias are still going strong!

Peach picken' days with my sweet family.

The people on my porch series....The lovely Jolene, and Trixie and the Sun Tea. 

The day that Joe removed the bee hive from the roof (not our roof).

A day at the lake house with Auntie Nicole and the Neffs!

On the right is out new rooster, Bruce Springstein.  We call him The Boss.

Ahhh (deep sigh of gratitude).  Fall is here.  Halloween decorations are out, and there are piles of shoes and boots, and racks of ironed clothes to photograph for the shop.  But work can wait.  Snuggle in with your lovies and enjoy every minute of this beautiful season!   xoxo, e

Time to Make the Chokecherry Syrup.

    I have a beautiful friend named Amy Lesser.  She is an herbalist, a shepherdess, a farmer, a mother, and well, just a really sweet person.  If you were stuck in the wilderness and told to survive, well, you'd want her along.  She would gather wild food for you, make you soap, and probably tell you stories of your ancestors that warmed your heart (I'm guessing on that last part, but I bet she would).  When Amy says it's going to rain, it rains.  When she says fall weather is on the way, it comes.  And when she says that it's time to start nesting and gathering...you better just do it.

   And so we did!  It's funny how we wait and wait for that first tomato to ripen, like its gold, and then before we know it the entire dining room table is covered in ripe fruit, begging to be canned and processed.  Coco Rosie went to my mom and dad's for the weekend, so Joe and I got down to business and started putting up food.  Between the goodies from our garden, and fillers from Family Circle Centennial Farm down the road, there was just produce everywhere.  We canned tomatoes, made dilly beans, and threw on a big pot of veggie beef stew while we worked.  We made blueberry jam and blueberry syrup (bad year for Michigan maple syrup, but blueberries abound!).  There are peaches waiting to be processed, and more zucchini, squash, peppers, and eggplant than I can think about right now.  And then there were the chokecherries...

   We have a bunch of trees out back that we've always called "ornamental cherries."  We were chatting back there with neighbor Al this week, and he called them chokecherries...then he told sweet stories of fishing in the back woods of Canada as a young boy, and helping all of the older ladies make the chokecherry syrup.  Sold.  I live for stories like that.  If some old Canadian wilderness women can make chokecherry syrup, then so can I.

    The tiny berries have an intense tart cherry flavor with a big pit in the middle.  I stewed them down and mashed out the juice.  I make fruit or other simple syrups all the time (ok, mainly for cocktails or coffee, but I make them none the less).  I make blackberry syrup for gin drinks, ginger syrup for Pimms, gingerbread syrup for coffee in the dead of winter...etc.  So, I followed suit and added some sugar and simmered down the chokecherry juice.  I poured it into a jar...and I'll be damned if it didn't set up like the best cherry jam you've ever had!!  Not syrup, but Success!

The chokecherry syrup.  or jam.  or whatever....it's good though!

Harvest Thursday night...

Rain harvest Friday night...

By Saturday we were just screwed (in a good way).

First batch of blueberry jam. The berries are so concentrated with sugar due to the drought this year, that we used less than a cup of sugar for this whole batch..and it set up just perfectly!

This beauty is from Emily and Nigel's crop...gigantic luscious heirloom!

I canned in some of these huge 3 quart jars which will be nice to pull out for soups and chili!

I could not stop taking pictures of gorgeous heirloom tomatoes in jars.  Pure beauty.

Dilly Beans!  I'm not much of a pickler, but we had beans, and we had dill...so there you have it.

An after-canning snack with my honey and the chickens.  They liked dad's cheese-it's more than mom's pretzels.  Fo'Sho'.

The ducks know that there are treats being handed out...just waiting in the wings for their turn.

The Shiekh.  My beautiful rooster.

Lolita, my oldest kitty who is never around for pictures!

Wrapping up canning weekend with a little Sex (the bubbly that is....get your minds out of the gutter people!).  Stay tuned for Saturday morning peach picking pics!   xoxo, e.

Joel Salatin Makes Me Want a Better Larder

And I bet that title made you click...didn't it?

This week I went to hear Joel Salatin speak the the Michigan theater.  He is, let's say, the godfather of the chemical free, sustainable, and local food movement (all one, not separate).  He is the hero to many who are trying to self sustain, reduce waste, and feed their families and neighbors with food that is, well, good old fashioned "real food."  Without getting too preachy, I did take away a few life lessons and a new sense of momentum moving into the summer growing season.  Before I begin, let me look back at the notes that my nerdy friend took during the presentation, and then promptly emailed to me afterwards (we thought she was texting through the whole presentation.  newfangled fancy phones.)

Mr. Salatin has a few soap boxes that really resonated with me.  You see, at some point Joe and I decided that we wanted to be "farmers," on whatever scale, learning a little more each year.  We house hunted for a farm that we could plant roots in, literally.  Summer one was good, summer two will be better.  We believe in raising our child (or children) (infertility will get its own post someday) with their hands in the soil and their mouths stained with blueberries.  We grow what we can.  We pick, trade, and buy locally, but we could do better.  We put food in the larder/pantry....

Soapbox 1:  bring back the larder.  He spoke repeatedly of canning, freezing, and drying (dehydrating).  We do this of course, but we can do better.  Last year we put up 50 quarts of tomatoes, and a host of jams, jellies, apple and pear butters, applesauce, etc.  We bought and froze local meat for the deep freeze.  We picked berries till our fingers were stained...and still we ran out.  After the talk this week, Joe and I took stock of the larder and came up with this summer's plan based on what we have too much of and what we needed more of (I HATE buying out of season berries at Meijer)...which brings us to...

Soapbox 2:  Why do you need strawberries in Michigan in February?  Perhaps you should have thought ahead when strawberries were in season in Michigan, and canned, dried, and frozen more of them.  Of course we can't be perfect, but I think a balance in this concept is well worth thinking about.  How much fuel did it take to to get them here from California (or heaven forbid, Mexico)?  Trade and commerce is how this nation runs, so if you can't grow it here, you're going to have to buy it from elsewhere (coffee, chocolate, oranges, etc.)  But I think we've all been duped now and again when buying, say, a bag of apples, and not till we get home do we realize that they are Washington apples, not Michigan apples.  I.e...BUY LOCAL.

Soapbox 3:  Kitchen chickens.  If every kitchen had two chickens to reduce the amount of food waste in landfills, we could substantially reduce our garbage output...because chickens eat almost anything! (yes, some people throw food in the garbage, not in the compost bin.  sigh.)

Anyhoo, it was a night well spent.  Bottom line is that it motivated me to do better.  I'll let you keep tabs on me this summer.  We'll keep you posted on filling the larder!

I like a blog with pictures, so I'll just throw in some pics of last summers larder.  I love that word.

Dexter Blueberry Farm - Thank you Uncle Mark and Aunt Linda!

We did not larder the kitten, just the summer squash.

And I'm quite certain we did not larder the pie.  But Joe is so cute when is makin' pies.

If this was already on Facebook, I don't need to get his permission again to

 post pics of him canning in his undies...right?

Cider makin' at Uncle Scotties...we actually just took the last jug out of the freezer yesterday!

This last one may be my favorite.  One day in the fall neighbor Al called and said 

"Old man Carl has some old pear trees.  He isn't gonna pick em', so if you want em'"......yes please.  Ginger pear butter all day long baby.

The End.

Almost an Outfit Post, Until I Fell Out of the Tree

I've been wanting to do an outfit post of things I've been wearing lots of lately.  I'm not much for taking random photos of myself, but I geared up and drug Joe out to the woods next to the house.  We were followed by one six year old, one dog, three cats, four ducks, and twelve chickens (it was a family affair).

I have had photographers catch me in really flattering ways, but unfortunately Joe is not one of those photographers.  His photo shoot went something like this..."stick your butt out more, tuck your chin in, and frame your face with those branches."  Since this is the most unflattering pose one could put me in, I blew off his instructions and grabbed onto the dead branches to climb up into the tree.  And, as the dead branches broke, I fell in slow motion through layers of broken tree limbs.  In my white dress.  With chickens scampering over quickly thinking I had probably brought food down with me as I fell.  Now Coco is doctoring my scrapes and bruises on the couch.  I did this all for you people, in the name of fashion....I better see you wearing this outfit soon.  This better start a trend.  I've been wearing my new glasses, shoes, scarf and dress together, separately etc.  And a lot of etc.'s.  So, this makes an outfit because I say it makes an outfit.

White Cotton Dress: Thrifted

(note:  the tag says "Made in Greece," with a phone number for the shop in Athens.  Just in case.)

1980's Peach Fringed Scarf:  Thrifted

(note:  there were four different shades of these.  two made it in the shop, 

one stays on me, one stays on Coco)

I haven't had a pair of Dexter's since I was little, but these are my new faves.  

Won't take them off.  Thrifted.

Earrings:  Stella & Dot.  Had a pair, lost them.  Have a new pair (thank you mom).

Glasses:  Zenni Optical

(I could write an entire post on zenni.  These were $9.95, full script, anti glare, etc. etc.  I'm happy to answer any zenni optical questions you good people may have.)

Ok, this is what Coco actually wore today, but when she heard the words "photo shoot," she ran in the house.  Because this is clearly not an "outfit post" worthy getup.

Five minutes and a little rouge.  Clearly this is an outfit post worthy getup.