i_am2bz
Lovin' The Homestead
Awww, so sorry for your loss. Sounds like Lucky had a wonderful life with you & went peacefully. 
Lady Henevere: Year in review
- Thread starter Lady Henevere
- Start date
justusnak
Almost Self-Reliant
Im so sorry for your loss. RIP lucky Bunny
Lesa
Lovin' The Homestead
Your little rabbit, was certainly named properly. What a lucky life indeed! RIP
lorihadams
Always doing laundry
Awwww...sounds like a sweetie....sorry for your loss, we lost one of our original hens this week too so I know how you feel.
- Thread starter
- #255
Lady Henevere
Lovin' The Homestead
Thank you all for the kind words. -- I appreciate it.
- Thread starter
- #256
Lady Henevere
Lovin' The Homestead
I recently read a great story called Breaking Night by Liz Murray. It's a memoir by a woman who grew up in a home with drug-addicted parents living on welfare. She talks about her childhood, taking care of her parents, and the scary people they associated with. Her family fell apart and she ended up homeless as a teenager, sleeping in friends' apartments, stairwells, the subway trains. She started to develop a dissatisfaction with that life, which started a drive to find something better -- and she ended up going to high school while homeless, earning herself a scholarship and place at Harvard.
To me, this one version of true self-sufficiency. Refusing to be downtrodden, refusing to accept powerlessness, being motivated and hardworking enough to earn yourself a place in this world where you are not relying on others to get by. That is one way to self-sufficiency, and I thought the book was worth recommending here.
To me, this one version of true self-sufficiency. Refusing to be downtrodden, refusing to accept powerlessness, being motivated and hardworking enough to earn yourself a place in this world where you are not relying on others to get by. That is one way to self-sufficiency, and I thought the book was worth recommending here.
Beekissed
Mountain Sage
I agree! I love books in which people overcome great odds through strength of character and hard work.
- Thread starter
- #258
Lady Henevere
Lovin' The Homestead
Made ghee yesterday for the first time. It was really simple and it tastes good (I sauted the pumpkin seeds in it with some natural seasoning salt -- yum!). Ghee (clarified butter) does not have casein, which the naturopath suggested I should avoid. I also happened to read yesterday that gluten and casein both have peptides that react with opioid receptors in the brain (the same receptors that react to things like heroin and morphine). Some researchers think these peptides are causing a toxicological reaction in people with disorders like autism and schizophrenia. I wonder, could this be causing my severe brain fog episodes? I do feel like I've been drugged at those times. It may not be related in any way, but I need to read up on it when I have more time.
My tiny kitchen herb garden is infested with tiny little bugs.
It's now a tiny outside herb garden.
I need to plant my cover crops today. The wooly-pod vetch seeds have been soaking overnight, and I have packets of fodder radish and crimson clover. Last year I cover cropped but I don't know if it did any good at all. I planted nitrogen fixers (the vetch and clover fix nitrogen in the soil), then chopped and dropped it, and covered the whole thing with old straw that spent the winter in the chicken run. Between nitrogen-fixing plants and the nitrogen-filled straw (from the chicken droppings), I expected to have some additional nitrogen in the soil. I had none -- the test showed the nitrogen was completely depleted. So I'm not really sure what to do with that info, but I'm cover cropping again in hopes of building my soil in a hands-off way (since that's all I have time for at the moment). And besides, the cover crops were kind of pretty, with the red clover and the purple vetch. I'm hoping the addition of the fodder radishes will help loosen the soil. I may have to fertilize if I want anything to grow next season, but we'll see.
It's raining here, and it's (relatively) cold. It feels lovely. (Well, it feels lovely because I'm inside, drinking a cup of tea in my PJs. It will feel less lovely when I go out to plant my seeds.)
My tiny kitchen herb garden is infested with tiny little bugs.
It's now a tiny outside herb garden.I need to plant my cover crops today. The wooly-pod vetch seeds have been soaking overnight, and I have packets of fodder radish and crimson clover. Last year I cover cropped but I don't know if it did any good at all. I planted nitrogen fixers (the vetch and clover fix nitrogen in the soil), then chopped and dropped it, and covered the whole thing with old straw that spent the winter in the chicken run. Between nitrogen-fixing plants and the nitrogen-filled straw (from the chicken droppings), I expected to have some additional nitrogen in the soil. I had none -- the test showed the nitrogen was completely depleted. So I'm not really sure what to do with that info, but I'm cover cropping again in hopes of building my soil in a hands-off way (since that's all I have time for at the moment). And besides, the cover crops were kind of pretty, with the red clover and the purple vetch. I'm hoping the addition of the fodder radishes will help loosen the soil. I may have to fertilize if I want anything to grow next season, but we'll see.
It's raining here, and it's (relatively) cold. It feels lovely. (Well, it feels lovely because I'm inside, drinking a cup of tea in my PJs. It will feel less lovely when I go out to plant my seeds.)
framing fowl
On a mission
Maybe too much water?Lady Henevere said:My tiny kitchen herb garden is infested with tiny little bugs.
- Thread starter
- #260
Lady Henevere
Lovin' The Homestead
I've been so busy with work and travel I haven't had time to post. Judging from the locked and farewell posts, perhaps that's a good thing. :/
The cover crops are sprouting, which is good since I planted them in the dark and I wasn't sure whether I did a decent job of scattering the seeds. So far they seem fine. I am building the soil for a garden I don't really have time to tend, but I'm pretending that's not the case.
The fruit trees should get the benefit of it anyway.
Major winds here -- gusts up to 80 mph. I could not sleep from the noise last night, worried about windows not being closed properly and hearing random buckets and things getting tossed around outside. This morning there was an empty toy bin in my yard -- I can't even imagine how it got in, considering all sides of my yard are fenced, and the one yard with kids is behind a double fence since it's on the far side of the chicken run. Weird.
SIL has moved in because she has no place else to go after a failed relationship, a job getting cut to part time, and her apartment building being set for demolition. She has no idea what direction to take in life, and I wish I had answers for her. The one thing she knows how to do (1) pays very little and (2) is not sustainable as she gets older and her already-damaged back gets worse (her job requires a lot of physical work). To anyone starting out in life who happens to read this, please consider getting an education or learning a valuable trade that you can do beyond the strength of youth. Getting to middle age and finding that you don't have any marketable skills really sucks.
That's all for now, because I need to get some real work done!
The cover crops are sprouting, which is good since I planted them in the dark and I wasn't sure whether I did a decent job of scattering the seeds. So far they seem fine. I am building the soil for a garden I don't really have time to tend, but I'm pretending that's not the case.
The fruit trees should get the benefit of it anyway.Major winds here -- gusts up to 80 mph. I could not sleep from the noise last night, worried about windows not being closed properly and hearing random buckets and things getting tossed around outside. This morning there was an empty toy bin in my yard -- I can't even imagine how it got in, considering all sides of my yard are fenced, and the one yard with kids is behind a double fence since it's on the far side of the chicken run. Weird.
SIL has moved in because she has no place else to go after a failed relationship, a job getting cut to part time, and her apartment building being set for demolition. She has no idea what direction to take in life, and I wish I had answers for her. The one thing she knows how to do (1) pays very little and (2) is not sustainable as she gets older and her already-damaged back gets worse (her job requires a lot of physical work). To anyone starting out in life who happens to read this, please consider getting an education or learning a valuable trade that you can do beyond the strength of youth. Getting to middle age and finding that you don't have any marketable skills really sucks.
That's all for now, because I need to get some real work done!
