On a walk a few days ago, I came across some really beautiful ice crystals.

Herbal Salve

My sister and I have started making herbal salve and selling it to people in town. So far we have been making an all purpose salve made with calendula, plantain, and yarrow.  We also are making calendula lip balm. In the spring we plan to grow cayenne peppers and arnica. we will use the cyan to make a salve for sore muscles and the arnica will make a salve for bruises.

Dog Sweater

As a Christmas gift for some friends of mine, I knitted a sweater for their dog (my dog is much too big and fluffy for a coat, but Maisy, who is a Jack Russell Terrier, is the perfect candidate).  The sweater turned out cute, and hopefully it will keep her warm for the winter.

Making My New Guitar

I have been working on this make your own guitar kit that I bought from Grizzly Industrial Inc. The reason that I wanted to do a guitar kit is because I wanted a chance to wood burn on the guitar.

All of the parts that came in the guitar kit. (picture from Grizzly's website.)

I thought that it would be really fun and unique to have the wood burning on the guitar. I first drew the design on paper, then traced it onto the guitar and then burned it.

Banner making

For anyone who has seen my previous posts and photos of banners that I have made, if you have thought something like "wow what an amazing artist she is," or "I wish I could make banners like that," fear not, because this is well within your reach. I would love to leave you all thinking that I am talented enough to freehand my banners, but I must confess, I'm not. Anyone who can do these three things and make an amazing banner

1) find clipart on the internet

2) use clipart in a powerpoint slide
3) Project onto a sheet and trace

Trailer

I finally have finished my trailer- I have spent the past few years working on fixing up a 1948 2-horse trailer, and this summer I finished it! Here are some before and after pictures.

A Walk in the Woods

Grape Jelly

Tomatoes

Infusing herbs in oil

Calendula Flowers

As a follow up on my post from a few weeks ago about calendula, I thought that I would teach you about infusing herbs in oil. It is very easy and very useful.

Step 1- Gather your calendula flowers as soon as they are fully open. You can buy calendula seed from seed companies like Johnny's and grow them in your garden. Make sure that you buy the right variety for medicinal use since there are some varities that are just meant for decoration. You can also buy dried calendula flowers from an herb company.

Step  2- Allow the flowers to wilt for a few hours.

People's Climate March

Over the weekend, my mom, my sister, and I went to New York City for the People's Climate March. There were an estimated 400,000 people there and it was the biggest climate march in history! We arrived at 81st Street to begin the march at 10:00 (the march started at 11:30) and there were already crowds of people waiting to march. In fact our subway car was jam packed with marchers, banners, and cardboard tubes (the NYPD only allows cardboard tubes for holding up signs, no sticks.) In the subway we saw a kid, about five years old with a poster twice his size made from taped together paper that said "SAVE THE SHARKS." He was wearing a plastic knight helmet and

Beautiful Vomit

My corn has had a hard year. This spring only about ten plants came up out of the 50 or so seeds that I planted. I did not expect to get much corn at all, thinking that it would not pollinate well so I was pleasantly surprised when I harvested 7 ears and they were all beautiful and full.

My family left the house for a few hours and when we returned we immediately noticed that there was something wrong with the dog, Thea. She was panting and looked very uncomfortable. It was then that we noticed it, 3/4 of an ear of corn on the floor, the other 6 ears...GONE!

Potato Harvest- 120 Lbs!

Calendula

I have been harvesting calendula and infusing it with oil to use it for salve. I will let it sit in oil for a month, then use the oil to make salve. Calendula salve is great for burns, scrapes, and dry skin..

Artichokes From the Garden

Photography

Some photos that I have taken over the summer.

Summer Vegetables

Kale was going crazy until the woodchuck finished it off. We were eating it with almost every meal until a few weeks ago.

In early july I harvested 5 cauliflowers!

The chard is enormous!

Sunflowers.

Purple Beans are thriving. 

Miniature eggplant.

 We got to eat some lettuce, but most of it bolted while we were on a camping trip.

Although the purple carrots did not germinate well, the ones I have are beautiful.

Cow Camp

Every year for one week, two friends of mine and I run a cow camp for kids age 5-12. They are broken up into two sessions, 5-8 year-olds in the mornings and 9-12 year-olds in the afternoons. Every day they did chores, played games, walked cows and brushed cows. On the final day of camp, we have a cow show for parents to come and see all of the progress that the kids have made during the week. Last week was our third year of running cow camp.

Radish Harvest

These photos were taken about a week ago. This is a little bit less than half of my radish harvest.

Garden Update

Some good news and some bad news from the garden today.
The good news is that I pulled up a radish and it was way bigger than I expected and very tasty.

I also hilled and mulched my potatoes, they are getting huge and looking quite healthy. But I found the first potato bugs of the season, about 10 of them. 

My beans and sunflowers came up, but then a critter ate most of them; my dad thinks maybe a crow. I planted them again and this time I covered them.

  

Garden predators were out in full force as the crow was not the only creature to pay me a visit. One of my biggest cauliflower plants disappeared, leaving only a sad stump in its place. I am sure that woodchuck went to sleep with a full stomach and is dreaming about the rest of my juicy, delicious plants. I have to say he is smarter than he gets credit for since I only uncovered the plants yesterday (they were getting too big for their row cover) and he has already found them. 

I'm trying to focus on the good and exciting things from this beautiful day and remember that I still have five healthy, thriving cauliflowers. 

I wrote this post last night, but before I posted it this morning I went down to the garden to make sure that all of the plants were still alive...they weren't. The woodchuck has chewed a hole through my row cover and eaten my biggest plant.