Introductions

December 4, 2008

Greetings and salutations! This blog is to be a window into our lives for those who wish to peep, ‘us’ being my two kids, Rowan, 18 months, and Tristen, 7 ½, and my husband and I, with a focus on the Rawsome Rowan’s raw diet, and a touch of her big bro’s semi-raw transitional one. I’d like to try to blog daily on my computer, but as I’m not connected to the internet, I’m planning on saving a few days to a week at a time at home and trans-posting each weeks worth all at once using the library’s computer and subsequent internet connections.

About us: We live on a 260 acre farm in a house that was built about 1946 or 47. The original foundation is from 1830's I think. Lots of wood, plaster walls. It’s such a blessing and literally an answer to an extremely urgent prayer (we needed to vacate, and the day I got the notice of the $250 rent increase, I literally said, out loud, “O.K. spirit, we need a new place w/in the school district, preferably a house in the country, that meets our budget, by Saturday,” as I was walking the one block from the P.O. to the library. This was Friday. At the library, I got online and checked the classifieds for the local weekly paper. Saw the ad, called, met that day, had the place the next. The super amazing part? We’d been checking the ads Every Week for a year and a half for a house in our school district that we could afford. Nothing but 1-2 bedroom apartments, and often out of the school district area. Until we really needed it and asked. How cool is that? As a bonus, all the other things I wanted in my house—the organic acreage, the awesome landlord, the space IN the house (5 bedroom, huge living, dining, basement, attic, kitchen, room to add one more perhaps in the near future), the garden area to be, all the wild foraging opportunities—came along with it. Thank you again, spirit.

So anyway, there are about 250 head of cows/bulls running around in the pastures at any one time—not ours; the fields are rented out—and lots of barn cats. Occasionally deer trapes by, and we hear coyotes almost nightly. This winter is proving to be interesting, as it’s our first year here and the driveway is almost ½ mile uphill on a verrry slippery twisty fall off the edge dirt path to get out. But town is only 7 miles so if I have to I can hoof it. There’s a small creek that winds all around the house and all over the property, with occasional waterfalls and a snapper (turtle) or two, and sometimes the occasional cranes and geese and ducks.

So the superest coolest thing about living here is ALL THE WILD FOOD!!
Here’s a general rundown on what I’ve found so far. We have: over 50 apple trees scattered wildly about, 1000s of black currant bushes (for those of you who don’t know, black currants often die from blight or disease, so red currants are the usual fare), 5-6 wild pears, I found a wild plum one day, red raspberries, blackberries, tons of both red and white mulberries, may apples (though we haven’t eaten these yet, as I want to be SURE of which parts are poisonous, how to prepare, etc. Anyone know??), nut trees—hickory, walnut, oak, and maple trees, lots of wild edibles like lambs quarters and chickweed and such, hemp (and thus seeds), lots of wild herbs, and some “already-done-been-growin’-here” veggies—asparagus and rhubarb. I’m told that there’s lots of morels in the spring (though I’m not much of a fungus eater) so I’m looking forward to at least hunting them.

We moved here in June, and had a once-every-twenty-years-or-so flash flood that washed my newly planted garden right on down the creek, though I managed to save a few plants already sprouted and rooted and the transplants. So this year we had lots-o-lettuce, spinach, arugula, red cabbage, parsley, cilantro (didn’t come up), basil, oregano (didn’t come up), thyme, rosemary, sage, lemon balm, and mint, mini tommies, tamales, carrots, radishes, celery, onions (didn’t do so well), garlic (all died but 1), leeks, green beans, nasturtiums, jerusalem artichokes, yellow squash, and I can’t remember what else. My herbs are now in the pool table room, temporarily camped out on the floor until I can get a window shelf built for them. I am already planning the garden for next year, and have prepared four beds to plant in the spring. The greatest gift: that once-every-twenty-years-or-so flash flood that washed about an inch and a half of manure/soil/compost from the barn area onto the drain field where the garden is located. ;} Everything’s got a blessing in there somewhere! So that saved tons of work this fall, though I still turned and dug all the planting areas down a foot and added peat and some shredded maple leaves for all the wormies to work on until spring. Yeah! Hopefully all the prep work will help me, the novice veggie gardener (this was my first year having a garden since I was a kid!), help all my babies grow into yummy super nutrient rich sustenance for my kiddos. And for me and my hubby as well. January’s coming way too soon, and I need to get my starter area ready and start my babies off. I wanted to grow stuff indoors this winter, but haven’t gotten to it yet. Just the herbs I brought in from the garden that Rowan likes to munch on whenever she passes and whatever sprouts I have growing in the kitchen. This summer I plan on having melons, peppers, cukes, peas, squash, kale, chard, you name it. Blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries that are closer to home. I’d like to try wolf berries too (goji berries) and have just sprouted some seeds to start indoors. Also trying an avo tree, though this one will have to stay potted and come back in in the fall. We’ll seeeeeee. Perhaps a lemon tree down the road.

So that’s the low-down on this strikingly beautiful hilly paradise we now call home. I’ve been reading up on homesteading and food preserving and hope to cut our food budget by 80% next year. Now to figure out how to cut heating costs and still keep warm, especially when I’m fasting! Temps dropped to the teens yesterday--yikes! I’ve got some pumpkins stored in the basement, so maybe I’ll try pumpkin noodles in a sauce or a soup or something tomorrow, as it’s supposed to be a warming food.

Today Rowan ate:

green chia porridge-spirulina, soaked chia seeds, mashed banana
pomegranate orange grape juice
chia coconut walnut banana kelp spirulina “cookies” dehydrated 4 hours
walnut-date brownie bites
avocado
more chia cookies
almond milk

Today Tristen ate:

raw oatmeal with spirulina, chia, honey, cloves, and cinnamon
banana carob almond milk
herb salad with maple fig dressing, pumpkin seeds, and chopped dates
banana
orange
almond milk
chia cookies
avocado
brownie bites
another orange

I gotta add that the chia cookies we made looked just like something from a dog’s hind end, what with the spirulina and all, and as Rowan has just learned to say “yeah” and does so whenever asked any question starting with, “Do you want . . . ?” we couldn’t help asking if she wanted to eat more doggie poo, to which she of course replied, “Yea-ah.” ROFLOL. Tristen got a real kick out of that one!

Hugs.
Sharilyn