Our seeds arrived this week with much excitement. We are all dreaming about the gardens we will grow.

The boys were especially pleased to find the flowers they had chosen. Sunflowers for Dorian-

and "dragon snaps" for Ari.

We have been heralding the signs of spring:  "bird parties" at the feeder, some patches of grass peeking out from the snow,  a bluebird, a few robins, and pussy willows!

I finally pulled out the wet-on-wet painting supplies. The boys really enjoyed it and painted quietly and with great focus. I told the Enki painting story "Brushtail" the week before- a magical story about a bird who brings colour to the world, and it has a verse in it that can gently remind about rinsing the paintbrush in between colours. This worked well to keep it from feeling to "rule-ish." 

The boys rediscovered this pop-up tree house book their grandparents sent awhile back. It came with bug characters, but this time it was populated with gnomes. This game went on for several days.

The joys of a basket of new chalk, 

And Ari lost another tooth! And the other front one is nearly out. He's growing and changing so fast these days!

He is such a bird lover and rescued this chickadee who must have hit a window. He cared for it so carefully and then Perry helped him set it up on the feeder and it flew off a little while later. He is certain that it is the one chickadee that stays at the feeder when the others fly away because it remembers him- which must be true! He was also thrilled to hear the first red-winged blackbird today. These have been his very favorite birds since he was just tiny and he lead me out to the back willow very quietly to show me where they were, so glad to be welcoming them back home.  

We are all so excited for these signs of spring. We have several farm projects planned for the weekend, a trip to the garden store, some hoop houses to build over those cleared beds and readying an area for two little baby farm additions next week (hint: they are going to be our rototillers in the old neglected gardens and have curly tails!) 
I hope your weekend is full of excitement too, friends! 

I've decided to join Ginny's yarn along for the first time with the shawl that is coming together more quickly than I expected. It should be done fairly soon, and I will be appreciating the warmth through the spring and for summer evenings too, I'd imagine. I've never actually worn a shawl, but I've been wanting to make one for awhile. If I like wearing it I may make myself a lighter weight one as well- but only after I manage to tackle the cardigan project.


I don't have much else on the go- I am awaiting a yarn order for a few projects to get started. Ari has requested a sweater for his birthday like the one I made Dorian for his birthday, only with gray and red stripes, and I am only happy to oblige. And just the suggestion of his brother wanting a sweater like his had made Dori suddenly interested in wearing his sweater, making me cheer inwardly with delight. Outward cheering could throw his interest right out the window- he is three after all!


I have no great literature to share, I am still devouring stacks of gardening and homesteading books. I bought the Backyard Homestead book for Perry for his birthday and have been flipping through it, but am a little disappointed in how basic it is. There is little here that is new to us and I am still seeking the perfect homesteading bible- any suggestions? Ari and I are reading Little House in the Big Woods together (I am reading ahead on my own to be ready for any scary parts or editing that might be necessary,) and enjoying it a lot. This is a big parenting moment,  as these books were my absolute favorites as a child, and really made a big impact on me- I think I called my parents Ma and Pa for a good year while I was reading them! They are their own sort of homesteading bible, really, we are learning a lot as we go. If we ever need to know how to salt our own fish or make a ball from a pigs bladder, Ari and I will be ready.


Happy Wednesday friends.

I wrote briefly about Nathan's leadership bid in the last post. He did not win, but he did so very well, getting his progressive ideas out there and giving so many of us hope that politics can be done with honesty and integrity. We are glad to still have him represent us in Ottawa and I am sure that some time spent with his beautiful young family will be much needed.

It is feeling a little bit more spring-like around here these past few days. Though there are still mountains of snow, the weather has been sunny and warm and raising our spirits dramatically. It is a funny time- skiing and biking are both equally possible. And speaking of biking, Ari learned to ride a 2-wheeler this week! He just hopped on and started riding. I love this kid. He does things in his own time, when he is ready. And when he is ready, he does them so well. I don't have any pictures of the biking boy yet- there are no snow-free biking spots up here on the mountain yet, but we will head down into the valley this week with the camera to document the excitement.


I do have pictures of the millions of ferments I have bubbling up on top of the fridge. I found this great tutorial on making lacto-fermented veggies and it is so much more straightforward than what we had been doing. I am hopeful that these will turn out well as we go through pickles and sauerkraut very fast around here! 

I also have pictures of our garden excavation project. This is a sure sign of garden desperation dedication, no? It is a rather epic project, but seeing how quickly the earth starts to melt and warm up in this spring sunshine I am motivated to at least uncover a couple of the raised beds for some early spring crops. And besides, having a project to work on outside in the sunshine makes us all happy.

Knitting outside for the first time this year makes me happy too.

  

I have been meaning to post pictures of the boys room revamp for awhile now. We had been playing a rather extended game of musical beds/bedrooms for some time, and really needed to change things up (and get some sleep!). We decided to move Dorian's things into the downstairs bedroom and make him a sleeping space there in the same room as Ari, with 2 separate single beds in the little room. I knew this would be a big change for both of them (we had various versions of co-sleeping/family bed until then and both were used to sleeping with at least one adult in the bed with them) so I wanted it to feel special to them. I made them wall-pockets for the ends of their beds to hold books and PJs and any essential treasures. Perry found these lovely Chinese astrology art cards and we hung up other art that had been sitting in the closet for awhile waiting for a more permanent bedroom scenario.

They really love the space and we are all sleeping better these days. It feels quite peaceful in here. The boys tend to play out in the living room, and we've kept this room pretty sparse, so I sometimes come in here to work on a project or bring a load of laundry in to fold away from the hubub of the main living space.

And the real clincher in the boys accepting their new room was the magic lamp! Do you guys remember these? I always wanted one of these when I was a kid. The heat from the bulb makes the inner part spin and projects the images on the rice paper lamp. Ours has Japanese farm scenes on it. They are quite magical and a lovely soothing light to get dozy by. 
I'm getting dozy just thinking of it- off to bed myself- good night, friends!

photo from Northward magazine

Today we are excitedly following the NDP leadership convention where our friend and MP is running in the race to be the next leader. I am so inspired to watch Nathan shine in this race- his passionate and authentic voice and belief that we can make things better makes me hopeful. Go Nathan! (and Diana and Isaac and Elliot too!) We love you guys! 

We celebrated the Equinox yesterday, though I must admit I was feeling less inspired this year, as it feels anything but spring-like out there. Perry and the boys spent an afternoon excavating the fire pit in the backyard, making a sort of windbreak around the pit with all the snow and a set of snow stairs to lead down into it (yes, that's right, we need stairs to get down to our fire pit in March- no smirking you southern types who have been out planting your seeds in your warm dirt!) and a table carved from the snowbank to hold our dinner fixin's. We enjoyed our supper out there roasting our local lamb smokies and homemade honey marshmallows and saying goodnight to the sun who decided to peek out at us just as he hit the horizon for a little equinox greeting. But other than that, we didn't do much of anything. It doesn't feel like it is time yet to pull out the spring books or the spring nature table stuff or celebrate baby animals or green buds or such. We are celebrating the return of the light and dreaming about spring's arrival, but not actually feeling the spring just yet. 

I did remember though, that last year I promised you all a little felt egg tutorial after I spent the night before easter thinking up and sewing an alternative to the stinky plastic eggs I had planned to use.  I made this tutorial then but it seemed funny to post it after all the egg hunts were done, so I thought I'd haul it out this year for anyone who wants to make some for their own kiddos. 

You will need several colours of wool felt and some matching or contrasting embroidery floss and a pair of sharp scissors for cutting through that thick felt.

I am not technologically savvy enough to make a printable pattern to scale, so you'll need to draw yourself up a little egg shape to these dimensions on a piece of paper making sure the bottom and top pieces line up nicely, and the two top pieces are long enough to overlap a centimeter or two. Cut out your felt, one of each piece (below I've cut enough to make 2 eggs.)

Line up the bottom piece with the larger top piece and stitch the two together, leaving the top open. If you wanted to get fancy you could blanket stitch them together and finish the edges as well. In this case, you would probably want to blanket stitch the edges first before sewing the pieces together. If you are in a hurry like I was, you can leave them be.

Line up and sew the smaller top piece so that it overlaps the larger top piece, making a pocket. 

Make a bunch more in different colours. I made one per child in each colour so it was easy to make sure it was all fair and square on easter morning. Leave them somewhere the easter bunny can find them so he (she?) can fill them with a few little treats before hiding them around the house or yard.  

Happy egg hunting, friends!

This week we have been using up more of our winter stores- we made apples sauce and apple butter from the last of our keeper apples, which were no longer keeping so well. They stayed pretty crisp until lately though, and it was nice to make some fresh apple sauce in March. I tried making apple butter in the crock pot for the first time and it was so easy and tasty. 

We are also eating a lot of eggs as the chickens start laying more and more. We spent some time in the coop today freshening it up in there and giving the chickens some treats. I love the chickens we have this year, they are so friendly and happy to see us when we come by. I love how they all have to try out their nests after we put in new nesting materials, flying up to test each one out. Chickens are cool.

More knitting: another attempt at something tiny, this time it seems to really be baby sized. And finishing up the Root Cellaring book. Lots of good ideas about how to take better care of our cellar and how to grow and take care of veggies so they keep better. And some new veggies to try growing- celeriac and endive perhaps?

Getting ice cream delivered right to the kitchen window from the backyard ice cream stand. This flavour was raspberry-chocolate-blueberry with chocolate sprinkles. And the fact that they were out there on their own happily playing was as sweet as the imaginary ice cream!

Lots and lots of doll play around here. I have to say, my boys playing so sweetly with their dolls really warms my heart. They are learning to be such wonderful caretakers and nurturers as they carefully dress and attend to their dolls and soft toys. I love it. (and look at Ari's sweet hair cut! It was hard for me to let those long locks go, but he was ready for a cut and I wont miss the chore of chasing him down to brush it! And he made sure that they left it long enough that he can still toss it around when he dances.)

There was, however some fighting over the fact that Ari's doll has a sweater and Dori's doll only has a vest and he is too cold and so I spent a few minutes before breakfast chopping up a few sweater pieces from a bag of half knit sweaters my mom had thrifted for me  to sew into a little dolly sweater. Now Sam-the-dolly is warm. Phew.

 I have been finding myself rather uninspired with cooking suppers lately. I have been making meal plans, but have not always been managing to cook whatever I had planned. Tonight we had the perfect spring meal -Snack Supper! I made a batch of crackers and we ate them with pickles, canned salmon, veggies, (more) boiled eggs, olives and fruit, and then with butter and apple butter for dessert. Easy peasy and everyone was happy.

Ari had his last ski day this week and had a good time at their "fun day" celebration- three legged ski races and tug-of-war on skiis and cup and ball races and such. There is still so much snow though, that he has no intention of stopping skiing altogether. In fact, he has big plans of building a big ski jump in the front field this week.


This week is Perry's spring break week and we are really looking forward to spending some time together as a family. We are not planning much, but there is always a list of things we hope to get done and various projects we want to get to. Today we spent a good chunk of time shoveling snow- Perry cleared off the kids sand box hoping to let the sun melt it out for playing sometime soon, and I was shoveling off garden beds! Or half of one garden bed I should say- and my back is tired- I just want that snow to melt! 


I hope you are finding some spring where you are-

We are nearing the end of the tea herbs we collected and dried this summer. We need to collect more this year to last us through. We have a regular "nourishment" blend that we drink a lot of- red clover flowers, nettles, raspberry leaf, rosehips, mint and sometimes yarrow. The boys like it with a bit of honey, or without the mint and mixed with rooiboos, which is yummy too.

We celebrated Perry's birthday- we spoiled him up nicely with lots of handmade treasures and love. And and a cake of course, a chocolate one- the boys first taste of chocolate since we started GAPS, which was very exciting! Dorian was especially thrilled.

And, can you see it? The finished sweater! Just in time, though it is unblocked and ends are not woven in yet, but it fits and he likes it and it's done! I'll post a better picture once it is blocked and dried and he is wearing it for real.

Perry took the boys to one of our favorite farms to meet the new baby goats, and brought home lots of  pictures of giggling boys with blurry happy little goats jumping on their backs and stories of how much fun they had playing with the babies. And also some pictures of the adorable miniature donkeys of my dreams. We have a thistle problem and I have been dreaming of a couple sweet little donkeys to take care of it for us. Anyone out there have any experience with raising donkeys?

Ari also had his first ski race with his ski group. All the kids are encouraged to come and it is non-competitiveness and totally fun. Ari was thrilled, and he impresses us endlessly with his ability to go-go-go. He skied that 3km in no time at all and headed straight to his favorite hills to tromp up so he could ski back down them over and over. Dorian spent most of the ski race chasing the skiers who were dressed up in jackrabbit costumes, getting hugs and and finally ending up with their balloons to take home.

We have continued to get our CSA box of local goods, and we are especially grateful for it this year as we lost a lot of our storage veggies in a root cellar failure early in the season (so sad...) This CSA is amazing in that it is a co-op of several farmers and community groups who contribute different things- root crops and other good storage veggies as well as dried and canned and frozen goods. So great to get local fare right through the winter months!

We still have so much snow, (look at it there, right up to the height of the trampoline!) but the weather has been warming up and the kids are enjoying being outside in the sun. Leaving the trampoline out wasn't planned, but it is coming in handy as something to do when the kids tire of skiing and sledding!

And inside there is lots of playing and creating to be done. We tried a gluten-free play-dough recipe that was rather disappointing, and instead spent a lot of time playing with cornstarch and water. Good goopy fun!

And of course, there is lots of board games and books being read and the ever present pile of gardening books as I make big plans and dream of spring. I do find this time of year tough- the light is returning and it feels like spring should be on its way, but we still have such a long way to go before the snow is gone and we can dig in the dirt and plant seeds and watch green things grow. It is still early for planting seedlings, and there is still so much snow covering the garden it is hard to believe that summer will ever come.


 I always have a little battle with myself this time of year, part of me trying to embrace the snow and wintry weather, while another part is pining for spring. But this year I've decided to change my perspective and accept that this time of year is made for pining, yearning, and dreaming. It is such a lovely time, really, when I step back a little- a time when the perfect garden of my dreams lives happily in my mind, where I can spend time in the slow pace of winter, there in front of the wood stove, reading and dreaming and imagining all that will be. 


Of course, I know that all I dream of now cannot possibly come true in one short season- all the new plants I will try growing, the perfect orchestration of cover crops and green manure, our compost humming along perfectly, chickens happily out on pasture, a pig clearing the old garden, the above donkeys munching the thistles, the potatoes scab-free, the greenhouse built, the flower garden actually growing flowers, the berry patches extended, new varieties of veggies and herbs growing (perfectly of course,)the rows and rows of canning I will put up, the root cellar fixed up and sure to keep all the mountains of produce perfect through the winter. This is a homestead that can only exist in my mind, and only now, in the wintry weather of March, here in front of the wood stove where I am warm and the day is slow and dreams can shine brightly in the new spring light streaming through the window. 


So thank you March, for your endless snow, for the slow end-of-winter days, for giving me this time to dream big. 

Our thoughts are with our dear friends and their little boy who was flown to children's hospital fighting pneumonia.  We love you Jack- get better soon, sweetheart.