Things are really getting cold. It is down to the mid-twenties and the fog is so thick that it is hard to see across the land in the mornings. It reminds me of living on the coast but the taste of salt in the air is missing.

It is the perfect weather for staying indoors to play chess.

Btw, I was lucky to get a call from Ashley this afternoon. She was one of our WWOOF’ers that stayed here this summer. She is doing well with a new job at REI and her studies. It was nice to catch up, hear her voice and stay connected.

We have had several inquiries about WWOOF’ing here this winter but are not accepting new folks at this time. We are going dormant and curling up in front of the fire with board games and hot cocoa. Our son love is when we play chess with him. This is a great time to focus on our just being with our family.

This is not to say that there aren’t chores to be done but for now, we will be doing on our own. I’ll write about them later. For now, I am off for my daily practice in humility, I am about to play chess by my son who will undoubtably beat me again.

WWOOF’ing on SongCroft allows for time to connect with nature and yourself!

To support our family farm, you can purchase products through www.songcroftnaturals.com Thank you!

Summer has been a little different for us this year on SongCroft. The sun has only shown itself enough to make us remember what we’ve all been longing for, the rain barrels were only empty for a day or two, local hay has not been able to be harvested because of the weather and I have experienced the worst seasonal allergies of my life.  Climate change is no friend of mine.

After a lot of discomfort, I am finally able to function at an almost normal level but have spent much of the past month trying not to let my face swell up. I wont go in to the gory details but lets just say that I was so swollen and red that even local folks didn’t recognize me.

On the upside, we have had the most wonderful experience with WWOOF’ers.  Our little farm has been blessed with three young people who have come to share their enthusiasm, energy and talents with us. It has been a blessing have these folks join our family, share our meals and be a part of our life here on SongCroft.

We have room for more until Sept. 15th.

We take turns with many things including meals, animal care, garden work and cleaning up. We are all committed to living light. This is more of a relief than one might imagine as it can be really hard to find folks who will commit to using a clothes line, looking to the gardens for food before the pantry and who can work together towards goals like getting everything in for a productive Fall and Winter harvest.

The interns sleep in tents that are out on the land and use the cabin for showers and a community space. They are welcome in the house but can use the cabin for their own quiet space as well. This creates a great balance as one intern is currently studying for a class at Evergreen State College. The cabin also provides space for daily yoga, mediation and an occasional movie.

Our family thrives on the presence of community in our lives. We enjoy cooperative living and we love WWOOF’ers!

High 33   Low 20

Snowing with high winds!!!Whoohoo!

(If you want to learn even a little of what you are reading here, our apprenticeship program starts Jan. 15th. Last call for registration!)

http://songcroft.com/index.php/the-songcroft-school-of-self-sufficiency/

Folks email me all the time saying they get tired reading the list of things we do. Well, you might want to grab yourself a cup o’ tea and kick your feet up ‘cuz this is going to be a long one because I’m going to give a summary of 2010!

All in all, it was a good year in many aspects. We accomplished some of our goals and completely failed on others. Okay, failed is pretty harsh. We just didn’t get everything we wanted to get done done. I am sure we got more accomplished than the average bear since both Brian and I are ‘Type A’ Capricorns.

Our apprenticeship program filled up and we had 3 teens all year!

We had a successful Fish Camp here in conjunction with Wolf Camp.

We took a few camping trips as well as went to our favorite seasonal gathering.

The things we didn’t get done were due to a matter of lack of weather, money, time or energy. The early part of Spring was very wet.

When we went on a camping trip, the chickens got out and scratch up much of our garden beds. I replanted and got things under control, so I thought, and one of the kids didn’t latch the gate so the chickens rearranged everything again. It is amazing what they can do with my tidy little rows in an hour! Of course, they left the forest garden alone since it would’ve taken more effort to walk over there.

We lost part of our duck flock, we think to neighbor dogs, so we are down to just three. Our son was heartbroken when he found his pet duck “Blackfoot” dead in the field.

We sold lots and lots of eggs all Spring and Summer. That was a nice supplement to the family budget.

We also sold a few goat kids too. We got a lot of milk and enjoyed the cheese.

Brians workshop was built and we will finish it in the Spring.

Our cabin was transformed in to a classroom and manufacturing facility for our SongCroft Naturals Personal Care product line. (The ingredients are so safe I can use them on my babies!)

We grew a good garden that is still providing us with fresh vegetables. We had tomatoes until early December and ground cherries too!

I “put up” lots of canned meat, fruit and vegetables, pickles, kim chi, as well as dried fruits, herbs and vegetables too.

I caught two bee swarms and hived them.

We put in the forest garden in April and it’s looking good.

We are one year closer to harvesting asparagas!

So, to the coming year. What are our goals? Well this is what I have settled on:

1. Finish Brian’s shop!
2. Enjoy our apprentices
3. Launch SongCroft Naturals our all natural Personal Care Products and have a Farmers Market booth.
4. Grow a bountiful garden that is well and truly chicken proofed!!!
5. Have more of the family’s help with harvesting more often so our production stays up and our waste in minimal.
6. Preserve more foods and herbs than last year.
7. Learn to smoke different meats.
8. Clear the spot behind the cabin so I can plant new beds. I haven’t decided what to plant there yet though.
9. Plant an evergreen edible hedge on top of a berm to create privacy as well as more perennial food.
10. Plant an evergreen privacy screen near the road.
11. Make more soap than last year. We ran out and I got too busy to make more.
12. Plant more trees for firewood.
13. Which reminds me, reinforce the goats browse area.
14. Fix all of the little jobs like greenhouse door handle, hinges on the compost bins, etc…
15. Re-design the lower part of our land.
16. Build new hay storage.
17. Build a new rabbitry.
18. Expand the summer chicken yard from 16×30 to something like 30×30.
19. Host Farm Camp.
20. Host Illumina Girls Camp.
21. Host Fish Camp.
22. Camp more, play more
23. Sing more.
24. Dance more.
25. Breathe more consciously.

I hope you enjoyed reading our summary of 2010 and being witness to us setting goals for 2011. Somehow it makes it a little more of a commitment if others know that the goals are set. (Maybe I should mention the 10 pounds?)

Oh, and if you come by for a visit, feel free to roll your sleeve up!

Thanks for reading. Your comments are welcome. Please do share our blog with others that you think might be interested. Happy New Year!

HIGH 34      LOW 22   Clear sunny day with ice and a bit of snow still on the ground.

It’s two weeks until the new apprenticeship program begins! Marilene posted a special in honor of her birthday. We only take registration until January 15th. After that, you’ll have to wait until 2012! Look at our facebook page for the special offer only good on January 6th!

http://songcroft.com/index.php/the-songcroft-school-of-self-sufficiency/#skills

Breeding time is an exciting time of year. This year seemed to come later than normal be cause the girls were just not showing strong signs of being in standing heat. Although we had a nice cold snap in November, which often gets the ball rolling in regard to breeding season. My girls were just not in the mood. It very well may have come from the stress of having coyotes on our land.

The coyotes never got a chance to make a kill but they visited several times in the late fall and even stood right out our backdoor yipping and making a fuss. Our goats were scared, as they well should be, and remained still as statues.

We got snow just after Christmas and fortunately one of the does went in to heat. I brought her over to a neighboring farm where I bred her to what I do believe is the most beautiful buck I have ever seen. He comes from amazing bloodlines so the union should result in lots of milk and cheese!

It might interest you to know how I get my girls over to neighboring farms. I do not have a truck with a canopy. I have a Subaru wagon. The does jump up in the back, sometimes with the encouragement of a banana peel or other such treat.

I grew up with a family pet goat that used to ride around in the car like a dog. (Really) We lived out on the coast in a small town of about 80 people. Things were real boring at times so my dad would take Amber for a ride just to get folks gossiping and making a fuss. This was one of his more minor spectacles!

In about 5 months from now, right around Memorial Day Weekend, we will have kids born. I will be back to milking and the rhythm of the seasons will take another turn towards abundance.

I can already taste the chevre!

High 74     Low 49        Humidity-99% and overcast

http://songcroft.com/index.php/the-songcroft-school-of-self-sufficiency/

Click the link. Find out about our programs and classes!

Things have been busy here. There has been a lot of food preservation happening. We have hundreds of jars of tomatoes, peaches, pears, jams, salsa, chili sauce, saurkraut, pickled beets, and a large variety of pickles cucumbers and kim chi.

We will be putting apples and root vegetables in to cold storage very soon. The milk flow has slowed a bit but is still coming. The chickens are molting and laying a bit more sparse but are on their way back in to full swing.

The Apprentices from 2010 had their last class and are off to all sorts of things. There was a big canning party put on by some of the alumni! When the apprentices are organizing community canning events, I’d say that my time teaching was well spent!

I added a photo of them with their certificates of completion. Aren’t they cute!

I will be spending more time getting ready for the 2011 apprentices and transitioning to a new year. Registration has just opened for the 2011 program. People are already signing up. We’ve filled up for the past two years. If you want to take the course, now is the time to get registered!

I attended the Cascadia Transition Network Summit and the Northwest Permaculture Convergence. They were two very inspiring events with lots of “Cultural Creatives” in attendance. It gave a great opportunity for building transition networks.

One of my highlights of the weekend was spending time with a young man named Tim. He wasn’t actually attending the event. He was working there. We had some wonderful philosophical conversations and I got to teach him how to propagate herbs for his culinary explorations. I hope he caught the gardening bug!

Tim, if you read this, I hope you will remember our conversations. I hope to hear about the beautiful story you write for your life!

Among the many things happening in our lives is other transition of the cabin in to a learning center. We are opening our cabin up as a classroom for SongCroft and as a space for event rental. This will give us the ability to take more students as well as have more space for activities. We have hosted Doula trainings and other day events. This is a valuable and rare space to hold intimate sized classes in a rural setting.

We will also be making our products in the cabin and will soon have an online store. This is big news and quite the transition!

Thanks for stopping by. Please let us know how your Autumn is going. Please do let other folks know about us. We would love to hear from more folks!

High 61 Low 45  Drizzly but warm. ( Our seedlings are loving this!)

Farm Camp

http://songcroft.com/index.php/farm-camp/

This month has been busy with all of the usually Spring chores of getting the cover crops turned in, garden planted, pullets out to forage, hens in their Spring/Summer home, goat kids birthed and settled in, does milked, cheese made, rabbits bred and the post-construction landscaping started, all the while enjoying the flush of green that has taken over our land.

Although these things have me excited, it’s Farm Camp that has been on my mind. In August we will be opening SongCroft up to those who would like to live and learn about how to run a family farm. This is so exciting that I am finding it hard to concentrate on other projects. We’re going to have a lot of fun!

You’ll experience instruction on dairy goats, chickens, ducks and rabbits as well as growing your produce year-round and preserving the harvest. Mushroom logs, the basics of permaculture, food forests, alternative energy and home arts are all part of the program. It’s great to read books and dream about living a more self-reliant lifestyle but it’s a rare opportunity to be welcomed on to a farm where you are able to learn and try things out for yourself!

Checked out the Farm Camp page. Tell us what you think, what you would most like to learn and if you intend to enroll don’t wait because space is limited.

It’s that time again. We are opening registration for the 2011 apprenticeship program. The 2009 and 2010 programs filled up super fast and we are anticipating the 2011 class to be full within a couple months.

SongCroft School empowers our community by providing one and two year apprenticeship opportunities in self-sufficient living, real-life examples of permaculture landscapes, community connection and cottage industry development. We assist our apprentices to be better equipped to deal with changes in their lives and environments.

If you are concerned about current changes in food and fuel prices, if you want to actively supplement your grocery budget, if you want to hone your skills while reconnecting with nature and it’s rhythms or if you long for a strong community enroll in our program!

You can check out more about the program at http://songcroft.com/index.php/the-songcroft-school-of-self-sufficiency/#skills

Spaces fill up fast so don’t delay!

This week I taught a class on edible wild plants of the Pacific Northwest. It was a lot of fun. I love the topic but most of all it was fun because I love spending time with our second-year apprentices. There is a special bonding that takes place after spending a weekend per month together over a couple years. Also, we are focusing on a common passion and building community.

This month we spent time walking our land identifying plants and their uses. Many were edible, some are good medicine and many are good for both. We picked dandelion and made marmalade as well as stinging nettle pasta. Rolling out the green dough was very gratifying.

We talked about the abundance of wild plants in our area as we sat down to a meal that included a salad of wild greens and blossoms we had collected, nettle pasta, and maple blossoms sautéed with garlic, shallots and butter. It was a fun and delicious meal.

I look forward to more of these types of relationships over the years. Yes, my life is blessed.