High 62  Low 34  Clear and slightly warm.

Visit www.songcroftnaturals.com to support our family farm and to get great all natural skin and body products!

Visit the Farmers Market Thursdays 3-7pm

I’m not even going to put the date on this entry since I am embarrassed how long it took me to get around to writing. You see, it’s spring and although it has been the wettest April in Washington’s history, there are still a lot of spring shores to be done!

• Have planted a thicket hedge of prinsepia to help keep the neighbor dogs from coming over.

• Planted a variety of willows in blue, red, green and yellow along the creek.

• Trimmed back the rugosa, raspberries, woody herbs and several other plants

• Mucked the goat shed, cleaned the stall mats in them and sanitized all of the feeders and water buckets.

• Made a new perch for the chickens.

• Bred the rabbits.

• Got help re-doing parts of the goats sacrifice area as well as their browsing areas.

• Brian added on to the chickens poly-carb covered roof on their summer home (okay, they are a bit spoiled).

• Deconstructed some keyhole beds so I can reconfigure parts of the garden and add vertical growing space as well as an outdoor room.

• Fed the bees (It’s been so cold that they rarely go out and things are blooming late)

• Harvested lots of greens.

• The kids and I planted lots of carrots, radishes, lettuce, bok choy, peas, leeks, cilantro, potatoes, onions, and flowers in the garden beds.

• Planted a ton of seeds in trays that are now overcrowding the greenhouse (snow and hail in April!)

• Made compost tea and applied it to a test garden. (Amazing difference!)

• Taught two soils science class and composting class.

• Planted a berm with edible berries and trees with my apprentices.

• Planted a perry pear, cider apple and medlar tree.

• Planted forage plants including Nanking cherries around the summer chicken house.

• Did all the mom things like helping both kids enter project in a science fair and droving kids to and from swim classes.

• Did the homestead stuff like baking bread and making cheese.

• Got our www.SongCroftNaturals.com business ready for the Snohomish Farmers Market.

• And so the list goes on…

Soon I will be at the Snohomish Farmers Market every Thursday.

You might be asking yourself how I find time and energy to do all of these things. It is really more simple than one might think. I don’t have to go to the grocery very often and I don’t watch TV. I eat a healthy diet that includes very little processed foods and I have a positive attitude, even in this rainy season.

Attitude is everything!

See you at the Snohomish Farmers Market!

High 51 Low 43 Misty morning with sunny afternoon

About a month ago, our family had a beautiful salmon dinner. As we were eating, my 9 year-old son Simon looked up from his plate and said, “Pretty soon Mama, I’m going to put the fish on your plate.” He said this in a deeper than usual voice and with all sincerity. He is my little man.

This Saturday was the opening of fishing season. The lakes in our area are clean and well stocked. Simon got his gear together and at 6 a.m. came in to our room to wake up his Daddy so they could “Get a move on.”

The two of them went off into the morning with sandwiches and fishing gear. They met up with our good friend Derrick, who Simon has decided is his best fishing buddy outside of his Dad. Simon just turned nine and was given a beautiful fishing pole and gear by Derrick.

Having come from a long line of fishermen and having many of my best childhood memories of catching my own meals off docks and jetties, I was secretly elated that my child has fishing in his blood.

About mid-day, as I was working on chores around our place with Sofie, the guys came back. I waited patiently and refrained from asking if they had a good catch in the case that they got skunked. I instead asked if they had a good time, which they said they had

Simon looked at me and smiled his sweet “I’ve got a secret” smile and then disappeared out the door. When I went back to the door to meet him, with my camera in hand “just-in-case”, he was standing there with the biggest grin and eleven trout on a line! Some were quite large.

He had me call his grandmother and invite her to dinner. Simon set a table with floating candles and flowers that he picked. He was one proud boy.

He and his Daddy cleaned the fish and used the innards to fertilize some of our fruit trees. I cooked up a dinner of baked beans, corn bread, salad and the best pan fried trout I have ever tasted.

This was a day that will never be forgotten, by Simon or by the rest of our family. Self-sufficiency can start at a very young age.

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.