High 34            Low 26    Bright and sunny in the afternoon, thick fog in the morning and night.

Whew, I made it. It’s been a busy holiday season. Even though I have worked a lot, I can truly say it’s been a Happy Holiday season. I have worked most every weekend selling our farms “value-added” items. SongCroft Naturals is expanding it’s all-natural skin, body and hair care from Farmers Markets, to Holiday Fairs and now in to retail establishments. This is exciting news. We now have products and gift baskets in the Yogalife Studio at Greenlake as well as the Natural Clothing Company on First Street in historic Snohomish. We are happy to partner with both owners who are wonderful people that support other small local businesses.

Now that the business events are over, I am taking the next two weeks off to just hang out with my family. We will go ice skating, make a gingerbread house, bake cookies, make name tags, watch classic holiday movies, wrap presents, play board games and create memories that can only be created through true connection and love. This is what Happy Holidays are made of.

My side of the family will join us on Christmas eve for a dinner of smoked chickens, roasted vegetables, baked quinoa, salad and pumpkin pies. A great deal of the ingredients will be from our land. We are still harvesting cabbages, collards, kale, carrots, turnips, beets, onions, spinach and parsnips. We have squash set aside from local farms (those who had extra sent some our way after our ducks made chop suey out of the vines).

We will exchange gifts, play some games and I think the younger generation will be playing with nerf guns and magic cards. (neither of which are something that I can relate to). The rest of us will likely be making jewelry, talking and laughing at life through stories and memories.

I especially value this Christmas as one where I can enjoy both my own family (as my children are still young and at least one still enjoys toys) and my mother who is starting to show her age. I find myself cherishing every moment that I get with her. How fortunate I am to be able to experience this before she leaves this world. A Happy Holiday for her is to have her girls together with their families.

To update you on what is happening on the farm, as mentioned, we are still harvesting the aforementioned vegetables and we also have a lot of herbs. We put up a few hundred pounds or apples and potatoes for the winter so we are enjoying them. Our “Liberty” apple and “Spartan” produced well for their first time. Next year I will likely have to thin them a bit to get bigger fruit. Our medlar gave plenty of fruit. They are palatable but not especially juicy. While they would be helpful in a time of scarcity, they are not proving to be a family favorite.

The hens and rooster , Iris, are doing well. They have a very nice dry space thanks to Brian’s work this past Spring as well as the recent coop improvements made this past week. There are now added roosts inside the coop and tomorrow morning I plan to staple a layer of greenhouse plastic across the top of the walls to lower the ceiling in hope of it holding more heat in. The plastic is clear so light will still come through the rigid clear poly-carb roof and the air trapped between the two should create insulations. We have not added a light.

The turkeys are doing well. I added a nesting box today so we will see if we get some eggs. There is a hen that is squatting every time I walk past her. This is a good sign that she wants to hatch some eggs. I will get a leg band for her and over the next couple of weeks, I will band three hens to save for breeding. Midget Whites are good breeders so no artificial inseminations is needed.

The goats are still not bred and just like last year, they are not showing strong signs of wanting to be. There has been no one calling out, flagging her tail or anything else. I thought for sure they would go in to ester on the full moon but instead they got totally silent and pretended to be statues because coyotes came to visit. Maybe the coyotes scared the hormones right out of them (kidding)

I sold six rabbits this past month.  Lots of people have been interested in our rabbits. They are a good bunch and easy for people in the city to raise. They produce great manure that is highly valuable. I have been able to use it to barter with. I love raising rabbits!

Our ducks are still quacking about. They are not interesting in going in to their pen at night and are hard to catch. I am hoping ot catch them soon before a coyote or bobcat gets them first.

Well, that is the skinny on what is happening down-on-the-farm. How are things up your way?

Happy Holidays!

High 52  Low 43    Cool and with a rain on and off all day. Windy evening.

Did anyone else stay up to watch the lunar equinox? How cool was that? I hope you had a clear enough view. In my area, it was a bit cloudy but we got some nice clear views for sure!  Even though the evening air was quite cold, the kids and I were up until the early morning watching the magnificence of nature. The last time a lunar eclipse happened was in 1638! Although we will have more lunar eclipses, the lunar eclipse in 2010 will be the only most of will see in our lifetime on a Winter Solstice.

The next evening we kept the fire going. Our fireside vigil was kept with happy hearts. We drank tea and cuddled with quiet talk about dreams. We sang songs enjoyed each other’s company. Here is one of our favorites:

Round and round the earth is turning

Turning turning until morning

And from morning round to night

We hope all of you are enjoying this dream time season!

It’s the dormant season on SongCroft and other than the daily chores and an occasional “have-to” things are pretty laid-back.

We are still harvesting ground cherries, off the bush but in the greenhouse, as well as enjoying the last of the green peppers and tomatoes. The green peppers and tomatoes were picked and have been in storage. The tomatoes were picked green and have been ripening up nicely.

There is still cauliflower, bok choy, broccoli, kale, parsley, chamomile and a variety of other things we are wintering over and grazing on in these cold months. We are very thankful for the canned peaches and pears that we took the time to put up earlier this year. These little jars of sunshine are also little jars of optimism of what is to come.

This is not to say that I am not happy to be in the here and now. As my friend Roy said, “This season, whatever the season, is the perfect season. This weather, whatever weather, is the perfect weather.” I am happy in the now.

High 50        Low  34   Grey and overcast

The does are elusive in their signs of ester. It may be because we have had a coyotes on our land and the goats go very still during these times. I missed them in their last cycle. I will pay better attention the rest of the month and next.

I hope you are finding time to rest, read, ponder and contemplate during these still months. These are the times that great ideas are thought up!

High  37  Low 33              Slush

http://www.grillabites.com/html/locations/snohomish.html

It’s the day after Thanksgiving. Our family is truly blessed with an abundance of community and dear friends. Our little home was packed full of adults and children but all were comfortable.

Looking around the room, I was delighted to realize that in the mix were permaculturists, yoga instructors, environmental education enthusiasts, wilderness skills instructor, self-sufficiency skills instructor and organizational development specialist (someone who knows the ins and outs of how organizations work and how to help them run in a healthy way).  If the SHTF, were well poised to take over the world. (ok, kidding)

We had a wonderful meal of a organic local turkey cooked in cider pressed on SongCroft, greens from the garden (picked right out of the snow so the sugars were present), home baked rolls, home made pumpkin pies from the pumpkins we gleaned earlier in the month, horseradish cranberry sauce with cranberries that came from our local barter fair, and potatoes that were traded there too. The abundance brought to the table by all who contributed was as plentiful as the enthusiasm, knowledge and skill we have for the future in a cooperative vibrant community.

I am thankful, must of all, for the hope that is before us.

If you would like to come site around the table with other’s who are ready to step up and make a difference, (or if you are just interested in meeting please join us at the next Snohomish Permaculture Meeting. We will be gathering at Grilla Bites in Snohomish at 6pm on November 30^th. 1020 1st St Ste 104, Snohomish, WA 98291

Do you recognize anyone in these  Thanksgiving pictures?

http://www.grillabites.com/html/locations/snohomish.htm

The kids and I will be dying eggs this weekend. It is kind of funny since our hens lay blue, green, pink, brown, white and tan eggs it always seems like we have Easter eggs anyway.  Some years they just stuck stickers and colored on the eggs because they liked the colors as they were but this year they want to color them.

We will use onionskins, spirulina powder, beets and red cabbage to make our dyes. One of the tricks to make the colors really work is to let them sit in the dye with a little vinegar added for about an hour. Allowing them to sit makes all of the difference! The colors are really amazing and quite vibrant. You can use your own creative ideas as to what to try as a colorant. Simmer your dyes for 15 minutes before using them and of course, don’t forget to hardboil the eggs! (Even if April Fools is close to Easter this year)

I’ve included a couple links incase you would like detailed instructions or a video to see how it id done. The photo is of our eggs before we dye them. Aren’t they beautiful!

http://www.ehow.com/how_4825511_dye-easter-eggs-naturally.html

http://www.foodnetwork.com/videos/natural-easter-egg-dyes/33289.html

Enjoy!