http://rawtelevision.co.uk/

I’ve been meaning to get this on the blog for the past couple of weeks but things just got busy so finally I am getting time to sit and write about an interesting phone call I recently received from the U.K.

Cheyanne Dillenberger called to inform me that  Raw Television, out of the U.K., is casting for a new television series on off-grid sustainable living. She said that those who are interested could contact her through the information below. I asked her to send it to me in an email so I could post it here in case anyone would like a change in 2012. So here it is:

CASTING NOTICE:

Raw TV, the makers of the hit shows Gold Rush and Locked Up Abroad,

are searching for individuals to feature as part of a new series for a major cable television network. Do you have the spirit of an American pioneer? Are you fed up with the world you live in today and imagine another – better – way to live? Do you and your

family and friends ever talk about leaving society we know it, leaving it all behind and building a new world off the grid, with the frontier grit of your forefathers? If you are passionate about your beliefs and would be willing to share them with a national

TV audience we would love to talk to you.

If this sounds like you, whether you have a plan in action, have a more long term dream or are already living out on the frontier, please email your

contact details and a brief description of your situation to: Raw Television

casting@rawtelevision.co.uk

 You should have seen my kids faces when I read it to them! They were ready to stuff their packs and head out the door! Our kids grew up in this lifestyle of growing food, raising animals, diy sort of living and using our creativity to figure things out. Even our teen daughter didn’t bat an eyelash when I reminded her that we would likely have to go back to composting toilets and solar showers. Our son used to watch a vhs tape from the UK that showed a family named the Strawbridges. He knew learned about water wheels for energy production, trapping heat in greenhouses and all sorts of things from this video. Both kids were game.

When I mentioned this to a few folks who know us and they immediately wanted to know if we are going to apply. It is an interesting and tempting idea but I am not sure how we would pull it off. We would need to still be able to cover all of our costs while we are away (both for the farm and for travel) as well as have farm sitters. There is also the matter of Bri taking time away from his electrician’s job. Unfortunately, for most folks who are already trying to move in the direction that the they are casting for, we are too busy living the life to participate.

We are planning to keep up on the developments on this program as we would love to watch it if nothing else. Anyone out there planning on responding to the Raw Television casting call? Let us know.

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!

If you would like to support our farm by purchasing some amazing personal care products that you probably need anyway, www.songcroftnaturals.com is our retail website. We will have all 35 products there shortly! Check our Facebook page for sales and special offers. Thanks.

Now back to the regularly scheduled program…

It’s been a busy harvest season here on SongCroft. I have been canning tomatoes, peaches, pickles, sauces, plums, and salmon. Crocks of cucumbers and sauerkraut have been fermenting and sausages were made. Whether you are homesteading or not, this the time to put up the harvest!

There is lots to do as we transition from the summer into autumn. Alfalfa must be stacked for winter feeding of goats, stalls must be cleaned, hooves trimmed and herbal worming must become a ritual. I must also watch for signs of the does going into ester as we have one two-year old doe on our homestead who will be bred for the first time this year.

Chickens have their needs too. I do an extra deep cleaning of their yard and house, scrub out the nest boxes and give them a little extra diatomaceous earth to ward off mites. Pests become more active in the wet months so these are preventative steps.

The duck flock had to be reduced as we had to many drakes. Drakes can be relentless in their desire to breed and if the ratio of drakes to hens is out of balance, the hens lose. My youngest child and I worked together in harvesting our ducks and making them in to the best sausage we have ever had!

I’ll have to begin harvesting turkeys soon too. Our flock of 11 are huge and beautiful. I will keep my favorite tom and two-three hens with the hope of breeding them next year. The rest will come Thanksgiving dinner and many other meals throughout fall and winter.

Now is also the time to amend the soil. I plan to get several pick-up truck loads of horse manure from a neighbor who feeds only organic hay. We are making compost on our homestead but want to get a jump start by bringing a bunch on to our homestead instead of waiting until we make enough o our own. In time, we plan to only use what we make ourselves. This as well as all of the Big Leaf Maple leaves I rake from the neighbors 4 acres will be piles on our garden beds before they are seeded with fava beans and winter rye. (That means  I better get a move on things because I’m running out of weather!)

There is also garlic to be planted so we can enjoy it’s harvest all next year. Deciding where I want it to go this fall is a challenge since I want to add the manure and leaf mulch too. I will have to work that one out soon.

This is also a great time to plant or relocate plants. I moved a plum so it can grow on the edge of the campground and placed a medlar in it’s former place. I hope that I will be able to  pitch a tent under the plum tree in future years. It will bring back fond memories of my summer with my kids on the Bullock Brothers Permaculture Farm on Orcas Island.

In between the chores, I hope to get in some reading, board games and knitting. What are you doing prepare for fall? are you on a homestead or ? We would love to hear more about our readers.

If you are interested in reading more about  moving towards self-sufficiency as a family, check out our quarterly newsletter. The Winter 2012 issue is going to have our duck sausage recipe!

High 65 Low 40                 Clear sunny day with some crispness

Want to live on a farm for the summer?

It is that time of year. The time when interns are moving on to farms all around the country in hope of learning how to grow food, work with livestock and for some run a business.

Our interns will get to learn some of all of the above and a whole lot more! We are opening our farm to up to three interns at a time. We hope to keep the same folks from June to September so that they can build community and learn the processes more deeply. A minimum of 30 days is required.

Most of you know that we run a Self-Sufficiency Skills School as well as Farm Camp and other classes. Our interns get to experience these things as well as be part of the day-to-day learning opportunities. Interns will work along side of us as well as independently as we grow food, harvest, save seed, put up the harvest, milk our goat, raise (goat and human) kids, make cheese, raise chickens, sell eggs,raise bees, tend our fruit trees, build an outbuilding and enjoy our silly ducks.

Interns will be living permaculture.

We are outside of Snohomish, WA on a 3+ acre family farm. We are not a big operation but rather a small farm working on a closed system, permaculture design and cottage business. We are close to lots of amazing hiking, beautiful lakes and a sweet little town that feels like it’s out of an old movie.

We have a weekly farmers market booth where we sell our all-natural skin, hair and body care products, www.SongCroftNaturals.com. This is a good opportunity for someone interested in learning about running a business. Social networking, marketing, writing a blog, bookkeeping, shipping and managing products are all part of the mix.

You may also have the opportunity to work on the subscription newsletter we publish.

We expect interns to have good work ethics, great communication skills and the ability to live in a somewhat rustic way with a good sense of humor, some knowledge of growing food, carpentry, animal husbandry, business or alternative energy. We are able to enrich your knowledge base but hope you have at least one of the above skills.

It would be nice if interns have some experience living in community/cooperatively.

Interns will have their own tents as well as access to our work studio, most of the time, which has a shower, kitchen and library. We also have Wifi available for you to use your own computer.

There will be lots of good healthy food as well as private spaces on the land to sketch, observe nature or?

The stipend is room, board and education. Interns get two days off a week.

If you are interested in exploring this adventure, please send a resume and cover letter to us via email by June 1st.  marilene@songcroft.com

Thank you!

High 34 degrees  Low 8 degrees Clear with 6 inches of snow over night that began to melt in the late afternoon, becoming a solid sheet of ice in the evening.

I was recently asked to share my favorite fruit tree varieties here on the blog. My apologies for taking so long but now is the time of hard woodcuttings, seed starting, classes, and getting my SongCroft Naturals products in to the Grow Washington store. It has been a busy time (as always).

There was another reason for not getting right on listing the varieties I like, there are just so many.  I mean for some women, it’s shoes and purses or jewelry and perfume but for me, it’s plants and dirt. I just can’t get enough! So narrowing down my list was a bit hard and I must start by saying that there are plenty more varieties of fruit trees I love but these are the ones that made today’s list and each for their own reasons.

Apples are a mainstay in most of Americas diet. I grow a few different varieties and would grow even more if I had more room. When I choose a fruit it will be for flavor, characteristics, size, disease and/or pest resistance. Of course whether or not it survives in my area is a factor as well as what time it comes into fruit. The Chehalis Apple was discovered in Western Washington. It does well in a short season area with a lot of rain so it is a perfect fit for me.  Other favorites are Williams Pride, Akane, Winter Banana, Liberty, Spartan, Gravenstein and the columnars. Columnars are fun because of their unusual growth pattern and because they fit into pots or other small spaces. I do not care to buy varieties with multiple varieties, which have been grafted on since they are not usually very hardy and at least some of the grafts will usually fail.

Pears are great and I love to eat them fresh or canned. Most are not really great at being stored in a cellar but they are so good that they are worth it.  Bosc stores for a month or two and usually tastes better afterwards. Orca has been a reliable variety for me. It was discovered on Orcas Island, WA. which is also in Western WA. Bartletts are delicious fresh but do not store very well. They are great canners though! Red Bartletts are pretty.

Cherries are a challenge. Every time they come into season I feel a sense of anxiety since it’s the birds or me. I tried planting some for them too but they don’t seem to get the “some of them are for me” part.  Some folks say that the gold cherries are less bothered by the birds but I think the best eating are with the Vans, Stella and Lapin varieties. I like the dark cherries best!

I have grown peaches in the past. Frost has been reliable and abundant but only lasted about 12 years before petering out. From what I hear, this is normal. I now have an Avalon which is young and gave it’s first couple peaches last year. They were small but delicious. We’ll see what we get this year!

We have a Puget Gold Apricot that is growing like crazy, probably due to the autumn olive planted next to it (nitrogen fixer) but it hasn’t given any fruit yet. We are crossing our fingers that this will be the year.

As for Plums, Beauty is our hands-down favorite for fresh eating.  We discovered it while staying on the Bullock’s Farm on Orcas Island.  Sam had us pitch our tent right next to a tree and the kids were as happy as clams!  Italian plums are the best for preserving.

I hope that this is enough to get you started.  I am planning on expanding this to a much more detailed version for the newsletter.  I think it would be a helpful article for many.  I will be sure to mention which fruit is good for preserving in what way and which need to be eaten fresh.

Happy garden planning!

High 40    Low 33         Very cool with a light mist through the trees. Beautiful.

http://theseattlebazaar.com/

Last night was had a meeting of our permaculture group in Snohomish. We were meeting on a regular basis, every two weeks, but things had got busy during the growing season so things were on hold.

Fourteen people showed up  at Grilla Bites Restaurant. http://www.grillabites.com/html/locations/snohomish.htm. I would like to spend just a moment talking about Grilla Bites. Owner, Annie Dottai is seriously committed to sustainable living and she practices that by not only participating in a CSA program for her restaurant but also by being a community drop-site for the CSA Farm. She buys as much as she can locally, uses only compostable to-go containers, only sells healthy food and drink and provides meeting space to local community groups. If we were to rate a business by the number of items they were able check off a list of sustainable/green practices, Grilla Bites would have clearly rate among the top.

Back to the gathering, in a short time were able to  established that we are a group of skilled cultural creatives. Teachers, computer specialists, Reiki Masters, Herbalists, Beekeepers, Forest Stewards, Travel Experts, Professional Tour and Event Organizers, a 501(c) 3 and it’s founder, Horticulturists, Propagations Specialists, Seed Savers, Activists, a Natural Clothing company owner, Several other Business Owners, Farmers, Parents, Community Organizers, Master Gardeners, Community Activists, Networkers and lovers of Earth.

In our short meetings we were able to flush out a vision which includes:

Gleaning

Learning

Networking

Sharing The Abundance

Work Parties

Tool Axchange

Bartering/Exchanging

Planting for the Future

We will be meeting next month to see where this takes us. I am hoping to get right in to some action projects and not spend too much time on “mulling things over”.

On a completely unrelated topic, this Saturday Decemebr 4th, we will be in Seattle unleashing our Blissfully Natural product line. We have a complete line of natural skin care herbal products. We grow some ingredients, wildcraft others and purchase some from ethichal companies. Many of our ingredients are organic and all are natural. We leave the sythetic ingredients out and only include ingredients that are deeply nourishing or otherwise beneficial. We hope you can come by and see us if you are in the area. We will have fun gifts for men and women to enjoy!

Our Blissfully Natural website will be up soon.

Ho do you like the new labels?

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

Farm Tour

High 54                        Low 34

Yesterday was a really fun day. Nancy Chase from Camano Island organized a tour of fellow permaculturists. There were 12-14, I think. Nancy is a natural at organizing things like tours since she is the owner of http://www.livewellventures.com, an adventure travel company.

There were five farms scheduled on the tour. We started at Wise Earth Ecological Land Trust in Maltby http://www.wiseearth.org/home.html. Wise Earth is a fun and interesting place that my family has enjoyed visiting over the past few years. Albert Postema has been at the visionary behind saving this piece of land from being cleared and creating a special environment for education. The forest is being cared for and maintained and huge Hugelkultures have been built on the land. Wise Earth is also the home of cottage industry. They are raising oyster mushrooms and produce for market.

After Albert’s we visited Ravencroft Garden in Monroe. http://www.ravencroftgarden.com Ravencroft is a great example of what can be done on a small piece of land. It is in the midst of suburban landscapes and only minutes from rural properties. Eaglesong, owner, herbalist and gardener extraordinaire raises chickens and goats on her small parcel. She showed us how she planted for coppicing (cutting and bringing) food for her goats and spoke of the importance of biodiversity. Eaglesong is a good friend and neighbor.

Our next stop was to SongCroft where I showed the group the land. Shared our vision for perennial food sources as well as season extension so we can harvest year-round. They are ground cherries from the greenhouse and walked the trails. I was able to tell them about out classes and courses offered and also about our summer camps, like Farm Camp (that’s the summer camp we have for families.)

We ate lunch in the cabin around a nice warm fire. It was good to have the time for people to connect and get to know each other.  After lunch, introduced our cottage business, Blissfully Natural, a personal care product line. We finished our time at SongCroft by walking the trails and visiting the rabbits, goats and poultry. We hope that our visitors found something here that inspired them.

Our next stop was Alderleaf Wilderness College where Jason and Kerry Knight run a nature education center and wilderness survival school. http://www.wildernesscollege.com Okay, I can admit it, I wish I had their land. They have a big creek and lots of room for their outdoor classrooms, gathering areas, food production and livestock. It is a sweet set up. They showed us where they teach different topics from flint napping to tracking, We even saw a bear print while we where there.

Our next destination was Gil Schieber’s place in Snohomish. http://www.borealislandscape.com/home.html It was getting dark yet his massive number of apple trees, table grapes, evergreen huckleberries, and aronia berries that he has been propagating was impressive. He has a lot of potential there for interns and a huge space for growing food. Gil has a gift for grafting as some people have a gift for music. I wonder if I stand next to him enough, some of that magic will drift over to me through osmosis?

It was a long day. I had been up by 5am and did my chores by headlamp. I watched the sun come up as I fed the ducks. The day was cold and I ended up outdoors for the better part of 13 hours on a cold damp day but when I’m on the land the time goes by fast. It was a good day.

Thanks for all who participated!

Registration for the 2011 Self-Sufficiency Skills Course is open! http://songcroft.com/index.php/the-songcroft-school-of-self-sufficiency/

High 84  Low 55  Clear with a beautiful blue sky!

It is high summer and the sun is out.The summer harvest is on. It is almost 85 degrees today and the rain has finally stopped. Not that I am complaining. We are fortunate to have the rain that we do. It’s just that we cherish every moment that that great yellow orb hovers above us!

We were in Nelson, B.C. for a wedding of a dear friend last week so I am a little behind schedule on chores. While we were away, our chickens got out and pecked away much of the Winter garden.  The rows of carrot seed that I kept moist and nurtured through the warm days, the meticulously laid out patterns of red and green cabbages with yellow beets between were all pecked and thrown about like a giant tossed salad.

Upon inspection, I could see that some of the carrots were still sprouting, so I left them. I replanted the rows with more seedlings. It will be interesting to see where the carrots end up. Perhaps there will be a secret message from the hens hidden in the carrot tops.

At any rate, we are harvesting summer cabbages, purple and green beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, radishes, chili peppers and zucchini just to name a few.  I hope you are all enjoying your local summer harvest because it slips by way too fast!

You can watch the bees go in to the hive here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyulhSpe3z4&feature=channel

Some days I wake up thinking that I am going to get all of the things on my checklist done. I know that might seem like a tall order but I often come fairly close. Well, this morning I was up bright and early. I had a list and Brian was home with the kids. I was going to get a whole list of errands ran and chores done too!

Then I got a phone call from a friend.

Don’t get me wrong. This was not an unwanted call. In fact it was quite a pleasant surprise. This friend of ours, Alex, is a great guy and our entire family likes him (even though the kids have nicknamed him the Ringmaster of the Nerd Circus) But this morning Alex had a special problem that he called me to help him out with.

He had a colony of bees in his wall.

To make a long story short, I ended up bringing him my bee suit and a bee vacuum and talking him through the job. I left him to do it because he had to cut away a large portion of his wall.  In the end, poor Alex has a huge hole in his wall that he now has to repair but that isn’t even the most challenging part. He has to remove as much as he can of anything “bee” or he may end up with more bees or worse, wasps!

He brought the bees to me this evening. There must have been at least six pounds. They are all in the hive now and seem to be doing okay. The vacuum methods can stress the bees so I hope that they survive.  We are also not sure he got the queen. All I can do is wait. I will know within a day or so.

In the mean time, enjoy this video. I will update you with more as soon as I am able.