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!

High 34  Low 26   Clear, cold and crisp!

It’s the end of November 2011 and baby it’s cold outside! I spent the morning breaking ice on the animal’s water feeders and making sure everyone has adequate bedding to keep them warm. I hung white tarps up on the outside of the chicken run to prevent side-rains from soaking the ground but to allow light to still reflect in on our girls. I added some herbal tonic to everyone’s water so that they will have the benefit of extra vitamins, minerals and immune system support before the temperatures drop even lower this evening. We are hitting the mid-twenties so far.

This is the time to be nesting and resting  after a busy spring and summer but I am busy with holiday markets for our value-added product line, SongCroft Naturals. This means there is not rest for this girl until after December 25^th.

At that time, I will curl up in front of the fire with a hot cup of tea and work on the batik quilt crazy quilt because baby it’s cold outside.

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!

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 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!

Fifty mile per hour winds are predicted in our area today. The hens are running for cover. It was sunny and but chilly just an hour ago. The goats were prancing around and the hens were all piled on the cabin porch enjoying the rays.

Looking outside my windows I can see the cedar trees bend to the mercy of the wind. There is a wind storm here. The lights are flickering and a fire is burning warm in the stove. I started a pot of stew to feed us for a couple of days in case we do loose power. Although we can cook easily enough without electricity, it is easier to just be prepared and have something to reheat.

I also have bread rising so that I can bake a couple loaves to hold us over. I will also keep some dough in a bucket in our ‘cold room’ (this is an unheated room we use for food storage much of the year). The extra dough will allow me to make fired bread on the woodstove later. The kids love fried bread.

We have a fully stocked wood box in the house and the cabin, this is good since we only heat with wood (Yes, our stoves are certified) and I have walked the land to make sure that there is nothing that can get blown away in the wind storm.

My headlamp has good batteries in case I need to go out and check on the animals after dark and the car is fully fueled.

Things are in pretty good order. I am ready for the wind storm. I hope the trees are ready too!

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!

52 Degrees outside (75 Degrees in the greenhouse) Clear and sunny all day!

So I figure that I would go ahead and try to keep up on the “To Do List’ and report back to everyone here on how it’s going.

So far things are going well.

As you might recall, finishing Brian’s shop is at the top of the list. We need to have it ready so that he can get organized in case he is laid-off. As an electrician, there are all sorts of parts, wires and little things that need to be accessible and the corner of the laundry room just isn’t going to cut it anymore! We have made some progress in that he just scored a couple windows off of Craigslist. He has also completed some design drawings for how he is going to build some of the cabinetry. We are moving forward even if it is not as fast as we would like.

Although it was listed, it goes without saying that we are enjoying our apprentices. We have another class coming up soon and I have already begun preparations for teaching seed starting. I will probably talk about classes in separate entries.

Launching SongCroft Naturals has been both difficult and easy. It is has been easy because everyone who tries our products loves them and want to use them. The challenge has been in getting labels re-made after the switch in business names. However, the labels are almost ready to be printed and things should be ready for market by the end of the month. We will be in the Grow Washington Store in Snohomish and at the Farmers Markets.

I am still working on the balance between the chickens and the gardens. I will have to get back to you on this one!

I have not planted the hedge and privacy screen yet but I have placed a bulk nursery order so the plants should be here by the end of February. I also ordered some Black locust starts so we can start to replant for future firewood and building materials. I am anxious to scratch this off of my “To Do List!”

Tomorrow is soap making day. I hope to make soap in the morning so it can sit up and cure nice and hard by the time the markets are open.

Many of the little jobs like the greenhouse door-handle and the compost bin hinges were done in January by our land-mate Steve. He is a sweet guy who occasionally gives us a hand.

I cleaned the greenhouse and organized the shelves. It is has a lot better sun light exposure now. It is really amazing how much of a difference a good scrub can make. It was warm enough in there to work in shorts and a tank top. I had sweat dripping in to my eyes so that I had to rinse my face with the hose every so often. This is an unheated passive-solar greenhouse. I know some folks say that greenhouses aren’t worth it in the NW but I don’t give a hoot what they say. I love feeling the heat of the sun in the Winter. I mean come on, yesterday we had hail and snow so why can’t I have a little slice of sun today!

The chickens Winter house has been cleaned too. I dug it out to about 12” deep and used the scrapings to fill in where I am building a flower-cutting garden. This was no easy task and although it makes it on to the “To Do List” a few times a year and I always make it a priority, it is still one of those jobs I have to make myself do. Of course, it is usually way worse thinking about it than it is to just get it done!

It is still too early for most of the rest of the list but I am moving forward. By Mid-June things ought to be looking pretty good around here!

So what’s on your “To Do List?”

http://ow.ly/3L4fP View the goats out to play on a good day!

Sorry for the lack of posting. It was an especially long week.

The sun decided to pay us a visit and we were all very optimistic. I started working on the list that was posted last time. I got several things accomplished. Brian began working on the shop and doing some other things he had put off until the weather was better and Steve, our land-mate, got a bunch of those little nagging chores done like fixing a faucet that began to leak and repositioning the door on our greenhouse.

All was looking good until I found the goats foaming at the mouth!

I had been out with the kids and came home late. Something told me to go check the goats. I found them in their stall foaming at the mouth and looking absolutely miserable. Days before a friend of mine had called me asking for advice on rhododendron poisoning in goats. It is uncanny how things can happen this way since I had never dealt with my herd being poisoned until days after her call.

I immediately got out the Epsom salt. Goats cannot vomit without it being induced.

I shoved on to the back of their tongues. (This was no easy task) They began to vomit minutes later. I had planned to wait until the vomiting stopped but it didn’t. They foamed, choked and vomited for almost 3 days.

After inducing vomiting, I gave them activated charcoal. Activated Charcoal? The activated charcoal absorbs the poison and binds it before they vomit it back out. (At least that is the goal)  This was all vomited out and although it made an absolute mess of everything, myself included, I was happy it was working. After the charcoal I have a mixture of ground dried ginger, ground Pepto-Bismol tablets, and sea salt. This seemed to help to some degree. I administered these mixtures for the first eight hours, every hour on the dot. It was a very long night.

During all of this I called a variety of vets (all who knew nothing of goats) and our local WSU Extension Livestock Advisor Program. The volunteer from WSU was more than a little helpful even giving me her cell phone number and encouraging me to call back again to let her know how my girls were doing.

It’s been four days now and I am happy to say I was able to call Vickie, the Livestock Advisor and tell her all is well. The herd is eating and drinking just fine. They are once again playful and even cuddly. I am eternally grateful to the resources I have had to fall back on. Thanks to Fiasco Farm, WSU Livestock Advisors and my instinct as well as relationship with my herd to guide me through. All of these things saved my goats’ lives.

As a result, I am now in the WSU Livestock Advisor Program so I can volunteer hours back to my community.

If this article has been helpful to you, consider subscribing to our newsletter where there is an expanded version of this article and where we share all types of information and tips on how to live a more self-sufficient life.

Until next time…