18 Inches of Snow      29 degrees     Bright but overcast sky

You can support our family business by ordering all natural, handcrafted personal care products from www.songcroftnaturals.com. Thank you!

It has been interesting reading about all the events around the Puget Sound region. People have posted pictures of the weather and told tales of their lives as things slowed or for some, stopped.

There were trees down all over my area. We had well over a foot of snow with two-foot drifts in areas. Our power was out for the better part of six days and we were snowed in.

What did that mean for us? It meant that the first day that we thought the storm was headed our way, we got the headlamps, batteries, lanterns and emergency candles all ready. We filled 5-gallon buckets of water, filled the bathtub, cooking pots and jugs too. We moved patio furniture away from the eaves where snow might later fall and crush them and we made extra provisions for our livestock. We made sure our pantry was full and there were extra snack foods for the kids as comfort and last resorts if all heck broke loose as well as a large stack of library books. We cooked in the woodstove, buried the contents of the freezer in bins in the snow, brought in fire wood and pulled out all of the poly-pro and polar fleece. After that was done, we played in the snow, enjoyed the sleds, had snowball fights, made maple syrup candy and I taught my youngest how to use a knitting nancy. We played games, told stories and when we got tired looked out the windows which framed beautiful pictures of the weather.

On SongCroft, things were a bit more of a challenge but they were not a struggle. After having the power off for as much as 16 days, we have a system and can live life pretty easily but as a friend, pointed out, even without electricity life can be sufficiently sufficient or wonderful. I love our days of being snowed in and will cherish them forever as slow days with my family.

Here are some pictures of the weather for you to enjoy.

Please post some pictures of the weather in your area too!

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.

Support our family farm by purchasing items that you would normally use anyway. Completely synthetic ingredient-free, handmade skin, body and hair care products. SongCroft Naturals www.songcroftnaturals.com We have lots of special holiday offers and ship all over the country.

Community cooperatives can take many forms. There are food co-ops, educational co-ops, tool shares, lending libraries and all sorts of other types of cooperative efforts. Our family have been a part of all of these including intentional communities. Each of these are important but none of these are exactly what I am speaking of today.

You see, I am fortunate enough to belong to a great community. This is a community of people that don’t all live close to each other but have created the intention and set forth the effort to commit to each other in a variety of ways. Let me give you an example.

This evening Brian and I met with five other folks who all came with purpose to figure out what each others goals, experiences, gifts and community offers are with the intent of assisting each other and working together to meet our goals. We were all expecting to form a cooperative community.

Included in the group were Gil Schieber of Skipley Farm, Nancy Chase and her intern Michael from Shambala Farm on Camano Island, Zsolt and Zsofia Pasztor of  Innovative Landscape Technologies and us.

We shared food and popped the cork on a bottle of wine as we got out two large white boards and under each of our farm or business names, we listed the aforementioned items. It became clear that many of us had similar goals and talents to support each other. It also became clear that some of us needed more immediate help than others so we made some decisions based on faith, community cooperation and optimism.

It is not unlike the concept of crowd-funding except it is a small number of people than might normally be involved and we are talking about other resources than money. (This is a good thing because all of us in the room are short on it.)

First we identified a farm that needs immediate assistance with their nursery and greenhouse construction so we set a date and are going to join forces to get the job done. We next identified the need for another farm to get it’s website up and have a marketing plan and finally we recognized the need to assist someone with the building of a display for the NW Flower and Garden show. http://www.gardenshow.com

Our family did not identify an immediate need for us (we can wait until the rest are cared for) but we will be there to assist the others. This is how we create a cooperative community. This is what enriches our lives. We are all in this together and that makes life rich!

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 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 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!