I love the summer so much because I enjoy growing things in the garden and being outside in nature as much as I can. This was our first full year with our expanded garden space as well as the additional garden beds added all around our house and using our greenhouse in warm weather. And chickens! Who lay eggs! It’s been an amazingly fun summer for me because of all of this! I don’t know if others would think it’s so fun, it does require quite a bit of work to upkeep a large organic garden and some livestock even if they are a small backyard flock. But this type of lifestyle resonates with me and I work hard for its success.
Now we are officially in autumn with the bulk of the harvest coming in and preparing & planting the garden beds for fall/winter gardening under the hoop house and inside the greenhouse. It’s a joint effort, both my husband and I have a shared vision for all of this, we secretly want to be full time farmers because we enjoy it so much. Real farming is such hard work, though! I feel part of the homesteader lifestyle even living here in the ‘burbs once again since my mindset is always about self-sustainability. I have learned so many skills to enable me to be self-reliant these past 15 years living this way.
I’ve been doing all methods of food preservation throughout the season and especially my most favorite method of all – canning. Some people find canning tedious but I still totally love it – both water bath and pressure canning. Looking at my various shelves filled with jars of produce picked at the peak of freshness ready to be eaten especially on a cold winter evening fills me with a sense of security, really. I know what’s in my food, who prepared it and the fact that it’s there means we won’t starve if ever there was a catastrophe of some kind. Most importantly, it reminds me that I’m self-reliant – one of the most important traits of a true homesteader.
I’ve been freezing and dehydrating lots of produce and prepared dishes, too so I have both a packed upright freezer as well as jars of dried herbs, fruit leather, dried fruit and powdered dried veggies (to add to soup or other dishes for flavor and nutrition) in jars on my shelves or vacuum sealed and stored in closed bins in my basement “root cellar” – a cold, concrete closet in my basement.
I try to process the produce as the season progresses, making lactofermented pickles & sauerkraut as we harvest it (or get some great deals on organic produce from local farmers), making a vinegar dill pickle and dilly beans (that requires no canning), bread & butter pickles, harvesting root crops to store in the “root cellar”, dehydrating some of the many greens we grow to powder them, drying herbs (always dry everything at low temps to preserve the most nutrients), freezing chopped fresh herbs with water in ice cube trays (and store cubes in freezer bags), freezing fruit, juicing veggies and fruits and freezing in ice cube trays for use in smoothies. By mid-October, we make cinnamon applesauce which is great to use in vegan baked goods. We also make pear sauce (but not for baking).
I especially love to make and can tons of tomato sauce – so much so that for our 10 year anniversary this past summer solstice, we got ourselves a ginormous pressure canner that can fit 14 quart jars at one time! Now that’s a lot of sauce done in one shot! A huge improvement over our little pressure cooker/canner that could only hold 3 quart jars at a time! Besides canning tomatoes either as sauce or as whole, peeled ones, we make & can jam throughout the season as the fruit comes in (I made lots of very low sugar plum, blueberry & peach jams since PB&J is my son’s favorite sandwich now), we can tomato salsa, tomatillo salsa, fruit salsa (just made some great peach salsa!), canned veggies like beets (some are pickled, too), carrots, hot peppers, etc. I can go on, there are so many ways we preserve the bounty and I look forward to doing it every single year!
Living this way is not only very inexpensive over a 12 month period but it puts me so in touch with the lifecycle of the plants, the Earth, the seasons, the feeling that everything is connected from the stars to the bugs. I’m part of the cycle, too and I can feel it in the high vibration of the food I eat whether it’s fresh and raw or preserved at the peak of freshness for future eating. It does require a lot of planning and effort during the growing season but I wouldn’t have it any other way!
This is just amazing to me. There is no way a person can watch this clip and still think that animals and birds don’t have an innate wisdom and are aware of the world around them. So cool to see it captured on film:
I feel all beings need to be treated compassionately and culled humanely if you eat them. If you live in California, please vote YES on Prop. 2 – the humane treatment of factory farm animals. It seems insane that we even have to vote on this. I hope all states adopt legislation regarding eradicating the cruel and inhumane treatment of factory farm animals. Not able to barely move, turn around or spread their wings is cruel and we would never do this to our pets so why do we do this to other animals?
The NY Times gave a full endorsement of Prop 2 last week. Here is an excerpt that was posted on Vegan.com:
You will never in your life, on any topic, see a newspaper editorial give stronger support to a ballot initiative than this endorsement of Proposition 2 appearing in today’s New York Times. The first and last paragraphs:
The goal of the California Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act — Proposition 2 on the state’s November ballot — sounds extremely modest. It would ban the confinement of animals in a way that keeps them from being able to stand, sit, lie down, turn around and extend their limbs. The fact that such fundamental decencies have to be forced upon factory farming says a lot about its horrors. We urge California voters to pass Proposition 2. We urge every state to enact similar laws…
To a California voter still undecided on Proposition 2, we say simply, imagine being confined in the voting booth for life. Would you vote for the right to be able to sit down and turn around and raise your arms? Link
Well this is yet another bit of highly disappointing information I learned today. The Path To Freedom Blog posted today that Monsanto owns about 40% of all the fruit and veggie seeds sold in the U.S. and they are growing. It’s not bad enough that they’ve taken over grain production and made it into frankenfood and are destroying many family farms in the process but now they are invading the fruit and veggie seed market, too.
Here is what the PTF folks have to say about this:
We aren’t talking genetically modified seeds here were are talking about who is supplying the seeds. Even if you purchase non gmo seeds from a seed company who touts a ‘Safe Seed Pledge’ that variety may still be OWNED by Monsanto. Sorry to break the bad news to you, but that’s the facts folks. We, yes even PTF, is supporting the big M by purchasing seeds from our favorite seed companies and you probably are too.
Out of the 2,500 varieties that Monsanto has acquired from the Seminis takeover, here are a few of the published veg varieties that we know that Monsanto owns:
Beans: EZ Gold, Eureka, Goldrush, Kentucky King, Lynx, Bush Blue Lake 94
So what to do? Start saving fazing out listed Monsanto owned varieties, reach where your seeds come from and or save your own.
Taking Back Our Food Supply
Before agriculture became an industry, every gardener, farmer was responsible for the availability of seed for next years crop. With this recent merger and marketing tactics that has allow a certain “M”-onopoly to take over over the majority of the seed population. Seed-saving is one among many tactics of reclaiming our power (and freedom) to grow our own food, and an indispensable step towards fully sustainable and secure future.
I kept having insights and dreams about saving seeds before this growing season started. I was shown a local seed bank happening in my area and really, I’m not that skilled at seed saving and all it entails even though we have owned the book, “Seed To Seed” for many years just for this reason that one day we would have to rely on ourselves for ensuring our food production. Needless to say, we’ve slacked in that department over the past few years what with moving to the ‘burbs, major home renovations and having a kid and all. I’ve even discussed this a few times this past spring with different people in my area (including my friend Julie, a master gardener) to find out if there was a seed bank already happening where I live – there isn’t. Clearly why I’ve been shown this over and over again before we started growing anything this season was for a reason and we have been diligently saving heirloom organic seeds this summer the way my husband learned from his homesteading mom and step-dad.
This is bad news, people. Being more self-sufficient even with your own garden is becoming increasingly more important everyday. I recommend that you read up a bit on this topic if you don’t already know about what’s going on. It’s a big deal and I’m not kidding. Those who control the seeds of life control everything and they definitely do not have our best interests at heart.
Btw, which political party do you think they are affilitated with? Just saying.
I’ve been thinking of writing about this for a long time. I don’t talk much about preparedness on this blog but it is something I am very well informed on and we have been prepared for anything since the late 90’s. I’ve been reading many different preparedness blogs for the past year and I always get a sense of urgency when I read those posts and that urgency for me is based from fear. I won’t live my life in fear mode but I do live by the old saying of “tie the camels” which means to be prepared for anything but live your life normally.
Here is where I’m at with all of this: yes, we all need to have some preparedness skills in our tool box of life skills and supplies at our homes in case there are going to be food shortages or if there’s even a chance you or your spouse will be laid off from your job while prices are rising and winter will be here soon.
There are many blogs and websites to read up on all the details of what to store and how much, etc so I’m not going to go into all of that here. One thing I will touch on that those sites do not is to add sprouting seeds to your food storage because many sprouts are so easy to do in just a couple of days and only require a glass jar with mesh screen lid or even cheesecloth with a rubberband and water and only cost you pennies. The vitamins, enzymes and just life force energy you will get from sprouts is very important in my opinion. You could live on sprouts if you had to.
What I wanted to really talk about is actual skills. What can you do? What do you want to learn about but rely on others to do for you instead? This comes up for me a lot because my husband is one of those renaissance men that really can do anything – he’s got mad skills both the blue collar and white collar type. I, on the other hand, have learned many things from him over the years in terms of developing my own sustainability life skills and being pretty much a city girl, this was big for me. I always have a little fear of what if he’s not around and I have to take care of everything myself for me and my son in bad times? This drives me to keep learning even the stuff I don’t really like but it’s all good because it makes me more confident and feel self-reliant and like I can survive anything but in a good way!
So, can you work with power tools or even manual hand tools? Can you make a fire in a fire pit or a wood stove or even a fireplace? Can you cook basic foods like grains and beans correctly and store them properly? Can you sew? Do you have camping skills/basic wilderness skills? Can you fix a flat tire on a car or a bike? Can you grow food? Do you know CPR and basic first aid? I can go on and on but you get the idea. I still have more to learn in different areas but I try to watch and observe as much as I can and try to practice some things or just file it away in case I need to use it by myself or get someone to help me if for some reason he’s not around. That is a gloomy thought, I know but anything could happen and we all need to be responsible for ourselves.
When I first moved to Colorado to transform my life and become an Herbalist 14 years ago, I became obsessed with permaculture and self-sustainability and medicine making, too. I did not know my husband then but I read and learned and surrounded myself with others on this same path and learned more from them. For my graduating final project (almost like a mini-thesis, we worked on it for a long time) I did an entire very detailed permaculture design for a piece of land my friends and I wanted to buy in the mountains of CO. Once I graduated, I went right into getting a permaculture certification and worked for a year with a landscape designer that also did xeriscape and permaculture designs in her work so I got hands-on training, too which taught me even more.
At the time, many people I knew thought this was fringe and unnecessary – everything in our country was going so well, life was easy, etc. I felt differently, kept having visions of a different way of life and also felt that it was the most natural way for a human to live in harmony with all of nature. I still feel this way and thankfully, so does my husband. I kept expanding my skills and knowledge and still to this day I keep pushing myself to learn more and more – even if I don’t really like what I’m learning! I feel that bartering for goods and services is going to become something big in the not too distant future and people with needed skills will be in high demand.
The first book that I bought for myself when I went to herbalist school to start learning the “old ways” of self sufficiency was Reader’s Digests’ “Back To Basics” book. I highly recommend this book as a good place to start to learn if you are just getting started and you can usually find a copy in a used bookstore – that’s where I got mine. My husband got to grow up with a mother that basically embodies this book – she is a real homesteader and this is where he’s learned the majority of his life skills. Not a bad way to raise your children and something we are trying to slowly teach to our son in our daily life. I was raised the exact opposite way and really felt like a fish out of water a lot of times. So much about our consumeristic society always bothered me and feels shallow and pointless, really.
So, if you are starting to feel worried about the economy or natural catastrophies possibly happening in your area, let that fear drive you to prepare with the basics in taking care of yourself and your family better. If nothing happens then great, you can still use all of your stored vegan foods which are healthier for you anyway, having extra warm clothes, blankets, flashlights, solar-rechargeable batteries, water, firewood, etc is all going to be used and you have saved money in the long run, too. The life skills you aquire will always be put to good use, too and makes you feel better about yourself. If nothing else, it will give you more to talk about at a party!
Live your life with joy and consciousness in harmony with nature but always remember to tie the camels, just in case.
Appropedia – a new wiki for all things sustainable and green.
Here is their description of who they are and what they do:
Our vision is that all of humanity is able to work together developing and realizing rich, sustainable lives. We build the infrastructure, and help make the connections and populate free content to effect that vision. We provide the living resource library of individuals and organizations working towards a sustainable, healthier future, so that efforts can be spent evolving instead of duplicating past efforts.
We briefly capture our vision and mission in this way:
Sharing knowledge to build rich, sustainable lives.
Appropedia began in April of 2006. Six other similar sites have joined Appropedia since its inception:
Sustainable Development Wikia
WinWinWiki
Wikigreen.org
Village Earth’s ATwiki
HowToLiveWiki, home of the Hexayurt
sgoals, the site for sustainable business
So far, there are 12,569 pages of information on all things sustainable. Wow. I for one think this is awesome that a site like this is growing fast on the web. Now if someone wants to know more about any area of living sustainably, there is this great resource to go to and learn more or if you have a lot of knowledge in a related area, just log in and post your info or add to what’s already there about a sustainable topic.
The time has come for the masses to start learning how to embrace more sustainable lifestyles and this wiki site is proving that it’s happening. Yeah!
Defenders of Wildlife, a non-profit organization that I’ve been a member of for many years came out with this commercial recently regarding Sarah Palin’s record as governor regarding wildlife in her state. Mind you, the wolves were still on the endangered species list when she approved this. What I want to know is – Why???
As governor, Sarah Palin…
Proposed paying a $150 bounty for the left foreleg of each dead wolf.
Approved a $400,000 state-funded propaganda campaign to promote aerial hunting.
Introduced legislation to make it even easier to use aircraft to hunt wolves and bears.
Please consider helping Defenders of Wildlife get this powerful TV ad shown in more swing states by donating even a small amount. Every bit can help save the lives of many animals.
For the past few months, I’ve been really not happy with our filtered water that I drink everyday. Our tap water is really very good, it’s originally Rocky Mountain snow melt then it gets treated and comes to our tap. We then filter it with a very high quality double carbon filter to take out the additives that was put into the water. As with everything with me this year, my taste buds have changed so much and now it doesn’t taste as good to me anymore. It’s still just fine for my husband and child and pets, though.
When we lived in the mountains, we had the most pure water (and air) that I’ve ever had the pleasure to drink. Our yurt tanks were filled from a well that tapped into an underground spring that is fed by a glacier and the water has been tested to be even more pure than Evian. We got to bathe, drink and cook with this water everyday. I remember when we first moved down to the valley and got our filter, I was so unhappy with it compared to that water. I eventually adjusted to the (in my mind) sub-par water taste and dealt with it. I can’t do it anymore, I have been craving the “old” water everyday for months now.
The little hippie town next to where we lived in the mountains actually has a pipe in place where this glacier-fed spring water comes to the surface and starts to run down into the creek. You can fill up there all you want for free. This same creek runs all the way down the mountain and into my neighborhood creek 2 blocks from where I live so I think about this special water a lot. I have filled up containers at the source many times over the years but it’s a 45-60 min. drive from where we live now and I don’t have the time to do it that often. There is also a small water delivery co. that fills up at this source and brings it down the mountain to large holding tanks and fills up 3 and 5 gallon glass or plastic water bottles and has dispensers, too and delivers it all over down here in the valley.
This would be a new, extra monthly expense for us and we talked about it in the winter and finally agreed that we would do it because it’s such incredible water to drink and it’s worth it (plus I wouldn’t shut up about it!) and we don’t really buy anything else to drink except occasional juice because we usually make enough of our own fresh juices.
We got our first delivery in July when my mother-in-law was visiting us. Two five gallon glass containers and a stand and dispenser. I was in heaven and so was my husband, son and MIL. Everyone noticed how much better it tasted and we drank 10 gallons within a week’s time! Granted, it was sweltering outside and we were drinking a lot.
There really is something to be said about drinking many thousands of years old “structured water.” The water crystals are shaped like mini snowflakes and when joined together form a honeycomb shaped liquid crystal structure. When water first emerges from underground and pours into a stream or creek, there is so much life force in it and it has the minerals of the earth surrounding it absorbed in it’s structure. It’s a very healing water with no pollution since it’s coming from deep underground. There are all kinds of different healing properties to such a living water. Each source is different and works in different ways depending on where you find it on the planet. It’s important to keep the water cool and away from light to help it keep it’s crystal structure intact.
I’m actually very lucky to have another great water source besides this one that is an “artesian” spring water. But, I prefer the taste and the energetics of the glacier water – and I can get it in large glass bottles so there can be no leaching of anything. Nothing beats the taste of pure Rocky Mountain spring water. It has also won taste test competitions to be rated as the best tasting water west of the Mississippi and is in the top 5 internationally.
We’ve had our second delivery already and every time I drink this water or make a sun tea with it I’m so psyched! It tastes so good and feels like there is body or depth to it, almost like how you would taste different wines for their different flavors and depth. If you think about our physical bodies being made up of mostly water and you then feed it crystalline structured, pure water, well it’s got to be doing something good for us then you would think.
All I know is that I’m extremely happy and grateful to have this water in my life everyday again and so happy that it’s available in my area!
I live 2 blocks away from a creek with a bike path in suburbia. We have seen a lot of different wildlife when we take a walk or bike ride along the bike path. We even saw a beaver in the section of the creek near our house. That was pretty surprising to us. On a recent bike ride with our dog running alongside (but on a leash) we saw 2 large coyote in broad daylight following the creek (about a mile from our house) they were clearly going over to where there is a prairie dog colony. I couldn’t believe they would be out around people in daylight although they were looking around and trying to hide amidst the trees. I’ve only ever seen them out in the daytime in the mountains where we used to live – never in suburbia during the day. And they were huge for coyotes – I thought they were wolves for a minute. Poor prairie dogs – it must suck to be the bottom of the food chain!
Here I am thinking how nice to live so close to the creek and the diverse wildlife that lives along there. Well, there is one creature I do not like and they are ballsy and know they can get away with anything – the Skunk.
I have learned much about the skunk recently namely that they reek just walking around and without even spraying anything. A couple of weeks ago I kept smelling skunk and especially at night when I have the door in my office open for the cool air to come in when I work. Every morning I check the backyard and the garden and nothing is being messed with, I can’t find any veggies being taken or anything. Every night the reek would happen again. I read up on skunk and it said they are omnivores and live within 2 miles of water and are nocturnal. I don’t know what he is after or if he’s in my neighbor’s yard munching on their garden which is not behind a fence like ours is but that really doesn’t deter them, either.
Well, last Thursday night we let the dog out to pee for the night and bam! he goes right after the skunk who was in our yard (it must have just gotten there bec. we checked a few minutes before letting him out) and it sprayed my poor dog and my entire house with all the windows open! So freaking gross!! My entire house REEKED so bad, I didn’t know what to do. I had to get on the computer and look stuff up with a towel over my nose and mouth on how to get the smell out of a house. I had bought this natural enzyme skunk odor remover for pets a while back for “just in case.” I’m glad I remembered that I had it. My husband ran upstairs to shut all the windows and get the enzyme stuff and put the dog in the tub.
The other info I found said to roast some ground coffee in a pan or cookie sheet in an open oven or burn some incense. We ground up coffee beans and I wanted to do it on the stove top instead (thought it would be faster) and used a pyrex bowl for some reason instead of a pan. It started to smoke after a bit which was good but then it caught on fire – not good! I tried to sprinkle water in it to put out the fire without putting a metal spoon in the bowl first to conduct the heat – I know to do this, too – and the freaking thing exploded all over the place! At that point, I was so pissed off at myself for being dumb and for now having to clean up a big glass mess and there was smoke everywhere which I was actually happy about because at least I couldn’t smell the damn skunk anymore!
The upstairs REEKED, too. I sprayed this orange essential oil odor killer spray I have all over the place then I lit up a big white sage smudge stick and smoked up my whole upstairs and downstairs to try and kill the nasty smell. I cranked up my air filter, too but by then my house smelled like burnt coffee, sage and skunk. Nothing really kills the skunk smell and even now, a few days later, I can still smell it lingering in certain areas. Surprisingly, my son stayed asleep throughout all of this which was great because I don’t think I could have dealt with one more thing that night! I have washed more stuff the past few days to try and rid the smell from clothes, bathroom shower curtain, liner, rug, dog beds, the dog himself twice, etc. Unbelievable.
It said in the research that they can spray up to 15 feet away. My husband works with someone that lives about 5 blocks away from us in our neighborhood and he told him the next day about us getting skunked and he said, “We were in bed and my wife yells, skunk! shut the windows!” right around the same time that it happened. I didn’t realize the smell traveled that far that fast. No wonder they are such ballsy animals and no one wants to mess with them!
Now I have to keep the backyard light on if I catch a whiff of Scrappy the Skunk. He’s patrolling our street it seems and I don’t want him back and have told him so telepathically. They really don’t have a predator because no one can stand their smell – except for owl who has a very poor sense of smell. Hmm, I may have to call on owl to come to my area if he doesn’t stay away – I’ve seen them here before but not recently.
I looked up in an animal spirit guide book I have about what it means to have Skunk cross your path:
*Be assertive and stand your ground as necessary and don’t let yourself be manipulated or pushed around.
*Make your self-respect and dignity a top priority, offering the same respect to others.
*You’re taking yourself far too seriously and need to relax, play and trust that everything is all right.
*It’s a good time to deal directly and honestly with that person in your life whom you find so irritating and overbearing.
Not sure who that message is directed towards since there are 3 of us that live here and I take any encounter with wildlife as a sign, a message so we are thinking on this one. When we saw the 2 large coyote in daylight I knew it was for me. Coyote represent the “Heyoka,” also known as the “Trickster” or the “Backwards Shaman.” A big teacher for all in some tough lessons that are not always pleasant. But, they also teach you to lighten up and deal with the situation and learn to find the humor in some difficult lessons.
Skunk must be teaching something to someone here on my block since he keeps coming around to our yards. I just wish he would hang out at the creek instead!
I’ve been trying out different recipes for my son to eat that are both healthy and tasty for him. He thinks he’s getting a treat and I’m happy that he’s getting more produce.
Since he’s so picky, I’ve kept it pretty simple. Simple seems to work best and then I try to add on if he will allow it.
His favorite treat of all in the summer is a popsicle. We have some popsicle molds that we use and last year, he would only eat it if I put fruit juice or lemonade in it for him but this year, I’ve been buying so much more fresh fruit and he seems more interested in what I’m doing with it that I’ve made popsicles out of just whole fruit and a little raw agave nectar which has a very sweet taste and is low glycemic, i.e. does not raise your blood sugar like regular sugar does.
So here are a few simple but tasty treats for the kiddos:
Strawberry popsicle:
1/3# fresh, organic strawberries, washed
1T raw agave nectar
1/4 cup water
Puree in a high speed blender til smooth. Pour into popsicle molds and freeze.
You may need a bit more agave depending on how sweet the berries are. The first time I made this for him, he wanted it more sweet, of course so I just brushed on a little agave on the outside which made him a happy camper and he ate the whole thing. He asks for popsicles everyday and eats at least one a day especially after he comes home from camp.
His new favorite popsicle flavor is watermelon. We got a huge organic watermelon from the health food store the other day and it was so sweet. I could eat watermelon all the time, I love it! Whatever fruit we are eating he will ask me to make it into a popsicle now. It’s really funny to me.
Watermelon popsicle:
2 cups organic watermelon
1T raw agave nectar
Blend til smooth. Pour into molds and freeze.
If it’s not sweet enough, just brush a little agave onto the outside and that does the trick.
I have tried blending flavors and also adding in diluted supplements but that never goes over well and I end up having to eat it so I just stick to the basics. It’s cheap, nutritious, the whole fruit is eaten not just juice and it’s a fun food for the kiddos.
We have also been making lots of raw lemonade. Super easy and tasty.
Lemonade:
1T freshly juiced lemon juice (this is best, otherwise get unfiltered organic lemon juice)
1T raw agave nectar
Water to fill glass
Ice
1/4 tsp. Sea Salt (or Himalayan crystal salt is better). Add this if it’s really hot out for more electrolytes and water retention
Mix really well and drink. Tastes great like regular lemonade but you are using a low glycemic sweetener so your child won’t bounce off the walls and it’s also an electrolyte balancer to prevent dehydration. It’s really like a healthy Gatorade. Lemons also replenish electrolytes. This too, can be frozen as a popsicle.
We have been making sun teas, too. My favorite flavor for the summertime is Mint. Just put a bunch of washed fresh mint leaves in a gallon sun tea container, fill with filtered water and let sit in the sun all day. Refrigerate in the evening and the next day you have really cold mint tea which really cools you off when you drink that on a hot day. You can sweeten it, too but we all like it plain. Even my picky son loves cold mint tea. If you combine that with eating some cold watermelon, you will really cool down pretty quick.
Some cultures drink hot mint tea for cooling down in the heat but I still prefer the cold version best. Mint is a diaphoretic herb so drinking it hot opens the capillaries and helps you sweat which cools you down. It is also very good for the digestion.
The other snack my son Leif is loving is actually going into the garden and picking his own cucumber or greens, etc and we bring it inside and I wash and cut it up and he’s so happy to eat the food he’s watched grow. He will eat large amounts, too. He’s ecstatic that his little yellow pear tomatoes that he planted the seeds in a container himself in May and watered (a lot!) all summer are now bearing fruit and so are the cherry tomatoes growing right next to them. He goes and looks everyday and sees if they are yellow enough and when they are he picks it and pops it into his mouth. He does the same with the red ones, too. I think it’s the cutest thing ever, of course! He’s really into living foods and likes having them around him, just like his parents. The garden is one fascinating place to him.
When we lived in the mountains, we had the most pure water (and air) that I’ve ever had the pleasure to drink. Our yurt tanks were filled from a well that tapped into an underground spring that is fed by a glacier and the water has been tested to be even more pure than Evian. We got to bathe, drink and cook with this water everyday. I remember when we first moved down to the valley and got our filter, I was so unhappy with it compared to that water. I eventually adjusted to the (in my mind) sub-par water taste and dealt with it. I can’t do it anymore, I have been craving the “old” water everyday for months now.
There really is something to be said about drinking many thousands of years old “structured water.” The water crystals are shaped like mini snowflakes and when joined together form a honeycomb shaped liquid crystal structure. When water first emerges from underground and pours into a stream or creek, there is so much life force in it and it has the minerals of the earth surrounding it absorbed in it’s structure. It’s a very healing water with no pollution since it’s coming from deep underground. There are all kinds of different healing properties to such a living water. Each source is different and works in different ways depending on where you find it on the planet. It’s important to keep the water cool and away from light to help it keep it’s crystal structure intact.
I live 2 blocks away from a creek with a bike path in suburbia. We have seen a lot of different wildlife when we take a walk or bike ride along the bike path. We even saw a beaver in the section of the creek near our house. That was pretty surprising to us. On a recent bike ride with our dog running alongside (but on a leash) we saw 2 large coyote in broad daylight following the creek (about a mile from our house) they were clearly going over to where there is a prairie dog colony. I couldn’t believe they would be out around people in daylight although they were looking around and trying to hide amidst the trees. I’ve only ever seen them out in the daytime in the mountains where we used to live – never in suburbia during the day. And they were huge for coyotes – I thought they were wolves for a minute. Poor prairie dogs – it must suck to be the bottom of the food chain!
Well, last Thursday night we let the dog out to pee for the night and bam! he goes right after the skunk who was in our yard (it must have just gotten there bec. we checked a few minutes before letting him out) and it sprayed my poor dog and my entire house with all the windows open! So freaking gross!! My entire house REEKED so bad, I didn’t know what to do. I had to get on the computer and look stuff up with a towel over my nose and mouth on how to get the smell out of a house. I had bought this natural enzyme skunk odor remover for pets a while back for “just in case.” I’m glad I remembered that I had it. My husband ran upstairs to shut all the windows and get the enzyme stuff and put the dog in the tub.
So here are a few simple but tasty treats for the kiddos:
The other snack my son Leif is loving is actually going into the garden and picking his own cucumber or greens, etc and we bring it inside and I wash and cut it up and he’s so happy to eat the food he’s watched grow. He will eat large amounts, too. He’s ecstatic that his little yellow pear tomatoes that he planted the seeds in a container himself in May and watered (a lot!) all summer are now bearing fruit and so are the cherry tomatoes growing right next to them. He goes and looks everyday and sees if they are yellow enough and when they are he picks it and pops it into his mouth. He does the same with the red ones, too. I think it’s the cutest thing ever, of course! He’s really into living foods and likes having them around him, just like his parents. The garden is one fascinating place to him.