Urban Homestead Happenings

Even though I took a short break from blogging, real life has carried on. It was back to school this week after a delicious school break and a weekend away at the apple farm. But real life hits with a thud and we need to keep on keeping on. On the whole it has been a good week - a busy week - and full of learning curves.

I have nearly finished my first sock with the self striping wool. I knit so intermittently with everything else going on, but its almost there. I hope to finish it tomorrow while we tour the pennisula with some visiting friends.

On Monday evening a friend organized a crochet evening. She taught us to do a simple wash clothe...my crochet skills are improving but it is still very halting.

Last Friday I made Almond Oil and Rose Geranium soap. The recipe is on my herbal blog.

I have been very blessed to have had a young American girl here for the last 3 weeks. She is here to visit her fiancee who is studying at Bible College down the road, but we have spent some good quality time together. At 18 she is a kindred spirit as she loves the Lord and wants to live a sustainable "green" lifestyle.

Today they came over and I showed her how to make soap and then we all got stuck into the garden. The young men sifted the compost and carried it around to where we needed it, cleaned the coop, weeded, dug, carried and all those jobs that required muscles.

The gals pulled out spent lettuce, gave the asparagus their winter haircut and transplanted the curly Kale. We gave a good covering of compost to the asparagus and while I look with wonder on these "dry twigs" sticking out the ground and I know that in spring we will be eating our own asparagus for the first time. It's been a 4 year love relationship that I have had with these plants...


With all the cold evenings I have eventually got into the routine of making our own firelighters. It was a tip shared on my Green Website which I have been meaning to implement for absolute aaaages...its so simple once the routine is in place, I don't know why I didn't do it earlier?

The best surprise of the day is that I see our broad beans are starting to appear...I can almost taste them...the anticipation will kill me! :-)