Wooly things

Really loving needle felting this winter.  Raphael love astronomy and all things celestial, so I made him a solar system for Christmas. The little boy on the goose is Nils from the Wonderful Adventures of Nils. I made it for our little friend Nils. 

chickenhaus

A little cheaty blogging about last year's project. Will is using young (growing) trees as posts for the more temporary structures. Das ist gud chickenhaus!

 

St Nicholas's Day

Fallish

Fall is kind of still summer in Cape Breton. I realized the liberating truth that my boys are old enough to carry the kayaks. Still heavy, but we are much more mobile now. Now we have to learn to respect water, which can be dangerous here, between rip tides and big waves. I am now realizing the blessing of swimming lessons.

Some snippets of September:

 

I took a herbal medicine class with the incredible Benna Keghoe and reacquainted myself with the joy of herbal practice. And below: the beautiful white beeswax from our first pry into the bee frames. A success! They survived! (making salves with beeswax here...)

Then the big project. The beginnings of the barn, which involves lots of hauling, peeling, squaring, and fitting. 

Photographic proof of manual labour. (I peeled logs for an hour.) The barn is Will's project. I work off-farm at a local cafe to pay the bills. I'll probably work full time until the farm is making money. It's not the most romantic life. But we've planted the seeds. A foot in the community, a place, a name, eggs and honey for barter, new habits and new rhythms for the future,  good, clean, nutrient-rich food for the table. People are thriving, so that's what matters right now.

Sheepy Things