Re-establishing pack leadership

What a great week I had last week. I never knew working on chores and errands could be so fun. I'm loving this new domesticity.

Today I've been reflecting on a relationship I must nurture a bit more: my relationship with Radar.

He's a beautiful friend I tell you. He gets so exited when I come home and always wants to be on our side. He's the most loyal companion you can ever imagine. If you have a dog, and especially if that dog is a German Shepherd, you know what I'm talking about.

 He watches our chickens in the evenings, even from our other dog Shatzi. His bark is the loudest of all dogs I believe, and all the creatures in these woods are very familiar with it. He scares away the rabbits who come to the green house uninvited, and overall, he makes sure everyone is safe around here. His sense of pack is quite delightful.

But there's just one thing Radar has entitled himself to be. He is the pack leader, in his mind. You got to love the guy, he's super cuddly and all (and he'll lick Matia's face whenever I turn around), but sometimes it can be tricky for him to be nice to other threatening males, including Mr. O. Or to not knock you over to be the first one getting out the door. 

Busy Hands

These days I'm finding out that I've created a new habit, one I'm not so proud of, to tell you the truth: I've been hoarding chores and lists to do.

Having a very active life and mind has lead my life to many rewarding experiences. I love doing-learning new things all the time. But sometimes I add too much to my shcedule and then I end up feeling overwhelmed.

We are getting everything ready for our move to the yurt, and by then I would love to have all unresolved businesses figured out.

So I'm taking a week off from these little space on the web to tackle all the things I keep postponing. Procrastination doesn't make anyone feel good, so designing a good plan to keep things in life in order will be crucial.

I'll still be around Instagram, keeping a little visual journal, and connecting with friends through Twitter, but box Cadeau will remain quiet for the next week. Any advise in designing this master plan? I'm all ears.

See you soon!

Good bye Chicko - Hello G. The Gray

It may be a little late for me to tell you this, but I can't keep this to myself anymore. 

Chicko has died.

We went on a little trip to Florida to visit my family and friends, and while we were there, he disappeared. He was never late, always there, taking care of all the chicks from the coop. We were so proud of him. But one day, he never came back. 

We asume he was taken by the natural instincs of an owl, or perhaps an eagle (I doubt this was the case though, since he was really savy at divising eagles and taking the chicks to a safe spot). Either way, it's the circle of life. 

Here are some picture of Chicko. I thought you would want to see he was for real. 

A rooster with a lot of character...

...And voice.

Before Chicko's departure to his new life, we got two little chicks. 

And guess what? 

One of them turned out to be a beautiful rooster. We named him G. The Gray (G. stands for Gandalf, obviously). Bellow you see our new chicks when I first adopted them. This is an Instagram picture I took earlier in the spring. 

6 months later...

They still remain inseparable, but now G. the Gray has other responsibilities, now he must watch the flock. 

We celebrate him. 

But Chicko's picture will continue to exist in this little space on the web, to always remember him.

Bon voyage Chicko!

How to make Ghee

Let's start by saying that ghee is my favorite fat these days, along with coconut oil and flax seed oil. According to Ayurveda medicine, ghee is hailed for its pure vibration and nourishing influence in the body. It's considered medicine for the body and food for the brain. 

I love ghee, it tastes and smells great, it's a great source energy and I can feel how it nourishes me inside out. Also, since the protein and lactose are removed, I can eat it without making Matia feel sick (since I'm breastfeeding). 

Why do you want to make ghee at home? Well, I'm glad you asked. Making ghee at home ensures that you'll pick the best organic milk, who's cows have been grass fed and treated with love, and you'll be supporting your local farmers at the same time. Why not?

Lets start with organic heavy whipping cream, from a local farmer. I hope someday I can get it unpasteurized since it's much better. Put it in the food processor (blenders of any kind work just fine)and blend!

You blend and blend for a few minutes, maybe 3-4. At first you'll get whip cream. Keep blending until the solid part looks more yellow and solid, and you find that the milk has been divided into two: the butter, and the milk (buttermilk). Then stop the blender.

I use a piece of fabric to squeeze all the liquid, the buttermilk, from the butter out. This milk can be used to bake, or just drink. I believe is low in fat (since all the fat is in the butter). 

Now lets make the Ghee: I put the chunk of butter in a shallow pot, and heat on low heat until all the water has boiled off, and the protein (the white stuff you see on top) has turned into a light brown color. 

Stir often since it'll prevent from burning and sticking to the pot.

It takes a few minutes, depending on your flame and the pot you use, but you'll know it's ready when the yellow of the butter looks like gold, and the protein has clearly been separated from the fat. 

Let the golden ghee cool and solidify and store outside of the fridge. It'll be great for about year. 

Next: enjoy all the delicious flavor, aroma and health benefits of ghee. 

I guarantee you it wont last for a year on your shelf. I make ghee for my family once a week or so, since we use it for cooking and baking (its smoke point is 482°F) on our toast, oatmeal, rice, etc.

More health benefits: ghee can also be used as an oil for the body, to treat constipation. It stimulates digestion and aids in the absorption of vitamins and minerals, helping strengthen the immune system. 

Have you ever made ghee? Do you have a favorite fat, oil? 

Yay for fat! happy Friday!

Fall time Garden Checklist

This may seem like a long post of pictures, but it's only because the list of things to do in the garden is quite long as well. This to do list is only for mid fall; so much more work to do! Why? Well, lets say that feeding yourself to try to minimize outsourcing is a lot of work. This year that was my goal. 

I did not forsee how little time I would have to dedicate to it at the end of pregnancy and while taking care of a new born. This post is similar to the one I write about being domestically challenged. What you are about to see is an overgrown garden, ready to decompose, and other garden messy scenes. the list begins. Enjoy!

1. Remove all the plats that are dying. Especially all the zucchinis and pumpkins have taken over this place. Au revoir!

2. Take the seeds from all the plants that are seeded: lettuce, kale, basil...

 3. Take all the yummies that are left over, and leave some that are still growing. We still have lots of kale, swiss chard and cabbage. Some will continue growing, some will get harvested this week. 

 4. Put away things around the garden, like water pots (we don't need them anymore), beer cans and cups. No we don't really party at the garden; we use beer as slug traps. I love slugs, they are really cute creatures, but they chomp all of our food, since the garden is right next to the swamp. Slugs love beer.

5. Plant cover crops (picture below). They are hardy plants that are planted in the fall to protect the soil over the winter. They prevent soil erosion and absorb soluble nutrients so they don't leach away with the rain in the winter. The roots make good munchies for the worms when we take the tops off. 

6. Plant some potatoes (picture above) and other plants that I grew from seed in the green house. 

I've never planted potatoes in the winter, but I'm going to give it a try and see what happens. We may be able to have them in the green house anyways.

7. Continue taking weeds out. We do this by hand. It's definitely a lot of work, but we don't use any chemicals in our garden. Organic gardening should be the standard for anyone anyways. Some will get composted, some will be used again in the soil for sheet mulching. 

8. The first picture above has the huckleberry bush in it and it's surrounded by mint. So... Harvest the mint that's left over. I'm glad there's still some I can harvest.

9. Use the biodynamic prep (the one in the box in the picture above) It reduces radioactivity by enhancing biodiversity in the soil. It also channels cosmic energy into the garden, yippee!

(If you are curious about biodynamic preparations, check out this site that tells us a bit about it.)

These are pictures of the lavender. I'm not doing anything about it just yet, except for weeding. I like the pictures so I thought I'd share :)

 10. Last but not least: enjoy the gardening process. Being outside when it's cold and wet may not sound very appealing for most people. But I've found out that when I do, I don't get the winter blues, I connect more with nature and I get stronger and healthier. What do you have in your garden checklist this season? Any recommendations? 

Happy gardening to you all, and happy Hollowing! 

A Yurt rise

Remember I told you on the Summer Recap about a major project we've been working on? Well... here it is!
Last spring we decided we wanted to build a place to live in that we could call our own, and after exploring some options, a yurt made the most sense. Living "off the grid" is actually really appealing to us: no need to deal with permits, not  having to ask anyone for permission.  Also, a small space means needing less things, buying less, creating less garbage, reducing foot print. Beautiful!
Keep in mind this is a work in progress. In fact, I think that when you choose to live in a Yurt, you're living situation is always a work in progress. We actually love the idea of being able to move our home whenever we want or need to. We started this project in the spring and we can finally see it coming along, yay!
The first step was to sustainably pick out the trees from the property, just two, cutting them down, getting the wood milled and then measuring, cutting and sanding the pieces for the yurt. It's built from scratch with the help of family and friends. We are so grateful for them.

Above you see the lattice, the center ring and the rafters (and a latter to put it all together), the basic pieces of this puzzle home. If you want to learn more about building yurts, check out Simply Differently. We also used this book to figure it out. It's definitely a DIY project that is doable.

This is the lattice, the walls of the yurt that can be folded to open and shut them for easy transportation, all around the top of the deck. 

Then we put the rafters (the roof structure), and like puzzle pieces, they all fit perfectly together to support the center ring, which in turn supports the rafters, all set together for a very sturdy living structure.

Then we bought the yurt canvas and insulation from Nomad Shelter. I guess we could have made it ourselves, but it would have taken us so much more time, and a lot of trial and error. They ussusally don't just sell the canvas, but they were so special with us they made an exemption. We are so lucky!

A skylight was built by Mr. O's brother. It pays off to surround yourself from very crafty people, I tell ya!

This is a before and after putting the insulation and canvas. Our site is surrounded by trees and a little pond we kind of created ourselves. I'll show it to you someday, it's delightful.

Like I said, this is a work in progress, still water and electricity to be set up (maybe rain water catching system and solar panels), a few things to bring to move in and lots of deciduous plants to plant. Oh! and another green house to build! I'll still be using our old green house, which is only a few steps away.
I'll see you soon, with more off the grid adventures and experiments!

To eat or not to eat

5 years ago I decided to cut meat out of my diet: no beef, no chicken, no fish. Many reasons lead me towards that decision. To reduce environmental footprint, animal cruelty and improve my health, to say the least in a very simplistic kind of way. 

I wouldn't have considered including chicken back to my diet, but in the past month we've been dealing with baby Matia's acid reflux. If you've ever had to deal with this kind of situation you know it can be very frustrating, stressful and tiring.

According to the research I've done, to help determine what is causing the reflux, a breast feeding mother has to go on an elimination diet. No dairy, no gluten and no acidic food. Instead, the consumption of blend food is encourage, like rice, quinoa, sweet potato and chicken. The last one is especially recommended for good fat and protein. Every mom I've talked to says it's the best for this kind of thing. Now I'm having to do the necessary adjustments to meet my high standards of good nutrition and health.

We have a few chickens we raise ourselves, not really for the meat, but because we love chickens and all animals. We enjoy their company, we give them names and a pretty good life: the best organic grains, lots of vegetation, a flock to socialize with and a free range lifestyle. Sometimes we eat their eggs, if we can find them in the bushes, but it's not a prerequisite for living here free and being fed with the best food. It's clear we love our chickens, all of them: Chicko, Gandalf the Gray, Bleu, Nina, Speckles, Adriana, Anastasia and The Wife.

I know that if we were to raise our own chickens for meat, we wouldn't be contributing to the carbon footprint the meat industry is responsible for (meat causes more emissions than all transportation combined), neither would we follow the animal cruelty procedures and conditions that factory farms apply to the 10 billion animals who are raise for meat every year. No, we don't support those practice. Yet, there's still something that feels off when you eat someone you love, someone with a name, and a personality you know so well. 

So what to do when all culinary and nutritional circumstances point in that direction? Is this just an overly thought question, typical from my human condition? I honestly doubt the eagles that fly every day in the search for prey have such dilemmas on a daily basis, or ever.

So what should one do with these questions? Should I just eat chicken from a local sustainable farm that treats their animals with the same love we do, to avoid eating the ones we love? If so, should I justify killing an animal just because I'm not attached to it emotionally? 

To eat or not to eat chicken: that is the question. 

Night Time Gardening

The days are getting shorter, the weather getting gloomy and the landscape getting spookier. I love this time of the year, but I honestly don't love too much working in the garden outside when it gets colder and rainier. So I leave that work to Mr. O, while I take care of the green house. It's definitely warmer, cozier and it's a more controllable environment. This is the first year I try getting some winter crops going so we can have food here all year round. We'll be having different kinds of squash, kale, swiss chard, brussels sprouts to mention some. We love food around here. Exiting!!!

 This is the green house from the outside. You can probably catch the view of our dog Radar, or at least his ears. He loves joining us while we garden, and any time really.

We clear out the beds

 It looks like a mess! Tomatoes were here last. We'll try to keep it more diverse next time.

All clean. Next thing will be to plant the starts I helped grow from seed before our little Matia Zucchini came along. What's your favorite thing to eat in the winter?

Happy Fall Gardening!

Reappearing / Summer recap

Wow! It has been like 5 months since I last posted here. I feel like it all happened with the blink of an eye. I was mostly focused on growing a baby, resting a lot and working on the garden and green house. Of course, the last project went out of control by the time the baby arrived 4 weeks ago, but I got to savor the joys of gardening all summer long. We also got to work on another major project I'll tell you all about really soon. In the meantime, here's a recap of what summer was all about around here in our homesteading bubble-land.

We got to  camp at our house since I was feeling too heavy to go backpacking or camping for real. Even though O. got a new set of stove for cooking (which also charges your phone while cooking... pretty fancy) and a new camping mattress and sleeping bags, so I could be really comfortable camping with a big belly, it just didn't worked out at the end. It was fun though to pretend to be somewhere else while sleeping in the tent on the deck watching the stars at night, and cooking with minimal set up using little pieces of wood and matches. 

We grew an herb and flowers spiral in the front yard.

  

Lots of time at home to play with these two! 

And then along came Matia Zucchini. Someday I'll tell you his birth tale, a 50 hour labor story that started at home with the intentions of staying, but ended up at the hospital. Beautiful birth though, no regrets.

And then we came home and the green house was totally overgrown, and the cover ripped off by the wind and rain. Yikes!

Yet the starts I planted for our winter crop were showing off!

 Lots of tomatoes!!!

And here we are, at the beginning of a new season, enjoying Mr O's harvest dinner. 

Happy Friday!