The Frost is here

The Frost came one day without a warning, and all of the sudden it hit me: this year is almost over. The year ending happens every year, right? But the changes that happen in nature, will always amaze me. The warmth and cozy moist in the air from where I come from in Venezuela is a little bit different than this. I love both.

This year began for me with the announcement of baby Matia Zucchini, the biggest love I've ever experienced. 

Most of the days would go by in the garden or at the construction site. Mostly by myself, and my belly, and occasionally accompanied by Radar, Shatzi and Mr. O.

Mushi in the backyard

 Hello dear mushroom lovers. I got to tell you about a recent fever I've been developing for the past year. It has to do with mushrooms. I had no idea about kinds, or names and properties, but I surely loved the flavors. Last year I started growing edible mushrooms at home, and that's where it all began...

I'll tell you more about that story another time, but today I just wanted to show you the mushrooms I've found all around the property where we live. It makes me feel so amazing to know that underneath the ground I step on, there's a whole net of mycelium that is way more diverse than I could imagine.

Here's just a handful of mushrooms I found. Please, help me identify the ones I haven't yet. My curiosity can no longer wait. I'll love you forever for that.

I  also love being a member of the Pacific Northwest Mushroom Identification and Information forum, since they've actually helped me identify some of the ones you'll see here.

Also check out the resources at the end of this post for further information on mushroom identification.

 These are a sort of Coral mushroom. Edible with laxative effects.

Oyster mushroom. Ate it for dinner (and dreamed about mushrooms all night).

Not sure what this one is called. Would you help me find out? 

Print this Poster 1: Take me Outside

This poster is just a reminder of getting outside, no matter how cold or wet it's getting. Free PDF download for you to enjot and put it on your wall, at the door, or to give to a friend.

Happy Friday!

Download the PDF here!

Dig a Ditch

The other day I went down to the site to help out digging the ditch, where water is going to be running from the well to the yurt. Mr. O. had been working on it for a few days by then, so I thought I'd give him a hand. I had no idea that digging a ditch could be so hard!

I got down there, with a shovel, and realized how difficult it was for me to scoop any dirt out. I couldn't help but wonder how on Earth Mr. O and his brother had been digging this ditch for the last week, almost every day, and they still had energy to do other things afterwards.

So after 20 minutes of trying to get some dirt out of the ground, I decided to be more useful, and went along the ditch and clipped all the roots that were in the way for them to continue digging.

We are learning how building your own place is a lot of work.

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!

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! 

Along the Farmland

The other day we went on a mini road trip along the farm land, 20-40 minutes away from home. There's so many family farms around here, that have different kinds of farm practices, but one thing was for sure: it was a pretty stinky ride. You'll see why next.

Flying poop right there for you! This is something you see a lot around here: mono crops and flying poop (which I only hope is not full of other things too)... 

But even though I may disagree with some practices, I thought I'd show you what I saw. 

Beautiful hills, lots of trees (where it hasn't been clear cut. Yes, people still do that)

Heavy machinery and structures.

And beautiful nature all around,

A cute store along the way full of locally made goods, mostly organic, all delicious. It's called the Everybody's store

Past blueberry season, long lands of mono crops. Eventhough very pretty looking, I personally prefer a different use of the land, one that stimulates biodiversity. 

Happy to end our little trip next to the Nooksack River for a relaxing nursing time next to the water. This is what I saw along the farmland. Do you live close to a farmland too? what do you see? What kind of practices do you support?

I think is good to know who your local farmers are...

Trail treasures

Last week was one full of resting time. We all got a bit sick around here, so we focused on healing, drinking tons of tea and having lots of at home time. Yet, there's always time and energy for a good walk and this week I felt especially inspired by the change in the weather and colors around here, so morning walks were pretty frequent. I love the variety of colors and the fog in the early hours, but I mostly enjoy the treasures hidden all around. 

The mushrooms found on the side of the trail received especial attention, of course. I know nothing about these guises names or properties but I surely admire their beauty and their overall power to save the world. Check out this TED talk to understand this last statement. My hope is that you'll be amazed. But please, if you know their names, or anything about them, let me know, I'm quite curious. 

You gotta look everywhere to not miss little beautiful details of life, like this gorgeous red dragonfly.

 All shades of green everywhere, my favorite color. Eventhough I was actually expecting to see more orange and brown, the cool weather still reminded me we are approaching winter, and I love it!

It got real sunny, I'll take as much as I can while I can.

We had to make a stop for some snacking/nursing time, and of course, play at the pond. 

Textures, colors, smells and change are always a constant.

Radar came all wet from playing at the pond and shook off the water all over Matia and me!

He could do this all day, I swear.

More beautiful treasures; I love spider webs.

 Back on the trail to get home. This trail is located on the back of the property were we live, and connects with the trail from our back yard. Lovely, isn't it? Can you help me identify the mushrooms I found?

Happy Monday, everyone!

Box Cadeau

In an attempt to write an amazing first blog post, I find myself a bit awkward, self centered and super silly. Kinda like when you have a crush on someone you've just met and want to express everything you are, be as authentic as you can and at the same time wanting to show your most beautiful and positive side. It's a complete recipe for awkwardness! at least in my case...

So I'm ditching out all kinds of expectations, and the need of showing off the pretty side, and instead focus on having so-much-fun. Also, the need for perfection (read: pure-fiction) and trying too hard will go out the window.

Box Cadeau is a gift to you that comes wrapped in the box of my life and what I love and learn about it. That box will come full of food, out of the main stream experiences, magic found in nature and more. You'll frequently find other important characters in this story, like my dogs, my chicks, and my partner in crime: Mr.O.

P.S: Pardon the huge crazy chicken face. She desperately requested to appear as the highlight in the debut of this blog. You can't blame her for wanting a little bit of spotlight, can you?