Friday, March 6, 2015

Part two of my onion movie, and a little pep talk for all my snowbound readers

Hey ya'll, I don't know if you watched my first onion movie yet.  It's getting rave reviews in my Facebook community!  People are learning new tricks from me and are inspired.  Yeah!  My first movie was about how to plant onions from seed, the second one is about what to do once they are germinated.  Here it is:



I am loving all the green shoots that are coming up everywhere - cultivated and wild.  Things are happening here in the Pacific Northwest, and I am ever so sorry for you Midwesteners and East Coasters.  I really am.  All that snow!  All that cold, while we sun ourselves in T-Shirts.  Just hang in there!  Spring will come!  You will probably feel sorry for us in two months, when all our little baby seedlings are getting their butts kicked in a late frost.





We are busy on our homestead.  My energizer-bunny husband Steve cut five huge Alders out of the goat enclosure, because some of those trees were quite dead and posed a risk to the goat barn in a storm.  We now have three years worth of fire wood cut and split, thanks to all the man-and-boy-power we have around here (...and woman-power, thank you very much).  Our ten and twelve year old sons spit wood like nobody's business.  You can see their muscles growing beefier every day (and their appetites as well).








The bed of coals and almost full moon.
We are loving our moveable greenhouse, because it harbors kale and collard plants that would have frozen in the winter if it wasn't for its sheltered protection.  The plants have been kicking in after being dormant for a few months, and we've been eating plenty of fresh greens.
To supplement our diet with other green stuff, I am sprouting different seeds like alfalfa, clover, and lentils.  These crunchy sprouts are great on sandwiches and salads.
I also got a batch of Sauerkraut going, quietly fermenting and bubbling on the kitchen counter, emitting its distinctive scent.







I leave you with an image of Lukas, who - after splitting wood all day - somehow finds the energy to do backflips on the trampoline. I wish we could bottle up all this energy, so I could take swigs of it during the day!

What are you up to these days? 


22 comments:

  1. Hi Corina, I just downloaded your e-book and it's wonderful. I'm subscribing to your blog, too. The kraut takes me down memory lane. My dad always made kraut at home and he even made it in a plastic bucket! (bleah). He was a product of the great depression. Anyway, he was the last keeper of my mom's grandfather's (german german german all the way through) kraut cutter and when my step mom passed we scoured her home to find it to keep the evil relatives from tossing it on the burn pile. It looked just like the Lehman version except better because it's ancient. Now it's back in the family and I even wrote an article about it that was published in Cappers Farmer. Great blog BTW. Did you get your goats back? We're south of you in Cauli-fornia.

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    1. Well, well..
      what do you know. Small digital world, isn't it, Renée? ;)

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    4. It sure is! Nice to hear from you. I need to go over and check what you've been up to. I'm back to working on your painting after a long hiatus due to many projects at the ranch.

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    1. I am so glad you like my e-book! Thanks for the great feedback!I am jealous you have a real kraut cutter!
      To answer your question about goats: I WILL get them back! I'll write about it in the next post! I'm so excited!

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  3. But how are you going to keep from getting overwhelmed? I recall that was the main problem before.

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    1. Ha! Overwhelmed! I know that one! I have learned to try to be balanced in my life and not take on too much! Ha! I'm a life coach, so I help people with that. I gotta walk the talk!

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  4. Can you make smoked bacon without salt? Or maybe the question is how do you make lo-sodium bacon?

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    1. You have to use salt. I don't use nitrates though... Maybe try to google how to make smoked bacon with less salt...

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  5. The cheese recipe sound really easy but lengthy. Jeepers creepers I wish we lived closer so I could see your process first hand. But I think I will try it and see how it turns out. I'm pretty handy. BTW I laughed when I read your comment about cheese snobbery and spray cheese. I am a cheese snob, too. And I'm not even european. My husband got me to try spray cheese just for an experiment. It tastes like spray salt with a little weird velveeta flavor. (My mother of all people loved Velveeta. Grrrr-ooossss!)

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    1. Funny you ask, because I am writing a book on how to make cheese, and I am making a movie to walk you through the process! Since you downloaded my e-book, you are now on my mailing list, and I will update you on when that's available. In the meantime, just go for it! Make cheese, make mistakes, and learn. I think the movie will be super helpful to a lot of people!

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  6. I will as time allows. I have this big ole "wish list" where I write all my ideas of things to try. Right now I am fulfilling my wish to try my hand at crocheting rag rugs and I am getting better and better. On my 5th rug now. When I get our cabbages I'll make a small batch of kraut. My husband doesn't like anything green or fermented. Should I get a divorce? Nah! He's so good at everything else including I love him warts and all! He only likes cheddar cheese so if you ever have a recipe for that..... He does love bacon! Whew! Now I'm going to go and look through your whole blog. I have some time. This will be fun!

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  7. I think I'm too late to start onion seeds. Pooh! It's already getting hot-ER. Not hot but hotter than what we've ever experienced in the almost three years we've been here. I don't know how the Hmong people in the little town near us do it. They must have a greenhouse somewhere because the ones they get from their commercial garden are the size of small watermelons. This is in summer. I did start broccoli, kale and collards and they're in the ground growing their little tookuses off. Your video has shown me why my seeds don't do so well. I am cheap so I've always used soil from the garden. This year I mixed it with perlite. Penny Hewitt innoculates her seeds whatever that is. And she uses a soil blocker. What do you think of that?

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    1. Good. The Perlite should help. You know, I used to make soil blocks, but I got out of that. Too much work... Good idea, but... too much work!

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  8. PS I loved your video by the way! You're a great teacher and very personable.

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  9. I have a question for your husband. My husband and I have a recurve bow. He got it for me for my birthday a couple years ago. I come from a bow hunter family. How is the feel of a longbow different from a recurve, if any? I would like to get a bow for my husband so we could have fun together shooting without having to trade off. Your bows are beautiful and economically priced. Thanks! - Renee in Northern California

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    1. My husband will respond to you if you send him an e-mail at
      twofeatherswildernessschool at gmail.com

      He is a really amazing bow maker and has hunted deer with it!

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