Water and shade, and tons and tons of food from the garden

By the time you read this, I'll be teaching people how to make Gouda cheese. Or if you read this in the afternoon, I'll show how to make goat milk soaps and lotions. Eight people are signed up for our homesteading and wilderness retreat, and today, we spent all day cleaning, pre-cooking and getting ready. We're excited to welcome these eager people to our homestead.

I thought I'd write this blog post in between cleaning, because I have to take a break sometime, right?

Before I show you all the fruits of our labor in the garden, let me take you to Larrabee State Park close to Bellingham, where we camped, hiked, kayaked and mountain biked last week. It's beautiful there, but I wouldn't recommend spending the night since trains blow their whistles by there all night long. I didn't get much sleep.

Aside from going to Puget Sound, we also sought out water in other places.  It has been soooooo hot, and for a while, there was lots of haze from the wild fires.  The smoke has lifted, thank goodness.   

Below is a picture of Baker Lake, where we found a rope swing, which promptly hurt Kai's friend when she got some pretty serious rope burn.  Also, we've been floating on the Skagit River, which is much colder than Baker Lake or the Puget Sound.

And of course, we are seeking shade below the beautiful, huge cedars that thrive in our climate.

So now after showing you all our play pictures, let me show you work pictures.  There's lots of that going on at our homestead, of course, and all of it centers around food production and preservation.

First, the garden: It's thriving and cranking out lots of food.

We harvested our red onions, and if you want to watch my tutorials on how to harvest and cure them, you can go to my youtube channel and learn for free.

Eva likes harvesting zucchini.  She makes them into dolls.  Seriously.  She draws faces and clothes on them, and she gives them names.  I have to take a picture of this one of these days...

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I'm harvesting herbs as well, to use in making medicine and teas, soaps and salves.

Also: fig jam.  I'll make a tutorial on how I make jam with the many figs our tree is cranking out soon.  Nothing gets wasted around here: if fruit turns overripe, the chickens get to eat it.

I'm going nuts with the cookbook I told you about in another post.  Below are millet maple syrup muffins I made from its recipe.  They are to die for, and really healthy, so technically, they won't make you die but live longer, I guess.

Lastly, I'm making lots of sauerkraut, beet kvass and yogurt.  I teach how to do all this in my online fermentation course.  You should totally check it out, because this is the season to learn how to ferment food and drink.  It's all so, so good for you, and much easier than you might think...

I'll leave you with two special images: One if of impending winter, so firewood has to be chopped and stored.

The other is of the newly born baby ducks our duck hatched.  They deserve a separate blog post, but for now, you'll get one picture.

Okay, I'm off to clean some more.  And then I'll make lasagne and quiche for our retreat.  Bye!

In love (and maybe not in the way you might think)

You know the cliche of a man and woman running towards each other in slow motion, through long, waving grass with wild flowers, backlight by a warm glow of slanting sun rays, a romantic sound track playing in the background?

That's how I feel about my ducks, or rather, that's how they feel about me, I think.  Whenever they see me in the yard, they run towards me, quacking excitedly, their whole bodies shaking with their wobbly gait.

It gives my heart a little jump, feeling so openly loved by someone.  Not that my husband doesn't love me - he does, deeply, but he just doesn't show it quite in the same enthusiastic, quacking, completely exuberant way.

Frankly, it would freak me out if he did what my ducks do, and I am perfectly happy with the way he proves his love to me.

Anyway: my ducks.  I love 'em.   They're called Ancona ducks, an endangered breed, and they eat tons of slugs, are always happy and showing it, give me gorgeous eggs, and are beautiful.

I wrote an article on how to raise ducks in this month's issue of Grow Northwest Magazine.  You can read it here.

In the video below I'm, running away from them while trying to film how they chase me so they can hug me and kiss me beg for food.

Some way or other, my days are spent nurturing animals, children, plants, and my friends.  I like nurturing and mothering these beings: feeding, grooming, watering, cuddling, supporting and teaching them.  I feel blessed to lead such a rich life with all these souls in them that love me and let me love them.

Some of them are so darn cute, how could you not be in love with them?

And when I've had enough of nurturing and it feels like too much and I just want to be left alone, I go hide in the garden to water my newly planted seeds, or I sneak some chocolate in the greenhouse.  And then my beloved rubs my feet.  See why I'm in love with him?  He's cute, eh?  (Although I assure you, I don't quack or wobble towards him when I see him).

The goats have been getting lots of attention and visits from enthusiastic little humans.  And since the grass is growing so beautifully, we've been leading them to pasture so they can chomp on the green stuff.  The babies were clueless where to go the first time around, so they had to be carried.

I will leave you with images from a day at the river with our inflatable kayak, my thriving seedlings, and a random photo of dough rising in front of the wood stove, in the midst of our chaotic and messy kitchen.

What or who are you in love with these days?

Why my stomach flu was a really good thing

A few days ago, I had the worst stomach flu of my life. I will spare you the details, but I can tell you it was not pretty. Feverish and fighting the urge to throw up, I managed to drag myself to the goat barn three times that day so I could check on Miss Dandelion, my very, very pregnant goat whose due date came and went. I take pride in never having missed a birth in over a decade of raising many goats, and gosh-darn it, the flu wouldn't keep me from missing that one.

Alas - nothing. Dandelion's bulging sides are getting bigger, and she is getting more and more uncomfortable. I might have to pitch the tent in the barn tonight so I can assist her when the time comes.

You would look grump, too, if you were that pregnant.

I'm watching the goats for signs of labor. Don't you know, Corina? A watched pot never boils, and a watched goat never gives birth.

The upside of this flu was that it slowed me down. Typically an uber-productive type A German workaholic, I get a lot done in a day. However, ever since the flu, I've sat on the couch or outside on a picnic chair, reading.

The day after the flu felled me was so beautiful and sunny, I parked myself under the dogwood tree and watched my industrious family. The small ones built a platform in the dogwood tree, where they perched, sang, snacked, swung and hung from.

My industrious husband (I didn't marry a slacker, that's for sure) worked around the yard, repairing a pole shed that had been damaged by a big hemlock in a windstorm, weeding garlic that's poking its green shoots out of the soil, and helping set up a fence for the ducks. This was the first time we let them out of their electric fence to free range, but we still need to keep them from visiting with the neighbors' ducks by installing a smaller fence.

One of the most amusing things that day was watching puppy Raka with the ducks. She's new to ducks, and she would looooooove to chase them, but she is, of course, not allowed to. 

And then there's the Raka-and-the-chicks-show, which made me laugh so hard, my poor abs (already sore from throwing up) hurt. The pup presses her nose agains the chicken wire, and the chicks come up to her and try to pick at her teeth. I'm not making this up. It's a comedy show, that one.

Besides the fact that I haven't eaten any real food (just broth) in almost three days, life is good. Flowers are appearing almost overnight. Let me leave you with images around our yard.

What made you laugh this week? Leave a comment in the section below so we can share the joy!