Wild Culture Farm

My Wardrobe Project

2012-01-15T15:25:00.000-04:00

It all started when I was doing a lot of decluttering throughout December. I wanted to make it easier for the kids to take responsibility for their things. I culled their wardrobes down to their absolute favorites. Its always easy with the kids, their preferences are so clear and I know exactly what is always in the wash and what never gets worn despite *my* affection for it. So if they never wanted to wear it, out it went. I even got around to mending favorites so they could be passed down as the cherished items they'd become.

As usual my own clothes are an afterthought.

I don't often buy anything new and because I shop thrift stores I often find things I like for a particular reason, fabric OR cut, not often both and I have grand intentions of making them my own. It means I have a closet quite full of clothes I like but don't wear. It made it really hard to do the same cull I did with the boys clothes. For example I have a really warm cardigan with pockets and big buttons and a ribbed collar - love the shape and function, but it is the brightest pink you can imagine, I *really* don't like pink! It is literally the only thing I own that is pink so I have a limitted number of things I can wear with it.

With the help of Pinterest I set about defining visually what shapes and colours I actually really like, and look good in.. What is practical for me given my life on the farm as mother, farmer, artist, woman. I'm having a lot of fun with it, and with a clearer vision of what I'd like my "uniform" to be I know what I'd like to make for myself. My next step is looking at what I have and making a definite plan for the alternations I need to do so they fit within that uniform. There will be a whole lot of hemming in the near future!

I plan on building a basic wardrobe of about 12 pieces that work together in numerous combinations, plus two reversible hardworking crossed back tunic aprons and a couple of sweaters that I truly love. I'm starting with the clothes I have and doing repairs, making alterations, maybe I'll do some dying too! Then I'll move on to the new items.

It's a really fun project and Nature Girl is expressing a bit of an interest too.

For my friends in Chelsea, for Kathrine, and for Sophie. Peace to all.

2012-01-12T14:02:00.000-04:00

And then Wild Thing Asked for a Haircut

2011-12-12T08:05:00.000-04:00

He has a very specific cut in mind. He described how the bangs should be "straight from here to here" he showed me, "and then it should go down to my ears" and then it should be long but not as long as now"

I was a little nervous, the first time I cut his hair for him (at his request) he burst into tears and had me tape the locks back on). This time he took one look in the mirror and started to giggle. He giggled for a good 20 minutes, while he brushed his teeth and washed his face.

I feel very strongly about bodily integrity and not cajoling children into doing things you know they don't really want to do. Wild Thing loves his hair (maybe because he was such a bald baby for such a long time!) and has endured teasing about having such long hair and still held onto his lion's mane. He had bangs for several years and then decided that they were not to be cut either.

As a mom, well lets just say I'm very happy to see that sweet little cherub face again!

A recap of St Nicholas Day

2011-12-09T22:05:00.001-04:00

Nature Girl claimed elf duty/

Stockings are traditionally everyone's favorite thing.

However Sprout's gift from St Nick was awesome according to everyone - a wooden space station with robots and an alien and astronauts with removable helmets and packs and lots of cool science stuff!

Wild Thing was overjoyed to find a real watch in his stocking! It has monkey pirates on the band - SWEET!

Everyone loved their elf caps I made them too!

Mischievous elves.

While we were unwrapping gifts SOMEBODY ate all the raw cookie dough - nope wasn't Marley.

Bear, look at me Bear, is that gingerbread I smell on your breathe?

This moment

2011-12-09T19:17:00.000-04:00

A moment we want to savour and remember, with thanks to Soulemama for the inspiration.

This week required TWO photos. One I've grown used to, fitting the tall lanky grown Darkmirror into the frame with our traditional holiday reader photo. One which startled me, Seeing just how big a boy Sprout has become!

Yesterday was fill the car with goats day.

2011-12-03T13:00:00.000-04:00

If we'd had room we'd have brought Buddy home too.

He's officially TOO BIG for our farm though.

Three goats and two kids. We've renamed our minivan the "Manure-mobile".

This moment

2011-12-03T12:56:00.000-04:00

Thank you Soulemama for the inspiration. A moment from our week a special moment we want to hold onto, savour and cherish

There's less than a week til St Nicholas Day!

2011-11-30T18:24:00.000-04:00

I'm busy finishing up gifts, and getting stockings together. As I was winding up all my little balls of wool and getting my rovings together for a making session I realized *next year* I will be using wool produced right here on the farm. I'm so excited. Everything is coming together so wonderfully.

My sister Zoom blogged about her namesake sheep so I thought I'd tell you all about Amos. He was named after the sheep in Janet Lunn's wonderful picture book Amos's Sweater. Janet Lunn will read it to you if you'd like..

Our Amos isn't old, and he isn't cold. But someday he will be and when that day comes we'll give him a sweater too. Amos and Zoom grew up on the same farm. They were both born the same spring and both earned a name by being extraordinary. Zoom survived and Amos was a quadruplet that none of the ewes would let suckle. So he got to come in with Zoom and was hand raised. They are sure they are brothers.

Amos is an Icelandic, and there don't seem to be many of them around here. They have the most wonderful double fleece, the under fleece is soft as can be and the outer fleece will grow long and shaggy on top. You can work with both together or seperate them for two totally different types of wool. Amos loves getting rubs under his chin and the wool there is so warm and soft and it isn't greasy with lanolin so I'm getting a good idea of what it will feel like when cleaned and washed.

How many sheep fit in the back of a minivan?

2011-11-27T09:02:00.000-04:00

You can fit two adults, two kids and two full grown rams in a Mazda MPV. The ramekins were excellent travellers, the boys, not so much this trip. The sheep pee less.

Zoom seemed to relish the adventure. Amos was willing to come along because Zoom was there. They are awfully cute together.

First Snow (thursday morning)

2011-11-26T16:47:00.000-04:00

THIS MOMENT

2011-11-24T19:50:00.000-04:00

Thanks to Soulemama. A special moment you want to savour and remember...

Meet the ramekins, they come home Saturday

2011-11-24T12:42:00.001-04:00

On the left is our Border Cheviot, on the Right our Icelandic. Aren't they lovely?

Hot Cocoa with Marshmallows Cupcakes - by Nature Girl

2011-11-20T15:26:00.000-04:00

Take your favorite brownie recipe and make it - use duck eggs for super fluffy cupcakes!
Spoon into greased muffin tins or ovensafe mugs and stick a large marshmallow in the middle of each.
Cook for 1 hour at lowish heat 300 degrees F with the blower on (if you don't have a convection oven 325 degrees - same time but check with a toothpick to see if they are done)
When they cool - eat either popped out of the pan (slide a knife around to be sure they don't stick)
or with a spoon if you made them in a mug.
If it's cold outside serve with hot frothy steamed milk, if warm with ICE CREAM!

Duck Day!

2011-11-20T14:29:00.001-04:00

We bought a whole flock of ducks! Papa pan collected them this morning.

They seem to like their new digs.

Nature Girl started naming everyone right away. I had to tell her "You can't name any ducklings with green feathers!" (they're going to be for eating).

We won't be eating this handsome fella though - This is our Muscovy Drake. His name is Peter Green. We named him in honour of the wonderful Muscovy, Peter, who lives at Angelhoeve Farm.

The Runners decided a bath was their first order of business. Everyone arrived extremely muddy.

The Muscovys told me they want the pool filled as soon as possible.

Amber inspected and seems satisfied with our winter set up. During the rest of the year they'll be free range but for the winter we want everyone protected from predators and the mountain valley wind tunnel we live in.

Grooving Down

2011-11-19T13:59:00.000-04:00

and then piling on!

Wild Thing takes his time with everything

2011-11-19T13:52:00.000-04:00

He lost his second tooth - 8 months after the first! The tooth fairy gave him a dollar coin and a wizard's hematite ring. Happy boy!

This week....

2011-11-18T08:48:00.000-04:00

Sprout has spent lots of time building this week....

Nature Girl has spent lots of time thinking about numbers....

Wild Thing has been working on a museum with his brother and sister. Together they're doing a stop motion animation show about the day to day operations at the museum.

This Moment

2011-11-11T09:53:00.000-04:00

With thanks to soulemama - this moment, a single photo - no words - capturing a moment from this week. A simple, special extraordinary moment. A moment you want to pause, savour, and remember.

Facebook tried to kill my blog!

2011-11-09T15:37:00.000-04:00

Well, that's an exaggeration, let me rephrase that. Facebook has enabled me to avoid putting time and energy into blog posts with it's tiny status update bar and immediate feedback from friends and family. I miss blogging, and some people just don't like lazy social media sites like facebook (I'm speaking to you Nicole!) so from now on I solemnly vow to dump the camera once a week and post at least that often.

While I've been MIA Darkmirror and Duckie did the monumental thing of moving to Truro so Duckie can attend the NSCC there. They seem to be living on rice, Braggs, and lemons. That's what I get calls about anyway. Darkmirror bequeathed his room to Nature Girl, this is the day we repainted it for her, it went from Kraft Dinner Yellow to Teal in a few hours. This was a really sad process for me, I miss him tons.

We're still renovating and decorating here, but most of our energy has been outside with the ducks and chickens and rabbits and goats (yes we now have goats, and hopefully, heifer willing, a calf come spring) so inside is full of half done stuff and lots of paint cans everywhere.

Sprout really did kill my laptop. I was computer-less all of October (Toshiba was very good and the warranty covered all his mischief as an "accident".

Dresden Kitty

2011-08-02T14:09:00.000-03:00

Duckie rescued this little 8 week kitten from being dumped in the woods to become a snack for a coyote. The girls here are respecting her kitten cuteness. Ruby runs from her, Topaz watches her and Ember licks her all over, then hisses and runs away. So far her best buddy is Bear who is an exemplar ambassador for dog cat relations..

I spent yesterday with a rabbit in my bra

2011-07-16T11:22:00.000-03:00

We're trying to raise our meat rabbits as naturally as possible. They graze in moveable rabbit tractors, and we leave them be as much as possible. This is a hard week though, the bunnies' mama is weaning them and we had a vicious cold snap with tons of rain. The three smallest bunnies died overnight. The little brown one we thought was dead, its body being trampled by the others. But it was still breathing. I scooped the limp cold little body up and slipped it into my bra. She spent the rest of the day there. I fed her milk mixed with sugar from a syringe as soon as she was strong enough to lap it up. I held her and talked softly to her through tummy aches. She slept and slept, and then she woke up and sneezed and sneezed and sneezed for a couple of hours. By bedtime she was pooping and peeing and eating and drinking and no longer had the snuffles.

We won't be eating her; we named her Cocoa.

It was a good day.

I need to start knitting again...

2011-07-13T15:28:00.000-03:00

I want super easy baby patterns and little boy vests (both Wild Thing and Sprout rock the sweater vest look). I'm planning on making a couple of cocoons and wee hats first. I need middle of he night distractions that I can knit in dim light.

Any suggestions?

Heartbreak Heartache

2011-07-11T16:48:00.000-03:00

Our sweet boring bombproof husky Mica is a cold blooded killer of fowl. We need to re-home her. We are all so sad. Lots of tears for our lost hens and our brave and valiant rooster Angel. Lots of tears for Mica, who we love so much.. If it were a fox stealing a meal I'd be less upset. But Mica kills just for the sport of it and she is actively seeking out the opportunity to go on a killing spree.

Not a very happy day to return to blogging.

Straight from mud season to bug season!

2011-05-23T15:07:00.000-03:00

sunhats that protect from blackflies too

temporary farmgate to keep chickens and kids on the property and slow down traffic entering the driveway

To distract the kids from the food bunnies, we were given a PET bunny. Meet Hobbes!

2011-05-09T11:26:00.001-03:00

Inspecting Beatrix Potter books...

Being read Goodnight Moon...

Listening attentively...

Attacking sick teenager...

Maxine's Big Adventure

2011-04-30T21:08:00.001-03:00

Maxine is without a doubt the most interesting chicken we have. Since her first day here she has proved herself to be beautiful, belligerent, and a bad influence on the other hens. She escapes, she flies, she is next to impossible to catch, she is tiny, and generally meanspirited. She absolutely hates to be touched. But she looks like Wild thing so of course we took her.

a few days ago Maxine completely vanished, VANISHED. Without a trace. I searched our property, the property next door and the graveyard, not a feather. We assumed that an eagle or hawk had snatched her. Then last night who should wander up to the house but an absolutely soaked and mud caked Maxine. I didn't think it was possible for any animal to be that dirty! The mud was in clods hanging from every feather.

So I gave my chicken a bath.

Halfway through Darkmirror came in and started taking pictures.

She was docile and just sat there and let me coax the mud from her feathers.
It was even matted into the downy feathers near the skin.

what do you do with a clean but still wet and shivering chicken?
I blew dry her.

Again, she just sat there relaxed, allowing me to work.

While I dried her I continued looking for injuries, one scabby spot on a wing.
several broken and damaged tail feathers.

She doesn't look as magnificent as she once did, but she's clean.
I hoped this new docile a sweet chicken I was holding was a sign that she truly appreciated me.
Once she was dry she tried to peck Nature Girl's eyes out and started squawking..

We'll never know what exactly happened to her. But our imaginations are running wild.

Oh well.

The Day the Ducklings Made Their Great Escape

2011-04-29T16:52:00.000-03:00

Our ducklings have more than doubled in size since we got them last Friday. I heard a furious peeping this morning and thought the cat or one of the dogs was after them and ran down to find they had jumped out of the giant bench sized rubbermaid bin we were using as a brooder box, and had crossed the sunporch and come inside. The dogs were cowering, getting harrassed by the four of them. I called my farmboys and we captured them and went to put them back in the box.

Well I found out why they came to find me. Their furious peeping was saying "MAMA!!!! We have emptied our waterer into our bin to make a lake of water, food and feces. We have tired of it. Come! Give us fresh bedding and MORE water BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

They had clearly outgrown the bin and we do not have their outside duckhouse ready yet. I got out Little Bear's big labrador retriever dog crate and set it up with a raised plastic bin lid as an island. Hopefully they can keep this one from becoming a swamp in an hour.

simply ten good things

2011-04-25T11:38:00.000-03:00

with gratitude to Soulemama for the idea.

Wooden lego and plastic minifigs
A girl who loves chickens
Fresh eggs from our own hens every day
A rabbit preparing to kindle
Little boys who love ducklings
Dawn break sounds of birds, both wild and domestic.
A garden awakening from under it's mulch winter quilt
Garden plans in their infancy in peat pots in every south facing window.
Easter baskets full of books, art supplies and seeds - abundant fertile imaginings
17 degrees and sunny - a break between rainstorms, joyfully filled with mucking out hutches, feeding animals and farm kid chores.

I'm getting a helpful nudge to blog...

2011-02-17T18:54:00.000-04:00

Many thanks to Zoom at KNITNUT for the Stylish Blogger Award! The meme says: “By accepting this award I’m to tell five of my favourite things and then pick five people to pass the award on to.”

I have too many favorite things! How to narrow it down? So *right this moment, here in February of 2011* these stand out as my five favorite things.

My morning ritual of getting the cookstove cleaned and fired up for the day. It feels like I'm lighting the heart of the house. I love how cold the house is, the floor is icy, and the sounds of the kids laughing upstairs (all jumbled under the covers of my bed to stay warm. Sweep the hearth, check to see if the ash bin needs emptying, flues and dampers open wide, stir the coals, paper, kindling, small split softwood logs on the sides, a small hardwood log across the top. blow to see if the coals will light the paper, if not a twist of paper and a match. Close the top. Go down to the basement and bring up a bag of logs. Listen for the snap and pop of kindling burning, close down the flue halfway, take a peek, if the softwood has caught close down the side dampers and move the kettle over the firebox to make a pot of tea. Then the thump thumping of children running down the stairs...

The absolutely unique smell each of my children has. I could pick them out of a crowd just by smell and tell you who it was immediately They are delicious and warm, a little fruity, a little milky, a little wild and goaty, a little like the smell of old books (not musty, whats underneath that, sort of like vanilla, but more grounded). Oh I wish I could bottle it up somehow. Hugs and deep breathing will have to do!

Researching and learning new old skills. Its subversive to learn how to do things yourself instead of relying on a corporation to manufacture it for you. I get a real thrill out of learning the very basic science and chemistry of food preparation, canning, dehydrating, preserving, baking, mixing up spices, and mixing up basic chemical components to clean my house, to fertilize my plants, to grow my food, learning new ways to knot and weave wool to knit something. There's so much to learn and its all so USEFUL. I love the "AHA!" moments when something works or I make the big connection (usually through disastrous mistakes -not having it work) I love fitting together the puzzle pieces of book learning and experience and all the little discoveries I make that a book can never detail, like the different smells of woods and how that can tell you about burn time and temperatures. I love that I'm not helpless. Having these really basic skills empowers me. My next projects are our gardens and livestock. I've read all the books now I need the cow and the seeds.

When things are so ingrained in me that I don't have to think about them anymore. Mindfulness is one meditation, but this point where things are just second nature frees my mind for different things. I don't know how many times I nurse a day anymore. Its just second nature. I don't follow a recipe to make bread anymore, its just seems to happen. Mixing up cleaning supplies, the "feel" of wet felting, handwashing all our dishes, table blessings, bedtime prayers, morning routines, painting walls....I love the rhythm of knowing in my bones what happens next and how it frees me up to dream and pray and think about things happening around the globe.

Sitting in my kitchen after everyone has gone to bed, in the dark, with the last logs of the day just gone into the firebox, the cats curling round my legs, a dog or two asleep on the floor. The sound of the wind and our wind chimes outside the kitchen door. Seeing the snow falling outside, but being so incredibly warm by the stove. Thinking about the day that past and the one to come. Then closing down the flue and dampers almost all the way so the fire will sleepily burn longer and closing the doors on the livingr oom and diningr oom so the heat will travel up to the bedrooms and not be wasted on rooms that only get used during the day. Walking upstairs in the darkness knowing my way by feel, to bed.

And I'm passing this on to:

Bonny - she's one of my favorite mamas going way way back in my online search for community
Jeni - she's highly hilarious and totally gets the joy of little boys...puppies...not so much!
Devin - who can share over the long steeped and cold by now tea we keep intending to have together (tho she also needs a wee nudge to blog again)
Duckie - who definitely needs a nudge to keep up her blog - move that amazing poetry from facebook girl!
Claire - she inspires me every day with her honesty, faith, and loyalty and she deserves a wee little spotlight and a chance to focus on herself.

We really aren't a good "crate" family

2011-01-10T15:38:00.000-04:00

I can't imagine tellling this little boy that his dog has to sleep on the floor, let alone downstairs in a crate!

Handmade Holidays Recap #1 - Lyra's winter gear

2011-01-04T11:58:00.000-04:00

Nature Girl loves the Golden Compass and wanted to be able to dress up like Lyra when she plays.

I made her the hat and mitts.

Found the coat at the thrift store Frenchy's. The boots are mine but she fits them so I gave them to her.

I wasn't able to find her a polar bear so she's off to hunt herself up one.

Happy New Year!

2011-01-02T19:03:00.000-04:00

My commitment this year is to be more mindful about our family meals. I'm hoping to get back into blogging by making that a focus of the family blog too. I figure the subject encompasses all sorts of things that "feed" that issue, our first season of gardening, livestock, blessings, recipes, eating locally, and the rituals and rhythm of the family meal.

So here you go, pictures of the Sprout preparing veggies for roasting.

3 year olds are probably the greatest kitchen helpers ever...even if they do spill enough flour for a second cake when you bake!

Solstice was all about the ANIMALS this year

2010-12-22T18:48:00.000-04:00

Toy animals

Everyone got some little toy animals in their stocking Sprout got North American Wildlife, Nature Girl got sea creatures and Wild THing got ice age animals.

Crafty Animals. Everyone got paintable animals too...the snakes are already slithering about the house.

Real Animals. Little Bear was a big fan of the treats and had more than one candy cane taken away from him!

New Animals! Our newest pet, an enormous black and white cat we named Fritz. He is not a fan of dogs, is submissive to elderly Luna already, and absolutely loves the kids. They can dress him up and everything! He is enormous, and its all mouse hunting muscle, not fat. I think Duncan has competition!

A post by Sprout

2010-12-03T09:04:00.000-04:00

Today is a good working day!

It's rainy. We plant the garlic.

Now we mulch it!

I moved all the big straw!

Now we can play in the puddles.

Dinner

2010-12-03T08:58:00.000-04:00

Nature Girl's Hey Diddle Diddle

2010-11-21T13:15:00.001-04:00

Hey diddle diddle,
The cat played the fiddle

The cow jumped over the moon

The littler dog laughed to see such a sight "Ha Ha Ha!"

And the dish ran away with the spoon

Nursery Rhyme collected by Mother Goose, illustrated by Nature Girl

First Snow

2010-11-20T19:04:00.000-04:00

From the library window looking south towards the village and the Wolfville Ridge beyond. The world is silent.

Christmas Gifts - Shhhhh!!!!!

2010-11-12T18:46:00.001-04:00

I found Nature Girl a sheepskin coat like Lyras from the Golden Compass at the thrift store today, and she now fits into my hippie winter boots that are a bit too narrow for me. Two years ago I made her a hat like Lyra's but in crazy rainbow colours. Unfortunately it was lost on a school trip. So for Christmas I'm going to knit her up another Lyra's Hat and a pair of mitts.

Wild Thing and Sprout are both getting reversible tunics so they can play knights and kings, and handmade swords. OH scratch the tunics I found a super simple pattern for chainmail for them!

I'm a bit stumped on what to make for Darkmirror....maybe I should look for a Cuthulu to knit up? I found Nauti' patterns (nautilii) PERFECT, one of his first obsessions!

Math is fun!

2010-11-11T18:27:00.000-04:00

No seriously, it is, and playing with math concepts instead of doing worksheets brough Nature Girl's math skills up to snuff :-)

Daily fun in our house involves addition subtraction, skip counting in lieu of multiplication, place value, geometry, and weights and measures.

Shhhhhh!!!! They really don't know that, it's just fun!

This Week

2010-11-11T11:03:00.000-04:00

Little Bear doesn't understand the time change.

He waited in his usual spot to see the kids get off the bus for an hour each day. It was distressing for him.

This little laddy has been getting into a lot of mischief.

We've decided to enroll him in nursery school two mornings a week. He misses his big sibs too much during the school day.

Help a friend out?

2010-11-07T08:22:00.000-04:00

My friend Meagan is in the running for a real life paid blogging job for Sam-e. They want an optimistic blogger for the position and she's in the running. She would be perfect for this. She is a professional writer, got her start writing about health and wellness and parenting. You can visit her blog and check her out at The Happiest Mom, which is also the title of her latest book - because mom and happy can be used together :-)

Clearly she's an optimist!

Could you please vote for her? HERE: MEAGAN NEEDS A JOB! You can vote every day and you don't need to register or anything annoying like that. If you'll help promote her so she can go onto the juried part of the contest she'll enter you in a draw for a cookbook and an immersion blender. You can read about the giveaway on her blog.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

2010-11-01T20:25:00.000-03:00

Big kids - 17 year olds still dress up and go trick or treating here in rural Nova Scotia - The vampire and his victim.

A ghoul, a ghost, a devil, a victim and a vampire. I was a witch and handed out candy from my cauldron.

AHHHHHHH!!!!!!! The Ghost of Gaspereau lives in my house!!!!

Mudmama said "Let there be light"

2010-10-17T08:15:00.001-03:00

And she painted the ceiling,

and it was good.

Baby It's Cold Outside!

2010-10-13T13:33:00.001-03:00

Thanks to Krista I was able to do a vintage style snapshot with Picnik!

Warm and toasty inside, real autumn weather outside. My roses are still putting out blooms though. I want to find a photo editor program that will let me do vintage style images, anyone know of anything?

The upstairs landing - BEFORE

2010-10-11T11:36:00.000-03:00

This is such a big space we've known it would be a library since we first saw the house.

Floor ceiling and Walls are painted steel grey. It's depressing despite all the light.

But we decided before we paint we need to deal with the creeping chaos that is all our books which are slowly crawwling from boxes and being littered about the floor. So we're making built in bookcases for this space.

Sprout insisted I take some pictures of him playing, so here's my favorite...twist my arm!

Corners of My Dollhouse

2010-10-10T10:15:00.000-03:00

A special post by Nature Girl!

The hangars I made myself. I've also been sewing some clothes.

I like how the light shines on this and its more spectacular now, I've added more beads and made it into a triangle.

Begging for scraps while cooking rabbit stew.

Homemade flannel pillows I made, aren't they wonderful?

Nature Girl has been reading all the Borrower books and working on her dollhouse. She took my camera and documented it the other day. These are our favorite pictures. She described them for this post.

I feel blessed today!

2010-10-04T10:11:00.000-03:00

I entered a giveaway at Soulemama's blog for an Online retreat with Pema Chodron and I won!

This was my comment: "The Places That Scare You and the work I did with it prepared me for reporting the sexual abuse I survived as a child. I'm waiting for it to go to trial right now, this couldn't happen at a better time!"

But I don't feel blessed because I won, I feel blessed with the compassion, generosity and good will extended by so many other Soulemama readers who said in their entry comments 'If I win, please give it to mudmama."

Thank you Amanda, Shambhala, Pema and all of the wonderful women and men who visit Soulemama!

NAMASTE!

Sprout turned THREE!!!!!!

2010-10-03T15:20:00.000-03:00

He got a big red barn (look it needs to be mucked out) from Papa Pan and me and some animals from the kids. We're on the look out for a realistic tractor still. When you're a dedicated recycler/thrifter spending 50.00 on a new toy tractor is ridiculous. All told these cost us 22.00.

It was COLD last night, thank goodness for groggliy finding the duvets and the warmth of a brother and a puppy!

That puppy sure loves his boys.

The Bathroom Reno Stage One

2010-10-03T11:32:00.002-03:00

Oh my, the camera is misbehaving, I can only unload a few pictures before I get a message that the USB device is unrecognizable, so if you can troubleshoot for me send me a message. But here is what I was able to get - the pumpkin tub! A tiny glimpse of the new floor (we replaced all the boards with rot) and it is painted a moss green. The walls are a creamy earthy yellow.

To follow I'll post more pics of the fixtures and the little cupboard we put in here to hold a days worth of towels etc...still to do in the immediate future - put up the shower surround and sew a shower curtain. Put up vintage hooks to hold towels and find a toilet paper caddy we like.

Until then, this is the view from the toilet. Best morning view in the world, makes me want to get up and pee!

The Bathroom Before

2010-09-29T22:31:00.001-03:00

Not sure this captures just how horrific the toilet was. The floor made ominous creaking sounds and shifted under your weight as it prepared to fall through into the pantry.

The Sink had a smell and that's what it looked like after being scrubbed within an inch of its life.

The tub leaked so bad it was pouring water down into the mudroom.

Our new Kitchen Island

2010-09-28T22:52:00.000-03:00

A vintage dressmaker's work table with brass capped feet. I found it in the garbage. The drawers were still full of post war goodies like silk stocking darning kits and old wooden spools of thread and pins and needles and dressmaker's chalk, and stays for silk stocking garters.

The inspiration for the bathroom

2010-09-21T00:07:00.001-03:00

Pumpkin orange, is such a lovely unexpected colour in the house. I'd like to be able to say I was inspired by the plentiful pumpkin patches around us here in the Annapolis Valley. But my inspiration to use pumpkin orange in the bathroom came from Howard Dill's giant pumpkins...and an annual tradition here in his hometown of Windsor Nova Scotia, The Pumpkin Boat Regatta.

I mean really, what else can you do with a thousand pound pumpkin?

Are you scared or intriqued? I'll unveil it tomorrow....

The Sprout is developing his own style...

2010-09-19T11:16:00.000-03:00

He wears this hat, those glasses, a pair of tiny workboots Auntie Zoom gave us years ago for Wild Thing, and carries around a battered (but tuned) ukelele everywhere. He is into Marilyn Manson, Beck, Woody Guthrie and Edie Brickell. He doesn't care for the Shuffle Demons. Dogs worship him.

Eventually we'll be getting farm livestock...

2010-09-19T11:08:00.001-03:00

But Duckie and Darkmirror decided that what this house really needed was a snake. Meet Lily Nofeet! She's a corn snake. She's about half grown - 2 feet long right now. We all think she's pretty nice.

The Pantry: Before and After - Stage One

2010-09-18T20:34:00.000-03:00

The inspiration for the red paint I chose for the kitchen/pantry

2010-09-18T10:33:00.000-03:00

The sweet spot on my kneading counter

2010-09-18T10:27:00.000-03:00

My favorite room in the house

2010-09-18T09:45:00.002-03:00

Amidst all the clutter and chaos and DIRT that is a house undergoing renovations inside and out there is one room I can go into and feel that all is right with our house and home. My pantry.

I still have things to do in here, a new ceiling, a new floor, a new light fixture, butcherblock countertops - touch ups and tweaking. But as far as function goes, it all works and works well. I absolutely love this room.

My favorite things about it remain the same things that caught my attention and my heart when we first met the house. That lower counter under the window that catches the morning light and the spot that is worn down on it from 4 generations of Gertridge's kneading their bread dough. But now, that's my morning ritual.

Things I saw as cosmetic "problems" have proven to be very smart inexpensive tricks to make this a comfortable house. The pipes that carry hot water up to the bathroom's radiator heat this room. I only keep my day to day pantry needs in here, I have a cold cellar pantry in the basement for storage. But this room is so warm it is perfect for bread rising and yogurt and sauerkraut fermenting.

I admit I jealously guard this space. I've set it up so the kids have no reason to enter far inside. This is their morning station. I placed it right by the door!

Healing Up...

2010-09-15T11:48:00.001-03:00

I was infected with a strep cellulitis infection a week or so ago. It's healing fine and I should only have a dime sized scar as a reminder, but it made even holding a pen difficult. Doing the dishes would totally fatique me and leave my arm alternately feeling like a dead weight, or with pins and needles running up and down my arm.

Its been frustrating and fascinating in equal measures. I've found the healing process a really interesting lesson on soft tissue anatomy.

It forced me to really take a break but now I'm ready to get back to work on the house. And canning for winter, which has been sadly neglected this year. While I was out of commission Papa Pan got our slab pickets up on the fence around the house, and they're waiting for my artistic vision. Darkmirror hates the fence. He doesn't have my vision, he thinks we look like we're in a fortress now. I need to take more before during and after pictures.

I'm also going to try and update here more frequently, though I might move into the Wild Culture Farm blog space.

I invented a great healthy kid pleasing good hot or cold dish!

2010-09-11T09:36:00.000-03:00

We're having a hard time adjusting to the new school year here and I've been finding myself racing about at the last minute for healthy non packaged lunch box fillers and then again for quick dinner ideas everyone will like.

When in doubt don't cook! I've been throwing things in the food processor and serving them cold as dips or on top of pasta or potatoes.

Here is the most successful one yet:

Equal parts tomatoes and green beans - basically enough to loosely fill the bowl of the food processor

2 cloves garlic

a little drizzle of olive oil - just enough to lubricate the beans

Pulse til it's all blended and a spreadable consistency

Then add a chunk of feta - about a 2 inch cube.

Pulse again til creamy.

I sent it as a dip for veggies and toast triangles at lunch.

Then we had it over penne for dinner.

So easy!

I'm going to put up roasted tomatoes in the freezer and in the winter they'd work as well. It would be great with some black olives added too, but for picky kids this very simple version works even though it is blended.

The Obligatory First Day of School Pictures

2010-09-07T17:30:00.000-03:00

Don't they just look thrilled?

The Sprout Sleeps....

2010-09-07T17:22:00.001-03:00

Sprout will turn three in just a few short weeks. He is funny, saucy, in command of dogs and cats, sweet, cute, a rough and tumble tagalong littlest sibling, and innocently naughty as all get out.

Teamed up with Little Bear, our food obsessed lab puppy, is like having twins. I have so much admiration for my friend the Tinwyfe who has twin boys! The two of them can wreak havoc in the blink of an eye. He knows how to let the puppy out of his crate too.

Today was running from one Sprout mess to another. The dog biscuit tin is empty, we're out of milk, and there are potato chips in the sugar bowl. I've done an extra load of laundry and mopped up more water than hurricane Earl dumped on us.

So I'm appreciating this nap. And this wild child. Just the way he is.

Freshly Laundered and Line Dried Hippies!

2010-09-07T17:14:00.000-03:00

Why I'm the crazy hippie mom who doesn't give her kids "real" toys

2010-09-06T11:16:00.000-03:00

This week I was called "a dirty hippie" disparagingly and "happy hippie" with much admiration.

My kids get dirty playing outside. Its true. Most of their clothes are stained with the good red earth that we have here. They spill out of the house often before breakfast and have to be herded like sheep back into the house. Particularly in bad weather. They love rain and wind and anything that makes a good muddy slop in the farmyard to play in. So I take the dirty hippie comment as a compliment.

The other shocker is that they have relatively few toys, atleast toys most families recognize.

But I do provide plenty of materials for making their own toys....see what kids do when they don't have action figures...

They spent all day yesterday making these and playing with them. The peg rail Wild Thing is holding? That's a clone ship. The other is an elaborate play scape modeled after the scene in Star Wars where Jabba the Hutt goes out to the desert to feed people to the monster in the pit.

Ummm....they apparently spent a lot of time watching Star Wars while in Ottawa!

From where I sit..

2010-08-18T09:01:00.000-03:00

The paint on the bathroom floor needs a few days drying time before we can continue with it. Last night I stood by the barn under a ladder. A hose attached to the kitchen sink brought warm water to a much needed shower. I watched the evening's bonfire dying down as I washed four colours of paint from my hair.

So now I'm looking at a lull. I think its time to do the simplest project in the house - painting the diningroom.

These pictures are deceptive, the walls are actually a pale mint green, but my camera managed some trick of capturing the green I imagine on the walls. Magic!

Happy signs of a houseful of kids...

2010-08-13T20:26:00.000-03:00

Sprout is so happy to have his big brother home to play with him...

The borrowers are back to their old tricks making flamboyant demands in itty bitty notes.

Wild Thing is back to writing fantabulous "music" for the piano.

The chaos of renovations is forgotten each morning as I watch my boys return to their morning ritual of drawing quietly after breakfast.

My house is so much more peaceful when it is full.

Introducing the newest member of our family - LITTLE BEAR!

2010-08-12T13:02:00.000-03:00

Wild Thing wanted a puppy. A boy puppy like him. A dog who would fetch. Little Bear is a retriever/springer x and looks like a miniature flat coated retriever. We got him at the SPCA. We can't imagine why a sweet pup like this would ever end up in a shelter!

He's super curious.

He's full of puppy goofy energy.

And we're pretty sure he's going to be a very handsome boy when he grows up, just like Wild Thing.

Okay removed the blue polarizing filter from my camera

2010-07-29T02:06:00.000-03:00

and finally captured the colour!

I think this captures the colour better and Sprout is cute too!

2010-07-28T10:28:00.000-03:00

Master Bedroom Before and After

2010-07-28T09:56:00.002-03:00

We still need to refinish the floors and do some gentle stripping of the woodwork. I'll be putting a stained glass "screen" in the little square window, and we have half shutters for the window.

I can't really capture how yellow the green is, when I started putting it over the blue it looked orange!

busy weekend ahead

2010-07-24T11:28:00.000-03:00

Duckie is off to Ottawa on the train...should be getting into Ottawa in under 2 hours!

For Darkmirror - power lines in Halifax...is there any other province that fills it's downtown core with aboveground wires???

Sprout is helping Papapan unload the slab we're using for fencing. He is serious about helping!

2 year olds have the most incredible work ethic!

RENO UPDATES

2010-07-22T13:05:00.001-03:00

We're stalled on working on the Attic because we're waiting for the electrician to do their job.

So we've turned to the bathrooms. We're replacing toilets and floors and sinks and thinking of ways to spruce them up.

We needed a plunger.

Papa Pan decided he'd break away from his usual search for the most utilitarian thing he can find and went for "decorative"

Duckie and I had the exact same reaction. Stunned silence, then "OMG! YOU HAVE TO TAKE THAT BACK!!!!"

From now on Papa Pan will stick with utilitarian plumbing devices.

We took Duckie on an adventure

2010-07-22T12:55:00.000-03:00

She'd never been along the south shore so after a trip to Halifax we drove south along the eastern shore home. There was an unexpected disaster along the way though. We unthinkingly gave Sprout some dark chocolate. It was a coating on an icecream bar. Sprout is allergic to real chocolate. First he becomes hilarious. Then demonic, then pitiful and whiny, then he passes out and sleeps fitfully.

Demonic spitting at everyone

Demonic shreiking that makes your ears ring.

But as usual the bright houses along the coast made us smile.

I particularly like this one.

It was a 5 hour detour, but it was well worth it! Duckie loved it!

Introducing our new reading chair!

2010-07-22T12:47:00.000-03:00

We picked up this LITTLE rocker at Red Barn Antiques in Port Williams for 20.00.

It is sized just right for all the kids to cuddle into and read, Sprout shows you how.

Room for one mama, one Nature Girl or two little boys. It's comfy.

Sprout loves it! You will too Wild Thing and Nature Girl!

Sprout and his "Gitar"

2010-07-22T12:41:00.000-03:00

Sprout loves watching music videos that show people playing their guitars.

He runs and gets his ukelele as soon as they start

He watches their technique and tries it out himself

He's very focussed about it all.

days are slipping by...

2010-07-22T12:36:00.000-03:00

Everyone here loves strawberry season (and we don't have to leave home in search of blackberries anymore!)

Duckie took this picture of the Sprout. I love it. It captures the mischief behind those big blue eyes.

We found the farm where we'll be getting out chickens from next spring. Day old chicks - Chanticlers.

The climbing roses from inside the kitchen.

HEAT WAVE!

2010-07-10T16:17:00.000-03:00

Sprout in his favorite outfit.

The climbing roses LOVE the heat and humidity

Little bouquets of sweet william are springing up everywhere like weeds!

The air is so heavy the whole house smells like the honeysuckle that climbs on either side of the kitchen door. The drone of big fat gentle bumble bees is joined by the whir of hummingbirds from dawn til dark.

Our bedtime ritual has been a qick run to Lumsden Dam to cool off before putting Sprout to bed. Duckie has been joining us too. It really helps to go for a swim before bed.

I found the cord for the cameras!

2010-07-04T11:25:00.000-03:00

Right before the move Mica got really nervous and we spent a lot of time giving her extra loves...

She and Duckie loving on each other...

Sprout wearing his yard sale monster head. They gave it to him for free...

Sprout displaying the bizarre logic only toddlers possess. He can magically talk to Wild Thing through this mirror! I don't totally get the connection he's made, but when he misses Wild Thing, Darkmirror or Nature Girl he picks up this mirror and chats to them. I think it's like the Twig thinking Darkmirror never leaves his room.

More from the yard

2010-06-16T10:22:00.000-03:00

Lilacs and lupins...

Mock Orange that smells like jasmine...

Rushing windy field

Some of the dozen rose bushes on the property...

2010-06-16T10:18:00.000-03:00

Climbing roses, I wonder what colour they'll be?

Spicy smelling dark pink roses...

Lovely...

Wild Thing - Riding the fence rails

2010-06-16T10:13:00.000-03:00

Bathroom BEFORE

2010-06-16T10:10:00.000-03:00

Peek through the door at the PROMISE this room has!

Clawfoot tub that takes 30 minutes to fill (we need a stronger water pump).

This sink'll be replaced with a 100.00 Bargain Harry edwardian styled pedastal sink we got...

And this toilet is being replaced with a toilet that matches the sink...before it falls through the floor into the kitchen below.

This room needs a lot of work but I took a bath there a couple of days ago. I was skeeved out by the rotting floor under the toilet and the sink. I wasn't feeling well and suddenly had that "transition - no going back but I really don't want this house today" moment. I sank into the water - absolutely unscented by chemical - deep well water, closed my eyes, felt the breeze on my shoulders, listened to the red wing blackbirds in the field behind me, and rested against that warm sloped back of the tubn and thought THIS IS NOW MY FAVORITE ROOM IN THE HOUSE.

It'll be fabulous.

The Kitchen - Before!

2010-06-16T09:58:00.000-03:00

Big south facing window, smaller west facing window.

Sink and stove and door to side porch. The area back behind the sink wall is a 1/2 bath, laundry/mudroom area.

DOORS! From left to right - front entry hall, basement, diningroom, pantry.

Wood cookstove and door to livingroom.

We're switching the fridge and stove placement, and putting in a dishwasher and an enamelled farmhouse sink. The piece of furniture sitting in the middle of the room was a 1930's kitchen cabinet (douglas fir just like all the trim in the house!). It's too low by today's standards so we're going to set it on a base to raise it and replace the top with a piece of butcherblock. Papa Pan found it for me at a yard sale for 40.00.

Actually EVERYTHING in this room is yard sale finds. The old school desk was 10.00, the vintage table under the window was 30.00, the island, the farmhouse sink, our chairs for in here...we'll be using salvaged wood for the cabinets we plan to build too. The big expense will be the cookstove. It isn't CSA approved and we need to replace it. It's a secondary heat source and we're unwilling to lose the cookstove feature (hello power outages in Nova Scotia are an every season occurance - yesterday it was high winds!). Hard to find CSA approved secondhand ones.

I found a picture of our house in the Ontario archives!

2010-06-13T19:06:00.001-03:00

“we toiled up a long and winding road with pleasant houses and farms on either hand, and at last reached the bank. The view which burst all at once on us was, I think (the) finest in my experiences of rural landscapes…the scene was so bewitching that we all burst into rapturous expressions which us men are rarely given to indulge. We lay and gazed for several minutes and then we did the inevitable, we each took a picture of it.”

1907 - August 15th

2010 June 11th

I wonder if you can spot us? If it helps any there is a two storey barn right behind the house and across the road is a long low white house and a very large dark barn, behind our house and across the road are orchards.

Surveying where they'll make their path...

2010-06-13T18:48:00.000-03:00

The field behind the house is a wee bit intimidating right now. The grasses (all sorts including buckwheat) come to Wild Thing's shoulder. There are all sorts of surprises out there. There are animal trails, places where the wind has flattened big swaths, giant patches of buttercups and indian paint brush and daisies and red clover that reaches past your knees to compete with the grass.

But if you can make it to the trees there's a a babbling brook with little fish and frogs and turtles.

Tomorrow I'll take before shots of the kitchen and bathroom - the worst things we have to contend with with our renovations/restoration.

Entertaining Little People While We Work

2010-06-05T23:19:00.000-03:00

A rainy day and no big sister to watch that Sprout doesn't wander off down the road meant entertaining the boys inside a near empty house.

We brought lots of drawing stuff and a basket of blocks.

They helped Papa Pan pull staples out of the floors we'd pulled up carpet frpm and helped pound nails down in the sunporch.

They spent most of their time playing Tag and Hide and Seek. Any bets on how long it'll be til someone hides in the flour bin?

Day One of the Clean-up...

2010-06-05T19:17:00.000-03:00

My favorite room in the house is the butler's pantry. Really, I'm in love with the hardworking farm history and the potential it has. There's the coolest flour bin in a barrel that pivots out on an iron thingamajig with a vented tin lid in one ccupboard. The room is pretty grimy right now and it's looking pretty ugly right now too. Its was wallpapered 15 years ago with mac tac. On removal I found that on the shelves the mac tac was papered over fresh latex paint over old oil paint! The ceiling is pressed board paper tiles. Icky...

Honey? I think we need a bigger cat!

The house was built when indoor plumbing was an after market consideration.

After discovering the latex sludge mess under the Mac Tac I decided new shelves might be a good investment.

Tomorrow I CLEAN, Today I got down all the Mac Tac.

Upstairs and outside...

2010-06-04T20:26:00.000-03:00

Our bedroom...

The scary orange room (you had to see what a shrine this was to 80's hair bands before) will be a studio after the kid's attic is done.

Sunporch...

Wild Culture kids racing to the graveyard

Inside our new house!

2010-06-04T20:16:00.000-03:00

Main Floor Foyer...

Upper Foyer...

Diningroom...

Livingroom...

Lots more to come. The best surprise was when we pulled out all the sheet flooring and carpets upstairs we found bare pristine wide plank pine floors. Those that are painted look pretty easy to strip. Downstairs, we're not quite sure because the flooring choices are strange - painted tentest in the livingroom, vinyl sticky squares over chipboard in the diningroom. But, we have high hopes!

So Close, Yet So Far!

2010-06-03T20:17:00.001-03:00

I was looking forward to showing you round our new house as today was closing day, but our mortgage company is in Toronto and our banks close an hour before theirss do...so the final stuff on the sellers end will not happen til tomorrow morning. BOOOO!!!!

Instead, here are the doors into our new house!

The side door into the mudroom/kitchen...

The front door that's inside the sunporch...

The side door into the sunporch....

Tomorrow I'll welcome you INSIDE!

Nature Girl's 10th birthday!

2010-06-03T15:50:00.000-03:00

We'd planned on a picnic but the weather did not cooperate so we moved inside and had a tea party instead

No one minded - see that window behind Nature Girl - that's 3 hours BEFORE sunset, inside was most definitely nicer!

We didn't need to hire a clown, we have Darkmirror instead.

Nature Girl asked for an old fashioned dollhouse that she could paint and renovate just like our new house. The funny thing was I found this at an antique shop a week before she asked, and on the way home from Red Barn Antiques we realized with all the crazy packing going on there was nowhere to hide it at home, so it's been in a friend's basement for a month.

Mudmama knows all.

HAPPY 10th BIRTHDAY my beautiful spirited wild Nature Girl! I am so blessed to be your mommy.

Have I ever mentioned how much I love Kijiji?

2010-05-21T20:20:00.002-03:00

It's where I go for appliances furniture what have you.

I have been watching daily for CSA approved wood cook-stoves and classic BROWN leather sofas and club chairs (those new squishy ones with big folded over arms look like a pile of intestines to me).

Every once in awhile I search for vintage stuff too.

For Mother's Day Papa Pan got me EXACTLY THE SAME victorian men's dresser with tall mirror that my dad had when I was little. It has a small cupboard on the right hand side and my imaginary friend lived in there. I'll post pictures of it once we move (we haven't reassembled it since bringing it home)

For years I've been looking for a green velvet sofa. A settee. One with pretty legs and curved arms - something Duncan Phyfe like.

Look what we found!

75.00

Just life...

2010-05-18T19:26:00.002-03:00

Beautiful sunny day.

Laundry load after laundry load on the line.

Kids playing outside with wildflowers

Climbing trees

Running and laughing.

Picnic in the grass.

Swinging up to the clouds and belly racing down the slide.

Digging in the red red earth.

Inside the house is a mess of boxes and half packed bins and piles to donate and piles to mend (I tend to forget about it!)half the curtains are down. the toys are no where to be found. Without cleaning the corners fill with dust bunnies and pennies and used up pens.

But life isn't inside this house we're moving from, it's out there in the sun, the wind the rain and snow.

The neighbours said she was sad to see us go, I have such nice polite children and it makes them so happy to see them playing outside all the time because so few children do anymore.

I'm so excited to see what they think of the stream at the back of our property.

We found our farmhouse sink today!

2010-05-01T17:24:00.000-03:00

We also got a whole bunch of shutters for free (they're for the attic).

This sink is designed to have a cover - a cutting board/chopping block cover. I'm stoked, given our complete lack of countertops. It's a 1938 universal utility sink. It cost us 100.00 and came with the legs and all the original hardware.

More spring kids...

2010-05-01T17:19:00.000-03:00

Sprout loves all the flowers but especially these ones.

Wild Thing right before he decided if he was going worm hunting a coat would be a good idea.

Nature Girl and her wild carrot root pig snouted medieval damsel Christina. When they say homeschoolers are wierd, this might be why. Christina isn't just any wild carrot pig snouted damsel, Christina is an actual historical figure who fought back against the Church and her family to stay chaste and take vows in an Abbey (a sordid tale where she was promised to a Bishop as a mistress and the Bishop got her parents permission for this by arranging a marriage to a Duke. Christina would have none of it and actually hung from nails in the walls of her chamber to keep the Duke from bedding her. Nature Girl will recount this while she combs her root's hair.

Sprout is developing his own fashion sense, modelled after his greatest idol - Wild Thing.

How we'll be spending our summer

2010-04-29T08:36:00.000-03:00

This is our new attic. It's huge. It's becoming the kid's domain.

We'll be insulating and replacing windows and putting in outlets and putting up beaded board and building in bedstees...

The third wing of the attic is an odd very steeply pitched space. But beyond the chimney is a room with a big window. It'll be their fort space.

This is our inspiration shot - our version will be lower (one tier of drawers not two) and more rustic looking (we're doing white stained beaded board walls not painted drywall. I have dreams we can get the floor in shape but realistically, it'll likely end up painted. Between the built in beds we'll be putting closets and Nature Girl will be getting a wall and doorway between her space and the boys. She hasn't really requested it but I think she'll need more privacy soon. They love the portholes but I convinced them that round mirrors will be nearly as cool, and offer more privacy and room for the little closet buffer spaces.

Wild Thing loves red and really wanted a red bedroom. A red attic...hmmmm...horror movies come to mind. When we do the fort space we'll paint the wall of it red. The doorway will be to the side because of the chimney, but you get the idea.

I'm so excited about designing and decorating our space as a FAMILY space, absolutely FULL of our personalities. I'm planning on a huge framed tackboard in the diningroom where I can have a rotating gallery of the kids art work up all the time.

I'm hoping that in addition to the attic renovation and the fence post putting in that we can get a lot of painting done while the kids are in Ottawa. At the very least the kitchen bathroom and diningroom - the rooms that get constant use in a 6 person household. Cause if I don't get to them when there are fewer people in the house I won't be able to!

Here's our new house...

2010-04-28T20:01:00.000-03:00

We have big plans for it!

Returning to blogging from the land of the unbloggable

2010-04-28T10:24:00.003-03:00

Obviously, I haven't been blogging.

I've always tried to blog about the joyous things in our lives, as a record of our lives, for my kids and far flung family. In the past year I've been wrestling with a lot of unbloggable dark stuff from my childhood and once I decided to confront it, blogging about the simple joys felt too much like a cover.

So I needed to step away.

I'm ready to move on and get back to blogging.

The big news is that we're moving! We've bought a farmhouse with a barn on a half acre with a further 2.5 acres we can use for grazing our livestock. We move end of June! I've set up a blog for it, and we'll move our blog at the same time.

The kids are all very excited, even Darkmirror who dislikes change - he gets a beautiful view of the Gaspereau Ridge and the winery's fields of grapes from his bedroom window.

In the meantime here are a few pictures from my last download from the camera

Wild Thing and Darkmirror cook dinner together once a week (or so...we're working on regularity!). They make "This is why you're fat" big manly bad for you meals - like these insane nachos.

wild Thing, Nature Girl and sprout have given up civilization at bedtime and are sleeping in a gypsy camp they've made in the basement. They're all itching to go camping again!

Wild Thing and his first sandy wet toes of the season. The day I took this he arrived at the beach in a down filled coat and winter boots. The water was about 3 degrees? He had an AWESOME time.

It's good to be back.

Statistics

2010-02-04T20:30:00.002-04:00

General Sexual Assault Statistics

51% of all Canadian women have experienced at least one incident of sexual or physical violence. Close to 60% of these women have survived more than one incident of violence. (Statistics Canada, 1993)

6 out of 10 victims who reported being sexually assaulted were under 17. (Statistics Canada, 2005)

In 2000, women made up the vast majority of victims of sexual assault (86%) and other types of sexual offences (78%). (Statistics Canada, 2001)

80% of sexual assaults occur at home (Sexual Assault Care Centre, Women's Care Centre, Sunnybrook & Womens, 1999, Myths and Facts About Sexual Assault,
http://www.womenshealth matters.ca/facts/quick_show_d.cfm?number=65)

54% of girls under the age of 16 have experienced some form of unwanted sexual attention. 24% of these have experienced sexual assault, and 17% have experienced incest. (J. Holmes and E. Silverman, 1992, We're Here, Listen to Us: A Survey of Young Women in Canada)

In cases reported to police, 80% of sexual assault survivors knew their abusers. About 10% were assaulted by a friend and 41% were assaulted by an acquaintance. 28% were assaulted by a family member, while the remaining 20% were assaulted by a stranger. (Statistics Canada, 2003)

However

Victimization surveys show that less than 10% of women who are sexually assaulted report the assault to the police. (Federal/Provincial/Territorial Ministers Responsible for the Status of Women, 2002, Assessing Violence Against Women: A Statistical Profile, p.19)

This number is even lower (estimated to be 6%) for victims of childhood sexual abuse.

It is estimated that over 80% of women who are sexually assaulted do not report due to humiliation or fear of re-victimization in the legal process. (Ontario Women's Directorate, 2002, Sexual Assault: Reporting Issues,
http://www.gov.on.ca/citizenship/owd/english/ publications/sexual-assault/reporting.htm)

There is no statute of limitations on child abuse in Canada, Great Britian, or Australia.

If you make the decision that you are ready to report you should know that charges are only laid in roughly 40% of cases.

We're back, and it's lobster season!

2010-01-17T11:13:00.000-04:00