I’m continuing onward in my challenge to live a life that is more independent of the huge food infrastructure in our country. This is one of the ways that I’m trying to think globally and act locally. The Independence Days Challenge was made by Sharon over at Causobon’s Book 1. Plant something – I planted more radishes, Hopi gourds, Aztec corn, bachelors buttons, and a Midwest flower mix all together as a polyculture. I was particularly happy with the mulch... Read more

Things are pretty busy recently with friends from out of town visiting, and friends about to move away from town, so we haven’t had a lot of time for the house. Mostly I’ve been focusing on getting the garden planted. I did talk to my friend Sam about making a bunny run under the cedar tree where nothing really grows anyway, and she said it would probably be fine, so I just need to finish cutting out the bottom branches... Read more

I like this one the best thus far, I had a dream with the runes ingwaz and thurisaz featured in it. Ingwaz, on the first page, it commonly is seen as representing fertility or the god Frey. Thurisaz is either thorn or giant, and is connected with the god Thor, the giant killer. In my dream I was with a large group of people in a smoky camp with the smell of rot in the air. We were going to... Read more

I like this one the best thus far, I had a dream with the runes ingwaz and thurisaz featured in it. Ingwaz, on the first page, it commonly is seen as representing fertility or the god Frey. Thurisaz is either thorn or giant, and is connected with the god Thor, the giant killer. In my dream I was with a large group of people in a smoky camp with the smell of rot in the air. We were going to... Read more

Here’s page 2 and 3 of my art journal. I glued 3 pages together and then painted around the words I chose. Then I scratched into the paper and paint to create the connections between the words. I’m still working on the best way to digitize the images. Last time I took a photo, and this time I scanned. Both methods seem to have their flaws, though I like that the words are mostly readable in this image, though it’s... Read more

Once again it’s time for my weekly update on my adventures in food security. It’s a good feeling to know that if the prices of food skyrocketed next week we would be able to live on lentils, beans, rice and wheat for at least a month. It might be a boring diet, but it’s good to know that we have that backup, since food is one of the few things we truly cannot live without. I still have a long... Read more

I’m really geeked about a blog I just found while I was participating in Causabon’s Independance Day’s Challenge. Its a transcription of the writing of a woman named Kate V. Saint Maur who lived and gardened in 1904. She gives advice on how often to cultivate for weeds in a much more exacting manner than most garden novels today. Some of the advice isn’t as useful, such as using lead pipes to spray copper sulfate on apple trees. It’s still... Read more

Okay, here goes Week Two of food independence! 1. Plant something – I planted ostrich ferns that I got from a neighbor. I’m looking forward to seeing if they’re edible next spring. I’ve read that they are, but I’ve never tried it. I also transplanted some parsley I started in my window and planted some radishes and turnips. 2. Harvest something – We have been sprinkling chives and garlic chives on all sorts of things. I added the asparagus from... Read more

I recently started keeping an art journal in an altered book format. I used an old and rather beat up copy of Hans Christian Anderson’s Fairy Tales. The only reason I could stand to damage the book was that it was already kind of beat up, otherwise I would have happily given it a prize place on my bookshelf. So I’ve made myself a challenge, I am going to share one page of my art journal each week. I admit... Read more

I’ve been having a great time experimenting with making stamps out of erasers. It’s so easy and a pack of five erasers only costs a $1.99 at Meijer’s, so I don’t feel like I’m spending too much money. I was inspired by Earth and Living a blog I always enjoy. I’ve also been working with linoleum block prints, but this is so quick and easy I can try things out on the erasers and then spend more time on the... Read more