Wild Moon Cottage is a small working homestead in the pristine Ozark Mountains. We have dairy goats, poultry, organic herb and vegetable gardens, a start of a tiny fruit orchard, several black walnut trees, wild berries and fields of wildcrafting goodness. We raise our own milk, our own eggs, much of our own medicine and food. I do laundry by hand, make my own vinegar, candles, soap, bread, cheese ........ For a living I am an artist and herbalist. My goal for myself and our homestead is to be as self sufficient and self sustaining as possible.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

12.10.08 A Very Cold Morning

According to the thermometer on the porch it's just under 20 deg. Most of the ground is frozen except for the chicken pen which is like a pig wallow. I wore my fancy monster fur coat out to feed (also referred to as faux fur but rather then kill a faux I prefer shaving monsters). I rarely wear the thing because it's so big but when it's that cold I'm so very thankful to have it.

I decided not to let the chickens out of the pen today and will leave their light on all day as well. As cold as it is the ice on all the water was pretty easy to break and not frozen as thick as I expected.

I got two tea orders ready and in the mail and we brought in more kindling and wood for later. The house was still pretty warm from last nights fire but I'm sure we'll have to light another later in the day.

Yesterday we had baked sweet potatoes and roasted turkey breast for supper. This morning I reheated an extra sweet potato I baked yesterday and we each had half, cut crosswise to make it's own bowel, with some butter and cinnamon, and a hot cup'o, it was just the thing to warm us up when we got back in :)

The rest of the days menu is Herbed rice with bacon, green beans and cornbread for lunch. Grilled cheddar sandwiches with leftover rice for supper. Oatmeal cookies and hot tea for dessert.

I've been busy getting some gift boxes and basket ready for a few people. I've decided to stop making several things for selling, jewelry mainly because I'm just a bead stringer anyway. I'll still make my own jewelry and jewelry for gifts but I'll leave to jewelry selling to the jewelry artists and stick mainly to painting and herbals. I need to get it together and start selling through galleries again. I still do but I've been pretty lazy about it this year and only sent a few off. I had also planned to get a calendar ready by Oct. this year but I missed my deadline again, third year in a row. Also WeMoon, I've missed their deadline 4 years in a row *~*

I finished "Into The Forest", an excellent book. One I will keep and read again and again. Even tho it left me craving canning lids and matches.

I'll get back to rewriting my business description, I try to redo everything at least once a year to keep it up to date with where I am. My poor website lay dormant almost this whole year. I really need to get back on it and I think I need to separate it into two websites rather then one divided for art and herbs. Who knows, I always have way more in my head then I can ever seem to get done :)

Merry day everyone !

5 comments:

Peggy said...

Juli you seem to accomplish more than anyone I know and make it seem so natural, easy going while doing it. I just love reading about your day. My webpage needs so much work but I just can't do it. I am just going to take some of my soap money and pay someone to get it running smoothly and keep it up todate. I sure wish we lived close to each other. What energy I could get from you!

BarbCarol said...

I too am leaving the light on in the chicken house these nights. It adds a little warmth and has tricked them into continuing to lay. So far we haven't had too many nights below 20 degrees. That's OK with me. Keep warm!

Granny Sue said...

stay warm, gypsy! We leave out chicken house light on too. Ours are spoiled with an electric base heater under their water (or maybe we're the spoiled ones--no ice to deal with).

a trick i use when it's cold and the sheets are chilly is to heat up a cast iron skillet on the stove and tuck it under the blankets where my cold little feet have to go. When I pull it out and get in bed, it's deliciously warm.

Joan@CopperCreeker said...

Hope all is well with you. Just been catching up reading your blog. As always you're sure a busy bee ; )
I plan on making oatmeal cookies this weekend.
(((Juli)))

Unknown said...

i'm usually not a fan of sweet potatoes (except in pie form), but you make 'em sound so good.

i know what you mean about leaving certain crafts to those who specialize in them. i've had training in crochet, piano playing, metal working, and am a fairly good drawer. at certain points i intended to turn some of those skills into money making endeavors. then i realized that while i could do all of them, sewing and clothing design was the area that i felt most confident in doing for a profit. i'll leave the rest the the pros.

and it's still great to be able to say i can crochet a baby blanket or something if it comes down to it.