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.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

4.18.09

The day began beautifully. Quiet, peaceful, kind of soft like an old, well loved stuffed toy. It's good to be home.

Ruby and Matilda are doing very well. Ruby is the more afraid but Matilda helps her and comforts her. They both come willingly for raisins :)

Juniper is doing fine but does thump at the goats if they linger in front of her hutch. She hasn't been out all week and I'm sure she needs a good hopping. She'll get out again soon and for now she's pretty happy with fresh romaine from the garden and hickory sticks from the yard to chew on.

It's supposed to rain today and it does smell of it in the air. I hope it does, we need it. It's been in the 60's and low 70's all week. Ozark Mountain Paradise. There are buds on the Lilac (it blooms later than any around) buds on the Crepe myrtle, buds starting on the Iris's. The daylilies are growing taller and more lush. Soon there will be daylily waffles and pancakes and fritters :)

Our neighbor was cleaning out one of his flower beds yesterday and gave us a hundreds more daylilies. They're in buckets and tubs for a few days until I can get them planted along the slope. How wonderful !

I'm baking bread and soaking beans for the week. Today we'll have breakfast quiche and I'll make a couple more to freeze. I'll get a cobbler and maybe a pie baked as well.

On the goat journey we saw some very unusual crow activity. In every state, along the highways there would be 1 or 2 crows here and there, Sometimes walking a round but often just standing beside the road watching us. I noticed them right away because I love crow folk but it didn't start seeming extra-ordinary until we saw them again for the 6th or 7th time. There was never any carrion for them that we saw, no food or anything that might have lured them there. In the whole two days of journey i would easily estimate that we saw them over 20 times. And this doesn't include the crows we saw flying or perched a wire or post. Only the 1 or 2 crows standing at the edge of the highway watching us. Were they the same 1 or 2 crows each time ? Or were there 40 or so different crows doing exactly the same thing every so many miles ? I do not know. which ever it was, maybe they were charged with seeing us there and back safely. If so, they did a fine job :)

2 comments:

linda said...

I just saw your comment about vinegar on the Frugal Green Co-Op site. I love your blog! Do you use daylilies for food or healing? Where I live, we have tons of them growing everywhere (streets and alleys, abandoned land, etc). I know that some parts are edible but don't know how to prepare them and haven't tasted them yet.

OneOldGoat said...

Juli - I just love your blog! I had a goat journey last year from mid PA to Wisconsin. It was a riot! My brother went with me (we're both in our 40s) and it was really nice to have that time with him.
Thanks for writign!
Beth
http://oneoldgoat.blogspot.com/