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.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

4.23.09


Today it's just under 80 deg at 10:00am. It was about the same yesterday as well. A bit warm for this early in the year but nice to have just the same.

Yesterday Nik got almost all of the last tilling finished but the cord on the tiller broke when he had to stop it for a rock. We've had the tiller for several years and never a bit of trouble for it. I believe we traded a mattress for it about 6 years ago.

I got the goat house cleaned and a new hay rack made. The goats are doing wonderfully but still seem surprisingly afraid of humans. They're getting better every day but not as quickly as I expected. They're beautiful and so curious about everything.

Kitten season has begun and it hasn't started well. 4 kitten deaths already. I know some people would consider that a blessing since they're all feral cats but it doesn't feel that way to me. A respected part of nature, but not a blessing.

A very good thing this year tho is that one of our neighbors is going to help us find them home by taking them to a farmers market every once in a while. This is a most excellent thing and I think they'll find wonderful homes much quicker this way ! And of course everyone one of the humans will be blessed with good Cat Karma :)

A few days ago the Crow truck started making a horrible squeaking sound which everyone thought was the belt but after replacing it the squeaking is still there. So we're temporarily without any transport. We have everything we need but I am bummed because I was supposed to trade duck eggs for plants this week and one of the plants is Mugwort which I've been wanting for some time now. It makes an excellent ointment and secret other things but I've never tried growing it. Hopefully the Crow truck will be fixed soon.

Last duck egg trade I got Periwinkle, Bell Flower, Missouri Columbine and Autumn Joy Sedum. If we're able to continue trading I'm hoping for more medicinals and edibles. She just gives me whatever is available at the time. It's an excellent thing tho to be trading duck eggs to a master gardener :)

The other day i made two batches of garlic oil, one for ears and one for eating. The eating batch is already gone *~* It's such good stuff tho that we have some each day and a few of the neighbors smell it when I make it and always ask for some too :) I need to make it in larger batches I guess.

That same day I was playing cards on the computer and when I returned from checking the garlic oil I noticed that I was winning and the score was 222 2 to 66 6 in spades.

Last week I finally finished some artwork .......


Way Finder



Balance II



I also created some new tea blends, one specifically for pain relief. I've also started selling individual herbs, I'll never have enough to sell very many but there are a few that I can and if I had more room to dry more in fall I could sell a lot more as well. I still have Melissa (Lemon Balm) hanging in the kitchen from last year and i used some just the other day for myself, it smelled as sweet and strong as any I've ever dried :)

We finally got one end of the porch enclosed, the dog side. I used an antique screen door I've had for ages, covered it in fencing and enclosed the area next to it in chicken wire. That's about 1/5 done but it's something :)

Today I'm doing some last laundry to hang out before it rains the next few days. I've switched from lavender water to apple vinegar for the rinse. The vinegar is just easier and tho it doesn't leave a light lavender scent it does leave the laundry smelling fresh and clean.

I was planning to make dog cookies today but wasn't able to make it to the Brewing store for brewers yeast so that has to wait. I may make some homemade pasta instead and I have some strawberries to make some jam with.

Merry Day everyone :)

1 comment:

Unknown said...

i picked mullein leaves out of my grandparent's yard last weekend to make a tea and thought of you. :-D

nice artwork. the first one looks like it's be highly textured to the touch.

wishing you a quick truck recovery!