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 9, 2009

12.9.09

It snowed on and off all morning here, tho none of it stuck to the ground, which was odd because all the animal waters were frozen pretty hard. Odd or not, it was a lovely thing to see. The wind is a bit harsh today, so cold it is that just a few minutes without gloves and my fingers turned red and hurt. I hope everyone everywhere has what they need so that they don't hurt.

We've been working quite a bit getting things ready for harsher weather. Who knows if it will come this winter or wait until next summer to snow 20 inches. The weather has become so odd and this past summer was so cool.

Right now I've got oranges in the dehydrator and cranberries hanging all over the kitchen. It smells quite nice in here :) I have a few pictures to post in a bit.

Speaking of smelling good, altho I cook, dry skillets and keep a tea pot on the wood stove, i also keep a little kettle which is just for hydrating the air. In that kettle (a little copper pot to be exact) I also sometimes add cinnamon or a few cloves or leftover orange rinds, eucalyptus or whatever. medicinal or delightful, it's very useful :)

So much has happened, nothing huge really but then, every little thing is huge if you're alive and happy.

We rebuilt a huge 4'x4'x4' doghouse for Hercules so I don't have to worry about him outgrowing Apollo's small house. Herc is a giant baby. His paws are as big as my feet and I wear a 9 *o* He's so strong too. I've handled some pretty large horses better then I can handle Herc when he's trying to run amuck. Of course as my beloved son points out regularly, I am getting old :)

Speaking of old-er .... I had a most wonderful birthday last week. Nik got me lots of chocolates :) the biggest box of chocolates I ever seen :) They come at a time when I was getting ready to go down another size in jeans :)

And speaking of losing weight .... It's been almost 4 years since I quite smoking. I gained a lot of weight that first year and I don't regret a pound of it, it was truly worth the trade. This year my goal was to lose weight now that i feel comfortable as a non-smoker and not as a smoker who doesn't smoke. So far I'm down almost 3 full sizes. When I fit into the 3rd size down comfortably I will be back down to where i was before I quit smoking.

And finally, time. It's been slipping past on occasion at an alarming rate. For instance, just today I looked at the clock and it was 12:00 exactly. I thought to myself that I had several things still to do before dark and i was glad it was still so early. I looked at the clock again about 30 minutes later and it was 2:59. What the hell ? I've never been a good judge of time, I've always had a strange relationship with it. Slipping in and out and that sort of thing. But I've been teaching myself to be more aware of it's movement at times when I need to be and I've gotten pretty good at it. 3 hours gone in 30 minutes ? I guess I've not gotten as good at it as I thought.

A peaceful, warm, safe night (((((((((((everyone))))))))))))

2 comments:

Linda Foley said...

It's colder here than it has been since the 70's... the low was +3*F last night.

I enjoyed your post this morning Juli. Wood heat has no equal does it? We finally lit our wood stove last night. I may put water with some herbs and cinnamon in the teakettle that always sits on the stove. Thanks for the reminder!

Time for me goes by so fast that to really keep track on it I have to set a timer sometimes. LOL

Stay warm Juli...

Joan@CopperCreeker said...

Happy Belated BirthDay!
Just remember... chocolate has medicinal properties ;0)
good to see you posting again.
J @ WillowSwitch