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.

Friday, October 8, 2010

Wyandottes & Autumn Moons

It has been an eventful day! Almost 90 deg. and very dry. Everything outside is covered in a layer of white dust. It looks like a village of ghosts. To dusty for laundry on the line or to dry herbs. We need a bit of rain.

Having a bit of car trouble again, the Blazer wouldn't start and the battery was dead. Started with a jump tho and ran fine but I didn't turn it off just in case. I'm exchanging the battery in the morning and we'll see what happens.

Tues is court so hopefully we'll have 30 days from then. 30 days to move a homestead doesn't seem long enough tho and I still have to find a place *~*

I do have a good prospect tho, a little 3 room cottage on 1.5 acres. As soon as the guy writes back with directions or a number, (and the blazer is running properly) we're going to look at it. I don't know much about it except that it's definitely in my price range and I can afford the down payment and the monthly payments to buy. The drawbacks are that we would have to haul water in ourselves or have it delivered. And, there's only an outhouse but, things can be worked out as we go and it's certainly roomier than the Blazer. Just that I can afford it and be buying it is a huge thing. We'll see.

Along with that place I heard back on 2 other places I had inquired about. No owner finance on 1 and owned by the finance company on the other.

I really, really need for our cabin to sell.

I was able to do some wheeling and dealing and got us 4, one year old Wyandottes, to replace out 2 snatched Ameraucana hens. These new hens stink terribly and apparently came from a hatchery where they were used for last springs chick production then gotten rid of. Poor things. They're supposed to be Silver Laced Wyandottes but they don't look like silver laced to me. They're pretty tho, and hopefully will be laying well, but we'll feed the eggs for a while until they have a chance to get any toxins out.

I may have found out what the problem is with egg laying this year. When we got Anya last spring I started feeding milk to the chickens. I fed milk to everyone because we had so much. This year has been the worst year for egg laying in all the years I've had chickens. Last week someone told me that birds are lactose intolerant. I don't know if that's what it is but I have stopped giving any milk to the chickens (the ducks are very vexed by this because they're terrible milkaholics) and am researching to see what i can find about it. We're also in molting time now so the mature hens will be going through that but ours are at the end of molting so maybe someone will lay an egg soon!

Everything else is going along just as it should. I'm working on filling one of the largest tea orders I've ever had. Working on making a big batch of laundry powder. Packing of course. Working a little in the garden but not bothering to harvest as much. I do wonder how I'll fit everything into a house even smaller than the Burrow but I will, things always work out.

I've opened Wild Moon Cottage on etsy and already been in two treasuries :) Still working on getting my new website for sale set up. I've also had a little trouble with forwarding on my blog. The old address was supposed to forward to the new one but several people have written asking where my blog is, so it's not working. It will all sort out tho.

We stopped and picked up about 20 fresh green walnuts for tincture but we probably won't gather them like we usually do this time of year. I'm trying to keep things as simple as possible.

I haven't written anything on my memoirs since we got the eviction papers. I will tho, soon :) Hopefully we'll get all this straightened out, we'll get moved and settled in, well before winter weather and I'll have time to sit by a nice fire writing the away through the cold gray days :)

Of course that's after a whole lot of bloody hard work but in the end, I'm sure it will all be worth it.

2 comments:

Kimmie said...

Hi Juli

I am from Australia and LOVE your blog! Want to swap blog buttons?

Hugs

Kimmie
x

Peggy said...

Juli in my heart I just know you are going to have the most happy wonderful adventure ever. Somehow when I think and pray about everything happening with you I feel a sense of peace. Like its really going to work out for the better. Keeping you in my thoughts and prayers. You are such a encouragement to us all!