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, March 4, 2011

Warm Winter Days

Each day more magnificent than the one before. The gracious sun is calling Gaias children to wake from their winter nap. The breeze blows the cobwebs from my mind and my hair into a lion's mane. And the rain, the nourishing rain to feed us all.

Being here come the equinox will be more like Ostara than any spring before. Already I'm finding beauty and wonder everywhere I look, like precious little gifts hidden by a loving Mother for her children to find.




To my great joy I believe all the fruit has survived. The apple trees seem to be healthy and full of wick. The blueberry looks to have little new buds. The strawberries are few but green and full of life. The raspberry too looks to have wick and won't be alone anymore because there seems to be quite a few other berry canes all over the property :) :) :)

A small bummer. When we got ready to make sure the tiller was in good working order the pull string broke, again. We just replaced it last spring. At least it's a small thing :)

I'm going to see if I can find someone with a small tractor to till the whole garden area the first time. I'm sure there were gardens here over the last 75 years but there hasn't been one anywhere i can find for a very long time. I seriously think that the area I want to turn into gardens is close to the size of the whole property at the last place :) :)

I've had a new and very good discovery about my homemade laundry powder. I've been making my own for years and it sells very well at the farmers markets. The basic common recipe that you can find anywhere except I use my own cold press bars or Ivory only. And, I add baking soda which acts as a deodorizer and water softener.

I recently got ready to make another batch but discovered that I am very low on bar soap here and want to save what's left for body washing until I can get more made. So, I made up some laundry powder using equal parts of just the borax, washing soda and baking soda. I've been using for a few weeks now and it works wonderfully. I don't think I'll go back to adding the bar soap, tho I might still for what I sell. I've washed some pretty grungy things in this version and all have come out very clean. It even got all the blood off my coat and gloves from the dog attack.

This new, simpler version is less expensive and much easier to make because I don't have to dry and grind the bar soap.

Yesterday I got the last of the laundry done and out, it's supposed to rain today and maybe tomorrow. We also got the chick house moved where i wanted it and almost ready for the coming Buff chicks. The chicks should be here in about 2 more weeks. 15 little Buff Orpington pullets. I can't wait :)

Speaking of chickens, ours are doing wonderfully. We're averaging 2 to 3 eggs a day from 5 hens of laying age. That's pretty good considering what they've been through. All the hens, including old Hen, the very old Ameraucana, seem very happy here. Lily, the poor last duck is also happy and will be happier very soon because we're getting her a mate and maybe another hen.

Things to do this afternoon ....

Drive up to the highway and make some phone calls *-* I loathed thing
The dreaded dishes. Which I prefer only to making phone calls.
Make up a batch of homemade deodorant.
Bake a chicken for a neighbor.
Make some homemade vanilla pudding.
Make up some homemade granola for my breakfast.

2 comments:

Mystic Indigo said...

My father was a laundry soap salesman for 30 years and I ran your recipe by him and he said that the Borax and Baking soda would make your clothing fire retardant. He said they used to wash firemen's uniforms this way because of that very reason.

JoyceAnn said...

Hi Julie ~ Your first paragraph is so beautifully written , love the way you describe Mother Earth.

~ Many Blessings ~