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, September 13, 2014

9.13.14 Most Excellent

The day is gorgeous!!!!   Cool and calm, a perfect day for dreaming of the future, getting things done and simply breathing.

It’s been a wash day for me, washing curtains, rugs, bed and loveseat covers ….  It’s to rain a few days this coming week but today and tomorrow are to be very nice. We’re going to load hay tomorrow so today is a big laundry day. I’ve oddly always enjoyed doing laundry. By hand or machine, on the line or even in a dryer. I enjoy the washing, handing, folding … all.

We actually started the day a little wonky in that Anya got her front legs under a top line and over a bottom line of fencing. It took great forethought an effort to get stuck thusly and more so, it took bolt cutters to get her unstuck. One of my greenhouse cattle panels is patching the spot for now.

All of our pekin ducklings were sold before they hatched and are now at their new home. I’m getting ready to start another batch and they’re also already sold.

In my most recent trading I got a little manual ice cream maker with a cylinder that you freeze. I was skeptical at first but now I’m a true ice cream eating believer!  It work wonderfully and our own goats milk ice cream is the best ice cream we’ve ever tasted. I’ve made French vanilla, chocolate, banana and blackberry.

In that same deal I got a lovely huge cotton Fall tablecloth, a set of 8 drinking glasses, a little sturdy warm rug, a set of curtains and a little table runner. It was a fairly unusual deal but well worth it .

And speaking of trades, last year I traded for some rabbit furs. I’ve been planning to make a winter patchwork fur bed cover and still might eventually but I’m getting ready to make a couple pairs of moccasins and if one fur is large enough I’m going to make one pair of fur lined. I’ve not made them in years and no longer have a leather needle (which I might be able to find) but if they do come out well enough I’ll use a pair or two for trading as well. Probably wait and make them custom to fit. I’m limited on leather but have several large pieces that someone dyed red (given to me free), so red moccasins will be it  :)

I’ve finished all the tomatoes and almost all the zucchini and am waiting to find out about shell beans and then hopefully some more tomatoes plus cucumbers and green peppers. We’ll see. We could surely use them.

There may be a deal on trading some propane things I have for sale, for firewood. That would be a great thing! We’ll see on that as well.

I’ll be unpacking some blankets a little later, it’s been that cold at night   :)  They always washed, dried well and stored in cedar chests until needed again. When I unpack them I usually hang them outside for a bit to airout. I love the cedar smell but it can be overwhelming too.

It seems like I just packed the blankets up a couple of months go.


I still need to get the last curtains done, start a batch of walnut salve, start a batch of elderberry cough & throat syrup, rack off another bottle of mead, check the Winter Tonic, sweep the floors, do the dishes, milk the goat …….

There’s a lovely garden spider just outside the window. How very blessed we are.








Within the last 24 hours
11:11  pm
1:11  am
2:22 am
12:12  \  pm

12:12  /  a few minutes apart on two different clocks

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