Busy Hands Homestead

The sunshine last until late in the evening and greats us early in the morning.  We have been digging in the garden, running through the sprinkler, chasing our adolescent chickens and before I know it, the kids are up too late again and when I wake them up they are grumpy.  On morning like these I have a favorite breakfast recipe: puff pancakes .  I drag myself down the stairs, preheat the oven, melt the butter, mix the batter, and while the pancakes bake I wrestles kids out of pajamas, into clothes and comb sleep tangles out of hair.  When the timer beeps we have perfectly puffy pancakes.  The more often I have made these the more I have explored possible puff pancake combinations and the options are endless.  Here are my favorites: 1. Thin slices of  Apples and Brie added to the butter while the oven preheats.  The results are less puffy, but delicious with a drizzle of maple syrup.   2. A cu...

100% rain in the forecast. I waver.  Should we?  Shouldn't we? And then I decide. We should. We definitely should use Ivory's school free day to drive across the border into Idaho and hike to the Jerry Johnson hot springs. I chop carrots, apples, cheese and pack up crackers, hard boiled eggs and almond butter. I wrestle sleepy kiddos out of pajamas and into clothes. I cram the dogs into the tiny hatch back space in the back of the car. We are on week four of this year's field season.  Adam leaves early in the morning on Monday and often doesn't return until Friday night.  The weekends are taken by catching up on garden chores, laundry, dishes and packing him up again for the next week.  He has been working hard outside all week and I have been running a household.  Our needs clash.  I want out and he wants a chance to sit down. This isn't just about my need to walk under the trees, to get out of town and ignore my never ending to do list. ...

I have been pulling the green garden cart back and forth, back and forth, piled high with wood chips, loaded with rocks, and almost empty with just my helper in tow.  The raised bed is being dismantled and more garden beds dug.  The weekends are spent digging. The rocks pile up.  On weekdays I pull the cart back and forth, back and forth. The dump truck load of wood chips is shrinking one wagon load at a time. Covering spaces were grass was and hopefully will not be for a little while. I feel guilty for sending Ivory to school to sit inside when there is so much sun outside. Strong stems of rhubarb are standing along the front fence.  It seems that is was just yesterday that the first red and green hints of spring pushed through the soil and last years maple leaves.  It is spring, undeniably spring.   The mystery fruit tree, apricot we think, is blooming for the very first time, and we are present to witness.  ...