Tuesday, February 24, 2009

An Impromptu Tea party

(Baby, dressed for the tea)


Last Saturday Grace, Christianna and Faith were suppose to go to a Young Ladies Tea down south somewhere. (anything further than the Palace is "down south" to us) But God had other plans and sent a snow storm, so they stayed home.
Rather then waste all their hard work on the tea goodies, curled hair and pretty dresses finished just for the occasion, they decided to invite the neighbor ladies down for an afternoon tea.

Christianna gets the food ready . . .


Yummy!

Tasty!



The guests arrive, all dressed in their best. So lovely!


Pretty teacups and crystal goblets.


Are you enjoying your tea, ladies?


We are having a lovely time, thank you!



The infamous "green tea!" :-)


We made delightful little bees wax candles after tea. So fragrant!


A bees wax taper. Pretty flowers. Sweet young lady!


This young lady (the pretty one in the green) was a wiz at candle making! She made many beautiful candles and shared them with special people.


Happy friends after the lovely tea.



A group shot of everyone in their finery.


Friday, February 20, 2009

Valentines, Eggs and Seeds

So sorry for being away for so long! Blogger has been troublesome again and I have been away and busy and honestly haven't had many pictures or things to post about but I know that you all are just dying(*dramatically rolls eyes*) to hear and see what has been going on around here so I did my best to scrounge around some pictures(some of which I was not the photographer) and so here you go, with the lovely title of Valentines, eggs and seeds! ~Enjoy =)


We don't normally make any big deal for holidays, especially ones that are so worldly and self centered but we enjoy a good theme now and again to bring a little difference to our lives so on Valentines day Christianna creatively incorporated hearts into our supper meal!


Heart shaped biscuits served with chicken stew, heart shaped jello and heart shaped candies! We talked about cutting the chicken and carrots into hearts but thought that would be a little extreem!


Big Boy, our handsome rooster strutting around the yard.


"The ladies" are doing well and with the little warmer weather we have had have been paying for their keep in a good collection of eggs!

We haven't yet gotten 100% out of the 15 hens but the other day this collection of 13 came in!
We (especially Faith) have been dreaming and drooling over seed catalogs for a while now and finally got our order out last month only to wait in excited anticipation for the arrival of the precious little gifts that Lord willing with spring up, bloom and produce a aboundance of fruit this year! The other day the package finally arrived and to our surprise (it was a new company we ordered from this time) was filled with nearly 100 colorfully designed and labeled packets!


Vegetables and flowers galor! Next up : a basement and porch filled with trays, dirt, spray bottles and florencent lights! Bring it on!!!

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Another Sledding Day

The Blog Mistress is back!!! Phew! Took a while there...Faith was on a role with her gardening and chicken posts and I couldn't get a word in edge wise! =) She has done a great job though, hasn't she?

Well, back to current things....

Here are some pictures from our latest sledding adventure. Yes, we did go back to "Suicide Hill" and lived to tell about it again!
The only injuries to talk about are bruised backsides and maybe a couple sore ribs for Faith who was the only one who really took a serious tumble and got her wind knocked out. =O

Besides that we enjoyed a beautiful day with the hill all to ourselves and the wonderful fellowship with friends.

Enjoy!


Upon arriving at the top and seeing how slick the hill looked no one was to keen on being the first to go down.

The brave one. Go Dewey!!


Mr. Shepherd was very courageous on his little saucer.


Thanks to a party that had been there the night before there were some hot coals left in the fire pit and Mr. Reiche got a nice toasty fire going for us!


Christianna and Nicholette...happy as ever!


Staying clear of the bumpy side of the hill us girls found great enjoyment in running the toboggan down the smoother side. [photo credit to Faith]

Here we come!!!

Yahoo!!! Holding on for dear life, screaming to save our lives and having a blast...here we are flying by Mr. Shepherd with the camera.

There we go!

Dad, Faith and Mr. Reiche plowing down the hill.


I went for a quick walk on the trails again wanting to capture some images of a little stream I noticed last time.
How refreshing and beautiful the whispers of flowing water.

Ride 'em cowgirls! The moms and Nic bringing the toboggan down one last time.

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Seedling Sketches

Eccl. 3:2 "A time to be born, a time to die, a time to plant and a time to pluck what is planted."

Outside it is cold and snowing . . .
Inside I am sketching seedlings, and dreaming of spring.



























Isaiah 61:11 "For as the earth brings forth its bud, as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all nations."

Sunday, February 01, 2009

In the Garden (Part 1 1/2): Of Seeds and Such

This blog post contains photos that may cause you to be discontent with your present lovely surroundings (if you are in Michigan or somewhere else cold and snowy that is), so please proceed with due caution.



Well folks, it's that time of year again.

Spring is just around the corner . . .



(o.k. so I'm being optimistic here) and our mail boxes are being inundated with seed catalogs. Or at least mine is. Mom commented the other day that there seems to be as many seed companies as there are letters of the alphabet. Choosing the right one to order from can be a bit confusing, if not frustrating.

Please don't think that I am the final authority on this, but for what it's worth, here are my "two cents" about the whole thing; take it or leave it.


Organic? Heirloom? Open-pollinated? Hybrid? Help!!
Unless you are planning on getting your land certified, or will be selling your produce this summer and plan on touting it as organic, don't worry about getting certified organic seed. This is where IFHO comes into play. (In Faith's Humble Opinion) I am all for chemical free gardening, and only use natural fertilizers on my plants, (fish emulsion, liquid seaweed and other great smelling stuff like that) and I have yet to do an in depth study on how/if the chemicals in seeds are passed to grown plants, but when the price of certified seed is two or sometimes three times as much as the regular seed, (and the "regular seed" doesn't mean it is chemically grown, but just not "certified" organic - read the fine print in the catalogs.) I'd rather buy the "regular" seed and save the money.

That said, here are a few certified organic seed companies for you to check out:

~
Seeds of Change

~ Peaceful Valley

~ Park Seeds - Organic

Some other seed catalogs have an "organic" section so look into that if you want more options.



Although opinions vary on how old a variety should be to qualify as an heirloom, most consider seeds grown prior to 1950 as heirlooms. I decided to try to grow almost all heirloom vegetables this year, primarily so that I can save the seeds for next year, (only heirloom and open-pollinated seeds will come true to seed) and save on the garden bill, and they also have many old varieties with flavor and other qualities that the modern hybrids can't touch. Plus it is a good start in learning how to be self sufficient. Heirlooms also have nostalgic properties, for us sentimental people:-).

Here are a few places that sell heirloom seeds:

~ Heirloom Seeds (very original:-)

~ Baker's Heirloom

~ Victory Heirloom Seeds

~ Granny's Heirloom Seeds

Hybrids are "something of mixed origin or composition." And just because I touted heirlooms as being so wonderful, doesn't mean all the work people have put into making hybrids is for naught. Many hybrid plants have resistance to diseases that some of the heirlooms do not. You will have to decide for yourself. It isn't imperative to grow all heirlooms, especially of those plants from which it is difficult to collect seeds(i.e. lettuce, onions, etc.).


(click the banner to go to their site)
I have the terrible habit of second guessing myself when it comes to ordering seeds. Just when I'm sure I've found the perfect catalog; wonderful selection, great prices; invariably I happen upon another company that sounds just as good or better! Well last year, about a week or so after I had ordered my seeds, a catalog for Pinetree Garden Seeds arrived in the mail. I mentally kicked myself and immediately decided that this was the place I was going to order from next year. They grew naturally, had superb prices, and carried a fine array of heirloom seeds. So when our mail box began to fill with seed catalogs this year, I didn't even blink as I sat down to order from Pinetree Garden. And of course what did I find a week or two later? The above mentioned "Granny's Heirloom Seeds." Now, I'm still not sure that Pinetree isn't the best out there for me. Every one will have a company they are more comfortable with, for some reason or another, how else would they all stay in business! But perhaps next year I will have to do a bit more research and comparison.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
O.K. now everyone refocus your eyes and wipe that bit of drool off your chin . . . you have been staring at the computer screen for way to long. Sorry this got so lengthy, but once I get going, there's no stopping me. I hope you found this a wee bit helpful!




Take care y'all,
Faith

Genesis 2:8 "And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden . . ."