Why use horse manure Sometimes your options are limited. Like when dealing with a very complicated, multi-step moving/building project. That is why this past spring, I planted my garden directly in horse manure. To be sure, I know that most animal manure needs to be aged to work well in the garden. Not only can […]
Lockdown Day 20: Introduction to Making Your Own Goat Milk Soap
guest post by Stephanie Shepler Harren Different Kinds of Soaps In general there are four different kinds of soaps that can be made. I am going to talk about three of these: melt and pour, hot process, cold process. Cold process is what we use here on the farm. Melt and Pour This process is […]
Lockdown Day 19: The Problem with Scientific Data (or Bats, Broccoli, and Hospital Stats)
The trouble with evaluating data Remember the phrase two wrongs don’t make a right? This holds true when try to evaluate scientific data. Or maybe it could be said that just because one person is wrong, that doesn’t make the other person right. There can be a lot of wrong answers to the same question. […]
Lockdown Day 16: Online Pinochle Card Game
My husband grew up playing pinochle. He taught the kids from a young age, but I am not a game player. I was not interested, but he talked me into learning about 5 years ago. Now I really enjoy it! This has come in handy as a way to spend time with family remotely this […]
Lockdown Days 14 – 15: Sew a Child’s Play Cape in a Day
I estimate it took me 6 hours to complete the child’s play cape. That includes creating durable, reusable pattern pieces for the project, because I have five more little granddaughters that will get one of these for their birthdays this year! Although there are directions in the book, I discovered some things along the way […]
Lockdown Day 13: The Magic Willow Branch versus the Steel Fence Post
Scrounging for fence posts Today, we have once again confirmed that I do not think like an engineer. Thankfully, I am married to one. I’d say that was good planning on my part, but I wasn’t savvy enough to plan it for ALL the good traits he has. The exercise was fence building, because the […]
Lockdown Day 12: Laughing at Zombies in Chinese
One big game of Rumor There is a lot of doomsday talk going around. Anxiety, worry, panic. Fear. It would be easy to slip into and, to tell the truth, has grabbed at my ankles a few times. But I don’t want to live in fear. I am evaluating what is going on around me, […]
Lockdown Days 10 & 11: The Power of Regrouping
Call it gathering your thoughts or letting the dust settle, but everyone needs to regroup on a regular basis. Sometimes it is just after a certain number of days going full steam ahead. Sometimes it is at the end of a project. Other times it is because of interruptions out of our control. But it […]
Lockdown Day 9: Tips for a Basic Men’s Haircut and Bear Trimming
Putting haircuts in perspective I have cut my husband’s hair for about 95% of his haircuts over the course of our nearly 38 year marriage. I also cut my children’s hair almost all of the time while they were growing up. But I’m not trained and I don’t cut hair professionally. Why did I do […]
Lockdown Day 8: A Custom Made Quiet Book for a 2 Year Old Grandson
The most expensive children’s book ever My husband started calling it the $1000 book. This is not because of material costs. I barely purchased anything new to make the quiet book. If I sold these similar quiet books, I would have to charge that much because of how long it took to design and construct […]