Sophie has been busy making candy. From left to right: Root beer, mint, anise, maple, tangerine and lemon. Next up: butter rum, raspberry and cinnamon. She’s also making lollipops which are turning out very nicely. She can do three large lollipops
Cheep, cheep, cheep, cheep
Our new batch of Ameracauna chicks arrived via the post office this morning. While we had had success breeding our own stock in the past, we lost all our chickens when we left the homestead undefended by both human and
More market research
Now it’s Fiona’s turn. She has been persistent in her desire to create teas to sell at the market this summer. So far she’s working on two blends. The first is a tropical chai featuring organic black assam tea, red
Sophie’s Sweets
The Friday Market in town will be starting up again soon, and Sophie has identified a market niche that she wishes to fill. She has been busily researching candy-making and doing various experiments. She decided that although kids would probably
Car Free Day
I wonder why we haven’t done this in forever? The Sienna gets a day off to enjoy the spring-like sunshine. Our biggest challenge in trying to reduce our environmental footprint has always been in the realm of transportation. We live
A Nook for Sophie
Our home was originally built as a 15 by 30-foot log rectangle with vaulted ceilings and two rooms. It’s seen three separate additions over the years, the largest and latest of which was ours, put on when Noah was an
My blacksmith
Look what my personal blacksmith got me for Christmas! It’s a special tool which attaches to the angled lip of my new baking sheets to allow me to insert and retrieve bread from the oven without further singeing the faux-fur
The magic oven
The new thermometer is making easy work of the bread oven. In the past I have over-fired the oven. I’ve burned it too long and with too much wood, so that is has got too hot. This has meant that
The cheese, at last
Finally the Day of the Unwaxing of the Cheese arrived. Sophie suggested that her birthday would be an auspicious occasion, marking about three months of aging. We missed her birthday. I had spent the weekend driving Erin first west for
Spooky run
It’s the Friday night before Hallowe’en. Noah has gone to Gaming Night at the community hall. Sophie is at the Hallowe’en Dance at the school. Erin is the basement practicing Saint-Sëans. Chuck is on call. I have spent the afternoon
The morning after baking day
Another dozen rolls and another loaf of bread are already in the freezer. The pizza is long gone. The beans, still warm, are waiting to go in the freezer. I managed the baking times a little better this time. Except
Baking day
Using the cob oven is introducing me to the old-fashioned tradition of a baking day. If I’m going to the bother of firing the oven up for an hour or two and heating it up to 600ºF, it seems ridiculous
Outdoor shower
Look what we have! I LOVE outdoor showers. There’s something about short bursts of warm water to lather or rinse in, accompanied by warm summer breezes, that leaves me ten times more refreshed than a shower in some sort of
Huaraches
Here’s another chapter in my minimalist footwear adventure story. I made these sandals in the traditional huarache style out of a bit of 4mm rubber outsole material purchased from a cobbler in the area. I traced my feet, cut the
Earth oven
I spent some time this weekend learning how to build an earth oven. When we wrecked our old deck and built a new one in a slightly different orientation, we ended up with a vacant sunny spot 4 metres from