Are you one of those kind souls, too? One who has an undisclosed number of dogs or cats as co-residents of your home? If so then, like me, you probably catch yourself saying, “How can all that hair be on the floor? I just swept yesterday!” While the floor may be the thing that catches…
Category: Hearth
Homekeeping: Let In Some Fresh Air
Open your windows to let in fresh air and you will get a brain and body boost. This is the easiest thing you can do…
Homekeeping: Good and Bad Smells in the Home
When most people think about bad smells they think about potty smells and body odors. That’s probably because these things embarrass us culturally. But when indoors today, we are more likely to be assaulted by a different type of offensive odor – that created by chemicals.
Recipe: Gluten Free Sourdough Starter
Most of us have probably heard that fermented foods are healthy for us, increasing the biodiversity in our microbiomes. Fermentation is also an exciting way to see nature at work – seeing an inert mixture develop bubbles and start to smell heavenly is a fun science lesson and provides a tasty cooking ingredient.
Homekeeping: Let In the Light
There is no more powerful element to create beauty and mood in a space than natural daylight.
Homekeeping: Make a Stress-free Space
If you aren’t quite ready to make your entire home a healing, rejuvenating refuge, can you at least give yourself one small space?
Homekeeping: What’s Your View?
When arranging your home or workspace, don’t forget to consider what your view is going to be. The ideal view will depend on what the space is used for. If you are setting up a home office or work station, you will want something that is pleasant but not distracting.
Homekeeping: Intentional Spending Plan
As mentioned here before, Chad and I try to be creative about what we do for our weekly date night. The beginning of a new year always feels like a great time to do a life assessment, so we sat down together just after the turn of the year to discuss our goals for 2018…
Garden News: Polyculture Garden in Late Summer
On this last day of August the days are still hot and I find myself longing for fall. The garden is producing beautifully, and everything seems as if it will keep on going this way forever. But I try to remember not to take things for granted – the last warm days, the bounty of…
Gardening: Composting in the Desert
Anyone who gardens or simply cooks a lot of vegetables quickly finds out – you must have a compost pile! Vegetable waste translates into useful fertilizer and soil very quickly if you compost, so it is a huge waste NOT to create some composting system – not to mention the cost of buying bags of…
Homesteading: Sheepy Poos
When my husband introduced me to his two icelandic sheep, I asked what their names were. He looked slightly embarrassed and told me he hadn’t named them. Strangely, two names instantly came to me, and I asked if I could use them. He kindly acquiesced. So let me introduce you to two of the biggest contributors to…
Gardening: Desert Garden Design
Over the past ten years or so my husband has been planting a fairly traditional garden. Each year he tills the ground with a tractor then digs out rows to plant his seeds and transplants. With my visions of permaculture I of course wasn’t satisfied with this approach. Tilling with a tractor compresses the soil and also…
Gardening: Gardening in the Desert
Contrary to what you might think, people can and do garden in the desert. However there are certain obstacles to overcome that those of you in more clement areas won’t have to worry much about. For one thing, we only get about 7 inches of rain a year here. Yes, a YEAR. Back in NC…
Garden News: Cold Frame Conundrum
I have four cold frames that I made using plastic storage bins and two more that use glass with the thermal mass of bricks and stone. These are experimental and so far I’m seeing some clear differences in the results. The seeds started in the thermal mass cold frames are thriving and growing much more quickly than…
Garden News: New Cold Frame
Me and my sweetie went a little crazy ordering seeds a couple of weeks ago. When we combined households last year our seed collections expanded dramatically! I added a lot of perennials, herbs and flowers to the mix, he brought a ton of tomatoes, peppers and squash. But somehow, it seemed we still needed more seeds. And…
Date Night
Date night. That means dinner and a movie for a couple who already has their relationship well cemented, right? That’s what I used to think. I will admit, I used to think that it was a little sad to have to rely on date night for a couple to spend time together. Then I met Chad and…
Hearthwilde 