Ever feel overwhelmed by the uncertainty of the future? Here are some good places to start creating some natural resiliency in your life: Know which weeds you can safely eat – and how to prepare them. Learn some basic skills – cooking, mending, tying knots, dressing appropriately for your climate. Reduce your needs for heating…
Category: Lifestyle
5 Adaptations for Aging Dogs – and One Big Regret
A dog’s aging process happens gradually, but it may become apparent suddenly, as he’s no longer able to jump onto the couch or navigate the home as easily as he used to. In my own home, I’ve been making changes for my dog Leo who just celebrated his 14th birthday. I wish I’d made some…
3 Easy Non-Toxic Living Changes to Adopt Today
Has something happened to you that makes the world seem full of toxic traps that might cause cancer? Are you overwhelmed and don’t know where to start? I’m here to make it easier for you. First I’m going to tell you my background and explain why I think you should take my advice anyway, and…
How I Remove Wasps from Our Farm Home
On our farmstead we have a pro-wildlife stance, and that includes smaller types of wildlife too. We don’t kill bugs outdoors without good reason, and we have the same philosophy for bugs that end up inside our home. If we find a bug in the wrong place (according to us), we try to investigate to…
A Summer Solstice Tradition
One of the ways we assert ourselves as creatures of the natural world is to celebrate equinoxes and solstices. As part of these seasonal celebrations, a few years ago Chad and I started a tradition of hiking to the same spot in the desert on these occasions. We nicknamed our spot, “Solstice Point.” Every solstice…
A Look Back at the Last Decade – From Paris to Utah
I missed an important anniversary last year – 2021 marked the ten year anniversary of my leaving Paris, France for a return to life in the US. Essentially, I transitioned from being a “city mouse” to my current situation, “country mouse.” As you might imagine, my 14 years in Paris were very, very different from…
How I Dress For Cold Weather: An Ode to Wool
Life on the homestead in NE Utah is thrilling in many ways – gorgeous sunsets, seedlings emerging dramatically from the soil in spring, or the surprising call of sandhill cranes flying overhead in summer. But in other ways it can be a harsh environment, especially in winter when the temperatures plummet to sub-zero levels. To…
Death and Life – A Walk in the Desert
Who needs candy and costumes? We celebrated Halloween with a hike in the desert where we found signs of life and death to help us contemplate the holiday. Since we’ve been enjoying a mild, exceptionally wet, and colorful fall on our farm, we found that conditions in one of our favorite desert hiking spots were…
Welcoming Barney – Transitioning a Feral Cat into Our Home
For a while it was a running joke between Chad and I that we didn’t need any other cats – but, we didn’t have an orange one yet, so maybe if one showed up…? Last spring, shortly after we moved our formerly feral feline, Owlfie indoors, a new cat did show up on our farm….
Celebrating the Autumn Equinox
Being nature lovers, we like to celebrate the equinoxes and solstices, those special moments in the year that mark the rotation of the earth around the sun. At each of these occasions, we take a hike out to a particular point in the desert to watch the sun set, a place we call “Solstice Point.”…
Hearthwilde 