~Baltic Amber, and Natural Healing~

If you've browsed through my shop you might have noticed a growing collection of Baltic Amber Bracelets, and you might be wondering what's the deal?

Baltic Amber comes from the Baltic Sea, a petrified resin from ancient trees.  Much like the amber we all learned about on Jurassic Park.  Except you're not going to be finding huge globs of it, nor are you likely to find any insects or insect parts trapped inside.

What you will find are multiple shades, of beautifully, and carefully, hand drilled amber beads.  Each unique, with different shades, and patterns, and a uniqueness you can't find in reproduced amber, or look alike plastic creations.  What you will get, is even more amazing.  Real Baltic Amber releases a natural acid when it's gently warmed (like from the warmth of being worn on our skin), that is said to naturally imitate the same healing properties of an ibuprofen!  The acid is so gentle, yet it's said to reduce swelling, and provide pain relief.  

Now granted, I'm not a Doctor, so no piece of jewelry should EVER be used in place of actual medical treatment or qualified advice.  So go see the Doc first and always play it safe!!  But my customers have sworn that they have noticed a difference!

My Amber is the real deal, and I've wrecked a few beads to make sure!  :)  Real amber is a static monster, and you'll see dust attracted to pieces that have been laying around.  Large quantities smell a bit like your Christmas Tree, and remain much warmer to the touch compared to other gemstones and beads.  

I carry Ambers of 2 different shapes.  Small nuggets (around 4-5mm), or in chips.  Normally I keep in stock 3 different shades including Honey Amber, Lemon Amber, and Cherry Amber.

There's a few samples always ready to go in the shop, but I love creating custom orders!  I have leather in all sorts of color, vintage brown, pink, green, blue, black and more!  And My button selection is constantly growing and changing!

To see my entire ready to purchase collection visit me at http://www.whitegoatranch.etsy.com from there you can choose something I've already designed, or use the contact link to start your own special custom order!

Disclosure: I may receive monetary compensation, or products for my endorsements, recommendations, testimonials, links and ads to any products and or services listed in this blog. This helps support my homesteading and crafting habits, and is a huge blessing! Thank you for your support!

~Through the Woods~

I've found a new hobby.  (Because I need more to do, obviously.)

There's real food growing in my woods, and I want to find it all.  And what I don't find, I'm gonna plant.  Because finding treasures like wild rose thickets, and persimmon trees in the woods, are like stumbling on worlds you never knew existed.

And my youngest can't get enough of our "adventures", and who can resist filling those little hands with treasures.  (Even if you can't eat them.)

So if you need us, we'll be out among the trees...
(and googling how to make Rose Hip Tea.) Disclosure: I may receive monetary compensation, or products for my endorsements, recommendations, testimonials, links and ads to any products and or services listed in this blog. This helps support my homesteading and crafting habits, and is a huge blessing! Thank you for your support!

~Just a Touch of Bohemian~ {Bracelets}

https://www.etsy.com/listing/201409147/glass-and-leather-bohemian-wrapped?ref=shop_home_active_4

I found myself a new path over at my shop.  Something I've been honestly enjoying just a wee bit more than knitting.

Something that has taken me over the hump of "creative block" and has me wanting to work ALL OF THE TIME.

I'm hoping this new fork in the road keeps twisting and changing, and developing.  I have so many new ideas, and I can't wait to get to them all.

One step at a time I hope to continue to develop my accessory line, keeping the bits of knitting that gave me my start, and expanding into practical, comfy, country inspired jewelry and more!

These photos all feature my Leather Wrap Bracelets.  { All easily found in my Bracelet section of my shop }  Each bracelet is created with one single strand of leather, which has been dyed with a natural, lead free dye, that keeps the leather's natural grain as a highlight.  Then using a heavy duty, durable thread, I double stitch each bead, making sure they sit tightly and straight, throughout the whole bracelet.  The end is knotted three times, allowing the finished bracelet to fit almost any wrist.  The excess leather is simply snipped away after it reaches its new home.  ;)  

Or you can work with me to design your own bracelet.  Pick out everything from your leather color, to your button, to the color of the thread, to each and every bead we use, and how long you want your bracelet.      { Below are 2 recent custom orders}

Next up I hope to work on creating matching necklaces and earrings, but for now, I'm in love!  And I hope you are too.  ;)  Please feel free to contact me with any questions!  Thanks!

What can I make for you today? 
http://www.whitegoatranch.etsy.com  
Disclosure: I may receive monetary compensation, or products for my endorsements, recommendations, testimonials, links and ads to any products and or services listed in this blog. This helps support my homesteading and crafting habits, and is a huge blessing! Thank you for your support!

~The Pickle Post, Part 1~

When it was decided that we would be planting a garden this year, I somehow decided to use up all of the old seed packets that had been laying around for years.  "Just in case".  As in, "Just in case, the kids decide gardening isn't in the works."  Or, "Just in case, this spot doesn't work out."  
Seeds went in here and there, all willy-nilly, and by the seat of your pants.  Thrill gardening if you must.  Because I was running out of time, and the rain wouldn't stop coming.
Then one day, the lowly cucumber plants, that I already had to replant twice, for whatever reason, had taken over the ENTIRE garden.  No joke.

And I don't like cucumbers.
"I know!"  I exclaimed to my armful of cucumbers, "I'll make pickles!"  I'm all brilliant like that.  So off I rushed to my handy dandy canning book... and oh my gosh there's sooooo many kinds, and they are all so different, and I have soooo many cucumbers, and my grandmother's voice came out of my mouth, "I can't waste all of this food!"
In the next brilliant moment I decided that I would make all of the pickles.  So we'll be able to test each one, and decide which one we love the most... for next year of course, because by the time the pickles are ready, I'm sure all of the plants will be dead.  Heck, we might even decide we hate them all, in which I'll laugh, and then cry.  ;)  

Now sitting on my shelf we have:

• Kosher Dill #1  (From the Blue Book)
• Sweet Pickles  (From Reformation Acres)
• Kosher Dill #2  (from the back of the pickle salt bag, lol)
• Hot Pickles (dill with peppers)  (from a friend)

Some of the recipes said to let the pickles sit for a month, others said overnight.  I'm going to be fair and let them all sit for 4 weeks, and then we're going to start popping those seals!  After a "professional" taste test (one done by the kids of course), we'll give you our final reviews.  
Until then I'm going to enjoy my house not smelling like pickles for now.  ;)
Do you have a favorite pickle recipe?

Disclosure: I may receive monetary compensation, or products for my endorsements, recommendations, testimonials, links and ads to any products and or services listed in this blog. This helps support my homesteading and crafting habits, and is a huge blessing! Thank you for your support!

~July in the Garden~

Truth be told, I've been doing awful at getting the right pictures taken at the right time.  And the weeds (we won't blame the husband who aimed the grass cuttings directly into the garden) have gotten so insane, despite my attempts to keep them under control... I really don't like the entire view of the garden... It's too green, if you can believe that.  ;)

Then there's another horrible side affect of planting everything too close together, having the weeds take over, and just being extremely busy all summer... Bugs.  The squash borers are HORRIBLE.  And when you squish them with your fingers, they ooze out a blue cream, and ugggggghhhhhh.  (I'll spare you the pictures)  I would love nothing more than to dump a bazillion bottles of raid on my poor garden... but since I have animals and small children who spend half of their days hiding in the tomatoes... yeah, it's not going to happen.  You can be proactive with the evil squash bugs, and pull off their eggs, squish/drown the adults, and keep their numbers to a point where you don't see much damage, but I'm afraid we're too late, and now we can only hope that the 4-6 pumpkins I've seen survive to harvest time.  Next year we'll have to be way more proactive.  (Maybe bribes will get the kids over their fear of the blue goo!  ~Kidding, maybe)

I have to say though, for a rushed garden, that was unplanned, spur of the moment, with 2 year old seeds, things are thriving... or at least doing quite well considering the situation.  The sunflowers are beautiful, if you ignore the fact that all but one were knocked over from the storm, and they're blooming on the ground.  The tomatoes are doing... okay.  Since our garden was unplanned, I didn't have the time to grow tomatoes from seed.  I bought whatever was offered cheap at the local store, and then if you factor in the fact that it's been extremely cool here.  They're just doing okay.  I had toss out (compost/critters) the first two batches we picked because they were so soft, and rotten, like they just couldn't ripen in this weather.  They're recovering, slowly, and I think some pruning has helped as well.  

The chickens (all 3 that we have left from last year's massacre)  are deeming themselves totally worthless.  Let me rephrase that.  The chickens, had we a rooster, would have hatched out billions of chicks by now.  But we don't have a rooster, and they're just cranky and mean when you try to shove them off of an egg.  Brooding is awesome when you have tons of chickens, and you want to hatch chicks.  Brooding is a pain in the butt when all three go into it.  Apparently there's plans to rehab our chicken efforts, so I've heard.  We'll see.

And like I said, July was not my month for taking awesome shots of the garden.  Although we did get tons of work done around here.  I think my grand total for planting was 4 blue spruces, 1 dogwood, 6 bushes, 2 pussy willows, 2 raspberry bushes, 1 peony, 1 hydrangea, and an entire shade flowerbed on the side of our house.  Knock on wood, everything looks to be doing good, and I hope it all comes back, because I so don't want to ever plant that much at one time ever again!  Well until I put in that mini orchard I've been wanting!  

On top of the gardening and planting, we've been re-doing our son's room, and cleaning up the entire property, trying to prepare it for some "hopeful" plans for next spring, and beyond.  And with super nice weather, and constant projects the summer all too quickly fades.  School starts next week, canning season has taken hold... and I don't want summer to end.  
How did July treat you?
Disclosure: I may receive monetary compensation, or products for my endorsements, recommendations, testimonials, links and ads to any products and or services listed in this blog. This helps support my homesteading and crafting habits, and is a huge blessing! Thank you for your support!

When it Rains

When you live in Missouri (and in general, the Midwest), you get used to all sorts of weather.  Tornadoes, Hurricane Jet Streams, Droughts, Floods, Blizzards, Tornadoes, and more Tornadoes.  But I can honestly say that this week, we had a storm like no other.

Typical summer storm started with some angry sounding clouds, that grumbled on for about an hour, until they twisted into a blacked sky, with more lighting flashes than the forth of July.  Then came the rain.  Like a fire hydrant in the sky had been opened on top of our house.  The storm quickly grew so intense, that we did the, "Check every weather forecast in the planet, this HAS to be a tornado," shuffle.

The radars showed a huge red splotch just over our county, no where else.  The red blob twisted, and grew, and shrunk, then spun, and grew again.  Rain, Flash, Straight Line Winds, Flash, Hail, Flash Flash, Rain, Hail, Thunder, Flash.  

Two hours later, and the storm slowly began to burn itself out.  Two hours of intense lighting, rain, and hail. Without a break.  That was the crazy part.  Storms here are always on the move, they come, and they go.  You get slammed, and then you get a break.  This one formed over us, and stayed.  

Luckily the house seems to be fine, with no major damage that I can find.  Everyone made it safely through the storms, including the goat.  ;)  My garden on the other hand... not a total loss, but there's quite a bit I'm positive we won't be able to save.

This is mainly how our entire property looks right now.  Lots of small trees down, and large limbs.  Luckily there were no larger trees taken down... but it's still a huge mess that will take forever to clean up.

During the storm our entire driveway was under water... this is the morning after the storm.

My Black Russian Sunflowers.  I might try to trellis the few that kept their roots in the ground.  Some tomato plants right next to these also were bent over, stakes and all.  Gotta love the wind shears.  ;(

My poor pop corn.  It was just starting to grow ears too.  Again, if possible, I'll try to trellis it all up, and see what I can save, but there's a lot of roots showing under that mess...

Loofa Squash, yanked off the trellis, and torn to bits by the hail.  Everything is looking pretty much like this, smooshed to the ground, with lots of holes.  It's going to be a waiting game to see what stays green, and what starts to turn brown.  The silver lining is that it all turns to compost eventually, lol.  Failures today, make awesome dirt tomorrow.  ;)  As long as all of my brand new Spruces, and my Pretty Baby Pink Dogwood stay alive, I'll be happy.

This by far entertains me to no end.  The one fallen limb, is holding the other fallen limb in the air.  Like someone jammed it in there after the fact.  And actually this side of the property had the most damage all together.  Another wind shear I'd imagine.  

So for the next few weeks it's going to be a lot of picking up sticks, and bonfires for us.  You're welcome to stop by, just bring the chainsaw and some marshmallows!   

~Emily

All Before 7am

I'm not sure if everyone who lives in the more rural parts of their towns deal with these things... or if it's just me.  I get that when you have more animals, and more things going on, that you'll have, in general, more to deal with.  But...

So I get up, way too early this morning, which wakes up the dogs.  Half a sleep, I shuffle downstairs to feed them, then shuffle back up to make the coffee while they eat.

We have a friendly little bird, who HAS to keep a nest above our basement porch lights, every year.  We've tried taking down her nest, and putting other objects up there every year to keep her away... and she won't give up.  So we've resorted to keeping a chair under her nest, so babies won't go splat, and we check to make sure they're all safe before we let out the dogs.

As routine dictates, I head out the upstairs door, to check on the baby birds before I let out the dogs... and I see one hopping across the driveway, followed be another one, and another one...  "HUN, the babies are hopping all over!"  Because, weird, right?  He yells back, let them be, maybe they're big enough, and leaves for work.

It's now 5:15 am, and it's dark, and I continue to the basement door.  And I see a dead baby on the ground.  I walk over it, to get to the door, to grab something to pick it up with... and BAM I walk right into a thick spider web, with a big friggen spider dangling in my face.  I'm doing the web dance, while looking for a stick to remove the big spider from my path, batting at him, trying to clear the way, when I look up towards the nest....

And a thick, icky, SNAKE tail waves back at me.  (insert all sorts of heart attacks, and skin jumping, and not so nice words here)  And I run inside.

My poor dogs had to wait 2 hours for me to gain enough confidence to go back outside to potty them.  The snake was gone... but not forgotten.  *shivers*

All before 7am.  So honestly, this sort of thing is common right?  I'm not the only one?  No?  At least tell me that finding a snake above your head while battling a spider is some sort of good luck right?

Help.....  ;)

June ~ Garden Update

The days of June have been going like this:

It's raining.

It's not raining, but there's five billion things to do.

It's raining.

And I think we had three really nice days, without rain or a billion things to do... but I seem to have forgotten my camera on all three of those days.  So this month's update is minus the billions of pictures I meant to take.

Harvest Count:  A Gallon bag of Radishes, and a Bushel of Carrots.  (Oh and 2 heads of lettuce that were watched a day too long and bolted)

So we were finally able to pick the carrots.  My toddler had been staring those suckers down since the day we planted them, waiting, holding her breath for the moment they'd be ready to pick.  AND OH MY GOODNESS was she excited.  Until she bit into one.  And then she promptly tossed it to the goat.  And yelled something about how rabbits could eat such yucky things.  Meanwhile my boy had half of the carrots eaten already.  

The carrots were a sort of Danver's Half Longs.  We have hard clay soil, and these are supposed to be the best type for dense dirt.  Considering that my seeds were 2 years old, and planted all wrong, almost all carrots were edible, and looked like carrots.  The goat gladly ate all the underdeveloped carrots.  

So then I had this great idea that I'd photograph the kids, with the plants... a whole height comparison thing.  But after 20 shots, this is the only one where they were both standing still, and straight.  It's the whole rain thing.  Their energy levels are busting over the damn sort-of-speak.

And we even have tomatoes growing this year!  Which is only because my Chickens all think that they're going to hatch an egg, and won't leave the coop long enough to discover said tomatoes.  Thank you people at the hardware store for selling ample amounts of cheap tomato plants... I still miss my heirlooms.  Next year there will be a HUGE seed order!

The weeds have been loving this weather, and I'm no where near done removing all the sod from the garden area.  And it's a non-ending battle... "Do I rip out more grass, or do I weed?"  So progress seems small.  Until you actually compare the few pics you have taken.

First Week of June:

This Week:

I just can't wait for next season, when all that green stuff is plucked, and rotted, and all making awesome healthy dirt.  And I don't have to break my back digging up all of that sod again!  Oh the plans that I have!

How's June treating your garden?

~Emily

Book Review ~ The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

There's one sure fire way to make a book a best-seller.  Ban it.  Ban it, then have numerous articles floating around the webs, and then people like me, who aren't up on the newest reads, who never would've stumbled across the book ever, then HAVE to buy the book, immediately.

True story.

So I read an article about this book, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie, and how parents were having it banned from a School Library, and how a group of teens started buying the books to give out, and there were cops involved, and free books, and angry parents.  Apparently the book was riddled with colorful subjects that parents weren't ready for their kids to read.

The book is really about a boy growing up on an Indian reservation, life as a teen, and throwing in the twist of going to school outside of the reservation.   Through candid words, and cartoons (the main character, Junior, was an aspiring artist), the writer takes you through illness, addictions, bullies, death, friendship, poverty, racism, life in a reservation, love, and life in general.

So is the book ban worthy?  Let's put it this way, I would not want my 8 year-old son to pick it up.  For now.  In a year or two, or three, heck yes.  The writing was wonderfully done, the story was captivating, moving, and should be read... just not by immature children.  There's talk of serious addiction, deaths, masturbation, but these are real life things that every child will have to face, and the way this book faces these issues is perfect.  So let's not ban it, but let's put it on the shelf away from the elementary kids... if you're asking me.

And no one's asking me if I think they should ban the book, but you may asking me if it's worth your time to pick it up.  And yes, yes you should read this book.  Especially in the age of poor writing and prose dominating the book store shelves.  And hey, every adult should be able to indulge in a book with cartoons every once in awhile.  ;)

Have you read any good books lately?  Did you pick up, "True Diary"?  What did you think?

~Emily


ps.  I bought this book with my own cash, and was not paid in any way for my review or my opinions.  

~May in a Glimpse~

I know they say, "April showers bring May flowers", but I think it goes more along the lines of  "Funky April weather brings May showers, and tons, TONS of bugs."

And by bugs I mean Inchworms.  Billions of them.  On plants, in the air, in your hair.  Everywhere.

And the damage they've been doing is awful.  Every tree is covered in half chewed leaves, and rolled up cocoons.  Which makes me thankful that my flowering plants are starting late this year from the winter, or I'd be spending every waking moment picking the gross things off.

And I promise that's the last of the worm pictures for now.  I just have never seen so many of them, and I'm hoping this isn't a sign on how the rest of the insect world will be doing this year.  If it is someone best be buying me a whole flock of Guineas and Ducks.  And then they better hire someone to take care of them too.  (Just in case that someone is reading this, and thinks I need a whole flock of anything right now.  ;p  )

May had been so full of rain that I didn't reach any of my gardening goals.  We were just excited for the few times we were able to get outside in between the storms.

Even Penny was excited.  But don't get me started on her.  She's been filling my days with getting tangled and stuck, or just plain out yelling, because a certain man around here has her so spoiled, that she's getting hard to enjoy.  But back to the garden....

Somewhere out there we have Zukes, and Cukes, Pumpkins and Squash.  Radish, tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, Spinach (which never does well for me).  There's kale, loofah, chard, sunflowers, popcorn, and two Raspberry bushes.  The only thing we bought this year were the two raspberry bushes, and a flat of tomato plants.

I don't really have any great expectations for success this year.  I'm doing everything against the books.  My seeds are all over two years of age, and stored completely the wrong way.  I'm not really companion planting anything, and I'm by no means following the right planting schedule.  It's all fly by your seat gardening, knowing that next year, with all the added compost, and care of the soil from this year, it's going to be ten times easier to work with.

And hopefully soon, with some extremely creative budgeting, I'll get some sort of fence up around everything so I don't have to plant ten times the normal amount to count for losses due to animals and small children.

It's amazing how much a small toddler foot can wipe out in a second.  (And don't you love the black eye?  This child has no grace.  She managed this injury while sitting in a parked trailer.)

For June we already have tons scheduled around here.  I'm gutting both children's rooms, repainting, scrubbing, the works, all while trying to finish everything outside too, ohhh and there's knitting too.

Time to get back out there!

How's your spring going?

~Emily