December

We have had a fun month!

K was sick with the flu for train night. 

it

Trunk or Treat

We enjoyed a community Halloween party on Tuesday.  It was a chilly evening and the party was outside.  K helped with the spook alley, so she left her wings at home. K also chose our costume theme this year. Akahige and I were originally going to be Wendy and John, but everytime we mentioned Koishi's and K's we were told we had to do Hook. Which left me with either Smee or the crocodile. I choose Smee.

So onto sewing & crafting.
We found K's dress and shoes at DI, wings at the dollar store. I made her a jacket, cause Autumn in the rockies is cold. We also created a cool arm wrap and hair clips.
Koishi's shirt is a refashioned from a DI find. I made him a hat and pants. He lost his red feather at the first Halloween party. He loves his sword to fight monsters.
My costume is extra striped fabric from a maxi dress I made. Hat and belt are extra from Hook's vest. I used a free shirt pattern and whipped it up in a couple hours.
Akahige's Hook vest. This is the one I dreaded the most! I used a jacket pattern and altered it. All the trim and custom fiting. Ugh! After 2 weeks I got it done. I also made his three corner hat. I caved and not a hook instead of making one. 

At the party they served pizza and then let the kids go around to the cars. I decorated ours as a pirate ship. We made the kids walk a "plank" to get their candy. It was a fun evening!

Pumpkins

Today for Family night we carved our jack o'lanters. I toasted the "nuts" (Koishi's word for seeds) The kids aren't fans of pumpkin seeds which means more for us oldies.

From the Workshop

The first weekend in October and April we enjoy listening to the Lord's prophets and leaders. These weekends find me with my hands busy. I always focus better to speakers and their messages if I can create. Yesterday we were busy with chores and didn't get to hear as much as we wanted. Today we get to listen as we work on some Christmas gifts. I am teaching K to word burn. Russian Olive wood smells like burnt popcorn, in case you wanted to know.

Pumpkin Doughnuts

Today was rainy and blustery. It is also the day where my cabin fever hit and we had no funds or places to go. What do I do instead? Make pumpkin donuts from scratch.
We have a dear friend who holds a doughnut party every August to ring in the school year. But Mr. K found himself going back to school this year and hasn't had the time to make his 500+ donuts of awesome. This recipe totally will be what ties us over until next year. These get 2 thumbs up from the whole clan. The texture is perfect. Light but not like Krispy Kremes.

So without further ado...

My substitutes are:
-1/2t of clove, nutmeg, & ginger powder instead of pumpkin spice.
-Kabocha pumpkin instead canned pumpkin.
-Truvia instead of sugar.

Recipe from Broma Bakery
http://bromabakery.com/2011/10/homemade-pumpkin-donuts.html

For the donuts:

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons butter
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 cup pumpkin puree

For the buttermilk glaze:

3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Canola oil for frying

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, spice and sugar. Whisk together all of the remaining ingredients (except for the canola oil) in a second, medium bowl. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, and stir them around the bowl until the mixture is well combined. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface, rolling the donut dough to approximately 1/4-1/2″ thick. (I know this will seem quite thin, but the donuts puff up immensely while frying). Cut with a doughnut cutter. (Or a wide bottle lid and a small medicine cup)

Meanwhile, whisk the glaze ingredients together in a small bowl until smooth.

Heat 2 inches of oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, gently slide the donuts into the oil, frying on the first side until the edges of the doughnut are lightly browned, flip carefully and allow to cook on the other side until lightly browned. Remove and dunk immediately into buttermilk glaze. Allow to air dry on a cooling rack before serving.

Permaculture and our yard. Part 2

This spring we decided to try our hanf at some small scale swales.
Prep work: We watched videos, read how-tos, and had a pickaxe. I was ready to go! Well almost. In order to build on contour, (Important in order to catch water and direct it without washing out the berm, and hillside. Minor details) I needed to find level contour. A great tool for this is an A frame level. We didn't have one so Akahige built me one. Part of our research showed that for steep slopes a 15 inch rule was to be followed. No more the 15 inches deep or wide for the swale.

After a good spring shower I took my gear and climbed the slope. Wet dirt made my work easier. Wet grass however added a whole new level to my work out. (I should have the strongest ankles around if I keep this up) I cut the first one from the property corner to the rose bush in an afternoon. The next day Akahige helped me lay logs and create a berm. We then created the second swale 5 feet lower from the ginko to the spruce. I found level,  Akahige did the digging, and I leveled the basin. We filled the swale with wood chips and planted tansy, zebra grass, clover, iris, and wildflower seeds. I planted strawberries on the slope.

We put sprinklers on it for the season just to help the vegetation take root. We may be dreaming but we think the Spruce is growing better and as you can see from the pictures we ended up with some nice flowers and growth this summer.

Now to let the flowers reseed and start on the large scale.

Permaculture and our yard. Part 1

Oh our yard. We have a lot and I think it will be our summer project until the end of time.
When we first moved in we thought we would be hardscaping the slope. After spending a summer working on one wall, that only spans half our lot, we have had a hard time really getting on board with finishing what we have termed "The Great Wall of N." It will get finished eventually but our focus has moved up closer to the house. 

Akahige has made huge progress in moving our excavated backfill from the build. He has been building terraces down the slope. During this process we have discovered we also have a pond. Great! Who doesn't want a pond? Well ours isn't exactly in a prime location. 

A dear friend, Mrs. B suggested we look into permaculture and swales. (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permaculture) Upon further research we decided this might be the answer we are looking for, in regards to the slope and pond. To put it really simple. You build swales (ditches) to direct water to feed the slopes vegitation. This will help drain it pond and by planting vegitation on the slopes, retain the soil. The vegetation on the ground with be mowed and create green mulch thus improving the soil.There is also a technique (hugelkulture) using lumber to help in the building of the swales side wall/birm. Perfect again for our huge pile of weed trees that we have cleared. These ideas lend themselves to being more affordable and better environmentally.

We have a few obstacles to accomplishing this.
#1: my garden is on the first level to be swaled. And I had already started growing food.
#2: where to put my veg garden and do we make it a permanent or temporary.
#3: our slope is at a greater incline then the recommend use of swale.

To date these are some of our answers.
#1: wait the growing season before touching the top tier and work on terracing two additional step downs. Roughly 6 to 8 feet below the upper level.
#2 move the vegetable garden closer to the house in a permanent wicking bed. This will use the swamp to water the vegetables freeing us from hose & sprinkler problems.
#3 do trial swales above the first tier, small scale, to perfect the technique. And see if our degree of slope could be structurally sound.

This series will break down each part as we tackle them. Hope you enjoy the ride. And we hope others can learn from our success or failure.

As always Thanks for reading! From our little blue house on the top of a hill to yours.

Koishi 3isms

(Directed to my squish)

You are approaching your gestational 3rd birthday in 8 days. I wanted to document a few things that we love about you.

Your made up word of "Gagook". You say this anytime you are being silly with language.

Ghosts: You wake up in the morning and talk about ghosts. Yesterday you asked where the blue ghost and white ghosts went. Really don't know where this one came from.

Reverse psychology: Your opposite answers to what you really mean. This one gets very complicated for us because it isn't always fool proof.

Monsters: You love watching daddy play monsters while sitting together in the rocking chair. You pretend play like you battle monsters all the time. Still working on defining monsters for you so you don't attack friends and family.

Blood, born, and in you: You constantly state or ask about being in you. "What's in you" "I was in you" "I was born" "you were born" and sometimes you branch out and ask what's in the tractor, plane, dirt, bug, etc.

You have finally entered a prefrence stange for Mommy. Don't mind too much, but it has resulted in a few tumbles as you take me and almost take both of us down.

You love your friend Mio and constantly ask to go to her house.

ABC's is your favorite song and you sing it along the time. If anyone tries to join you, you tell them that it is your song.

You cry when you get in trouble for hurting someone else.

You live playing with water just so long as it doesn't get in your head.

You live helping me weed by picking my allysym. Or using a shovel, or carrying my bucket around (usually out of reach fit me to put weeds in)

You are eating the best you have ever done. You love onigiri and okonomiyaki, both with nori. You love to steal dads nigir sushi. If you finish a meal you quickly state that "now I get a cookie?!"

We love you to the moon and back again! And daily thank our Heavenly Father for letting us be a part of your life.

Sewing

We have been busy for the last year. Lots of changes all for the better.
My romance with facebook is fading. That is where our life has been published lately. I figure it is time to resurrect the blog. So here I go.

I have been working on some sewing projects. I have some knitting and embroidery items underway as well. Koishi has been as supportive as any 3year old boy can be. I will post updates on our yard soon too.

Todays project is a sleeping bag. I saw one a few months ago that got my brain spinning. A trip to the store with my dear friend resulted in a score of dump truck fleece and coordinating plaid. After a month of brain storming I finally finished it.

I also did a baby quilt and doll house for a friends new baby. We hope she enjoys them.

I made a birthday apron for our "daughter" K's birthday. Koishi is modeling it in his hyper fuzzy way.

I have a few more projects under wraps some will have to wait for unveiling in December. For now happy crafting!