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Lately
1. I spent most of the last week gloriously alone – my big kids went away on vacation up north to the Upper Peninsula (my son recently said, “Do you pee in UP?”) with Jacob and his family, while the...
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Shawn’s Going-Away Party
We had a small/big party here on our farm this past Friday – an ice-cream social, as it were – to bid farewell to my husband’s coworker Shawn, who is going back to his native Boston to pursue Master’s...
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Cooking is a Family Affair
Our tomatoes are just turning ripe, but yesterday my mother-in-law gave me a five-gallon-bucket worth of hers. Her mixture of traditional tomatoes and heirlooms was perfect for my quick freezing...
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Winner Announced: “The Commonsense Kitchen” Cookbook Giveaway and Blackberry...
Gosh, what a fun poll this was. Thank you all so much for pitching in and sharing your favorite cookbooks! I am always curious to see what people use over and over. It doesn’t come as a surprise that...
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Rasing Farm Help
Since we live on a (small, hobby) farm, we came to think of our kids as future work force. To that end, we try to include them into various farm work to the extent to which they are able to...
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Giveaway: $75 Gift Certificate to the Driftless Folk School (Winner Announced)
My apologies for the delay in announcing the winner here – my girl has started the first grade last week, and the school routine has been a killer. And the winner is… #26 Brittany D. Steffey: “It’s a...
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The Time Capsule
Around here, we’ve got this funny habit of putting everything we don’t want the kids to reach up high, and then later consolidating a pile of cabinet-top objects into a cardboard box or two at cleaning...
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Repeat Offenders
With my husband out of town, I had a fine week of (mis)adventures. Course, everything had to happen at the same time: You say bucolic salad-bar beef, I say repeat offenders! They weren’t happy with...
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Of Cowgirls and Cow Pies
Remember yesterday’s gripping narrative of my flighty salad-bar beef and the ensuing chase? And how all was well in the end? That’s what I thought until just around dinner time, when the supposedly...
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Late-Summer Recipe Ideas
Like no other season, early September in Wisconsin offers the ultimate cornucopia of garden produce, made all the more exciting by its fleeting nature. CSA boxes, farmer’s markets, and food co-ops are...
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Around the Town and in the Garden
1. Once upon a time, two days ago, I looked out of my front door and saw this: What’s wrong with this picture? Or, right – location, location, location. 2. The other day, I told my husband that our...
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Giveaway: The Best Diaper Oinment I’ve Ever Used: Winner Announced
The Giveaway winner is #10: Nettie Black! Congratulations, Nettie! You will be getting an email from me so I can get your mailing address. Thank you, everyone, for participating! _____________ I am so...
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Something New
The past couple of weeks have been filled with all kinds of new developments, improvements, and additions! Here they are, in no particular order: I now “make” dress-up! I made this tutu skirt for my...
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What common household, pantry, and beauty items do you make yourself instead of buying? If you got a moment, I’d love for you to share, as I am always hungry for new ideas in this area! Here are a few...
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My Mending Valentine
Carhartt and Carhartt-type jackets are everything to a farmer. I also find them incredibly sexy – the more rugged, the better. Like rough hands, they suggest experience and competence, and I value that...
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Around the Farmstead
I haven’t shared pictures of our homestead in some while, so here goes: Meet my dog, Olive. Olive used to belong to Jacob’s cousin Lars, but now she’s ours. She is a perfect family and farm dog,...
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Easy Homemade Lotion Tutorial
Few things are more satisfying to the body and the ego than homemade lotion. In addition to the obvious benefits of being more economical and free from mystery additives, it works far better than its...
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How to De-Skunk Your Dog with Peroxide, Baking Soda, and Dawn
You know you’ve been initiated into dog ownership after you’ve had to de-skunk one. This is my dog, Olive. Like in Olive, the other reindeer. We haven’t had Olive for very long – she used to belong to...
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All Things Sweet Maple
It’s still cold and frozen here in the Western Wisconsin (and, mind you, I enjoy that very much), but pretty soon the maple will be running, the taps will be dripping, the buckets will be overflowing...
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My Favorite Homemade Lip Balm Recipe
I hadn’t considered making my own lip balm – or lotion, for that matter, until my seven-year-old daugther couldn’t find yet another misplaced tube of Dr. Bronner’s Sun Dog – our go-to chapstick (made...
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What to Expect with Farm-Direct Grassfed Beef
Ever wondered what kind of beef cuts you can get when buying directly from a Salatinisque small farmer? Both my husband and his parents raise and market such salad-bar (i.e. grassfed) beef, and have...
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The Big Remodel So Far: Before
Whew! This remodel business has kept me busy for the past week or so! Among other things, I made two trips to a Home Depot an hour way, and visited numerous places right here in my town in search of...
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My First-Ever Quilt!!!!!
I’ve gotten into sewing clothes recently, and, naturally, had to try my hand at quilting as well. To make it easy on myself, I went with two of these gorgeous charm packs by Moda from a collection...
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The Old and The New
Here are a few updates from the past month: 1. The House: THE ADDITION! It encompasses the mudroom and the dining area of the kitchen. Here’s the most recent look. As you can tell, the new siding is...
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DIY Upcycle Rug: Crocheted out of Old T-Shirts!
I learned to crochet when I was six, and it has been my off-and-on passion ever since (depending on what else was going on). Sadly for me, my broken family’s extreme poverty back in the Old Country...
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The New Quilt Top: “Ticklish” Collection by Moda
I am working on a new quilt, folks – the first one to fit an actual bed. My first quilt was crib-sized, so this is more of a real thing. It is technically a twin, but I intend to use it for my older...
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The Big Remodel: The Home Stretch
Our house is progressing steadily, and it’s a lot of fun to watch the changes as they happen, don’t you think? The little step deck by the main entrance is now mostly on – it’s missing the steps going...
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The House Progress
This is what the house looks like so far – as you can tell, the new roof sections aren’t on yet. Now, our “old” new roof – it’s now eight years old – is the shingled variety, and we decided that our...
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The Cherry Tree
These cherries here came from a tree that grows in front of my house. This one. Unlike back in my native Azerbaijan, where lively, Middle-Eastern-style farmer’s markets offered a multitude of fruits...
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Mending Porn
Today my husband is very proud of me, and here’s why: You see, when he gets holes in his farm jeans, he doesn’t throw them away, he asks me to mend them. The pair you see in the photo above has been...
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The Big Remodel: Amish-Built Kitchen Cabinets
Exciting stuff, folks – my new Amish-built kitchen cabinets are in! Now, I’m sure that some of you are curious about how and why I hired the Amish to do mine. Let’s begin at the beginning. When we...
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Baby and Me
The other day, the little Princess and I went back to our farm to take a few photos and pick some berries. We were thrilled to find these cherries. We pushed Evelyn on the swing – her new-found...
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The Tale of Two Roofs
Here’s what else the crazy family did – two different roofing materials! I can explain. One of the first repairs we had to do on our house was replacing the existing roof. At the time, probably...
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The Big Remodel: The (Coveted) Screen Porch
Check out our new screen porch (I will come back with a wider lens and document it better soon). It has replaced a useless, icky old porch that had a rotting roof and a small deck that had seen better...
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The Big Remodel: Our Kitchen-Floor Choices
The floor in our new kitchen (that used to be two separate spaces – the kitchen and the dining), is maple. Most of the maple here is old and was originally a part of the house. We didn’t know this...
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Sewing and Kids: Josie’s First Pillowcase
My seven-year-old daughter has been interested in handwork for a while, in part because they do some at school (she spent a good deal of the first grade learning how to knit in a weekly handwork...
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Bug Repellants and Bug-Bite Remedies
The first part of this summer has been cool and very, very wet thanks to the frequent torrential rains. As a result, the gnat population has been through the roof. I literally cannot step outside...
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The Catcher in the Oats
I wrote the following a couple of weeks ago after a trip to the nearest city of 50,000 – an experience I always find vaguely traumatic. Please bear with me as I lay out exactly why I don’t belong in a...
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Tutorial: How I Patch Work Pants
Because we live on a farm, my husband regularly wears jeans outside. He has maybe three or four pairs of work pants, and I am proud to say that I now extend their lifespan by patching them up when...
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The Big Remodel: The Screen-Porch Anatomy
This is our new screen porch – not quite yet completed. It’s on the side of the house facing east. I love the professionally-installed features (which Jacob and I would not have been able to DIY):...
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The Laundry Day
Most of the time – about 90% of the time – I have my kids fold and put away their own laundry (my oldest one also knows how to operate the washer, add the detergent, load the dryer, etc). Not to get...
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Poplar Coulee Ridge
Welcome to Poplar Coulee Ridge – my husband’s home farm and my own first home in America. I first arrived here on a clear, starry night in May and loved it right away. An empty silo is an amazing...
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See You Next Week
We’ve set our moving date, so I may not be updating for the rest of this week. From now on, I’m going to have to focus on overseeing the completion of the project, shopping, sewing things for the...
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The Big Remodel: And Done!
And… we’re back living at our house on the farm! I am absolutely elated. No more town. No more proximity to a major US highway. No more street lights. No more close neighbors. No more crammed kitchen....
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The Big Remodel: Some Before and After
Well, folks. I think I may actually be done unpacking. And if I’m not, I don’t wanna know it! Our new and improved home is so awesome… I don’t know where to begin! So let’s begin at the beginning. In...
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Among the Fields of Gold
This is our house. It sits on a hilltop, and you need to take a short driveway to get to the top. The area between the road and our front yard is a pasture. This year we don’t have quite so many...
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A Gravestone Made of Milkweed
I began writing the following a few weeks ago, just before we moved back to our house upon the completion of our remodel. Yesterday, the unthinkable happened. My beautiful dog, Olive, who had been with...
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June Cleaver 2.0
Folks, it’s been too long since my last post… but I sure needed and thoroughly enjoyed this break. Moving back into our newly-remodeled house was quite an adjustment (like all moving is with young...
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Hanna Agar Photography
A few weeks ago, Hanna Agar, a New-York-City-based photographer, came out to our farm to snap our photos. Hanna’s parents are life-long friends of Jacob’s family, as she grew up in the next town. Hanna...
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You Just Have to Have Faith
A month or so ago, I stepped outside and caught my son in the middle of the following activity: He had pulled out a large, completely-ripe onion from the garden and had planted it in the middle of the...
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