Saturday, February 21, 2009

Back to Reality

I'm back from sunny Florida, back to the Wisconsin gray skies, wierd, cold fog, and ice moats throughout the yard. We had a nice time, but it was definitly one of those "good to go, but good to come home" type trips. All of us get a little out of sorts on vacation - we all sleep poorly and miss our home routines. Despite returning to this bleak weather, 5 days in full blown sun was enough for us.

One trick I learned on this trip was to not wear my swimming suit every time to the pool. This allowed me to lounge with a book in a poolside chair while my husband swam with the kids. It was perfect - I got to relax, yet still had my happy dearies around me!



I managed to finish the book I mentioned last post - Made from Scratch - Discovering the Pleasures of a Handmade Life by Jenna Woginrich. I very much enjoyed it, having been through many of her newbie farm experiences myself. Here's a little excerpt from the "Chickens, the most exciting lawn accessory since lawn darts" chapter:

"After a few songs, I arrived at the post office. It was a small building you could've mistaken for a storage shed if you drove by too fast (which I did, and had to turn around). When I knocked on the back door, an old man with a basset hound greeted me and handed over the loudest cardboard box ever. I placed it in the backseat of my toasty Subaru and continued down the road to Diana's homestead - Floating Leaf Farm. A steep hill and some twists and turns later, I pulled into the driveway of the cedar-shingled, log cabin-style farmhouse. After all the snow we'd had recently, it would've passed for something on the label of a maple syrup bottle if it weren't for the year-old steer walking down the driveway to join the rest of its gang."

The author has a very nice blog: http://www.coldantlerfarm.blogspot.com/.

3 comments:

Cait O'Connor said...

The book sounds good, I shall visit the website too, thanks for the recommendation.

alison said...

I hope you like it as much as I do, Cait!

Nan said...

Glad you're home safe and sound. I loved the excerpt and am off to look at the site. Thank you. The times I've picked up baby chicks at the PO are some of my happiest memories. We used to get them every two years, and we'd split the 16 with someone, but three years ago we kept all 16, and still have enough chickens around to give us plenty of eggs so we didn't order this year. We don't kill them, you see, so they go on and on until Tom finds a dead one in the barn. Dominiques are an awesome breed. I wanted to tell you that I've just 'met' another blogger from Wisconsin - http://mammamiadays.blogspot.com/