Winds of Change

As I sit on my bed, Winter Chill Wood Chuck cider by my lap, I listen to the sweet notes of Lonesome River Band and the soft, steady fall of the rain. The last gasp of winter seems to be hovering just on the horizon, a chill coursing down from the mountains into the lows of the valley. They are not the long winds of change a-blowing. My workplace environment is becoming very hostile and I have started look for a new place of employment. I've put in a few applications but it is very frustrating. I try to concentrate on things other than the stress the needful change creates in me. Things like being grateful for the rain, no matter how cold it is because it means more flowers in the coming weeks. The delicious dinner in my belly, the cold cider on my lips slowly easing away the aches and trials of the work day. The promise of Friday so near and a week's good pay. The sweet smile of a handsome young man, the laughter of my family downstairs as the storm rolls slowly in. My cat, Durellen, who curls up on my bed, purring so deep and so steady.

Oh yes, I am blessed. No need to tell me that my troubles are small, few and far between.

This change will come and bring with it new challenges and new pleasures. Spring has given me many gifts in her infancy, maybe Summer will be just as kind.

Every day above ground is a good day, for we are grateful for the time we have been given.

Plans and Petals

I found these lovely yellow dandelions on my journey out to the park behind Four Corners here in Rockford, Tennessee.  


I cannot tell you, my beloved readers what it means to me for spring to be here. Winter is a needful time but it is a hard time on both the body and the spirit. However, Spring always returns and this year was no different.

The flowers are blooming, the ground softens and the Clan makes ready for honey bees, garden expansion and other home related projects as the weather improves. Many plans are in the works for this year of 2015, which already feels short.






Both Seamus and I are working on novels, this will be my first were it is his fourth. Colin readies himself for a large project at Intelikenetics and Ang works through a new prescription of medication.
Rhi looks toward boot camp as she contemplates her career in the Navy and Keiran struggles with the growing pains familiar to everyone who was ever 16.

Briar Rose will be three years old this year and I start contemplating preschool, toddler beds, doctor's appointments, and we continue doing GREAT with potty training.

My girl is really eager to master her hygiene skills. I couldn't be more proud of my little Rose.

Happy Sunday to all. :D

She came back!

Spring came back to me. At last, my heart can rest because my beloved is here.

Crocus flowers are often said to be the first sign that Spring is here. These lovelies appeared on the first warm, sunny day we had. I had to take a picture of them; it had been so long since I had seen anything green much less purple. It's a relief. Winter serves his purpose and gives way to the maiden, who sings so sweetly in the voices of birds and the humming of honeybees.

I have nothing really to report and I wish I could be more industrious. The Clan is well, money is in, food is plentiful and Glen Campbell plays softly "Gentle on my mind" on my laptop. I promised I would stay up long enough to see all the Clan come safely home and so I will. I will entertain myself with an episode of House of Cards( just one....Gods above and below...I cannot stay up too late. I have been awake since 5:30am Friday morning.)




*yawns* Oh Gods, let me make it to midnight.  Merry evening all. Enjoy these blooms and know I hope that your own gardens will be bursting with flowers and fruit, veggies and virtues. I will report more on Sunday.

Thank you, Little Seed Farm

This week the Heart of Home blog has the pleasure to highlight Little Seed Farm out of  Lebanon, Tennessee. Established in 2012, James and Eileen are making big contributions to sustainable agriculture here in Tennessee. Their small batch approach to organic skincare products have made a name for themselves.

I found these mini bars, 2.4 oz, at Kroger on 9501 South Northshore Drive, Knoxville, TN 37922. The red labeled box is "Rose" and the green labeled box is "Rosemary-Mint". I paid $3.98 for each and let me tell you what, they smell absolutely wonderful. These soaps are crafted with exquisite card using milk produced by the goats down on Little Seed Farm. One of the things I that drew my eye to the soaps were the sketches of each of the dairy goats that comprise Jame and Eileen's herd. These soaps contain organic oils, sustainable produced goat milk, NON GMO components, humanely produced and made here in the USA. On top of smelling fantastic and having a lovely texture on the skin, I am pleased to know I am giving my family an ethical and safe product.

The larger bars come in 4.75oz and Kroger was offering them for $5.98 two days ago when I visited. Little Seed Farm also offers products for babies, including booty balm for chapped baby buns. As a mother it is a true pleasure seeing products that are specifically created for children, like my daughter Briar Rose.

Please click the link above to check out Little Seed Farm. The farm also offers tours and classes; I am considering trucking down there with a portion of the Clan for the next soap making class. Other scents in the soap collection include lavender, cocoa spice, milk, kefir & clay and orange vetiver. A special and heart felt thank you to James and Eileen for bringing their products to the table of the green movement here in Tennessee. For my family, I can say we are looking forward to seeing more of Little Seed Farm in the years to come. Good luck and gods bless.

Honey bees, flowers, trees, gentle rain and home again.

The nucs are on order and the hives are painted, a bright and cherry blue that reminds me of Cookie Monster, fuzzy and covered in crumbs. The cold has broken but there is still a week until Spring and I won't set to seed before I am sure we are clear of a frost threat. My first flowers have bloomed, strange deep purple blossoms with bright yellow-orange pollen. The snow has melted and it its wake, days in the 60s and rain every day. Lovely, gentle sweet rain that makes dark auburn mud and puts smiles on the faces of everyone with a green thumb. The trees are starting to look alive again, budding blood red berries and leaving the pavement looking as if it has been showered in tiny rubies. Another long week of house cleaning is under my belt and now the weekend is mine. Well, maybe it is more honest to say I belong to the weekend. With the Clansmen gone for the weekend, I step firmly into my role as matron, taking charge of the guardianship, protection, law and entertainment of the Clan. What this means is tomorrow I get to get them all in the car, drive to the Y for our exercise hour and then take them all out of pizza to celebrate Pi Day. Would that all people had a Clan, so that they could treat them in turn. Tonight I pass out a cider ration for everyone but the smallest girl child, two at the tender age of two is snug in her bed by 8:30pm with her stuffed shark and a quilt shaped like a giant teddy bear, made by her Grandmother. I sip my Smith & Forge and listen to the gentle rain, let the cider tickle down my throat as if down my weary bones, soothing them.

Home. This is where I want to be. I never say "One day when I don't have to work anymore, I'll stay at home." Mostly because there will never be one day, for the rest of my life, where work will not be an important and needful responsibility of mine. It will also be a circumstance of pure joy, for one day I will work upon the homestead and the only home I will clean is my own. I will milk goats, tend hives, weed gardens and when the pyment is done, drink and dance naked under the moon.

Were you paying attention? *chuckles*

For now, my fine fellows, I tuck into a bed for a little well deserved sleep. Good night and may your Friday 13th be a safe and cautious one.

A love letter for Spring

One gorgeous spike in the temperature had me out in my favorite t-shirt and smiling like a child. It wasn't to last, as the dark clouds rolled in and the cold wind began to race over the land. Tomorrow they are calling for slush, sleet and rain...possibly even snow and I groan. I am so ready for Spring it hurts, aching deep in my bones like a love sick girl waiting for that oh so special phone call. I keep looking to the calender, hoping the passing of days will bring me close to that lovely time of growth I crave so much. I got a Whole Seed catalog last week because

a) I want to plan heirloom EVERYTHING this year

and...

 b) I apparently wanted to punish myself.

It is almost as if my nails are crying out for dirt to be under them, my palms lusting for a fine coating of sod and compost. I can't get watermelons out of my head and if I thought I could, I would happily live off that ruby red flesh for all of the summer and more. I roll out the paper of my heart and heart full of wanting, scribe my desires.

Dear Spring, Heart of my Heart.


I never loved Winter, you must believe me. I wish nothing more than your quick and gentle rain storms, your mud and hazy warm days. Give me red clover, give me tender lettuce shoots and little leaves on Brown Turk fig trees. Spring, baby, come back. You can blame it all on me. Just know that I cannot grow without you. 

Love with dirty hands,
A.N

Snow Days

It's been more than a week since I have been at work. I have come in a grand total of two and half days since. The world is layered in ice, snow, melt, and refreeze. It makes the comings and goings around Knoxville, Tennessee very challenging. Needless to say, I won't be going anywhere this week between the lack of funds and inclement weather.

All that said, do not thank I am not grateful for the snow. This is much needed water soaking back into the Tennessee River basin, swelling the water table and giving some much needed time to think about the future homestead, search for properties and start writing the outline of my book. The Heart of Home blog is a beloved treasure and project of mine but I feel like it can be more. I am taken the first steps toward a true memoir and it is both exciting and daunting at the same time.


It is my hope that everyone who is stuck inside because of the weather has food, water, warmth and light. To all who had to forge out into the snow, I hope your travel is safe and your work not too difficult. We all have miles to go...

And in the mean time, we get GREAT books to get us along. Look what came in the mail! Through the snow storm no less!

The snow glare makes it hard for me to give a great smile but I am so pleased. :D

Looking For A Play To Shine

"Like fireworks, shooting to the sky.
I want to cover the dark with the light.
Like a diamond, sitting on a ring.
I'm just a girl who wants to be seen.
Every time.
I'm looking for a place to shine."

- Looking for a Place to Shine- Clare Bowen as "Scarlett O'Connor", Nashville.


Things I did during Snow Week

* Added four rows and finished my 100% wool scarf.

*Looked at more homesteading properties,.

* Made chocolate nib and almond cookies

*Added four rows to Ryder's baby blanket.

Exhausted from a day of clan activities, I leave you with the above words and hope that your own Clans are well, happy, healthy and safe.


A Happy Sunday to all and to all a good night.

In the land of the cold sunshine

"Under blue and silver sky, far from the sea snow-laden breezes, wild and free
come to do-si-do my love and me
in the land of the cold sunshine

where the highway runs, a scar, right through the snow

every turn a vista or a glittering plateau

we take the high road
through the land of the cold sunshine "
                                                                                                        -S.J Tucker "Cold Sunshine"


Here in Rockford and in all towns of the Tennessee Valley, everything is coated in ice. All the roofs sport icy teeth, all the tree coated limb from limb. It is cold, wind and white. Last night around 8pm we lost power and did not regain it until eight hours later. I awoke at 5am to being bathed in the golden light of my overhead lamp and reluctantly dressed myself to wander downstairs and attend the fireplace. The house was chilly but not badly so. Most of the house is made of red brick and prudence saw that I had turned on my space heater and charged my phone hours before the black out. We were low on candles but this family still manage to turn up five jar candles, one pillar and half a dozen tea lights. I found the old light blub keychain that, thanks to its LED bulb, made for a great little lamp. We made it through with plenty of water and food, if a little less light than we would like. The point was that, even during the black out, we were warm and prepared.

 Thank you Jenna Woginrich for the wonder blog about constructing a black out bag. I will be making one this week. That's Episode 14: Make a Black Out Bag for any who would like to take a peek. You can find her on Youtube or take a look at http://coldantlerfarm.blogspot.com/

I hope you all are snug in your own homes, your animals fed and clan warm by your side. Times like this remind me to be grateful for the comforts of this age but also grateful for the ice that will melt and fill our rivers, lakes and streams. We live in a cycle and this storms is but a part of it. Tomorrow I expect to return to my day job and even work Saturday to make up the hours we have missed. For into the yoke of work I slip my head and shoulders, for there are miles to go and miles on my heart.

Thank You, Postmaster!

Last week the first issues for 2015 New Pioneer and Mother Earth News came to the house. My hours have been filled with pouring over articles and ads, except for the handful I took to leave the house and attend the beautiful wedding of a dear friend, held at a church that was 146 years old. Sitting in that grand, old place I could feel peace in the very wood of pews and looking through the windows wondered if there was a woman who came before me, dark of hair and cool of eye, who sat in that very pew and gazed longingly at the silver sky beyond. Did she ever watch a wedding there, did she smile as her husband held her small, pale hand and did those cool eyes flick down to take in the warm glow of her wedding band? Did she sit their with her mother and father, waiting for the day her sweetheart came back from the war? The church was built in 1869, so did she wait for a handsome and good man in a grey coat to come back through the door. Did any of my ancestors see this church on their way home from the Civil War, did any of their blood stain this southern soil?

Such thoughts come easily to my dreamer's mind. As do Buff Orpington chickens and heirloom seeds, Kiko goats and Katahdin sheep. One day these will be mine, as well as pigs and turkeys. One day, like Jenna Woginrich did, I will find a unicorn in the shadow of my dream horse. Or in the eyes of my mule.

Bad weather is on the way to the Tennessee Valley and it has already dipped to -2 F last night. Today we warmed our tummies with shrimp and grits. I hope all of you out there are keeping warm, have plenty of food and water on hand with shelter for you and your animals. Happy Sunday and stay safe!

Love,
A.N