CSA Saturday! (Community Supported Agriculture)

Every saturday I go out, down the road to an organic farm that's in my 'hood - a farm that has a box of freshly picked organic veggies, herbs and fruit waiting for me! This year I was not able to get my own organic garden prepared fast enough to grow most of my own food, and I was lucky enough to remember that a few years ago at the Waynesville NC Farmers Market there was this awesome lady named Julie who was bringing boxes of food all the way from Hot Springs for her CSA members......
I totally called Mountain Harvest Organics up on da' phone and joined!

So here is how it works for me - since I am local instead of picking up my organic box of goodies at a market I go to the farm every saturday. I look forward to it all week long! I pull up to a barn, which has a second story that was converted into a house for the farm interns. (Neato, right? Right on...) Underneath that barn house are the freezers where my box is kept --- but before I show you that, check out their awesome greenhouses ... There are several greenhouses where food is being grown, to extend the seasons for their CSA members and their own kitchen table. This is in addition to the 4 acres of farmland they recently fenced in high enough to keep out the deer. There are also pigs and goats - which I hope to get to pics of another time for ya'll!

Inside this greenhouse is tomatoes - which I totally can not eat... the cool thing about a small organic CSA is that the owners Julie and Carl are kind enough to replace/substitute some other veggies for the shit I am allergic too...YAY!

I usually pick up some potted herbs and flowers too, for discounted prices - they said late in the season people don't buy them much at the market so I have been building an herb empire at the Luck Cabin for a very small fee --- herbs i use in cooking every single day.

After getting some live herbs, I go down under the barn house to the big industrial looking fridge to grab my box!

I buy the big box - there are two sizes and the big one is really for a family but since I cook every single meal from scratch every single day and rely heavily on vegetables as the part of my diet I CAN have - I pay $25 for the week of cornucopia. Pretty sweet deal when you realize how much you pay for all this in the store - I get things like bok choy, chinese cabbage, broccoli, onions, kale, lettuce, kohlrabi, radishes, turnips, squash, cucumbers..... and even had two weeks of the most DELICIOUS strawberries of my LIFE!!!

I stick my money in an envelope - for this farm, I pay either per week, per month, and I bet they wouldn't mind if you paid for the year too! ;)

BTW- my last name is kinda mis-spelled here .... it's pronounced REE_SHARD.

Thanks to Julie and Carl for making my life 100x's easier, better, and tastier!!!!!!!!!!

XOXO

Video: Smokey Mountain Bugs Part 3

BUgs! Bugs and more bugs, set to some seriously dramatic music by Bach....
Enjoy it :)

Xoxoxo

Guessing Game: WTF is This??!!

YAY, I know how ya'll like these guessing games - (if anyone's still around after my month of no computer, ha!)
As always this is something in nature, something that could look like something else --- the neat way most things mimic each other in shape or function.

Here is your HINTS:

• It will fly
• It is soft and delicate
• It is nocturnal

Alright ya'll got 3 days, WTF is it?

Xoxoxox

I Just Realized I Am The Neighborhood Witch

Do ya remember when you were a kid, and there was always some woman who was considered the neighborhood witch? There were all these requirements, evidence, cues to what made her a witch - what made her house, her yard the one you were sure to never touch for fear of being cursed, killed, or even eaten alive... a criteria that kinda crosses borders state to state, kid to kid - they all agree who's the witch.
The two major factors that lead up to becoming the neighborhood witch are (1.) you have to be a single woman who (2.) never had children ( obviously because you hate kids and put curses on them, plus you are cursed and that's why ya can't have them) - she has to be single cause no man is dumb enough to marry a real witch, for she would be more powerful then him.
BUT, there are many sub facts too, that prove the woman is a for sure 100% witch who will Get Ya' if she finds you near her house....
and I fit them all.
The darker, the blacker your hair the more witch you have in you (although it happens from time to time a single childless woman with blond hair will be the feared and accused)...

But even worse is if she has creepy shit around her house, like my chicken feet hanging from my front door... (other possible creepy shit consists of things like broken flowers pots and/or dead plants, too many smashed bugs, dog poop that never gets picked up, she never goes out or to church --- i don't fit all these but they are good examples!)

Another sub fact about the neighborhood witch is she always lives ALONE in the house that seems really odd for the 'hood it's in - either it's really big or way too small, a dark mansion or a ridiculous shack. I am the latter....

My neighborhood witch when I was little lived behind my grandparents house on Florence Dr. in New Orleans, she was a single woman who never came outside, she had no kids and kept her big creepy house really dark with no landscaping - there was always dog shit in her yard and for some reason this neglect meant to my kid logic she was for sure a witch who was stealing animals & probably eating people's dogs. Touching her grass would leave a curse on you forever...

Who was your witch? Tell me about her!

Xoxoxo

The Bat

This little bat fell down from the eaves of my cabin onto a ladder.... seeing a bat during the day is really neat because I could get a good look at how awesome, fuzzy, and sweet it was.

One thing I noticed, that also happens with large moths (like the Lunar Moth) is right before the bat prepares to fly it begins shaking or vibrating for at least 30 seconds or more then takes off into the air. This usually makes me think it's really stressed out and having a panic attack - but I think it may have some biological purpose in preparation for it's escape flight.

Look how fuzzy wuzzy. I almost touched it just to see... but it flew underneath my cabin to hide again and get a good day's rest before a nightly feast. I hope the bat eats up all the stupid mosquitoes coming out in the summer heat, cause they keep trying to eat me. :)

xoxox

Sustainable Living, Party For One?

In the pic above, that's me working on my gray water system which will filter all the water coming from my kitchen & bathroom sink plus my tub. I was lucky enough to have someone dig the hole when they were already around doing work with a back hoe machine... otherwise I planned to shovel the 10 foot by 4 foot, 12 inch deep hole myself with a shovel. Now I am working on shoveling gravel into a wheelbarrow then bringing it down to dump into the hole, then raking it out evenly... for a girl who weighs about 100 pounds, this shit is no joke!
*

The harder I work towards becoming sustainable, natural, eco friendly, & off grid the more I realize how difficult it is to achieve these goals by yourself. I have often wondered if working towards a functioning eco home on my own is a historically impossible task? The thing is, I have needed people, lots of people's various talents, skills, advice, a helpful hand - enough that it made me think how humans used to function before modern life allowed us to splinter into strong independence. Not true independence, but one that allows a person to do their entire life without another person around to lend a hand - grocery stores provide food, walmart type stores supply basic needs & then some - there is nothing a person can't buy, everything to "survive" is provided for. The independence is still on others to provide these things, but the comfort & illusion of doing it all yourself is there. (This is the kind of junk peek oiler's and apocalyptic folks love to brood on, the implications for those dependent on the system if it was to fail...leave ya rants in the comments section ;) ...)

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For me, I knew going into these projects they were going to be rough (yet fun) and slow going to create alone, I knew that humans naturally throughout history worked at living sustainably in tribes. People split up the tasks, everyone had their skill, and lived without needing money - the independence was from not needing help outside the tribe, but no one was or is truly independent (if ya know someone I am super interested to hear all about them, and tell them to come ova' my house and teach me how to do it!).

No one does everything alone, and I am realizing in order to set myself up to do it all alone, I am needing a pretty good amount of outside sources to help me achieve this. And alot of time during the first half of my life where I would have traditionally learned skills (but instead was stuck in school learning nothing I use except for reading and writing), I am now trying to do an entire tribes' job and learn every skill possible to survive independently, without hardly a soul to teach it to me. (we all know 'self taught' can take more time, it's a bit like reinventing the wheel.)

*

When people come over to my cabin to do a job (like cut a tree, build a wall, work with stone), I am the equivalent of a puppy dog following them around, watching everything they do, asking questions, trying to pick up even the slightest hint on how to better use a tool, how to repair, build, think, measure... apprentice to everything, master to only being an apprentice.

*

So for the modern woman (or man) who's dream is do to do what I am doing out here at my Luck Cabin, going at sustainability alone --- I want to say ... HOW Awesome Are WE? And how F-en crazy!

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The goal can not be total independence, but rather just plain ole' sustainability --- and for me I think I have been getting them totally confused. Gawd and baby jezuz, help my reclusive soul cause here comes my first union with community.

xoxoxXo

Building My Cedar Chest

Hey Ya'll! Here is a lil' video I put together about my trials and tribulations of building a chest made of cedar...
I made this chest to keep my natural fiber clothing from getting seriously moldy during the humid summers here in the Appalachian Mountains - it's really easy to make once ya learn a few tricks about putting it together. Building it myself made the $cost$ of the chest about 1/3 of the price I would have had to pay for one ($40 for the wood).
I love natural living on the cheap! ;)




Xoxoxox

Animal Tracking: The Appalachian Mountain Lion

That is one BIG padded paw! About the size of a large canine, but without the tell tale claw marks dogs leave behind (a distinct hole over each pad even in shallow dirt because dog, fox and coyote claws are not retractable.) A track without the claw holes is a feline track, and because these tracks were deep in the mud and there were at least several to look at all without canine claw mark --- I believe these are tracks made by the rarely seen, elusive, almost extinct and hotly debated Native Mountain Lion!

Some other signs that a mountain lion passed through by my cabin are during that week these tracks appeared my cat (a domestic cat named Toots) was terrified to go outside at night (and during the day) - I found more tracks down by my garden, all following along the path of the creek downward on the mountain. Also in this area where the tracks were, the deer tracks that normally were all over there disappeared for a time.

People in the appalachian mountains have argued for quite some time whether the Mountain Lion of the area was completely extinct now or whether a few remained well hidden - I have heard stories from a handful of reliable people who have seen the western north carolina mountain lion ( chasing a wolf in the snow in Brevard, through binolculars during a deer hunt in Hot Springs, gracefully hopping a fence at the top of a ridge in Marshall, sitting outside a chicken farm's large coop in Marshall...) --->

As for myself, aside from seeing these amazing tracks pictured here - 5 years ago in Weaverville, NC far back in the woods off Reems Creek Rd. around 3 a.m. I heard the scream of the mountain lion on top the ridge behind the little house I was staying - exactly as people describe it sounded like a woman screaming a blood curdling scream but was unmistakably an animal. It was chill inducing, and made it so I could not fall back to sleep- I knew exactly what it was when I heard it.

Another interesting twist on these tracks, was this was the same place I found what I thought were bobcat tracks... although those were washed away with the rain, a new set of bobcat sized tracks were only 7-10 feet away from these large feline tracks - possibly it could be a cub of the mountain lion and not a bobcat? That would be awesome. :)

What do you think? The "Painter" as the old timers called it was a feared animal, and between people shooting them on sight out of fear and the wiping out of deer at one point led to this now mysterious status for the native puma...

Do you believe they are still here?

After seeing these tracks behind my cabin, I do.

XOXOxox RRrrroar!

Big Green Shelled Snapping Turtle

Oh my gawd, being from Louisiana I have seen a good amount of snapping turtles in my life - some brown & ginormous, some tiny & crazy mean (lots of hissing and biting at me)... but this dark green shelled snapping turtle in the creek by my cabin is nothing like anything I have seen before.

Quiet, still, almost docile... HUGE, and most importantly not brown - like a snapping turtle of fairy tales rather then the pre-historic swamp monster ones i have loved.
It's shell and skin coloring blended in perfectly with rocks in the creek, the top of the shell being mostly smooth except for the jagged sharp edges on the back end leading to the long alligator tale.

If ya aren't sure just how big this gi-gantor turtle is... i tossed a quarter onto it's back for referance ---> check it out in the pics below.... and tell me if you can find any ID on what type of snapper this is? I tried looking it up, but having been offline for a month my search skillz are a lil' rusty.

That is freakin' big and beautiful! (not the quarter, the turtle.) ;)

PS - if ya wanna see something (someone) crazy... watch the turtle man video! I love him.

xoxo

Didn't Mean To...

keep ya'll hangin' on a limb... but I AM BACK, and oh what it took to get back online ---->
A whole new computer, downed trees & alot of serendipity (like chance, coincidence and universe alignment type shit)....

I have so much to show ya too!!!! What should I share first ::: the bat, the rare snapping turtle, the building of my gray water system, the awesome CSA farm I joined, the pretty moths, my cedar chest I built>>>???? Tell me!

xoxoxoox