my fierce little Frida

halloween

Ella had her friends over for a Halloween birthday party last night. I'm still reeling at the thought of having a twelve year old. She has been wanting to have a Halloween party for a few years now, and the time seemed right. They ate pizza, played on the slackline, told stories by the fire, and then brought a keyboard out on the porch and sang together. Then the boys chased the girls around in the dark until all the parents picked them up at eight. Perfect.

fermenting

This is a gallon sized jar, and my huge cabbage had this much liquid in it. The recipe has a whole cabbage, a beet, one and a half tablespoons of sea salt, a few inches of grated ginger, and a quarter teaspoon of ground cardamom. Ruby said her mouth was all puckered up ready to taste it, but I told her it has to sit for a few weeks to get sour.

thrift store chest of drawers chicken coop

I have three six week old chickens in my utility room, and it is time for them to head outside. My big chickens are molting and grumpy and would give them a hard time, so I made them a little coop of their own. I have two fenced runs right next to each other so they can get to know each other for a while.

I saw one of these coops on Pinterest and got an old dresser at Goodwill. The ladder and the roosts are made out of the wood from the drawers. I shingled the top and painted it red. The bottom drawer is left intact for easy pull out cleaning.

dirty little shakori

We went down to the Shakori Hills Festival of Music and Dance for a long weekend of camping. For me it was probably the hardest festival I've ever been to. I had a cold, it rained, and our neighbors never went to bed or stopped saying the f-word. The kids, however, had a great time. Ruby especially. She made herself a powerful magic wand and cast happy spells on everyone in her path.
She sang. She danced. She slept like a stone.