home – Pumpkin Hollow Farm

Hooked on Homesteading

Posted on September 8, 2020September 8, 2020 by Farmgirl

6:30 am: The wind howled at fifty miles an hour all night, folding pieces of the greenhouse and threatening loose objects. My wwoofer, Maycee, and I rapidly pick green tomatoes, filling two large canning pots, saving all we can. The tarp and blankets only cover 15×4 feet of tomato plants. We cover the zucchini and bid farewell to everything else in the gardens. All of the beautiful flowers at their peak. The beans nearly ready, but not quite. The squash and watermelons and peppers and dozens of other vegetables that won’t make it through the sudden cold front that is upon us. Tonight the freeze starts and the snow will come, heavy and suffocating. And cleansing. The fires here in Colorado have been awful and the dense moisture will lower the smoke, clean the air, and usher us into another season.

Green tomatoes will turn red if set out on tables or windowsills.

I mourn the plants I am not ready to see fold back into the earth. This freeze is a good month earlier than expected. Autumn has been sneaking up slowly though. We watched the corn change to crisp seemingly overnight. And birds in masses gathering frantically. The grapes brought in to the winery for crush a month early, as are the pumpkins we brought in the other day. Yes, the seasons change in our lives without us being ready and all we can do is flow.

My husband’s photo of our squash bounty!

8:30 am: My friend Annie that used to live with me (the one who grew up with my children and comes to help me can on the weekends, the one who is now hooked on homesteading after living with me!), she sends me a photo of her new pressure canner with excitement. This lifestyle is captivating. It is addictive and satisfying in a way that is hard to explain. The young people are often just now being introduced to it. And that is good. Our world needs more self sufficient people. More homestead/community minded folks.

10:30 am: The fire is stoked and the heat carries through the house. It seemed strange to be hauling wood in yesterday. It was nearly a hundred degrees outside. The clouds float towards us over the mountains. I look brightly at my shelves, filled with well over three hundred jars of vegetables and preserves for winter. Our friends came to visit us yesterday and stayed for lunch. They brought us a lot of frozen wild meat. We don’t often eat meat because we despise the factory farms of the world. But these items along with what other friends have gifted us, feel like bundles of sustenance, waiting for the dutch oven upon the wood stove. They feel like amazing gifts for winter.

Our pantry wall looks like the finest art installation!

11:30: A large basket of beans was brought in to further dry and to shell in the week ahead. The tomatoes will be set out to turn red. We are full from Kleinur (Icelandic beignets) that I fried this morning. Hot cups of coffee warmed us after scurrying around the farm gathering vegetables and unhooking hoses, checking on the animals, and we are now settled by the fire.

Cherokee black beans will be shelled for soups and many dishes in the coming winter.

The children are coming for a harvest festival here on Saturday. It will be gloriously autumnal by the end of the week with temperatures in the seventies and eighties. We will still have a lot of work to do- with cleaning up the farm, setting up the trellising and posts for the vineyard, fixing the greenhouse, cleaning up garden beds, and canning the rest of the tomatoes, potatoes, and pumpkins. There is sauerkraut on the counter that will be ready to can next week as well. The season comes to an end then we will be vacationing in Colorado wine country and visiting friends.

The new shawl I made on my loom with my favorite colors!

I will then settle in with my loom and create new pieces. Work at the winery on weekends. Enjoy the fruits of our labor of summer. Bid farewell to wwoofers and intense heat, and welcome in fall. Everything has a season.

Our Family

Time at Home

Posted on March 26, 2020 by Farmgirl

The governor issued a Stay at Home order until April 11th. I was livid. I was supposed to go see my granddaughters this weekend. We have three birthdays coming up (including mine). We have celebrations and a life to live. And now we can live it in the living room alone. I was mad. In 2009, the swine flu took 10% of its victims. I was preparing medicine for many who had it while they waited in my home- I without fear- because social media was still new and we didn’t have the mass panic and election year, so it didn’t garner all this nonsensical attention. Covid-19 isn’t going anywhere, and the longer it takes for us to face it, the longer it will take for us to gain immunity and the longer it will take people to get back to work. Because, you know, the landlords aren’t closed. (Imagine me storming around the kitchen seething.) Anyways, it wasn’t my prettiest moment of depression, and of course, out of the blue, two of my best friends called me back to back, because we are all connected, quarantine or not.

Deep breath.

“Everyone has a different perspective,” Tina said, “For some, like you, this seems crazy, but to someone else, they might finally be able to breathe.” People are able to step out of society as it is and take a break and restore in the comfort of their homes.

This too shall pass.

I think of my great-grandparents during the depression and compare it to today with empty grocery store shelves and job losses every minute. But hopefully we can recover more quickly. This isn’t the end of the world. I know people are scared. I know the media is having a great time. I know that viruses will always come to steal the breath of our loved ones for as long as we are on this planet. What I need to know is how to cope right now. The laundry stares at me, goat poop laden towels, dishes and dust and dirty floors. I like my little breaks from being a housewife, but here we are, 24-7. I need a new perspective. Perspective changes everything.

My husband is working from home. We joke about traffic in the hall and the two crazy drivers (the kittens) that might cut you off. I don’t have to pack his lunch. We get to have lunch together each day and his commute is thirty seconds.

The gorgeous spring blue sky stretches over the globe of western prairie and crests over the mountains that surround my little farm and I can breathe here. I can hoe some rows, run with goats, look for eggs, play with the dog, water the garden.

I can curl up on the couch and caress the soft fur of a cat while reading one of the many books I snagged from the library right before they closed down. I can listen to records or bake a pie. Or do nothing at all. (Which of course just makes me more antsy.)

I can talk to loved ones on the phone. I can write letters. I can catch up with people that I care about. And those that love me will catch up with me too. There are an awful lot of “friends” on social media, but this quarantine time will show us our true family.

I will have time to pray and write and think and organize or nap and bottle feed goats. I will have time with my husband. I will have time.

Vanessa called right after Tina. She was sitting on the porch with her children listening to the owls hooting in the trees and enjoying the warm spring evening at sunset. The natural world goes on.

And in the end, we will all remember this year and we will all have extra toilet paper on hand. The seed companies will be bustling with orders. And we will appreciate all the more coffee with friends, hugs from children and grandchildren, and freedom.

In the meantime, stay well out there. What are you all doing during this time at home? Please comment!

Farmgirl Decorating

Farmhouse Remodel: Phase 2

Posted on February 27, 2020 by Farmgirl

It is such a lovely home just the way it is. I was wondering about my crazy ideas this morning before demo began! But this is our farmhouse and it needs to work for us! Sure, there is a strip of floor and a strip of wall missing now- all which can be covered and repaired in time. The other thing that is missing is the wall!

Our decidedly not-built-by-a-homesteader 1993 home just didn’t have a few things we needed. Like storage for over 500 jars of produce come fall. It also had a weird 3/4 wall, which seemed to be an afterthought, and blocked all the nice light and ambiance of a wide open kitchen/living room/dining room.

When we first moved in six months ago, I decorated in modern Scandinavian-inspired elements and furniture. Oh heck, I even bought electric lamps. You know how it goes when you start over and everything has to be new and different? Yea, well I probably could have saved some money by purchasing second hand because no sooner had Yule hit and the house was becoming our style again. Homey, homesteady, old fashioned, grandma style. Like come in-kick off your shoes- sit by the oil lamp- and read style. It’s good stuff.

We had a modest stipend thanks to a rebate we received and we decided to use that to affordably, mindfully remodel our home in three phases. The first phase happened last week when we put in expansive, gorgeous shelves all across the north wall. Read here.

Today, the wall came down!

The next phase is painting the cupboards. What do you think? Olive green (kind of 1800’s style)? Chalk board paint- that would be lots of fun! (Too much black?)

It is all coming together. This is the best time to do farmhouse remodeling because soon we will have our hands in the soil and the house will be but a place to rest and drag mud through. A home should be a place of respite. It matters not how new it is or how worn. Small elements can create a space of comfort and calm, of peace and memory-making.

Homestead

On the Verge of Spring at Pumpkin Hollow Farm (an enchanted life)

Posted on March 15, 2019 by Farmgirl

Petunia is still rather plump, even after having babies last autumn. She is very fluffy and so cute I wish she would come in the house to live, but of course squirrels don’t typically enjoy living in the house. She sits next to me on the porch as I eat my lunch on warm days. I just watched her from the picture window jump from limb to limb. I need to put more bird seed and peanuts out. The Blue Jays are making such a racket. They do despise when I am late.

Hundreds of lovely, chirping sparrows reside here. As do many doves and starlings. Crows fly over. Owls can be heard in the night. Hawks stop to rest. Sea gulls and geese fly over towards the lake. A third of an acre in the city sure can be a wild life haven. I love it here.

The chickens from the factory farm that we rescued are plump and quite loud. They run towards me bow legged and squat, hollering like miniature geese. They love to eat and are firmly against being on a diet. “We are not broilers here, Dears,” I remind them, “You do not need to get so fat!” Dixie is still tiny. My granddaughter renamed the infant rooster, Bob.

I am fervently manifesting and saving for a greenhouse. The ducks come April 20th.

My classes are chosen for the autumn session of college.

I am quite sore from teaching dance last night. I am teaching two herbalist classes. Just keeping busy until I can be in my gardens full time!

I leave in three weeks for ten days in Arizona and New Mexico for my birthday. Such wonderful blog posts I will write!

The seedlings are doing well. The ground is softening. I am teaching a gardening class Sunday to plant potatoes that have taken over the cupboard.

My friends are here visiting for the weekend. I have so many dear friends. I am so lucky.

Such a slow, lovely, blessed, ordinary, extraordinary life I lead. And that, my friends, is what is going on at Pumpkin Hollow Farm on the verge of Ostara and the equinox. Spring is next week! Here it is quietly arriving.

What is happening on your homestead this week? I am honestly interested!

Farmgirl Decorating

Decorating With Notes of Spring

Posted on February 12, 2019 by Farmgirl

The air has a slightly different feel to it. A different scent. The cold is still there. I bundle up as I go out to do chores. But there is a tinge of something else upon the morning breath. Life. Spring. By all indications, it is still the dead of winter, but I sense it. I sense the pulse of the earth strengthening and the awakening of the plant world beneath it all. Spring is coming.

20190212_082639 — Pick up miniature roses from the grocery store. Water once a week. They will live until you can transplant them outdoors. I had miniature roses grow three feet high in the garden before!

My home is still in the dead of winter. Warm blankets caress chairs and the furnace is on. The sun shines like a spotlight through the closed windows, still low in the sky. My spirit falls more easily into stress and I long to be in the garden. To be outside with a book without wind chill. What to do? The only thing I can do is to introduce notes of spring into the house.

Plants always infuse spring and life into a place. These are the babies from my very large aloe. Last week I transplanted them into a new pot. Its wide berth lets them spill out and catch the sun, giving a warm desert feel to this corner. The cheap pots at Walmart are usually my go-to. I love their cheery celadon, rouge, and artist blue colors, but sometimes it is nice to get a special pot that reminds you of something you love. In this case, the land of the southwest where my heart and inspiration dance.

It still gets dark out early so candles are still throughout the house. These Catholic prayer candles sans saints are perfect and long lasting. I used an old Coca-Cola crate to hold them.

Found bird nests and unique pieces of wood and stone are set carefully around the house to bring nature in.

My Farmhouse sign (bought at Cracker Barrel of all places!) doesn’t have a place on the wall right now because I have all my own bright paintings up but it seems cheery on the floor against the wall amongst the geraniums and other plants.

I seem to collect things with bicycles on them. Bicycles with baskets. I love the idea of them. I love the freedom of them. The perk of being in the city. The promise of warm breezes and exercise and French bread in the basket picked up from the bakery or fresh flowers. I have coffee cups with bicycles with baskets that say things like “Do More of What Makes You Happy.” My daughter, Shyanne, gave me a small bicycle statue. So Doug gave me a bike for my birthday last year. With a basket. I only rode it a few times before the tires were inundated with goat heads. But a kind friend came over three different times to fix my tires, fill them with fix a flat, put on my basket and other accouterments (a bell included!) and I am ready to take off on the first nice day without Nordic winds. The bike had a place on the porch but I brought it in. It adds notes of spring and whimsy to my living room.

Lastly, I picked up a snazzy pair of bright galoshes. Oh, spring, I hope to see you soon!

Our Family

The Beloved Family

Posted on November 5, 2018November 5, 2018 by Farmgirl

There is a very large photograph in Aunt Donna’s basement of her as a young woman, dark hair, slim figure, standing primly in a beauty pageant. Her forties hair swirled perfectly and her lovely face and smile… my Shyanne looks very much like her.

Aunt Donna is my grandma’s sister. I say ‘is’ even though she passed away on Halloween. She is mentioned throughout this blog many times as my gardening guru, my insight to family history and spirituality, and my friend. At eighty-nine years old, she left behind a family that she had helped keep together over decades. The matriarch. I shall miss visiting her. I shall miss her home. I shall miss asking things like, “What do I do with Jerusalem artichokes?” after a day of harvesting sumac and Oregon grape root, or apples, or grapes or Jerusalem artichokes.

Family is beloved.

44037225_10215687162308748_1147879041202651136_o — My own beautiful family. (From left: Reed, Emily, me, Maryjane, Doug, Andrew, Bree, Shyanne, Jacob)

Family looks differently to different folks, indeed, but a family is a family. Even though the actual definition is of blood and descent, I feel the dictionary ought to update. I was born into a very large family. As I grow older in the line, the family line changes and we all take different places. My grandmother is now the matriarch. There are many pieces missing in between, either from death or distance or apathy, they move away or fall apart or come closer and evolve.

45033191_2434233349925447_8651717481804595200_n — Maryjane’s beloved Aunt Pat (my dear friend)

My granddaughter, Maryjane, knew Aunt Donna. She knows my grandparents on one side. She also called my friend, Kat, grandma and calls Rod, grandpa. She calls my great friends, Auntie and Uncle. The harsh lines of lineage change and soften. Maryjane’s Pa adopted all my children when they were very small. There is no question that he is their father and his entire side of the family can be found penned into Ancestry.com as such. My lovely, dark skinned sister and brother are as much my brother and sister as my blond brother and sister.

10473185_904162309599233_7067065576786265761_n — Four of the five of us. (From left: Patrick, Vanessa, Joel, me)

And to Maryjane there is no difference between anyone. If they are in our lives, they are family. Community and family and friends intertwine and become stronger. Find those that bring you joy and choose to spend time with them. Call once a week, pen a note and send it off. Be there. Be present. Be kind. Be thankful. Because family, made up of the kindest and those that love us, is beloved.

28951916_2108987399116712_726039160254627840_n — My world.

Farming

Putting the Garden to Bed (compost, adding new beds, bulbs, and there’s no place like home)

Posted on November 1, 2018 by Farmgirl

Gardening need not be expensive nor incredibly difficult. By necessity I have come up with ways to make widespread, prolific gardens quickly and easy on the homestead pocket.

The first thing that is imperative to a great garden is compost. Compost is one of those things that still baffles folks a little. You do not need a fancy, turning contraption to make compost. Doug screwed together five pallets to make two open spaces and it is tucked into a far corner of the yard.

The chicken coop certainly adds to it. In the fall the chicken bedding gets changed and the soiled straw goes into compartment one. For six months I add leaves, coffee grounds, lint from the dryer, food the chickens don’t like, and it builds up. Repeat in the spring, only use compartment 2. Put on the garden beds what you began six months ago and do this in the spring and fall. I do not turn the compost or water it or do anything to it really. It just does it’s thing. If it smells, add dry material like straw or newspaper or leaves. If it is not decomposing at all, add more wet items like food scraps or grass. Let the chickens play in it, they scratch it up nicely.

Time to clean out the garden beds. I let the plants go to seed. Next year Mother Earth will grow dill, basil, carrots, spinach, arugula, and many other plants for me. Everything is pretty well frozen and quite deceased so out they go and into the compost. Perennials and winter greens stay put.

Add a layer of compost. Then a layer of warm straw. Not thick enough to suppress weeds (because the water won’t get in) but enough to keep the soil cozy.

I have a third of an acre here and I am only gardening a quarter of it. But, we haven’t even been in this house two years; the changes in this property over that time have been impressive. As always, I want more garden beds!

20180710_070506 — These easy beds create abundant crops and very few weeds!

This is my own design; a very easy gardening bed that combines many great techniques. Lay out cardboard where you want your bed. No need to rototill or disturb the beneficial guys underground. Ring with wood you have on hand, rocks, bricks, anything really, use your imagination! Then top with a 2 inches of thick straw. You can add your compost and soil now or wait until spring.

I am adding a bed that runs alongside the other one and putting an arbor over them. Next year I will grow pumpkins over them (and will try to outsmart the squash bugs). It will create an enchanted walk through that leads to the house or the gardens while freeing up space in the garden. Pumpkin Hollow Farm is moving up!

Plant tulip and daffodil bulbs and lots of garlic cloves.

Everything looks great! The garden is put to bed, the new spring beds are ready for next year, and the perennials are snug in straw. Bulbs are planted, muscles are tired, and the farmer is happy.

All this wondering what to do now that I don’t have my businesses. Should I go to school? Should I get a job outside my writing? Should I…? And as I spent the day hauling compost, designing beds, standing in the next herb garden, dreaming, being present, working hard, I realized that this is what I want to do. This is where my heart is happy. At home. Creating home.

Homestead

The Humble Housewife

Posted on October 9, 2018October 9, 2018 by Farmgirl

My mother was a housewife. It was easier and more affordable for her to stay home with all of us kids. We started caring for foster babies when I was young so there were no less than five of us at any given time. The home was her domain and everything was tidy and clean and healthy supper was on the table nearly every night. In the evenings she and my dad would often escape together to go get a Coke and take a drive with the portable cassette player singing tunes sans children. I always assumed she would get a job when we all moved out. But she didn’t. It took awhile for me to realize, she has a job. And even though my dad is retired, she still has the job. She is a full-time homemaker.

Women are brilliant nurturers, mothers, and just asking one’s husband to get something that is clearly right in front of him in the cupboard but he can’t find it is proof that the home is our domain. Men are our warriors, our providers, our heavy lifters. There are exceptions, of course, but homesteading on a prairie practically off-grid taught me that our roles are not to “put us in our place” or “keep us in the kitchen,” they were (are) practical ways for survival. Yes, we can all switch roles, but it took Doug a quarter of the time to chop wood, move hay, or fix something. And if he goes to clean something, put something away, or heaven forbid, sew something, odds are I am going to have to do it again so we just stuck to our roles! Men innately take pride in providing for the family. Women in the past always took care of the children, took care of the home, took pride in their work, and would often make a little extra money for the household by selling hand crafted items.

We have noticed over the years of raising children, and even as empty nesters, that when I have a job we spend more money. At that point, I don’t have time to clean the house so we hire a house cleaner. I don’t have the energy to cook so we go out. I need a break so we go do something. We spend a lot of money and eat terribly.

I always stayed home or had my own business that I could take my kids to when they were growing up, but what about now? I think about the judgment I passed on my mother in my late teens for staying home and making dad “do all the work.” Is that how society will view me? Now that my businesses have closed we have been talking about me being a homemaker. We are modern homesteaders in the city. We preserve as much food as possible. We have chickens. I crochet and quilt and sew. We use a wood stove in the evenings. I write books and this blog and I do get some small royalties. I teach a few classes in my home and I am an herbalist. Can I give myself permission to be a homemaker too?

We purposely chose a city where our mortgage payment can easily be covered by one person. We don’t have fancy cell phone plans or cable. We have designed a life where I can be a housewife, which is where I am happiest. I love nurturing, folding warm clothes, having a hot meal ready when my husband gets home from work, having the errands done so we can relax together on the weekends, hand making Christmas presents, caring for my animals, and being there when my grown children and grandbabies need me. It is the hardest job I can think of but it suits my busy, independent nature just fine. Yes, I think I will thrive here.

If we give ourselves the option to be anything and to do anything, let us also give ourselves the right to be homemakers. May we all give more respect and honor to the housewives, the homemakers, the stay-at-home Mamas, and the stay-at-home Grammies in our society for they keep the heart of the family and home beating strong.

Homestead

Footprints ‘Cross the Floor (the fallacy of the clean farmhouse)

Posted on February 28, 2018 by Farmgirl

Now I said it with my mom voice. You know the mom voice? Even if the kids grow up and move out the voice still finds its way around.

“No shoes in the house!” I says. Best mom voice.

No…(pause)…shoes in the…(pause)…house pleease!

Now I am married to an independent man but one that likes (wisely) to keep mama happy. He comes in from work- tired and hungry- and takes off his shoes first thing. He stashes them below the sofa so the puppy doesn’t play with them. He puts on his bedroom slippers.

And then! Later he walks out the back door in his slippers, through the chicken yard, into the chicken coop, gathers eggs, and comes back in tracking chicken straw, mud, and myriads of stickers, his big, doofy pup following with large paw prints ‘cross the cleanish kitchen floor.

Well, they ain’t shoes, I guess.

Now Folks, the idea of the perfectly clean house is a fallacy designed by gents in suits selling the finest cleaners and somehow it stuck. Only the very bored and those that have lost a hobby or two have a perfectly clean house, in my mind.

There is clutter, and dishes, and overnight guests, and animals galore, and laughter, and spilt wine, and a dog on the sofa. The dust falls like fairy dust and the home is cozy and fine as it should be.

So, y’all, I look at them two traipsing across the kitchen floor that was clean for five minutes. Pa hands over the eggs and the hundred pound puppy drools on the floor, both waiting for mama to smile.

And my heart swells, and I do, because that’s what brooms are for, and puppies, and husbands, and kids, and guests were always more important than footprints ‘cross the floor.

Our Family

Geraniums Mean Home. Geraniums Mean Love.

Posted on February 23, 2018February 23, 2018 by Farmgirl

The memory of walking up the steps to my great-grandmother’s bungalow as a young girl is still vivid to me now. Every summer the wide, cement porch railing would be filled with geraniums. The lush greenery topped with clusters of brightly colored flowers waved in the warm air. Geraniums mean welcome to me.

I have a dream of going to Italy. One day. One day. In all of the pictures I see of Italy, there they are. The trailing, fiery red blooms hugging ancient stones and leading the way to the cucina door. Geraniums. Geraniums mean home to me.

I gathered them at the farmer’s market years ago. These are maybe five years old. They have grown and become enormous specimens. They have followed us on our adventures and hog the south window. They wait for late spring like I do to be set back out on the porch. Geraniums mean sit a spell and relax to me.

Today is our wedding anniversary. I heard him sneak out of the house at 4:00 am. Past the geraniums that were still asleep, but I was not. He drove all over town looking for a place that was open so he could bring me flowers before heading to work at five. He says I have made this house a home. Our forever home. I have filled it with flowers and unusual plants. Poinsettias bloom red in the windows. Towering aloes and tiny bamboo. I want to make this house a home to him because he has made it home for me.

As he approaches the door after a day of work and passes the pots of geraniums I hope they speak of home. When guests arrive and marvel at their display of bright pinks and romantic reds, I hope they feel welcome. One day we will travel to Italy and see the geraniums and think of ours at home. We shall sit on the porch and count our blessings, sweet tea in hand, and watch as the geraniums reach for the sun and glimmer in the summer day. And when I am passed, I hope the sight of geraniums reminds my grandchildren of climbing the steps to a place they were loved. Geraniums mean love.