Thinking of spring

   Has anyone else noticed? Have you heard?  I have, the signs of spring are all around.

  Chance and I noticed that the Starlings beaks have turned yellow, a sure sign of spring because when it is winter their beaks are black.Thank you Rachel Carson for that interesting fact.Have you ever read "Silent Spring" ? It's a good book,read it soon.
 
   I noticed the crocuses blooming along our front walk,sunshine yellow pretties greeting us as we come in.The neighbors tree is turning pink with little buds along with our fruit trees and all of the other green growing things.

 Are the birds singing in the mornings at your house? The past few morning I have been awoken by the returning Robins singing the sun up.They were so loud the other morning I thought we had seriously overslept but we were fine,the birds were just being the proverbial early birds. And the neighborhood Crows know something is in the air,they have been a loud rowdy bunch too.I think the birds are happy to see spring coming and I could not agree more.

  Have you been thinking and planning? Dreaming up the spring time work to be done?

  I have been thinking ,wondering ,planning and a bit of dreaming as well. There are plenty of projects still to do here. Here is my list so far.
 
 Spring '11 to do:
   Plant only flowers in the bed bed we built last year,the neighbors cats think it is a big litter box so we shouldn't be eating anything grown there.(And since I am moving things due to the cats, they will,being cats,move on to a different spot. Sigh.)

  Turn our tree stump cluster into planters. A great friend of mine planted that idea in my head.I was telling her how I did not think the stumps would ever rot or would take many years to do so.She suggested cutting out each stump so it was like a planter or pot.Then filling with soil and planting in them.The idea is the plantings will make the stump rot faster.This makes a ton of sense to me.And besides it will look nicer than the ugly stumps.The idea works along the lines of what is called a "nurse log" ,you see these out in the woods,an old log partly rotten with plants growing out of them A thing that has been  part of my entire life but I just never thought about creating one here at home.
 
   Return the bulk of the vegetable garden  to the back original garden. I want to give some of the beds in the front a rest from the veggies that suck so much out of the soil. We will have to fence off the garden with bird netting to keep the chickens out.

  Figure out what in the heck to do with the odd space in front of the clothes line.This space is almost a half circle kind of pie shaped area where grass never lives for long.It needs some spiffing up.

  Build a trellis in front of our big living room window to match the ones on the other side of the house, to give us some shade in the summer. Planning to plant some vines of some sort to grow up the trellis.

  Make a trip to Sister's to visit our friends and bring home a bee hive they are saving for us.Then sign up for a wild swarm of bees.This is a huge dream of ours, to have our own bees. They will just add to our ecosystem here so much that it makes me giddy to think about it. The craziest part , I am allergic to bee stings. I have not needed an Epi-pen but one more sting and I will. I have great respect for the bees and I am hoping they will understand that. The bees that come to our garden and I have been able to learn to work side by side peacefully so couldn't that happen with our own hive? I think so. It's all about being fearless and respectful. 

  The list looks like a lot of work but when I look over it, its not any bigger than the lists from the past couple of springs. It's all things that can be done within chunks of time over the next few months.Before I sat down and laid out my list I was thinking I was running out of things to write about but after looking things over it looks like there are many more postings ahead of me.

  This afternoon we have had a break from the rain.We opened up the windows and doors to the house to let the air in.As I have been writing a cool breeze has been waltzing around filling the house the scent of spring.A nice break but it leaves me thinking of the people across the seas affected by the quake in Japan and the tsunami's that have hit many shore lines. Our thoughts and prayers are with one and all. Be safe and well.

 Rois

Can't fit it into a box, Can't label it, Can't trademark it.

    I  don't like labels or the labeling of people,life never fits into one box. I don't believe in living inside of a box either,how dull and constricting. And after 321 blog postings about my life it looks like summing up what we do into a neat paragraph is just not possible.
   When I started writing my blog I gave it and us the label of  Urban/ Suburban Homesteading/Homesteaders,it did not feel quiet right putting a label on our way of life but I did it.Why did I do it then? I did it so other like minded people out there in the world could find us, like a little beacon softly shinning, calling quietly "We are over here. Come visit us for a while.Let's share what we know.Let's learn how to do this together." So I could say "Oh dang,don't do this" like I wrote about waaay back in early blogging days about the failing of our Hay Bale Garden Beds.
   I can actually remember realizing that there are other people out there in the world doing what we do and that this movement was called "Urban Homesteading" Wow,I thought that was kind of cool.No one was doing it exactly the same way but we were all doing it under our own terms,just like my forefathers did.
   But underneath the sticky glue label of my life style lives the heart of things, I am simply living the standard my Grandparents and Parents set for me a long while ago. Be self sufficient, make,build, create,feed the hungry,be a steward of our home The Earth and think for yourself. You can't trademark my family culture or my moral beliefs,they are to complex to sum up in a paragraph written upon a legal document.As everyone knows each family is unique just like the DNA that courses through our blood lines.
  I have written in the past that we are not living this life to be part of a movement or trend,that it is simply how we live and I still stand tall next to that.I don't have to live with a label stuck to my lapel.I can support the need to end this trademark issue because well...it is ridiculous.Ridiculous like a temper tantrum, loud,offensive and short lived.But as parents know playing into a temper tantrum only  makes it worse,one needs to wait and look for a really clear shot so you can be swift and just.
  Here at Hrafinstaad we have and use a saying "Don't choose a side,Be a side."  What dose that mean? It means we are over here doing our thing,join in if you want,add something to what is going on but leave your hang ups,baggage and B.S at the door.So that is where you find us, at Hrafinstaad doing what ever we are currently doing,living by a long standing moral code and waiting to see the clear shot at swift justice.
 
   I started this post with the hopes to get it out by last Mondays call to Urban Homesteaders to blog about their lives and since being late is my current trend I got it out late.But I did do it. And until there is something really pressing this is my last posting about the trademark issue.
  Today is a Snow Day,no work or school. I have lived in the Portland area all of my life and have never seen it snow this late into the winter,so glad I have not planted any of my earliest seeds yet. I am baking today,partly because I was already planning on it and it will make the house nice and cozy. I am baking a carrot cake that I have been craving for the last week and since we are out of bread that will be baked as well.

Rois

FYI URBAN HOMESTEAD TRADEMARK MATTER | Little Homestead in the City

FYI URBAN HOMESTEAD TRADEMARK MATTER | Little Homestead in the City: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Since the letter requests that one not miss use these peoples information here is the link so I don't somehow get this screwed up.

It is a shameful day in my world.
Rois

Urban Homestead® — The Phrase Is Now Trademarked? | Apartment Therapy Re-Nest

Urban Homestead® — The Phrase Is Now Trademarked? | Apartment Therapy Re-Nest: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

All I can say about this bit of news is WTF? Excuse my language but it is the most appropriate phrase to fit my stunned mind. This goes so against one of the major roots of Homesteading that I can't begin to wrap my mind around it. It goes against the very ideas and morals of homesteaders, we need to share our information freely,most of us were not raised in households that taught these skills.It's about building and supporting community people! Not tearing down what we are trying to build by trademarking a long used phrase.
Do I now as a blogger have to go back through my blog and mark each and every time I have used the words "homestead" or "homesteading"?
Please read this and be sure to read what other bloggers are saying. And like you can read in the article what is next? Trademarking the word "garden" or how about "human being" ?

Rois

Patrick Conlin Metalsmith

I would like to invite all of you to visit our good friend Patrick Conlin's Blog. I have always loved his work but every once in awhile his work stuns me like a deer in the headlights.
Go check him out and let me know what you think...
Rois

Patrick Conlin Metalsmith: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

The Great Clean Out - loving what you have.

 Here starts part of the posting Blogger ate,I have added in updates and a new ending - A new ending partly because I could not exactly remember the ending and partly because I found a better ending.


 The Great Clean Out here is going better than expected.Lots of things have been shuffled off to be donated and more waiting to go to different places.
  This afternoon I am planning a trip to a local resale shop that buys from people.I have two boxes and a big basket full of little treasures I am hoping they will buy.All of  the things I am taking are still very useful and charming, to good to just donate.Hopefully I will get a nice fist full of cash that I will turn around and buy something we actually need.
    I was able to sell about half of my things to the first resale shop I went to,I have saved the rest to take else where to sell. I took the money and a bit from some baby sitting I did last week  and bought a beautiful wool rug from Tibet for in our inner hallway.* see below for more about this. 
  I also have a smaller pile of things to take to S.C.R.A.P  which is our local recycled art,craft,project very addicting shop. I love donating to S.C.R.A.P ,it is a place I can really support and knowing that my unwanted stuff will be re-purposed and sold for super cheap feels good.
  * Still have yet to do this trip.
 None of the things we have moved out will be missed.As we cleaned things out we were sure to get rid of only the things we were willing to let go of .I did not want anyone feeling like they had to get rid of anything. I simply wanted us to slim down a bit.
 I must say that getting rid of the clutter really is making it easier to get other things done and the day to day work is much easier without other things laying around in the way. I think we are finally back on track here and not feeling so over worked.
   I found this article online the other day, don't let the title get your feathers ruffled,living a "green" and "sustainable" life is important but like the author writes it is time to re-address the words and reasons.
  The reasoning in the article rings true for us and fits the back story to our cleaning out. Less is more,love the things you do have and buy it once and buy things that will last*. The whole line of the piece just fits what we are trying to do here,it brings to mind the Repair Manifesto that I posted here a long while ago.We want a beautiful,welcoming home that we love and we hope by using the ideas in the linked article and the Repair Manifesto we can set the example for others.You can have lovely nice things and still be living a "green" and "sustainable" life.
   * This is where my buying a rug fits in to this posting really well.The rug I bought was purchased with funds earned mostly by re- purposing our unwanted things.The rug its self was bought used,it is a vintage piece from a small local shop.The rug is well crafted and made from wool that will last which an acrylic one for the same price would fall apart years before.We love it,it suits our house so perfectly and is of a style we will never tire of. I recycled, supported a local small business and the rug has lasting value; a smart purchase considering how it's not all that big but has a big impact on how we view things.
  Our homes totem is the Raven,that smart and crafty fellow who loves pretty things.Raven is picky though,not everything is deemed worthy enough to risk Raven's neck to get.Appropriate eh? We want to be like Raven using our smarts to line our nest with the things we love.
 I am still working on making the time to write here more often but I think I have figured it out and everyone should start seeing me here on a regular bases.Spring is around the corner so there will lots going on here again so that should inspire me to click away here.I hope all of you are well and looking forward to Spring like we are.It will soon be time for seeds,digging and maybe chicks for some of you.

Rois

Damn you Blogger! For eating my post! I'll be back folks as soon as I re write.
Grrrrrr!
 Rois