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End of August

For the past few weeks Hana and I have been building boardwalks and managing a privately owned woodlot. I have been using a small chainsaw and Hana has been using manual clippers to remove the smaller saplings. We are cutting birch, aspen (poplar), conifer, and other weedy trees and keeping transplanted Viburnum (high bush cranberry), Hawthorne, oaks, and other desirable plants that will attract wildlife. By clearing the area below the owner's house it will allow an improved view of wildlife - especially birds! Hana and I have a lot of fun working in the woods together!

As the summer winds down to school Hana was also asked to spiff up a garden before we stopped working. Here is their beautiful garden!

Thanks for visiting our gardening website! Please see our other blog to view exciting rabbit and llama news!!

More Pictures

After days and days of rain, we finally got back to our gardens! Below we made a lovely fern garden along a garage.
Weeding and added peat moss.... and thinning and beautifying!
Thanks for tuning in! Finally a day without rain! Lets keep it up!

More soap!

Today Hana, Melanie, and I crafted our newest creation: Summertime. Its a batch of soap that will bedazzle the senses while exfoliating with ground oatmeal. The essential oils used are: ginger, lemon, lime, orange, and a hint of mango! It is a light green soap that we molded into many different shapes! We had so much fun making it, will have pictures soon! Currently we have lemon mint, lavender rosewood, and raspberry patchouli soap for sale.

Only $4 a bar! Hand-milled, hand-molded soaps made from all natural ingredients containing no animal products! Thanks for visiting the site and have a great day!

Remember to visit our other blog and view pictures of the baby bunnies and llama that we have for sale!

August 1 and 2: Quit muckin' around!

The past few days Hana and I have been working in a marshy, muddy, wet place. We are helping a private landowner maintain his trails! We were building bridges across the wettest areas with big cedar logs and 10 foot planks.The mud was so deep that the Quadrunner almost got stuckHana actually did get stuck...it was messy.But, she got out eventually and started throwing the logs around so that we could nail the planks down. I tried to help - but those logs are just so heavy! I left most of the heavy lifting to Hana.
She picks these things up like nothing!You need to be strong to muscle those boards around!Here is a picture that captures a lot of what we have been involved with at this particular home. We help upkeep gravel and rock around the house that directs water. Last year we helped scape the lawn pictured below. Our father is a custom carpenter and he built the porch that is pictured below - its fun when you can see the family's work all in one place!

Today I weeded the garden that is surrounded by the stone work.
Its fun to work out in the woods!

Gardening in Easton and Lisbon!

Remember to visit our farm blog! We have baby animal pictures!

Hana and I had a lot of fun gardening today! We found the monster of all weeds while we were going along! What an eye sore! This lovely walk-way has vinca growing along it (that Hana transplanted there last year), bordered by decorative gout weed. The gout weed had taken over from one side and grass from the other. We exposed the vinca and all order has been restored where the chaos dwelled.

There will be more actual garden pictures after we finish up next visit!Here, I was in an herb garden at the Thyme To Heal Shoppe. There's a cricket on my thumb! We are apprenticing with Melony, who owns the shoppe. When we were done in her garden we gave her daughters a fiber lesson and they taught us how to make bath salts! Yum!
Thanks for viewing our blog!

Good-byes

For my last day in Italy, Nik, India, Joe, and I went to the Vinschgaue Valley where the De Rachewiltz family owns a ruin and cottage in Tschengels. We visited historic towns and ruins, ate baguettes and gelato, and then Petra and Miche joined us for pizza that evening. We all spent the night in the cottage and had a wonderful farewell and thank you breakfast the next morning. It was such a wonderful way to spend my last few days in Italy!Here are Joe, Nik, and India! Thanks guys! I love the geraniums!
A river and waterfall!Tschengels ruin:
Petra, India, Nik, Miche, Joe: India, Nik, Me, Miche (checking out the Polaroid camera!)As we left for pizza...There was an old photo album in the cottage with pictures of the old farmer that had owned this ruin and cottage before Sizzo bought it. Many pictures were of meals around this table. It reminded my so much of my Oma and Opa's (grandma and grandpa) photo albums. They bought a run down barn and house in New York state and have an album of the parties and fixin' up they did to it. Being in Italy with the De Rachelwiltz family I really felt like part of their family. They made me feel so welcome and being in the cottage, with so much history was an honor that I cannot describe. It can only be felt.


Nik made us all crepes, Tirol style with jelly and nutella. We also head real European bread, hard boiled eggs, and tea. It was wonderful to spend my last few hours in such good company. Thanks you so much everyone! I look forward to a visit back soon!

Biological Gemuse

Have you ever thought about the phrase "organic vegetable"? Its pretty funny that they use the word "organic" to describe a form of regulation. Well, in Europe, the synonym for "organic" is "biological" or bio. The following pictures are of an inspirational bio farm in Dorf Tirol. There is an incredible amount of production on this small piece of land, in the middle of town - and its all chemical-free. It should be a model for other small farmers. The owner of the farm, Franz, has a small market on Tuesdays and Saturdays. He produces vegetables and fruit. Franz and his family also raise chickens, goats, and have a miniature horse! Brunnenburg purchased their heritage breed chicks from Franz last week.

Monoculture agriculture in this part of the country, is common-place. Apples and grapes are grown in rows with nothing else. Franz grows apples with vegetables in between! Here are squash and corn between, he also grows potatoes and peppers in other rows between apples.

Here, Joe poses for me to show the scale of the greenhouse. The greenhouse is so neat! There are strings for the vines to climb up to about 7 feet to take advantage of vertical space. There were tomato and a variety of squash vines that will fill this greenhouse. They are only wrapped around the string and they climb away!


Here is a beautiful currant bush that is part of Franz's fruit production. He also has cherries, strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries! What a wonderful field trip to Franz's farm!