On maternity leave.

I’ve just received these lovely review copies from Simon and Schuster, which I will be reading, sharing, and then reviewing for you on my home education weblog. I haven’t decided whether I’ll podcast the reviews, or write them out… Hmmm…

As always, I’ve designed a quick and simple pattern. I wanted something that baby could be cuddly and warm in without a lot of fussy dressing. I didn’t want another blanket, and wasn’t interested in making a full bunting this time round… So, a sleep sack.

I have one on the needles for The Pea right now. I’m using Paton’s SWS (soy/wool, worsted weight) in “natural earth” and #7 (US) circular needle. I’m not sure how I feel about the colour - I’m usually a solid, neutral girl…

Using a knit on cast-on, CO 60 sts. Work k2p2 rib for 2 inches. Increase evenly to 80 sts. Work in stockinette stitch until the sack measures 14″. At this point, you can bind off, turn inside out and sew the bottom seam OR you can divide the stitches evenly on two straight needles and work the kitchener stitch for a seamless finish.

This little sack is a nifty way to keep a wee one’s body and legs cozy warm, while making changing nappies easy. No kicking free of blankets, no need to worry about teeny socks being wiggled off. If you have a long-sleeved top with foldover mitts, babe will be warm as toast!

One more step to eliminating plastic from our home - wooden hangers. I’m getting rid of all of the tubular plastic hangers from our house and replacing them with these lovely wooden ones:

These come in baby, child and adult sizes:

and these cuties come in baby size (and as sets of three):

They are the ones you find in boutiques - really heavy duty, top-quality ones. You can get them here for a super duper price right now.

If you need me, I’ll be curled up on the sofa with my woobie - or snuggled up in bed. I have signed the papers giving my vice authority to act in my stead.

When I wake up, be prepared for change. Pres. Elect O’Bama has got nothing on what’s about to happen here. Floors scrubbed to the very corners, things thrown out, re-organized, and tidied away, gas tanks and fridges filled… We’ve got Mr. Clean on speed dial and standing by for further instructions.

That’s all I’ve got. I’m falling asleep again.

By popular request… I guess I’ve complained enough about the size of my belly - people are demanding proof. I warn you to turn away if you are easily frightened. So, I give you - The Bump:

I’m looking a little serious here… It’s only because I’m concentrating on keeping the shirt down and the pants up:

Mary Ellen said she needed a wide angle for her belly shot. That’s nothing. These were taken with a telephoto lens from two rooms away. Actually, I feel a little like a celebrity being stalked by paparazzi. Should have had HairMU come by before the shoot, eh?

Just two more weeks until we start counting up for days late. Any wagers? And should I be worried when the midwife says “Oh, that’s a good sized baby!”?

I just got an email from James Mazzuchi to let me know that our humble little Christmas Tree from last year has won the “Our Catholic Life” Christmas tree contest. I’m beside myself - seriously.

Thank you so much Andrew - nice pickin’! And full marks for giving our name a try - it is a tricky one! It was lovely to share our Christmas celebration with you.

You should have heard the cheer go up around our table - the kids are planning to buy some more fleece to make more blankets for the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit near where we live. It’s a wonderful way to share our joy! We’ll have them blessed by our parish priest before delivering them.

So thank you again, Mazzuchi family. You have blessed us today - as well as other families who are experiencing a difficult time. How appropriate that this should all surround the Feast of the Holy Family!

Listen to today’s OCL episode here.

One acre of farmland that is…

Our family lives at the tip of what is referred to here in New England as the “Last Green Valley”. It’s shrinking. There is a movement to try to preserve it, and hopes to begin to restore more land to agriculture. This is part of the mission of our farm enterprise - to preserve farming as a way of life and farmland for generations to come. Through the use of organic practices, heritage breeds preservation, and other careful stewardship projects, we are working to protect existing farmland, to reclaim land for farming, and to encourage others to venture back to an agrarian way of life through farm stewardship.

Here in this neck of the woods, it costs between $5000 and $10000 to preserve one acre of existing farmland. It can cost anywhere from $50,000 to several hundred thousand to reclaim one acre of land for farming. Why bother with just one acre? You need more space than that for farming, don’t you? Well, not necessarily. Ideally, a farm would be larger, and it’s obviously difficult to convince the seller of an existing farm to sell you a single acre - but you might be very, very surprised at what can be done with *just one acre*.

One Acre of Land Can:
- Feed up to 200 people on seasonal vegetables
- Support up to 10 Oberhasli dairy goats giving 2500 gallons of milk/year. (pastured only- depending upon quality of pasture)
- Support up to 400 Orpington chickens producing 4000 dozen eggs/year, or up to 2400 meat (pastured only- depending upon quality of pasture)
- Support 2 Belted Galloways producing 1400 lb of high-quality beef (pastured only- depending upon quality of pasture)
- Support 2 Dexter milking cows producing 1400 gallons of raw milk/year (pastured only- depending upon quality of pasture)
- Support up to 10 Icelandic sheep producing 120lb high-quality wool/year, 450 lb. meat, or 1400 gallons of raw milk/year (pastured only- depending upon quality of pasture)
- Support up to 600 native grape vines producing up to 12,000 lb fruit at maturity (3-5 years old)
- Support up to 100 Bali cherry trees producing 40,000 lb. fruit at maturity (abt. 8 years old)
- Produce 2000 lb of shell beans providing high-quality vegetable protein for humans and between 40-200lb of nitrogen to the soil (you would need at least 9 TONS of manure or 2 tons of commercial fertilizer to do the same).
- Produce up to 65 bushels of oats (abt. 2000 lb.) for human consumption, PLUS about 100 construction straw bales - enough to build an energy-efficient, studio sized dwelling.
- Support 30 beehives producing 1500-6000 lb. of raw honey, 300 lb. beeswax, and valuable beepollen and royal jelly/year. Bees pollinate plants in a 2 mile radius, increasing vegetable and fruit yields as well as improving wildflower and tree health.
- and finally, one acre of sugarbush (maple trees) can remove 13 tons of pollutants from the environment each year while producing between 40-60 gallons of maple syrup.

Apart from the preservation of heritage breeds (including the farmer himself), the conservation of the land through organic practices, and the actual produce derived, one acre of farmland can produce between $6000 and $100,000 in revenue per year, depending upon its use. That is enough to preserve at least another acre of existing farmland - up to 20 acres of existing farmland, or to reclaim an acre or two more of land for farming. One acre of preserved or reclaimed farmland matters an awful lot after all, don’t you agree?

Several years ago, I developed a curriculum for homeschoolers to show them how it is possible to sustain a family on a small plot of land. Here in Massachusetts, we have a “Right to Farm” law. I understand that surrounding states have similar statutes, and you might check out your own state’s regulations regarding farming. Essentially, you can quite easily support an average family of four (and even larger) on 1.5 acres of land (including your dwelling and open space). If you would like to support our efforts to preserve and reclaim farmland here in New England, you can purchase a copy of our “Farm School” curriculum (available soon - leave a comment here to be put on the list), purchase any of our current publications, purchase a farmshare, or make a gift of any size by clicking the button below.

The weather here in the Worcester hills is giving us a taste of spring, and the bug has bitten me to begin planning out our farm plots. Vegetables enough for about 200 people, grain crops for grinding flours and making straw bales (construction projects), room for goats, sheep, cattle (dexters and hopefully some belties), swine (Tamworths for superior bacon and nice little hams), and poultry - chickens and turkeys for eggs and meat, geese and ducks for eggs to decorate and feathers for crafting. There will undoubtedly be guinea fowl at some point to keep the bugs down, and help the other critters avoid nasty parasitic infections.

So today, I have my gardening books, USDA maps, calendar, calculator, coloured pencils, paper, catalogs, and magazines out. I’m taking up half the kitchen table with my bits and pieces. No one seems to mind. The house is filled with the aroma of a Sunday beef roast, and I’ll be making a Yorkshire pudding when the meat comes out to rest. That seems to be compensation enough for commandeering the largest piece of furniture we own. We may have to eat in the sitting room…

I found this nifty planning guide for figuring how many seeds or seedlings you need per person of a variety of lovely veggies. The Farmer’s Almanac online has some nifty features to use, including a customized planting calendar for your zipcode. It doesn’t have all of the varieties listed that *I* would use, but is pretty handy for a starter.

There are beehives to order, Pepere’s sugaring equipment to check out, and wetlands to explore for wild cranberries (not uncommon in our neck of the woods), and fiddleheads. I’ve begun sourcing fruit trees, shrubs and plants that will take up residence where corn grew just last year. I’m in love with Bali cherries and heirloom apples - Bramleys (big as a baby’s head and fabulous for baking) and Pippins (wonderful dessert apples for eating fresh). I’ll be checking out others like blueberries, grapes, strawberries, pears, and northern peaches. I’m interested in seeing about growing chestnuts for flour.

I’m pondering where to plant the asparagus crowns and rhubarb plants. I’m contemplating where to put the herbs, and where to locate the flowers for cutting. There are extensive perennial gardens around the new homestead, but I want to add some annuals and everlastings to the mix, too. There is already an abundance of lilacs and hydrangeas. The latter will be harvested and dried for selling in the shop. I also have loads and loads of seeds from Tasha Tudor’s garden - poppies, hollyhocks, sweet peas, morning glories, and of course, forget-me-nots. I’m excited about planting lilies and great big peonies (which remind me of my grandfather), dinner-plate dahlias (which Brian loves), and masses of daffodils (which will mercifully have to wait until fall).

A funny thing is happening this time round. As I look at our seed and seedling suppliers’ catalogs, I find myself skimming over the nightshades. They were always staples in my grandfather’s garden. You just didn’t have a garden without tomatoes, peppers and potatoes. You might be able to do without eggplants, but not the others. Nightshade veggies were always my favourites, too. Too much of a beautiful thing isn’t good for my health, though. I will certainly have some of those in my plan - other folks we grow for will enjoy them. But I have become more creative about what we will grow to eat. I have begun imagining new recipes from those ingredients we will have.

It is changing what my marathon cooking recipes will look like, too. When I started thinking about it more, I realized that most of my freezer dishes had tomato products or glutenous pastas in them. I’m trying to reduce our consumption of both. I’m not so worried about the dairy products as we will be using pastured dairy products that are fresh and raw from heirloom cattle or goats. The cooking classes I give at the farm will certainly reflect this new mindset. I’m going to explore those comfort food recipes I grew up with and begin to experiment with substitutions that will work for my family while maintaining that taste and texture we love.

And strangely, all of the thinking about flowers and veggies, and critters has got me thinking about redecoration. What on earth? My brain is a strange place to be - even for me sometimes. I’m all about the red. It goes nicely with my favourite colour - yellow. And red comes in lots of delicious shades - cranberry, poppy, strawberry, cherry… Now we’re off down another road where I will be choosing paint colours, wallpapers, and fabrics.

Perhaps I have too much time to think with all of this sitting awaiting the arrival of The Pea (hmmm, another veggie)? It’s good fun though.

I’ve been avoiding admitting it to myself. My girlfriend Cristy used to admonish me not to “claim” things like this. I can’t ignore it any longer. My PA is flaring again. It is unusual for this to happen during pregnancy. I have always experienced a complete remission of symptoms up to several months after birth. This pregnancy, I’ve had fairly mild symptoms throughout, but as I approach birth, it is getting worse.

I hate talking about it, it feels like whining, and I have so much to be joyful about and thankful for. I am worried that my dramatically increased busy-ness, the excitement of moving, and all the recent hustle-bustle has triggered my auto-immune response. I worry about small things - being able to comfortably cuddle my new babe, being able to nurse him - either because of the disease, or because of the treatment I may need to take. I worry about needing the chair again, I worry about having to depend more upon the kids and upon Brian.

I know how to reverse a flare naturally, but it can take several weeks to several months, and some of those remedies are not recommended while nursing. Perhaps I’m worrying about nothing. Perhaps this is a temporary blip on the radar… I pray that’s the case. Anyway, I’m not sure why I’m sharing this here. I don’t like to post anything negative here.

But perhaps I’m being called to find the simple gift in it all? Yes, I’m sure that’s it.

Sophie’s imaginary horse-sister, “Doughy” needs your prayers. Apparently her stomach was injured after being flung by her doctor. I smell a lawsuit…