Home

There is a place where love flows strong. Where the embrace of the trees and the soft grass warms you on the coldest of Autumn days. There is a place where the river speaks to you and the birds fly with a careless freedom. A place where you can almost hear the rumble of the ocean in the distance. Frogs and crickets resound in harmony in the Spring's evening and the frozen dew crunches underfoot in the Winter. 


Home. 

Home can mean many things to each of us. There is the classic "Home is where the heart is" or the faded memory of a backyard swing from childhood. We remember the faces and the noises of home. The streets that wind their way to the house we grew up in. The swimming hole we spent our summers. The Post Man who brought you letters. We are lucky to have these memories. Memories we all too often take for granted in our busy lives. I am reminded of this every day, with gratitude, because of my job working with foster children. There are some people who don't have memories of a home. Of faces and noises. Of a post man or swimming hole. Their memories are lost, tucked behind a darker scene that often times replays in their minds. Questions override statements of childhood truths. Questions and uncertainty. I am thankful to have been blessed with the memories and knowledge, the safety and excitement that I had when I was a child. I am thankful to know that no matter where my life's journey has brought me thus far, there is still more adventure to come. I am one of the lucky ones. 

I hold these memories close to my heart and cherish each and every one of them. I remember the babysitter I had when I was a toddler and the porcelain doll I broke while at her house. I remember the swing in her backyard and the flowers that danced in the wind next to her house. I remember my elementary school, so majestic and historic. The play ground and the fields. The frozen morning milk. I remember the trees. There were so many trees. Pine and oak. Cedar and Spruce. The dogwood tree in the front yard at my mother's house that I used to climb. The blossoms were heavenly. The walnut tree in my father's backyard that we also climbed. There is the river, all the rivers. So much water. The ocean not too far away. The sand and the warm breeze from over the horizon. The candy. Oh how I have missed the ocean and the forests. These, above all else, remind me of home. The waterfalls and the moss. I have never felt alone while exploring the many trails. The rushing water, the swaying trees. Always have I had companions in my journeys. I have missed my ancient friends.

There are many eager faces awaiting me at home. My parents, my grandparents, my friends. Faces that, although weathered by time in these last 7 years, will always be familiar and welcoming to me. There are no words here.


Today we received incredible news. We will be going home. Beau received a job offer from a community college in Oregon. He starts this Fall. 

Beau will work here.

View of Umpqua River from his campus.

The river that runs through the town.

Fish ladder. Look at those trees!

Sometimes there will be sunshine.

I would like to live here. Thank you.

I'm coming home.


~Birdie

Because I was.

Birthday Getaway

No, no, no... I'm not shooing my birthday away - did you read my last post? I am very excited about turning 25. I'm beginning to feel like a genuine adult now. As mentioned before, I am looking to celebrate this year and make it memorable as I feel that turning 25 has lots of reasons to warrant remembrance. So to start off that resolution, I want to go here:

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Amazing, right?! I already have Beau convinced that THIS is where we have to go. This is Oak Creek Canyon in Sedona, Arizona. I had no idea Arizona could be so undeniably gorgeous?!?! I was so blind! But blind I am no more! 


The cabin pictured is part of Forest Houses Resort; 14 cabins located on 20 wooded acres high in Oak Creek Canyon, this place is a nature-lover's heaven and a city dwellers safe haven! With no TVs, phones, computers or internet, and NO cell phone reception we will truly be in paradise, shut off from the world, away from the busy-ness of life. I cannot wait! What an incredible experience this will be and it isn't expensive either! The cabins range from sleeping 1-5 and you can bring your pets! (Although we will likely leave Izzie-bot with her Grammy and Grampy so that we parents don't have to worry.) 


The cabin we are looking at, a little studio with a gas fireplace, shower, and full kitchen, and a deck that over looks a spring, is only $95 a night... YES PLEASE! 


We will cook our own meals, go on hikes, play in the water, meditate, lay out under the trees, get lost in the woods and eachother, and enjoy every breath-taking minute.


Of course... now that I have this plan, I think to myself... it would be such a shame to go to such a beautiful place, commune with nature, enjoy some long overdue dirt-rehab, and not have a proper camera to document it all... hmmmm...  so about that birthday list... I think I found my first wish.


Birthday Planning,
~Birdie


*Note: All photos were borrowed from other websites. Click on "Source" under the photos to see where I got them from.*

Thoughts, Ideas, and Plans - Oh My!

In one of my SWIHA classes (yes, I pretty much live there and am oh so very happy to!) we talked about blogs. We brainstormed and went over a few blogging techniques to help the blog be in tip-top shape. One of the suggestions for proper blogging etiquette was to blog every day... this does NOT seem like an easy task to me as I typically only blog when I have something important, valuable, nonsensical, or educational for my whopping 6 Followers to enjoy... I try not to bog down this blog with every day rantings or inspirations, philosophies or whimsies because I want you to get the good stuff, the pulp, the pertinent information. BUT I am willing to give it a try. So that is my first Thought. I am going to try to start blogging more often, even if I don't have a huge project or update, etc. To start, I am going to write about things that caught my attention throughout the day and go from there. Wish me luck!


My Idea is this- it is April. My birthday is in June. That's 2 months to start thinking about things. Usually I am not big into my birthdays because, honestly and perhaps shockingly, I don't like being in the spotlight. It makes me feel selfish. (That's a long story.) So I typically let my birthday pass without making a big hub-bub about it, no party, no presents, no cake, etc. It's just another day. BUT I am willing to give it a try. After all, it is my 25th birthday which to me is very important. This marks a Quarter of a Century on this beautiful Earth. This means I am half way to 50! This means that I am half way through my 20's which means I am almost 30 and officially not a "young 20-something". This is a big day and is worthy of celebration. With that said, I think I am going to start a birthday list. I have a few wants and desires that sure would be the Bee's-knees if I could get them on such a momentous occasion. They would really be a great way to embark on the next 75+ years of my life! (YES! I do intend to live so long!) The birthday list will follow in a later blog once I get a chance to put it together. Keep an eye out. It should be a good one.

Ok, ok... maybe no fireworks.

I need to write down a list of blogs I want to create and share. There are so many subjects I could put on that list, it is silly. Really really silly. So many many things. I better start writing them down. I've learned recently that I need to stop living in my mind so much and start listening to that voice inside me (my intuition). I need to start following my heart and letting the Universe take the lead - I have control issues sometimes. Here's the Plan... I'm going to stop trying to control where my life ends up. I'm going to stop planning so many years in advance (yes, I have a 10, 20, and 30 year plan.) I'm going to be spontaneous again, if I haven't forgotten how. I'm going to allow adventure to happen and I am going to take full advantage of the opportunities that come my way. 


Let's put it this way: If Life is a Horse then the reigns that control the Horse control Life as well. If I hold on to the reigns I can direct the Horse to go anywhere I want it to go. It has not choice. That is how I have been running my life as of late. Complete control. If I drop the reigns and let the Horse take control, chaos would surely ensue. There would be no direction or containment. The Horse would run amuck. If I hand the reigns over to the Universe and instead I pick up a carrot on a stick and stretch the stick out in front of the horse so that the carrot then dangles just out of reach, I now I have direction and intent - "I would like to go this way" - but the Horse still has a choice. The Horse can choose if he wants to chase the carrot or if he wants to go left instead of right. With this intent I can direct the path of my life, but I don't have complete control... and I am becoming increasingly OK with that. 

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And so I say: 

"I would rather have a carrot on a stick then a hold of the reigns." 

My new mantra. I think it is fitting... especially when you know what the heck I'm talking about. 

Letting Life Begin,

~ Birdie

"Busy Bee" Doesn't Cover Half of It!

Wow- so somehow, after sleeping well and having two fantastic dreams- One where Beau gets an awesome job somewhere awesome; Another where I ship wreck on a beautiful island where everything is set up for organic farming and living off the grid- no real reason to want to find my way back, it was paradise! Anyway... what was I saying? Oh yeah... somehow after all that and a delicious, healthy (say what?) breakfast of steel cut oats, honey, and fruit and some eggs with Tabasco sauce I managed to get struck by a domestic lightning bolt that drove me to do so very many things today that I really had not intended on doing. (See the PS note at the bottom) I just did them. It was strange. And, really, I got a TON done today... and now I am writing this blog which will eventually allow me to get my thinking cap on so that I can dive into my homework- hopefully with as much enthusiasm as I had for my domestic duties.


This is what I have accomplished thus far on this beautiful (air conditioned) Sunday:


I did the dishes. (Not pictured because they are clean and put away... because I did the dishes.)


And then I decided I wanted to can the left over soup I had been forgetting about in the fridge, but in order to do that I had to make paper because the shredded paper was soaking in water in the pressure cooker pot. (Not pressure cookering, I just needed a large pot to hold it.) So I made paper first. 

Paper... it is drying.

Paper with Coriander (Cilantro) Seeds in it. Use it. Plant it. Awesome.

And then I cleaned the pressure cooker so that I could can the soup I had been forgetting about in the fridge. 

Mmmm soup.

And then I decided to finally make the bath salt I had offered to make for my friend who is pregnant and had been putting off this last week. So I did some of that. While I was there making her bath salt, I broke the jar of one of my other bath salts so I had to transfer it. I wasn't happy about it. That was a really nice (albeit recycled) jar. Also while there, I decided to fill up the bathroom air freshener that was almost gone and the deep breathing spray I use on our pillows every night to help us sleep. Both were running very low, so this was a great time to get that done. So I did some alchemy.

Gotta keep those droppers clean!

Then I thought, what a beautiful day to plant some herbs and vegetables! So I gardened a bit. While I was there I thought, "When was the last time I posted a photo of all the vegetables I had planted in the Fall?" Pretty sure I haven't had a garden update in a while, so this counts as such.

The ferns are kind of getting out of control, but I love all the green they add!

Le Carrots

The Garlic is almost ready! No really, all those dead looking
pieces is a good thing!

I grew these snapdragons from seeds! I'm so proud.
Moving on up in the gardening world!

Spinach! It is growing like crazy! Yummy. I also grew these from seeds.
Again, I'm proud.

Ok, now this frisky fella was not planned. He was an "accident" to put it nicely.
I didn't plant him this year, but here he is...
starry eyed and ready to produce some tomatoes.
He grew, somehow, from leftovers of the tomato plants I had last year.
I'm pretty excited.

This is a garden fairy. She has junk in her trunk.

These are the seeds I planted. I love Baker Creek's Heirloom Seeds.
You should too.

What I planted today: Hopi Melons, Sweet and Red potatoes (I know it isn't the correct season, but I did it anyway... I'm a rebel like that), Chamomile, Lemon Balm, Lemon Grass, Feverfew, Cilantro, Bell Peppers: Charleston Belle, Golden California Wonder, and Emerald Green; Tabasco Peppers (hot). Yum yum yummy!


After gardening I came inside... because honestly, I am tired and I thought "I really want to blog about my adventurous day!" So here I am. Now I must get to homework. Because it is important too and I need to use my remaining energy on Nutrition, Physiology, and Writing for Publication. 


Before I go, here are some photos of the babies from this last month:

Ada, our little princess.

Izzie, also our little princess.

Porter, our brooding young lad.

Hope your day was just as productive,
~ Birdie


PS- I would like to note that when I woke up this morning my first thought was "I want to go lay by the pool." This did not happen today. 

Hidden Treasure

I felt it was necessary to dedicate a separate post to one of the items I found in my blue tub of paperwork. Perhaps it was with good reason that I hadn't recycled the whole lot 4 months ago... because I found this:

This is a photo I took back in high school when I was in a photography class. Terrible processing aside, this photo is really something special. There is so much story here, so much depth and it would all have been lost had I just thrown everything into a recycling bin. The photo was tucked away in one of the binders, hidden between papers. I would have never known it was there had I not embarked on my paper making endeavors. 


This photo was taken in my grandparents's old home, the one I spent a lot of my childhood in. It was a very special house to me and all my cousins. In that closet on the right... that's where all our toys were- Lincoln Logs, Cowboys and Indians, farm animals and fences... we spent hours on that living room floor building our little homesteads and protecting them from enemies. The baseball game on the TV, grandpa in his chair, grandma in the kitchen or reading a book. Such incredible times, such amazing opportunities. So many memories.


From left to right, you can see in the photo: My aunt Janet, my grandmother's (Claire Mae) back, my cousin Jennifer, and my great grandmother (Millie Mae).


There are two sets of mothers and two sets of daughters in this photo: Janet is Jennifer's mother. Millie is Claire's. And both mother's have passed away in the last 8 years or so. 


In this photo my aunt is sitting in a wheel chair and her head is shaved. She had cancer and passed away some Christmases ago. 


In this photo, my great grandmother is sitting in her chair, watching her daughter walk into the kitchen. She passed away two Christmases ago, just after her 90th birthday. I wish I would have had more time with her. I had so much to learn.


This photo truly is a treasure and I am so thankful that I took the time to find it. Oddly, it came with an extra- two photos, same exposure. Maybe I will send one to my grandparents. I think they'd like it.


Searching for Treasures,
~Birdie

Making Paper from...well... Paper.

11 years worth of school work... oh what treasures might be hiding inside!?

There has been a project weighing on my mind for quite some time now... let's not discuss for how long because I am sure it has been floating around, lost in the abyss, since before Christmas...


Moving on. 


I had recently found a medium sized RubberMaid tub in my closet that was about 150 lbs and filled to the brim with binders, spiral notebooks, and homework from the last 11 years of school. Don't ask me why I kept it all, I just did. I have no explanation. Looking back I think, "Why did I keep 8th grade homework for so long? Why did I keep it at all? What was I thinking lugging this around to three different states, to 10 different homes?" I don't know. I can't explain it. Anyway.... I went through all the paper and binders and books and pulled the important pieces out. 

Awards from high school newspaper. Yeah... I rock.

Ughhh... floppy disks? Oh dear.

Note to self: Must find computer that reads floppies.

Articles I had written for the high school news paper. Poetry for a creative writing class. Track stats from freshman year... etc. I put all that aside for a scrap book and wrote the rest off to be recycled at a later date...apparently a much later date as it is 4 months later and TAH-DAH!!!! It's still here in our house. Progress is great. Then I started a class at SWIHA. A class called Optimum Health and Sustainability, instructed by Urban Farmer: Greg Peterson. And what I learned (among many many other things) was that while recycling is a great idea compared to just tossing everything in the garbage, it was still awfully wasteful. You see, there are these two other pieces to that loop we all learned about in elementary school. Reduce and Reuse. *Lightbulb* It all makes sense, really. Reduce your consumption of materials by reusing a lot of what we already have. Glass pasta sauce jars can be used to store food instead of plastic tupperware and instead of tossing or recycling them. Worn out clothes can be turned into rags for around the house. And so on. 


The class requires, as an assignment, to come up with a plan for sustainability. A plan of action, if you will. Now, as it stands, I already feel like Beau and I do a pretty good job at being as environmentally friendly as we can... we shop at farmer's markets and buy organic. We have stopped buying chemical cleaners, we have a garden that grows some seasonal veggies for us, we recycle more than we throw away, etc. But then there was this little blue tub of a monster in our bedroom, just sitting there saying "Do something with me for crying out loud!!!" And so I did.


I decided it was time to finally tackle that tub of paper, binders, and spiral notebooks once and for all. (Side note, I'm a freaking crazy person!) What I ended up doing for my assignment was make new paper out of my old papers. Not only am I reducing my consumption by creating new paper, I am also reusing the old paper I had saved up for 11 years thus minimizing what ended up in recycling or the trash. Not only that, but I decided I would put some seeds in the paper too so that once it was done being used it could be planted, biodegrade naturally and quickly, and grow beautiful herbs, flowers, or vegetables. Now we have come full circle.... and I think it is awesome. 

Here is how I did it and what you will need to do to try it out:

Project One: Creating the Paper Mold

• Purchase a few 8x11in frames from good will (look, reusing again!)
• Purchase a roll of fiberglass or metal window screen.
• Purchase or find an 8x11in piece of hard plastic that fits in the frame.
• Cut out a piece of screen the size of the frame and staple it to the frame.

Homemade frames (see note at the end.)
Before the screens.

After the screens.

Project Two: Making the Paper

Step One.

• Collect your paper. Be sure to avoid Magazine and newspaper print. Use minimal amounts, or none at all.

Step Two...it's oddly cleansing.... shredding early college notes.

I now have a rubbermaid tub full of shredded paper...
and I only shredded about 100 pieces. Oy.

• Shred the paper into strips or about 1x1 inch pieces of paper.

Paper soup.

• Take a few handfuls of paper and soak them in water over night.

Margaritas anyone?

Mmmmmm slop.

• Take about a cup of the soaked paper and place into a blender. Add about 3 cups of WARM water to the blender. Blend until you reach an oatmeal-like consistency. (Note: Batch will be very liquidy. That's a good thing.) Place blended mixture into a large container. Repeat process until all soaked paper is gone.

• Dip the frame (without the plastic) into the mixture of oatmeal-like paper and sift just above the surface of the water as if you were panning for gold.  (Note: This will spread the wet paper mixture evenly over the screen of the frame)

Spreading it out, time to strain it.

• Lift the frame out of the water and place the plastic piece on top of the paper mixture in the frame. (Add seeds at this point if you plan on doing so. You can also add dried herbs or pressed flowers/leaves if you would like.) Begin to press on the plastic to push the water out of the paper and through the screen.

• Once the paper mixture begins to separate from the screen you should be able to lift (gently) the "paper" out of the frame and place it on a table to dry. Pat with a sponge to soak up any access water if necessary. Repeat this process until complete.

Finished product... a light blue. Pretty. :)

• Let pieces of paper dry for 24 hours each side. Place each piece between two towels and iron on "warm" to help straighten the pieces out. 

Viola! You have recycled paper! Enjoy!

Please note- my photos are a little different than the instructions because I am enacting the "Do as I say, not as I do" rule. I chose to bite off more than I could chew this first time around and made frames from scratch that were 3x3ft and used one screened frame on top of the other to push the water out. It worked well, but took a few attempts to get it right. Overall, I'm pretty stoked about how it all turned out. 

Here are some additional photos from the experiment: 

All my binders ready for donation or recycle or upcycle/reuse...
not sure what to do with them just yet.

My "stapled" pile.... um... I hate staples. Officially.

The tiny pile destined for recycling.

Best of luck in your paper making adventures,

~Birdie