Strawberry Jam, Kimchi, a Splash of Kombucha & Decompression- Oh the Combination

On Sunday, our family joined forces with another family and went strawberry picking. Within 45 minutes we had picked 90 pounds of strawberries and could have kept going.

We split them 50/50 and went home to start processing.

20 gallon bags of frozen strawberries went through first only to be followed by my husband's hard work putting up strawberry jam. He even added vanilla beans to one batch to create a vanilla strawberry jam that was divinity itself.

19 half pint jars of jam later, we are grooving on the food saving and gearing up for the other berries that will be coming in soon- namely the notorious, delicious and intrusive blackberries (yumaliciousness!) and then pickling season.

The kombucha is in full swing- 2 one gallon jars of the green tea/honey concoction that our scoby was born and raised in many generations ago. Add to that a gallon jar of our first try at kimchi and life is feeling very abundant at the moment.

The children are even in good moods with less bickering and a lot more hugging and playing. The decompression from school has begun and we are all re-establishing our connections to ourselves and each other.

"I'm Sorry Did You Say Ten 13 Year Old Boys- You are a BRAVE woman"

I couldn't figure out why people kept saying that to me- the parents in my son's 6th grade class, friends, etc. when I told them that my son was having a slumber party with all of his friends-- of which there are 10.

No big deal- Right?-- I have four, I frequently have 6 to 8 children at the house and have had as many as 20 in Noisy Cottage in addition to their parents and I thrive on kiddos and people-- we can fit a lot of people in Noisy Cottage- it's all good-- right?.

Then, early the morning of the party, I woke with the strong influences of the coming third eclipse, a new moon and PMS- oh yes- a combination to be feared even by a ninja- Run, World, for goodness sakes- Run!!

All the calm I had possessed about the onset of this party was dispersed into the air and I suddenly panicked--

How was I going to fit 10 big boys (surely they are going to be about 10 feet tall each) with bottomless pits for stomachs in the house- oh gods! We don't even have a "real" yard with the urban farm thing going on- there's a greenhouse, a chicken yard and an herbal flower garden taking up the back yard and the front yard is full of struggling hedges, apple trees, a struggling fig (recently eaten by the puppy) and currant bushes.

Oh gods! Why do we have to be such weirdos- why didn't we think of how important grass is??

Oh gods, how in the world was I supposed to feed them when our money barely keeps us fed?!?

Gluten free, egg free-- I was about to be air-free!

Sidling up to me with her nine-year-old nonchalance, my third looked at me and said "Mom, just give them hotdogs." and sidled away-- with angels singing and holy light pouring down on her from above and I inhaled in relief. Crappy hotdogs are cheap- not good for you but cheap and you could get a lot of them at once and keep putting them out for the hungry masses.

Hotdogs it was & a ten pound bag of potatoes- more mashed potatoes than I could comprehend.

A make shift wooden frame was constructed by my husband and a blue tarp was pulled over it for a low, lean to style structure to house the boys while they slept on the concrete patio. He even strung Christmas lights back and forth underneath the tarp so that the boys would have a lighted cave.

And they arrived- well below the expected 10 feet in height. And they became the boys I knew so well, boys I had taught and adored- respectful, funny, kind, polite and wonderful. And they played- and ate- and even slept and then ate again and played some more and they were lovely.

And I am still alive --- and so are they--- and all invited back.

And what made me settle in after worrying that Noisy Cottage wouldn't be enough for these large half-boys was one of the mothers --who constantly intrigues me.-- She leaned in and said "I hope this won't offend you- but my son said your house is like the Weasley's house- the Burrow. We love it. You have the Burrow." Offended??- I was suddenly fiercely proud of my tiny home and crazy yard- had I really thought it too small and too boring for these boys now that they are no longer little children? Just like that I was back to gratitude.

That was it. Noisy Cottage was big enough for them because it is alive with magic.....

Finding Bountiful

If there was a town called Bountiful- and I am guessing there is- I would probably want to live there- or start my own town and name it Bountiful as well. We would all have goats, chickens and greenhouses as well as large gardens and no cars- only goat carts and bikes.....

In March, using plastic sheeting, PVC piping, brackets and 2 X 4 we built a hoop house. We moved the chickens in there for about 2 weeks and they did a brilliant job. Next, my husband spent ages plowing in some little extras to build up the 2 feet of top soil that was our backyard- the topsoil that could not grow grass no matter how hard we tried. He even rented a tiny little Mantis to get the good stuff in there really thoroughly. Then, meticulously, per his Virgo style, he sifted all of the rocks out using a homemade dirt sifter he had built.

He can be the most patient man in the world (let's hope he reads this post :-)

And then, in April, we placed the tiny little sprouting starts of tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet peas, kale, chard, salad green and squash in the ground. The children had carefully put the seeds into our little dirt pellets that had swelled up with water and waited.

They grew and when they were about 2 inches tall, we put them in the ground of the greenhouse and crossed our fingers and waited to see what would happen.

Excited, we showed friends who came to visit our greenhouse. On a 50 degree day in April, it was 100 degrees in there and we basked-- just a bit-- in the warmth. People did wonder why we didn't cram more things into the greenhouse, until we

showed them last weekend what had happened.

The tomatoes measured 5 foot 4 inches last weekend, this weekend which we don't have photos of, they are over 5 feet 6 inches and laden with green fruit. The cucumbers, zuccini, chard, lucinado kale, sweet peas

and salad mix are all in and overly abundant...

Amazing............