It's A Crazy Life.....

I've never been a big scented lotion or perfume user.  I'm not sure why, I just never had.  I'm the kind of person who finds something they like and sticks with it forever or until the company stops making it.  Which is just what has happend to my favorite perfumes and lotions.

My favorite lotion is the Bath and Body Works Plumeria scent.  It was my signature scent throughout college.  Friends said my dorm room even smelled like it.  Then about 4 years ago, they discontinued it.  I was so sad.  This past holiday season they brought it back out and I bought about five bottles to tide me over for a while!

My other signature scent is vanilla.  I've always been a huge fan of vanilla scents.  It's my all-time favorite smell.  It reminds me of cooking with my Gram.  It reminds me of something warm and homey.  I love it.  However, I've never found a vanilla perfume or lotion that works for me.  I did use Vanilla Fields for a long time, but then it changed.  I like a pure vanilla smell - not a fruity, flowery, musky one.

So I've been on the lookout for something with either of these two scents for a long time.  I've searched out making your own and so forth and never really come across anything.

Imagine my suprise and delight when I came across this post today from Natural Mommie: How to Make Vanilla Perfume.  I was so excited!! I can't wait to get home and start my own vanilla oil perfume!!



Here's what you need:
-Knife
– Vanilla beans
– Vodka
– Glass jar
– Strainer {mesh, nylons or cheesecloth}
– Jojoba oil {or any oil – grapeseed, etc.}

Check your local health food store for vanilla beans or any store that sells bulk spices.  Sometimes you can find them at the grocery, but they tend to be more expensive there.  I'm also planning on using coconut oil - that should make a nice blend with the vanilla (despite my claims of PURE vanilla scent love above! =) )

Directions:
1. Take your knife and gently cut down the middle of the vanilla bean lengthwise. Scrape your knife along the inside edge of the bean to release the paste. Drop the paste into a glass jar. Cut the rest of the vanilla bean into small pieces and drop those in the jar as well. You can use as many vanilla beans as you wish.
2. Pour vodka directly into the glass jar, on top of the vanilla beans. Add enough alcohol to cover all the bean pieces. This allows the alcohol to soak into the beans and absorb the scent of their oils.
3. Place the container in a warm, dry place and let stand for 2 weeks to 2 months Remove the lid every few weeks to test the strength of the scent. Use when ready. Strain out the small pieces of vanilla. You’ll want the perfume to be nice and smooth without any pieces that might irritate your skin.
4. Add your strained alcohol mixture back into your glass jar and top it off with jojoba oil. You’ll want to use 2-3 times as much jojoba oil as vanilla bean oil. It distills the scent, but also makes the mixture last longer.
5. Store your mixture in a cool, dry place. This will last for several months as long as you keep it from getting too hot.

The process is exactly the same as the process for making your own vanilla extract, except for step 4: adding oil.  If you wanted pure vanilla extract, follow steps 1-3 and then skip to step 5.  It's amazing and you should try it.

Something else I wanted to add is that you might want to use a dark colored glass jar instead of a clear one.  The less light that gets to the beans/alcohol mixture, the stronger, purer and better the solution will be.
I can't wait to get home today and start my own!!!

When we first got Mr. and Mrs. Puddlecluck, we were told that we should keep them in an enclosed area for six to eight weeks, as Guinea Fowl like to roam.  They said we needed to "teach" them where home was so that when they eventually free-roamed they would return at night.  This made us a bit nervous as we usually let our chicks out every day.  So we looked up on our favorite chicken site - BackYard Chickens to see what we could find about them.  Everything we can find says that they will roam up to a 1/2 mile away from their roosting spot.  Hmmmm...

So on Saturday we let the chickens and guinea fowl out to free-range for the first time since setting in our unfenced garden about 6 weeks ago.  We wanted it to get established before we let them out to dust and roam.  The chickens were estactic.  I think the guinea were even more so - you should have heard them chatter!

Fast forward about an hour.  Mr. and Mrs. Puddlecluck are wandering down the driveway.  Chattering away.  They are almost to the road.  I sneak out behind them to try to shoo them back into the yard.  They take off running.  It must have quite an amusing site for our neighbors.

So they take off down the road.  I wish I would have taken my camera.  They were so cute - they were chattering and meandering off to the west.  Just like an old married couple.  Then they crossed the street.  About an hour later I saw them mid-way down the field across the road.  An hour after that they were out of site.

The kids were pretty worried they would not come back.  We kept checking.  They kept looking into the fields.  I just hoped they would find us.

Shortly before dinner I heard their distinctive chatter.  They were back in the pen, happy as could be and wet as if they'd played in the rain.  I don't know where they went, but it must have been a good time!  They were chattering at the chickens and our rooster, Mr. Speckles looked just disgusted with what they were telling him - guess he was jealous that he didn't get to go on an adventure!

We've been spending lots and lots of time out in the garden lately.  With warmer weather and lots of rain and more sunshine, we're itching to get that garden growing!

In the last few weeks we've planted raspberry bushes, rhubarb roots, rubarb plants, onions, more radishes, more peas, potatos, carrots, corn and sunflowers, and some herbs.  The herbs are in pots as I've found that otherwise they take over the entire yard ( as my chamoille did last year - it's coming up all over the place!) 

The apple tree has blossomed and bloomed and now has little baby apples started!  The strawberry plants are brimming with little and big berries - not even close to being red, but growing, growing, growing!  One of the blueberry bushes had little flowers on it; the other one is just blossoming leaves.

We harvested a little bit of asparagus.  It was only it's second year, so nothing spectacular.  Only about 10 shoots.  We also plan on adding more plants to that patch.

We've planted a rosebush, some gladiola bulbs, some pansies and columbines.  I got my Mother's Day hanging basket and put that up.  We transplanted a few more lilac bushes.

Last night DH tilled up the big garden.  Next weekend will probably be our big planting weekend when we put up the vines, the peppers, tomatos, more sunflowers, broccoli, cabbages, cauliflower, more lettuces, more peas and who knows what else?  We'll have to see what the nursery has that looks like fun!

But sometimes he finds something that even I can consider a great treasure!  Look at what he brought home last week:

My second update since starting this!!  (I missed the Tuesday update since it's been a crazy week - I'm a day late and a dollar short all week!)

Plant Something
This week we planted some rhubarb that we picked up at Menards.  Also planted a new climbing rosebush.  Put in some onion sets (100 of those - more to be planted in two weeks), and some raspberry bushes.  We transplanted some flowers in the front yard and a lilac bush to the side yard to start a windrow.


Harvest Something
We harvested some asparagus!!  It is in it's second year, so there wasn't a ton or it and it was tiny and super tender.  DH ate it raw, right out of the garden and the kids munched on it too!
Preserve Something
Bought some berries and froze them.  Nothing that is in season here yet.
Waste Not
Reused some seed packs from last year to start new seeds.  Saved plastic bags from various places to use as garbage bags. 

Want Not
Bought freshish berries from the store.  New shoes for the kids.

Build Community Food Systems
Blogging and sharing on a community message board's gardening thread.  Also, the raspberries we planted came from friends at church and some of the rhubarb came from a neighbor at the farm.
Eat the Food
As mentioned above, DH and the kids tried the super fresh right out of the garden asparagus (I cooked the rest of it later).  Also have been eating blueberries, corn, saurkrat and broccoli out of the freezer from last year's garden.

Perhaps it began with Laura and her Rocky Ridge Farm.  Or maybe it was Anne and her beloved Green Gables.  Or perhaps, even, Scarlett and beutiful Tara.  Or maybe it stems from an interest in history and the way I was raised.  Whichever it is, I've always had a name for my home and property.


Growing up my parents were involved in a group called the SCA, or the Society for Creative Anacronism.  Basically, they dressed up, make up pretend names and pretended tha  they lived during the Middle Ages.  I think it's kind of like a grown-up tea party.  I personally, was never really into it and just got dragged along until I was old enough to voice an opinion.  Anyhoo, because of this, my parents acted as a Scottish lord and lady and their "manor home" aka our house, was called Wildweed Manor.  =)  Mom says they named it this because they could never get anything to grow besides weeds.  Even though I thought the whole Middle Ages thing was dumb (can we get a bit of teenage attitude in that statement, please?) I thought it was cool that they named our house.  We even had a sign that said "Welcome to Wildweed Manor" in gaelic.  Pretty cool stuff, that.


And as an avid reader, I fell in love with Laura Ingalls Wilder and her Rocky Ridge Farm in Missouri.  I enjoyed reading about Anne's adventures around her green-gabled home.  The beauty of Scarlett O'Hara's Tara plantation, both in words and on the movie screen really stayed in my mind.  And as an adult, reading of Broch Turach in Scotland, the home of Jamie and Claire Fraser of the Outlander series sticks there.


I have always been intrigued by the fact that these old manor homes, especially in the Brittish Isles, had names.  Or that the southern plantations were named.  As a teen, I would think, "why would you ever name a home?"


Now that I'm an adult (or at least masquerade as one most of the time) and a homeowner and land owner, I totally get it.  Giving a house or farm or land a name totaly gives it a personality.  It adds character.  It gives a house life and breath and helps to make it a home.


I must admit that even my first apartment had a name - I called it Garden Court.  I think the complex had a boring name like Bay Manor or somesuch.  But my little one bedroom overlooked the center gardens and they were beautifully kept in the summer.  I'm not sure I ever told anyone about my little pet name for the apartment.  =)


When we bought our house and one acre, I searched high and low for a name that would fit our little homestead.  You can choose a name based on family history or ethnic background.  You could choose it based on location.  Or characteristics of the home.  I thought and thought and thought.


Finally, I found the perfect name!  I've always been very big into my own Scottish/Irish heritage and wanted something to honor that.  I also decided to use the location of the house.  Thus, Auburn Glen was born.  Auburn, as we are located between two towns/villages, the closest of which is Auburn.  Glen, reflecting the great glens of Scotland and my heritage (sorry Mr. CrazyLife....I guess we left out your heritage there!) and while we aren't particularily in a glen, we are surrounded by farm fields, so I figured it was close enough.  The final straw was that is flowed and had a bit of poetry to it.  I cannot imagine a house named without a thought to flow or the poetry of the name.


Does anyone else name their home or land?  I can't be the only crazy person out there who does this?  Am I?