Sea Foam Candy And Other Goings On

Old Style Sea Foam Candy Dipped in Milk Chocolate

Finally, sitting down where I think I will sleep tonight, on the couch… Homestead Rescue is on tv. I couldn’t love this Alaskan family more if I tried. I learn so much from them. I am not alone. It was Marty Rainy, who taught Dr. Farmer Moomin, to cut down trees with a chain saw. They have sadly never come here, but there is so much you can pick up just watching them work on tv. So now that I am tired and done for the day, they are on my tv, and I am sitting here with the dog, who has been sleeping since she came home from the vet. She got spayed yesterday and spent the night at the vet. We collected her this morning. Thus far keeping her calm has been a non issue. So easy. She just lays on the couch and sleeps. I don’t want to ask her to climb stairs which is why I will be on the sofa tonight. I also, can’t leave her all alone. She hates being alone and she has been through so much in the last few hours… That she has been sleeping a lot has been useful though. We had time to start making christmas presents today. I made everyone on my list some vanilla sugar from dehydrated vanilla beans and sugar. I also did jars of our own special Wildflower Farm Hot Chocolate. And… I even had time to make some old fashioned Sea Foam candy covered in milk chocolate.

Sea Foam Candy About To Get a Top Coat of Milk Chocolate.

Dr. Farmer Moomin, and I are officially on Christmas vacation at this point… Though My vacation is just lots of sleeping and lots of cooking. Dr. Farmer Moomin, runs the odd errand, and helps out where he can. We like the Scandinavian, Hygge, tradition and do a good bit of it this time of year. In this region there is only so much else we can do, especially since the birth of stinky covid. I spend my time cleaning and messing the kitchen creating one insanity after another. Usually at least somewhat experimental. I always have fun and sometimes we even wind up with something wonderful for my efforts. Other times…. yeh, not so much.

Sea Foam Candy

At the vet, they put their biggest cone on Pikku after her surgery. The other reason I am on the couch tonight is because I want to keep an eye on her. This cone may be perfect for a big lab, but Pikku, is a great dane. She can still lick at it if she makes a concerted effort. Can’t have that. Poor pupper is not in the best of moods. I can’t wait till the next couple weeks are past for her. She is such a sensitive soul, this can’t be easy for her at all. When I broke my pelvis in a horse fall, she supported me through every minute of it. She was just a pup back then. Potty training with a walker wasn’t easy for me to do with her. But eventually she got it. She was my constant support and my best friend through it all. What would I be if I left her to sleep in my bed tonight when she needs my support? So though I am tired, it’s the couch. So tired just getting up to clean up the mess in the kitchen is not happening tonight. It will commence tomorrow morning bright and early. Then I will be off to see Pete, the horse. Yep, he was with me when I broke my pelvis. He tried to lift me off the ground when I couldn’t stand up myself, with his nose. When he couldn’t get me up…. He started to scream. Someone came running and I went to the hospital and the rest is history. My relationship with animals has always been special to me. it isn’t just Pikku. But she is the one who needs my support the most right now. So she will have it, and while she sleeps doped up, I will work on creating my little homestead presents for those on my list. Making things like sea foam candy and all kinds of other things.

Tomorrow I am thinking of maybe doing some cashew or almond brittle…. And after that, maybe some peppermint bark or attempting fudge. The clean up is a killer though. Constantly cleaning and we have outgrown this no proper pantry kitchen…. Which is proving highly problematic. Then we have no greenhouse to boot and the costs around here for food are rising…. Ugggh, so many important things to get done.

Still, I am amazed every time I look back. The city girl with big ambition to be as self sufficient as possible, who moved to the middle of nowhere when she got sick from food, has taken the long way maybe. But has grown over these past 7 years in this place in ways I never imagined she could… This place makes me a better person every day I am here. Just as I am grateful to Pikku, for her devotion, I am grateful to this little 5 acre plot of land. I still have massive homesteading mountains to climb and my skill set may still need work I have a lot left to learn. But I have come so very very far… I may be tired tonight from the workload… But I will spend my night next to one of my besties who needs me and in the morning I will get up and do my job. Making what we need and want and maintaining our existence.

When we first thought about moving out here, I was told by so many people what a bad idea it was. That I would come running back to the city in 6 months… I won’t lie. There are days I wish I could. like tonight when my kitchen is trashed and I am exhausted, and I can’t even grow my own vegetables through the winter… But then I look around… At what I have created here. the life I have built and sustained as hard as it can be sometimes, the gardens, the animals, the trees standing naked in the woods… I may eventually move even further out into the middle of nowhere. I will never be a city girl again. It has been 7 years. I still have no intention of going back. Hard as this is… I love it. I love watching the sunset through the trees. Love watching the goats play on the hill, love seeing my chicken eggs each morning when they are in season. Love walking the dogs all over the property, planting, sitting by the fire on cold nights… Being here, living this way, forces one to truly live a human existence. Something that is not to be found in a convenience city lifestyle. But living out here… It isn’t easy. Surviving another day, having all your ducks in a row is a thing to be celebrated every evening, with the sun that sets pink and glowing through the trees, the again by the wood stove, when work is done… As if it is ever truly done. But burn out can be dangerous. So I have learned to take some time as needed. Such as now, to be there for my devoted best friend.

Cone head, hides her shaved belly with her leg. Getting spayed sux.

Please send Pikku, well wishes but don’t pray for her, she is an atheist.
She is also a good girl.
Thank you for reading
Amanda of Wildflower Farm

Tags: homesteading

About wildflowerfarm

Wildflower Farm, is a small New England homestead, B&B and AirBnB, in the Baystate. We came out here 7 years ago, when we returned from the better part of 10 years as peripatetic aristotelian nomads, for my husband's post docs. Upon our return, we had a plan. We had a lovely home. Everything was so clear. Then, I got sick. Things I used to eat all the time during our travels elsewhere in the world and even here before I left almost 10 years earlier made me ill. It took a couple trips to the ER and a trip to specialist... It became clear, something had changed in the way food is processed in this country since last I lived here. Some off label things was inevitably going to be my demise.

My husband and I looked around to see the clear path we were on, had exploded in front of us. We decided we had to create a new path for ourselves. We put children on hold. We found a small piece of land with a house we loved in a rural suburb in a right to farm area. I began researching how to do it ourselves. Grow it ourselves, make it ourselves, survive on our own as much as possible. We bought the property, and began plotting a new course. One that didn't involve off label chemicals. Closer to nature, with a lot more DIY, gardens, and animals for the products they provide. We created a life we loved though it hasn't always been easy and has of course come with compromise with each other, and even with ourselves.

Our family thought we had lost our minds. What were we doing leaving the city? We had no idea how hard this would be. They thought we would be back in 6 months. That was over 7 years ago, now. We have been making it work. They were not wrong, it isn't easy. But has anything worth doing ever been easy? And for us, avoiding as much store bought food as possible was simply necessary so I could live given how sick I was getting.

Then Covid hit.... We were lucky to have this place. It has allowed us a lot less need for public use territories which has kept us a lot safer and spared us much of the risk others face daily. This place, has given us a privilege through this of great meaning to us. To be of use in a difficult time. We have been able to help friends family and even strangers in need when things couldn't be found on store shelves. Or money was tight due to not working, rent being due and a child at home, or some other draining situation. We are so very grateful to have been able to not be helpless like so much of society through this miserable time. Our families, got used to it some time ago, us being out here. They made peace with it the day there was no bread and they had to ask me for some. Or when fresh vegies were rotten due to supply chain issues but they could find plenty in my garden.

Wildflower Farm, was a place I dreamed of. One of those sweet pastoral dreams a city dweller grows up knowing will never come true, that became unavoidable when I became ill. I never expected to get to do this. I never thought I had what it takes to make this work. I have learned pacing myself is important, compromise is critical, hard work never ends, burn out is real so breaks are just a necessary evil.

We are not fully self sufficient, but we work hard in that direction as we create a new path through life for ourselves, always reaching to do even more ourselves and to get closer to the ideal we envision. We are however far more self sufficient than many in this world. 7 years in, we continue to learn and grow in this homesteading lifestyle. We welcome comments and advice and ideas and questions.

We welcome visitors from all over to our home with strict covid policies in place. We spend our time learning to live all over again in a more environmental and sustainable way though even there we are far from perfect always learning and growing doing better as we know better.

This little homestead farm is a magical place named for the New England wildflowers that grow all around. A place where a physicist, watches the night sky on clear nights with the aide of mirror and glass, and a woman, works endlessly in the gardens, the kitchen, and a variety of projects to create and to keep a very unique life style running and functioning. Wildflower Farm, has become so much more than simply a piece of land we can grow a few vegetables on. The longer I spend here, the more alive the land seems, the more I learn about it's function and the more meaning it has. My place in the universe and the next steps on our new path become ever more clear.

We welcome you on this journey with us.

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Sea Foam Candy And Other Goings On

Sea Foam Candy And Other Goings On

About wildflowerfarm

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