Thursday, July 12, 2012

A Special GIft~

Our first class was a big success... such a fun, relaxing day of creating and socializing.
But that will be my NEXT post...

I wanted to send out a special thanks to sweet Dara, who made me this fantastic embroidery!
 That is my house! and Bambi the hen, and Alton the bunny.
love love love.

What a special gift.

Thank you Dara!

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Fairy House Class!

Peculiar Ambitions is SO excited to announce our very first class!
Fairy Houses!




Join us on Sat. June 30th and make a Fairy House for your resident fairies... 
We are setting up tables in the yard, by the pond. It is best to make the houses near the fairy's natural habitat!
Ann and Grandma, making class samples.

When... Saturday, June 30th from 11am until 3 pm-ish. 
We are limiting the class size to 12, to keep the day manageable. We will schedule additional class times if need be.

Cost... $10 per person for the class. You will need to bring your own bag lunch and hot glue gun with plenty of glue sticks. Decor supplies will be found in nature, brought from home, or gathered at the Airy Fairy Sharing Table (details below).

I attached a printable Class Description and Supply Sheet to this email for your convenience.

Students must be old enough to control a hot glue gun safely! If your creator is too young to manage a HOT glue gun on their own, they can bring an adult along to help with it. Class price is per fairy house made, so if you, Grandma, bring your very young granddaughter to make a house, the cost is only $10 if you make one together.  
**We are a working farm and are not set up to accommodate wandering children, so unless they are participating directly in the class or are infants attached to mamma, please find childcare for the day. Same applies to your pets.**

We are using wooden bird houses as our fairy house base. Bring your own birdhouse to use or buy one here... We will have some basic, plain birdhouses for sale for $10 each. Ann took our older, aging birdhouses from the yard and remodeled them into her fairy houses... a great way to recycle!

Think about the your fairy's style... is she a nature fairy? A glitzy fairy? A hoarder/ junk fairy? 
Her style will determine the items you use to decorate.
Once everyone arrives and sets up their work space, we will be taking a nature walk to gather supplies for your house.

Bring decor items for the Airy Fairy Sharing Table. 
This is a great way to destash your crafty items and find inspiration for your fairy house.
Suggested items... these are so much fun to collect and a great way to clean out the crafty stash!
Marbles, silk flowers, beads, trinkets, trims, yarns, rocks, doodads and odds & ends from your junk drawer, buttons, sparkly items, small toys, etc.... 
Use your imagination!

Bring your OWN hot glue gun to use and plenty of glue sticks. You will use a LOT of glue sticks, so get more than you think you may need. 
Pack yourself a picnic lunch to eat by the pond. Making houses is hard work and will make you hungry. 

We are so excited to share a day with you!
Email me asap to reserve your spot in class. (peculiarambitions at gmail dot com)
When I receive your email I will respond and let you know if you are in class or if I will be scheduling a second class. 


 

Sunday, June 3, 2012

2012 Peculiar Peepys!

It's a Peepy time of year!

Several of our hens had gone broody, so on May 12th we marked 8 eggs for them to sit on. They shared the responsibility. Yesterday morning, exactly 21 days later, we found chicks! 
At the end of the day we had four of them. 
Still more eggs in there that have not hatched, we will give them a day or so before giving up.

Here is the only Rhode Island Red chick, fresh from the shell...
The other three chicks are Buffs...

Again this year our reliable mamma is Bambi, a Buff Orphington we adopted from friends.
Here is a quick video (41 seconds) of Bambi and the Peeps...

The squawking is Agatha, our gramma hen. 
She was NOT happy about the coop door being up and me looking in. 

Welcome, little fuzz wads!

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Welcome new piglets~!!!

Today we welcomed new piglets to our Peculiar Clan~

Hello from Frodo, Spock and Luke!


They are six weeks old and not happy about being in the car for several hours.

Right now they are napping in the grass...


They are right next to the older pigs... (you can see them in the background) so they can acclimate.

I have a video of them meeting for the first time, but Paul and I were having a (ahem...) heated discussion about hose nozzles. haha... 
Best to insert happy music over that discussion. 
Screaming, thrashing, poopy piggies can make some people cranky. go figure.

More later... perhaps that video clip?

Thursday, May 24, 2012

The Summer Day~


 
 © 2011 Eve Hanlin

The Summer Day

Mary Oliver

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

© 2011 Eve Hanlin

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Oink Oink... Pastured Pork~

 This year we decided to raise our own pigs...
(See previous Pig Posts here and here...)
Why? Because we decided years ago to be more conscious of where our food comes from.
So... here we are! On our dream farm, with piggies scampering about in our pastures.


We are selling pork shares this year, but since it is our first year, we have limited numbers.
If you are interested in reserving a half or whole pig, please email us at peculiarambitions@gmail.com.
I will then email you a detailed information price sheet.

Berkshire Piglets

We only have Berkshire pigs left, and will be getting more Berkshire the end of May.
Berkshires are a heritage breed pigs, renowned for their ability to raise well on pasture and for their yummy, marbled meats. 
Berkshire Links~



Our pigs are raised on our no-spray pasture and we feed them soy free/organic grains from Magill Ranch in Oregon. They are kept in a mobile fence that gets moved around our pasture and orchard areas.  
E-i-e-i-oooooo

They are spoiled rotten.... and get plenty of fresh air, clean water, unlimited green grass, sunshine (when it's out), rainbows and happiness! 
We are really enjoying them, they are very happy pigs. 
Lotsa napping and basking too!
 zzzzzzzzzzz


You are welcome to come and visit our pigs, to see how they are being raised and what they are fed, etc. Just drop us an email to set a time.


Here are some helpful links I have found while doing my research...

On Buying a Pig... by Former Chef ~ This post shows a really helpful breakdown of what they got from a whole pig... 




Thursday, May 3, 2012

Our Dreams are Here, NOW~

There are several blogs that I follow...
They inspire me and give me plenty of food for thought.

One of my favorites blogs is by Melody Ross, of The Brave Girls Club.
Her post this morning talked about the bad habit of waiting for the shoe to drop.
Living in fear of bad things happening...

I am SO guilty of this... I know I am happy and that we are in the midst of such a fantastic, blessed time in our lives, but there is always that voice in my head saying "enjoy it, it may not last". 

That voice comes from years of lean and hard, stressful times. It was a coping mechanism that I needed at the time, admitting there are things I have no control over and just hanging on by a thread.
But those times are years in the past. Life is amazing now, and I am learning how to expect them to stay amazing.  I now know how strong we are, and what we learned from our struggles. 
So really, no matter what the future brings, we will be OK.

I have learned to appreciate the NOW, because NOW is all we really have. 
The past is gone, and the future? It's not guaranteed and definitely not here yet.

I REALLY loved to this part of her post...


We feel the same way about our farm! 
Like it has been waiting for us it's whole life. 
Now we are here and have magical things planned for it. 
Even after a year and a half, we are still in the "pinch me" phase.

Sitting in a very grateful and thankful place right now.
Life is good.

Cross posted with Reenie's personal blog, ReenieHanlin.com~