Bye-Bye Beachie

Before we moved to the beach, my goal in life was to be a beach bum. But living here, I came to realize a few things:

1. I sunburn easily and often.

2. Mosquitos reign here, with stinging sand-gnats running a close second.

3. Sand in your bathing suit and between your toes only sounds like fun.

4. Everyone loves the beach. The Jacksonville Beaches turn into one giant parking lot on every pretty day.

5. Lots of people want to live at the beach, so there are lots of condos and really small residential lots.

6. The city water stinks. Yes, really. During my pregnancy, I could not stand the odor.

7. I prefer to wear jeans. That makes me a weirdo around here. And really hot.


Oh, Jacksonville Beaches, how I will miss you. Oh, okay. There really are a few things I will miss:

1. Hearing the ocean at night.

2. Our library. The people, the services, the selection.

3. Our Publix and Target. Easily the greatest cashiers around.


And that's that. 7 vs 3.

I hope you've all enjoyed my Beach Cheapiness. I will always be frugal. It's in my blood. But soon I will be saving money elsewhere.

Come visit me at Evolution of a Farm Girl, chronicling our next life journey.

Much love always!

Lainie

English Lavendar

My new English Lavendar.
I picked him up at the Beaches Green Market, on my way home from the library.

Another farmer's market find...
fresh rabbit meat!
We've been considering raising rabbits for meat. But neither Ben nor I have ever had any. I've been shopping around, and none of the stores in our area carry it. Not the health food market, not the local butcher. So I was thrilled to find it at the farmer's market. Even at
$7 per pound!
Wow. I don't pay that much for steak!

So now, we wait and see if we like it or not.

Do you eat rabbit? Do you raise them yourself?
Please share advice and recipes!

A Beach Cheap Tea-Bag

During pregnancy, I read Aviva Jill Romm's "Natural Health After Birth" and made some herbal teas from her recipes. I especially love the Keeping Your Balance blend for emotional health and the Energy Tea. I think I've become addicted to making my own herbal teas from bulk herbs. It's a great feeling to blend together all these great-smelling herbs.
So I bought a tea-ball from the health food store. Stainless steel. But it made my tea taste like metal. And, I have all these coffee filters left over from the days before we used the percolator. So, I put my herbs in a coffee filter, twisted it closed, and pinned it with two clothes pins so that it would be suspended over my cup.
Ta-Da!
A Beach Cheap homemade tea bag!

Finally! A BLUE EGG!

At last!
All 3 girls are laying.

The bottom pinkish one is from Rhoda, the Rhode Island Red.
The brownish-slightly speckled one is from Princess. I thought she was an Americauna. Now I'm not so sure.
The blue egg arrived this morning, with much cackling and crowing, from Stanchella, the (now proven) Americauna.
WooHoo!

This post is linked to The Homestead Revival Barn Hop!

The Newest Addition to Our Beach Cheap Urban Homestead

Less than one day old! Loralinda Joy joined our family "officially" at 6:15 AM on Thursday, November 10, 2011. We had an Unassisted Homebirth. Caught by Mama, Assisted and Witnessed by Daddy. Big sister Lyliana slept through the whole thing; she was probably tired from the day before which was her 5th birthday.

She was 7 pounds 9 ounces, 20 inches long. A gorgeous healthy baby girl. We had no ultrasounds during this pregnancy, so her gender was a complete surprise.
The birth was amazing and beautiful.
God has blessed us so richly. I could type all day and not come close to describing His love.


After a period of adjustment, we are trucking along. Loral is nursing and sleeping well. Lyli is loving being a big sister. The chickens are finally getting some attention from me, after being fed and watered by others for the past 2 weeks. And Charcoal, well, he's pretty happy. He spends most of his days guarding my garden from the neighborhood squirrel.


I am so thankful to have a husband who understands my soul's need to be outside in my garden. For the first week postpartum, all I did was walk around and look at everything, usually with Loral nursing in her baby wrap and Lyli playing on her bouncy-horse, drinking in the beauty of growing things. We were blessed with rain that week.
During the second week, I did some small chores like watering the plants from the rain "barrels."
And on Thanksgiving Day, my husband tended to the baby while I got up early to clean out the chicken coop, adding all the scratched bedding and manure to the compost pile. I couldn't have asked for a more splendid morning.
Since then, Lyli and I have raked up the sycamore leaves to be added to the compost. We had such fun! And we've harvested a couple of salads from the garden. The cauliflower, cabbage, and broccoli are doing well, and the carrots and beets are hanging in there.
All in all, I'm glad to see that our homestead can survive a couple of weeks of Baby-Brain fog.
Blessings!
-Lainie

This post is linked to the Homestead Revival Barn Hop! Come join in the fun!

An Urban Homesteading Mom's Version of Nesting

Includes a trip to the Farmer's Market.

Tomatoes are being peeled and canned today.
Sweet potatoes and Apples will become baby food tomorrow.
And oranges and tangerines for juicing.
I also picked up a spaghetti squash and 2 butternut squashes because I LOVE them.
Roasted butternut squash seeds are SO much yummier than pumpkin seeds.

What a lovely fall day!

The Littlest Egg

Rhoda laid the littlest egg the other day.

That's a TEAspoon!

It was so funny. Rhoda was a bit agitated, so I went out in the late evening to check on her and found this in her nest. "What the heck is that?!" I asked the sleeping birds.
:)