Committing to What I Love To Do

I am a city girl who always wanted to grow up in the country.  The soonest I could do that was after my adult work life in a performing and teaching career as a symphony cellist, raising a family and retiring.

I love the idea of homesteading.  The first skill I learned was quilting.  I took a quilt sampler class and made a quilt with twelve different blocks.

A friend taught me how to can fruits.  After that, I got the Blue Book of Canning book published by the maker of Ball Canning Jars.  I began going through the recipes.  I took a pressure canning class to learn to preserve soups and stews.  I built up a pantry for three to six months in various years.

I took Master Gardener and Master Naturalist Certification classes.  I took workshops in organic  gardening, water catchment, and backyard chickens. I took Permaculture Design Certification.

Then, when my husband retired, we really did move to the country, in an off-grid 12’ x 20’ cabin.  It felt so wonderful to be surrounded by Nature.  I was able to calm down from my pressured city life over the three years we lived there.

I began making “Meditation Drawings” a series of lines and small repetitious figures surrounding a particular word.  I wrote meditations to go with the topic.

The work load on my husband was intense, since we were behind the curve on getting water catchment and off-grid energy systems going.  So we moved into a nearby town of 12,000.

Because I still had some lurking emotional issues even in our beautiful woodsy setting, I explored the possibilities of working with a therapist.  After almost two years of work, I was able to understand the sources of my panic attacks and to manage them.

I continued to explore more homesteading skills and became a beginning weaver, learned to knit from a pattern, and took workshops on spinning.  The local quilt shop became a regular Friday night gathering with deep friendships.

One day, I realized that I was surrounded by things I love to do.  I am so glad I made the commitment to discover that.  My life is so fulfilling.  Everything I have done has contributed to realizing my desire.  I am so very grateful.

© 2018 Kathryn Hardage

“the power of my heart’s desire”

Creating with fabric is my passion.

I like to work with small pieces of fabric and combine them in a pleasing way along with a message.

This is message #275 from my collection “Angel Messages Come to You”.

“I feel the power of my heart’s desire spreading into everything I do.”

Here is how I did the layout.

 

 

I saw the blue coyote trickster/flute player fabric in my collection and wanted to bring out the orange highlights.

 

 

I placed a small rectangle of textured orange fabric  behind a small piece of orange southwest fabric.

 

 

I placed some more orange southwest fabric over a dark blue craft fabric for a tiny square  “button”.

 

 

 

 

The texture of colorful design is expressed in another small fabric “button”.

 

 

 

 

My statement reads: “I feel the power of my heart’s desire spreading into everything I do”.

 

 

Here is my sewing sequence.

 

I sewed around the statement, which I had printed onto orange card stock.

Then I anchored the orange southwest fabric over the textured orange fabric.

 

 

 

I sewed around the outside of the textured orange fabric.

 

 

 

 

 

I anchored the dark blue craft paper by sewing the color textured fabric “button” onto it, while keeping the tiny “button” of orange southwest fabric pinned in place.

 

 

 

 

 

Then I sewed the orange southwest “button” in place.

 

 

 

I sewed around the dark blue rectangle of craft fabric.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I trimmed the threads.

 

 

 

 

I can sew this to the top of a journal cover for a spiral notebook.

I may use it along with other quotes to create a wall-hanging.

It may become part of an installation about color.

It could be sewn on a bag.

I enjoy creating for the possibilities.

© 2018 Kathryn Hardage

Playing With My Food

On the way home from a conference, I decided to make food choices that would make it easy to eat while on the road.

Since my husband was driving, I was able to create spinach wraps around cheeses and pre-sliced summer sausage.

We sliced up a pie I had baked (not homemade) before we left.

Of course, we had the usual assortment of crackers, granola bars, and chips.

My favorite construction was a stalk of celery, filled with cream cheese, and topped with a green onion embedded in the cream cheese.

Here is a short version, created after I cut and revived the celery in jars of water in the refrigerator.

I enjoyed the play with food shapes, and, of course, it is a delicious combination to our taste.

 

© 2018 Kathryn Hardage

 

Garden Freedom

(written August 23, 2018)

Today, I went out early and added a tomato cage to support a beginning grapevine.

Now, I will be able to plant a hyssop plant next to it to help deter insects.

While I was outside, I cleared the tall grasses from a raised bed which has two large herb plants in it.

I also brought cuttings from some young trees and bushes to break down in it as a hugelkulture bed.

Each of these steps is filling in my yard to become a tiny food forest.

This is a freedom I am literally cultivating, so I have a very local food source.

I am grateful to take these steps as I fill in the outline of my desire.

As a city person with no knowledge outside of what I have read, putting these steps into actual physical form is a challenge to me.

I am finding my freedom step-by-step as I try out the next idea.

So far, I have about twenty berry bushes and grapevines combined, and now, I am adding the herbs around them to deter insects.

I have asked the city to stop spraying my yard, and a few more birds have returned.

It is important to me to practice a more conscious life-style to reduce my carbon footprint and to steward the little part of the earth where I live.

This will also result in better health as I gain more freedom in cultivating perennial vegetables organically and plant fruit trees.

I am also discovering a style of planting that works for me, small raised beds with a variety of plants in them.

This way, they will all protect each other from insects which favor groups of the same plant.

There is a long list of things which I desire to do, and they are happening step-by-step.

© 2018 Kathryn Hardage

www.kackybackyardgarden.blogspot.com 

More Planting

(written August 20, 2018)

Even in this late August date, there is time for more planting.

I have just received two more blackberry plants, a daisy, several irises, and Thai basil.

In addition there is a ground cover which will bloom with little yellow flowers.

I am delighted to receive such bounty.

My current berries and grapes have made it almost through the whole summer.

They have shown the first little grapes and berries and figs with great future promise.

I have new herbs and perennials which I have purchased at the end of the season.

I will intersperse these as pest deterrents.

I am loving the opportunity to see my yard grow through its first steps toward becoming a tiny food forest.

I will match up the map for my area with the list of perennial vegetables as I learn to cultivate the seeds from Baker’s Creek Heirloom Seed Catalog.

I will continue to enjoy planting for very local abundance from my very own yard.

© 2018 Kathryn Hardage

http://www.kackysbackyardgarden.blogspot.com

Practical Sewing – Tool Belts

It is fun to take a simple sewing idea and enhance it with your own creativity.

I chose a nail apron from Lowe’s Hardware for inspiration for my tool belts.

I used fabric designs with mathematical measurements and angles and formulas plus wood grain patterns for pockets over a heavy canvas back.

 

 

 

A friend suggested I add a loop for a hammer at the side. 

Some are on the right and some are on the left.

I had fun playing with the different fabric combinations to create pockets, pencil holders and loops.

The heavy canvas is from a bolt which my husband bought at an auction.

 

 

I wash each section as I am ready to use it.  That is what gives it the frayed look.

 

 

The straps are folded over twice and stitched twice with a zigzag stitch.

I chose mesh for a contrast in texture for one tool belt, along with a celebration of the Texas origins of one of the recipients.

I had a lot of fun playing with the various fabrics and creating new sets of pockets where I could.

© 2018 Kathryn Hardage

More Canning

The first canning of the season was blueberries, followed by blackberries.

Next was peaches.

Today, we picked up strawberries, more blueberries, mangoes and assorted fruits and vegetables.

The mangoes need to ripen.

The additional blueberries are cooking with honey and cinnamon.

Mostly, I don’t add sweeteners, because once you give up sugar, you can taste the flavors of each food more distinctly.

A composite fruit mixture consisting of pineapple, papaya, kiwi, and plum will be canned when there is room on the stove.

The vegetables will be combined into a chicken soup.  

They include carrots, celery, and yellow squash.

There were no onions in this collection, so I will get some for the soup.

I am thawing chicken broth while I wait for more room on the stove.

Potatoes are baking.  Some will go in the soup along with a jalapeño pepper.

One adds just the right amount of heat.

I love the feeling of abundance and its accompanying freedom.

Yes, I know, it is possible to buy one meal at a time or a week’s worth of groceries to cook.

I prefer the feeling of overflowing goodness and its accompanying happiness.

© 2018 Kathryn Hardage

Regenerative Organic Certification

There are three main components of Regenerative Organic Certification.

It starts with soil welfare, to farm in a way which continuously build up the soil.  Organic matter is used to sequester carbon.

Creating biodiversity protects from mono-cropping, where one crop depletes the soil.  Biodiversity adds components from many different plant sources and insures that much of the crop will be able to withstand multiple challenges.

Animal welfare is ensured through humane treatment, which includes placing animals in appropriate outdoor environments, i.e. pasture grazing, in order to receive the nutrients they need and to deposit their own manures to help build enriched soil.  They are kept free of distress along with disease.

Worker and farmer fairness are achieved by paying living wages, and improving the social and economic position of all agricultural employees.

There are many steps to achieving a thoroughly integrated practice so that the work of growing food is healthy for all those involved.

© 2018 Kathryn Hardage

http://www.transitiontownskills.blogspot.com

Potatoes the Next Year

I planted potatoes late in the season and watched the leafy tops appear over a period of several weeks.

Then I realized they had disappeared…

As it was very late in the season by them, and I felt timid about disturbing the soil, I left the area alone.

The next year, those leafy tops regrew.

After they turned yellow and fell over, I trimmed them and dug into the straw I had planted them in.

Sure enough, there were potatoes!

I have left just a couple of potatoes in the ground.

Perhaps they will grow again next year.

© 2018 Kathryn Hardage

Creative Inspiration

I wanted to create something fun and meaningful for a birthday celebration.

This is what I made.

I painted the watercolor squares and rectangles on the cover of the note.

Then I wrote and drew the inspirational message.

I went through my fabric stash and found this perfect match to my painted rectangles.

Serendipity…unplanned gift from the Universe.

I sewed the fabric to pressboard/chipboard using the size 14 Universal needle recommended by the sewing machine repairman (!) and then sewed the pieces together with a zigzag stitch.

I was so happy to present this and it was well-received.

© 2018 Kathryn Hardage