Brownyard Blitz

We bought the house in April of 2006 it looked like this:It was a fixer-upper on a corner lot. It was in a great neighborhood, close to schools, a library, the bike path. Then we birthed twins, painted the house, pulled out the overgrown  bushes, replaced some windows, built a fence, built a patio, had another kid, read Michael Pollan , read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, read Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn , read Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer, rode Bike the Barns (twice), got tired of kohlrabi in our CSA box, stopped subscribing to a CSA, went to the farmer’s market so often that the farmers know Mr. Brown on a first name basis, built a raised bed in the front yard, cut down the crab(Crap) apple trees, installed rain-barrels, wanted to get chickens, looked into getting chickens, decided chickens were not for us, hired Madison Groundworks, brewed beer, made chili, invited our friends and their favorite shovel over and turned this:into this.The kids showed amazing stamina and played in cold, drizzly weather for 8 hours. They came in briefly to use the bathroom and eat, but they tirelessly rescued worms from the old raised bed and relocated them to their new, bigger home.

It’s a bit unsatisfying to build a garden and then immediately put it to bed. But now we have all winter to inventory our seeds and perfect our plant wish list , find black current bushes, asparagus, and quince trees.We will spend the coldest nights debating about which heirloom tomatoes are sweeter. We have all winter to dream of green things to come.

This project is our 10th anniversary present to each other. Tin is the traditional gift….think tin watering can. Happy Anniversary, Farmer Brown. I love you more than dirt.

Kickapoo Country Fair

Nothing says “Summer” like parking in a field. We ventured to the Kickapoo Country Fair last weekend. It was sponsored and held at Organic Valley in the heart of Wisconsin’s beautiful Driftless area.

Highlights from the weekend:

Overhearing two women talking cheese making;  “..She tried training me on the mozzarella and provolone and I could hardly keep up with that” while nursing our young in the family rest tent.

Seeing a field of beautiful sunflowers that will be made into tractor biodiesel.

Meeting friends from The Madison Waldorf School and favorite artist/mother Amy Arnold in the Farm Animal tent.

Walking through the Viroqua farmer’s market and seeing the Amish women tend to their babies while selling baskets and vegetables.

Playing in Pleasant Ridge’s playground before dinner after a long drive from Madison.

Meeting Elin, who lives in Madison and has a weekend farm near La Farge, where she dyes Wisconsin wool with natural flower dyes. She is my unwilling mentor.

Hearing The Squeezettes-All Girl Polka Band and wanting to  drink beer and Polka all night long.

Watching the Rebels willingly sit still for a fairy face painting. Coco the Warrior Princess, Ladybird the Ice Queen.

July

Woosh goes July

onthebikes offthebikes onthebikes over to the easel to paint run to sandbox

laugh shout squeal drawdrawdraw

Scruff, scruff, scruff goes mama and the baby jogger

Coo goes baby then kickickicks

Hollyhocks stretch to the the sun

Vroom to Papa’s farm for the weekend

Whoosh goes the red racing motorboats

we rest for a moment and read Sendak, while wild things run amok in the garden

Easter 2009

Made lasagna noodles and cleaned the house on Good Friday. Mr. Brown had the day off.

Great Grandpa Frank wasn’t up for visitors, so we didn’t go to Milwaukee. Stayed home and dyed eggs and gardened on Saturday. After lunch, I went to the gym to swim… and float in the therapy pool.

Easter Sunday we hunted for Easter Baskets, then an egg hunt under the apple tree, off to church and the Big egg hunt afterwards. A beautiful day for a walk, then back home for dinner. Aunt J and Josh joined us for spinach lasagna, deviled eggs, hot cross buns and lemon tart. The best Easter I can remember.

Sacrificial Squash

Portrait of the 40# Muscadet before the harvest.

Last weekend we harvested the Muscadet squash from last summer’s garden. It has been in our basement, slowly turning colors, from dark green to monarch orange. A slight gasp went out from Mr. Brown and I as he sliced into the interior of the ripe squash. The color was so rich. “Orange” doesn’t do it justice. I wanted to bathe in that color. I wanted to paint my walls, dye my clothes, and color my hair that color. We are in the last days of winter and are tired of the  cold, worn, scraped, landscape that surrounds us.

We harvested and froze what we could and made up “‘goody bags” of squash to give to our neighbors. Now that the squash has been sacrificed, let us eat and go forth, with renewed faith that spring will rise from the ashes of winter.

I know that many have requested a picture of 30 week pregnant me in my newly finished Lent sweater. This weekend, my sweet Birdies, I promise to have Mr. Brown photograph me this weekend. Posting  to arrive on Monday.

“For those about to rock, we solute you.” -AC/DC

2009 Resolution; Less  Soccer [Mom], more Rocker [Mom].

1. Get rid of this God-awful-helmet-hair and get something with some style. I currently look like a news anchor cum Republican Senator’s Wife. Time to bust out some layers and add highlights and low-lights. I need to find a hairstylist who is worth his or her weight in overpriced hair product.
2. Early to bed, early to rise. The resolution to wake up, and actually get up, dovetails into Chris’ desire to start attending morning yoga classes. I will be expanding my Mothering Hours from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.  I will get to bed by 9 p.m. to make up the lost morning hour.
3. Learn to play guitar. This resolution came to me in a dream.  I woke up at 2 a.m. thinking “I should really learn to play guitar.” Go with it.
4. Figure out my fancy new camera and this darn WordPress. I love and fear my new camera. Repeat after me, “Knowledge is power. Knowledge is power…..”
5. Make a felted camera case for fancy new camera. And a camera strap. I will post instructions on Brownbuilt, or better yet, make them and sell them on Etsy. Maybe this will offset the cost of the fancy new camera. Yeah, right.
6. Birth Brown #3 sometime in late May, early June. Have a “Welcome Baby Summer Solstice” party instead of a baby shower where everyone brings a  frozen dish instead of  baby gifts.
7. Burn old journals and datebooks that just sit in my studio and bum me out. Do this after Baby is born so I can toast, and drink, to my mistakes and remember that mistakes brought me to the beautiful place that is my life.
8. Prenatal yoga once a week. And then postnatal once a week until I can start running. How do I stack a running jogger for 3 kids? I must look into this.
9. Continue to go the the gym 3 times a week to  workout and visit with Laura. I resolve to be supportive, not envious, of her half Ironman training.
10. E-bay and/or Craigslist all the fancy, useless stuff that is packed away in my basement and cluttering up my drawers. Put the money towards a new sewing machine and  baby hammock.
11. Paint the kitchen lavender. For about a year everything I do, sew, paint, and knit is a shade of purple. Again, go with it.
12. Knit myself a pretty nursing shawl. It will probably be purple. Maybe navy with light lavender edging for contrast. First I must finish eggplant colored shawl-neck sweater I started in 2008.
13. Redesign and make another Mei Tai sling for Baby. This will be prototype #3 for baby #3. I will post the design on Brownbuilt.
14. Graft dying apple tree to new dwarf trees. Cut down  mammoth dying apple tree and use the trunk + 12′ to make an awesome fairy-fort for the girls. Determine what constitutes a “Fairy-fort”.
15. Make chicken tractor and acquire 4 chickens.

Upon reviewing my list, it doesn’t look very “rocker” at all. Except for #3. The point is to not let my artistic spirit get lost in the undertow of raising children, working out, making dinner and keeping this tiny house from exploding at the seams.

I still need to wash the dishes, but I can throw on an i-pod and listen to the Yeah,Yeah,Yeah’s while I scrub.

Yoga weekend. Thanksgiving Canceled. She’ll be comin’ Round the Mountain….

I am posting pictures of our ladies yoga weekend on Flickr. It was such fun to knit and chat and eat great food and do lots of yoga. If I was in a sorority, I would want it to be like this was. We arrived on Friday night, itching to go for a walk. Then we discovered that it was the opening of deer hunting season, and unless we packed our florescent orange jackets and yoga pants, we were best to stay around Artha. So off to the yoga studio, then back to the house for huge bowls for guacamole and burrito fixings. Saturday we greeted the day with more yoga, breakfast prepared by the owner’s of Artha and then some goal building. Then lululemon’s Natalia directed us in some goal building excercises. I built an inspiring  collage and listed S.M.A.R.T. goals for the next 1/3/5/and 10 years.  And S.M.A.R.T. is an acronym for  Specific,  Measurable, Ambitious, Realistic, and Timely goals. Of course I wrote them in pencil, so the goals can shift. It is so important to take time to realize your dreams and write them down, especially when surrounded by earth loving, beautiful mothers, who have such great goals of their own.

Other news, we all got the flu on Wednesday night, so we canceled Thanksgiving and rescheduled it for Sunday at Grandma L and M’s house. It was just the 6 of us, but the grandma’s pulled out all the stops and we had a traditional feast, complete with a pumpkin pie that Chris prepared.

[They'll] be coming round the Mountain… my sister-in-law, her boyfriend, and their terrier are moving into our spare bedroom. I have been in a frenzy of sorting and uncluterring, trying to eak out more space in our 1200 sq. foot ranch. They live small in Japan and I refuse to give into the American McMansion… although sometimes I do wish for my own bathroom and closet. But then again, who doesn’t wish for such things. As mother always said” If wishes were horses, beggers would ride.”

Driftless Arts Festival

I planned on Blogging more, but I have been swamped in CSS writing trying to figure out how to customize Brownbuilt. I can never leave a style sheet alone. So, until I can find my way out of this quagmire-blogmire, I apologize for links that go nowhere and photos that don’t open. Luckily, only 4 people read this sight, and I know their love will outlast a few coding hurdles.

Last Sunday we took a road trip to the Driftless Area Art Festival. The winding roads prohibited me from knitting in the car, lest I barf on my handwork. The weather was fantastic, the food and beer was local, organic, and yummy as was the art and music. I visited with a favorite artist, Amy Arnold , and like a school girl crush, I blushed and giggled and choked out that I was a huge fan. Then I backed it up with buying two hats. Chris gave Coco and Ladybird their first “underdogs” on the swings, which made them squeal with delight. Swinging will never be the same again. We drove past Pleasant Ridge Waldorf School and dreamed of which farmette we would like to own. Tried to hit Sibby’s Organic Zone Ice Cream Parlor, but it was closed on Sunday. Another reason to come back to our little slice of homesteading heaven.