Sunday, August 29, 2010
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Monday, August 23, 2010
Friday, August 20, 2010
Giving Back to Nature!
The past few months have been very busy for us on the farm. We broke ground on a new home. We live on 150 acres of land and are dividing it in two parcels. The home where we live at the moment was built as a large estate which is too grand for me. We are selling it and building a smaller home.
The hill where we are building has few trees. Long ago it was just jungle but eventually burnt for cattle grazing. We decided to start the process of bringing it back to what it used to be. So, the past couple of months we planted more than 1500 littles trees on the hill and the surrounding pastures below. We also moved some gigantic Coconut Palms to the main garden and some Dominican Oaks so the children will have shade to play. When we broke ground, we scooped up all the wonderful topsoil which we just spread again around the house.
Amongst the trees we planted there were Cashew trees, Coconut palms, Royal palms, Date Palms, Cycads, Ficus, about 400 Pignon for natural fences (loved by our bees), Breadfruit Tree, Acacia, Flamboyant, African Tulip Tree, Dominican Oak, Mango and Avocados.
The photos aren't great because they were taken with my son's small camera. I finally have my camera back from repairs!
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Breadfruit is baked, boiled or fried as a starchy, potato-like vegetable and usually made into bread, pie and puddings. It is one of the most nutritious starches, has complex carbohydrates, and important minerals. It's a tree that will not further deplete any soil. It has fibrous root which prevent erosion. It has to be eaten immediately after harvest which is the reason you don't see it sold in supermarkets.
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[/caption]The children indulge in these wonderful coconuts every day. They sip the sweet milk and eat the delicious, vitamin rich sweet meat. There is an entire book on how healthy coconuts are for humans and animals, called Virgin Coconut Oil by Brain Shilhavy.
- Royal Palm Seedlings
The tropical majestic Palm that reaches it's fronds to the sky and provided home to many birds, popular to the woodpeckers and many bees!
- Sasha helping load the plants on the pick-up
- Ficus
The Ficus is a wonderful tree to create shade for us and the animals. They have strong, thick branches for the children to climb.
- Cashew Nut Seedlings
We visited a man in the local village that had a cashew tree. We scrounged for all the seeds on the floor and now have about 150 seedlings.
- Children Sowing Seeds
We sowed a few seeds before we left so we will have some vegetables when we return back home.
- A ditch for rainwater pipes
Some of the large Coco palms we planted. This is a ditch that was dug at our new house. My husband built a gravity cystern so we can collect all the rainwater which falls on our roof and store it. We can then use it by gravity for all our plants and animals down in the fields.
- View from our new House in DR.
This is the east view of our neighbor's property.
- View on the Horse Pasture by the big Mango Tree
The is the view of one of our horse pastures from the front garden.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Sweet Homes for Birds
We are now in Miami. All of us have been preparing for the long trip and we are almost done. I think we will be leaving early Thursday morning heading to our first camp, the Ocala National Forest.
I am taking advantage of the high-speed internet we have at the apartment to complete a few posts I left unfinished.
Now that we are in back in urban life, I realize how much I miss to awaken every morning to the chorus of birdsong. We constantly have so many birds in the jungle surrounding our house due to the warm climate. I always have wool left over after doing crafts and the children hang it in the trees for the birds. The other day we were delighted to see a little bird take some wool and neatly wove it to it's nest for it's little nestling.
It looked so soft and cosy.
We've collected many gourds throughout the year from our scraggly little gourd tree. Most of them that had fallen to the ground and were dry. We decided to make some little bird houses.
The children carefully drilled holes in the top of the gourd to attach the string and hang it from the tree. They put a small hole in the bottom in case it rains so the water could seep through and not wet the chicks.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Beeswax fun, a little Lavender doll and felt purses
In our warm climate our colorful Stockmar beeswax is always soft and pliable for creative modeling. It is such a wonderful way for our children to communicate their thoughts. They love to create forms exposing memories about a story we've read during the week or a reflection of their day.
It's the best way to soothe energetic children...
My husband is very creative with his hands, he's better at modeling than I am, here he's making a bunny.
This week my little boy has enjoyed listening to Chicken Licken, so I made some little beeswax birds to bring the story alive.
Another little doll I made, a lavender baby. For some reason I can't get the head and body in proportion. I will keep practicing. The boys love her, she's already packed, ready to go on our trip.
These little purses where made from felt. It was Sasha's first time doing blanket stitch and I think he did pretty well. His purse is on the right. Sania (my youngest) needle felted his flower on the left and I did the blanket stitch for him. It holds all their little treasures...
Friday, August 13, 2010
Fruits of the Tropics
Most of our fruits are almost ripe but we are leaving for a long exploring vacation so will miss out on the harvesting, and the delicious juices.
Myself and the boys sowed some seeds today so that when we return we will have some ready to harvest. A lovely Canadian girl using our green house, will care and continue to grow many varieties of greens, vegetables and other herbs whilst we are away.
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Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Dragonfly Warrior Necklaces
Down by the stream where we trail ride every week we always find a variety of beautiful seeds. They lay beneath the trees they have fallen from or slowly drift from upstream. Seeds and driftwood are usually gathered by the children to make their own creations furniture, crafts and little boats.
A little while back I visited Marghanita's blog. It elegantly presented a wonderful description of the honesty plant, Lunaria Annua and its dragonfly boy magic seeds. I decided to make some for my children.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Kapla Creations
My father in law was an architect in Paris. He has past on his talents to my wonderful husband who loves to design homes.
We are very fortunate to have Fabien at home with us all the time, we share all our meals together as a family reveling in wonderful conversation.
Most evenings the children spend time with their papa building homes, roads, bridges and towers with either Kapla, blocks or marble runs. These are few of the children's creations. Kapla has been the favorite toy in our home.
Friday, August 6, 2010
Dragonfly, a boat and a rainbow peg doll
Twig and Toadstool recently made some beautiful dragonflies out of Sycamore seeds. We found some other seeds which weren’t as flexible but still able to resemble the wings. The children sprinkled their shiny glitter to make them sparkle.
A little tortoise made from a seed and some beads.
Sasha found this dried seed pod and glued a small stem in the middle with a beautiful petal of the flamboyant to make a floral mast.
A pretty little rainbow haired peg doll which I had made a while back and clothed her in a purple bougainvillea cape. It soon dried up and fell off so my children decided to wrap her in a wool dress. Another simple project that I found on Magic Onions blog.