It can be deeply overwhelming, so today I’m sharing some practical ideas for you to choose from. We can never rid our home of all the chemicals (I explain more in this episode), but we can feel really good about taking small steps towards making a big difference.

Today I’ll explain how I manage to buy very little liquid hand soap, dryer sheets, dishwasher soap, liquid dish washing soap, all-purpose cleaner, and paraffin candles.

Where to Listen or Watch

Listen on Apple Podcasts here: Creating a Non-Toxic Home, Season 5 Episode 19 of the Simple Doesn’t Mean Easy Podcast

Or listen here:

And watch here:

Creating a Non-Toxic Home

In this episode:

• The EPA’s take on chemicals in household cleaners that are “relatively safe if used as intended” 
• What a surfactant is, why they’re in conventional cleaning products, and how to avoid them
• What VOCs are and how they affect indoor air quality
• Some VOCs that are out of my control & tips for how to deal best with those
• How there is no federal health-based standard for VOCs
• What “artificial fragrance” really means on an ingredient list (& how it can refer to more than 3000 undisclosed chemicals!)
• How artificial fragrances can worsen allergies, inflame sinuses, and lead to more colds and respiratory infection
• The term “artificial fragrance” can and company doesn’t have to disclose what chemicals they’re using.
• Additional benefits to homemade cleaners
• Benefits of air-drying clothes
• What essential oils I use for all my non-toxic DIY cleaners & why (bonus: no MLM involved!)
• 5 recipes for my favorite DIY cleaners

Go HERE to grab your Pantry Checklist, which includes all the DIY supplies needed for every “recipe” we chat about in today’s episode. Bonus, there’s a link to the full, detailed recipes for these DIY cleaners there as well.

About our Sponsor:

This episode is sponsored by Redmond Real Salt.

Go to SoulyRested.com/salt for my favorites and links. And use code SOULYRESTED to save 15%! Enjoy FREE shipping on all orders of $30 or more.

I was tempted to buy cheap salt just for cleaners but then I realized minerals, particularly trace minerals, are very involved in the various protective properties of your skin. Trace minerals have been shown to be essential in fighting the damages of excessive sun exposure, wrinkles, and maintaining the moisture in your skin.

Minerals are tiny molecules that easily penetrate the skin, so Topical application of minerals is a thing.

Why not add some trace minerals via my cleaners?

Also, did you know salt is an important way to up the quality of your food that you’re preparing in the kitchen, growing in your garden, and raising in your backyard?

Yep, salt is an important nutrient for gardens, backyard chickens, pasture-raised pigs, and more.

The products I love from Redmond Agriculture: soulyrested.com/salt

Use code SOULYRESTED for 15% off at Redmond Salt and Redmond Ag anytime.

Other Articles & Resources You Might Enjoy:

How to Use Dryer Balls (article)

How to Use a Calendar to Improve your Health (podcast)

Tips for Improving Your Health, at any age (podcast)

My 7-page Pantry Checklist (free download)

I’d love to connect!

To find me in some other neck of the woods, just click any (or every!) icon below:

The post 6 simple ways to detox your home & improve your health (S5 E19) first appeared on Souly Rested.

Our Church Building

While you know we live in an old farmhouse that was built in 1800, I haven’t shared much about our church building. It was built not too long after our old house, and it’s melodious bells have been chiming out the hour and half hour throughout our small, one-street town for well over a century.

I share a little insight about our church here, where I explain my multiple sources of income (on of which is a brick-and-mortar job, working as the pastor’s assistant) that help keep our homestead and sugarbush running.

Our church has long outgrown the sweet little historic building we meet in.

One thing I didn’t know when moving here 6 years ago? New England is a mission field. There are so few churches that preach true joy and hope from the infallible Word of God like folks hear coming out of our pulpit every Sunday. Yet New Englanders are ripe for hearing this joy known as the gospel.

Many families drive from over an hour away every Sunday.

So we’re working hard to bring as many folks in as will come, and we are also working hard at raising money to purchase a new-to-us building that will allow us to deepen our impact and welcome more in our pews every week.

Go here if you feel God leading you to help us reach more with the Good News here in New England.

Since this will, hopefully, be the last Christmas we celebrate in this small historic building we are now renting, my daughters knew they wanted to memorialize it in gingerbread and candy.

I share my complete recipe and the tricks of the trade we’ve learned along the years on the best ways to make a gingerbread replica of your home, or other important building, below.

My Gingerbread Recipe

Icing Glue Recipe

This post contains affiliate links. Go here to read the full (ultra fun) legal disclosure about that.

10 Tips for Construction of a Gingerbread Replica of Your Home (or church)

1. If your design is rather intricate, start days ahead by cutting out cardboard and gluing or taping it together to make sure your plans and measurements are correct.
2. Use paper to trace your cardboard pieces you designed with and use that to actually cut out your gingerbread. Your cardboard pieces can be a rough idea but then use neatly cut paper for the real deal. It’s much easier to work with paper than cardboard to make your actual pattern; save the rest of your cardboard for your base to build your gingerbread building on, if it’s sturdy enough.
3. Be sure you’re not creating any pieces that are too big to fit on your biggest cookie sheet. Not that I’ve almost done that or anything.
4. Try out this free online help with sketching your building plans.
5. Your dough will seem really hard when you take it out of the fridge. It will most likely crack when you initially try to flatten it. Patience and muscle power will allow you to roll it out, and you’ll be amazed at how smooth the dough becomes after a little diligent rolling.
6. Try cutting the gingerbread dough with a pizza wheel for ultra smooth edges, plus it’s easier to use than a knife to trace your paper patterns.
7. After the dough is baked, you can still gently use a serrated knife, or even kitchen scissors, to cut baked pieces down to the shape or size you want, or to smooth out edges (if you don’t use a pizza wheel to cut them).
8. While you can use cutting boards, large platters, and more for a base to build on, nothing beats a sturdy piece of cardboard covered in aluminum foil.
9. You definitely want a way to pipe on your icing. This is my favorite cake decorating tool, but bags and tips like these work well too.
10. Create braces for your main walls with heavy cardboard that you cut to fit. This helps the walls stay in place until the icing has hardened.

Why I Love Seeing Kids Building with Gingerbread

I have always had two hurdles when trying to create something, I struggle with noticing details and I’ve always had difficulty understanding how to translate a 2-dimensional image into something 3-dimensional. For instance, sewing. I was never good at holding a pattern in my hand and figuring out how on earth I could turn that pattern into a real-life shirt or skirt or cute halloween costume.

Since studies have shown that in general it is more challenging for a female to see in 3D than a male, and given that I’m a homeschool mom of 4 girls, I was always looking for fun ways to foster this skill.

When the girls were young I tried hard to do any activity like nature journaling, and building with legos and mini robots, that would help them bridge that gap in their learning style.

Creating a gingerbread creation of something they cared about in real life was a fantastic way to do this. And tastier than sewing.

Plus, kids who grow up making a grand ole edible buildings time and again will still want to spend an afternoon doing it with mom, a decade later. Bonus.

Inspiration When Making a Gingerbread Replica of Your Home

SNOW: use confectioners sugar as snow on top of icing

TABLE CLOTH: for “sheets” of color, melt gummy bears and squish them flat (Warning, this does get very sticky!)

TILES: for any panes of color (we did this for our church’s stain glass panes) roll out jujufruits and/or tootsie rolls

STEPPING STONE PATH: slice tootsie rolls into individual stones to create a path

PEOPLE: I like these cookie cutters that allow you to choose the height for a person that is best proportionate to your house’s dimensions.

ANIMALS: This is our moose cookie cutter, in a set that includes another favorite animal around here. But these may be more up your alley.

ROOF SHINGLES: My absolute favorite shingles are made from overlapping rows of Necco wafers or giant circle sprinkles like the ones we used on our church

WREATHS:  I love these circular cookie cutters for cookies and biscuits and they work great for gingerbread wreaths, with so many sizes to choose from. We used the fluted sides of 3rd from the smallest (for the outer ridge of the wreaths) and the next smallest to cut out the center of the wreaths.

The list could go on and on, so please continue this list with YOUR ideas, in the comments.

Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain. Psalm 127:1

Other Posts About Creating with Kids:

My Favorite Cookies EVER (and how my girls created a gift for me out of them)

The Easiest (Perfect) Graduation Party Ever

Teaching a Child to Make Pie (and my grandma’s pie crust recipe)

Making a Gingerbread Farm

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It’s all in the attitude, really. And the knowledge that Simple Doesn’t Mean Easy… but it’s worth it. For lots more on that topic, follow my podcast.

See my youtube video here on this same topic.

Enjoy a Simple Farmhouse Christmas

1. Keep it Fun

For us this year, our favorite way to enjoy all of our decorating and wrapping evenings is to put some old vinyl on our record player.

It was a gift from the girls last Christmas and I have thoroughly loved using it, but this Christmas season has been the best.

I pulled out my family’s records from my childhood and the girls love hearing a little bit of my childhood favorites, while they may not enjoy listening to me signing along (since I never could carry a tune).

A few simple ways to keep Christmas “chores” lighthearted and relaxing:

• Put on your favorite Christmas music.
• Light some candles.
• Start your decorating season early by bringing out the twinkle lights. Long winter evenings need more light, no?
• Make time for down time, maybe even treat yourself to a long quiet walk or a bubble bath before the part of the decorating that tends to stress you out.
• Take it to heart–and remind yourself often, if need be–it is totally okay that you are not martha stewart. No one expects you to be. In fact, I’d bet your home is much more inviting and cozy than Martha’s ever would be. It’s my theory that hers is too perfect to be comfortable.

2. Forage For Decorations

Winter is dark, and nights are long here in New England. We try to get outside and get fresh air during the warmest part of the afternoon whenever possible. Whether it’s a walk with Bixby, doing farm chores, or even something as ridiculous as ice skating in the marsh (yep, we’ve done that), we need the vitamin D and exercise.

Roaming the woods and foraging for decorations is maybe the best way to follow my first tip as well, because gathering treasures together is always fun.

A few ideas of great things to forage for and how to use them

* grape vines for wreath bases.

If you use them right away after clipping them, there’s no need to soak them to make them pliable. Just meticulously wind the vines into a circle, tucking in the ends and wrapping new vines on as you go, until you have a wreath the size you’d like it to be. Then tuck in and hot-glue on other treasures from your foraging…

* dried leaves for wreaths or vases.

We have a low-growing plant that is prolific in our marsh that is perfect for this. Hayley made a gorgeous wreath from just grape vines and those leaves this year.

We also filled some pottery pieces, mason jars, and wooden barrels with the dried plant. (We have plenty of it. It’s almost like a ground cover for our marsh.)

* evergreen for wreaths and swags.

Tuck branches in a grapevine wreath to fill it with green, or cut off 1-foot-long pieces of evergreen that you tie together with twine to create a swag for hanging over doorways, windows, or mantles. You can even just lay evergreen branches wherever it works for you. We have an old horse bridle holder that was salvaged from an old barn. I love that today it holds my grandad’s horse bridle. I tossed a whole branch over it and called that corner of our TV room decorated.

* pine cones.

To dry up the sometimes-gooey sap in the pinecones, and avoid any egg cases hatching unwanted critters in your home (it’s seriously happened to me), take a few minutes to bake your pine cones. Yes. Bake.

1. Preheat oven to 200°
2. Cover a cookie sheet with aluminum foil.
3. Lay pinecones on the foil, in a single layer.
4. Bake for 1/2 hour.

3. Keep the Tree Simple (Sometimes)

This year our tree is super simple. Okay, kinda short and scrawny. Okay, a full-blown Charlie Brown tree.

How we arranged our simple tree

To get the Charlie Brown tree to stay upright took a little finagling, but it just required a few things…

• vase (or I used a 1/2 gallon Mason jar)
• old towels
• masking tape
• a base container

I used Bill’s grandmom’s 6-gallon fermenting crock for my base, but an old wooden barrel or upright box would work great too.

1. I placed the Mason jar, filled with water, in the center of the crock.
2. I surrounded the water jar with 3-4 old towels, to keep it centered and cushion the blow if the tree took a tumble.
3. Then I laid down strips of masking tape in X’s around the base of the tree, attached to the rim of the crock.
4. Finally I arranged another old towel (but it could be a pretty piece of fabric too or even an odd piece of clothing) to cover the tape.

But I’m not saying you need to go full-blown Charlie Brown to keep it simple with the tree this year. Instead, consider doing a simple theme of all homemade ornaments or dried forage items, like dried oranges and berries and pinecones. If nothing else, consider not pulling out all the usual boxes of typical ornaments. Make this year’s tree different in some way, more simple.

Of course I realize, full well, that “simple” almost never means “easier.” I talk more about how my Charlie Brown tree was more complicated, in some ways, than my typical tree in my podcast episode on this same topic… I link to it below (or you can always find all the podcast info on the “podcast” tab from any page of this blog).

4. Keep it Real (but artificial is okay too)

While we foraged most of our decorations this year, I’m a big fan of combining some artificial pieces with the real items.

1. Over mantles

On our one mantle this year, the one that is over our wood stove (which is constantly hot, as our primary source of heat in this old farmhouse), I just placed a little artificial greenery, buffalo plaid ribbon and wooden beads. We started with real pine branches there, but they were dead and brown in days, which is a fire hazard there, since our wood stove that sits directly under that mantle runs hot 24/7. If a dry, brittle tree branch fell on it, well let’s just say we don’t want that to happen.

Another mantle was a perfect spot to just drape greenery and lay some dried oranges and pinecones on top. It’s so simple, but so pretty.

Then our kitchen mantle was the one we spent the most time on, with a long swag of evergreen pieces we tied together with twine then added dried orange slices and pinecones, each tied on with twine.

2. In baskets

In baskets, I added some artificial holly and berries among the real evergreen clippings. A few ornaments and pinecones were nice finishing touches.

3. On wreaths

Our advent wreath is primarily artificial. That makes it nice and easy to move on and off our kitchen table, but I wanted it to have the same look as the rest of our decorations, and look like I had foraged it from nature too, so I stuck pine branches, pinecones, and dehydrated oranges around the artificial base to make the artificial look more all-natural.

I also added some evergreen clippings to our artificial red berry wreath that we hung on the inside side of our front door, to decorate our carriage house area.

5. Make Things with the Kids

Kayla was telling me as we walked the woods to find grapevines how she remembered watching me twist and form wreaths from bendable twigs as a kid and found it magical. To see her then having a ball when we returned to the house, twisting her own wreaths, with our “loot” of evergreen and vines surrounding her, was pretty special. So what are some great items to make with the kids for simple farmhouse Christmas decorations?

• salt dough ornaments
• cinnamon salt dough ornaments
• salt dough and twine garlands
• dried fruit
• a garland of letters

The letter garland

We used adhesive light interfacing , covered in burlap, to cut out letters then strung them on twine, spelling out “Come Let Us Adore Him.”

Since I’m writing this in 2020, a year none of us who have lived through it will ever forget, a year of separation and fear and confusion caused by a worldwide pandemic, I feel like our little garland was perfectly hung over our simple, bare tree. You see, the meek tree and the simple words are a constant reminder of who we need to be truly focused on. Not fancy decorations or the fear around us, but Christ. Always Christ.

The dried citrus slices

We dry citrus slices in our dehydrator that happens to double as an air fryer (gosh I love this appliance!). Slice the fruit thin and cook on dehydrator trays at 140 degrees for 6-8 hours.

Other directions

You can find directions for the other ideas listed here in this article.

6. Find Unexpected Decorations

I had two empty coffee table that it took me a week to decide something to put there. I finally spent a few minutes scouring the barn attic, and immediately knew I wanted to use two of my grandmom’s old enamelware.

First there was my grandmom’s serving tray. It has this eye-popping red rim that I knew I wanted to use to decorate. It of course had a non-Christmas design on it… a flower cart… so I brought down an armload of possibilities of pottery pieces, wooden bowls and candle holders to decide what I wanted to display on the tray to mask the flower cart. A few pails filled with greenery and some scattered pine cones did the trick.

Then I have this enamel baking dish of my grandmom’s. The green trim is perfect for Christmas. I just laid greenery, pinecones and ornaments inside. If you’re putting it near a electrical outlet a strand of lights would be nice too. Then I remembered a sweet pottery poinsettia a daughter made me one year, added a candle, and I can’t tell you how much I love this centerpiece. I smile every time I look at it.

But my point is, you may have the perfect items for decorating in a box in the corner of your basement and not even know it because it’s not what you typically think of as “Christmas.”

But I bet you’ll have more joy looking at those items for the 6 weeks of Christmas than you’d ever have from the same-old-same-old decorations you put out every year or the new thing you grab at Hobby Lobby that doesn’t have any sentimental meaning to you.

Whether you take one or all of these tips to heart, I hope you find a few ways to truly have a simple farmhouse Christmas, even if you live in a condo in the city and even though we all know that Simple Doesn’t Mean Easy.

—- If you are inspired by any suggestions here, please share on social media with the hashtags #SimpleChristmas and #SimpleDoesntMeanEasy and tag me so I can share your gorgeous decorations too! —-

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Other Christmas articles you’ll like:

More Simple Christmas Decorating

Surviving the holidays when you’re burdened with grief or depression

Your Nativity Scene is Missing a Few Things

How to Make a Gingerbread Farmhouse

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Glance at my Resource Page if you’d like to get a glimpse of all the supplies I use and recommend for everything from gardening, to homeschooling, to chicken care, to nature journaling, to maple syrup making.

 

 

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The post 6 Tips for a Simple Farmhouse Christmas first appeared on Souly Rested.

Now that you gotta love.

What if you just have a few trees?

I’m Michelle, author of Sweet Maple, Backyard Sugarmaking from Tap to Table (go here for a peek inside) and I’m elated that you found this page.

If you are a backyard sugarmaker with two or three trees to tap, you want to grab my book… it’s pretty much the Bible of Backyard Maple. But this post isn’t going to benefit you.

This article is for someone who has many trees to tap, who would rather not carry each bucket, one by one, from each tree back to their processing location. That’s exactly what we did for the first two years.

The first year, with a dozen trees, wasn’t so bad.

The second year, with twice as many trees, got exhausting.

This post contains affiliate links. See my full disclosure here.

Our turkey fryer pot and propane burner has served us well, and is truly all a backyard sugarmaker needs if they’re just tapping a dozen trees or less.

btw, if you want to upgrade or expand on a turkey fryer, this pot is a sweet upgrade with a spout and an extra thermometer that makes your job a lot easier. And this dual burner is great  with stainless steel pans like this if your backyard operation grows, as ours did.

We still, for one more season at least, use 3 propane burners and a combination of pots and pans to boil down our sap that we collect from more than 100 taps. But we weren’t about to carry 50-100 buckets from the woods every evening, for the 6 weeks of sugar season. Many of you have asked me how we built our collection system, so this article will break it down for you.

When you have more trees to tap…

By our third winter of sugarmaking Bill decided to not double our previous year’s number of taps, but quadruple them. With more than 100 taps, buckets would not be an option. So we added lines, collecting sap into collection tanks.

Grab a copy of Sweet Maple for lots of insight into that big step, if installing collection tubing like this is something you’re considering.

But just installing lines to collect your sap isn’t enough. For two reasons:

• First, you’ll want a vacuum pressure on your lines, to create the highest quantity of sap you can in your short 4-6-week window of sugarmaking every year.
• Then, you’ll need a way to pump the sap out of your collection tanks and into your tank on your truck or gator that you’re using to transport the sap.

Keep reading for links to everything we use to make this all run smoothly (and make us lots of smooth-tasting maple syrup).

What you’ll need to make a similar set up…

The transfer pump

The heart of this whole collection operation is the transfer pump. This one works great for us, and of course we have lots of extra batteries.

On a side note, this happens to be no effort for us at all because Bill is a huge fan of Milwaukee. We have bright red Milwaukee drills, and awesome beacons of light (aka this LED stand work light that comes in handy if we’re working in the sugarbush at night). The same interchangeable, rechargeable batteries work for all of the above.

The vacuum pump

Then you’ll need a stationary pump that serves as your vacuum on your lines. We use this pump for that purpose and store it in a heavy-duty plastic tote like this in the woods, at the base of our network of collection lines. The sap is pulled into a collection tank where we then pump out the sap daily into another collection tank on the back of our gator. We connect the pump to the collection lines as well as into the large collection tank using this 3/4″ high pressure tubing.

The tubing

And we use a 1/2″ piece of copper from Home Depot or Lowes, connected to this type of tubing with a 1/2-inch shark bite fitting to pull the sap out of our large collection tanks or 20-gallon tubs. (We found our collection tubs at Tractor Supply; they’re made to serve as food bins for farm animals.)

Once the sap is transferred to the gator, it’s super easy to drive back to our processing area, where we will RO the sap and boil it down. We just attach a piece of tubing, open the spigot of our carrying tank, and let it flow.

btw, if you don’t know what I’m talking about when I say we RO the sap, this article right here, all about reverse osmosis for sugarmakers, will change you life and save you hundreds of dollars a year.

How we made our vacuum system…

Here’s everything we used to make this set up work for us:

Here are some other links that might interest you:

Professional Sugarmaker’s Tips on How to Make Maple Syrup

6 Ways Sugarmakers can Outsmart Squirrels

Check out this list I’ve put together, after many years of research, of 31 trees that can be used for sugarmaking

How to build your own Reverse Osmosis filter–step by step–and why you should

Taste and see that the Lord is good. Psalm 34:8

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And please follow along!

The post How to make syrup–using pumps for collecting sap first appeared on Souly Rested.

First, a little bit about the gal behind the party… (Scroll to the list below if you just want the quick tips.)

Kayla is my third of four daughters. She’s my full-blown Ag Girl who could work circles around most adults and grow a garden, preserve veggies, bake sourdough bread, and milk a cow better than anyone I know.

From Homeschool to CNN

She had finished up 18 years of homeschooling… well, officially 13, but from the day she was born she was a part of her big sisters’ learning experiences and loved every minute of it. She was reading at a second-grade reading level at the age of 4. I know the date exactly when she finished her reading curriculum. May 20th of her 4th year. (She set a goal for completing her reading program before her sister’s May 21st birthday.) She would turn 5 that September. That summer she even read a simple story in front of dozens of adults at the library summer reading program.

Within a few years she was reading novels like Lassie Come Home. Then at 9 the girl started her successful business (she was even written up in CNN Business! You can find that link to her write up right here, if you’re interested). She had a dozen monthly customers and 3 retail locations. I kid you not, this lady has always been driven and self-motivated.

Gardening, Baking, Tapping & Programming

So it was no surprise when we moved to our rural New England farmhouse that she asked me to help her turn over a huge garden, preserved her harvest, learned to cook over the open fire and in the beehive oven, joined in on learning to tap trees and make maple syrup, and helped us set up a homestead, complete with her sweet dairy cows. When her heifer, Selah, was born, well that was Kayla’s best day ever.

Read about Kayla’s first Strawberry Pie and snag her recipe here.

Read about Selah, our sweet heifer right here.

In 10th grade this beautiful lady coached a robotics team using this mindstorm robot (affiliate link)–was named an FLL robotics coach of the year–and discovered she also loved politics (well, it is a love/hate relationship, for sure).

But she also discovered another endeavor that she set her mind to wholeheartedly. While running a homestead (she’s always been the manager, Bill, Hayley, and I were the hired hands that worked for free), she decided to earn college credits in her final 3 years of homeschooling high school. She met with college professors, via online classrooms, and completed the work for an Associate’s Degree.

Keeping it Simple

So last night we had a party. To celebrate this amazing lady and her two degrees. Yet, for all her passions and hard work, she’s a simple lady at her core and wanted the party to be simple.

I didn’t mind this task–pulling together an impromptu, simple Graduation Party–given that her older sister is getting married just 6 short days from now. So here’s how we pulled off an amazingly fun night honoring this driven, determined lady in style, yet kept it as simple as can be.

5 Tips for A Simple Graduation Party

1. Keep the invitations simple

No need to invite a whole class of acquaintances; invite those people closest to the graduate (hint: this is often not all peers).

2. Use the food as decorations

I grabbed some sweets that described Kayla and labeled them as such, for a “Sweet Ode” to my sweet lady and set it all up on the front porch table, to greet guests as they arrived.

3. Add a few things that are meaningful to the graduate

For me, this was super easy, I snagged some of the quotes and verses that Kayla has made for her room decorations over the years, and hung the clipboards around the candy table.

4. Stick with something easy for you, if you want to serve something homemade

Kayla, her sister and I love DIY kombucha. I make 4 gallons a week; this week I just made sure to make a nice variety (these teas, blended just for kombucha, made it super easy) and we shared with our guests.

And yes, I did say 4 gallons. You’ll never believe how cheap it is to make this amazing DIY carbonated drink. I broke down the costs right here.

btw, if you’d like to know about this amazingly good-for-your very simple carbonated drink you can make yourself, you’ll love to know about my mini crash course, Simple DIY Kombucha.

5. Make the activities as simple and true-to-the-graduate as possible 

For Kayla, that meant a bonfire, croquet, and root beer floats. Three things she loves that we could pull off without a minute’s notice.

If you look at the world, you will be distressed, if you look within, you will be depressed,

if you look at God, you will be at rest. Corrie ten Boom

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Find out why SoulyRested was considered to be one of the Top 20 Must-Read Homesteading Blogs of 2018 and then one of the Top Homesteading Blogs of 2019 as well.

Glance at my Resource Page if you’d like to get a glimpse of supplies I use for DIY kombucha, maple syrup making, gardening, homeschooling, homesteading topics, nature journaling, and more.

Many readers often ask what camera I use to take the images you find here on SoulyRested. I love my Nikon; you can read more about my camera and even purchase your own here.

I’d love to connect!

To find me in some other neck of the woods, just click any (or every!) icon below:

And please follow along!

And have you tried my a-MAAHZ-ing Maple Sugar Cookie recipe that’s in my Resource Library? You won’t find this deliciousness anywhere else… until Sweet Maple is in print this fall.

The post 5 Tips for the Easiest Graduation Party Ever first appeared on Souly Rested.

Okay, so that’s a little heavy handed. But I can promise that the few minutes of your day that you sit back with a glass of this in hand you will be smiling.

If you make it yourself, instead of paying a hefty price tag at the store, your wallet will be happy.

And, score, your gut health will improve. Win-win-win.

You’ve already seen little glimpses of my newest total obsession if you’ve been following on facebook or instagram. And I gotta tell you, I can’t believe how easy it is to make.

The Michelle of just 12 weeks ago would have told you you were crazy if you thought this lady would ever make kombucha. Would ever add one more thing to her plate right now. Would ever actually be successful at any new thing she added to her plate right now.

In fact, that Michelle of 12 weeks ago would have immediately shut down the conversation if you even mentioned the word “fermenting” to her. Fermenting is for cabbage, and leads to fowl sauerkraut (sorry if you’re a fan of the stuff… I just never could bring myself to like it).

But boy was I wrong. Well, about the kombucha. Not about the sauerkraut. (Again, no offense meant to those of you who support fermented cabbage. I’ll just never join your club.)

— DISCLOSURE: This post contains a few affiliate links. —

Not a cookie-cutter drink.

So, it dawned on me last week–with Independence Day smack in the middle of the week–that fermenting your own drinks is an independent, democratic kind of thing. No one else’s kombucha is going to taste exactly like mine, and I love that. 

I mean seriously who wants a cookie-cutter drink when you can have new excitement every time you open a bottle? So let freedom ring, celebrate independence, and brew up some kombucha!

It’s so good for your gut.

After I happened upon enough articles about gut health, and eavesdropped on enough conversations about home-brewed kombucha, and bought enough of the yummy goodness at the store (which equaled just 2 bottles; this stuff is crazy expensive!), I asked a kombucha-creating friend where I sign up. And I’m only half joking. There is an underground Kombucha Klub around the globe that is devoted to this liquid goodness. Kombucha Superfans share tips, invite each other over to show off their kombucha headquarters that take up an entire corners of their kitchens, and cut up magical SCOBYs to give a piece to newbies, like me 12 weeks ago.

And that’s exactly what my neighbor Angela did for me… she willingly split her SCOBY to see it live on and prosper in my kitchen, improving my family’s health one delicious drink at a time. (Don’t know what a SCOBY is? Yeah, neither did Michelle of 12 weeks ago. Don’t worry, I’ll explain more in a future post.)

If you know you want to start brewing this amazingness for yourself, GO HERE for your source for the healthiest organic SCOBY you’ll find anywhere.

As for the gut health, it’s complicated to explain. Who am I kidding? I don’t even understand the intricacies of it. But I can tell you that the SCOBY is good bacteria. When you let it sit and grow in your kombucha, taking in more good bacteria from the air around it (that’s why you don’t put a lid on your brewing but rubber band a piece of breathable fabric on top), your drink becomes kinda miraculous, filled with really good stuff your gut desperately needs.

Kombucha goals.

My next kombucha goal (sounds like it should be a hashtag, no? #kombuchagoals)? I’m gonna start my own SCOBY. From scratch. Yeah, I may totally fail, but I want to see if I can make maple kombucha. Since this SCOBY has been feeding on refined sugar since its infancy, I’ve read that changing it’s food source may kill it, so I’ll try to start my own, originating it on maple syrup… we’ll see. I very well may totally, completely fail. Follow along here, and on facebook, instagram,or pinterest. I gab, post, and pin about kombucha pretty often these days.

But for the past 12 weeks, I’ve been experimenting with all kinds of flavors and trying different things to see if I could get more carbonation in my kombucha. (Still learning in this area, so that will have to be a future post.)

UPDATE: Not only have I figured out how to build up amazing carbonation, I’ve learned how to use all kinds of different teas for first and second ferment, developed some amazing recipes for kombucha, and learned the differences–and advantages–of continuous brew kombucha, over batch brew… I am totally in love with (and hooked on) kombucha. It’s changed my life.

I put all of this knowledge, and so much more, in my just-released latest course: Simple DIY Kombucha. 

Please if nothing else hop over here and download my totally free printable that you will refer to every single time you make kombucha–totally no strings attached and no need to give me your email. Download that helpful printable from this page, right here.

If you want to brew your kombucha with amazing organic blends that are made specifically for kombucha,  I can not recommend the teas over at Farmhouse Teas highly enough. Just hop over right here and glance at this amazingness!

I haven’t met a flavor I didn’t like.

While I have yet to meet a bottle of this stuff that I didn’t like, I have to say I have a hands-down favorite. No matter how it turns out… no matter if it I open it too early, too eagerly, and it has zero carbonation… no matter if I put too little blueberries or too much lilac syrup… seriously, blueberry lilac kombucha is my hands-down favorite drink right now.

Here are the recipes for 5 flavors that are on the top of my list right now (in case you didn’t notice, yes I am a blueberry fanatic).

You’ll need the first round of fermented kombucha, which requires a SCOBY and 1- or 2-gallon glass jars to ferment in, and 32 oz jars with seals like these.  Choose a flavor below, add the ingredients to a jar, then fill with your first round of fermented unflavored kombucha (leaving a little headroom on each bottle).

Hop over to this article I wrote on The Prairie Homestead site all about how to make a first ferment.

If you wanna know about starting a SCOBY on your own, I write about that here. Then, if you’d like to know exactly what items I wouldn’t want to be without every week when I’m making a new batch of delicious kombucha, you definitely want to glance at this list of my favorite things.

But here are five of my favorite flavors.

For the first one–my absolute favorite kombucha flavor I’ve ever tasted–you’ll wanna read this post about how to make lilac syrup. But don’t worry, you can use almost any fragrant blooming flowers in your yard right now (not just lilacs) to make a delicious floral simple syrup to flavor your kombucha (or your tea… or your lemonade…).

And all of these recipes are for a 1/2-gallon second ferment of kombucha.

1. blueberry lilac

1/4 cup lilac syrup (I show you how to make your own lilac syrup right here) and 1/4 cup frozen blueberries. If it’s lilac season, I like to toss in some fresh blooms too.

2. lemon lavender

2 tablespoons lemon juice and 1 teaspoon dried lavender (This is the best priced organic lavender I’ve found anywhere.)

3. blueberry ginger

1/4 cup frozen blueberries and roughly 1 tablespoon finely diced fresh ginger

4. blueberry pineapple

1/4 cup frozen blueberries and about 1/4 cup of scrap pieces of fresh pineapple and even the pineapple core which would typically just get thrown way, or composted.

5. pineapple ginger

scrap pieces of the pineapple and pineapple core and chopped pieces of ginger, maybe 1/8 cup of each?

What’s your favorite kombucha flavor? Please share in the comments! I’m always looking for new brewing inspiration.

And speaking of inspiration… oh my goodness, you need to check out these amazing kombucha teas right here… there is sooooo much to love!

“Meet” my latest kombucha in this recent fb live… you’ll never guess what this SCOBY is made from! Not following SoulyRested on facebook? Hop over and follow along; I’d love to see ya’ there!

Other Articles about DIY Kombucha You’ll Love:

Seven Favorite Kombucha Recipes

How to Make Kombucha with Maple Syrup

How to Improve Your Gut Health, with DIY Kombucha

DIY Kombucha… What Does it Really Cost to Make it Yourself?

“If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.”  Mathew 6:31-31 (The Message Bible)

 

I’d love to connect!

To find me in some other neck of the woods, just click any (or every!) icon below:

The post Lilac Blueberry Kombucha–you should totally make this first appeared on Souly Rested.

I wound up ordering tons for party favors for a very special celebration.

Then later I put together a really sweet arrangement for my mother-in-law for Mother’s Day.

Today, I thought I’d round up some other fun ways to plant succulents. Cause I need some inspiration for my NEXT purchase. I think I’m overdue. And yes, I think I’m addicted.

But I really think you’ll love these 9 simple planter ideas for succulents.

Read here for the 6 Reasons Succulents are the Best Plants Ever.

And go over to my youtube channel for an instructional video about planting these beauties.

So without further ado, here are the 8 ways to plant some succulents that I rounded up today. I’m thinking all of them would make gorgeous wedding favors or decorations. Just order a few trays of these stunning hens and chicks or even order trays full of variety in one of many color tones to go with your color scheme. Choose one of these adorable planter options, and you will have a memorable favor that very well may last a lifetime.

But, since yesterday was my birthday, I’m not thinking of favors at all… I’m thinking of splurging on myself…

Read to the end and please help me with some ideas!

1. Temporary Housing

First, you might want to propagate your own succulents. You can totally do that. Here’s a great way to temporarily house your new little plants. It’s ingenious really… in fact, I feel like an egg head that I didn’t think of this sooner. (Ugh, sorry, bad pun. )

2. Antiqued Charm

Pot them beautifully in this new planter that you make look antique. (And, score, you can make it for cheap!)

This post contains affiliate links.

3. Center of Attention

Make a gorgeous centerpiece.  You’ll want to stick with low-growing, compact succulents–like these gorgeous options from Mountain Crest Gardens–for a centerpiece. In fact, Mountain Crest Gardens offers the perfect accessory to help you with this one. Check out this wreath form, which will make things extra easy.

4. All Corked Up

Put a cork in it… Put one in a cork, or two, or four… But, if you don’t wanna collect all the corks you may need to round up a slew of these for party favors, gifts, or wedding favors but you like the rustic look of cork, check out these beautiful mini cork planters. (fyi, if you have any left over I love these as votive holders. The candle light flickers beautifully through the cork.)

5. All Wrapped Up

Of course you can wrap ’em up in ribbons for a beautiful look that you can coordinate with any room decor or to make truly perfect wedding or party favors.

6. Rustically Charming

Now me, I’m a simple gal. I like things that look down-home charming, so I gotta point out you can also wrap ’em up in rustic twine. (Bonus… this involves one of my favorite things… Mason jars!)

7. Wild & Fruity

If you’re a wild-and-crazy kinda gal or just want an adorable planter for your kitchen window sill, grab a quart-sized mason jar and go a little wild and fruity.

8. Nothing to Shell Out

But let’s be honest, free is always best, and if you’ve collected a few neat treasures on the beach lately, you don’t have to SHELL out anything at all to make this sea shell planter.

9. Flagged to Remember

Even if you’re not one to wear your sentiments on your sleeve, you may love wearing your sentiments on your succulent… at least if you’re hosting a party where you wanna make sure your theme is perfectly understood. Choose any simple small pot, like the little clay ones we ordered online. Type out your sentiment. Cover the back of your paper in washi tape, cut out the flag shape, and insert a toothpick to make the flag. Go here for more pictures and info about our extra-special farmhouse celebration we hosted this spring.

10. Cooking up one more great idea.

Last, but not least, I love my succulent planter I snagged at our Give-And-Take Room at our town’s dump. I’ve always loved old enamel pans but never knew what to do with them until now. What do ya’ think? Is this pan a perfect succulent planter or what?

Click the picture above or go here to see a little facebook live video when I planted that arrangement.

Of course there’s countless ways to house your favorite succulents… Mountain Crest Gardens is truly the “Ultimate Succulent Store”… you’ll find everything you need there–every variety of succulent you can imagine and lots of planter options, like this beauty that you can see me planting as a special gift in the video you can click to here or below.

In fact, like I said, yesterday was my birthday. And I wanna treat myself to some succulents. .

I love their terrarium kit and their fairy gardens. . .

Or maybe I’ll get a gorgeous assortment of succulents like this tray and some adorable mini planters and spread the beauty out all over our house…

Maybe if I’m feeling the love I’ll even give some away to a few elderly neighbors whom I like to visit, or our mail carrier or country store owner or our favorite cashier at the grocery store.

Then there are a few corners of our old house where succulents just can’t grow, maybe I’ll get some of these they-look-real-but-they’re-artificial succulents to “plant” there.

Honestly, I don’t know how I’ll choose. But I’m gonna start loosing sleep over this, so please leave a comment telling me your favorite choices over on Mountain Crest Gardens. It’s always fun to do a little dream shopping, no?

Imagine you have a $200 gift card–what would YOU get here today?

I’d really love to hear what you’d get!

 

Glance at my Resource Page if you’d like to get a glimpse of all the supplies I use and recommend for everything from gardening, to homeschooling, to chicken care, to nature journaling, to maple syrup making.

 

I’d love to connect!

To find me in some other neck of the woods, just click any (or every!) icon below:

If you already ARE a subscriber, just hop over to the Resource Library here and enter your personal password. (If you don’t remember your password, no fear, we always include a personalized reminder in every Thursday email, “Hard Work, Simple Joys.”)

The post 10 Simple Planters for Succulents! first appeared on Souly Rested.

It’s cold these days, the New England daylight hours of winter are too short, and Selah’s thick, furry coat assures us of the inevitable long winter months ahead.

But looking at this season through the lens of Philippians 4:8, I am grateful that I get to “steam clean” my clothes the way grandma used to on these chilly mornings (see my picture below). I’m grateful that my Thanksgiving week was a charming one filled with slow-paced moments that were worth deliberately, intentionally lingering in. And I am grateful that we started decorating both home and church for the holidays, which has been a wonderful diversion for me as I wait to receive my final printed proof in the mail before Sweet Maple hits the press this week!

I wrote here about how I strive (and fail, and try again) to have a positive outlook on every situation.

And I shared some details about our simple, back-to-basics Christmas decorations in this post.

But where do I turn when I’m looking for an expert on a homesteading topic? What boards do I scroll through on Pinterest for inspiration? What are my favorite homesteading pinterest boards? Of course my friends Jill Winger and Quinn Veon are two of my favorite pinners.

I also have a few other blogging friends whom you may not know, and these ladies are truly experts in their fields. It’s those friends I wanna share with you today. It dawned on me that Danielle, Kim, Linda, Kathi, and I all have great inspiration for Christmas gift giving that you might find pretty handy this week if you’re panicking a little, maybe kinda like someone else I know… but I’m not naming any names. And unless someone tells you about these awesome boards, well you may never find them in the never-ending, addictively crazy world of pinterest.

Need inspiration? Peruse these unique gift ideas for anyone who loves maple.

I’ll start with the one expert I know you do know on my list…

Maple Magic

While I never claim to be a true expert at anything, because I feel I’m failing too often, I sure have learned an awful lot about making maple syrup in my backyard since our family moved to our rural New England homestead, complete with 14 wooded acres.

Two years worth of failure in just about every way one can fail at making maple syrup, I’ve reached that “a-ha” stage where maybe, just maybe, I can call myself an expert.

Okay, who am I kidding…

I’ll never be the maple syrup expert around here. But I am the wife of the most amazing (and handsome) sugarmaker I know and I’m pretty darn good about writing about his endeavors. If you’d like to follow my board all about tapping for syrup, making syrup, using syrup (tapped or purchased) to make maple sugar, and even baking with maple sugar, you wanna go here and follow my “Sweet Maple” board. This winter I’ll be adding lots more great maple-infused posts; so be sure to follow.

And pin this gift-giving inspiration for anyone. (Or read the post.) Well, anyone who loves maple, but really who doesn’t love maple?

Sewing Savvy

Danielle, at Spring Lake Homestead, is amazing. This woman can sew circles around a square peg and rip seams out of seemingly nothing. Of course I know nothing about sewing, thus my lame analogies. (That’s my teenage daughter above, making a baby quilt for her riding instructor. She learned everything she knows about a sewing needle from my mother-in-law, and nothing from her momma.) But I have not only followed along on Danielle’s wonderful tutorials but even seen her seamstress abilities up close and very personal, as this fb live video shows.

Danielle has a great Sewing Board that you totally need to follow if you’d like to gain from her sewing expertise. And, don’t miss her post all about gift-giving ideas for the sewist.

Rugs to Riches

Kim, at Day to Day Adventures, can turn rags to riches and she’ll even let you walk all over her work. She is the expert to call on if you wanna make some beautiful rugs out of rags. My daughters have made some amazing braided wool rugs that make my heart skip a beat. I shared a little with you last winter when I shared my post on how I clean our wool rugs.

But Kim’s rugs look beautiful and require nothing more than scrap fabric. Now that’s a frugal, useful craft if ever I’ve heard of one. So follow Kim’s Rag Rug board here. And check out Kim’s resource page for some sweet rag rug tutorials and resources that would make wonderful gifts.

This is how I clean my rugs, complete with instructional video. Bonus: it’s good exercise.

Homeschool Encouragement

My friend Linda writes at Apron Strings and Other Things and she is self-declared “imperfect in practically every way,” yet she’s definitely an expert at homeschooling… 8 children, 3 decades, and still going strong. (I’m only about 1/2 qualified, in terms of number of students and length of years.) Be sure to follow Linda’s homeschool encouragement board. If you’re knee deep in homeschooling or just wondering what it’s all about, there’s plenty there for you!

Check out these totally piece-of-cake, no-brainer ways you can support my efforts here on SoulyRested.

Homesteader Gifts

Then there’s Kathi, at Oak Hill Homestead. She’s an all around expert at so many homesteading topics, from goat cheese to soap making, from gardening tips to kitchen hacks. But today I wanna point you toward her years’ worth of gift-giving idea posts for homesteaders. You’re sure to get some great gift-giving inspiration there!

No matter what you’re buying, from maple syrup to cast iron pans, if you’re shopping on Amazon this holiday season you can support our little family farm if you shop Amazon through this link.

The Experts

To sum it up, if you’re looking for an expert at…

Backyard Maple Syrup? Follow my Sweet Maple board.

Sewing Tutorials? Follow Danielle’s sewing board.

Rag Rug Lessons? Follow Kim’s rug board.

Homeschooling? Follow Linda’s board of encouragement.

By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder,

and someone else is building on it. I Corinthians 3:10

Please follow along!

Please take a second to follow along here on SoulyRested to catch up on a few of my memorable mishaps, discover fascinating things about my centuries-old farmhouse, glean a little parenting/homeschooling insight from this momma who’s been failing at the effort for almost 2 decades, or enjoy the inside scoop on the secrets other legit homesteaders might not tell you.

I hope my focus always encourages you, because simple joys require hard work. Let’s face it, we all need all the encouragement we can get! As soon as you subscribe (in the box at the end of this post), you’ll have immediate access to my Resource Library, which includes many useful printables, including helpful ones related to backyard maple syrup. And, destined to be the most popular item in my Resource Library–A SWEET TASTE–this giant, full-color, 5-chapter, 33-page eBook is my gift to you… a tiny introduction to Sweet Maple, which will be available in print any day now! (Insert crazy lady doing happy dance.)

Your FREE copy of A Sweet Taste includes:

— 8 Questions everyone should ask before they tap trees.

— Amazing recipes using all-natural maple syrup.

— Numerous reasons that maple should be your favorite sweetener.

— A long list of what makes sugar maples so special.

Plus, it’s a wonderful little peek into Sweet Maple. If you enjoy your complimentary copy of A Sweet Taste, you’ll LOVE Sweet Maple.

Many readers often ask what camera I use to take the images you find here on SoulyRested. I love my Nikon; you can read more about my camera and even purchase your own here.

Glance at my Resource Page if you’d like to get a glimpse of all the supplies I use and recommend for everything from gardening, to homeschooling, to chicken care, to nature journaling, to maple syrup making.

I’d love to connect!

To find me in some other neck of the woods, just click any (or every!) box below:

Pin this for later!

Just hover over this image for the Pinterest logo.–>

DISCLOSURE: Do you enjoy tips and encouragement you find here on SoulyRested? Would you like to know how you can support my efforts? I may receive monetary compensation for any link to any products or services from this blog. While using these links won’t cost you anything, it will go a long way toward helping me pay the blogging bills. You can even use this link to amazon whenever you shop there–which you’ll also find on the sidebar of every post. Again, it won’t cost you an extra penny. I sincerely appreciate your support; in fact, it’s a huge blessing to me! Thank you!

Merry Christmas

I hope that you have time to slow down and savor the everyday joys this holiday season, I pray that you personally know what I know about that very first Christmas, and I sincerely wish you a truly blessed, very merry Christmas.

Do you have a nativity scene? You’ll love this post: a newbie homesteader ponders the first Christmas.

Don’t forget to subscribe for access to my Resource Library. There you’ll find my FREE EBOOK–A Sweet Taste–as well as amazing recipes for things like whoopie pie cookies, maple sap switchel, and Grandmom’s perfect pie crust.

Heck, before you even scroll down and subscribe, I have a free eBook for you. Download Maple Goodness here or just click on the eBook image below. Your family will truly love the Best Ever Maple Scone recipe in this free eBook.

Then type your email address in the box below for the 33-page eBook, A Sweet Taste, and so much more.

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The post Looking for an expert on these topics? first appeared on Souly Rested.

We wanted a fun activity for our small town’s Harvest Party. When we threw together the easiest, cutest garland that inspired the simplest photo booth that was the biggest hit, I knew I had to share.

In some ways, it doesn’t feel too much like fall around the farm these days. We’re enjoying Indian Summer afternoons. And everywhere we turn it looks more like spring than fall, with the most adorable barn kitties pouncing around, loads of 2-week-old bunnies in cages in the barn, and a sweet baby chick often tucked under her momma’s wing.

Soon our family will be assembling our Thankful tree.

My marine biology student even took the weekend off from her beloved ocean-front college life to come meet the new barn kitties.

There’s lots for drop-in visitors to see these days, for sure. Our youngest visitor this week couldn’t get enough of Scout and Selah. She especially loved petting their thick furry fall coats.

Don’t miss these 5 simple photography tips for amazing fall photos

Truth is, I’ve been so busy denying fall, our local Harvest Party (which my daughters and I love preparing for every year) snuck up on me. I am thankful for this sweet-and-easy fall garland and fun photo booth.

You’re sure to find some more cool ideas here: 12 Things to do with fall leaves.

This post was featured on Elle Sunflower. Check out the other 9 fun fall craft ideas for toddlers too.

p.s. We enjoyed a beautiful New England drive, complete with some early fall foliage. Sit back for just a minute, relax, and ride along.

Then take a second to subscribe to our YouTube channel, for little insights from our New England homestead.

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Glance at my Resource Page if you’d like to get a glimpse of all the supplies I use and recommend for everything from gardening, to homeschooling, to chicken care, to nature journaling, to maple syrup making.

I’d love to connect!

To find me in some other neck of the woods, just click any (or every!) icon below:

Pin this for later!

Just hover over an image for the Pinterest logo.–>

DISCLOSURE: Do you enjoy tips and encouragement you find here on SoulyRested? Would you like to know how you can support my efforts? I may receive monetary compensation for any link to any products or services from this blog. While using these links won’t cost you anything, it will go a long way toward helping me pay the blogging bills. You can even use this link to amazon whenever you shop there–which you’ll also find on the sidebar of every post. Again, it won’t cost you an extra penny. I sincerely appreciate your support; in fact, it’s a huge blessing to me! Thank you!

Please follow along!

Please take a second to follow along here on SoulyRested to catch up on a few of my memorable mishaps, discover fascinating things about my centuries-old farmhouse, glean a little parenting/homeschooling insight from this momma who’s been failing at the effort for almost 2 decades, or enjoy the inside scoop on the secrets other legit homesteaders might not tell you. I hope my focus always encourages you, because simple joys require hard work. Let’s face it, we all need all the encouragement we can get!

As soon as you subscribe, you’ll have immediate access to my subscriber library of resources, which I’m continually adding to. It includes lots of printables, including my popular e-book and lots of homesteading-related resources. You’ll have access to my all my resources, including a printable that will help you assemble a Family Thankful Tree this fall.

Now through November 1st all subscribers can download my eBook,

Make Maple Sugar in 3 Simple Steps! for free.

And in my Resource Library you’ll find great fall recipes for yummy things like pumpkin bread, whoopie pie cookies, and maple sap switchel.

Just type your email address in the box below.

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The post The cutest fall garland (and simple photo booth) in minutes! first appeared on Souly Rested.

Plus, in the amount of time it takes us to build our own free trellis every spring, we probably couldn’t drive to town and back.

Why we’d rather build our own trellis.

For us, on our rural New England farm, it’s an 11-mile drive to the nearest stop sign; 18 miles to the nearest stop light; a 50-minute-round-trip-drive–in 3 different directions–to one of three closest towns. So, no, instead of driving to buy one, I’d much rather go for a short walk in the woods and into my barn to come up with the 2 ingredients I need to make the best-ever, custom-designed trellis. Every year our trellises are different. Every year each trellis is perfectly suited for our garden.

Planning the trellis.

So every spring, when the momma Robin is busy gathering choice creepy crawly snacks for her sweet little ones, and a broody hen or two is huddling her chicks under her wings in safe alcoves around the farm, a daughter and I make plans for our garden trellis.

Because our sunny window ledges are filled with green, growing promise, some of which will quickly need supports in order to grow tall and lush.

This post contains affiliate links. Go here to read the full (ultra fun) legal disclosure about that.

Building the trellis.

Plan. First, we plan where in the garden we’d like a centerpiece walk-thru, or a beautiful green arbor, or a secret teepee fort that will be treasured hide away for any small friends who visit our garden this summer.

Gather. We gather long branches from the woods. With 14 wooded acres, this part is a piece of cake for us. But I realize this step would probably be the biggest challenge for many readers. If you can find an annual source for branches, you can revisit the same friend or park every spring. If you know of a wooded area that you have access to, you’d be doing your friend or the public park space a favor to clear out old underbrush that has littered the ground during the winter months. And, of course, if you want to erect the same structure each spring, you can reuse your branches from year to year.

Check out one thing every gardener should do (and follow my whole series on this topic)!   

And find out the top ten reasons to play in the dirt.

And definitely take a second to subscribe here, so you can milk this site for all it’s worth and tap into all kinds of resources, including multiple free books you can download, like Beautiful Gardening.

Dig. We dig small holes and bury each branch in the ground about a foot deep.

Maneuver. We position each branch so it is the proper angle and height that we’re envisioning for the arbor, walkway, wall, circle, or teepee that we’re designing.

Pack. We pack each down very firmly, to ensure the trellis walls will withstand summer winds and rain.

Wrap. We wrap rows of twine along each side, to form the walls.

Wait. This is by far the hardest step. A month goes by and I feel like nothing is happening. Although I’ve witnessed the miracle of a garden almost every year of my existence, I always doubt that it will truly prosper. So my daughter and I labor, side-by-side, while we wait. Scout stands for hours watching our efforts. We weed and water and transplant. All the while, the bean vine is working too. Week-by-week, one beautiful hairy tendril at a time, the vine starts to inch its way up the trellis, with us barely even noticing. Then, two months into summer, I again rejoice in the miracle.

 A sluggard’s appetite is never filled, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied. Proverbs 13:4

Here’s a little tour of our garden last month:

Or sit back for 3 minutes and totally relax with these garden and farm snippets in this next video:

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If you like my DIY garden trellis, I’m guessing you’d love more gardening inspiration. If you’d like to be part of the 2018 Grow Your Own Food workshop, check it out right here.

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