Paper Altar Quilt

This week our big home school project was starting an altar project for Jilly.  We made an "Altar Quilt" out of construction paper to map out the areas of the altar, quarters, and color and element correspondences.  She helped me glue it together, then I drew pictures we thought would help remind her of each element and the Pentacle, and she put the glitter on Lady, Lord, and Spirit patches.

  Now we have a basic setup to start learning about the altar, the elements, and the Lady and Lord.  We put empty baby food jars on each quarter and on Spirit so she can collect things that go with each element.  For example, on East she put some little bells, a yellow bead, and her meditation feather we got at Camp Chesterfield at the Spring Equinox service.  It will be a challenge to come up with objects for Fire that do not actually involve fire.  Hopefully we will find a lot of red stuff, and maybe a small cauldron.  She is already irritated I will not let her have candles on her altar!

We have always included Jilly in our practices,such as rituals, meditation and prayer.  She even likes to help me when I work with my Reiki grid, so if I have ever put you or yours on the healing list you got a little extra dose of Ladybug energy!  Recently she has become very interested and likes to 'cast spells' in the incense smoke and so I felt it was time to more directly teach her.  We have a family altar in the living room, and she has started to 'arrange' it, so to keep that area neat we decided she needed her own altar.  I donated some small Moon and Sun tea light holders, minus candles of course, but the rest of it she will be coming up with herself with toys, knick knacks, and found objects.  We have it laid out up on her dresser so Mojo can't reach it, and next week we will be making a box to keep her magickal tools in.  I can't wait to see what she comes up with to put in her element jars!

H.W.

Chilly in the garden

Here in Central Indiana it has dipped back to chilly, bordering on cold.  I am really glad we put the hoops on the square foot box!  We just went out this morning, whipped the plastic over the hoops, weighted it down with rocks and clamped one end then bam, cuddly warm seedlings!  Jilly's box has no hoops, but we covered her sunflower seedlings with the top of a 2liter bottle to keep it warm.  We planted some seeds in there the other day, but if the cold snap stunts them we have plenty more seeds, so crisis averted.

Also, while I was out there I took some pics of the coop, now moved into it's permanent position (the chicken tractor plan has been abandoned...it's too heavy. The Hubs and I almost killed ourselves moving it out there. They will just have to be happy with free range time.) and painted a nice grey/blue we got free at the recycling center.  I was going to tile it the other day, but the tiles were warped, so they are stacked in their under some heavy ceramic tiles till they are flat and it stops raining.  Beyond that, a door and the chicken wire over the yard and we are in business!  So far, we have begged, borrowed, or gotten free all the materials and tools except the chicken wire and the plumbers tape to attach the hoops.  We have only spent about $25 on the coop.  The birds have been moved into bigger brooders in the shed, with the heat lamp still, and are anxiously awaiting moving day.

  

We also drilled holes in 5 gallon buckets for feeder and a waterer.  Very high tech, I know, but I don't see a reason to get tricky if  simple works, and we have several buckets lying around.  I plan to just put a big rock in each to keep them from getting knocked over.  If they are fail, we have back-up plans to make auto-feeder/waterer still using buckets.  They are actually kinda cool, we just really need to wrap up the coop projects and move on to other projects.  Check them out HERE if you are interested in making a cool feeder..

So now, we will snuggle in and work on school inside where it is warm and dry!

H.W.

We Have a Winner!

Thanks to those who stopped by and entered, the winner is...Jana! I hope to be doing more give aways in the future, so if you have a product or craft you would like to donate or swap, please contact me pheonixfae@yahoo.com.  Congratz again, Jana, I will be contacting you soon to mail you your Spencer Lapidary prize pack.

H.W.

Wordless Wednesday

Stormy Sky

Last Chance to Enter...seriously

OOPPSS!!!

Today is the last chance to enter, I had the date wrong...so clicky clicky HERE and enter to win the Spencer Lapidary gift pack!

Last Chance to Enter

Entries end at midnight to win the Spencer Lapidary gift pack.  Please go HERE to leave a comment and enter to win.  If you just started following me, please leave a comment to enter, I will choose a winner by random number generator tomorrow.  Good luck and Blessed Be!

H.W.

Garden Update 4/5/10

We are exhausted around here from working all day in the yard and garden.  We got a ton of work done on the coop, and it's almost done! It primed the front, sides, and inside, and all that it needs now is the door, the chicken wire, tiles down on the coop floor, and a coat of paint.  I even made a swell sign for it...

 I did some weeding, rocked in the altar area for beds and it's ready for some plants (roses maybe) and Jilly and I got some planting done in our square foot boxes.  Jilly was very excited to plant the sunflowers that grew in the peat pots she planted at the Children's Museum water program.

Then we had chicken/duck play time with both our and the neighbors flocks.  The big chickens in the pic are the neighbors chickens from last year.  They are "mutts" from the hardware store and they did not get a single egg from them.  That is why we went in of the Plymouth Barred Rock chicks this year.  There is really starting to be a difference in the hens and roos, and I think now we have 3 of each.  We just have to decide if we want to replace the roosters we will butcher in July with new chicks this year or next.  Square foot wise the coop and run are big enough for 6-8 birds, and I don't think the ducks are going to be staying unless the stop being so cranky to us and the chicks.  They may go when we butcher the roosters.

I told the Hubs today, we may be crawling there, but I feel like we are heading to where we want to go as far as the yard, garden, and general homestead goals.  The coop I am especially proud of, because we have all worked on it as a family, Mojo out there with us in her stroller, and that really means so much to me.  It seems like in the past years when I have been working on the garden, it was just me with some help when I had something specific I needed a hand with, but this year I have everyone on board and pitching in with both physical work and ideas.  Hopefully we will get that last little bit on the coop done this week and get it moved our from the carport into the yard.  We moved the chicks and ducks out into the shed, into bigger crates, and put the heat lamp in there last weekend.  The ducks especially were getting stinky and it is hard to groom dogs who are obsessed with trying to eat the tasty chickens across the room.  More soon, as things develop!

P.S. Time is running out, enter my give away for the Spencer Lapidary prize pack!!!!!!

H.W