Posts Tagged ‘Community’

Brunch at the Yurt

Posted on December 5th, 2011 by Tonia 3 Comments

Our good friends Jen and Trevor are the caretakers of an old farm on the outskirts of town that is used as a spiritual retreat center. They live in a cozy yurt, surrounded by an enormous garden and beautiful, ancient farm buildings.

Yesterday morn we woke up to a nice layer of fresh snow. We rubbed the sleep from our eyes, popped a ham in the oven, whipped up some mashed potatoes {from our garden}, and headed over to the yurt for brunch.

It was so warm and festive inside…

Within seconds, we were plopped down by the woodstove and handed a glass of wine.

Friends started to arrive. The table filled up with steaming bowls of stuffing, roasted root veggies, salad, pies…

Bellies were filled. Stories were told. Laughter was shared.

A jar of cream was passed around the table and shook. Sweet winter-squash pie and whipped cream ignited a chorus of hearty “oooos” and “ahhhhs”.

And then the dishes were washed, leftovers were divided and shared, and the football was tossed around in the snowy yard with cold, red hands.

Fresh Local Foods

Posted on June 17th, 2011 by Tonia 9 Comments

A couple of cool kids down the road from us, Alan and Alison, started their own organic produce company this summer: High Five Produce. They, together with a few other farms nearby, started the Washburn Farmer’s Market.

The next closest Farmer’s Market is a couple towns over, so we’re thrilled that they got one started right here in our town! It’s so much fun to be able to walk or bike over to their stand on Friday afternoons and chat with them and check out what’s good. We usually leave with a bag of salad greens, or a bunch of rhubarb {grown by the kids at the elementary school}, or a bar of soap.

We’re SO lucky to live in an area where fresh, organic, local food is plentiful. It seems like there is a farm around every corner, and we can get just about any kind of meat, dairy, and produce we want from a local source. Eating local is the greenest way to eat- the closer to home your food comes from, the less impact it has on the environment.

Al & Al grow their produce in their front yard currently, and they’re searching for a piece of land in the area to expand to. Someday High Five Produce might be High Five Farm! We’re happy and excited to see their dream growing into reality.

Maybe when our fruit trees are big enough and producing enough, we’ll join them at the stand and sell preserves and fresh fruit! It is going to be exciting to see the Market grow as more and more folks get involved.

Behind them is the studio of another cool kid in town, Jesse Woodward, who makes sculptures out of scrap metal. It has really been fun to get to know the kids our age in town. They’re doing some really cool things, they’re interesting and fun and have been extremely welcoming and friendly to us. High five to that!

Thank you all for making this a cool place to live!

Washburn Farmer’s Market members: High Five Produce {produce} / Maple Hill Farm, Washburn {whole wheat flour, soap, yarn, produce} / Northwind Farm , Bayfield {fruit jams} / Wild Girl Farm, Washburn {raw honey} / Washburn Elementary Farm-to-School {produce}

P.S. If you like the shirts they’re wearing, I could score one for you. Alison printed them herself on reclaimed t-shirts from the thrift-store and they’re selling them at the stand for $5.

The Story of a Cottage

Posted on March 7th, 2011 by Tonia 4 Comments

This week, we’re cleaning up the cottage that sits on the northwest corner of our property. The story of the cottage- as far as we can gather from various folks around town who are familiar with our property- is that it used to be a milking barn, and later a pottery studio, before it was remodeled about 15 years ago into a little guesthouse.  It has a very charming mudroom with a brick floor, on which the cows would stand to be milked.

The previous owners of this place rented the cottage out to vacationers, and since all the buildings on the property are powered by the solar panel in the field, the cottage was certified as a Travel Green Wisconsin destination. But the cottage has sat, sadly uninhabited {except for the occasional mouse-family…} for several years now, musty and in dire need of some TLC. We would love to fix it up and return it to the condition it was in during its glory years. This week we’re concerning ourselves with giving it a good scrub-down and getting it set up for our renters.

Yes! Renters! A really awesome couple will be moving into the cottage in a couple weeks. We’re really excited to have neighbors- especially these neighbors. They’re gardeners, they have chickens, a really friendly husky, and a desire to live sustainably and simply. We could not ask for better folks to share our land with. Mike and I have romantic visions of the four of us tending to our crops this summer while the chickens peck away in the grass and the dogs chase chippies together….And it will be nice to see the cottage lived in and loved instead of sitting lonely in the corner.

This photo is obviously from the summer- but I wanted to show you the cool french doors on the front.

We will be pulling a bunch of furniture out of the cottage that was unwanted and left by the previous owners, and it will be fun to see if we can find new uses for any of it. I recently saw this great tutorial on rehabilitating old lampshades, and these tips for reupholstering a couch, and it got me excited to do this as low-impactly {not a real word…} as possible by reusing/fixing up what is already there instead of buying new furnishings.

There will be some big projects- like installing a claw-foot tub in the bathroom and building new kitchen shelves/cabinets- down the road {probably won’t happen until after the renters have already moved in, just because we won’t be able to get all that done in the next two weeks.} My dream is for the kitchen to someday look like this {but with a salvaged sink, and salvaged wood for all the shelves}:

Photo credit: http://theinspiredroom.net/

I’ll keep you updated on the progress as the cottage gets its makeover!

My Fwavorite Tweople

Posted on August 25th, 2010 by Tonia 3 Comments

…And since we’re on the topic of Facebook and Twitter…

Oh, Twitter.  I used to make so much fun of you.  I used to swear I’d never be the type to update you constantly.  Or to check you nine-thousand times a day to see what my friends and fellow greenies are up to.  But I am the type, and I do.

I know some of you are reading this right now {mon & dad} and can’t believe your eyes because you’re under the impression that Twitter is the most obnoxious form of social networking, ever.  I mean, who really cares about what everyone is doing every second of the day??  I don’t need to know that you just bought a pair of new Chacos, or you just blew your nose, or your dog is super cute right this second.  But I’m here, as a former Twitter-hater, to tell you that if you use it right, Twitter can totally rock your world.

Itty Bird iconTwonia’s Twitter Twips {I’m really getting carried away with this, huh?}:

1.  Have a clear objective or reason for joining the Twitter community.  If your goal is to network with other homeschooling moms, your experience is going to be very different from someone whose goal is to connect with other organic gardeners.  If your goal is to spy on your ex-sig-other, your experience is going to be different than someone whose goal is to promote their pottery studio.

2.  Follow tweople who jive with your objective/goal.  I ONLY follow other green-living/minimalism/simple-living  folks.  My exception to this rule are a couple relatives who I like to keep in touch with.  I don’t use Twitter for random socializing.

3.  Don’t follow someone back just because they followed you.  If their tweets aren’t jiving with your goal(s), there’s no reason for your Twitter stream to be filled up with their random comments.  My stream is constantly full of pure amazingness because I’m not following anyone I’m not interested in.

4.  Be there to learn.  Every day I log onto Twitter, excited for what I’ll learn.  The folks I follow are brilliant, insightful, inspiring, and are constantly finding and sharing the coolest links.  If you’re on Twitter purely to socialize, that’s fine, but that is not how I choose to use it, and I am so I happy I made that decision.

I really want you to get off on the right foot with Twitter, so I am going to share with you my Fwavorite Tweople.  Hehehe…but really, all joking aside, these folks will light up your stream with all kinds of awesome.  You’ll be retweeting and hashtagging and replying like crazy before you know it.  GO FOLLOW THEM RIGHT NOW! :)

familyonbikes- Nancy Sathre-Vogel | Between North & South Poles
“Homeschooling family biking from Alaska to Argentina.”

gohometoroost- Bonnie Forkner | North Carolina
“Author of Going Home to Roost- a blog dedicated to the handmade and living simpler life.”

mygreenbean- Karen E McKelvey | Toronto, Canada
“Passionate about our planet earth. This is my journey. One person stepping out of their personal comfort zone to try to make a difference.”

josie_maran- Josie Maran | Hollywood, CA
“Becoming a mother inspired me to take a look at my life and ask, ‘What can I do for the world? How can I contribute?’  Josie Maran Cosmetics products are made with superior ingredients and housed in chic, biodegradable packaging, and embrace eco-friendly initiatives wherever possible.”

LowImpactBetty- Monica Schrock | Los Angeles, CA
“Low Impact living advice blogger & tip provider. I love our Earf! I’m a Vegetarian, composting treehugger that loves to bike around L.A. & help you live green!”

LocalHarvestorg- LocalHarvest.org | Santa Cruz, CA
“Guillermo Payet, founder of LH, twitters about coding, eating, and family life.”

jdblundell- Jonathan D. Blundell
“Husband, author, blogger, podcaster.”

welivesimply – We Live Simply
“We live simply, so others may simply live. www.welivesimply.info”

RowdyKittens- Tammy Strobel | Portland, Oregon
“Author of Simply Car-free, blogger at RowdyKittens, tiny house enthusiast, cat-lover, and coffee addict.”

LiveGreenMom – Live Green Mom
“Mom. Working towards making our lives GREEN! Recycling, organics, composting, natural & preventative healing options, and getting rid of excess. Bring it on!”

SomewhatCrunchy – Cheryl | Pennsylvania, USA
“I’m a happily married, Christian, crispy not crunchy, homeschooling mom of two boys. Blogger, Influencer, PR Friendly, Social Media Extraordinaire.”

CanarsieBK- Mike Lieberman | Los Angeles, CA
” I am documenting my passion for eco-conscious living on my own blogs. Also helping other individuals and small business to extend their online presence.”

RawBoutenkos- Raw Family | Ashland, Oregon
“We are the Boutenko Family or The Raw Family & have invaluable experience in living on a raw food diet. We also started the Green Smoothie Revolution”

EpicBeautyGuide- Epic Beauty Guide | Las Vegas
“Hello! I’m Stephanie I write Epic Beauty Guide, an awesome and free how to blog on getting and staying naturally beautiful.”

CAGW – San Francisco, CA
“THE home of sustainable crafts!”

GreenTravelHub – Orlando, FL
“Feel good about green travel! We donate 20% of the proceeds from every trip to green non-profit groups!”

melisheath – Melissa Allen Heath | Atlanta
“green warrior – born tree hugger, and 25 years work experience in all environmental stuff, esp climate, energy, green building, wetlands.”

 thegreenbeanie- GreenBeanie | CaliforniaGreen
“Home and Lifestyle Consultant with a bit of Southern sass! Will discuss tips, hints & products for leading a greener & healthier life.”

autumn_normal SimplerLiving – Naomi Seldin
“Feature editor & blogger for the Times Union, a Hearst publication in New York. Living well with less, sharing what I don’t need and writing about it.”

There are so many more of you that I love as well…too many to possibly list!  You’re all an inspiration to me.  Thank you!