Vintage Home and Farm

Recently, we commissioned our daughter to create a mascot for the blog. She chose to draw one of our chickens, Angel (we mostly call her "Little White Bird!"). See more from the artist here! Here's the real chicken. She's a white Ameraucana hen. When we got her as a chick, she was supposed to be a white leghorn (think Foghorn Leghorn; they lay white eggs!), but sometimes they mix up the breeds, and we ended up with her. We couldn't have been happier! She has a wonderful personality. She loves to escape and explore, and usually ends up in the middle of the yard or around the back side of the chicken coop. We've found piles of the green "easter eggs" she lays hidden before from her adventures; we've realized she must figure out how to get back in sometimes, and she's probably gone in and out without us even knowing. Here she is posing with Miss Prissy Fuzzy Bottom!

It seems like time flies by faster and faster. Our daughter graduated from both high school and community college in June. We are so proud of her! June was filled with graduation-related activities and celebrations to recognize her hard work.  Very soon after, we took a week-long family vacation in nearby Discover Bay. Since the resort was situated right on the bay, we brought our boat along and went crabbing. Our daughter even drove the boat for a while.  Below is the crab we caught in the first trap we pulled in. The crab were fairly large and most of the ones we caught we were able to keep. The bottom shelf of the freezer is now filled with fresh Red Rock and Dungeness crab. We like to live back the crab while still on the boat and then when we get home we clean it and freeze it raw (see my previous post about how to live back crabs ). Below are a couple photos from a night at the resort eating some of the crabs. Since we were dipping the crab in butter (vegan butter for me...

Loki, the rescue kitten, has joined us here at Vintage Home and Farm. He's the sweetest little guy, very curious, and into everything. At night and in the early morning, he tears around the house, bouncing off the walls and trying to coax our other cats, Grey Guy and Tipper, to play with him. Then in the middle of the day, he disappears, and we find him fast asleep on one of our beds. Below are a few photos of him snuggled up today in our daughter's bed.

It's been a busy December so far, especially with our daughter in a local theatre performance, with every evening filled with practices and performances. We attended her first public performance last night, and it was fantastic! They will continue for the rest of the month. We also had a farm-related issue to take care of a couple days ago, which I have added to our Bee Journal . Most honeybee hives around here don't overwinter well, and in fact, I just talked to someone last night whose friend lost 5 out of 7 of their hives due to the cold weather we've been having. We still have two hives left. I'm hoping our remaining little bee friends can hang in there. Today, I made figgy buckwheat orange scones that I will be taking to a special "craft day" a friend is hosting. The scones came out very nice, especially considering how significantly I altered the recipe. I have been craving the figgy buckwheat scones that Kim Boyce of The Bake Shop in Portland makes. Her...

Nine months ago, we offered to become foster parents for the Olympic Peninsula Humane Society. There weren't any foster opportunities then, but we stayed on their list in case they needed help. Then, in mid-July, we got the call. They had a momma cat and three kittens for us to foster. The momma was found in a barn when she was pregnant, and now that she had given birth, the kitties needed a foster family to take care of them. They would be with us for 8-10 weeks, and then the Humane Society takes it from there. It has been a great experience, of course, except I forgot how crazy kittens get when they are big enough to crawl out of their pen. They were only in their pen for about two weeks. Since then, it's been total wild chaos in The Corral, which is the room of the house that they are in. Luckily we have a big enough house that it's not too overwhelming. The kittens love to race like bandits around the room, climbing up the furniture, clawing, and chewing on everything. ...

Time is just flying by, and I realized I had not posted anything here in quite a while. So, I updated our bee journal and garden journal with all the latest. I thought I'd share what else we've been up to here in the blog as well. We volunteered at the Lavender Festival in our local beekeeper's association tent a few days ago. It was so lovely there at the George Washington Inn's lavender farm. My daughter and I both wore long dresses and straw hats. The day before the lavender festival, we went clam digging. It was our first time digging for clams up here in this area. We've dug razor clams many times on the Washington coast. These were a bit different. We each managed to get our limit, about 10 pounds each, of butter clams and horse clams. I made Manhattan Clam Chowder last night and froze the rest for enjoying later, either as clam fritters or New England Clam Chowder. Our clam digging location was Fort Flagler , which isn't too far from Port Towsend, Washi...