Sydneys Painted Lady

About a month ago we had attended a butterfly and fairy display at the Botanical Gardens in Ft. Wayne. One of the things Sydney brought home was a caterpillar of a Painted Lady Butterfly. A few weeks later we got to let the butterfly go outside.

Today we went outside for some of our school time and Sydney was getting ready to do her bible study. She looked down to see a Painted Lady Butterfly on her Bible.

Adorable Addie Mae

I am realizing that I am having a hard time with the fact that my girls are growing up so fast. Our youngest daughter Addie Mae is no longer a baby. She is so much like her sisters were at this age, it is amazing. Her personality is starting to show and all I can say is I am going to have my hands full with this one as well. But she makes up for it when she cuddles up with me, none of the other girls like to snuggle as much as Addie does.

I am so thankful for the invention of cameras so I can always have this picture of this adorable Addie Mae face.

Just as her sisters are, she is very smitten with her daddy, as am I.

And as I said she loves her cuddle time.

My Mazzy

I was so glad I had the camera with me in the garden as we worked yesterday. I would have missed these shots of Mazzy as she tucked herself behind the raised bed frames.

Completely irresistible.

Little Ruby

This little hen Sydney is holding is Ruby. She is the most docile little thing I have ever seen. None of our chickens have ever liked to be held like she does. Bill and I keep wondering if there is something wrong with her. The rooster was the same way, sad to say he is no longer with us.

I just love my girls big eyes!

Ruby is so tame that the put her in the basket of this little cart and she just stayed there.

Too cute!!

Gardening

We have two nice days coming our way after so much rain. I hope to spend a lot of time out in the garden and get things done. We are expecting more storms over the weekend. I will be posting pictures of our progress throughout the growing season so keep checking back.

Wild Edibles

On May 8th Jim and Jill Meuninck came to Wing Haven to do a presentation on wild edible foods. It was wonderful. This is the third year that have agreed to come and do a class and I learn more stuff with each visit. It is always interesting and tasty, yes, tasty.

We had everyone join us in the studio for several dishes that included wild edibles in the ingredients. This included things such as dandelions, wild leeks, cattail pollen, stinging nettle, and more. We had cream of wild leek soup, frittatas, waffles, breads with dips, and crackers with pesto. All of these foods included several wild edibles in them. Our entire family loved all of them. The kids didn't even know the waffles were packed with healthy wild edibles.

This year Jim added a lot of information on the health benefits of eating natures bounty.

Once we were done eating we hit the trails of our nature preserve for some hands on identification.

I think everyone enjoyed the presentation. Jim and Jill are great teachers.

Some of the great things about wild edibles is they are free, they are extremely healthy, they are easy to find once you know what to look for. I would suggest that you find someone like Jim to learn from before setting out on your own adventure. There are some dangerous plant out there that you want to avoid. I have learned the best way is to learn one plant at a time and get used to identifying it and using it in foods. Also watch a plant in all stages of its growth. I now have my own little patch of stinging nettle near the garden that we keep growing and will use it this summer.

Thank to Jim and Jill Meuninck,

Great teachers and even greater friends.

To learn more you can visit Jim's website at herbvideos.com

Fairy Gardens

Last night I took Sydney and Josie to the local library for a Fairy Garden class. These pictures do not do justice to how cute they turned out. The girls had so much fun and got to be so creative with all the materials. They want to do some more here at home so we are now seeking out materials we can use.

This one was done by Sydney



This one was done by Josie (see the little teapot)

I made this one for Mazzy so she would have one of her own. It is not near as good as the ones the girls made.

The Beginning

This is the beginning of blogging for me. I am new to this so please be patient as I learn and make changes to this site. I wanted to do this in hopes of sharing some ideas with like minded people. Hopefully you will find this blog because you are interested in homesteading, homeschooling, gardening, or you are family or a friend and just want to stay in touch. I will also be posting information on events that go on here at Wing Haven Nature Preserve if you live near by hopefully you can join us for one of these events.