Linking Arms Across The Province

At noon today 67 communities across BC linked arms to send the message of 'defend our coast' to the government. The K'omoks first nation welcomed everyone and sang...

 while over one hundred protesters took over the top portion of 5th street in front of MLA Don McRae's office. (note: I just read that there were close to 400 protesters!!!)

 He was conveniently absent but that didn't stop everyone from voicing their concerns.

Sue Moen from the Green Party was there to share her opposition...

and the Raging Grannies came up with this clever song :) Way to go ladies!! If you are reading this in your email you will probably have to pop over to my blog to see the video.

 My little protesters did great at their first rally *grin*. They were waving their signs and singing along despite the rain until we had to leave. You are never to young to get involved :)

Hugs,

Rosina

Will You Help Defend Our Coast?

{image via defendourcoast.ca}

Yesterday on the lawn of the legislature in Victoria there was a giant rally against the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline project and the gigantic tankers that want to invade our coastline. People from all over BC and even Canada joined together, 4000 strong, to voice their opposition, their concerns and to send a strong message that our coast is not for sale!

Unfortunately it was to far from home to attend but tomorrow, October 24th, in communities all over BC protesters are ready to converge on MLA offices far and wide to continue the 'Defend Our Coast' movement and we are going to be there.

The children worked hard all evening drawing and coloring their posters while we chatted about what all of this means and why it is so important to us...

 {image via rabble.ca}

and tomorrow we're ready rain or shine to join our fellow BC'ers and to keep the momentum of this movement going :) Hope we'll see you there!

Hugs,

Rosina

Canning Salmon

 I have literally been going through canned salmon withdrawals ever since I used the last jar in the pantry months ago so when I caught wind that one of the commercial fishermen we know was heading out for an opening I phoned right away and put in my order :)

 Sockeye and pinks are my salmon of choice but this year they were so scarce you were really hard pressed to find any so I went with chum. 

As each fish was brought out to be cleaned the children took part in a bit of an anatomy lesson...

learning about their teeth, gills, organs and more :)

 Hubby wasn't home for the first batch of fish that I brought home from the dock so I got my oldest son to help with some of the cleaning and then I took over cleaning the last of the fish and filleting them with my dad. That made for a long day as I had to go in the house after to fill the jars and then pressure can them all.

Thankfully he was home yesterday when I brought home 8 more whoppers! They weighed about 12 pounds apiece bringing our total to 13 fish total.

This time I just had to wait for the fillets and trimmings so I could take them in for canning. So much less work!

Poor hubby had a bit of a sore back though from humping over his table all afternoon so we're definitely going to have to do something about that for next time. To make up for it he snagged six of the nicer fillets for smoking...

and today he has them smoking away. Mmmm, I can't wait *grin*.

 

So with 55 pints of salmon all canned and ready for putting away in the pantry I can officially say I'm done. Until next year that is :)

Hugs,

Rosina

Fall Comfort Food ~ Sweet Potato Gnocchi

 October 1st was the first time I had to light the woodstoves to take the chill off of the air in our home and we awoke to our first hard frost of the season yesterday! The lawn was crispy and white and all of the water buckets for the cows and chickens had a layer of ice locking in the fresh water below. All of this cold weather has definitely left me yearning for warm comfort foods :)

I've been building up a little recipe cache on Pinterest which is where I found a yummy recipe for sweet potato gnocchi but I didn't have all of the ingredients on hand so I took a chance and remixed the recipe a bit and it turned out delicious!

 In place of the ricotta cheese I used one egg, subbed in 1/2 a cup of asiago cheese instead of the parmesan, reduced the salt to 1 tsp. of sea salt in the dough instead of the two she called for and I baked my sweet potatoes in the oven for about 45 minutes at 400 degrees fahrenheit instead of microwaving them.

Now this was my very first time making gnocchi so I had no idea how sticky the dough would be but I found that I needed to use at least 4 cups of flour to get my dough to be workable and not crazy sticky but the original recipe only called for 2 3/4 cups. So I'm thinking my sweet potatoes were much larger than hers but you'll definitely know if you need to add more flour *grin*. 

 With my dough all ready to go I got busy rolling out dough snakes, chopping them into little bite sized pieces with my pastry cutter and then rolling them around with the tines of a fork to give them the little indentations in the photo. Nobody told me how many little gnocchi this recipe made though!!

I kept cutting and rolling and cutting and rolling...

until I had two giant cookie sheets full of them plus more all over the counter. On my final count I had over 200 of them so they all went into the freezer except for the ones I kept out for dinner and we're all stocked up for a good while now I think :)

The kids aren't real big on the taste of sage so I omitted the sage butter that went along with the recipe as well and instead made an easy sauce with basil and homemade chicken stock. 

I used:

1 cup homemade chicken stock

1 tbsp dried basil

1 tbsp arrowroot powder

1 tbsp onion powder

salt & pepper to taste

Mix all of the above together in the cold chicken stock and pour over two carrots cut into matchsticks, two cups of broccoli florets and 3 cloves of pressed garlic that have been sauteed until just tender. The arrowroot created a nice thick sauce just perfect for our fresh gnocchi to be coated in. Mmm, mmm good. Now if only there were leftovers *grin*.

Hugs,

Rosina

Celebrating Michaelmas

 So many wonderful things have been happening this month!

Yesterday was the celebration of Michaelmas and we have all been looking forward to it for weeks. We've been reading all sorts of dragon stories, our favorite being The Knight and The Dragon by Tomie dePaola, and the children have been re-enacting the stories with the felt dragon and knight that make up part of our nature table this month :)

 I found this cute dragon craft on pinterest that we just had to make to *grin*. When you blow through the paper tube the streamers blow up like the dragon is breathing fire. It was a hit with my 6 year old and the added touch of googly eyes made it even more fun for him as he attempted to make the dragon make silly faces as he blew fire :)

 With all of the apples we had we saved a special basket of them for making a pie to go along with dinner and the kids made light work of all the peeling for me with this great little peeling gadget that peels, cores...

  and slices all of the apples into uniform pieces.

 

Not one part of the apples from our trees went to waste except for maybe the core but even then the chickens got those. L has a serious addiction to peelings LOL. 

 With the apples peeled and sliced it was time to make pie and legend has it that after Michaelmas you shouldn't eat fresh blackberries so of course we had to add blackberries to our apple pie which made it all the sweeter :)

 I had to time it right to get all of our baking done before the roast chicken had to go into the oven for dinner but we managed to bake the pie, sculpt and bake a ferocious looking dragon and even make a set of bread shaped swords to go along with dinner.

 This year I wanted to make our dinner extra special so we had my parents over and just before we ate I had everyone raise their bread swords and we recited the following poem.

 "Brave and true will I be,

Each good deed sets me free,

Each kind word makes me strong,

I will fight for the right,

I will conquer the wrong."

Since St. Michael is the saint of courage I thought this was perfect. I found it on one of the waldorf yahoo groups I'm on and don't know who to credit the poem to so if you happen to know where this is originally from I would love to know.

So after a little mock sword fighting with our bread swords we ate heartily and enjoyed the company of family :) 

Did you celebrate Michaelmas? I would love to know what you and your family did :)

Hugs,

Rosina

Hello Fall ~ Apple Picking

 Fall is definitely settling in for an extended stay :)

The leaves are turning beautiful reds, oranges and golds, the mornings are cool and crisp, even the evening fog that creeps through the fields at dusk has reappeared but the real highlight is that the apples are finally ready!

 With our baskets in hand we made our way down the lane to the apple trees that my dad has been tending for over a decade.

 Why is it that the best apples are always out of reach :)

 With an apple eye view L got busy picking the biggest apples she could find...

 and passing them down to her brother...

 who was waiting below hoping to fill up his basket first :)

 For the really hard to reach apples my dad has this really great tool that has rake like prongs on the tips to catch around the stems of the apples and then it pulls them off the branches and they land gently on the foam pad inside the basket :) So much better than trying to shake them off of the tree *grin*.

 The children waddled home under the weight of their apple basket with giant smiles on their faces and thoughts of all the ways that we were going to be able to eat them.

 Apple muffins, apple pancakes, apple slices dipped in nut butter, apple pie...

oh it's apple heaven *grin*.

Hugs,

Rosina

Class At The Lake

 I was sure that the last time we packed up and went home from the lake it was going to be a final goodbye to summer swimming and late nights in front of the campfire but the warm weather beckoned us to come out and play again and who were we to say no *grin*.

 The forecast was for non stop sun so we quickly packed all our clothing and as much food as we could find in the fridge and raced out to the lake in hopes of finding a spot right on the beach. I think a few of the older campers were a little confused though to see our three children tumble out of the backseat when we hit the campsite. 

Public school had already started a week before but the freedom of homeschooling blesses us with the opportunities to travel whenever and wherever the wind may blow us :) That's not to say that we weren't doing any learning while we were away though! Our oldest son is in grade 8 this fall so we packed along his core subjects and the two of us worked on his lessons as the water lapped towards our toes and the wind ruffled our hair.

 Being surrounded by nature gave us ample opportunity to study science through observation and discussion as we explored the parts of dragonflies found floating in the lake....

studied the quirky habits of the squirrels all around us as we watched them chatter, play, and gather seeds they stuffed into the hollow holes they had made in the cedar trees.

 We made a little art in the form of posters notifying the squirrels just where to find the tasty pinecones we had collected for them...

 and collected specimens that the children begged to bring home. I'm not sure that a crayfish would make a very good pet though and had to gracefully decline the invitation to add him to our family LOL.

 Since I wouldn't allow Mr. Crayfish to come home with us he was turned into a scary sea monster that needed guarding by the hoards of playmobil men that seem to travel with us everywhere. That was until he escaped :)

 The days were so warm that the children spent most of their days in the lake swimming and playing and even Hubby braved the water and joined in with the splashing and jumping off of the swim dock.

 We discovered a trail to the most amazing hidden lagoon while exploring to. A perfect spot for swimming and jumping in off the rocks.

 And the water was the most amazing color of green as it sparkled in the warm sunlight :)

 A perfect week of both school work and play.

 Hugs,

Rosina