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    Welcome to our informal "blog", where we share miscellaneous happenings on and about the homestead and our lives. Check out the individual pages via the menu above for more info on the various topics. We enjoy hearing from our readers. You can email me (Sue, the main poster) by clicking on the Comment button below.

Enjoy!  &

May 5, 2025 - New Video!

video thumbnail "Delight of the Land"We did take quite a break from making videos but were inspired by a beautiful, sunny day, warm enough for fingers and instruments to play outside. So here is one of my songs from this winter's writing spell called "The Delight of the Land" (informally called 'Critters'). It seemed appropriate for the wakening world of spring. Hope you enjoy it. Click HERE or on the photo to go to the video on YouTube. (For a list of our previous videos you can go to our music video page HERE).

May 4, 2025 - We're Back!

Well, we haven't really gone anywhere particular meantime but I realized it had been a year and half since I last posted anything! Life focus naturally changes and we simply hadn't been spending much time at the computers. But we're still here, still enjoying life and all that we do. And I decided to step back in to sharing some of that news and happenings on the homestead as we go along, and connecting with friends and family near and far. It may be sporadic  but it will be sincere!

A few highlights of this past winter:

carved cherry bowl #92 by Steve SchmeckCARVING - Steve was inspired to get back into the bowl carving mode this winter and came out with three beautiful cherry bowls. The wood came from a large wild black cherry tree growing just NE of the house where that section of the woods start. That tree was fine but there is a very large dying white birch that needs to be taken down before it decides to come down on the house, and that black cherry was, unfortunately, between it and where it needed to be dropped. So that beautiful cherry gets to continue its life as beautiful bowls (and maybe some spoons). Such is the life of the forest tree. Click HERE to go to the bowl carving page.

MUSIC - While Steve was carving I decided to dive into song writing. I have, in the past, often added verses or changed lyrics or wrote new ones to already established songs or tunes that we do, but I had never started from scratch, writing not only the lyrics but the music and chords. I had a folder and notebook full of bits and pieces of word fun, some long, most short, little poems or lyrics that run around in my head now and then. Sometimes I write them down. I felt it was time to see if I could give some of them an extended life as a song. It was quite an adventure, challenging but enjoyable. I found I could write songs or tunes that I couldn't sing or Steve couldn't play, but I ended up with some songs that I liked, and Steve liked, and we could both do. A big surprise was how difficult it was to learn a song neither of us had ever heard before, realizing how much we learn by ear. We'll be sharing videos of a few of these songs off and on (including in a few days!). Actually, we started the year with one that I wrote a few years ago, "Wild Hair Don't Care". Although I wrote the lyrics and the chorus the main body of the tune is from the old Irish jig Lilliburlero. HERE is a link to that video on YouTube. 

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