homestead babies / chickens ducks & turkeys

         Getting ready for our little homestead!

2 of the lovely young lady chickens.

2 of the darling lil duckies!

This is our male turkey.

We got a trio of turkeys, a tom and two ladies. It should be easier to resist naming him Tommy, I will resist! I am very interested to watch these turkeys grow and become our friends. We have high hopes that they will aide us in insect control in our garden and I keep reading what great pets they make.

The ducks are so cute! We fill a giant bowl and watch them swim in the sunshine everyday. They are just darling and the youngest out of all these birds.

The chickens are very present and make eye contact! I look forward to loving them and collecting their eggs. Raising these babies is going to be so rewarding and fun!

jadite salt shaker

Paca score of the century! Well, not really but, I'm pretty cized on it. I've been pining for an old jadite salt shaker forever. I spook them on etsy all the time and they are always way too pricey for me but, I've kept up hope that one day I'd find an affordable one. Look no more I will (Yoda voice).

I found this one for Q5 yesterday...that's less than a dollar and I didn't even bargain on the price!

It's already washed, dried, filled with salt and in action.

Ohh, it's the little things....

And don't you think it'll be the perfect salt shaker for our little farm? I do.



Mexican Garlic.

Last week I was lucky to go on a lovely Valentine's trip (ok, slash, visa run trip) to Mexico. We went to San Cristobal de las Casas and loved it. The market there was, of course, incredible. I brought back that braided bunch of garlic..smelled great all the way home! I can't wait to cook with it since the cloves are bigger and easier to use than the ones here in Guatemala. I have a sneaky little feeling that they'll be tastier too!
I also got a beautiful little stack of Haas type avocados. They were the tastiest avocados I've had in ages and you can bet your bottom dollar that all four of those little seeds are in jars (hopefully sprouting) on a window sill in my house right now. Yay! I <3 C.A. markets!

egg dreams.

We love love love the markets here and do the majority of our shopping there. You just never know what you're going to find each time you go and we go almost everyday. It's always fun when one of us stays home and the other goes on a market shop. Surprises from the market are the best!
The other day Zach came home with all kinds of great treasures: geese eggs, a duck egg, 7 fist size Crystal Quartz rocks, 1 big chunk of Obsidian and a bike! About those eggs though...he got them with hopes of hatching them. Right away, he whipped up an incubator out of a lightbulb and cardboard box, marked them so we can turn them...we have a thermometer and by adjusting the lid we have the temp hovering at 100 degrees. Incubation period is 21 days and we have our fingers crossed that we have some hatchlings in a few weeks or less. Fingers crossed, fingers crossed!

Broad beans for a favour.

I had the pleasure of shelling these beautiful Fava Beans aka Broad Beans. A couple of days ago my honey-bunny, Zach, helped a dude & his son carry his 2 huge costales (think modern feed sacks) full o' beans they'd grown & harvested. They were all on a bus together going to the market in San Francisco and the bus did not indeed drop them at the market as they said they would but, a ways away, downhill from the market, no doubt. Anyhoo...Zach got some great cardio in (hah! I think he about killed himself carrying that 100 lb.+ bag of beans.) For his very kind hardwork he got a 'free' bag of beans that he brought home much to my delight, they are one of my very favourites!! We eat them about twice a week. I will peel the ones in the picture one more time. I usually cook them like this: saute them for maybe 5 minutes with olive oil and a sprinkle of sea salt then, add water or stock and let simmer until tender! We eat them just as they turn out or I'll mash them and I add them to soups, stews and pasta dishes too. Yum!

Sewing again!

I haven't sewn in some time, let's see...um, over 2 years! I didn't/couldn't bring my sewing machine to Guatemala when we moved. Moving house via luggage is not an easy task. As luck would have it, I was able to purchase a brand new machine in December and bring it back with me! It's taken some weeks to start using it but, I have and I've just begun.

*I got a Brother XL 2600i-love it a lot so far.

Workspace.



My etsy shop featuring my sewn efforts.



I gave my old appleseeds shop on etsy a new life with a new name:

Horse Drawn Wagon // timeworn mayan textiles

I am working with old well loved vintage Mayan traje (clothing). All of it is handmade from the ground up. It's all been woven on a backstrap loom and a lot of pieces are even woven with fiber harvested and made by hand. All of the designs and patters and imagery on the traje is threaded in as the piece is being woven on the loom this technique is called brocade. Guatemala is 65% indigenous Maya Indian and most of them, especially the women, still wear the traditional clothing. All of the clothing is village specific, although plenty of modern Mayans tend to wear whatever they like from which ever town but, for the most part you can tell where someone lives or is from by the huipil they are wearing. Being obsessed with the indigenous culture and absorbing it like a sponge, I find myself living the simple life they do: going to the market everyday, preparing all of my meals from fresh and scratch and just taking life one day at a time. Spending a lot of time in the markets, I have almost become bi-lingual but, not quite, I don't exactly speak 'Spainish' instead I speak 'Guatemalan Market Spanish'. I write this smiling because I think it's funny but, what it really is is just the Spanish I need for my life at the mo'. What I am getting at is I spend a lot of time in the market and that's where most of the used (and new) traje is sold and traded. I've been collecting pieces to sew for a while and it's great to finally be getting around to it!

Deconstructing a vintage Chichicastenango huipil.

The huipil from Chihi is attractive to me in several ways. First, I love the patterns and colours, second, they are thick n' heavy and feel great, third, they are three panels attached by a hand-sewn external seam called a 'randa'. I love the panels because I can simply separate the and make pillows from the outer two panels without even having to cut into them. I have lots of ideas for the use of the middle panel but, haven't gotten to any of them yet. Here are some of the pillows I've made so far:

It's all very exciting to me and I can't wait to venture on to making different things!!

i heart vintage leather.

The more distressed the better. The more battered and forgotten about the leather looks, the more I like it! I think that might be why I've found such badass leather bags here for a song!!


1st find! Cinammon Brown Leather Backpack Q20.
So practical. I use it for market shops & overnighters.



Most recent find: Oxblood Leather Bag with Wooden Handles. Q10



Pricey one! Warm Brown Soft Leather Bag Q30
I fell for this bag & passed it up b/c it was Q40; thought
about it for a week & went back with the luck to actually
find it in the crazy ass Minvera pacas. And I got it for Q10
less! Woohoo! It's a great bag..the straps adjust to two
lengths, there is one main pocket in the middle and then FOUR
huge saddle bag type pockets-two on each side...this bag
holds so much! la la love it.



oat milk.

Finally I will no longer be dependent on buying processed Soy Milk*. I mean, I've felt lucky enough as is, just being able to find organic soy milk here! I can't believe I've waited this long to try making my own non-dairy milk.
So, naturally, ever since I decided that I wanted to make my own milk I've been reading every recipe I can find on it. I've considered making rice milk and soy milk but, then I found the simplest recipe ever for oat milk. Oat milk! I hadn't even thought of it! Sounds good, right? I made it and it's delicious!!! We are enjoying it in our tea and coffee and with granola cereal.

Here's what you do:

soak 1 cup of rolled oats in 5 cups of water for 24 hours

blend & strain

>>Shake well before each use<<

THAT'S IT!!! Oh, and keep it in the fridge.

On top of oat milk being easy to make and tasting great...it's on the cheap, big time. What would have cost me over $2 in purchased soy milk, I spent about 25 cents making my own oat milk = happy me.

*We buy very few processed/packaged items here in Guatemala and we love it. The two main things that we are dependent upon that are not only packaged but, are processed and imported to add insult to injury are: olive oil and soy  milk.

It's so nice to eliminate at least one of those. I don't see us not buying or using olive oil any time soon. At least not until I own that olive grove of my dreams! Do they have olive groves in Spain? South America any where?

fresh herbs....nothing like em.

There are so very many things that are fresh and amazing about Guatemala; fresh herbs being one of them!

Mind you it's really hard to find fresh Basil and that's a bummer but, this bunch of fresh Cilantro is what you get for Q1 (which is about 1/7 of a dollar). ...you can not beat that!

Fresh herbs are so healthful to eat and now I can easily eat them up with every meal! It's a good thing as you know who would say. Oh! And they are grown organically......sweet!

lovey plants from the market

I ran into these little dears for sale by an even more enchantingly dear lady from Chajul. She dug these plants up out of her garden, nestled them in a leaf secured with another plant fiber and brought them all the way to Xela. I of course could not resist purchasing one of each from her. The grassy plant I'm told will have beautifuly scented white flowers! And I'm a total sucker for succulents. I have to say I love love love the packaging. The cheese I buy at the market comes wrapped in leaves as do a few other things, I think it's rad!


Here's a map (below) showing where Chajul is in realtion to Xela (Quetzaltenango). It's a hellva chicken bus ride, a beautiful one no doubt but, it's a haul! Bless her dear darling heart.

I've never been in love with a peoples or place like I am with the lands and folks in Guatemala...I have immense love for Mayans of their ways and attitudes of life...it's a beautiful thing.

mexican jumping beans!!

Those three cute little things that look like tiny mummified wooden owls are MEXICAN JUMPING BEANS!!! My boyfriend saw a gal with a box lid of them jumping all around for joy on the street in the market. He knew I would love them and thoughtfully got these for me (3 for Q7).

They do indeed jump all around! It's so much fun to watch the little squirrely things. They aren't beans at all, they are seed pods that have a larvae living in them, supposedly they 'jump'

because the lil larvae is rolling over looking for a cooler place. That's the only reason for them 'jumping' that I can find online as of yet. And I'm sorry but, I'm not buying it! It's cold where I am and those critters can't be hot!

Aren't they cute? (That little clay house is currently one of my favourite things.)

LOOK!! I caught one in action jumping !!