Spring has sprung in my kitchen

March 21, 2013.Reading time 3 minutes.

By Amanda Cleary Eastep Last week, I filled out a planting schedule I found on Mother Earth News and started my two varieties of tomatoes, hot peppers, kale, and chamomile. I scheduled what to start indoors and when to transplant, and what seeds to plant directly in the soil and when. I would have posted […]

Here there be seeds

March 10, 2013.Reading time 2 minutes.

By Amanda Cleary Eastep Hobbits like gardens. And eating. Two things we have in common. I thought about this as I mapped out planting the small garden plot. Mapping it out made me realize how gardening is a journey in which you start out one place and end up somewhere completely different. Without the traveling, […]

Itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny homestead (by that I mean condo garden)

February 23, 2013.Reading time 5 minutes.

By Amanda Cleary Eastep Sometimes you just have to change your perception of a thing. This isn’t the same as changing your perspective. I mean, no matter how I view the garden space off of my condo patio, it is what it is. A small plot of clay-filled soil, a few pots, and a lot […]

Rise, rise, rise, let it rise!

January 25, 2013.Reading time 3 minutes.

The title is a play on the Bachman-Turner Overdrive classic from the 70s, that decade when we packed Wonder Bread in our school lunches every day. But this is a new decade in my life…the pre-homesteading one in which I bake my own bread and take another step toward a future life on five acres […]

True Grit is under your fingernails

December 30, 2012.Reading time 5 minutes.

By Amanda Cleary Eastep The bunny is looking at me with black eyes from it’s fuzzball face. My heart begins a slow melt that seems to move to my mouth, which turns down at the corners, the lower lip protruding in a “that’s so cute I could cry” pout. My daughter and I have wanted […]

It’s a pickle

September 8, 2012.Reading time 2 minutes.

These are refrigerator pickles. They are delicious and easy to make, but they will only be good for 2 months in the refrigerator (if they aren’t eaten by then). They won’t help you survive the winter. They won’t make it until January when you might decide, on a warm winter night, to roast hot dogs […]

Gentlewomen of the Road–camping with Mumford and Sons

September 1, 2012.Reading time less than 1 minute.

It is 4 a.m. While 3,000 other campers sleep, one rowdy group has been up all night and is now bellowing the chorus to “Awake My Soul,” one of Mumford & Sons’ most popular songs. Awake me closer to 9 a.m. … Read more about this intergenerational concert experience. Or are you more of a […]

Creatures of Habit–Ways to knock it off right now!

August 11, 2012.Reading time 2 minutes.

You’re driving when suddenly you realize it’s Saturday, and instead of going in the direction of the new restaurant to meet your friend, you’re headed along the route you take to work Monday through Friday. We are creatures of habit. That’s why I took Tuesday off. Crazy, I know. What will she do next? It […]

Do you feel lucky? Well, do you bookworm?

June 29, 2012.Reading time 3 minutes.

It was my lucky day. At least that’s what the neon yellow piece of paper sticking out of the library book said. Your Lucky Day Collection The medieval mystery I snagged from the New Arrival shelf just before the library closed appeared to be the perfect book for a weekend in Michigan, so, with unexpected […]

All Hiatuses (Hiati?) Must Come to an End

June 6, 2012.Reading time 1 minute.

So this is something of a pre-announcement… As my three followers (mom, hubby, and Fido) all know, I’ve been on a hiatus from this blog. But for good reason. To concentrate on some crucial writing goals, the most important being the creation of my new freelance writing site, Word Ninja. Think of this post as a […]