It’s January here in the Ozarks, which means it’s Spring one moment and Winter the next. January’s “Wolf Moon” showed up in all its glory last night, which sounds so ominous it prompted some worried questions from my younger two. I pointed out that all the full moons have nicknames…” Hunter’s moon”, “Harvest moon”, and “Pink moon”, but Will pointed out no one is really worried about the color pink attacking one in their sleep (but apparently moon wolves are a real threat in his mind?). I didn’t realize we got most of the names from Native Americans. Namely the Algonquin tribes from New England. I’m trying to picture my great-great Puritan grandmother casually discussing April’s Pink moon, and it’s just not working for me.
We’ve been taking a one mile walk every day and the minion rebelled against the road route again today, so we tromped off through our forest. I still have to pinch myself that I can walk a mile in my own forest and not even see that much of it. We frequently stopped to look at rocks (in Will’s case), or mushrooms (in my case). The turkey tail mushrooms are out like crazy right now, so even though it took us an hour to walk a mile, at least I came home with full pockets. Turkey Tail is one of those superfood mushrooms that everyone is drinking instead of coffee right now. They allegedly heal your gut, boost your immune system, fix mom-brain, prevent Alzheimers and cure cancer. Between the moon history and the mushroom lessons, I expect next we’ll take up goat yoga.
Instead of writing a list of New Year’s resolutions, I’m going to start a list of all the hobbies I want to take up. This way by the time my youngest is out of the house, I shouldn’t be able to complain I’m bored (if I don’t decide to do something crazy like go to medical school or open an horse rescue).
January’s list thus far:
Build a loom and learn to weave my own cloth from my own sheep
Dig a cellar and become an artisanal cheesemaker.
Learn jewelry making and create heirloom tiaras and necklaces and whatnot to pass down to my posterity (this should go great with the homespun wool clothing)
Take up wild crafting my own clay to make, glaze and fire bowls/plates/cups.
Learn stone masonry and build my own stone fence (because I really want medieval fences like the ones I saw in Scotland.)
The tiaras might have to wait, but I’ve already started gathering rocks for my fence. Maybe I should embrace feudalism and have the kids start gathering rocks for me in exchange for protection against those moon wolves.)