About Me

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My tremendously supportive husband & I have 3 wonderful children, 1 dog, 12 laying hens, 2 dairy goats, 3 bee hives, and a 2000 sq foot vegetable garden on a small 1/4 acre lot in the city. In the center of it all is our small 1,000 sq foot house purchased in 2008 as a foreclosure that we fully renovated to host our growing family, home school adventures, and small home business (CozyLeaf.com). We have a desire to learn a path to self sufficiency finding ways to be good stewards of the resources God has given us. We want to learn to live with less as we laydown roots to our little homestead.

Monday, May 28, 2012

Busy Busy Bees

Memorial Day is just another day in the busy busy buzzin life of a honey bee. 
Today was brew day! The guys brewed 40 gallons of beer and during all the pictures of beer brewing I took time out to photograph our busy busy bees takin care of some pollination! If you don't enjoy bee pictures, now might be the time to stop looking cause I took a ton of pictures and here is but a few of those pictures..........







Bees are SO impressive!!!































Sunday, May 27, 2012

Fresh Picked Micro-greens Salad

Have you ever had a fresh salad? I mean VERY fresh, like you just picked it 5 minutes before you ate it fresh! If you have, then you know that there is just about NOTHING that can compare with the flavor of a fresh picked salad! 
This year I decided to try my hand at micro-greens! I have heard so much about them and how they take the taste of a salad to a whole new level! After having my first fresh picked micro-greens salad last night, I can tell you that YES YES and YES, they are right! 
Most micro-greens are grown in a flat under a controlled environment. That is the main reason I haven't tried to grow them yet...I don't want to mess with another garden when I have the massive one in the backyard to tend too. So, I took a 3'x6' section on my garden and designated it the micro-greens section. Then I went to my local feed store and purchased bulk seed. They have a section of bulk seeds that you pay per scoop. I got quite a good variety: Kale, Arugula, Mixed Lettuce, Chard, Spinach...and a few others. I had about 1/2 cup of tiny little seeds that I spread evenly throughout my 3'x6' space. After a few days of good watering they came up quite nicely! 

I clipped the tops off of a little 1 foot square and had a large salad. And folks let me tell ya, the taste was out of this world! I didnt even use salad dressing, I just added a tiny bit of olive oil and a dash of vinegar. I am just thrilled with these microgreens! They were much easier than I expected and ridiculously good! 



Monday, May 7, 2012

Spring has Sprung with Baby Goat Fun!!

Natural siblings...plenty of fighting and plenty of making up!


"Woe did you see that!?"





I just LOVE her face!! 

Look at those blue eyes!

Run little Goat Run!!