My new experiment: Lactofermentation

Ok, so anyone who eats yogurt enjoys the benefits of lactofermentation, it's basically growing good bacteria, the kind that your tummy likes, in a milk medium.  I've found out that it can be used for preserving foods, too, and still with all the benefits to your tummy!  Not to mention, there's no cooking involved, so the food remains nutritionally dense during preservation, unlike canning or to a lesser extent, freezing.  So, because so many of us like to eat pickles on a regular basis, I've begun with those.  Here is a recipe from Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions, which I highly recommend (and it costs a lot less now than it did when I first bought it).

Pickled Cucumbers

Makes 1 Quart

4-5 pickling cucumbers or 15-20 gherkins
1 T mustard seeds
2 T Fresh dill, snipped
1 T sea salt
4 T whey (or substitute another T of sea salt)
1 cup filtered water
Also, I added 1 clove of garlic

Wash well and place in a quart sized, wide mouth mason jar.  Combine remaining ingredients and pour over cucumbers, adding more water if necessary to cover the cucumbers.  The top of the liquid should be at least 1 in below the top of the jar.  Cover tightly and keep at room temperature for about 3 days before transferring to cold storage (read refrigerator).

Dude, that's like so many times easier than normal pickles I can't even describe it... I mean, liming, sanitizing, heating vinegar and spices, salt, processing, and all in a hot kitchen is the normal modus operandus.  So, here are mine!

 

I used the extra salt because we've been using yogurt for soaking grains for eating and I'm running short of whey...  also, mine seem to be slightly foamy, which I fear may be detergent residue from washing them out?!  I'm trying sliced jalapenos next!

Anyway, with all this yogurt consumption, I'm thinking I need the big yogurt maker, so I can make like  a quart at a time, without having to wrap my jar in a towel and put it in a warm oven and hope for the best!  One like this:

 

Or, I could make kefir, which incubates at room temperature and can be used for soaking grains, too.

Or, I could make both, some yogurt for yogurt cheese, whey, and sauces, and the kefir for when I need the bacteria to predigest and counteract enzyme inhibitors in grains.... hmmmmmm....  so many little microbes to farm, so little time!

Garden Progress

I planted the herbs in April, like a week after we moved in.  This is what they looked like immediately after planting.  Kind of bare and scraggly... I know.  There's rosemary, basil, thyme, oregano, and parsley, plus marigolds.

In June I took pics of the gardens as we planted and prepared them, it was late for planting, but we took awhile to get the gardens ready.  Between unpacking and Jeremy's crazy work schedule, it took till early June to get things started.

Here's the herb garden again, just getting established... it took awhile!

The green beans, and some empty, but seeded dirt...

The tomatoes, some mesclun seedlings, and pink petunias...

And here's the planted garden and unplanted bed along the fence.

These were all taken today, in very hot, bright sunshine!

Herb Garden

Tomatoes

Beans, Okra, lettuce, radishes, broccoli, zucchini under the dwarf apple tree...

And the crunchy, dry grass and sfg's growing in the heat.... along the fence, there are yellow squash, more okra, and more green beans, planted later even than the ones in the sfg... I'm gonna put cabbages and carrots in this bed, too, for fall, and then plant some spinach and kale and chard for fall... we also planted melons and pumpkins on a slope beside the driveway, too, though I forget to water those...  I'm praying for rain!!!  Also, the buckets and rack for our killing cones for butchering chickens are in the background... we put 24 in the freezer last Wednesday!  Yay!

Summertime and the Livin' is Crazy

Wow! I'm going crazy here... there is so much to do in our life right now and waaay too little time to blog about it. We have gone camping, to Williamsburg, and to the Hill Country and Odessa in Texas. My in laws have some wonderful river front vacation rental property and a bed and breakfast (Bend O' the River) where we always love to go. Plus the grandparents are always highly desirable to visit for the children... of course! And my honorary parents have a backyard pool! Plus I got to visit with my best friend Addy, who introduced me to the Twilight books and movie and... wait for it... Edward. Ohhhhh, Edward!

I've been neglecting the garden, in favor of house cleaning, much to the garden's detriment, it looks awful. It's about time to plant some fall greens and carrots and beets, and we're about to get a whole lot of tomatos for popping in the mouth, slicing, and turning into sauce. I wonder how the potatos will turn out? I've gotten three heads of broccoli, all with little green worms which were easy to pick off, but yucky. They were all good eating, and welcome to the table, since all of us are broccoli fans. The onions seem to have trouble staying put in the raised beds, they keep pushing their way up to the surface.




I've been contemplating a name change for the blog... I realized that the name I chose for our cottage is really the lesson I'm continually learning in my life. Contentment. I believe I'll change the name of the blog to reflect it. Also, we're planning another move, which is typical behavior for me. I'm pretty much assured we'll move as soon as I've got the house about half settled. It's our modus operandus.





On the needles: the blue sock... again. I finished it, tried it on and was surprised at it's snugness, then realized that it was made in the smaller size, so it had to be ripped out, in it's entirety and reknitted. I re cast-on, began again and I've turned the heel and finished the gussets, so it's in the home stretch now. Again. Also, a stranded colorwork vest, which probably it all wrong for my body type, but I don't care. It's a knit picks kit, on size 2 circular needles, in teal and gold. I've already knitted an inch of ribbing, but I had to rip it out as I forgot those very important words when joining in the round "being careful not to twist." So I decided to go ahead and do a gauge swatch... just to play with the colors... I'll cast on again when I cast off the sock.





Piper had her "procedure" yesterday, and is recovering by napping in the girls' bedroom right now. She's been an admirable mother, and we were able to get good homes for all the kittens, and kept our two favorite Black Susan and Hamelin, who are busy learning to hunt, ruining my sheer curtains in the guest room, and practicing their pounce and wrestle technique.





The children are making leaps and bounds, the baby is practicing his manners, trying to say please in the following variations: large cheesy smile, "meeeeeeeeeee", "peeeeeeeeeeee", or "teeeeeeeeee". Very sweet. Little J has graduated to a bike with training wheels and is triumphantly peddling around in circles in front of the house. She is a wonderful talker now, telling us stories in her preschool lisp: "Mommy, he tan wide his bite wifout the taining wheels!" JW has learned to ride without training wheels at the ripe old age of 5, he's been endeavoring to steer at that terrifying speed that comes with that new liberty and has been wearing his helmet voluntarily. He and M (who is mostly learning to do her hair this summer) are excited about taking swimming lessons starting on the 20th and the Prairie Princess and Dauphin have been taking theirs already and making marvelous progress. Also, they've been trying to read up the whole library and are frustrated by any censorship on our part. The possibility of evil doesn't really seem real to them in the library. My oldest (12 yrs) ascends from the pool after lessons with this incredibly large grin, which is so wonderful to see as he was the most terrified toddler in the world of water. He even was afraid of his bath. Now he thinks he might want to join a swim team! Who'd have thunk it! It almost, almost makes me want a swimming pool... perhaps it will be a positive instead of a negative in our house hunt that begins in January, along with the packing. Ugh.... packing!





Soon to start: some sewing lessons for the Prairie Princess and a neighbor (who recently moved onto the farm). Our first project will be a small skirt, just rectangles and a bit of elastic for the waistband, easy peasy, with a topstiched hem. I'll perhaps start to get some of my own summer sewing done, maybe, then some winter jumpers for the girls, then I'll pack away the stash in anticipation of the move.





Also soon to start: changing the workroom to a workroom/bedroom for the Dauphin... he made a very good argument for having his own room, and at 12, needs to have a little privacy, especially in a large family that occupies a small house. Also he digs the orange walls! Yay! So I need to move my yarn stash OUT of the dresser in that room and INTO something else... perhaps a plastic storage bin? Something I can access up until we load the truck in March, because, as we all know, I and my yarn cannot be parted for long, much like my hub or my kids or my Bible...





Can we all say OBSESSION?

Finally, a pic of the night sky and a crescent moon, and it's pretty.

Sweet June

Wow! Did you notice I have nine followers!? Yee Haw! Hi, ya'll!

Virginia in June is just a Paradise. Night before last, we drove home from ballet class with the windows open to take in the gorgeous scent of the season. The honeysuckle is growing on fencelines all the way home, plus there are catauba trees, which have these huge fragrant orchid-like flowers. It was one of those fragrant, pre-thunderstorm evenings, heavy with scent and balmy. When the thunderstorm came, it was all out pre-thunderstorm preparations, because chances are the power will go out...

These entail the following:

Get out candles and matches
Make sure all the flashlights have batteries that work
Clean up pathways to the bathrooms
Unplug all the electronics
Go to bed early and snuggle the baby. It's fun!

It's been such a moist, beautiful spring, and it's just about time for tiger lily season, which I am soooo stoked for. It's got to be my favorite flower. My great grandparents used to have this big farm in Upstate New York (Chamberlain's Mill) and they had a giant lily bed that made a big impression on my developing taste, I think, right along the road opposite Mr. Chamberlain's house... he was really old when I used to visit him, but he told me this funny story about the apple orchard and geese... I'll tell ya another time!

The peas are producing prodigiously (snow and sugar snap), the cabbages are actually forming heads, which is a first for me, and the tomatos are fruiting already. The potatoes are blooming, the hydrangea has three beautiful blue balls on it, and the roses have buds forming... and I've probably got 30 volunteer chamomile plants that are starting to flower. Yay!

I finished the ballet bodices except for the hook and eye tape, I'll be sewing at rehearsals for Sleeping Beauty on Saturday and then I'm off... purple satin makes me want to commit sepuku after the 13 costumes I've made for two ballets. I've decreed that if the girls choose purple for their weddings, I'll not do the sewing! I've said my peace and counted to three!

No pics today, sorry... more later on fiber...

Maryland Sheep and Wool

OK, so I'm checking in... the farm is getting soaked right now... it's chilly and wet, but I've got some tomatoes in thanks to the Studly Man in my life.

I can't believe it happened, but I forgot to bring my camera to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival this past Saturday! ACK! I know!

It was amazing, there was yarn and fiber everywhere, spinning wheels, looms, vintage sock machines, demonstrations, sheep and goats, WONDERFUL!

I did buy yarn, of course! Actually I waited in line for like 45 minutes for some Socks that Rock at The Fold booth. I met some really nice ladies who shared their giant umbrella with me and chatted about yarn (Thanks, Melissa and Mary!).

I bought some locally spun and naturally hand dyed wool worsted yarn... and some locally spun flax, cotton, and rayon fingering weight yarn ($6.50 a pound!).

I went with my friend Lyn from Hunt Country Yarns in The Plains and had fun "checking in" with their booth. I talked to the Ravelry Crew and saw Ysolda Teague (I just admired her while pretending to look at wool behind her) and I had a nice little chat with Claudia of Claudia Hand Painted Yarns (Check out the Linen yarn Desert Dusk colorway... I'll be buying some at Knitting Sisters in Williamsburg when we go at the end of this month). I was like oh, 40 feet away from her and saw this woman sitting on a bench next to one of the barns in this WONDERFUL tiered ruffled skirt knitted in gorgeous hand dyed yarns in these beautiful warm colors. I had to know where to get that pattern and what those yarns were, so, of course, because I'm me, I walked over and politely butted into a conversation and asked her.

Me: "Excuse me for interrupting, but I saw that skirt from waaaay over there and I think it is absolutely gorgeous. Where did you get that pattern? And those yarns, oh my, look at those beautiful warm colors!"

Claudia: "Well, this is a Louet Sales pattern, but actually, I'm Claudia of Claudia Hand Painted Yarns and these are my yarns."

Me: "Wow, these are gorgeous! You're like a walking advertisement! Who sells these?"

Claudia: "I don't think anyone here is selling them...."

I got her card, because it was a work of art. I want one for me. Bad. I can't believe I forgot my camera!

One Year on the Farm

I'm not sure of the exact day that we first drove onto this farm, but I know it was just about a year ago. The farm looks just the same today as it did the first day we came... a little cool, and wet, dreary sky, newly green fields, maples abloom, daffodils smiling. I've spent a wonderful year nesting and creating, teaching and nurturing, making and growing. I've even fulfilled the goal I had for myself of averaging at least one post a week... this is my 53rd post, here on the blog! I haven't done everything that I would have liked. The trim still isn't completely painted, I didn't put as much food in the freezer as I'd like, I haven't got a milk cow yet, and I have hundreds of photos that I've not blogged yet. But I did so many new things. I made my first pickles, and froze veggies from my own garden. I raised chickens and collected my own farm eggs. I ate chickens that I raised myself. We even are growing our own beef now. I've planted my first potatoes, caught my first raccoon, and had our first at home campfires. It's been a great year!

I've been thinking of setting myself a few goals for the next year.

1. Use the daily schedule I always spend so many hours making every six months

This is usually my best tool for accomplishing what seems humanly impossible, but I've been severely neglecting it. When on a schedule, my family hums along like they're on a track, and it makes the off schedule fun stuff so much more fun.

2. Make more time to "fill up" myself with good things: reading, prayer, exercise, education

I've been feeling a little as though I've been pouring all my good stuff out for everyone else, which is exactly what everyone should be doing, but now there's nothing left, so I've got to top off that tank. I've gotten some serious life improvement reading planned, some biographies, and some classic lit on my reading list. Prayer time will depend on the success of goal number 1. Exercise is already something I'm doing better with, little by little, but I want to take advantage more of the beautiful farm to hike.

3. Make friends with a new dentist and most likely an orthodontist as well. We've been in VA two years now and we haven't visited a dentist here, yet.

This is probably self explanatory, except it's hard to find time to take ONE child anywhere... and though my children are exceptionally well behaved, most of the time, doctor's offices tend to bring out the worst in them, so I tend to procrastinate about medical appointments.

4. Limit the number of projects I have going and purge projects that have languished

I've got decades old cross stitch projects sitting in baskets, fabric I don't really like anymore, and acrylic I'd rather not touch, much less knit with or wear.

5. Potty train the baby

This should help in both the laundry and time management areas, not to mention making the older, diaper changing kids really happy.

6. Organize more social time with other ladies and a monthly date with my hubby

I want a little more time with my "sistahs" and my sisters. I really dig my hub, and I've been on like two dates with him in two years. It's very, very sad.

OK, so enough of my introspection... I have definitely had spring fever and have dropped a bunch of cash of new yarn and fabric... and a few new project books. Last post, I promised some pics of knitted goods:

Also, just today, at nap time (as in 10 minutes ago), my hydrangea and Carding Mill rose arrived! Yay! I need to get those in the ground, pronto. My three peony plants in the front garden are coming up, as well as what I think is a rhubarb. I've discovered, looking around, that my gardening style is very cottage garden... ie I just throw the plants in the ground somewhere and hope it looks nice.

Spring has Sprung

Wow! It's been a month, I tell ya! So many things have happened here. Not as many as I'd like due to illness... mine, the kids, the hubby's. A plague of gastrointestinal illness in a family of 8 can take a really long time to recover from! My blogging was postponed due to a total crash of my hard drive two weeks ago and having house guests. So, some interruptions were really bad, but some were really good, too.

I finished this:

These are blooming:

The daffodils, crocus, and maples have been in full swing, and now the forsythia is blooming and some pretty white flowered tree which I have not yet identified. My tulips were coming along nicely, but the neighbor's goat ate all the leaves of all the tulips he could find on the farm, including my 18.

I have planted the cold weather crops in our new third SFG bed... it's 4 x 16 so it can fit a lot of spinach, to say the least. I planted cabbage, peas (snap and snow), broccoli, spinach, green onions, and lettuce. I've also planted a strawberry bed and potato barrel and onion sets. Still, nothing is sprouting yet. But we've had some really lovely rain followed by a couple of warmish days that I know is working its magic on the seeds. They're under their nice, sweet covering of soil softening and sending tentative little pale yellow sprouts upward toward the warmth of the sun.

On the needles: blue socks, orange socks, and a baby set for a friend's new baby... I'm making a February baby set in grey and raspberry. I just love that sweater for baby girls... it's simple, beautiful, easy to knit, and easy to resize. I've decided that the reason I love Elizabeth Zimmerman so is that her patterns are often like that: simple, neat, and warm. She knitted for the same reason I do I think... to relax and to make things people will actually wear. I wish I'd begun a blanket long ago, because the baby would look soooo fetching in her little knitted outfit nestled in a raspberry blanket on Mama's knee. Will post pics of knitted projects another time.

Spring is Springing

Have you noticed? It's a big thing for me, you know... We have a follower to the blog! Yay! If you want to follow and be alerted whenever I post anew or whatever, just scroll all the way to the bottom and click "Follow This Blog". School is just humming along right now... of course, I have totally dropped Latin. But otherwise, we're running on all cylinders right now. We should be done with the 3 R's sometime in May, and then, boy howdy, we're gonna farm like we've never farmed before! I'm soooo excited for the garden this year. Not just the food, either, I'm excited for the daffodils and tulips I planted, and the herbs, and lilies, and roses, and lavender I bought for the children. We were planning on some feeder calves, but haven't yet obtained any, and we're putting out feelers for a family cow, but that's not falling into place, either, so we're just focusing on what we CAN do... We can garden. We can tend our little flock of chickens. We can make things at home...

Speaking of that: I've been sewing. I bought some patterns for simple, classic clothes (Common Sense Patterns) for the Prairie Princess. She is such a Luddite. I've finished (except for buttons and holes) a very pretty ruffled collar, long sleeved blouse for her in white cotton with printed golden orangey and metallic silver polka dots. She tried it on after the sleeves were attached to talk about buttons with me:

"Oh, Mommy! I just love it! Especially since it's handmade!" the Prairie Princess gushes, and when I say gush, I mean it.

She's very gratifying to make things for. Really. She talks like she's Anne of Green Gables most of the time. I mean she speaks with all the emotion and emphasis and vocabulary. But she's not really a talkative person. She can't be when she's got two little sisters with "tongues hung in the middle."

Speaking of orange, again... I bought the fabric for my living room curtains. I know, I said I'd let you all give your input, but I couldn't wait. Orange, again. Shocking.

Birthday Presents

Here at Contentment, February means three kid birthdays. We are kind of anti-birthday party around here. We have a big day, of course! We give the birthday child the choice of every meal that we eat, cake choice, we take the day off of school and give the birthday kid the choice of what we do all day, and of course, we give a few gifts. But we kind of nixed the Birthday Party circuit a few years ago. This year, we went a step further, and kind of nixed the giving of more stuff. We have waaaaay too much stuff already and I'm sure the extended family will give us a few more wonderful and unique gifts for each child, so I decided to do something a bit more... entreprenureal. Now, all my kids are interested in gardening. They all get their own little patch, a la Little Men, and we buy the produce the kids harvest from them. This year, my oldest daughter decided she didn't want to grow veggies, because she doesn't want to eat them... she's not a fan. But she loves herbs, so she requested the permission to grow lavender and sage and thyme and then we decided she'd grow medicinal herbs and start researching old remedies for aches and pains. It's still a contribution to the family that is worth paying her for, and hopefully she'll enjoy the educational aspect of the project. I just had the kids go through the catalogs and circle and initial stuff they thought they'd like to have.... my middle daughter took the White Flower Farm catalog, looked through it, told me she couldn't possibly choose, as she wanted everything, put the glossy pages on the table and drew a metaphorical circle around the whole catalog with her finger... she's so cute!

Soooo, for my middle son, we purchased a round strawberry bed with 50 strawberry plants and plastic cover and netting to protect them from the chickens... for my oldest boy, two dwarf fruit trees, for my middle daughter, a couple of rose bushes, potato and onion sets, and we ordered for my oldest daughter a set of medicinal herb seeds and book on using them, plus 10 lavender plants. I couldn't resist ordering something for me, too... I ordered a David Austen rose (Carding Mill) and a blue hydrangea (Endless Summer). It's sort of a birthday/Mother's Day gift for myself! It's perhaps a bit untraditional to buy your children plants for their birthday gifts, but I think they'll enjoy them a lot. Now, on to negotiating produce prices!

Season of Garden Planning

Well, the holidays are over. I hope yours were as peaceful and filled with family fun as ours was. We stepped it back this year and kept it even more simple than usual. It was nice! Maybe it was just lazy, but still Daddy was home for almost two weeks and it was wonderful. So happy new year. And now: it's the season of seed catalogs! I'm so excited to start planning gardens. The children are helping, of course. One wants nothing but pumpkins and melons, another wants lots of strawberries, and another wants to grow herbs and flowers, perhaps "medicine herbs"? My garden will have pickling cucumbers this year, paste tomatoes, lots of tomatoes in general, okra, carrots, potatoes, onions, and some flowers.

Of course, a few things that probably won't make it into my garden this year, in spite of my imaginings. Flax, to spin and weave into linen, of course. A garden to dye wool with. A cottage garden, full of flowers and herbs and veggies all jumbled together with hydrangeas, climbing roses, and plenty of lavender. My husband's ideal garden would probably contain wheat, barley, and hops, if you know what I mean (to brew, sillies!)

White Flower Farms is one of my favorites for browsing and dreaming, but my actual money will be spent on much more practical items. Heirloom Seeds is one of my favorites because it's located rather close to me (in PA). Seeds of Change is also one of my favorites. Our garden size will be doubled this year so I'm gonna probably be putting food away like crazy, but at least this summer I'll not be unpacking or trying to catch up on school with the kiddies. So maybe I'll have more time for canning and freezing. Maybe.

Here's a couple pictures from last year:

A little child labor. Actually, he's getting his garden ready for planting corn and butternut squash. And here is another picture of my pretty pickles! And my canning pot! I know you're just riveted!

Grow, Baby, Grow!

I can show you a picture of my gardens completely planted, but you know, it's not very interesting, because I mostly planted seeds! I just walk out there in the mornings to water them and tell them to,”Grow, grow, grow! Make my food!” Yes, I talk to plants, but only when no one over three years old is around!
I've planted tomatoes, basil, cilantro, peppers, zucchini, summer squash, cucumbers (a first for me!), carrots, lettuce, spinach, okra (another first), parsley, lemon balm, green beans, butternut squash, watermelon, and sweet corn. I'm trying the “three sisters” approach for the corn. Planting them with beans and squash. The idea is that the corn is a trellis for the beans to climb, and the squash provides shade for the roots of the corn. The beans do the nitrogen fixing for the corn, and the squash and beans growing together supposedly confuse pests... we'll see! It's the sort of companion planting that's been done for thousands of years by Native Americans... except I left out the dead fish under every corn seed, not having any fish at hand. Plus, in theory, all those roots and leaves help deter soil erosion which is a problem with corn. A benefit to raising your own food by hand instead of letting big farms with big machines do it, perhaps?
Gardening inspires a lot of the same emotions in me that having a new baby does. I murmur and pet and fuss over each emerging sprout like it's my new baby. Yeah, OK, that's kind of weird. But there's a lot of satisfaction and warm fuzzies that can be derived from “raising” stuff. Hard work resulting in a good harvest is very good for the soul. In the square foot gardening method, you prune your vining plants to one main stem, which is really hard to do, because you think: more stems, more food. Supposedly, pruning those stems to one, and weaving that one stem up and down a trellis allows you to get a lot more food from a lot less space. Then, when the season winds to a close, you cut off the end of that one stem and it's supposed to help the fruit to ripen in a timely manner. I've no experience with this, however, it's all stuff from books I've read, and probably confused in my mind! All this pruning reminds me of training children to behave well! One does a lot of nipping behavior in the bud, hoping it will help the child “bear better fruit” later. Of course, the raising of children takes much longer than tomatoes, so one must just have faith that those that have done it before know what they're talking about.
Grow, baby, grow! Make good fruit! Be healthy! Grow tall and strong! Be productive!
Gardeners and mothers have a lot in common.

A Garden

Sooooo, here is a glimpse of me in all my glory and my beloved as we look over our garden. It looks little, huh? Well, we plan to have a garden that is approximately 4 times as big as we've ever attempted before and so, technically, it's ambitious! I love the concept of square foot gardening. I enjoy the sustainability of it, I think that if everyone would just start a little one we'd all be healthier and we could use the petroleum we save by not transporting food to lower gas prices! If we all saved compost for our square foot gardens we'd not have such overflowing landfills and dumps. I can't believe how matronly I look... normally I'd not wear that shirt, but I had to borrow something of Hubby's because I couldn't find any of my own clothes!

Warning!!! The following picture is NOT doing this "By Hand".

Our landlord saw my Hubby toiling away with the tiller and decided he needed some help... and boy did he help! He brought the industrial equipment to ease my husband's labor and we got a good look at what was under the grass. Beautiful loamy clay. It looked fertile and wondrously good for veggies! I think he was a little jealous, because he said HIS garden was full of rocks. Sorry... We had fun watching the progress he made, but I have to say, watching my Hubby sweat while doing manual labor is fun, too. I wanted to do the garden slightly differently. I'm afraid that all that green grass in the dirt will burn my seedlings. I hope I'm wrong and we get lots of yummy veggies out of those little plots of dirt!