Saturday, February 17, 2018
Wednesday, February 14, 2018
Valentines Day and springing forward...
So, Valentines Day is here! Northwest Arkansas has seen a few warm sunny days recently but over-all it has been pretty gray around here. Today is warm enough but is a bit gray and somewhat damp. It's hard to get ready for spring when I feel like following the groundhog back in that hole for a few more weeks! But on the sunny days that we have had we have been making tons of progress at Rowanwood!
We have all been working hard helping out our sister-store in Prairie Grove, High on the Hog Vintage Market, get ready for Valentines Day and spring. I call it our sister store because the owner has become like one of the family, and Rowanwood is all about family! There are some amazing floral arrangments, homemade candies and live plants for Valentine's gifts and for the unconventional sort, Rowanwood has some heart shaped Plaster Paint Gift sets and tiny little pots and seeds.
But tomorrow when the dust settles and the candy is gone, we start on Spring! In the store it means getting the seed packest and potting soil up front and at Rowanwood we start prepping the soil for spring planting. Last years sorghum experiment went well so this year we expand! More sorghum and flour corn and this year we are starting Purple Bamboo! I can't wait to see it! In addition to that, years of work on our compost heaps is finally paying off. We are bagging up our good rich compost for potting soil (we call it Holy Crap) and we have a lot to work back into our own fields.
We have had the great fortune to include two young men in our ever-growing farm operation. It started out with firewood delivery but they have been helping us by cutting our dead trees. That keeps us stocked with wood, gives them some to sell and it is really cleaning up our forest so we reduce the risk of fire! Extra wood-cutters have helped us get more wood for the palisade wall that is going up in the front of the property, so Rowanwood Castle is beginning to take shape!
I see the sun peeking out a little now! My thoughts are moving fast toward spring! I really can't wait to be outside again!
We have all been working hard helping out our sister-store in Prairie Grove, High on the Hog Vintage Market, get ready for Valentines Day and spring. I call it our sister store because the owner has become like one of the family, and Rowanwood is all about family! There are some amazing floral arrangments, homemade candies and live plants for Valentine's gifts and for the unconventional sort, Rowanwood has some heart shaped Plaster Paint Gift sets and tiny little pots and seeds.
But tomorrow when the dust settles and the candy is gone, we start on Spring! In the store it means getting the seed packest and potting soil up front and at Rowanwood we start prepping the soil for spring planting. Last years sorghum experiment went well so this year we expand! More sorghum and flour corn and this year we are starting Purple Bamboo! I can't wait to see it! In addition to that, years of work on our compost heaps is finally paying off. We are bagging up our good rich compost for potting soil (we call it Holy Crap) and we have a lot to work back into our own fields.
We have had the great fortune to include two young men in our ever-growing farm operation. It started out with firewood delivery but they have been helping us by cutting our dead trees. That keeps us stocked with wood, gives them some to sell and it is really cleaning up our forest so we reduce the risk of fire! Extra wood-cutters have helped us get more wood for the palisade wall that is going up in the front of the property, so Rowanwood Castle is beginning to take shape!
I see the sun peeking out a little now! My thoughts are moving fast toward spring! I really can't wait to be outside again!
Sunday, February 11, 2018
Monday, February 5, 2018
Monday, January 29, 2018
Sunday, January 21, 2018
National School Choice Open House
Today was our open house to kick off National School Choice Week. Now, I was thrilled to have an open house and get people here to paint and tour Rowanwood, but I have to say, School Choice is a thing that is near and dear to my heart.
Back in the mid 80's I heard about homeschooling for the first time. My school years were not a happy time for me. I was a bright kid, teachers liked me and I WANTED to learn! Every year I would start school all excited to get new books and hope that this was the year we would really start learning the interesting stuff. Uh no. In addition, I was bullied and harassed. By 10th grade I had had enough. I signed myself out of school (Mother was furious) and never went back. I took a 2 year break, went to 3 months of GED classes and graduated at the same time as my high school class. ( With high scores I might add)
So as a young mom in the 80's I heard about home schooling. I had 2 kids in school at that time. I attended a few meetings of local home school associations and decided I could do it. The first battle was with the school district. It wasn't as easy then as it is now to get textbooks and supplies and it was expensive! I maintained that I lived in the district and paid taxes, so my kids were entitled to the books they would have used at school that year. They did not agree. Finally, to shut me up, they let me have access to the discarded book room.
The next year we moved to a different state that had it on the ballot to make homeschooling illegal. That was voted down but public opinion was pretty negative toward homeschooling. And I get it. Some people are just too lazy to send kids to school and some are hiding abuse. I get how the system can be abused. And I am ashamed to admit that a few times I threw my hands up and put my kids in public school. It never worked for us so I would start homeschooling again. By the time my youngest two were in school, a great thing called the internet had been invented and a tiny town in Colorado had started an online program for their students that sometimes had to miss school for bad weather and the program was so successful that they opened it up for enrollment to kids outside their district. Online public school. For my family it was the best of both worlds.
Today there are choices. Public school, charter school, private school, online public school, home school and the GED is still a thing! Half of my grandkids go to public schools and half are in online public school. And that's ok. Because for me it's all about having the choice to do what is right for your family.
So, I liked being able to get Rowanwood involved in kicking off this week. I don't know if our event will impact that many people, but maybe it will. Maybe a few more people know they have choices. That's pretty cool.
Back in the mid 80's I heard about homeschooling for the first time. My school years were not a happy time for me. I was a bright kid, teachers liked me and I WANTED to learn! Every year I would start school all excited to get new books and hope that this was the year we would really start learning the interesting stuff. Uh no. In addition, I was bullied and harassed. By 10th grade I had had enough. I signed myself out of school (Mother was furious) and never went back. I took a 2 year break, went to 3 months of GED classes and graduated at the same time as my high school class. ( With high scores I might add)
So as a young mom in the 80's I heard about home schooling. I had 2 kids in school at that time. I attended a few meetings of local home school associations and decided I could do it. The first battle was with the school district. It wasn't as easy then as it is now to get textbooks and supplies and it was expensive! I maintained that I lived in the district and paid taxes, so my kids were entitled to the books they would have used at school that year. They did not agree. Finally, to shut me up, they let me have access to the discarded book room.
The next year we moved to a different state that had it on the ballot to make homeschooling illegal. That was voted down but public opinion was pretty negative toward homeschooling. And I get it. Some people are just too lazy to send kids to school and some are hiding abuse. I get how the system can be abused. And I am ashamed to admit that a few times I threw my hands up and put my kids in public school. It never worked for us so I would start homeschooling again. By the time my youngest two were in school, a great thing called the internet had been invented and a tiny town in Colorado had started an online program for their students that sometimes had to miss school for bad weather and the program was so successful that they opened it up for enrollment to kids outside their district. Online public school. For my family it was the best of both worlds.
Today there are choices. Public school, charter school, private school, online public school, home school and the GED is still a thing! Half of my grandkids go to public schools and half are in online public school. And that's ok. Because for me it's all about having the choice to do what is right for your family.
So, I liked being able to get Rowanwood involved in kicking off this week. I don't know if our event will impact that many people, but maybe it will. Maybe a few more people know they have choices. That's pretty cool.
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