Whiteley Creek Homestead

LIFE AT THE END OF A DIRT ROAD IN CENTRAL MINNESOTA

organically grown triticale in our field
canoeing in our wetlands
raspberries growing wild on our property
our back porch fieldstone fireplace

about

  • on the button shore

    On_the_button_shore

    How much more fun is it to collect old buttons on the ‘button shore’ than seashells on the seashore?!

    Owls_lineup_2

    A use for some of my button collection… The owls are so fun to make and they each have a unique personality depending upon what fabric and buttons you choose. So fun and easy! After clicking on this link  http://moonstitches.typepad.com/moonstitches/2007/08/f-o-w-l-r-e-s-t.html, go to the blog’s right sidebar and there is a "tutowlrial" link that brings you to the directions. Also, in the sidebar check out the "owly love" (pool) to see the flattened owl garland, which puts a little different spin on the owl. It’s another fun alternative. Here’s another link that has the actual pattern pieces since the moonstitches blog only has the directions: http://www.hct.zaq.ne.jp/mari/fukurou/002.htm On the first screen you come to it will have this message: "To display language characters correctly you need to install the following language pack : Japanese." Click cancel. You can make your owls whatever size you choose, but to make the size of my 2 3/4" high owls you will need to use pattern piece A for the belly instead of the body and then create your own larger pattern piece for the body by using your copier to enlarge it or tackle it freehand. You would end up with a really small owl if you use patterns A and B in their present size. At least the patterns provide you with the shape that you need. If you end up making any owls, send me a photo. I’d love to see your creation. My owls are resting on an old library card file box. It has two drawers that are the perfect size to store my recipe cards with my favorite cookbooks in easy reach on top.

  • bulk garden seeds

    Every year in February, I experience the first rumblings of spring planting excitement in my soul. I begin to pore over seed catalogs and browse Internet sites to decide what new varieties I might want to try in my garden this season alongside my favorites. I acquired my passion for gardening from my father, who farmed in addition to his full-time employment at the Minnesota State Highway Department in Brainerd, and from my mother who tended huge gardens to feed our family of twelve children. As a child, I remember accompanying my parents to buy seeds at the "Little Farm Market" in Brainerd where we purchased seed in bulk. We would pour seeds from a canning jar secured with a special lid with a spout that flipped open to allow the seeds to slide into a small manilla envelope. I proudly accepted the responsibility of writing the seeds’ names on the envelopes.

    Recently, I purchased a set of 8 canning jars with old seed labels still affixed to the jars’ sides. They are lined up in a row and housed in a well-worn wooden box.The labels detail seed information (i.e., how to plant, # of days to germination, light requirements) found on seed packets today, but it is old-fashioned typewriter print complete with frequent mistakes nontypical of Microsoft Word documents today. The greatest treasure is that the jars still contain old, old, very old seed! To my delight, when my Whiteley Creek Homestead Bed and Breakfast guests spy the old seed jars lined up proudly in a row, they begin to share childhood memories of their own!

  • behold the birds

    "Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap… yet your Heavenly Father cares for them."

    Goldfinches_at_feeder_4I enlisted the services of Judd Brink, owner of MN Backyard Birds, to provide a weekly service whereby he fills my feeders with different kinds of seeds, as well as nectar and fresh fruit, purchased from a local wild bird store to attract a variety of birds. He replenishes birdbaths with fresh water,  maintains feeders’ cleanliness, and moves feeders to different locations to increase birds’ usage. I have also purchased two feeding stations from Judd that compliment my existing ones. I have experienced a marked increased and varied bird population since utilizing his services, so much so, that he now provides me with a biweekly service. The word is out… the area birds are inviting their buddies and their buddies buddies for a buffet at Whiteley Creek to the delight of our bed and breakfast guests. Judd is a birding guide so gather your fellow birders and let’s talk. I can help you plan a memorable stay by creating a birding package for you.

    A side note… Judd purchases his bird cuisine at Brainerd’s "Little Farm Market Wild Bird Store". It is the very same store where as a child I accompanied my parents in the spring to purchase bulk garden seed as described in a previous post titled "bulk garden seeds". The Wild Bird Store is a destination that I recommend to my bed and breakfast guests because of its variety of bird seed, feeders, and houses. Many of the feeders and houses are handmade by local craftsman.

  • CSA basket’s bounty

    Csa_basket

    In the 21st century, our fast-paced lifestyle doesn’t always allow time to tend our own garden plot. The desire for home-grown quality and a reduced carbon footprint achieved by food not having to be shipped across country has made farmers markets and CSA memberships popular.

    Community Supported Agriculture is a "farm-to-table" concept of supporting local growers who utilize sustainable farming practices by purchasing a seasonal (late spring through early fall) membership in return for a weekly basket of typically organic vegetables, flowers, fruits, eggs, herbs, honey or any sort of different farm products. The CSA concept, whose roots reach back 30 years to Japan, is called "teikei" in Japanese which translates to "putting the farmers’ face on food."

    I first learned about CSAs from my daughter, Heather, who was receiving a weekly basket where she lives in NY. At that time there wasn’t a CSA farm in the Brainerd area, however in 2004 the CSA Farm on St. Mathias was started five miles S.E of Brainerd.  The fun comes in anticipating what is going to be in the week’s basket and in planning a menu around the basket’s contents. Two products I got in the first two CSA baskets during the spring season, were asparagus and a jar of homemade rhubarb jam. Therefore, I made apple bran pancakes to spread with rhubarb jam and creamy asparagus potato soup.

  • Kool(-Aid) Yarn

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    Finally a use for Kool-Aid drink mix! I would never have thought to dye yarn with it until my youngest daughter, Jessica, sent me a link for the instructions. I was having trouble finding yarn colors that I liked to make flowers using a "bloom loom". As Jessica said, "You can get just the colors you want or some unexpected ones in the process." It’s so simple and fun!

    Dscn1040

  • Say what?

    I completely fell in love with your most whimsical, precious website… Are you sure you live in Brainerd and not Oz??? Or at least Wonderland? Your place sounds so very perfectly peaceful that it seems thy nickname must be Nirvana…  L. Crockett

    I can almost hear my grandparents' voices telling stories… N. Mercier

    You are so refreshing to talk to because you are full of imagination. Thank you for reminding me that I have one too! J. Engesser

    My daughter and I couldn't have asked for a more perfect getaway. On the way home, she cried- quite hard. She said she missed our cabin at the B&B and wanted our family to move into that cabin. Another morning this week, she woke up early, crawled into bed with me and said, "Mom, I miss our B&B." So I said to her, "You know that feeling that you had in your heart while we were there?" And we talked about the peace and the laughter. I told her that if either of us get crabby, we can remind each other of the peace. Both of us have used that reminder to re-center ourselves in the busyness of our lives. J. Burns

    We had such a lovely stay with you at Whiteley Creek. You know how to make someone feel at home; we were pleasantly surprised by the lack of rules/directions and the feeling that we were your guests rather than customers. P. Eliason

    Hello, QotMB. Love your approach to your web site. It really gives potential lodgers a sense of who you are, what your place is like, and most importantly, makes your place memorable. I will think of you as "Queen" until I learn otherwise. Laura H. 

  • three sisters companion planting

    The Three Sisters companion planting method, which I discovered on the Park Seed Company’s web site, is an ancient Native American technique of growing corn, beans, and squash together to increase harvests naturally. Corn acts as a support for climbing bean vines, the beans add nitrogen in the soil for the high feeding requirements of corn and squash, and the squash provides mulch and root protection for the corn and beans. 3sisters_2

    In May or June when soil has warmed:
    Shape a flat-topped circular mound of soil about a foot high and 2 feet across at the top, sloping outward toward the base. Plant a circle of corn seeds on top, about 5 or 6, and water them in well, tamping down your soil mound firmly so it doesn’t wash away in the first rain. Space the mounds 3 or 4 feet apart in the garden.

    About two weeks later:
    When your corn reaches about 5 or 6 inches high, plant bean seeds (6 to 8 of them) around the edges of the flat top or about halfway down the sloping sides of the circular mound. Push the seeds down deep into the soil and, if you’re planting on the slope, make sure the soil is nice and firm. To get your Beans     to climb up the cornstalks, choose Pole rather than Bush varieties.

    One week or so after that:
    Plant squash seeds around the base of the mound, on flat ground. You can make them radiate around the mound, or just go in the direction you have available space! 6 to 8 seeds in a ring around the base of the mound is usually plenty.

    When everything begins growing . . .
    Thin the plantings to 2 or 3 cornstalks, each with no more than two bean plants winding around it. (You’ll need to help the beans get started growing up the stalks). The squash is going to vine along the ground, so the number of plants you need depends on how far apart your mounds of corn and beans are, how long the vines get, and how much walking space you need in the garden.

    Plant other companions like herbs to assist with pest control.

  • spring’s first pie

    Dream_whip_topping_mixWhat a wonderful flaky-crust pie baker my mother was! Shortly after Dream Whip first came out in 1957, she made every kind of pie filling with Jell-o and Dream Whip that was to be found in her Jell-o Dream Whip Pie Cookbook, which I now have. Do you remember Dream Whip?Woman_with_baked_pie Actually, you can still buy it. Dream Whip is a powdered dessert topping mix that is prepared by adding ½ cup cold milk and ½ tsp vanilla then whipped until light and fluffy. My apologies to the manufacturer, but it is a lame substitute for whipping cream. It did create happy childhood memories, however. By itself, it tasted like powdered milk in whipped form, but mixed with Jell-o… so good! For one kind of pie, my mother would make four different flavors of Jell-o in separate cake pans. When the Jell-o was set, she would cut each flavor into cubes. The cubes were folded into the prepared Dream Whip pie filling. The lemon, cherry, lime, and orange colors of Jell-o looked like jewels. As a child, you can imagine what a delight that was!

    During my childhood, growing up in the 1950s on a 160-acre Minnesota farm ten miles southeast of Brainerd in Crow Wing County, my mother tended large gardens. Every spring and into early summer, she baked rhubarb custard pies prepared from freshly cut stalks of rhubarb. This recipe, passed down to me from her, was one of the first signs of spring… a welcome reminder that the long days of winter were only a memory. Here is the recipe in my mom's own handwriting. Precious. Priceless.

    Mom's rhubarb pie recipe

  • turn back the clock

    Firstclock_photoI recently discovered a fun web site named Wondertime. The flower t-shirt craft idea on my previous post, "dandelion poof", came from the site as does this clock. Don’t ya love the retro colors? Quoting from the description, it was "developed by two mothers — children’s book author Lynne Bertrand and illustrator Janet Street — this woodland clock features a slow painted turtle for the hour hand, a faster gray squirrel for the minute hand, and a speedy ruby-throated hummingbird on the second hand. When is everyone leaving for the picnic, your child wants to know? When the turtle makes it all the way to the bear."  The Wondertime site provides instructions, printout of the clock’s face, and a source  ("Walnut Hollow"… great name) to purchase the clock parts. 

  • plain jane no more

     Farmers market flower bag

    To eliminate the use of plastic and paper bags, I use canvas bags for grocery shopping and my weekly trip to the  farmers market in the summertime. My plain jane cream-colored bags were begging for a hip new look so with a few markers, rubbing alcohol, a glass, a rubber band and an eyedropper… I have a bag worthy of its contents. Can you envision the bag bulging with in-season farmers' market products… a wooden pint box of raspberries, a bundle of asparagus spears, a jar of rhubarb strawberry jam and a loaf of homemade bread to slather it on, the first purple snap beans and peas of the season, lemon balm to flavor herbal tea, and some cutting garden flowers standing proudly upright tucked to one side? Markers come in so many summery colors with fun names… kiwi, dandelion, marigold, pink lemonade, and boysenberry. Wouldn't that be a dream job… to brainstorm marker names? The directions include a "movement of molecules, given the right solvent," science lesson tied in with the project. To tie it in with a learning objective and create a cute product… how fun is that?! A couple tips: Eyedroppers can be found at your local drug store in the eye care section by the contact lens solutions. Do the project outdoors or with the breeze blowing in through open windows. Permanent markers have a strong stench.