The House Of Bear and Raven Update

It’s fall.  My favorite time of year.  But it means that there’s a lot of work to do around the Bear and Raven house.  From winterizing our hundred year old windows to cleaning up the yard so I don’t have to shovel leaves as well as snow.  But the thing I’m most excited about is getting my sage up and in bundles.  I love my Russian Sage.  As soon as it flowers in the summer, it’s awash with bumble bees, and they fly all over the yard.  I love bees.  Love them.  Anyway. 

Every year when I start on the yard, the sage is the first thing I do.  It’s a long involved process, but it’s a lot of fun.  I cut the plant down to just above the ground, then take the branches, cut them down to about forearm length, and tie them into bundles to dry.  Once the bundles are dried, they make amazing smudge sticks.  I usually throw a couple in the fire pit whenever we have it going. 

And we’re probably going to be doing that quite a lot this fall (being responsible sucks so much, and fire pits are free).  Thankfully I have some still left from last year so I won’t have to wait for them to dry.  I should have a lot bundled up this year, my plants kind of exploded in their little witchy garden.  My Lemon Balm too, though I’m not sure yet what I’m going to do with that.  Probably make bundles of that too.

With the crisper weather I’ve already made Witches Brew a couple of times this year, and to be honest, it’s pretty damn amazing when you add rum.  That of course is on a glass by glass basis.  I fully plan on making a huge batch of that for Thanksgiving this year.  I’m thinking of planning a really big HUGE meal this year and inviting friends as well.  It’ll be awesome. 

With Mark breaking his leg this spring, we haven’t spent any time at all in the back yard this year, and I want to remedy that this fall.  Cut the grass, lay down more pavers for a nice little patio.  Eventually get rid of the deck we made the year we moved in.  Another long term project is to have Bam help us build a new altar in the back yard as part of his Service to God badge in Cub Scouts.  There’s a little hill by the pear trees in the back that would be a great place for it.  His Cub Scout Pack has made it clear that all religions are welcome, but I’m pretty sure we may be pushing it with …  us.  Not my intention, but we have to be true to ourselves, right?  Right.

We have a two week vacation coming up this month, and were going to spend it for the most part working around the house.  Pretty much all of the plans we set down to do for our ten year anniversary (oh yeah, it’s our ten year anniversary this month) have fallen through.  We MIGHT go camping.  But that would only be an overnight thing.

Eventually I’d like to do a whole big yearly camping trip every fall.  Mark spent a day with some Viking reenactors, and they had these AMAZING tents that I’d just love to have.  I’m hoping that I get to go too next time they’re in the area.  From the pictures he took, it was an awesome time.  But I’d love to do a big Viking camping trip.  Period tents, cooking over a fire, no electronics.  Sounds like bliss to me.  I’m seriously getting burned out at work, and I need some time to get away.  Between work and getting ready for another solo show in December, I’m burning the candle at both ends.  It’s starting to take a toil.