Life in Evansville

For the last week, maybe two, we have had significantly fewer eggs each day from our six laying hens. Initially I thought that the hens that were not laying had nutritional imbalances since they’ve been eating chicks starter food (against our wishes). We’ve recently integrated our baby chicks to our adult flock, our Rhode Island Reds much prefer eating chick starter it seems. Chick starter has a high protein content and adult birds shouldn’t be eating it but I’m not standing out there and shooing the hens away from the chick feed, three times a day, right now… so those stinking hens are gorging themselves.

Also, my new chicks are integrating to the main flock right now and we are preparing to move in just a few days so our chicken coop situation is in transition. I also figured the stress of the transition was possibly impacting the egg output from the hens.

Today there was quite a squawk fest out of the chicken coop and my girls anxiously ran out to collect the eggs. However, there were no eggs to be found. So we went about our garden and backyard chores. I opened the compost bin to get some fresh compost for one of the plants and I left it open for the chickens to scratch around in since were getting ready to move and we have no intention of taking cooking compost with us. I had the compost bin open earlier in the week for the same reason but husbands who work outside the homestead (he has just 3 work days left!) miss lots of strategic decision making and close the compost bin back up thinking they are being helpful.

Anyway, after a while we went back inside had some cold water ate breakfast and we heard the chickens squawking again. We went out to try to collect eggs and once again there were none to be found.

They always say if you’re missing eggs, go on an egg hunt.

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Goodbye Evansville, Hello farm life…

Posted on May 22, 2014

in From city to country life, Life in Evansville, parenting, personal stories

by Talina

The countdown has begun! We are moving away from city life and going to live in the country in 9 days. Things are wrapping up, Everly’s got her last three days of Montessori school this week and Nathan only has 8 days of work left. We are squeezing in last minute health appointments, play dates and running lots of errands all while trying to pack up our house.

The girls have been loading up on the perks of our current living arrangement. Time with friends, visiting their favorite places and soaking up all the joys of our current house. We have a bunch of tadpoles that we hatched from eggs in the sand table right now… they were caught from the pond out back and they are growing fast.

Everly has also been hoping to catch another turtle or two from the pond before we move. We initially caught, measured, observed, numbered and

Owned parents: Leaders of the crazy train and sometimes the best birth control ever!

Posted on April 7, 2014

in Life in Evansville, parenting, personal stories

by Talina

I’m normally pretty good at solo parenting outings but they really don’t happen often. We all very much prefer to stay home in our PJs… After you read this you’ll understand why.

My kids are experts on “packing their bags” with necessities and snacks for outings. Everly is such a pro at it that if you don’t oversee her she’ll pack up enough snacks to feed an army. This morning I packed a small handful of gluten free crackers and two oranges but Everly packed up her extra pancakes from breakfast along with a giant container of water with a puppy and her blankie… Adalyn packed up her blankies, a penguin.

The rain is pouring outside so the girls are given a kid-sized cow umbrella to share, I heft my diaper bag/ backpack on my back, I’ve got my Moby wrap tied around me, car keys in hand, I pick up Mr. Grayson, his blanket, I grab my water and an umbrella to protect me and Grayson and I shooo the girls out the door in front of me.

Of course two young girls sharing an umbrella in the pouring rain while hefting their bags move incredibly sloooooowwwwly. Grayson and I follow behind them prodding them along to the car…

How does anyone with an actual job have time to do all of these crunchy things?!

Posted on February 16, 2014

in Life in Evansville, parenting, personal stories, Urban Homesteading

by Talina

A while back I was the target of some crunchy flaming, as some of you know. Apparently people don’t believe I actually do all the crunchy things I’ve written about and shared here on the blog and it became this debate/ venting session for all of them. Anyway, one of the comments made was…

Does she work or is the blog her full time gig? How does anyone will an actual job have time to do all of those things? All I do is cloth diaper and I feel like it takes 9 million hours a month (it doesn’t. It just feels that way). I can’t imagine doing all of those other things, too.

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The post where I realize it’s been six weeks!

Posted on January 16, 2014

by Talina

Six weeks seems like a long time when you are in that half-asleep-half-awake state following the arrival of a new baby. Yet it seems such a short time when you think “wow, I’m six weeks pregnant, only eight and a half more months to go”.

And no, I’m not pregnant again! What I mean is my baby boy is six weeks old and it has been six weeks of hibernation for me, both in real life and here online. Heck even my next door neighbor feels like she hasn’t seen me in ages (and she hasn’t!). Of course the arctic weather has only encouraged my hermit behavior.

My husband was blogging the other day and linking back here to my blog regarding the birth of our son and our wedding and he mentioned that he felt better after visiting my blog. He hadn’t blogged in like four weeks, I’ve been offline for about six now so I’ve been the bigger slacker apparently!

Things are going well, I know the lack of posting leaves many to wonder though 😛

Taking the month of December to really focus on my ~~little~~ (not so little anymore) family was really the right thing to do for me.

2013 was truly a year of letting go for me, in many ways. Much was no longer in harmony with my core desires and intentions and it was just time to let those things fall away. Many weights have been lifted in a sense making room for the new possibilities…

Grayson Prescott is born

Posted on December 5, 2013

in Life in Evansville, personal stories, pictures say 1000 words, pregnancy

by Talina

2 Comments

December 4th 2013

After a morning of laboring at home and carrying on about our day we thought it wise to head towards the hospital. Here is the rundown of how the day went…

Myself, Nathan, my girls, my doula and a lovely friend who was helping to look after the girls during labor all arrived at hospital registration at about 3:40/ 4 pm. I was found to be at 4 cm with fluids intact and debated weather or not to stay at the hospital or to head back home.

Since everyone deemed me a “wild card” in terms of birth predictability and also because I tend to quickly go from minor dilation to transition we thought it best to stay at the hospital and to get settled in a bit while things continued to progress.

I am in labor now!

Posted on December 4, 2013

in Life in Evansville, parenting, personal stories, pregnancy

by Talina

Yes, I’m blogging in labor.

While I’m not live streaming the birth this time (hospital birth remember?), I know everyone is waiting to hear about the labor developments so I’ll update you while I am here at home laboring before we head to the hospital.

Labor began this morning (39 wks & 3 days pregnant) as I was getting the girls on track for heading off to school. I was having back to back, painful contractions and back pain. My water hasn’t broken.

I even remarked to my husband “gosh, am I in labor or what?!” at one point while prepping their breakfast but with the many contraction spurts that have gone nowhere since before Thanksgiving I was just over paying attention to things I guess.

So, Nathan went off to work and I continued to get the girls ready for school while drinking my coffee and waking up. By the time I needed to drive Everly to school I knew things weren’t quite like my previous, lame contraction spurts. Anyway, I drove Everly to school with 6-7 min spaced contractions, cam back home with Adalyn and got a bunch of our crap ready for the hospital. As I write this things are about 4-5 min apart.

Baby brother is still cooking?! 38 week pregnancy updates and thoughts on induction.

Posted on November 22, 2013

by Talina

In the last weeks of pregnancy women often find themselves simply DONE with the process and ready to meet their baby. Even crunchy ones that are aware of all the reasons baby should keep cooking! Pregnancy often leaves your mind and body conflicting on many things… meeting that sweet baby ASAP is one of those things.

I’m the first to admit to feeling DONE with pregnancy towards the end. For starters, I’ve never been a glowing pregnant woman that loves being pregnant. Pregnancy is a pain in the butt among other things, it is hard and inconvenient. Sure It’s also quite amazing but that doesn’t make it less of a pain, for me.

Of course I’d love to have the baby now if he was ready to come and the thought of waiting till 42 weeks to have the baby is a hellish thought.

On severe weather and babies being born…

Posted on November 17, 2013

in Life in Evansville, parenting, personal stories, pregnancy

by Talina

It is looking to be a super weird day!

BOTH girls slept in our room last night. They were so restless & anxious they couldn’t fall asleep, even after some warm magnesium “tea” (aka Natural Calm) and some time to unwind in their room. Eventually we let them come to our room where they didn’t sleep much. They weren’t playing or anything, just laying there awake… tossing and turning. his is super uncharacteristic of them. We didn’t sleep much either and I was even anxious and wide awake for some unknown reason.

“Spontaneous delivery is related to barometric pressure: Many studies have shown that changes in the weather affect health. In the field of obstetrics and gynecology, several events have been empirically shown to be related to the weather. Labor pain is controlled by the autonomic nervous system and various hormones, and is expected to be influenced by the weather and environmental changes. Several studies have been conducted on the relationship between delivery and barometric pressure, which shows constant changes with changes in weather, but there is no generally accepted view on this.” Read the study performed on this here.

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Sisters practice for baby brother’s arrival… Not much time is left.

Posted on November 1, 2013

by Talina

Things have been pretty non-stop around here lately, I’m guessing it’s just going to continue until our newest family member has joined us in a few short weeks.

Everly and Adalyn are practicing for the arrival of their baby brother and for the excitement of Christmas. Some days they are bundling baby dolls (that they usually never play with) in blankets. Other days they are wrapping toys in blankets and pretending they are gifts to open. Everly just grilled me on baby care techniques like carrying, holding and soothing. “Can we swing baby brother like this?” she asks while holding a doll by it’s arms…

Adalyn is always asking me about baby brother in my belly, she likes to try listening to him with a stethoscope and she hugs my belly and likes to lift my shirt to check it out often. She also always asks if he’s coming out now, then she does her baby having squat and makes a serious face. LOL. We keep telling her it’s not quite time yet but it will be soon.

We just had our “birth plan negotiations” with our delivering doctor last week and I’m happy to report, things seem to be smooth sailing for this “Homebirth in the hospital” that we are planning. The doctor isn’t giving us a hard time about our unconventional wishes and plans and I’m feeling really good about the upcoming birth. By the way, we wont be live streaming the birth this time but we’ll probably have a birth video to share afterwards… if we have enough hands to get a recording of it.

Can you believe Thanksgiving is fast approaching? We’ve been doing some Thanksgiving related home schooling these days and I can’t believe how darn fast time is passing!

Counting down to winter & our baby boy… Just a few weeks left!?!

Posted on October 22, 2013

by Talina

Here in Southern Indiana, we are officially experiencing the Fall season. I’ve even had to kick on the heater a few times! The garden growth and harvesting has died down lots, as have our hen’s egg production. This year we had two odd volunteer pumpkin plants that sprang up and just flourished all season with zero care from us. They’ve managed to survive all 7 chickens and now they have produced about 6+ very pretty pumpkins that are just about ready for picking. They are even growing over the back fence and up on our grape arbor, not at all rambling on the ground like traditional pumpkin growing.

You know, we’ve never had organic pumpkin growing success so this is very exciting for us. We are guessing the volunteer pumpkins arrived via our chicken/ bunny’s poop. Last season we fed them several mushy decorative pumpkins we’d bought from other farms. The seeds seem to have made it though and found a perfect place to grow. How cool is that?

The exciting news we are ready to share. It’s a …

Posted on July 27, 2013

by Talina

2 Comments

It’s true we have some exciting news to share. It was officially announced to our close circle of loved ones our wedding. Actually, we’ve been dropping hints here and there and even dropped a major hint at the actual wedding… You already know that we had our belated wedding this month right? If not, you can read about it and see photos here.

Anyway, we kept our exciting news super secret for almost 5 months until we hinted at it with our custom crafted wedding cake topper.

Protected: A personal note, just between us.

Posted on June 20, 2013

by Talina

4 Comments

Life transitions are underway and we enjoy the fruits of our labor.

Posted on May 28, 2013

by Talina

I wanted to write about all the exciting stuff that is in the near future for us, things like wedding dresses, possible acreage and growing families… but today I really need to tell you this.

Adalyn went to be for the first time last night, without me. In all her almost 2 years of life mommy has put her to sleep by breastfeeding but circumstances have changed and she’s now much more eager to do big girl things like reading a big kid story with her big sister and daddy. So, when asked if she wanted to nurse, because she was already firmly planted in her sister’s bed with a bedtime story- she told me no and meant it.

Make Midwifery “legal” in Indiana

Posted on April 4, 2013

in home birth advocacy, Life in Evansville, pregnancy

by Talina

Indiana's Senate will be voting on HB 1135. This Bill will extend licensure to Certified Professional Midwives so that they can serve home birth families legally in the state of Indiana. If you LIVE IN INDIANA -- we are calling you to action and asking you to contact your Senator and ask them to support HB 1135. Don't know who your Senator is? No problem -- we provide you a search link to click on at the end of the video. We traveled to Tennessee to birth BOTH our girls with "legal" midwives that had the ability to accompany us to the hospital if transfer was necessary. You can read more about the legalities and choices left for Indiana families wanting home birth options here. Lets change the situation here in Indiana for home birth seeking families!...

Hey there, long time since I’ve seen you!

Posted on October 6, 2012

by Talina

Welcome to the revamped site! See, I am not dead or ditching the blog...

Food For Thought- Like to know your food Indiana? Then you’ll love this book!

Posted on August 29, 2012

in book review, Life in Evansville

by Ryder Nate

[pinit count="horizontal" url="http://harvestofdailylife.com/food-for-thought" image_url="http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile-ak-snc4/373115_410593395637107_1396286705_s.jpg" description="Like to know your food Indiana? Then you'll love this book!" float="right"] Hoosiers supplying Hoosiers with the best the local food movement has to offer is the focus of a new, conversation-starting coffee table book titled Food for Thought: an Indiana Harvest. It is such a cool idea for a coffee-table book and it turned out very nice.. More than 80 Hoosiers are profiled in the 200 plus pages, giving you a glimpse into the burgeoning local food renaissance now underway in Indiana. In 2010, Indiana Humanities launched the Food for Thought program designed to help Hoosiers think, read and talk about food. From Indiana farmers, restauranteurs, even distillers, Food for Thought follows the new, up and coming Hoosier food chain from field to plate. These first person accounts will share the...

Reflecting on the past then looking forward and planning ahead

Posted on September 8, 2009

in Featured, Life in Evansville, personal stories, pregnancy

by Talina

There are only 4 months left in this whirlwind of a year! Remember all that madness? Need a recap? Last August we were living in Flagstaff, AZ and N proposed to me on the top of the San Francisco Peaks. Then we packed up a moving truck, the RV, said goodbye to all our family, friends and we drove cross country in our RV with our zoo of animals. N got a new job and we relocated. Once we got here we settled in and less than a month later we learned of our surprise pregnancy. We had been trying for almost 2 years before relocating with no success. We were planning our wedding when we discovered I was pregnant, I had just purchased my wedding dress. Once the pregnancy was confirmed we...

My students first halftime performance of the year

Posted on September 4, 2009

in Life in Evansville, personal stories, vlog

by Talina

A breastfeeding mom's quest to eat well on the run…

Posted on August 25, 2009

in Life in Evansville, personal stories, recommendations

by Talina