Snowing!

Right now it's snowing - time for a change of plans....

I've been brainstorming all morning about new things to sell on my sites and I've decided to go with terrarium accessories and a line of fairy garden plants and products. 

Today I shall start digging out all the things I've been collecting over the years. My creative spirit is soaring!

I want exciting original things created from recycled and natural materials. 

Once done, I'll post pics and links to my listings! 

Dodging Bullets & Torrential Rain

Hiking these past two days has not been fun. Yesterday I got halfway up the trail and suddenly there was a lot of shooting off to the south of me. Muzzle loader season has begun. Seems like it's more dangerous out there than rifle season was. I chose to stay close to the house to hunt for some mniums. I lucked out and found lots of them all along the dirt lane running beside the woods. I also found a really neat moss that is lime green. I'm trying to identify it. So far no luck.
Today I got up and headed immediately out to hike because I knew the rain was on it's way. I had just gathered some mniums and several medium cushions and then the rain arrived. By the time I got home, I was pretty cold and wet.
Hopefully tomorrow will be better for hiking. I know it's supposed to be cold out but I think I can handle that. I'll be hiking at the park down the road - I don't dare go into the woods until everyone has their muzzle loaders packed away for the year! I desperately need more medium mosses. It's not that there is a lack of them but they are so difficult to spot with the leaves on the ground.

A Balmy Christmas!

I loved the balmy 50 degree weather today but it sure didn't feel like Christmas! At 2:30 I escaped the noise and madness and strolled back into the woods for some peace and quiet. Lately, I've been noticing color more and more in those woods. The red berries on the Partridge Berry Vines and these small trees with red berries. I'm not sure what the trees are - I need to find out. But I do know this.... I want to dig some up and bring them to my yard. I want to surround myself with color. Now that the fall foliage has come and gone, everything looks so brown and dead and colorless. I need color! And the red is so Christmassy!
What better time to plan next years winter garden than now when I can see what is missing?
Tomorrow I shall dig up partridge berry vines and plant them under my evergreen shrubs in front of the house. They won't get much sun there so I think they will thrive. A small stream runs from the woods along my property line to the road. Those trees with the red berries are growing along that same stream. I found some small saplings and I shall dig them up and plant them along the stream where I can see them from the dining room window. There's a nice big empty space there just waiting to be filled.
And there are about 20 small holly trees growing under the tall pines in the woods. A few would look nice  behind the shade garden. With time, they will get berries just like the tall ones in my front yard.
I may gather some teeny ones for a terrarium. I've seen some hollies only 3 or 4 inches high sprouting back woods.
I am so blessed to have this land to look to for ideas and inspiration!

Merry Christmas All!

Merry Mossy Christmas Eve!

Today looks to be a busy day for me - wrapping packages, bagging and shipping moss and hopefully a quiet hike at Koon Lake. Right now it's not too cold out. I believe it should get up in the mid 40's.We've really been lucky this year - no snow and only a few nights in the low 20's. The ground hasn't frozen yet.
I've decided to gather some Partridge Vine for selling online. Partridge Vine is wonderful to plant in a terrarium with a little cottage and let the vines run up to the roof. I've done that with a covered bridge and it sold right away. It is also a great plant for a winter garden - it is evergreen and gets red berries. I plan to add more to my shade gardens this year and may even do so this week. Fall is a great time to plant here. I can see where my perennial plants are and it's nice and damp out there but not too wet as in the spring.
Off to get to work! Have a great day!

A Fresh Start!

I have been so busy with my moss sales thanks to the holidays and haven't had much time to post. Right now, it looks like the rush is now behind me so I will get back into posting and try to do it on a regular basis.
The woods are ever-changing with the weather. Every time I head up the mountain, I see different things.Right now I am concentrating on gathering all I can before the snow starts to fall. With the leaves on the ground, it's been a challenge to find cushion mosses - I almost wish I could walk up there with a leaf blower!
Other mosses, however are so easy to spot - frog mosses and the sheet mosses stand out like a sore thumb and boy, are they ever gorgeous at this time of the year!
I've been collecting some new varieties and having some success selling them on Ebay & Etsy. Fern moss is so much easier to harvest right now. It seems the freezing and thawing really lifts them and they are so easy to remove. The mniums are sporing right now and they, too are easier to spot at this time.
I recently found tons of spoon moss in an area that I rarely hiked and those are becoming very popular with my vivarium customers.
I have added my twitter link to this blog. Do follow me! You can get a look ahead to what I will be selling over the coming weeks!

Great Weather This Week!

Checked the weather and it is going to be great for the next week. Time to check the water lines and cut up some downed trees in the woods for heating the house.
My water system is a gravity fed system. Up the mountain there is a spring where the water bubbles out of a rock ledge. I built a concrete cystern around the ledge. At the back of the cystern is the ledge. At the front of the cystern is two pipes  -  one for the water line and way above it is one for overflow. There is a roof on the cystern to keep it clean. I have a flexible pipe that runs from the water line pipe to my house. Because the cystern is so high up on the mountain, by the time the water gets to the house, there is really good water pressure. It's the perfect system - no electric pump like you would have on a well and the best spring water you could imagine - all for free. Anyway, I regularly walk the water line to check for leaks. It runs through a stream bed until it gets down near the house. The running water in the stream bed keeps the water line from freezing.
No doubt, after that insane snow over the weekend, there are lots more downed trees in the woods. Should be a challenge walking through some areas. I had already earmarked some to cut up for firewood and I am bound and determined to use as little electric heat as possible this year.
I decided to store some mosses in a couple of my cold-frames. Ironically, there's sheet moss growing on the floor of two of them. If I set my cushions and frogs on top, they will be right at home! Funny thing - I decided to move one of my cold frames to another area. When I went over to tear it down, I found a little stray kitty in there! She's a smart one - it's so toasty in that cold frame. So I left it there for her. There are so many feral cats around here from the local farms and I leave food out for them each day. I love all God's creatures great and small!