Orion Strong Leukemia Fund

When we experienced our house fire earlier this year, we were completely overwhelmed by the amount of support we received from the online community. Specifically the hippie/crafty mama community,and the Art glass community. Both my husband and i have been involved with these online communities for many years, and have come to think of them as family.  The outpouring of love and support we received has forever changed us and made us realize the importance of giving back.

We knew that once we were back on our feet, we would begin to pay it forward any chance that we could. 

On Saturday, June 15th, 14 year old Orion Strong was diagnosed with AML , a rare type of leukemia, with long treatments and many expenses. Orion is the son of Kharma Strong, one of my online friends and a member of the online crafting community.  

According to the fundraiser page, Orion has been an amazing light in his community and always the first to raise a helping hand when needed. He is always the first to volunteer and has helped in supporting many events and activities including the Steelhead Association dinner, Ballet Folkloriko, Guereneville Gator basketball and volleyball games and wherever there is need. Orion received the Lincoln Stewart award for this recognition by the Russian River Firefighters for this honor during his recent 8th grade graduation from Guerenville School a couple of weeks ago. Despite the surprising developments, Orion is feeling very grateful that he will again be able to help people through his disease, by allowing the doctors to use his results to help others in the future. He has consented to participate in many of the new studies and research being done on leukemia advancement. 

The family has put together an online fundraiser to help. 100% of this fundraiser is going into an account directly for ORION. The support from all of you is a constant reminder to him of the support team he has behind him. Orion is getting his second of four rounds of chemo, called induction 2. In the best case scenario  we will be at the hospital, mostly in-patient (due to him being neutropenic and unable to fight off infection) for the next six-eight months. He is receiving frequent blood transfusions and is isolated to his room. 

If you would like to donate directly to Orion's Leukemia fund you can make your donations here.

 If you would like to send cards, gifts and words of support you can mail them to this address.

UCSF- 7 LONG

505 Parnassus Ave., box 0208

Patient Orion Strong, Rm. 759
San Francisco, CA 94131

In an effort to help raise funds for Orion and his family, Kenan is auctioning of this gorgeous glass pendant. All proceeds from the auction will be donated to the Orion leukemia Fund.  The auction is being held on the Tiemeyer Glass FB page, and ends on Sunday 8/18.  This link should take you directly to the auction, but it is pinned to the top of the page if it doesn't.  We will be hosting another glass auction to benefit Orion in the next few weeks, and i'm planning to auction another bendy doll as well.  

Orion's birthday is next month, he will be turning 15, and i think it would be wonderful if he received b-day cards and well wishes from all over!  A simple act of kindness that could make a difference to a young boy fighting a difficult battle. 

Please take a moment to visit the YouCaring page and read his story. You can donate directly to the fund, and/or leave words of support and encouragement in the comments.  

Summer Travels- Stone Mountain in NC

Several year ago we hiked at Stone mountain State Park in NC for the first time. It was a really beautiful hike, with a gorgeous waterfall and amazing views at the top. We enjoyed it so much that we we decided to go back this summer and visit it again.

The trail is beautiful, with lots of foliage, wildflowers and moss.  When we came a few years ago, we didn't even realize there was a waterfall until we came to it. We first hiked up to Stone mountain and then on our way down we followed the trail that took us to the waterfall. It was a pretty strenuous hike, and i remember being completely exhausted climbing down all the stairs.

When we began our hike we ended up follow the trail that went straight to the waterfall first. There is an observation deck, and warning sign posted everywhere.  This is an incredibly intense fast moving waterfall that washes over shear rock.  Anyone who has ever hopped the fence to get a closer look has to completely insane. 

It's an amazing and powerful waterfall.  It goes straight over the side of the rock, and guarantees a quick and painful death to anyone crazy enough to ignore the signs. 

The trail takes you down to the base of the fall, and you can sit on the rocks and even dip your feet in the water here.  The energy is absolutely incredible. There is just something so healing about the sound of moving water. As if it moves right through you and washes away any negative energy that has been clinging.  It leaves us feeling energized and recharged.  We continued along the path which took us along the river and through a very magical forest. The kids ran ahead of us and counted toad stools and pointed out all the fairy house.

The trail brings you to the Hutchinson homestead. The Hutchinson Homestead is complete with a log cabin, barn, blacksmith shop, corncrib, meathouse and original furnishings. They have lots of signs with information about the different buildings and history.

The Hutchinson homestead is at the base of Stone mountain. Stone mountain is a 600 foot granite dome. This is the view from the homestead. Pretty amazing.

As soon as we left the homestead we began our trek up the mountain. We quickly realized that we should have taken the trail to the top of the mountain first and then walked down to see the waterfall. 590 steps going up is a lot harder than going down.

 i like to think i'm in pretty good shape, but i had to stop several times to catch my breath.   It was a really difficult hike.

By the time we got to the top, we were all feeling like this. The view was spectacular, but we were exhausted.  We only had a few minutes to enjoy the view before we started to hear thunder, and saw a storm brewing on the horizon. 

We enjoyed the view for a few minutes and snapped some pictures, then continued on.  There are several places to stop and enjoy the unusual rock landscape and spectacular view. 

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We had a great time at Stone Mountain and were really glad that we were able to return. Although we were completely wore out, we had a fantastic time.
 We've really tried to do something fun every weekend this summer. Kenan works long hours 6 days a week, but has taken off one day each week for a family day trip. We were also hoping to take a weekend trip to the beach or a trip to Atlanta to check out the new Aquarium, but we ran out of weekends.  The was summer way too short this year, and my kids have already returned back to school this week.

As much as i dread back to school, i am enjoying having a bit of personal time again. i really haven't touched any of my crafts/projects since we moved to the RV so i am hoping i'll start feeling inspired again soon.

And so it Begins.

Yesterday we took the kids to Lake Ridge Resort to enjoy the last day of summer vacation.  We returned home to find that the construction has started!  It's a week ahead of schedule, quite a surprise! Exciting but a little bittersweet as well. 

Garden Update- August 5

My garden is really taking off right now. Typically my garden peaks around the second week of July, but this most of it wasn't even planted up the middle of June. So everything is a bit behind.  There have been a lot of challenges with all the rain we had this summer.  The wet condition caused a lot of diseases, and more insect pest than usual. i really can't complain though, despite the challenges we are enjoying a wonderful harvest.

i don't really follow the rules when it comes to gardening. i tend to ignore planting times, i over plant my beds, and continue to plant stuff up until it frosts.  My yellow wax beans have been producing well, but the mexican bean beetles have really tore them up.  So i planted new beans in between the rows, and a soon as they beginning filling in i will pull the old beans. i tend to replant beans and summer squash every three weeks for a continuous harvest.

i new my tomatoes were struggling, and the minute i realized weather conditions were favoring blight, i planted cucumber and beans in with the tomatoes. It has worked out well, as one by one i have to remove tomato plants, then beans and squash are filling in so despite having to pull all the tomatoes, there will not be an empty spot. In the early spring i plant cucumbers in with my sugar peas, so as the peas begin to die back the cucs are starting to climb.  i tend to have a constant rotation of fresh veggie this ay, and am able to grow a lot more in smaller spaces.

The late blight that hit my tomatoes also hit my potatoes.. Most years my potatoes would already be done by now, and by the time the late blight hit they would have already died back.  They were planted late though, and so the blight attacked the foliage.  i've been out there the last couple days trying to dig my potatoes. i have to get them out of the ground as soon as possible, or the will rot in the ground if the blight gets to the tubers. So i have a lot of small potatoes this year. i am not sure if they will store well this winter, as this point i have no where to put them any way.  So far it doesn't appear that the blight has reached any of the tubers, so i think they'll be okay. i planted red, white and purple just for fun.  i really enjoy lots of color in the garden.

i planted lots of purple again this year. The Cherokee purple tomatoes are planted in a different garden, and so far they have no sign of blight. They are the only tomatoes i've been able to harvest this year. i have Amish paste and a few other varieties in that garden, so i'm really hoping the blight will somehow miss that bed and i'll get to harvest some of them.  

The purple pole beans are a favorite, i plant them every year and they will continue to produce up until the frost. i also planted cosmic carrots again. They are a reddish purple on the outside and a yellow orange on the inside. i'd like to find some that are purple all the way through.  i planted purple sprouting broccoli this spring, the plants look great, but so far it hasn't sprouted at all. 

i have a bunch of cucumbers and melons planted this year too. They are growing and flowering well but have not shown any signs that they are going to fruit. The strangely cool temperatures seem to really be affecting pollination.  We still have enough summer that i should get to harvest some if it would just warm up a bit. 

i picked up quite a few new heirloom veggie seeds from BBB seeds when they were having a half off sale last week. So i am working on pulling all my spring cold crops and planting my late summer/ fall garden. i'm putting in three different kinds of beets, kale, chard, broccoli and lots of lettuces. i really can't believe i am even saying 'late summer/fall'.  Having only been here for two months, i feel like summer is really just starting. School is starting in a  week, and i am so not ready for that.  So much change and it doesn't feel like it will slow down any time soon.

We are signing papers tonight and will soon begin the rebuilding of our home. 

It takes hands to build a house, but only hearts can build a home.  ~Author Unknown

Old Silver Apiary Feature and Giveaway! CLOSED

 
Old Silver Apiary is a small family run apiary located on Cape Cod. They have created a simple yet luxurious line of products using local beeswax,  local honey, local hand harvested herbs, organic oils, organic shea butter and scented only with essential oils. 

 Old Silver Apiary is run by Tara Sullivan Garvin and her family.  i've known  Tara for many years, and am super excited to feature her on my blog again.  A couple years ago, i featured some of her photography. 

When Tara first started learning about standard practices in conventional beekeeping  she was stunned. The "mystery" of why our bees are disappearing didn't seem to be much of a mystery at all. 2012 was the worst year for honey bees yet in the US, but she strongly believes we can turn it around and she wanted her family to have a small part in that. 

The bees of Old Silver Apiary live on an 8 acre organic farm.  At Old Silver Apiary, they only work with local bees to try to strengthen the bee population as a whole.  They practicing a biodynamic approach to disease and mite treatment, raise local queens and are experimenting with different types of hives. This winters goal is to build several top bar hives.

They get many gifts from the bees, so they decided to use them to help fund their expanding apiary. Using their own (or in a pinch local) beeswax, honey, organic oils, local herbs and butters they have created a line that they are truly proud of. They hope you'll love it as much as they do. 

Old Silver Apiary offers lip balms, salves, body butters, bathing salts and gift sets. They are all handmade in small batches.  Their products are always packaged in reusable tins or mason jars and shipped using upcycled packaging or Caremail recycled packaging.

Buy it!

 Like what you see? Want to try it out for yourself? Head over to the Old Silver Apiary Etsy shop where you can purchase some of her wonderful products!

Win it!!

Tara has generously offered a Farmer's Salve and a coconut Lime Lip balm to one lucky reader! To enter, please use the rafflecopter form below!

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