been a while

It's been a while since ive updated this page. Been living in the woods for the past two months i think, working on the farm. Life is great. Been playing music, relaxing by the creek, catching up on some overdue reading and brain cramming, and growing veggies and medicinal herbs.







Before I moved to the forests however, I had been spending a lot of time with a wonderful boy named Dusty. A good friend of everyone here at the Gely house. We spent a day having a picnic on his roomate's canoe just about 30 minutes north of arcata on the 101. In the lagoon. It was a beautiful day. A good local brew and some yummy sandwiches from the local natural food store. YUM! I even jumped in and it was awesome.





Also, my besties came for a LOVELY visit (Treva and Li). It was great. We spent an afternoon having brunch in Trinidad a great cafe, and took a little hike around Trinidad head. Then we went to the local waterfall and to the barrel hot tubs and we also went to Prarie Creek National Forest for a little bit. I hope that they enjoyed humboldt county! I surely enjoyed their company. Living in the middle of nowhere is a wonderful experience, but i couldnt do it without the good thoughts of my best friends. Love




-Jaclyn

Fern Canyon

Spent the day on Monday driving out to Fern Canyon (just north of orick here in humboldt county off the 101) then went for what turned out to be a 6 mile hike! We thought we were going to be only an hour or two... but nope... however, the unexpected ended up being waaaaaay amazing! I want to hike on all those trails...

- jaclyn

feathers

I started making feather earrings. Here are two pair that i like the most. I hope i can sell them one day. My wire wrapping needs some major improvement, but I think its fun to wear the ones i made and maybe send some to my friends. :) Let me know if you would like to purchase a pair off me.. I'd give you a deal. Thanks!

-Jaclyn

An Especially Sunny Day in Blue Lake

9:45 AM: Arrive home
10:30 AM: Ascend to roof to watch the Black-Crowned Night Herons fly back and forth over my head with sticks to build their nest; snuggling with Blackie; nap

11:30 AM: Reading in garden with ducks

12:30 AM: Swimming with ducks

1:45 PM: Bike ride to river, swim, general sun-absorbing

Thank you Blue Lake for all the wonderful that you are!

Duckies on a windy day

The ducks are HUGE! HUGE! HUGE! they are now, at 4.5 weeks old, sleeping outside in the duckhouse. We hung up the brooder light in the duckhouse to keep them warm, a they still dont have a lot of feathers. They keep getting more and more feathers but they are not even close to a full jacket. It's unbelievable how quickly they have grown and how funny their quacks keep getting.

A picnic with the ducks!

During week two of duck life Blake and Cassie decided to take the ducks on a picnic in our garden! They loved it and got to swim around the big baby pool! They are getting so big so quick and they are an absolute clumsy joy to be around. They are currently three weeks and a day old and are still nestled in their brooder. They should be able to go outside to their duckhouse in a week or so, and hopefully the weather will be a little warmer by then and they will have more feathers too. Right now we can see feathers starting to poke through; mostly on their butts. We have been going to the food co-op and the natural food store for organic scraps. Its AWESOME! There are so many delicious food scraps and believe me, these little guys eat a TON! We have found they cucumbers and strawberries are their favorites. They also love to forage through their hay, so we try and hide bits of strawberries in their bedding. It's like they're found gold when they find those strawberry bits. More to come soon!

Also, we have two new roomates entering the household very soon. Jenn, who is a reiki master, herbalist, and shaman is still in the process of moving in. I can't wait for her to actually be around often. She is so great and I have a million things to learn from her! I hope that we can make tinctures together with the herbs we are able to grow in our garden. We just decided on a roomate the other night who is moving in June 1st. He will be replacing Megan because she got a SWEET job in Tahoe. We will miss her a lot, but wish her lots of luck and unending joy in her next adventure. Our new June mate is a rock climber named Chris and he loooooves to garden as well. So all is looking up here in the Gely house.

- jaclyn

WEEK TWO DUCK UPDATE

RUB A DUB DUB DUCKS IN THE TUB! We plopped our duckies right in the tub and chopped up some carrot tops for them to fish out of the water. They absolutely love fishing. They are getting so big, very quickly. Lavender is TALL and seems like the protector of the duck troop! Noodle is the best swimmer! And we are thinking that little Francesca will become the best layer. Each of them seem to have something special going on. We wanted them to be able to swim around in a bigger space because they are getting way too big for the little bucket we have been using. Also, we are using their future LARGE baby pool for the brooder. One or two more weeks and they can be moved outside to their duckshed home and then they can swim in the baby pool! woohoo! no more smelly ducks inside.

More Yummy Treats...

While Following Megan and Andrew on their raw cleansing diet, they made a delicious acorn squash bake.... I had to snap a photo cause it looked soooo good. They cut the squash in half, removed the seeds in the center, poured some water in the middle and placed veggies inside, then simply popped it in the oven... so easy.






Also, Kat made us some kahlua brownies. I was skeptical at first because I'm not consuming alcohol for a month or two, but they ended up being pretty dang fantastic!

DUCKLINGS: DAY DOS

Today was their first venture into the wild (aka the side of our home). We also threw them in the garden where we watched them gobble up some spiders and rolly pollies (they start small and hopefully they will soon be able to eat some of the snails that are eating our garden). Luce Luce is being a very good kitty... she hangs around the ducks and baths in the sun. Blackie, on the other hand, is going to be some trouble. He watches them so intensely, licks his lips, and tries to creep up on them... We paid close attention to the little ones and after a while and a few taps on Balckie's butt, Blackie started chilling in the shade and minding his own business. We also let them swim around for a few minutes in a little plastic easter basket my mom sent me in the mail. So as not to waterlog them we took them out quickly, but they thoroughly enjoyed their first minutes of water action. Noodle even went completely under! So all is well so far with the duckies. Exciting! They are growing so fast; very noticeable differences such as weight... francesca got chubbier, and their legs look stronger (they aren't tripping over their HUGE feet as much).

DUCKLINGS: DAY UNO

We all hopped in the car after we got the call: our duckies are ready!!! Woooo!!! Now they are safe at home and we absolutely cannot stop smiling. They are the cutest things on the planet. After clumsy attempts to walk, climb into our shirts, jump, and drink and eat.... I think im in love with the duckies. adooooorable... We named our little flat footed sisters Lavender (also know as Treva Lav), Francesca, and Noodle. I will be providing a daily/ weekly update these first few months. Hooray for our blue runner ducks!