Sunday, November 23, 2008

Photo in need of caption

The women and children of the Carmona and Loomer households have been taken down by the dreaded stomach flu. Every one of us, except David and Alex, are down for the count...living off gingerale and chicken soup. How the alpha males managed to avoid this, I have no idea. But thank heavens there are 2 healthy ones in the group!

So, instead of posting pictures of us sickies, which could be frightening, I leave you with this doggie picture. This photo of Atticus, who does not have the stomach flu, could use a caption. If one pops into your head, please share it with us via comments.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Blustery Wintery Day in the Carolinas

For the first time since we moved to this beautiful state of North Carolina 8 years ago (holy moly...it has been that long?), we are experiencing winter before January. We are in the middle of a week of snowstorms, freezing temperatures, and howling winds. In previous years, we have not had wintery weather until we return from our annual holiday trip to Utah (magical land of "real" winter) in January. But here we are, before Thanksgiving, and it feels like winter....how wonderful! Winter makes me happy.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Take your blog to work day

I realized that while I have offered up many glimpses into the home life, social life, homeschooling life of the five carmonas, I have not yet opened a window to my/our working life. Seeing as I need to work to pay the bills and put food on our table, I thought that maybe I should give my employment some credit by bringing my blog to work.

Here it goes...

After a few quick hours of homeschooling, making lunches, feeding the 5 of us, grooming the 5 of us, milking goats, feeding dogs, and attempting to leave the house in some sort of order, three mornings a week I hop in the car (I love to walk to work but I am also on carpool duty for kids these mornings..although when hunting season is over, we can resume the beautiful 2 mile walk through the woods) and drive about 10 minutes down the road to work. About 1/2 of the drive is on gravel roads, and the rest is windy, rural, mountain roads.....with some amazing views....



I park the car in a little gravel parking lot, grab my bag, and head up the hill to Red Moon. The building is located in the middle of an agricultural area so we are often distracted by ducks playing in puddles outside of the windows. This photo is taken from the front door of the office. The stairs lead up to some residences and the picnic table to home to many staff meetings.


The Red Moon Herbs "facility" is quite beautiful. It is located in a building that is off-grid, powered by the sun and hardworking individuals. It certainly has its quirks including no "ladies room" and inconsistent temperature (freezing polar winter or sauna) (always dress in layers when getting ready for work!). But all in all, I think I must have one of the better working environments. I feel lucky!

Here is my little nook...my desk, my chair that is really one of the worst rolling office chairs ever created, my phone that refuses to stay charged no matter how long it sits on the charger. This has been my little office world since 2004. I worked here while pregnant with Gita, took 3 months off, then brought Gita to work with me for her first year. I have received heart breaking news on the phone while sitting at this desk. I have made some of my closest friends in this office. And I transitioned from stay at home mom to breadwinner for the family in this office. It is a good place.

Here is our little packing area. All of our orders are processed and packaged here then left for the UPS driver (Tommy, who is the object of many school girl type crushes) who picks them up and sends them on their way. Sometimes this area becomes a sea of puffies and bubble wrap. And we always get a good laugh when a customer calls and says "can I please speak with your shipping department?" The company is run by 4 women, so the thought of an anything department makes us giggle.

Here is one of the other two office desks (Carmen's) and then behind it the manufacturing area of the office. This is where all of the products are made. Notice the stool at Carmen's desk. We love this stool. The way is rolls with ease. The way you can access it from any angle. We asked if we could get rid of our crappy rolling chairs and replace them with these stools for Christmas. Corinna is thinking about it. We are keeping our fingers crossed.

And a peek into the brewing shelves. These tinctures were made with fresh plants, and now sit for 6 weeks before pressing the plant material out and moving over to the bottling shelves.

And that, my friends, is my quick tour of work.
Maybe I will bring you back again. I would love to capture Carmen swearing at the vitamix, Julie in her sea of puffies, the 3 of us huddled around one of the computers for some comic relief on you-tube, Corinna walking around the office saying "what I am doing now is...." to herself.

redmoonherbs.com

Saturday, November 8, 2008

A sampling of common weekend activites

Playtime fun with friends:
a wheelbarrow has many usesQuiet, lost-in-reading-material moments:
plus visits from cousin Lilikoi


Weekly lesson plans, Grades 6 and 2:
A bit of preparedness goes a long way
Family grooming:
homemade haircuts save money and continue the long line of home-haircutters before me
Farm chores:
Stacking hay, cleaning the barn, fixing fences, etc.

Friday, November 7, 2008

Maper Paking? Paper Making!

Friday is always our big homeschooling day. We used to have Monday too but now we go to Asheville on Mondays to get Noah to his Woodworking/Form drawing class. We are able to focus on schoolwork work on Tues, Wed, and Thurs mornings between 7:30 and 9:00am. Because at 9:00 to head down to Earthaven (get the kids to Forest Children and the mama to work) we are unable to do much more than book work on those mornings. But come Friday, we go crazy! Art projects, science experiments, nature walks....all activities that are messy and time consuming!

Noah has been learning about Ancient Civilizations this year and this week the focus is India. We have been learning about and listening to Indian music, he read and wrote about Buddhism, and today we made an Indian lunch of rice, chapatis, and dal. It was messy and time consuming and delicious. Here is Noah's feelings about writing reports...
Nim and I gathered leaves and ironed them into wax paper to add to her science book. She was able to identify most of the trees. She also has been working on memorizing a poem. Today she recited the poem and we recorded it to share with you all...




And the mother of all messy and time consuming activities....
making paper!

Sunday, November 2, 2008

A week of accomplishments

I started taking a carving class a few weeks ago. I started with a block of ceder, then I carved off the edges of the block. Then I got it to more of an egg shape, and last of all I sanded it down. Then I was done and one beautiful cedar egg came out of my carving abilities.

by Noah Carmona


This week we learned about the celtic tale of Bridget. Bridget lived in times of darkness. she followed her heart and brought people light and hope.

by Nim Carmona


Saturday, November 1, 2008

tricking and treating

My in-laws, Nene and Randy, have a halloween tradition. They hit up the halloween clearance sales post holiday to find little costume treasures such as wigs, tights, funny noses, etc. They stash the goodies away until the next October when, ta-da, a package full of fun reaches our doorstep. We opened the 2008 package this week...and what a goodie-filled package it was...mullet and pin up model wigs, tattoo sleeves, stripey tights...many alter-egos came out of the woodowork that night. Visit Kelcey's blog for some rich photos of the evening.
kloomer.blogspot.com/2008/10/big-spooky-package-came-in-mail-today.html
We carved pumpkins on Thursday night, after dinner before Survivor. Noah has an interesting issue...the smell, sight, and feel of pumpkin guts makes him want to throw up! Now this is very hard for me to understand. I think cleaning out ooppy goopy pumpkin innards is one of the coolest sensations ever! So pumpkin carving is interesting with us weirdos....some of us trying to hold our dinner down and some of us wishing we could jump into a vat of pumpkin guts! Anyway, we came out with some great jack-o-lanterns and roasted pumpkin seeds....very halloweenie!

Friday night we met up with some neighbors and friends to hit the streets of our wonderful small town, Black Mountain. The trick-or-treating starts early around here and is wrapping up by dark. The local policemen and women set up road blocks on some of the residentail streets to help keep the children safe. This year, we were blessed with 60 degree weather....worlds away from the parka and moon boot wearing halloweens of my past. We got through the few residential blocks in a little over an hour and felt fully satisfied with our trick or treating adventure. One highlight for me, other than the many Sarah Palin costumes on adults and children, was Gita feeling safe enough to walk up to the houses all be herself! Here she is...
David, Gita, Savva, Noah, Banyan, and Nim
As darkness fell over North Carolina and the crescent moon set in the west, we all headed back up the mountain for a post-trick or treating pizza party. The halloween package mentioned above made its second appearance and we were engulfed in more costume merry making