TIME FLIES...

   Is it only me or has time sped up?...

  Weeks are flying by at the speed of light! Fall has come and gone and the cold weather has set in. Out came all the winter apparel, a fire now burns steadily in the wood stove and the winter tires are on the car. Crazy!

  I spent the last week of October in Maui with my Dad and Sister. WOW!
It was wonderful! Maui is so beautiful! We took morning walks to Wailea, and I could not get over the heady scent of flowers hanging in the air.  I wish I had me some plumeria essential oil right now! And some ahi tuna! And a fresh pineapple! In the evenings, people would gather along the beach to watch the amazing sunsets. I'll post some pictures soon.

  Before I left, I made all kinds of soap to get ready for the Christmas season.
I have a couple of craft shows coming up, too. I've decided to make some whipped shea body butter to bring along. I'm going to focus on developing a line of goat milk castile soaps. I get giddy when these two simple ingredients come together to make creamy, soapy goodness! A friend is going to help me with new labels and packaging..I can't wait!

  Our stone house will have to sit for one more winter before it gets turned into a home! I keep wondering if we shouldn't have the old, stone house as a two-storey great room instead of putting bedrooms upstairs. There are two fireplaces, one at either end, that would look beautiful with their stone chimneys stretching up to a beamed ceiling. Any designers want to volunteer??!! 

   The girls are starting to cross off the days on the calender, looking forward to Christmas break. The boys are waiting for snow! I homeschool the two boys. I have always loved teaching the children to read. When it finally clicks, a whole new world opens up to them!

  Oh, and those chicks that hatched this summer...we ended up with NINE cockerels!!!!! Unbelievable! They've gone to a friends farm to fatten up ;)
My Hubby wants to ditch the rooster and stock up on egg-layin' hens!!

  I set up a Barevich Botanicals facebook page and will have paypal installed soon on the website.

   My daughter's dear friend just lost her mother to a terrible car accident.
May she rest in peace. She had nine children, I believe the youngest was only three.  When I hear of something so tragic, it makes me stop and count my blessings, hug my family, remember what really matters in this life and re-evaluate.

 Peace and Blessing to you all,
Karen

LAZY DAYS OF SUMMER?...

   I think not! It's more like the crazy days of summer around here!
I wake up at 6:54 and hit the ground running. That's my internal alarm clock...weird, I know. This is where it comes in handy to have several children trained in the art of coffee making!

   
The work continues on the stone house. All 4 walls and both of the fireplaces have been either repaired or rebuilt. We have the final drawings from the architect and can now move on to obtaining the necessary permits. The apples on the trees are much larger and juicier than last year! We should be able to pick some blackberries this weekend.

    This is Gandalf, our Brahma rooster. We gave away the crazy, red hens and got this guy and his 2 gals. We have now have ten chicks!

Audrey graduated from high school this June. We had great deal of fun with our relatives and friends! Emma and her cousin Olivia made these awesome cupcakes for the graduation BBQ party.
Olivia took these photos. Don't they look delicious?

We've been going to the market the last couple of Saturdays to sell our Barevich Botanicals products. It's been fun! The atmosphere is very laid back and people are very friendly.

     Now that I look at these photos, I see that we all look rather tired! More sleep might fix that...and a peek in the mirror before we leave the house!!! We'll be at the Lanark Highland Games on August 24th.

   Well, that's all for now. We'll be trying to squeeze as much as possible into these last 3 weeks of summer before everyone heads back to school. Time flies when you're having fun!!!

Karen

PROGRESS

We are finally seeing some progress! This house is being tranformed from a heap of rubble into a beautiful stone home thanks to our handy-dandy stone mason and his crew. Most of the work on the front and back walls has been completed.

FRONT WALL

BACK WALL

CORNER OF BACK AND WEST WALLS

 

The back wall has been sand blasted. You can really see the difference in the last photo. This is truly an ambitious project. Sometimes I wish Ty and the "Extreme Home Makeover" gang would show up and offer to finish the job. Then we could move in next week!!! Honestly though, it's great to see these skilled tradesmen rebuilding this house. It makes me think of how hard those fellows must have worked to build it in the first place back in the mid 1800's.

Finally, Some Soap...

I finally got some pictures and ingredient lists of some soaps posted on the "SOAP" page.

A description for each soap is next.  My stocks are REALLY low.
A number of soaps are destined for a craft show in Massena, NY, next weekend.
More Oats & Honey soap is on the way, too. I promise!
I was so thrilled to find a local farm to supply me with fresh, raw sheep milk.
It's sooo good for your skin (more on that later...)!
This week is definitely going to be a soap making extravaganza!

~Karen

Technically Challenged....

 Setting up a blog seemed like a great idea..

  So how is it that I find myself so technically challenged at this stage of my life? I can cook, clean, and do laundry for ten or more people, but upload a photo...nope. I can custom make an herbal salve for whatever ails you, but figure out how to get my logo onto my blog...nope.
Am I the only one?? I can even catch a runaway chicken!!!
  It's funny to find myself having to rely on others to get this blog put together, but at the same time it's nice to have family and friends that I can call upon.
      Thanks guys!!



~Karen

Welcome to Barevich Botanicals! Mixing business with pleasure!

Barevich Botanicals 

Welcome to Barevich Botanicals. Technically, that's the name of my business, but this blog will definitely cover a whole lot more! It's a place to chronicle the building of a business, the restoration of a stone home,

 the raising of a family, and hopefully the beginnings of a hobby farm. 

 At Barevich Botanicals, I make handcrafted soap, herbal salves and other goodies. I started making things for our own family, then extended family and friends. Then people actually wanted to buy things!!! Go figure! We have family members with food sensitivities, sensitive skin, and eczema, and there are the others who just like to smell good! I use only natural ingredients, no presevatives and organic ingredients whenever I can.

 My husband (the one and only) and I have eight children (yes, all ours!) ranging in age from 21 down to "almost 5" years old. We are bursting at the seams here so we bought forty acres that came with an abandoned stone home. Perfect...home, sweet, home!! These pictures of our property were taken today by our 19 year old daughter with her new camera .Pretty good, I think!

Stay tuned for more from Barevich Botanicals

~ Karen