As the days get shorter and the sun stares to light up my kitchen for most of the day; nights in the 50’s and days in the low 70’s are making the leaves start to change and my body left feeling the shift. 
Since the day after full moon passed, I have been truly exhausted to my bones.  What is normally a one day restock became a weekend!  Mowing the yard and tending the garden has been a strain. 
I would like to think it’s my body getting more in tune with the nature around it and recognizing that sleeping and fat storage are high priorities this time of year.
My cucumbers are finally done and dead, so I pulled them down and by the 22nd I’m hoping that my very full tomato plant will ripen all at once, giving me a day of making tomato paste.
The roses are loving the weather, and the second crop of beans is going gangbusters.  I even have peppers – finally!

This panty restock – Yard Bird !  One whole raw chicken as the base makes a TON of food for the freezer and easy canning stock to be used as a base in everything from spaghetti and chili to soups and stews.

$25 Dollars – 9 jars of chicken broth and 9 – 13 meals.

One whole raw Chicken - $8
From the farm stand - $12
     Carrots, Celery, Onion, Garlic, Basil, Rosemary, parsley,
Backyard – Free
     Bay leaves, oregano, Lemon balm, Basil, Rosemary, chives, celery, green beans.
Arrowroot flour (or thicken flour of your choice) - $2
½ stick a butter (I use vegan as I can’t have dairy) - $1
Milk / Milk substitute (Ripple is what I use) - $2
Salt / Pepper.

Broth First -
Little water in the bottom of the pot.  I add a little moon water from my fridge water collection. 
Peeling from the carrot, garlic cloves, an onion, chive tops, Celery tops and bottoms and most of the herbs on the top.
Rinse your chicken real well, neck and innards go into the pot.
Stuff rest of your herbs in the center of the chicken and place it in the pot.
Cover 2” over with water, bring to a simmer and simmer it, lid on for 90 minutes.

Pull the chicken out and set it aside to completely cool.  I put mine on a rack so that I can pour off the chicken fat back into my broth.

Stock – I hot bath my jars to ensure proper sealing.  I process for 10 min since there is nothing in the liquid.  Pour stock while still hot into sterilized Jars, hot bath for 10 min.
I got 6 16oz jars, 3 32oz jars and 4 cups for the fridge.

Left over veg and herbs went into two of my large dead plant pots outside with a huge scoop of worms from my worm bins.  Then I cover the mess with a little soil and torn up weeds.  The worms will eat all the dead roots, and the castings will make it fertile.  By next spring I’ll have two large planters with soil ready to go.

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Freezer Chicken Pot Pie filling, chicken salad, breast chicken dinner and Chicken soup.

Pull all the chicken meat off your bones.  It should fall off easily.  Give skin and icky bits to the hound at your right and the Blackmouth Cur on the left.

Carrots and celery get sliced into my food processor.  Chop another onion.

Chicken Salad – throw some dark and white meat into the processor with some onion slices, celery and carrots.  Salt and Pepper and some miracle whip.  I like a little oil and vinegar.  Pulse till chopped and mixed well
Great with Crackers.  Two Lunch’s.

Chicken Pot Pie Filling –
Find three or four small containers and line them with plastic wrap.  Layer in chicken on the bottom, celery, carrots and onion.
In a pan, melt ½ stick a butter, I like it a little toasty, add arrowroot till you have a paste.  Add milk or milk substitute (I use Ripple) till you have a consistency you like for your pot pie.  Make it thick.  Keep stirring for 5 minutes. 
Pour the filling into the containers.  It’ll seep slowly down around the veg, but if it’s good and thick most will stay on the surface.
Wrap and freeze.  After frozen pop out and switch to a large freezer bag.
When getting ready to eat it – defrost slowly in fridge.  Add stock to thin it out and allow simmering for 10 min. 
If you can do wheat, you can use a pie crust (prebake and skip the 10 min simmer as you will do that in the oven)
For non-wheat people, I put it over a twice baked potato, rice, mashed cauliflower, over wheat free toast, etc.
3 large dinners (or for me, 3 dinners and three next day lunches).
 
Take any left over Filling, add some chicken, carrots, celery and onion and throw it in, add chicken stock to thin it out and bring it to a simmer for 10 minutes.   I had mine over left over rice.
1 meal

Chicken breast’s and green beans with white gravy.  I save one whole chicken breast, Green beans out of my garden (you do you) and some of the pot pie filling with extra pepper thinned with a little chicken broth.
1 Meal

Chicken Soup – Split whatever is left with carrots, celery, onion and garlic into two small freezer bags.  Chop leftover chicken into easy to eat bites and divide it into each bag.  Get all the air out and freeze. 
To use, boil a jar of chicken broth and add the frozen packet.  Add what you are feeling you want at that time.  I generally add some potatoes, frozen peas or corn, maybe a little crab boil if I’m sick and want to clear my sinuses out.    Crackers or bread on the side.
2 Meals.

 I also had a full chicken breast and most of a leg I ate leaning over my sink for the weekend while I did all of this.   

The leftover chicken broth in the fridge will be making chili and spaghetti sauce with the soon to be ripening tomato crop I have coming next week.  

As we can all see I took a little hiatus from posting as my life went sideways in a whole new way. 
Anyone who has been doing ritual magic for any length of time, will eventually take a break, change what they are doing, wander away for a while; but energy manipulation is a birth right to all beings and although we might stop the ritualistic side of things for a while, energy doesn’t stop moving or interacting with you any more than you can stop breathing.

I decided in June to throw out my 15 years retirement/life plan at year 9 and leap both feet into making things happen sooner.  When instinct tells you to move…. Listen.  After 50 years when MY instinct starts screams MOVE, I move like a purpose, very fast and very drastically, and in this case, literally.  I’m selling my property in Florida and have moved full time to the clearing in North Carolina two months ago, exactly one week before Helena devasted the area I moved too; then Milton hit my Florida house with direct impact on the north side of the eye wall, good times.

The clearing was spared any real damage and for that I’m thankful.  My apothecary in boxes, my LIFE in boxes, over 25+ tropical plants needing a safe warm place to ride out the winter and two large dogs, no power or water for 2 weeks, no internet for a month and half; you get the idea.   Unpacking my box’s in the dark with only a scratchy radio, I knew nothing but gratefulness as many of my neighbors have nothing to unpack, nothing to see or hold, memories and lives gone, washed down the river. There was a lot of crying, for me, for them, for my family who are now all ethereal ancestors.   

Thursday was our (the dogs and I) first snow living in the clearing, first snow for the puppy ever.  As I sat and watched the snow slowly shift down, mourning the death of my parents who passed at this time of year, knowing the emotional beating that comes for me with December ever year, something in me decided it was time to start reconnecting on a more conscious level again. 

So where to start?  Unpacking my stuff…  UG…..  no, we will start with what boosts us to our highest path, food and comfort.   So, I lit my table candle, turned on my mister and added some moon water and lemon essence and spent the day doing the “thing”.

Nine meals for under $20.  Baked chicken from Walmart ($7) and $12 dollars of veggies from the Veg market on the way home.
- Chicken salad for dinner.
- Make stock.   Stripped the meat off the chicken, picked a bunch of herbs from my pot garden, chopped the veggies down and added all the bones and veggie parts to my insta pot and set it for 25 minutes.  Part went into chicken soup dinner that night, part went to making butternut squash autumn soup and the rest went into single serving jars for future use.
- Chopped all the veggies and the chicken meat into single serving packets for the freezer, ready to just drop into broth at any time for home made chicken soup.  I made 5 of these packets, individually wrapped.    When the time comes, I crack open a jar of broth and just add the packet for 5 minutes soup.
- Cut a butternut squash in half and chopped a bunch of sweet potatoes all went into the oven to bake down, 45 minutes later the stock was out of the instapot and butternut, sweet potato and apple were in it with my chicken stock on the bottom.  Tons of cinnamon, real ginger, cardamon, pumpkin spice all on top.  15 minutes of pressure, blend it smooth with a hand blender, jar most of it immediately while it’s super-hot.    Add coconut milk (or cream if you can do dairy, which I can’t) and eat.  Made three jars of “based” so I can just open, add milk and have a lovely hearty soup in 5 minutes.
- Scraps not used in the stock went into a large freezer bag and into the freezer.  This will be worming food come new moon for my two work buckets.  The freezer keeps it from rotting and breaks down all the cell structure.  You must leave the bag out overnight before you put it in the worms, or it will be way to cold and could damage your colony.  
I have easy worm bin direction further down on my page/website.
Last, the butternut squash seeds were saved and will go into my seed stash.  This new moon I’ll plant 2 while cleaning and feeding the worm bins and let them hang out in the greenhouse till March.  It’ll be warming up a little and squash will think it’s fall!
 
I spent about 5 hours doing all of this, watched the snow, was visited by a young buck leisurely walking across my back yard.   My desire to actually write this up, take the photos, post the things, interact with my public magical world for a bit while I drink my coffee feels like movement.  It feels like a connection. 
Feels like I want to write a ritual for selling my house! 

As we go into the season that for some of us is true hell, remember, living in magic, taking care of your body and mind is the truest form of connection of your higher path.  

Over the last couple of decades I have made several worm bins, some hand made by me and some purchased.  As of this decade, this is my favorite.  Built for one person, I only attend it about once every 4 to 6 weeks.  I keep it indoors where it can’t be infested with any bugs that aren’t serving me.  This small bin feeds my entire container garden which includes many food related plants.    
This one batch of worms is about a year old, meaning that I purchased red worms from Uncle Jim’s Worm Farm; Just google him about a year ago and the colony has been alive and well since then.   This bin I purchased off amazon for $30, but they are $50 now “4 tray worm compost kit”. 
Please consult the internet for basics of how and why you would want a worm bin/composter, many folks out there better than me at this and have dedicated a long time to it.   I personally am interested in the casting (poop) for my garden.  EVERYTHING loves worm castings. 

Here are my tricks to awesomeness once you have the basic concept:

1.  Keep it in a clean bug-free area!  It will not smell or draw bugs if you follow my process.  You will only open it once a month or so.  I always take mine outside for the initial opening JUST IN CASE.  If you open it and bugs are present, you have a problem and need to tear it down and clean it well, hand pick out as many worms as you can and then restart the entire thing.  The only thing more annoying than this is having a house full of flying bugs for the next 2 days on top of it. 
2. Keep your scraps for the bin in a sealed Tupperware container throughout the month, in your fridge.  Only open the worm container once every 4 to 6 weeks and feed it all at once, ensure a tight seal on the containers and then leave it alone. 
3. When harvesting out the castings (worm poop) I put the “mud” directly into my containers in a little hole in the dirt.  If I can’t dig a little hole because of roots, I will lay it around the top and then water it lightly.  When you have many of the thicker castings out from the edges, put it over a big bowl or bucket and spray it down with water, I use mist level.  The black water dripping out is straight fertilizer, most of the worms have already vacated this level because you were messing with it and flipping it around. The spray will leave the food and much needed moisture without drowning your worms.  You can then water your house plants and other smaller pots.  Only a little, you aren’t trying to wet down your roots, you are trying to get as much of the castings into the soil and leave them there as possible.  I’ll often do this AFTER I water just so the soil is wet and better capable of holding onto particles.
4. Get a bag of plan dirt, no fertilizers or anything in it (no miracle grow!).  Always put a thin layer of dirt under the food scraps, take the sprayed down leftovers (Tip 3) and throw that on top of the scraps and then a layer at least ½” thick of soil on top, then the lid.   The worms need it, and it keeps any wayward smells or insects away while the worms go to town on the scraps. 
5. If you have dead plants or old dead root balls, you have worm egg heaven.  Leave a root ball in the bottom tray to improve your worm population.
6. Feel like your worms are too many and going through the food to fast?  Throw a bunch in your containers.  They will happily live on old dyeing root and broken-down material.  

Today while the norther US is getting slammed with snow, I’m standing outside trimming my eucalyptus tree!  For those of you into container gardening, these guys do great.  I trim him about once every three to four months.  This is his first trim this year.  After collection and any dead or problem areas are removed.  I spray down any scaley areas or problem spots with water and dawn dish soap.  Don’t mist your plants and then put them in the sun!!  The water will magify the light and burn the leaves.  I trim for constant branching and getting to move of a small bush. 
I remove all the leaves and place them into a clean and sterile jelly jar with a new lid.  Cover with fractured coconut oil.  You can use any oil you feel comfortable rubbing on your face.  I avoid olive oil as it’s partial to mold and I like these to last about 6 months without fridge.
I heat the oil slowly in a double boiler for about 15 minutes and poke it with a toothpick to make sure all air bubbles are out of the oil.  Then seal up the jar, wait for it to completely cool and into the fridge for two weeks.  Strain and into a dark glass roller ball top.  Label and you have an instant sinus relief oil!

Nature’s great until it’s stringing the crap out of you.  This is my quick and easy Insect shield, but only for the mean ones!  Little things like this are why we keep grimoires and witches cabinets.  So when we have a problem, we don’t have to think about it, we just flip to the page and whip up a potion. 
Today’s problem-solving potion – bug be gone!  The spell is the same, the receipt changes depending on what I have in the cabinet.  Today, Two droppers of citronella and two droppers of Tea tree oil, filled up the rest of the little roller ball bottle with jojoba.  I used Jojoba instead of something finer because it works better with the roller ball.

I draw a line down each arm, each leg and around my neck and in my minds eye I’m putting on a suit/bubble/shield against everything stingy.
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Oils and lotions I do create to make a shield and keep the bugs at bay.
Biting and stinging, I understand is part of the bug's natural plan,
but in this bubble this witch does hide, from angry insects and biting flies.
This potion does create the shield, and keep nuisance nature far afield

This witch she does spend her energy this day, on cleaning supplies that need to be made
 Powder of soap and citrus she melds, to scrub away dirt and get rid of smells
 Liquids of blue and tangy delight, concentrates blessed with cleaning delight
 These Brews she does make with her full heart and Faith, to lighten her world and clean her place
 

Slice up one lemon, rind seeds and all.  Chop up a palm size piece of ginger.  Throw it all in the jar and cover completely with honey (image showing half done).  In two or three weeks, strain off the honey and you have the perfect mix for allergies, colds, scratchy throat, etc.  Mix a tablespoon in hot water or your favorite tea.    Steep some white willow bark for 10 min in boiling water and then add a couple tbls of Allergy honey for colds and rest.