Bohemian Heart Workshop

When the Frost Comes:  Late-Fall Foraging in Southeastern North Dakota Finding the Last Gifts of the Prairie Before Winter There is a certain stillness that settles over southeastern North Dakota when late fall arrives. The grasses have turned from green to gold, the wildflowers have gone to seed, and the familiar prairie winds carry the first real reminders that winter is waiting just beyond the horizon. The mornings grow sharper. Frost settles across the fields, silvering the remaining vegetation and transforming ordinary leaves and seed heads into something almost magical. The garden has nearly surrendered its last harvest, and the trees stand increasingly bare against the wide November sky. But the arrival of frost does not mean the foraging season is entirely over. In fact, late fall has its own quiet treasures. It simply requires a different eye, a little patience, and an understanding of what remains after the growing season has passed. The Beauty of Foraging After the First...

 From Work-From-Home Life to Paraprofessional Life As I said in my previous post - LIFE HAS CHANGED.  So much. I am no longer the stay-at-home, work-from-home, farm at home, build at home, construction worker with the spouse, woodworker in the garage, website testing, game testing, mom 24/7, squirrel-fighting, bird-watching, hermit lady I once was. Now, my time is very limited when it comes to extracurriculars, but they haven't completely gone away. I just have less time to focus on them. Much less time. As a full-time school employee, a full-time sports mom, a girlfriend with a bonus family, a homesteader, and a general human being, the time limit is huge. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, I'm just saying that busy Mary has gotten much busier.  However, with functioning depression, I prefer to stay in that busy state. It keeps my mind occupied and my thoughts distracted enough to keep any looming issues at bay. Also, the kids I work with are pretty entertaining. We don...

Starting Fresh in 2024 A moment from the heart: I will begin by saying - I know I've been absent for almost a year. My life and my kids' lives took a drastic turn at the end of June last year and we are finally starting fresh this year after some BIG changes to our family and our daily lives. We have gone from a family of 4 to 3.  It has been a rollercoaster of ups and downs and frankly - I haven't had it in me to speak about it without a sickness welling up inside me. The past 6 months were very difficult for us. However, the three years before it were much, much harder. You can't force someone to change or to grow. You can only ask to be treated better: with the respect you deserve, to be shown love instead of given fear, and to be treated like an equal - not a property. And you can only hope that it will happen for you. If a person you love chooses not to change the behavior that's hurting you or refuses to grow with you, you have to ask yourself how long you wan...

 Am I a goat farmer? Or a goat rancher? Honestly, goat farmer sounds more entertaining. I farm goats. They grow from seeds and I feed and water them until they're big enough to sell. Technically, that's very true. Yep, goat farmer, it is. These little dingbats keep me on my toes. However, since my personal life has been turned upside down, they also provide a great distraction from all the negativity in our lives. We were blessed with 8 healthy baby Boers on this goat farm in the last week of September. 8 healthy babies. We had the unfortunate circumstance of losing the first 2 as they were stillborn. They were a bit too early and a bit too small, born sleeping. However, with my "expert" non-existent YouTube midwifing skills - 8 more kids were brought into this world. The first live babe was named "Meep" due to its neverending "meeping" as it tried to adjust to the outside world. The second babe was named "Sneezer"...due to its sneezing f...

Hello Friends There are many things in my life changing right now. Marriage, job, goals, hopes, and dreams. With so much going on lately, those last three on that list have been incredibly neglected. My goals, hopes, and dreams were to create something that can help me and my children find joy in life. Explore, live a little more, get off the couch, create, and build new traditions. I took a wrong turn somewhere and let myself give those three things to other people. Now that I'm realizing that there is so much more to life and that I can give my children memories they'll cherish forever - I've found a new motivation. So much has been about things. Things and money. Money and things. But, where are the experiences in all of that? Where is the fun and the joy and the wonder? We seem to have lost that along the way. I did visit Ireland with my son and yes, part of that trip made me realize that the work, the stress, the fights, and the sleepless nights that were put into that...

It's that time of year when we spend hours upon hours in our gardens trying to get everything ready and planted for the season! It can be very daunting, tedious, and time-consuming.  So, I'm sharing this video I made in my own garden to help you out and, perhaps, save you some time!  Have a look and enjoy! I hope you find some use in it! @madmarymcleod It’s that time of year! 🪴👩‍🌾 #gardening #gardenproject #gardeninghacks #fyp #cornflour #exoticplants #cornbread #planting #plantingseason #vegetables #veggies #onthefarm #homestead #homesteadlife #northdakota #inthewild #colors #beautiful #crops ♬ original sound - Mad Mary

  Homemade Thick Chicken Stew This stew is SO good for many different occasions. Be it a cold fall evening or a day you just don't feel above the weather.  Instead of telling you a story about how this soup came to be...how about you make it yourself and come up with your own story! Ingredients: 1 Carton Chicken Broth (Low Sodium) 1 Can Cheddar Cheese Soup 2 Cooked and Shredded Chicken Breasts (I used leftover rotisserie ) 6 Sweet Peppers chopped 1/4 Sweet Onion chopped 1/2 Cup butter Salt - pinch Pepper - pinch Garlic Salt - poke (little more than a pinch) Italian Seasoning - 1 Tablespoon is plenty 6 oz. Cream Cheese Medium Amish Noodles ( Fettucini style) 1/4 Cup Parmesan Get Cooking: Melt the butter in a large saucepan on medium-high heat Add chopped onions and peppers, salt, and pepper - saute for about 5 minutes or until peppers are tender Add cream cheese, stir until melted and mixed Pour in the carton of chicken broth, bring to a simmer Add in the can of chedd...

How to make your own   Cheese! Are you a cheese lover? Have you ever wanted to make your own cheese? Or are you like me - snowed in and bored out of your mind so you make your own cheese to pass the time? Oof...that was a mouthful. Well, no matter what your reason for coming to this post is - I hope you end up with a beautiful and delicious farmer's cheese/cheese crumble by the end of the day. You can follow along easily in the video below! @madmarymcleod How to make “Farmer’s Cheese” or “Cheese Crumble” from scratch. 🧀 🧀 #cheese #homemade #howto #recipe #cheeserecipe #snowday #snowdays #makeyourown #cookwithme #homesteadcooking #cheesecrumbles #easycheese #easyrecipe #family #familycooking #fromscratch #cooktogether #fyp ♬ Natural Emotions - Muspace Lofi In this video, I chose to make two different flavors: Chokecherry/honey (to use as an oatmeal topping) Everything Bagel Seasoning (For salad toppers) Give it a try and let me know how YOUR cheese turn...

Well, hello there! I did my very first TikTok today! I don't know if that's a win? Or a cave? Either way, it was fun and I can't wait to make more of my crazy little bleaters.  I have a feeling that warm-weather toks will be so much more fun! Is it toks? Tiks? Tiktoks? Tikety-tokeroos? No matter what it's called, I hope you enjoy taking a peek at my goats and my sweet baby girl! @madmarymcleod #capcut #goatsoftiktok #goats #goatfarm #homestead #inthecountry #goatkids #faintinggoats #livestock #nibblers ♬ original sound - M&M&M Winter... This winter has been incredibly rough for us North Dakotans. I'm sure everywhere in the midwest is feeling the pain that comes with mountains of snow every few days. And we're getting pretty stir-crazy.  This fall, we decided we'd start breeding Boer goats. Well, when we began and brought our first two babies home, the weather was BEAUTIFUL.  It was forecasted to be a decent winter as well, so we did...

A look back and a How-to: And I am looking forward to new ones to come! "Moon Tea Served at 3" This painted piece was a gift for a witchy woman's greenhouse. This piece was easily put together with a cut of old cedar fencing that was sanded smooth, then painted in layers. "Miley" This wood-burned/pyrographed brush was a gift for a little girl. A cheap wooden brush had been sanded smooth on the back, designed in pencil transfer, wood-burned, then sealed. It made a beautiful gift for a little girl's birthday. "I'll do anything for a buck" A woodburning for a hunter's man cave on a piece of pine. These are easy to make and you can make many of them on one 8' pine board. "It's all fun and games until someone loses a walleye" Another wood burning for a fisherman's mancave. Again - another piece from a chunk of pine board. This customer Family Birthdays sign was a fun piece to put together. This was painted and stained with ...