A perfect way to spend a winter day with the family is at home on your very own ice skating rink. There are many ways to build your own rink, costs can range from C$30 dollars up to thousands and the build can be as simple as filling a bag or constructing an elaborate rink. Read More
Blog
22 Best Snow Day Activities To Do With Kids
You get the news that schools are closed, it’s a Snow Day! Your kids are excited, I mean who doesn’t love a snow day?? You as the parent might be excited too (or not 😉), and you are now left to figure out things to do to keep the kids occupied all day. Check out Read More
Starlink: A Great Option For Rural And Remote Learners
The pandemic has made good internet access more important than ever, with school closures and changes between in-person and remote learning. As classes get moved online, both teachers and students are having to adapt and work with the internet that’s available to them. If you live in a location where internet access isn’t an issue Read More
How To Make 3 Ingredient Natural Dishwasher Rinse Aid
This dishwasher rinse aid is natural, chemical-free, and made with only 3 ingredients. It’s so easy and quick to make, it’s a perfect DIY solution to the expensive store-bought rinse aids. We are always trying to find easy, effective, and environmentally friendly alternatives when it comes to cleaning supplies that are used in our home. Read More
8 Great Tips Getting Back To School After Winter Break
This winter holiday season has been amazing for our family. We relaxed and relished the time with each other out of the usual routine. The kids got to enjoy the cool weather, snow, and many winter activities. Alas, the holidays are coming to an end and now it’s time for the kids to get ready Read More
How To Make Easy Homemade Peppermint Bark
When the holiday season rolls around I look forward to making some delicious treats and peppermint bark is a sweet treat, that’s great for the holidays. What Is Peppermint Bark Peppermint bark is a popular treat, especially around Christmas time. Typically it consists of a layer of semi-sweet or dark chocolate, a layer of white Read More
Re-Purpose Your Wood Ash In These 10 Unique Ways
If you burn wood, then you will produce plenty of wood ash. When cooler temperatures arrive if you are anything like us we are constantly using our wood-burning stove and outdoor firepit, in turn, we are producing lots of wood ash. Don’t throw them out as there are many ways to repurpose wood ash. Although Read More
10 Easy and Fun Outdoor Winter Activities For Kids
The arrival of winter typically means cold temperatures, lots of snow, and the search for fun activities for kids. I love the days when there has been a fresh snowfall and my kids are so excited to get outside to play. At times the thought of getting all that snow gear on to go outside Read More
Winter Life Living Rurally + 5 Great Prep Tips
Winter here in Canada is long, cold, and so beautiful but it can also be quite harsh if you are not prepared. Winters living in the city are very different from living rurally, this became very evident during our first winter in our rural home. Issues Faced During Our First Winter During the first winter, Read More
Wood Burning Stove – A Great Way To Produce Heat
The temperatures have dropped, we have seen the first light snow and our winter jackets are out. It’s that time of year again when we need to heat our home. We have two heat sources in our home, forced air, and a wood burning stove. Our preferred heat source is the woodstove. Heating with wood Read More
How To Process Your Apples 4 Different Ways
We love to go apple picking and when we were invited to a nearby farm to do just that, of course, we had to go. Our plan was to go and pick some apples, and based on how many we got we’d figure out what to do with them. Apple picking is one of the Read More
Roasted Pumpkin Seeds: Easily Made And Delicious To Eat
Every fall I look forward to pumpkin picking with my kids, pumpkin carving, and of course a favourite snack, roasted pumpkin seeds! Roasting pumpkin seeds can be done throughout fall and winter, although my guess is that it is most common right around Halloween. Reduce the waste and don’t throw away pumpkin seeds, as they Read More
Planting Garlic In The Fall – Simply It’s Simple
When it comes to growing your own food, planting ingredients you often use in your everyday cooking makes the most sense. Garlic tastes amazing and is a wonderful addition to many meals, for us garlic is one of those ingredients we often use. Growing garlic is an easy process but requires patience, as it can Read More
Muskoka Chair Restoration – 10 Steps Back To Beautiful
The Iconic Muskoka Chair A Muskoka chair is a style of chair typically used in outdoor settings and is a staple here in Canada, specifically in Ontario’s well-known Muskoka cottage country. The Muskoka chair, also known as the Adirondack chair in the United States, has become a symbol of cottage life and the embodiment of Read More
End-Of-Season Garden Results: Year 1, The Good And Not Great
Summer has come and gone, autumn is here, and with that our first growing season in our newly built terraced vegetable garden has come to an end. When we moved to our home just under a year and a half ago, we knew we wanted to have a vegetable garden. Our property is located on Read More
Raising Children In The Country – 6 Reasons Why We Love It
When we made the decision to move out of the city, our children were at the forefront of our minds. What would their lives look like living rurally? I grew up in a suburb north of Toronto and my husband in bustling London, England. Later on in life, we lived together for twelve years in Read More
How To Make 3 Ingredient Homemade Dishwasher Tablets
I am always looking for natural and sustainable alternatives for my home, what we eat, drink and use to clean is very important to us as a family. The more environmentally friendly and cost-effective the better! You can check out more DIY from ‘Nestled in the Trees’ here. I’ve been making my own dishwasher tablets Read More
What Is Sumac? How To Make Sumac Tea
Staghorn Sumac is the fruit of a shrub (Rhus coriaria). It is a wild plant that can easily be recognized with its unique leaves and bright red/maroon cones that grow on the tops of its trees. Sumac trees typically grow up to 30 to 40ft tall. The leaves on a sumac tree are symmetrical on Read More
Starlink Update: Unbelievably Easy Way To Get Fast Internet
With all the buzz around SpaceX’s Starlink Internet, you may have already heard about it. SpaceX Starlink internet service uses satellites in low earth orbit to provide high-speed internet service to remote locations. A satellite is used to transmit a signal to your dish wherever it may be set up, in our case our home. Read More
How To Make Delicious Roasted Maple Seeds
If you didn’t already know…yes, you can eat maple seeds! There are some major pros to eating maples seeds; they are edible, healthy, easily accessible, and free. A maple tree definitely gives back to us; you can actually eat several parts of the maple tree, not just syrup, which is most common. We can also Read More
