Early October

I think October is a good month for me to kind of let go of things out in the garden. I know that I'm really coasting till the first hard frost. I know that the weeds will only get so bad, the bugs only so out-of-control, until the cold kills it all. Yes, yes, they all have to be dealt with eventually, but it does signal a slowing down, a letting go. I really only have a few more weeks of running the CSA for the season. Then what I produce is just for my family to eat. And if I get lazy, or more accurately, too busy and forget to cover something on a cold night, it's not the end of the world. This is a good attitude for me to have right now, because my garden, that garden, it is a living breathing thing of it's own. I can only control so much.

Case in point. I harvested sweet potatoes last week. Every other one had a huge bite taken out of it. Moles? I don't know. I know my kids are going to be hating me and the darn sweet potatoes. I can't give the ones with bites taken out to customers so that means WE eat them. The kids aren't big sweet potato fans.



Another case in point. Deer scat everywhere. The unfenced portion of the garden has just been raided. They are coming for the persimmons, which is fine by me, but they nibble on other stuff while they are here. Eli saw three of them grazing out there early one morning this week. At this point in the season, I'm over peeing around the edges every day and taking out the radio to blast sports radio every night.

Third case in point. My buddy, turtle, pictured below, has been found all over the garden the whole season long...in the compost pile, in the marigolds, snuggling an eggplant. Today I found him eating a tomato. I just let him be. It's just a tomato.

It's good to just let go. I'm happy to have my camera back and cool mornings in which to enjoy both my coffee and the scenery.

Camera Repaired!

Our camera has been inoperable since early August. I have dearly missed it and am so happy to have it home and fully functional again.

These flowers are from the garden. I've been including a bouquet with my shares for about a month now. Since I started vegetable gardening, flowers have taken a back seat in my garden world. This has been a sad thing for me as I do love flowers. Because I had a season blessed with many working shares, I had the time to get some seeds in the ground this year. I can't begin to explain how relaxing the act of picking a bouquet of flowers is for me.

The garden is growing tired. It is showing signs of neglect. It is an incredibly busy time of year for us with school, volunteer work, and soccer. I am certain we'll soon catch our stride. But for now, it is catch as catch can.

It's August! How'd that happen? This summer has just flown by so fast. We found that lovely summer groove this month and I am sad, sad, sad to think that in just a few short days my helpers are going back to school.

Below is a shot of Flora's shirt brimming with eggs. The chickens have really been producing for us. Thank goodness everyone loves eggs a variety of ways.



I took several shots of the garden prior to our Michigan trip. I was very pleased with how well mulched and weeded everything was before we left. Of course the brutal heat took it's toll on the garden while we were away despite the best efforts of our working shares. Fortunately things have cooled down and I'm hoping that some TLC and more comfortable weather will help plants recover for one big surge of production before season close.



While up in Michigan we visited Pond Hill Farm. You can check them out here: http://www.pondhill.com/. We visit this farm every year while we are up there and I'm always amazed at their stamina. Every year they have added some new attraction: playground, up close and personal animal feeding, squash rocket, wine bar, cafe, etc. Below is a photo of Ward at his favorite activity:

Less words, more photos

I've decided that this motto, "less words, more photos," might be the only way I actually keep somewhat current with this blog. Especially now that the harvest is going full throttle. I have a ton of tomatoes I need to put up. Maybe tomorrow. Tonight I tackled the cucumbers. Two days worth. Here are photos:





And here is the mural the girls painted to go on the chicken coop. And also, one of the coop's lovely inhabitants.




So, that's it for tonight. It's late, well, it's actually tomorrow already. And 6:00 comes early.

at least one post for June...

Summer is in full swing. School's been out two and a half weeks. The honeymoon period of having the girls home is over. I'm a tired momma still searching for that lovely summer groove of years past. It will come. Soon as I can figure out how to stop being a short-order cook and provider of every moment of entertainment. And as soon as Ward can figure out how to take a decent nap even though his beloved sisters are home. So, I've been having this re-occurring dream where I'm in an Olympic home-maker contest and I have children wrapped around my legs as I move from one domestic chore to the next. I'm always resisting that strong urge to kick my legs or swat at the little heads bobbing along in front of me. It's hard to really describe the dream, but I wake in a cold sweat every time.

In garden news, even though I'm battling squash bugs daily, I've got zucchini galore. We've had all the usual zucchini + starch meals AND zucchini muffins, pancakes and cookies. I've also got cucumbers coming out my ears. I've been making cucumber, vanilla yogurt, lemonade popsicles which Ward adores. The boy is eating GREEN stuff. Woohoo! (The kid won't even eat green sherbet.) The tomatoes are coming into their own. I've got some mammoth brandywines and my favorite sungolds are producing just enough for a little bowlful once or twice a week. There will soon be more than we can handle.


The chickens have started laying. All last week I got just one egg per day but today I got FOUR! Oh boy, that is really exciting. I've started letting them free range in the late afternoon and they think that is pretty cool. As much as a chicken can think about anything.

We've also painted the kitchen and had the new kitchen floor installed this month. I still have trim to finish. Of course. I always run out of steam with the trim. My old house has so much of it. The roofer just left. I think we may finally have that leak in the kitchen fixed after 1+ years of trying one thing after the next to fix it. The key, or so the roofer told me, was having that new attic access so they could actually see what was going on.


I've included photos of the garden and some recent harvest photos. Now, boy is asleep, girls are content, roofer is gone, produce is harvested and packed, momma is headed for the shower.

A Pause

It's been a long time since I posted. It's been a crazy 4 months. In that time span, we have: put in our spring garden, put in most of our summer garden, started harvesting and filling customer shares, added 4 working shares, started a new flock of chickens, moved the walls in two upstairs bedrooms back into attic space, added supports for the "slanty room", painted two upstairs rooms, painted the dining room, added on a laundry/bathroom, had a season of soccer, butchered and processed (with friends) 14 meat chickens, purchased 1/8 of a local cow for our freezer, successfully chaired another session of Extended Day for the girls' school, attended countless meetings for school, and otherwise juggled life as best we could. Blogging about it all just hasn't been possible.

Eli and I had a moment, late last year, when we realized that our little house, on our little plot of land, is exactly where we want to be. We knew we'd outgrown our little house. So we started dreaming about what it would take to make it really functional. An extra bathroom? Absolutely. One bathroom for 5 people was not enough. A utility room to handle the dirt from the garden? Lovely. An extra bedroom for Ward? Oh, it'd be nice to get him out of our bed! So then, after the dreaming was done and the list made, we started talking to friends and family. Woohoo, a dear family friend had a lull in his building business and was willing to tackle our project. Several calls to the bank and we realized that this was all very do-able. So 4 months later, Ward is sleeping in his own bed, I have a double utility sink for rinsing produce and bathing a dirty baby, and a bathroom in which to lock myself and have a moment of privacy. Eli and I keep walking around feeling like royalty in this house. We are blessed beyond measure.

a thought provoking read

Well, we are spending a lot of time these nights nursing. Ward is cutting a bazillion teeth all at once. That means I've had some time for reading. My sister-in-law found this book at one of the Portland libraries and brought it with her to Michigan this past summer. I skimmed it there and gleaned enough to know I wanted to read more. Upon returning home, I checked with our library and they did not own a copy. So I waited. Eventually they got copies and I had to get on a waiting list. But finally, it is my turn. It should be yours next. This is a really inspiring read.

The back cover has a little to-do list and it reads:
Hang out laundry
Quit job
Can tomato sauce
Weed garden
Drain lifeblood from multinational corporations

Radical indeed. The subtitle is "Reclaiming Domesticity from a Consumer Culture". It hits all the main points in the importance of creating local food systems but goes further than other books I've read in describing how the public has really been hoodwinked into becoming consumers rather than producers.

As I'm reading I'm finding myself really questioning a lot of my own beliefs about education, employment, financial security and what life skills really matter. Now, I already feel that big picture, a lot of my life choices in the past 10 years don't make a lot of sense to the mainstream thinker. I think it says something that this read is challenging some of my assumptions.

The author, Shannon Hayes, holds a Ph.D. from Cornell and is working with her extended (and immediate) family on Sap Bush Hollow Farm . For those of you who need a bit more of a teaser to quirk your interest, she was interviewed this week on NPR's The Story which you can listen to here:
http://thestory.org/archive/The_Story_010311_Full_Story.mp3/view.

If you read it, let me know what you think!