Darkest Depths or Long Nights Time 2019

Holly in our Bird Garden

We've had a mix of chores and rest here this month. More rest than chores, as it should be.

Final wood stacking

We finished off the log splitting and the splitter is stored away, safe for the winter.

Bob's got the snow thrower installed and it's all tuned up. We had a "biggish" snow last week, so it's already been used.

Sauerkraut processing

I was busy a couple of days getting sunchokes and cabbage into the fermentation crocks...

Horseradish being packed in brine

...and horseradish grated and packed in brine. Bob did the digging and most of the grating. I did the scrubbing and jarring up.

These tasks finished up my autumn "to do" list.







The winter chores list is much smaller: thresh out the beans (me), maintain the equipment (Bob) and restore ourselves (all three of us).

Bean threshing has begun

Lunette's begun her task of resting (face is on her "kitty")

Bob's sweater being blocked

I finished Bob's annual sweater. I've started a second that will be suitable to wear at work. He doesn't like to wear the good ones there for fear of snagging or getting grease on them. I just whip up a simple acrylic one in that case. (Or we buy one at the thrift shop.)









We've spent quite a bit of time reading and working jigsaw puzzles. I'm getting more practice in on my harp. I'm bogged down in Lesson 6.

Hard work, but satisfying

Winter occupations make the season just fine with us!













We don't have any big plans for the holidays. A few special dishes at meals, some special treats. We didn't make our traditional fruitcake because I "dropped the ball" and didn't buy the necessary ingredients! Well, we do something else instead. That makes life interesting.

We wish you all a season of peace, rest and restoration; body, mind and soul.

Till next time,
Kathleen, Bob and Lunette

Peace and Light to one and all

Frost Time / Seed Fall 2019

Fall fruit: apples and pears

We're officially in late autumn. The leaves are off most of the trees, the fields are brown and we've come to the end of our month of Frost Time / Seed Fall. It's been a month of tying up loose ends.

Trimming off the dried bean vines

Next year's garlic has been planted. The final garden harvests have been completed. "All is safely gathered in, ere the winter storms begin."

Bob and Lunette shredding garden debris

The beds have been cleaned out and the debris has been shredded to become mulch. All of the beds have been covered with a nice cozy mulch blanket for the winter.

Indoors the work has been going on in the kitchen. I've made applesauce which has gone into the freezer.

Banana Bonanza

Our neighbors came into a windfall of bananas which they generously shared with us. There were too many for the two of us to eat, so I dried most of them into chips for winter use. A home dehydrator is such a useful item!

Two quarts of banana chips

On October 31, we took time to remember family members who have passed away. We remembered the ladies by having a special lunch featuring foods with special connections to each of them.

Feast of Remembrance lunch

Grandma Neill's bean and potato soup, rolls for Roxanne, black olives for Grandma Vera, Grandma Wise's pineapple cookies and danish to honor Mom Carol and Grandma Rosso.

It was a nice way to remember them.

A blank slate means possibilities!

This is the slate where I write down tasks to be done each day. In this season it is sometimes blank. It's a time for us to get a bit of rest and recreation.

Goodies from the fall book sale

We picked up some books, puzzles and patterns at the semi annual charity book sale in Ithaca. We will be enjoying these in the quiet months ahead.

Mushroom soup and whole wheat sourdough English muffins

It's the season to enjoy a soup supper in front of the woodstove. Quiet evenings of reading, games, hobbies and friendly conversation. Nature is at rest, and so are we.

We hope that you, too will take time to rest and nourish your souls.






Till next time,
Kathleen, Bob and Lunette

Oak sapling outside our window in its fall colors

Song Time / Falling Leaves Time 2019

Happy Autumn, All!

The moon is nearly full and another month is coming to an end here at Thistledown Gardens. It's been a busy one, as expected. And yet, not as hectic as harvest time.

Kathleen and Lunette digging fingerling potatoes

This month we finished the potato harvest and have gathered the sweet potatoes, all with Lunette's help.

Digging Sweet Potatoes

We ended up with about three bushel each of "regular" potatoes and sweet potatoes. Since we didn't plant any winter squash or pumpkins this year, three bushel will not be too many sweet potatoes for us to use.

Dry land cranberries

I harvested our cranberries...

Good Mother Stollard beans drying on the vine

...and have been picking the dry beans as they are ready. It's always a race to get them picked and under cover before the steady fall rains begin. They can't be picked before they're mature and that takes a long time unless the weather's hot and dry.







We still have parsley, chard, kale, beets and carrots standing. The greens will probably be pulled in the next week because we want to get the beds ready for winter. I hope to bring in the beets and carrots the last week of October.

Some of the chard plants

Carrot and beet bed

I'll plant next year's garlic at the end of October as well.











As I empty the beds, Bob clears out any weeds and fallen acorns (there are a ton this year!), and covers each with a mixture of organic matter: leaves, plant residue, rotted wood, ground acorns, wood ash... He runs all this through his chipper/shredder so it will decompose quickly.

Bob cleaning up a bed

On some of the beds he sows a cover crop that will winter kill.

Hen of the Woods mushrooms

Bob and Lunette found some more Hen of the Woods mushrooms in the woods this fall. We now have three pints chopped and in the freezer. One of our winter soups is Mushroom Barley made with Shiitake and Hen of the Woods and lots of parsley. Very tasty and healthy!








We've had some cold here, and rain, but no frost for us yet. On those inclement days, we've been preparing for winter inside the house. I washed all of the windows, inside and out. I also washed and ironed all of the curtains.

Oiling the dining room furniture

I oiled all of the wood furniture that needs that treatment as protection against the dryness of wood heat.

First fire of the season

We've had two small fires to prepare our soapstone stove for the upcoming season. The chimney's been repaired. Hopefully when it rains hard we won't have it come down into the hearth anymore. Last year's fix was inadequate, so we hired someone different to do the job this year.

Bob tackles the fireplace

Today Bob's sealing up the old air returns in the fireplace. They're no longer used and a good sized source of air leakage. They've got to go!

This week he also put new weather stripping on the bottom of our kitchen door.








Lunette's twelfth birthday was this week. Lately she stays busy as neighborhood sentinel, alerting everyone of roaming cats and deliverymen. She also enjoys a good "dig", from old mole trails to helping in the garden.

Relaxed hole digging. Note the dirty back legs!

Right now, Bob's in the middle of a two week vacation from Cornell. We're trying to get in a mix of chores and fun and relaxation. We've watched a couple of old movies, done some reading and played games. We hope to get out for a hike in the week ahead. Lunette loves having her "poppi" around more. She just adores him!

That's about all there is to tell around here for now. By the next update the garden should be all put to bed, and our season of rest begun.

See you again at the end of Frost Time/Seed Fall.

Kathleen, Bob and Lunette

One last bouquet.

Harvest/Ingathering 2019

Harvest Abundance

This has been a very busy month here. The garden was at peak production and that means plenty of work for me.

Tomatoes and squash

The tomatoes finally started to ripen. I've put up forty pints and have now been making tomato leather. This is good to use in soups and to reconstitute as tomato paste.

One big tomato!

Some of our varieties get to be quite large, as you can see.

Opalka paste tomato.

This year I tried a different sauce tomato. This is an heirloom paste tomato called Opalka. There are not as many fruit on the plant, but at this size you don't need so many. This one is only average sized. There are many twice this size!

Corn waiting to be cut off the cob

I've also frozen corn, bell peppers and Lima beans. There's just enough space left in the freezer to add a couple more boxes of kale and chard.
Harvest has also begun on potatoes and Aduki beans.
Soon I'll begin dismantling the beds of things that have finished their run.






We've also been busy splitting firewood. We sometimes get very oddly shaped pieces. We call these "Sunday wood". We like to put them in the stove on Sunday mornings and watch them burn while enjoying a cup of tea. The irregular shapes make very interesting flame patterns.

Gnarly wood with interesting grain pattern

 Out with the old...

We've had our new fuel tank installed. It's not that much to look at, but will come in handy.
Bob's got the cellar all put back in order. Nearly everything had to be shifted around so the old one could go out and the new one, in. It was a good opportunity to sort and rearrange.

...In with the new.

We had to take time out of our work to move my mother into a new room at the care center. Her mental health has deteriorated to the point that she can no longer care for her personal needs. She now is in "enhanced care". That's a level between assisted living and nursing home. She'll get more appropriate care now.
My mother is a hoarder. The staff said we must downsize her things greatly. We spent quite a time doing this in, shall we say, hostile conditions. Thankfully it's done now.

Bob has just had the first round of dental surgery for the current tooth. He comes through these with very little complaining and fuss. He just gets impatient with the length of time involved. (Over six months from start to finish.)

There's still a lot of work to come in the garden. It will be a good month before we can "put it to bed". We hope that your return to autumn routines are going smoothly.
Take the time to enjoy what I consider to be the loveliest season. Harvest of life what is good. "Put to bed" what has passed it's usefulness.
Till next time,

Kathleen, Bob and Lunette

Abundance/ Ripening Time 2019

A variety of lovely vegetables

Our month of Abundance/ Ripening ended with this full moon. Things are ripening, and some things are in abundance. Mostly bills, unfortunately!

The garden is producing enough for us to eat and store away some for winter.

Leafy greens and peppers

We've harvested cabbages, some chard and some kale...


Patty Pan squashes in great quantity,

Tri colored snap beans

and snap beans in large numbers.

Tomatoes are out there, but not turning red in any numbers yet. We've only enjoyed two small ones so far. We're looking forward to more soon.

Laying out garlic to dry

The garlic and shallots have been harvested and are drying in the attic.

Corn ears are developing. Regular and sweet potatoes aren't ready to harvest yet, although we have sneaked some regular potatoes to enjoy now.
The drying beans are looking good with pods growing.

A wash basin of shiitake mushrooms

Our shiitake logs gave us a nice crop, too. We couldn't possibly eat all of them fresh so I dried most of them.

I got two quarts of dried slices. These will make especially good soup this winter.

Two quarts of shiitake slices

When not working in the garden, we've been harvesting and splitting wood. Bob did fell a dead cherry tree, but mostly we're cutting up wood already down on our property.

Bob with and old section of red oak

Bob saws the trunks into rounds and wrestles them onto the log splitter. I do the job of an eight year old. I run the splitter control, help stack the wood and gather twigs and small branches for kindling. I don't feel like I'm doing much, but Bob says it's a big help.

Wood pile at present. Black walnut, cherry and maple

Lammas eve at Lodi Point Park

We celebrated Lammas Day on August 1. That's the climax of summer, the halfway point between the summer solstice and the autumnal equinox.
On the night before, the three of us went to nearby Lodi Point State Park just before sunset.
It was a very nice evening.

Gorgeous cloud at Lodi Point

Buttermilk Falls, Ithaca NY

The next day, Bob and I hiked in Ithaca's Buttermilk Falls State Park. It was a lovely day. We packed a picnic lunch to eat there.
After coming home, we played a game, read aloud to each other and had a nice supper.
No work that day - a real holiday!








We've had a streak of unfortunate (and costly) occurrences this month. First, Bob has to have more costly dental work done. We're hoping that the dental insurance will cover a little more than last time, but it's still a tiny fraction of the bill. Bob has a genetic predisposition to dental issues. We've decided we need to expect and prepare for this type of expense every year. We're both healthy in other ways, so I guess it could be much worse.

Old tank has to go

Our fuel oil tank failed inspection and needs to be replaced before they will bring any more oil. (Remember, this is not only our back up heat, but also our source of hot water.)
Of course, the tank is full and all of that has to be pumped out. It's a loss because to reuse it would void the warranty on our new tank.








Right after getting the news about the oil tank, Bob got a flat tire on his car. This car doesn't come with a spare, just a "fix a flat" thing. He's going to buy a tire and rim to keep as a spare. Both cars need full sets of tires before winter.

The "topper" is that our big property tax bill is due the beginning of September. Hurrah! When it rains, it pours! That list aught to make at least a few of you feel better about your situation. Glad I could be of help!

Lunette fell and hurt herself this week. She has "safety slippers" to wear on our wood floors, but someone (who will remain nameless) neglected to put them on. There are no broken bones or dislocations, just swelling and pain. The vet has given her a new pain medicine. If it works well, it will become part of her daily med routine. It looks like we need to add more carpet runners for her to walk on. Our house already has "doggy runways" all over the place! For now she's laying low and hobbling around on three legs. The squirrels are taking advantage of this.

I guess that's all the news for now. Enjoy the rest of your summer and we'll check in again around the time of the next full moon.

Till then,
Kathleen, Bob and Lunette

The August garden