Darkest Depths/Long Nights Time 2020

 

Some Holiday Color

The moon is full. The days are lengthening. And we bid farewell to Darkest Depths for another cycle.

We've spent much of this month busy in the pantry. 

Painting the ceiling trim

I got the ceiling and walls painted, as well as the ceiling trim and as much of the trim work as Bob has ready yet.

Bob has the ceiling trim all installed. Tomorrow I'll begin painting the wood for the rest of the trim work.

Bob installing window trim

Today we finished laying the new flooring. It's bamboo. The color is "Spice". We are very pleased with the results.

Bob just getting started with the flooring

My job was to place the planks

Bob's off work this week, so we hope to get a lot accomplished in this room.

When I'm not working in the pantry, I'm busy threshing out our beans. I have only about three more bushels to do before I'm done.

A nice snowfall

On the 17th, we got a lovely 8" of snow.

Pre solstice walk in our woods

We took advantage of the snow and went snow shoeing in our woods and meadow on the 20th. It was a part of our solstice celebration, because Bob had to work on the solstice.

Creek rushing with snow melt

On the 24th we had very heavy rain. It melted all of our Christmas snow. We were sad to see it go, but glad we got out to enjoy it earlier.

Our Christmas was quiet, as usual. We played a couple of games and watched an old holiday movie on DVD. I made apple walnut rolls for Christmas breakfast. I only make these for Yule, so that makes them extra special. We had a nice lunch, also.

Apple Walnut Breakfast Rolls

Lunette 10/8/07 - 12/1/20

And now it is my sad task to inform you that our friend, Lunette completed her sojourn here and crossed the Rainbow Bridge on the first of December. She was with us just two months shy of eight years.

The first half of her life was hard. We were her third, and possibly last chance. She came with many problems, some of which were never overcome. But we tried to do our best for her.

"Gottcha Day" Feb 2, 2013

She had attention, care, and about two acres of fenced yard to play in, in addition to another 36 acres of woods and meadow to explore with her best "huntin' buddy".

Now she rests outside of the fence at the edge of the woods that she loved. She can hunt forever where the eyes never dim, nor the legs collapse and her heart can beat strong again. Never more will she be frightened by people who shoot off fireworks or guns, or shout and scream. 

Rest well, our Lunette.

A chapter in our lives has ended. And now, Bob and I go on together; alone.

Till the next time, we hope that 2021 is a better year for us all,

Kathleen and Bob

Sept 2013 Straw piles were great fun!

Oct 2013 Glory Days

Frost Time 2020

 

Hearty Fall fare from our garden

Hello again all,

Frost Time has now come to an end. It's the time of year when we might get all sorts of weather.  And, we did. There's been cold rain and snow that stuck to the ground. We also enjoyed about a week of "second summer" in the midst of that. The days were sunny and balmy - nearly 70 degrees.

The beautiful stretch of weather allowed us to finish our outside chores. The leaves are all picked up and piled for use in next year's garden.

Bob at the splitter

  

We finished splitting and stacking firewood the day after Thanksgiving. Now we have enough to see us through this winter and into next.

The garden at rest

The garden is emptied and ready to rest. The only remaining task is to put mulch on the garlic and strawberries after the ground freezes.

Bob digging horseradish

On the 28th we processed our year's supply of horseradish: 6 quarts...

Horseradish nearly done!

Bob and Lunette dig the sunchokes

... and on the 29th, we packed our 15 liter fermenting crock with Sunchokes (aka Jerusalem Artichokes).

Spices used for Sunchokes

Because of the fair weather, we spent our efforts on outside work instead of the pantry. Now we have to return our attention to that project.

Bob touches up his mudding job

Bob has finished the drywall work...

Walls all primed and ready

... and I primed the walls today. I'll be painting all of this week. Walls and ceiling should all be done by the weekend.

Bob will be making all of the new trim work while I'm doing the painting.

Lunette with her new aide

Lunette is aging quickly now. Her hips no longer function dependably and stairs have become an impossibility. Since I'm not keen on carrying a 63# dog up and down stairs, Bob has made her a ramp to get in and out of the house. She doesn't like to go up it, so we have to grab her collar and lead her up. She gets a treat for that. Now that (the treat), she likes. And don't you dare to forget about that treat! She lets you know in no uncertain terms!

As you may remember, we see winter as a valuable time to rest, relax, rebuild and reconsider. Rather than dread the season, we look forward to it eagerly.

Some of the activities ahead

Here are some of the things we'll be doing: reading, playing games, and observing nature. I'll also be working with my harp and doing needlework.

Work to be finished

There are also a few things I need to finish off: Bob's annual sweater and a mini rug for my large doll house.

And there will still be some chores to do: finish off the pantry and I need to thresh out this year's bean harvest.

We're never bored! Or if we are, it's our own fault, for there's plenty to be doing.

That's about all of the news for now. Be safe, smart and considerate of others: stranger, friend or foe. Learn to savor solitude. It's very good for the soul.

Till next time,

Kathleen, Bob and Lunette

Fallen tree blocks her path. Bad hips impede jumping.

Seed Fall 2020

 

After the Harvest soup

The moon is nearly full, and Seed Fall is once again nearly in the past.

Grey, wet and cold. I think those are the words that most accurately describe this passing month. The weather has impeded the progress on our usual autumn chores, but we're doing our best.

All of the produce is finally out of the garden.

Carrots have been pulled and stowed in the root cellar...

Harvesting carrots

....as have potatoes.

French Fingerling Potatoes

These jobs have gotten done, despite extensive help from Lunette!

Such a helper!

When we got to the beets, we found that some critter (my guess is a raccoon or opossum) had been dining freely on them. As last month, I had to deal with a lot of damaged produce.. After storing away the intact roots, I set out to salvage the damaged ones.

Once again, my dehydrator came to the rescue. I shredded the roots...

Shredded beets

... and dried the shreds.

These can either be thrown into soup as they are, or I can pulverize them in the blender to make beet powder. That is useful in soups, casseroles or beverages.

The early cold (and late warmth) kept my Dester tomatoes from ripening outside. So, I picked 56 mature green fruits and brought them inside to ripen.

Tomatoes ripening in the cellar

We use them as they ripen. (We've eaten a lot of soup and spaghetti lately.) 

I was fortunate to get almost all of the dry beans harvested in between rains and before the freezing temperatures came. 

Sauerkraut time again

Today I put 4 Kg of red cabbage into the smaller (7.5 l) fermentation crock. We'll be preparing horseradish and sunchokes in the month ahead.

We've been trying to clean out the garden, but the rain has been problematic. We hope to get more done this weekend.

Twelve bean trellises need to be cleaned off

Preparing firewood has also been a little difficult. Bob felled three dying trees. Two have been split and stacked. The third still waits for it's turn.

Bob's a lumberjack (and he's ok?)

Inside to the pantry. The taping and mudding continues.

Taping and mudding nearly done

 Flooring, paint and trim materials have all been purchased. 

These supplies mean we're getting closer

We hope to really get this done quickly now.

On October 5th, we drove to the county seat and handed in our absentee ballots to the election official in person.

Bob makes it official!

No mail delays and very limited COVID exposure.

On the 31st is our Festival of Remembrance. We'll remember those who've gone beyond, and their impact on our lives. It's also a good time to consider the impact we're having. Someday we'll be the ones being remembered. That's something to think about.

Now we actively head into the season of rest and reflection. We hope you will join us, especially in this overwhelming time. It's time to shed our leaves and pull our strength back into our roots for rebuilding.

Till next time, be at peace,

Kathleen, Bob and Lunette

Our example for restfulness

Song Time/ Falling Leaves Time 2020

 

A sample of Autumn treasures

The full moon occurred here just three hours ago, and so ended our month of Song Time/Falling Leaves Time. 

It has been a busy time here, so we've got a lot of material to cover in this update.

Our weather has been very dry and definitely getting cooler. We had light patchy frost here on the mornings of Sept 21 and 22. Our average first frost date here is generally 10/11-10/20, so you can see that we're headed into cool weather early.

Fall raspberries

Our fall raspberries are doing very well. Much better than our summer berries did.

Picking snap beans

Our snap beans have been doing very well also, especially after the slow and spotty germination this spring. Our Lima beans out did themselves. I've frozen 15 quarts! I pulled the plants this past weekend, so that's the last of them.

Laying out potatoes to dry

We've begun to harvest the potatoes. We plan to finish this harvest on Saturday.

The tomatoes have done well. I've frozen 48 pints, and dehydrated nearly 8 quarts so far.

Lunette inspects the sweet potato bed

Lunette insisted that it was past time to harvest the sweet potatoes. She apparently had inside information, thanks to that terrier nose!

As we began to dig, we found extensive rodent damage!

Rodents gnawed nearly every potato!

We've never had this kind of damage before. Only two hills out of 24 were untouched! Fully 2/3 of our harvest was affected! I had to work  hard to salvage all of the damaged ones. I froze sweet potato puree and also dehydrated both puree and slices. We also ate quite a few meals of sweet potatoes for a couple of weeks. I was able to salvage all of them by cutting away the gnawed areas and cooking them.

Look carefully at the left side. You'll see my helper.

On Labor Day weekend, we renovated the strawberry bed.

Bed before renovation

As you can see, it was an overcrowded mess! We dug up 54 good plants and threw all of the rest out.

(I did save some leaves to dry for tea. It's very good with a little almond extract added.)

Some of the plants were very nice

We removed the plastic mulch and found all kinds of mole tunnels under there.

Lunette inspects a mole run

After pulling everything out, Bob tilled in some rotting wood chips and mushroom compost. We then reset the plants in three orderly rows. Lunette was a great help, as you can see.

Inspection is needed at every step

We finished that job in one day, and we were all worn out.

Hard work takes its toll!

Now we are working on garden clean up. As plants complete their usefulness we take them down.

Cleaning off one of the bean trellises

 This year we're trying trench composting. Bob digs a nice trench in the bed and we fill it with the garden debris, along with the household vegetative matter.

One of Bob's trenches

When filled, he covers the trench with soil and then will top the bed with partially decayed straw.

We still have plenty of work to do in the garden.

On to the pantry. Bob got the drywall hung on two walls and had just finished the insulation work, when we received word that our windows were going to be put in ahead of schedule! Fortunately, we were ready for them.

We now have two wonderful south facing windows in that room.

Back wall before windows

Back wall after windows

View from inside the pantry

We had them replace the two front sidelights at the same time. Now we can open and close those windows and the house has a more finished look.

Front sidelights before

Front sidelights after

Bob begins his two week vacation from Cornell on Monday. He hopes to finish hanging all of the dry wall (among other things) during that time.

Well, as you can see, we've been busy and continue to be so. We did take a day of rest and refreshment on the Equinox. One of the things we did was to take a walk to Teeter Pond in the nearby Finger Lakes National Forest. It was a very lovely time.

Teeter Pond on Sept 22, 2020

By the next update we should be further along in putting the garden to bed. We'll be plenty busy till that time.

We wish all of you a happy, healthy and safe autumn.

Till next time,

Kathleen, Bob and Lunette

Lunette sitting in the sweet potato bed