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| Bob and Beech leaves |
The full moon has passed, although clouds prevented us from seeing it. So, Frost Time has entered the annals of history.
Our weather has been fairly mild and very dry. We did have a day of snow showers on November 1, and we had a hard frost the following week.
This moon cycle we have finished our garden chores.
I picked our last fall raspberries on November 10th.
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| Final picking of fall berries |
Last Saturday (November 25) I laid straw mulch down on the strawberry and garlic beds.
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| My final garden chore |
While I was doing that, Bob dug up some sunchokes and horseradish root.
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| Digging sunchokes |
The next day, we did up a crock of fermented sunchokes using traditional kimchi seasonings: garlic, chili peppers, onion and gingerroot. (We also add horseradish). This makes an incredibly tasty product.
Ingredients for a sunchoke crock
Today Bob put up some horseradish while I did the weekly house cleaning. We had some still in the root cellar, so he didn't need to make up very much.
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| Those swim goggles really help! |
Bean threshing has also begun. So far I've only threshed out one bushel, which yielded almost one gallon of aduki beans. I have a long way to go (nine more bushels), but it's a start.
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| Threshing tools |
Earlier this month Bob got some more work done on the former deck area. He put compost on the planting beds and wood chips down on the planting beds and seating area.
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| The future back screen |
He also got the supports up for the back screen. White lattice, matching that on the porches, will be installed here in the spring.
In order for Bob to do much of his outside work, he uses a lawn tractor with various attachments. You may recall that in an earlier post, I mentioned that the tractor spent much of the summer in the repair shop. It broke down again very shortly after those costly repairs. We decided that it was time to "stop throwing good money after bad". The tractor worked hard for 10 years, but it was time to replace it. So, Bob got a new tractor.
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| New in the box! |
This one will still use his old attachments, so that saved us a good bit of money. He now knows that he needs to be a bit more careful and not work this one to death.
We celebrated a sunny Thanksgiving with a nice meal of slow roasted tempeh and winter vegetables with brown rice, and vegan sweet potato pie for dessert.
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| Thanksgiving lunch |
While lunch baked, we walked the South Rim and Gorge Trails at Buttermilk Falls State Park in Ithaca.
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| Buttermilk Falls State Park |
We ended the day with a supper of sweet potato waffles and fresh applesauce. Like many other people, we ate way too much that day.
Now we're heading toward the solstice and yule tide. Our gift shopping is all done: my fine chocolates, Bob's figs and nuts.
I'm working on Bob's annual sweater. This year I pulled from my yarn stash a dozen skeins of imported Shetland wool. This will become a very nice cardigan for my favorite sweater model.
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| Rolling skeins into balls for knitting |
Meanwhile, Bob's finalizing plans for the upstairs bathroom remodel. It's the last room in the house to be updated, and boy, does it need to be done! I'll have pictures once he's ready to get underway.
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| Time for cozy fires |
We'll be taking time to rest and relax while still doing what it takes to keep the house running. We hope all of you are able to do the same. May your holiday observances, whatever they may be, be all that you desire.
We'll catch you up again after December's full moon.
Peace to you all,
Kathleen and Bob
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| Farewell to Autumn |
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| Wintergreen with berries |
