Song Time/Falling Leaves Time 2024

 

Autumn Greetings

Song Time/Falling Leaves Time was ushered in with the September Harvest Moon.

An interesting moon shot

Bob got a shot of it when the heavy cloud cover briefly parted.

This month has been very busy with the garden. Until this week we had warm and beautiful weather. It was ideal for finishing the harvest and cleaning up the garden.

Beet harvesting

Beets and carrots have been pulled and stored. The potatoes are all in the root cellar.

Three kinds of potatoes

The beans are all in the cellar waiting to be threshed (13 bushels worth). Threshing begins in about a month.

Applesauce making

I made applesauce and both freezers are now full.

Bob helps dry apples

Right now, we're dehydrating apple slices.

Bob's shiitake logs had one final flush for the season. These mushrooms were dried for tasty soups this winter.

A good mushroom harvest

All that remains to be put up are horseradish and a crock of spicy sunchokes. We typically do these on Thanksgiving weekend.

Shoveling compost over straw

While I was finishing the harvests, Bob began weeding and amending the empty beds with compost.

Pulling off bean vines

I helped by pulling out the tomatoes, eggplants and peppers and cleaning off all of those bean trellises.

The upcoming week is supposed to be dry and warmer again, so our goal is to have the cleanup and amending all done by the end of October.

Firewood assembly line

Bob cut his medium wood today. This is wood that is too large to break by hand, and too small for the chainsaw. He's come up with a handy way to cut it into stove length pieces. He sets up his compound miter saw and has the bin filled in no time at all. 

On a warm day next week, he'll fill the wood bin in the cellar with regular stove logs which are already cut. We had our little "seasoning" fire in the stove just a couple of nights ago, so we're all ready for the cold weather.

Cayuga Lake

We got away for one walk this month. We went to Cayuga Wildlife Management Area (formerly known as Bell Station Preserve). It was peaceful with nice views of Cayuga Lake.

We are now in the season when we readjust our balance. We shift from a focus on providing for our physical needs, to a focus of providing for our inner needs. From growing, harvesting and preserving, to rest, creative endeavors and activities to feed our inner selves.

So now we gather the books, and I pick up the needles and we sit by the fire. We take time to think and to listen. A pot of tea and good music will be our companions. Nature rests and so do we.

We hope all of you can practice at least some of this, for your wellbeing, as well as for those whose lives you touch.

We bid you peaceful rest.

Till next time,

Kathleen and Bob

Happy Shiitake log

At Cayuga Wildlife Area

Fire Fly TIme/ Long Days Time 2024

Our garden July 20th

Well, here we are at the high point of summer. Our weather has been quite warm and at times, stormy. We haven't experienced any tornadoes or microbursts at our house, but they have been nearby. Last Monday we lost power about 6pm, just as I was finishing cooking dinner. The power was not restored for about 30 hours. Tuesday was very hot. We had no air conditioning, no power for cooking or to run the well pump (so no water or plumbing for you city folks). I would not open the refrigerator or freezers, so very little food, too. To cope with this, we made an impromptu road trip. We spent the day in the air-conditioned car, shops, restaurants and by Seneca Lake. We were able to keep cool, have food to eat, water to drink and access to working bathrooms, in addition to relaxing by the lake. We made an enjoyable day out of a very difficult situation.

Seneca Lake view

Full garden on July 20th

Our garden is coming right along.

We are processing chard, kale and cabbage for the freezer.

Cabbage and friends

The peas are all done, as are lettuce and black raspberries.

Raspberries and Blueberries

Bob picked all of the red and black currants that we wanted to freeze. The rest are left for the wildlife to enjoy.

Black currants

Red currants

Now the blueberries are beginning to come in. We have five varieties which ripen at slightly different times. This spreads out our harvest nicely.

A generous supply of dill

I have dried our dill and am freezing parsley and celery leaves in small batches. I'm also drying Calendula blossoms for our fall and winter tea mix.

Calendula-a basket of sunshine

Bob has harvested the garlic and shallots, which are laid out to cure right now.

Curing garlic

The shiitake mushrooms are coming in, but we're not overrun by them yet.

Shiitake mushrooms

The wine cap mushrooms had stopped producing because they had used up their growing medium. To remedy this, Bob got a load of free wood chips in Ithaca and has topped off the bed.

Replenishing the bed

Once the mycelium has spread into the new chips the mushrooms will begin fruiting again.

Fire Blight

One of our apple trees has developed Fire Blight. This is a very nasty disease. Bob has been dealing with that. Fighting it requires severe pruning, burning the trimmings and diligent monitoring to watch for any spreading of the disease. We hope to save the tree because this variety we use for eating out of hand and making applesauce.

Bob's been able to tend to a few of these things because my arm is slowly healing.

Starting to work again

About two weeks after my accident, I was allowed to use my hand and wrist, while keeping my shoulder immobilized. I could begin to chop vegetables and do some needlework (hurrah!).

Finally, something to do

After one month, the break was healing, and my sling came off. I could begin to increase movement and weight up to five pounds. This is where I am at now. It's still pretty uncomfortable and there's much I can't do. It's very easy to overdo and pay for it later. But I can now comb my own hair, dress and bathe myself. For all of this, I am very thankful! I will see my orthopedist again in two weeks (eight weeks post injury). He said that if all is well, it will be my last visit with him. Each day there seems to be some improvement, if I don't overdo the preceding day.

Bob's new car

Just last week we bought a new car. We've never had a NEW car. We knew we'd need to get a newer car because our Honda is 20 years old and beginning to need more repairs. The Leaf isn't as useful to us because of its limited range. We've been saving for this, and our investments have been performing well, so we decided it was time to act.

We bought an all-electric Hyundai Ioniq 5. They offered a very good package of warranty and extras. It gets good reviews and has a great range. We really like it.

We are in the process of selling the Leaf, and once we get a few more errands done with the Honda, we will sell that, too.

I'll stop here. You can see that we are hanging in there and looking forward to more progress.

Enjoy the rest of your summer.

Till next time,

Kathleen and Bob

Black raspberries ripening

Young Acorns

Blustery Winds Time 2024

 

Birthday flowers

Last night's full moon was beautiful. Our weather has been a mixed bag this month. We've had very warm days, followed by cold and rain. We had snow over the weekend. I believe it was only the second time that Bob got out his snow thrower all season. Sun yesterday and today has melted nearly all of it. 

During the nice weather we did some outside chores.

"Five, Six Pick Up Sticks"

 

I gathered all of the branches and twigs which had fallen in the yard during our windy weather. These will be used for stove kindling.

Bob prunes an apple tree

Bob got out and pruned his apple trees. He took some of the cuttings to Cornell Wildlife Hospital for a sick beaver to enjoy.

Shiitake logs

Then he set up his shiitake logs for the season ahead.

Now he's busy working on the bathroom remodel. We finally got a new toilet. This is the fourth try. The first had a molding defect. The second time they sent the wrong model. The third time the tank was broken. We had all of these delivered, but we had to take the returns back ourselves. We got tired of hefting them around. We decided to get a different brand and drove to Henrietta to pick it up ourselves. It appears to be fine. We're glad that nonsense is over. I was beginning to think we'd have to use a five-gallon bucket for the job!

Closet wall coming down

Bob's got the tub area drywalled, taped and mudded. Now he's removing the walls around the closet. It takes quite a bit of muscle to get the framing out. He also has to deal with a couple of different ceiling levels in this area. It looks complicated to me.

Seed starting begins

I've started many of my garden seeds: cabbage, kale, chard, tat soi, lettuce, spinach, celery, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and sweet potatoes. I'm still waiting for the peppers and sweet potatoes to sprout.

Three weeks later...

Everything else is up and has been potted up into the small sized pots. After they've filled these out, they'll be potted up into a larger sized pot.

I finished my hardanger project in plenty of time for spring decorating.

Pansy runner all finished

Lately I've been working on a cardigan for myself. There's just a little bit more time to enjoy leisure activities: reading, working puzzles and needlework. Our larder is emptying out. We still have a few potatoes, some frozen fruits and vegetables and lots of sweet potatoes.

Sweet potato fries

Since we have so many sweet potatoes left we eat them nearly every day. This is one of our favorite ways to fix them. 

I cut the potatoes into sticks and drizzle them with olive oil. I toss them to distribute the oil and then sprinkle on an herb mixture of salt, cayenne, black pepper, oregano, garlic powder and rosemary. These bake for 45 minutes at 400 degrees, stirring halfway through baking time. Since the potatoes get sweeter with storage, ours are pretty sweet. Neither Bob nor I like really sweet vegetables, so we like to dress the fries with vinegar. That makes them very tasty. 

Despite our cooler than normal temperatures right now, spring is at hand. By the end of next month we should be planting peas and setting out the cool weather seedlings. 

Nature's stirring from its rest and the pace of our lives will pick up in response.

Enjoy this final bit of rest and look forward to a new season of growth and life.

Till next time,

Kathleen and Bob

A foggy morning at our house

Foggy lane to our wooded property

Long Nights Time/Darkest Depths 2023

 

Holiday Greetings

The winter solstice and the full Cold moon have passed. The Great Wheel of the seasons has turned again and Long Nights Time/Darkest Depths has waxed and waned.

Winter weather has yet to find us. Only a couple of dustings of snow and above seasonal temperatures have been our lot. Our fall cover crop of oats and peas is still thriving.

We may not have snow, but we have had Snow Geese.

Snow Geese overhead

On our daily walks the whole week before Christmas, thousands of migrating Snow Geese passed overhead.

Look at all of the lines of geese

It's really something exciting to experience. One day we were lucky enough to have a very large flock come down to feed in a harvested corn field right next to our path. (Also lucky Bob was carrying his camera!)

Coming in for rest and refreshment

We still see some stragglers going over, but the big migration is done until March.

As regards our tasks and projects:

Bob's still working on the door he's fabricating for an upstairs bedroom. The old door frame won't accommodate the size of a modern door, so he's making one out of excess old floorboards. This will make the door like some of the existing doors upstairs.

He's also doing more research and planning for the remodel of the upstairs bathroom.

I'm nearly finished threshing our beans; only two more bushels to do. I hope to finish on December 31st and start the New Year fresh.

We're finally done with our apples! Since our weather has been so warm, our root cellar is not cooling down as well as it should, so we can't keep the apples fresh all winter. 

Final batch of applesauce

In addition to eating many apples daily, we cooked some smaller batches of applesauce in the crock pot. Some of this was frozen and some eaten fresh.

The remainder of the soft apples were spread in the woods behind our house for the wildlife.

Wild Turkeys by our garden fence

The wild Turkeys that browse our woods really enjoyed them. They visited for several mornings. We saw a dozen together at times.

On the solstice we had a nice meal, relaxed and read.

Quiet holidays

On Christmas we had another nice meal, played a game and walked the North Rim Trail at Taughannock Falls State Park.

Upper falls at Taughannock

Gorge the falls empty into leading to high falls

It was a nice and restful day.

We've never gone in for noisy and late New Year's celebrations, so as is our custom, we'll read, listen to good music and perhaps watch an old movie (Holiday Affair or Bachelor Mother).

With this full moon we entered Renewal Time. I think our New Year's observance supports this well. So, our goal for our current month is renewal on all levels: physical, mental and spiritual. (Of course, they're all of a whole.)

I'll leave you with a gallery of holiday trimmings around our house. Enjoy.

Peace and health to you all in the coming year. May calmness imbue your being.

Till next time,

Kathleen and Bob

Family postcards created by my late father in law