Bright Time/Flowering Time 2022

 

Assorted salad greens

In case anyone noticed, yes, I am a couple of days late updating you on the happenings in Bright Time/Flowering Time. Lay the blame for my tardiness on the strawberries. I've been very busy picking and processing a large crop. More about that later.

Our weather has been fairly typical; a few hot and humid days followed by a couple of cooler and drier days. We've had perhaps a little less rain than usual.

The garden is growing well and everything has been planted. Here's a sample in pictures:

Dry beans around a trellis

More dry beans along a different trellis

Beets

Swiss Chard

Cabbage

Kale

Red and Blue potato plants

Tomato plant

Things are already going into the freezer:

Rhubarb Ginger sauce

Shiitake mushrooms

Garlic scapes which were made into pesto

Cilantro

Strawberries

Greens

The dehydrator has been busy, too:

Bob helps prep berries to dehydrate

One batch of dried berries

I've dried berry slices and leathers. A dehydrator is a very handy item to have, especially when you have an over abundance of something. Nearly anything can be dried for later use.

We've enjoyed quite a few salads and micro greens from thinning out our beet bed.

Beet microgreens thinned from bed

You can see what has been keeping me busy. Bob hasn't been idle, either.

Bob measures the concrete tube

Bob has poured the footers for both of the porches that we will build. That's where the work stands at the moment. More pressing issues have arisen.

This week the crew returned and did the finish work on the excavation site of our ground loop for the heat pump.

Leveled and seeded ground

No more furrows!

It's nice to see the ground all level again. Hopefully the grass and white clover will start sprouting soon. Now Bob is at work doing the necessary edge clean up work around the vegetable garden.

Last week was our green energy open house. Some people were interested in the ground source heat pump and the air source water heater heat pump. Several others were interested in the induction cook top and the garden. Bob discussed the "stuff" in the cellar. I handled the cook top and garden. Three hours of talking takes it out of you!

At the beginning of June, we also had a visit from extended family members that live on the west coast. It was a nice, but all too short visit. We wish them well on the rest of their travels.

Well, we anticipate just getting busier from this point on, between the garden work and the porch construction. We will try to keep in touch around the time of the full moon each month.

Till next time, enjoy your summer,

Kathleen and Bob

Greens heading for the freezer

Shoots Show/Growing Time 2022

 

Strawberries in bloom

A full moon tonight and another month ends for us. This has been a busy month. Our winter rest is definitely over!

Our weather has been a mix of above and below normal temperatures. Hardly any in the "seasonal" range. It's been a bit dry, too. Some rain is predicted for the next couple of days.

I took advantage of the nice days and finished my spring cleaning.

Getting the windows washed

 

I finished washing the windows and curtains, cleaned the refrigerator and touched up dings and chips in the paint. I also got the laundry room door painted and painted the wooden box that encloses our geothermal lines into the house.

Painting the wooden enclosure

Bob and I cleaned out and straightened our big garden shed, too. Everything is all organized again.

Step 1: empty the shed

Bob finally got my clothesline back up. It's so nice to be able to hang clothes outside again.

Curtains on the line

Bob's been busy, too. The electric fence has been repaired and is ready for the season. We found a woodchuck in the yard. He had skirted our wire. That's been taken care of. He can enjoy the 35+ acres that are outside of our fenced area.

Bob has also done some cleaning in the cellar and sorted through the clothes in his dresser and closet. (Hurray!)

The big auger

The work on the porch is well underway. Bob rented an auger and dug the holes for the footings the easier way. No more strained back and PT visits. Due to the cost of the rental, we dug these four footing holes, along with one for the clothesline pole and three for the porch we will be putting on the west side of the house. We won't need to rent the auger again.

On Friday, Bob rented a cement mixer and together we poured the concrete for the four footers on the east side. It was a long, hot afternoon, but it's done.

Bob mixing it up

The garden is beginning to show growth. The peas, beets and potatoes are up.

Adirondack Blue potato plant 

I have all of the cool weather plants set in and they're beginning to put on some size. I have my warm weather plants ready to go in - probably next week.

Setting in cabbage starts

Bob picked up a load of mushroom compost and has that spread on the new planting bed.

Compost on new bed

The new raspberry plants are in; red and black.

Red raspberry plants

And, the strawberries are full of blooms, as are the currants. Rhubarb is looking good, too.

The strawberry bed

The blueberries and fruit trees have very few blossoms this year. They all had an abundance of flowers last year, so they're taking a "rest year". Too bad people aren't as smart as plants.

Things will begin to pick up speed here very soon, so there will be more to share as the season progresses.

One last note. The group, HeatSmart FLX South, has asked up to be part of their green energy house tour group. The program is set up to let people see what energy saving projects can look like in an actual home setting. Our open house is scheduled for June 7th, from 4-7pm at our house, 2178 Grove St in Lodi. Any of our local readers are invited to drop in to check out our geothermal home heating system, our heat pump water heater, our solar panels, electric car and charger, induction cook stove and insulation/conservation measures. We hope to see some of you then.

Flowering Time is ahead. Let yourself bloom!

Kathleen and Bob

Our only trillium on the property

Renewal Time/Cold Time 2022

 

Our creek on the Solstice

Snowy greetings at the end of Renewal/Cold Time. Our weather has been all over the place; unusually warm and unusually cold, rainy, foggy, icy and now snowy. Often an assortment of these conditions in the same week.

Taughannock Falls State Park

On the Solstice it was seasonably cold. We walked in our own woods, and then took a walk at Taughannock Falls. It was an enjoyable day.

Foggy Christmas day

Christmas here was green and foggy. A dreary day to relax indoors and read our holiday gift books.

The last couple of weeks we've had sleet and freezing rain periodically with cold wind chills.

Snowflakes under ice

I took this picture of the gate post in front of our house. These snowflakes are under the layer of ice! Some pretty unique circumstances would have to occur to bring that about. All of the woods around were filled with glittering ice covered trees, as if made of crystal. Lovely!

Snow this morning

Last night a strong storm came through and we went from 0 to 10" of snow overnight. It's still snowing late this afternoon. It does make everything look better. I always believe that if it's going to be winter, then there should be snow.

My garden tasks are all done for now.

Beans all done

I threshed out 11 bushel of bean pods and got 8.5 gallons of beans to put in the pantry.

Preparing the seed order

The garden plans for 2022 have all been finalized and the seeds have been ordered. Nothing more to do until I start seeds in March.

Bob's been working on the laundry room. He removed the paneling and found mold on the drywall underneath near the washing machine.

Mold on the drywall

Mold further down the wall

This didn't surprise us. When we moved in we could see that there was an untended, longstanding leak situation there. All of the drywall has been removed. The new drywall is up and Bob is now taping and mudding.

Getting a clean start

He has also done the electrical work: moved the wall switch, added a porch light and switch and pulled the wire for an electric dryer hook up.

We're making sure that we take time to rest and restore ourselves also at this time of year.

Sweater in the works

I've been knitting. I finished this sweater yesterday. Next I'll begin work on a vest for Bob. I've also been continuing to work on my harp music.

Reading has been a major activity for both of us. We've already finished a few books this season. There are many more waiting for us.

Books we're reading right now

Tomorrow perhaps we'll get out to enjoy some snowshoeing. Lots of fresh air and fresh chi await.

Oh! I forgot to mention anything about our new heat pumps. We've had them for a month and a half now and are very pleased! We are warmer than before and it's a constant temperature. We like that very much! Our first electric bill was what we consider reasonable and it saved us about $45 over what the old fuel oil boiler would have cost us. We did supplement with the wood stove on the two days that we had sub zero temperatures with 35 mph wind gusts. Not bad!

That's all of the news and views from here for now. We hope you are well and taking the time to rebuild yourselves.

Till next time,

Kathleen and Bob

Solstice walk

At Taughannock Falls State Park

Long Nights Time/Darkest Depths 2021

Holiday joy to you

 

Season's Greetings from Thistledown Gardens at Long Nights Time.

We are well here as this turning point of the seasons approaches. We've got our boosters, our books and our amusements and are snuggling in for a restful and restorative time.

We've taken care of the final tasks of Ingathering.

Preparing Cabbage

We put down our fermentation crocks: one of sunchokes and one of sauerkraut.

Bob packs cabbage into the crock

We also put down 7 3/4 quarts of horseradish.

A year's worth of horseradish

Currently I am threshing out the dry beans. I have seven more bushel to do. I've been dawdling at it.

Of course, our big news is that the heat pump systems are in and working very well.

The old fuel oil boiler and its "saddle bag" water heater had to be removed first. What a sooty and wet mess that made!

Old boiler before removal

Old water heater before removal

The crew installed the new heat pump water heater quickly. We were only without hot water for a couple of hours.

New water heater in place

New ground loop pump

Then they removed the old boiler and installed the pump to the ground loop.

New geothermal heat pump

Next, they installed the heat pump for the baseboard system. This took quite a bit longer and the work was interrupted by Thanksgiving and the weekend immediately following. There were a few other glitches, like a faulty part and some difficulties with our old pipes. We were without central heat for a couple of days and nights and without heat in the bedroom for another couple of nights, but we have the wood stove and warm blankets and survived just fine. It took six working days from start to finish.

Now everything is in and working beautifully. We love it! First, of course is the environmental superiority of the technology. Second, the house is at a nice constant temperature and it's so much quieter than the old boiler system was. 

Our old boiler was quite efficient (90%), but this one is 300% efficient. That means, it uses 1/3 of the energy that the old one did! We've haven't had to use the wood stove since it's been online. We'll only need it if we get a week long cold snap with daytime temperatures below the teens. Of course, we can always light the stove for "atmosphere".

Bob has begun a new, and hopefully relatively quick home redo project. We've only got two more rooms to do in the house: the upstairs bathroom and the laundry room. He's chosen to do the laundry room.

Here are some "before" pictures for you:

South and west walls

West and north walls

East and south walls

The room is small: 8'x9'. It was once a porch that was enclosed. There is no cellar nor slab beneath it. You can see we have a laundry sink and an Energy Star washer. Bob's already done the plumbing work necessary for these. It's set up for a propane dryer. We have no dryer. Bob will upgrade the wiring and put in an electric dryer outlet for the benefit of future owners, removing the propane option.

The walls are covered with a plastic coated, dark paneling. Bob began removing this today.

That paneling's got to go!

He will address drywall concerns and some nasty air leak issues behind it. We had the exterior door replaced a few years ago, but they could have done a better job with air sealing. Bob will need to fix this, too.

Our Solstice tree

We mark the Solstice or Yule in our home. We celebrate it as a joyous time to usher in rest and spiritual and emotional peace and restoration. 

Freshly baked fruitcake

In preparation we made our fruitcakes at Thanksgiving. They've been mellowing in the root cellar, receiving a splash of brandy occasionally to keep them merry.

Fruit balls rolled in coconut or nuts

We also made our dried fruit and nut balls last week. These will be our festive treats.

On Tuesday, the Solstice, we'll have chickpea and sweet potato curry over brown basmati rice for our main meal. We'll enjoy solitude and perhaps a walk - if the hunters would stay at home. Our celebrations will continue through the weekend.

A glimpse of our big tree

Whatever, and however you chose to celebrate, we wish you joy, peace, health and comfort.

Till next year,

Kathleen and Bob

May the season kindle new fires