Frost Time 2023

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.

Final picking of fall berries

Last Saturday (November 25) I laid straw mulch down on the strawberry and garlic beds.

My final garden chore

While I was doing that, Bob dug up some sunchokes and horseradish root.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

Thanksgiving lunch

While lunch baked, we walked the South Rim and Gorge Trails at Buttermilk Falls State Park in Ithaca.

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.

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.

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

Farewell to Autumn

Wintergreen with berries

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

Seed Fall/ Frost Time 2021

First Frost

The moon was full this morning, just before the lunar eclipse. I was up to watch that. I normally rise at 4:30 but woke at 3:45. I figured as long as I was awake, I'd watch the eclipse. It was a peaceful way to begin the day. That full moon brought to a close our month of  Seed Fall/Frost Time.

Most of the news this month centers around closing down the garden for the winter.

Celery has all been dried to use later.

Six celery plants here!

Pears have been dried or eaten fresh.

Pears dipped in pineapple juice. Yum!

Beets and carrots have been harvested and are in the root cellar.

Cylindra beets

Scarlet Nantes carrots

The sunchokes have been dug and set down in the fermentation crock with kim chi spices. So good!

Sunchokes

Ready to get started on the "chokes"

Bob has dug the horseradish roots.

Starting the horseradish harvest

The roots are all washed and waiting. We will grind them and set them down on the 20th. That's our last job to do.

The garlic has been planted. I also planted some shallots and walking onions to see how they will winter over.

Cleaning up a bean trellis

So, the garden is finally empty! 

Bob covered each planting bed with mulched leaves.

Adding a layer of leaf mulch

I shoveled the decaying wood chips from off of the paths and put them on top of the leaves that Bob laid down.

Layering on wood chips

It took a couple of weeks, but the weather held fair and the job is all done. Everything is tucked in and ready to rest. It's a good feeling!

A big job well done

Seed Fall is also the time when I process seeds I've saved from the garden. I only grow heirloom and open pollenated varieties, so I can save my seeds with confidence that they will perform as expected when I plant them. Here I'm putting away Dester tomatoes, castor beans, garlic chives, coriander (cilantro), and strawflowers. I also put away some white patty pan squash seeds.

Saving seeds, a part of the harvest

On the heat pump front: the crew returned and did some clean up work outside, but the ground was too wet. I think they'll have to wait until the spring to finish up that job. Our heat pump is due to be installed any day now. All of the parts finally came in and they said they should be here to install the middle or end of November. That's okay, we're still using up fuel oil.

This is the time of year when we transition to rest time. Our focus shifts from providing for our physical beings, to providing for our spiritual beings.

Ready to settle in

We spend time relaxing physically, reading, thinking, enjoying nature and exercising our creative muscles. For me, that's needlework and harp work. For Bob, that's planning or working on home improvement projects and tending the bird feeders.

To live a balanced life is to live attentive to both the physical and the spiritual life. We like to think of our year like the ebb and flow of the tide. It's a construct that makes the most sense to us.

Ah, the snow is starting to fall again, inviting me to settle in and recharge.

We hope that you can make an effort to do likewise. It will prove to be well worth your while.

May your Thanksgiving be peace filled. Be careful and be safe.

Until next time,

Kathleen and Bob

Holiday treat, shortbread acorn cookies

 

Who needs a gym membership?