Celebrations

The U.S. Independence Day would have been my Mom’s 97th birthday. It was also the adopted birthday of the Patriarch of the Greek extended family that shared our rural neighborhood as I grew up. It was always celebrated with a pool party at the home of one of his sons with a spitted lamb, burgers, hotdogs, sides of every description all provided by neighbors, swimming, chasing, eating, and in the end of the night, a 21 gun salute over the woods to end the day. She has been gone 33 years, Pappous for many more than that and the son that had the pool, passed away shortly after the last one of those parties I remember at too young an age.

When our children were small and we lived on the coast of Virginia, we went to one of several different events over the years. Harborfest was one, a street festival with food vendors, music, tall ships, culminating with the symphonie or one of the Military bands playing, ending their show with the 1812 Overture that started the fireworks over the river. We watched them from city parks, the oceanfront once in awhile, but always crowds and so much traffic.

Once here, we often would go to the town park in Blacksburg and watch them there, still crowds, but not as much, some food vendors, and usually a 5 or more block walk to get from parking on a neighborhood street of the nearest large parking lot to see them.

On Friday, I messaged daughter and asked if she had plans for the 4th and she said she wasn’t sure yet. I asked when Christiansburg’s fireworks were as the rest of their activities were yesterday on the 3rd. Many of the towns up here had their celebrations on the 2nd, 3rd, or planned for the 5th since today is Sunday. Christiansburg’s fireworks were on the 3rd. She and I put together a quick get together with some of her friends, us, and Grandson 1 in her back yard with a cookout, cornhole, and a front row unobstructed view of the town’s firework show from her front lawn, followed by a box of backyard fountain type fireworks for the 16 year old to enjoy (I think at least a couple of the older than 16 year olds might have had as much fun as he did). It was a surprisingly chilly evening for July and the firepit was lit, S’mores made over the fire by those who wanted them and the warmth enjoyed by the rest of us. It was a very nice, enjoyable evening.

Before it got dark, she tried to take a selfie with the young one and he wouldn’t cooperate. I had her walk up behind him and caught a picture for her. She is not short, he is tall, but the perspective made it look even more extreme.

He will be returning home on Tuesday morning to attend a residential gaming/coding camp. We will miss having him here. He has been very helpful with chores, we have had some play time, too. Yesterday before going to daughter’s, we took our two bikes, rented one of the e-bikes in town and went for an hour ride on the Huckleberry Trail. My knees didn’t take kindly to it, but there was no residual pain once we were done. He has taken walks with us, played basketball, gone to the pool, and whooped his granddad repeatedly in Ping Pong. We look forward to his return near the end of the month for a bit more time here to go to basketball camp and a bit more play and work time with us. So we have had work days, play days, and quality time with a grandson. We are so grateful that he is allowed to come stay with us for extended periods in the summer, knowing that this could possibly be the last one makes it bittersweet. He is of an age where he wants to be with his friends, wants to get a parttime job, and coming here to hang out becoming less of a draw. We are grateful the years he has come.

Movin’ In and Movin’ On

Yesterday it rained and no more hay was picked up as they don’t want to drive the length of our farm on soggy grass. The rain and front cooled down the temperatures and dried out the humidity. The hay crew will return as soon as they feel it is safe to get to it without getting stuck or damaging the grass. There is still some equipment to move as well.

The fields are already greening back up after the rain. The fig that I dug and put in the half barrel is doing great. We are in one of the states where birds are dying, and though it isn’t in our area yet and the authorities still don’t know if it is an illness or a toxin, we have been asked to remove feeders and birdbaths. I know it is for the best, but it saddens me to not see the flocks of little birds gathered at the feeders while we eat.

We took Grandson 1 out on another walk today and on the flip side, returning to the car, this gorgeous box turtle was hightailing it across the asphalt path toward the tall grass and creek on the side. It’s yellow colors were so vivid and it was in a hurry. I don’t remember how you age them, but it was about the size of a grapefruit.

Once home, Grandson 1 and I tackled some repairs on my chicken coop. I fear that in another year, the egg lid door and the east side siding are going to have to be replaced. They are spongy and rotting. I may replace them with hardy backer board and paint the coop instead of staining it. The frame is sound, just the siding material. On the way back to the house, I noticed that the Mason bee house that was just placed about a dozen days ago has residents. At least 6 of the tubes are plugged. You can see 4 of them on the left side. They don’t seem to be using the center section, just the bamboo tubes, but that is cool. I need to read up on what to do for winter and next spring. I placed it under the eaves on the east side of the garage in the midst of a flower bed that has various blooms until frost.

I love watching the native bees at work. The house was a gift from Son 1’s family to me.

Hay is done, so is the garlic

This is starting off to be a good year. The hay crew cut and baled 89 five foot round bales off of our farm. Last year is was about 82, but more than half of them were only 4 foot round bales, so there was a lot more hay this year.

Those are way down in the south field and they finished baling it mid afternon and are gathering it to move. A couple of trailer loads have already been hauled from the near field. They managed to mow and bale a few areas that we have just brush hogged in the past and got a couple bales there as well. Because they were all large bales, one of the men brought me a 4 foot bale from the cutting on his property as I use the hay in the chicken runs as the hens make great compost from it to use in the garden.

The garlic was pulled and left in the sun for a few days and when rain showers threatened, it was moved to the garage floor for a few more days. This afternoon the garlic was trimmed of stalks and roots and left out to further cure in the garage on a raised screen. After a couple of weeks, it will be moved to the wire shelves in the non climate controlled part of the basement. There are 83 heads of garlic, plus 4 tiny ones from the bulblets from last year that were planted, harvested, and will be replanted this fall to make heads for next year. I ended up giving garlic to daughter and Son 1 for their gardens from last year’s crop, so I think I will reduce the amount planted this fall to about 50, enough to get us through a year.

With the garlic pulled, the last box can be finished in the garden. The end was cut last spring, but the garlic bed had to be cleared before it could be fastened in place. Since the peas are all pulled and the stalks chopped for the compost, that bed will be planted with a second crop of bush beans. The first crop is blooming and soon there will be beans to enjoy and freeze.

We have Grandson 1 for only a few more days this trip, he will return later in the summer for another week or so. Rain is expected for the next couple of days, but I am hopeful that it will be dry and cooler on the weekend so that we can get the chicken coop repaired and stained. The repairs can be made between rain showers, but it has to be dry to stain it. Today Grandson 1’s hard work was rewarded with a play day, getting him in a pick up basketball game with two other guys, followed by an hour and a half in the local outdoor pool to cool off.

The new asparagus bed has not produced any growth, but the old one is shooting up the tall thin stalks that feed the crowns for the rest of the summer. I am hopeful that the new crowns in the contained bed will produce, if not, I will try to dig more of the crowns from the old bed and transplant them, or move the new galvanized sides around it and fill it with more soil.

This month’s spinning challenge coincides with the Tour de France, so it began on June 26 and will end on July 18. We were to challenge ourselves but complete spinning at least 25 g of fiber and making something from it. My challenge was to learn how to ply on the fly with the Turkish spindle and use it and some other wools I have spun on the spindles to make a hat for my shop. I got the first 28 g of my wool done by yesterday and the hat started today while I work on the second half of the wool. I must say, that though it was a learning curve, and my yarn is much heavier than I normally do on spindles, it is 3 ply and a good weight for knitting the hat. I feel like a new spinner as I get the hang of it and I’m sure in time, my yarn weight will thin down. The wool I am spinning I usually spin a bit thicker anyway.

When I finish spinning for this challenge, I will begin working on my Breed Blanket wool of the month, Navajo Churro, not a soft wool, but this is nicely prepared and should spin thin enough for my blanket square.

The spindle I purchased from a destash from Sweden spent 28 days being held hostage by customs in Chicago. The tracking a few days ago showed it on the move and it should arrive here tomorrow or Friday. I also purchased from destash a plying size spindle with a hummingbird painted on one of it’s wings. Though it is new to me, it is my oldest spindle, having been made in 2015. I am quite enamoured with it.

When my Dad was alive, he filled the beds in the back and side of his back yard with orange Daylilies and Zinneas. When we bought our farm in the mountains, he dug several clumps of the lilies for me and I planted them along the stream bank at the top of the property as there was no house then. After he passed away, I went up and dug a couple of clumps from the stream bed where they had spread and stabilized the bank and brought them down to the house. They are not the first nor last to bloom from my collection, but they bloom the longest. In the past couple of days, they have begun to open.

And in his memory, I plant zinneas each year. I miss him always and the flowers he loved are bittersweet to me.