A few weeks ago we had Florida kid and grandkid time.
This week, I have Northern Virginia kid and grandson time, helping out between kids starting school and grandson. Yesterday was Metro rides and two Smithsonian Museums.
Today the National Aquarium in Baltimore.
Tomorrow, I rest by the pool with a picnic and book and rest my feet, back, and budget. He is fun, but at 8, his energy level far exceeds Grandmom.
October brings a cruise with the Virginia Beach kids and grands.
A few weeks ago we had Florida kid and grandkid time.
This week, I have Northern Virginia kid and grandon time, helping out between kids starting school and grandson. Yesterday was Meyro ride and two Smithsonian Museums.
Today the National Aquarium in Baltimore.
Tomorrow, I rest by the pool with a picnic and book and rest my feet, back, and budget. He is fun, but at 8, his energy level far exceeds Grandmom.
Our moutain farm and the beauty it provides for peace and thoughtful work and pleasure.
My hens and their daily presents, and my loving hubby who indulges me this project, the time to work the birds and gardens, and his willingness to take over their care while I embark on a week of childcare in Northern Virginia.
Our gardens for their food to nourish us and their flowers to provide color and beauty indoors and outside.
For our two healthy, playful pups who entertain us with their antics and offer unconditional love.
For my loving family who keep us in their lives with calls, pictures & visits, allow us to be occasional care givers to their precious children. To my sibs who both blessed me with their generous nature recently.
Life is good on our mountain farm.
Our moutain farm and the beauty it provides for peace and thoughtful work and pleasure.
My hens and their daily presents, and my loving hubby who indulges me this project, the time to work the birds and gardens, and his willingness to take over their care while I embark on a week of childcare in Northern Virginia.
Our gardens for their food to nourish us and their flowers to provide color and beauty indoors and outside.
For our two healthy, playful pups who entertain us with their antics and offer unconditional love.
For my loving family who keep us in their lives with calls, pictures & visits, allow us to be occasional care givers to their precious children. To my sibs who both blessed me with their generous nature recently.
Life is good on our mountain farm.
Our mountain life began almost a 9 years ago when we began looking for 10 acres of wooded mountain property on which to build our retirement home. We began our quest in November, found our piece of heaven in December, three times larger than we were seeking and basically open fields. We closed in January just as snow began to fall, walked the perimeter in flurries then headed home a day early in real snowfall to avoid getting snowed in. The following November the house was begun and almost two years later we moved in.
Our home is surrounded by farms. Each of these farms has rock piles where the past generations have painstaking hand collected them from the fields and gardens and piled them out of the way of mowers.
Because this county is so rocky the primary products are animals. Many raise beef cattle, a few sheep, pigs or goats, and horses. Fields of hay are mowed for winter feed and provide pasture for the cattle. Few have chickens for meat or eggs.
While each homestead has a vegetable garden and most households put away some produce, almost none of them harvest their grass fed beef for their own use. They sell to a fedlot where their beeves will be fattened on grain for commercial sale. It amazes me to see our neighbors in the grocery purchasing eggs, canned ir out of season fruits and vegetables and feedlot meat when we pay a premium at the farmer’s market for grass finished meat from one of the few who do eat and sell their own grass finished meat.
If this is something you have never considered and holds any interest, read Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.
The chickens are getting supervised free range time these days. The nine pullets are laying 5 eggs each day now, 4 of the girls still haven’t figured it out yet. Once they are all laying, we are going to have many eggs to share with friends. Selling a few dozen eggs will help with feed costs.
The summer is winding down, the weeds in the garden have the upper hand, the flowers are fading, the evening temperatures are getting cooler. We have had a couple of days reprieve from the rain.
Since hubby started the summer off with knee surgery, we aren’t planning our usual week of skiing this winter, instead will take a week long cruise with our youngest and his family this fall. This means that the fall mowing is being done a bit early this year. The task was started this afternoon and it was a challenge because the rain has resulted in a very thick stand that has grown tall quickly.
Some of our neighbors have just gotten their hay in, they will not have to do a fall mowing. Our hay was done in June, between rains and our fields will require a fall mow. One of the plants that we fight constantly is an invasive imported plant called Stickweed. It is a fairly attractive plant, but neither cows nor horses will eat it. It is a perennial and comes up anywhere in the yard that isn’t mowed at least once a month.
Mowing in the late afternoon has benefits and hazards. Our farms seems to grow rocks. Areas that are mowed regularly have been cleared of rocks or we know where the rocks are, so we can avoid them. When the ground is damp, sometime a rock that has been level with the ground will be flipped up to the surface by the tractor tires which results in the brush hog picking it up on the next round and either throwing it out or rattling it around the brush hog housing. Each mowing results in the collecting of more rocks being removed to safe piles.
One of the benefits is having a deer wander out into the yard, stopping to see what is going on, then moving on to a safer location. The evening skies are lovely to watch as each round is mowed.
This is an interesting word that has erupted into our language in the past decade. One of the bumper stickers seen in town says “Buy Local, Eat Local, Live Local.” In the interest of reducing our carbon footprint, it is a mantra that we strive to live. There are snack food items that we desire and indulge in on occasion, hubby likes cola, crackers and chips and I enjoy pistachios and coffee. I know that these are not local and in no way can be local. For the bulk of our food, we grow it, buy it at the local Farmer’s Market, or do without. We grow organically and patronize those farmer’s who do likewise. We astutely avoid GMO products and seek non GMO snacks, oils, and grains that we do not grow.
The garden each year is planted with those vegetables that both of us welcome on the table. There are some that I would gladly enjoy, but hubby doesn’t care for, and it isn’t worth my time and effort for them. I will indulge in the purchase of butter beans, squash, and Brussels sprouts at the Farmer’s Market when they are in season. So far, I haven’t started an asparagus bed, so they too are a seasonal treat from the market. That said, the variations in the summers here have altered the success of various crops from year to year. There have been years when the pumpkins, gourds, and cukes have nearly overrun the garden. This year only the cukes survived and only for a couple of short weeks produced. Most years, the tomatoes have been abundant, but the cool wet summer has not been kind to them and though, there will probably be enough for our winter fare, there won’t be much to share with our son’s family. Some years, I get almost no peas and beans, this year they are plentiful and with the cool wetness, the broccoli and cabbage are thriving.
With the peppers generously producing and not finding frozen pepper much to my liking, I have been looking for ways to enjoy them. Yesterday afternoon, with the temperatures cool enough to allow the oven to be on, I baked bread. Herb and onion bread, a recipe I have had for decades, one that was always enjoyed by my family and relatively quick to make. It is not a batter bread, but a quick yeast bread that is ready for the oven in about an hour and a half. It smells delightful baking, is delicious hot from the oven and toasted the next day. Since the oven was going to be on, while the bread rose, I minced and chopped veggies, thawed a cup of Farro, and browned a pound of local ground beef, mixed it together and stuffed peppers from the garden. There will be several more meals from the stuffing that was prepared. That and a homegrown cabbaged sautéed, made a meal fit for any guest, had there been one.
With a half a loaf of bread left, this morning’s feast was toasted herb and onion bread with homegrown fresh scrambled eggs with local hard cheese.
Life is good on the farm. By the way, does anyone want a beautiful large Buff Orpington rooster;-)
My new spinning stool, made especially for me by my wonderful brother.
Currently, I’m spinning a David Simpson’s Fiber Blends, colorway Tidal Pool, 95% Merino Wool 5% Silk. There are 3 1/3 oz. that is aiming to be a light worsted, project undecided.
The summer knit is a black lace sweater. This is a reknit for daughter after an unfortunate accident terminated the original. My other summer knit is a sock pattern that is my first toe up pattern and I started them last February when we flew to Colorado to ski. Needless to say, they haven’t been a priority.
Half of this past week, we left our farm and traveled about 3 hours north to celebrate the 90th birthday for my active and vibrant Dad and to have two of our grandchildren baptized. The site of these celebrations is where our family began vacationing 57 years ago. I have not been a regular for all of those years, but all three of our children were baptized there, our daughter was married there 3 years ago and her children were the grands baptized there this year. The gathering was 4 generations, my Dad and step Mom, hubby, both of my siblings, one of their spouses, cousins, nieces and nephews, their spouses and children, two of our children and their families. The eldest, my Dad was 90, the youngest was a nephew at 17 months.
It was a wonderful gathering, though we missed a few family members, we did get a group photo taken of those in attendance. We returned home last Saturday and our daughter and her family left Sunday. We really enjoyed having them here for 12 days and wish they lived closer than the 13+ hours away that they do live.
The week allowed us to add 256 ounces of blackberry, blueberry, and black n’ blue jam to the summer production. Half of that returned to Florida with our daughter.
Finally, the tomatoes are turning red, though with this week’s highs in the 70s and lows in the upper 40s, production is slow. What we get will be put away for winter.
This is 3 of today’s eggs, typical of the variety we are collecting. The Silver Laced Wyandotte and the Delaware are laying the normal sized cream colored eggs. The Red Rock crosses are laying the larger dark brown eggs and one of them is laying the dinosaur sized eggs, often with double yolks. The dogs love when I cook one of them for their breakfast supplement. The number of eggs collected is exceeding the number we are using. One dozen was gifted to a neighbor, another will be gifted to my cousin. Three dozen were sold last night at my weekly Clicks and Sticks knitting group. We still have 4 gals that haven’t even started laying yet.
This morning started with a call from the Post Office that the fall meat chicks were awaiting me to come pick them up. They are now safely, securely bedded in the brooder with food, water, and their heat lamp. They are so cute at 2 days old, but this breed grows so quickly that they will soon not be so cute.
We have recently begun seeing a dog trainer that trains without the use of treats, to try to make us the alpha members of the pack and to get the 185 pound Mastiff to defer to us instead of being stubborn. We are also working to curb his recent anti social behavior toward strange dogs. This is as far as he got after we returned from today’s training.
The last news of the week is the return of our bear friend. He was seen last night and again this morning on the south edge of our farm near the woods. I guess we must be in his current territory. Unfortunately, he will likely be found and hunted down when the season begins, by someone on the mountain who will likely hunt him not for his meat.
This has been a very atypical summer. We have required very little use of the A/C but umbrellas and rain jackets have been a standard part of most day’s attire. By now, usually, the fields are brown, the trees showing the stress of lack of water, the garden and deck pots requiring daily watering. Not so this year. The fields and woods are verdant, the flowers vivid.
The garden has been less productive this year, too much rain, too cool temperatures. The fall type crops, beans , peppers and coles are thriving. There won’t be many tomatoes for sauce and chili this winter. We will have to vary our winter fare to accommodate this failure. We had a couple of weeks of cucumbers and pickles were made, berries were plentiful and jam was put up, but not a single winter squash or pumpkin survived. A trip to Meadows of Dan is in order in the fall to stock up on them.
Today it is actually chilly. Sitting on the porch requires socks and a sweater to enjoy my coffee and the views. This pattern is to continue through the weekend. I am not complaining about this and neither is our power bill. At least today we have sun.shine
Cabin Crafted 