Cabin Crafted

Category: friendship

  • Olio -9/18/2026

    I am the eldest of three, all now senior citizens. Today is the birthday of the “middle child,” my little sister. Happy birthday, Sis.

    This week has been one for the record. We have had 3 medical appointments between us, one a routine annual visit, one a follow up, and one for an upcoming procedure. Added to that, I taught a grown up version of the Herbal Medicine class that I did for summer camp to a bevy of ladies last night. As I was “teaching,” I have no photo, but we had a good time.

    The week began with soap making lessons for a couple that are friends of mine. I have been making their soap for a number of years and have asked repeatedly if they wanted to learn. This year it happened. Two batches were made with my instruction and supervision, but their hands on experience. They went home with one of the batches and the basic equipment to make more at home. The friend that taught me about a dozen years ago sent me home with a batch and some equipment and I have tried to continue paying it forward with the promise that once they are comfortable with the process and several successful batches, that they too will pay it forward. The second batch joined 3 other batches that I had previously made in the past couple of weeks for my SIL and our home use.

    It is curing in a back bedroom until it is ready for use.

    The week also started with me finishing the second Christmas stocking, one of which will go to the grandchild expected later this fall.

    Because they are stranded knitting in the round, the design is on both sides, requiring keeping the chart section of the pattern close at hand and well tracked. It also requires that the stocking be lined with fabric of some kind to prevent the carried strands of yarn on the inside from snagging. The linings are peeking out the top right now as the name needs to be duplicate stitched on the top before the lining can be hand sewn in place.

    The pumpkin vines and gourd vines are dying back now, so pumpkins have been cut. They are a smaller version for pies and baking, and after the ones in the photo were brought in, another was found. One grew through the chicken run fence and they ate it. Another grew close enough to the fence that they ate one side, and one I found had insect damage and was fed to them, so out of two vines, I got 8 pumpkins. It is possible that more will be found when the vines totally die off. The bottle gourds were the only gourd seed that germinated and they will be harvested soon.

    Here in Virginia, the drought has resulted in a state of emergency issued by the Governor as it has severly reduced the hay harvest both in the spring and now in the fall. Our fields produced only about half the usual amount and this week the fall hay was mowed, baled and taken to where it will be fed to cattle this winter. Neighbors that raise cattle are talking about possibly having to sell off some of their herds if they can’t locate hay to purchase. The lawn is brown and crispy, so no mowing is needed. We do have some rain in the forecast for the upcoming week, but if it is only isolated showers like we have had all summer, it won’t help.

    One section of the rails to trails paved area we walk for our daily walk has several Virginia marmots, aka groundhogs, woodchucks, whistlepig holes and tunnel some on the trail side of the fence, some on the airport side. This hefty fat guy was munching grass today and very unconcerned that I was taking his photo.

    Now to toot someone else’s horn. My husband just published his second book. It can be found on Amazon as a paperback or on Kindle as an e-book, the title is The Judas Priest, by James Stafford. He also has a blog with articles about the background and a sample on WordPress as JamesStaffordauthor. Go check him out.

  • Summer is drawing to a close

    It is meterologic autumn according to the weather prognosticators, but it went out with a bang. The daytime temperatures last week were in the 90’s every day. That is nearly unheard of here in the mountains, especially in September. It finally cooled down today to near 80 with similar weather expected all week, the highest day in the mid 80’s. Though I don’t like to take our daily walks when it is that hot, I did, picking the shadiest areas of the rails to trails walk we take each day.

    The garden was a major bust this year, between the drought, the extreme temperatures, and several intense storms that blew peas and beans to the ground before they produced much. Animals that can get through or over the fence ate down most of the peppers, except some that were already too tall to munch. There have been many jalapenos to pickle, some seranos are turning red and will become hot sauce. There have been a few tomatoes, mostly the black cherry ones that are wonderfully sweet, and the pumpkins and gourds are doing well. The raccoons got the few ears of popcorn that did form. Unless I improve my fencing, or build a tunnel (which won’t happen), that problem will continue.

    I did cover the grapevine with deer mesh this year, so I got a half gallon of Muscadine grapes which were crushed and fermented, strained through a sieve and fed some sugar, so now there is red wine vinegar. It will be strained through cheesecloth and bottled soon.

    While visiting with daughter and son in law, when they came over and repaired part of the chicken coop for me, he mentioned he was low on the soap I make for him. That was a reminder and initiator to begin this year’s soap making. I can thank a friend who more than a dozen years ago invited me to her home to learn how to make soap myself. We made several batches that day and she sent me home with my first batch and some supplies. Her generous teaching has instilled the each one teach one mantra to me and I have taught several others to make soap. Next Sunday, a local friend and her husband for whom I have been making soap for several years, will join me to learn, and like my friend did me, they will leave with the basic equipment to make more at home later. I would gladly continue to make it for them, but they can make it themselves in an hour for half what she pays me. SIL’s batch was made early in the week, then a batch of unscented Calendula/Turmeric soap made, and yesterday, Peppermint with French Red Clay.

    While we have the equipment out next weekend, I will make one more batch of the same scent they will be using as that is also the scent that my SIL prefers. This will be a year’s worth of soaps for our use, for the Barn Bazaar at the Museum, for a few gifts, and for SIL. For now, it is curing in a back bedroom until it can be deliverer, or labelled.

    I mentioned traditions in my last post, and have begun a second Christmas stocking, the first is appropriate for a little girl, this one is more boy themed, the appropriate one will be finished with the name, lining, and tag when I know the information. We are still about 2 months from that reveal. I have asked for a photo of all from that family lined up together when Christmas decorations come out.

    The leaves are beginning to turn yellows, reds, and oranges, only the early trees, but it is a sign of shorter days, cooler weather, and hopefully some rain.

    Haying has begun up here, we expect our fall hay to be cut and baled soon. It looks like it might be a better cut than the spring hay was.

    Try to stay safe and healthy, until next time!

  • Refreshed and renewed

    Last long weekend, Wednesday through Sunday, was spent at the Blue Ridge YMCA Assembly in Black Mountain, NC with friends I see only once or twice a year for an annual retreat. It started as a yarn spinner’s retreat and has over the years incorporated knitters, crocheters, quilters, weavers, various paper arts, and one spoon carver. There were 27 of us, 24 staying on site and 3 that commuted for the daytime for two of the days. I didn’t even take my spinning wheel this year, just spindles, crochet hooks, knitting needles, some fiber and yarn. One of my friends raises 80 sheep, alpacas, and a llama and she comes loaded with fiber to sell and boxes of jars of homemade jams also to sell. I did indulge in 8 ounces of her lovely fiber for spinning and began on some of it when I finished what I had brought from home. A pair of fingerless mitts were completed, a crocheted hat done, and another pair of mitts begun. There is always lots of chatter, rest, and good meals that I didn’t have to prepare.

    The building in which we stayed right after Helene hit 2 years ago.

    On Monday, I called the lawnmower repair guy who had both our riding mower and our gas push mower for three weeks about when they would be ready. The return call yesterday afternoon said they were and we went to pick them up. Once the riding mower was off the trailer and the trailer stowed back in the barn, I started the riding mower and the blades wouldn’t engage. The front yard was started with the push mower, but between it beginning to rain and the grass having not been mowed in a month, it was not doable. The edging with the line trimmer was started after dinner and the rain had stopped but the battery only lasts about 45 minutes so it wasn’t finished. This morning, a second go at it got me around the house and most of the way around the garden and chickens, but again the battery needed recharging. We loaded the trailer back on the car, loaded the riding mower and returned it to the shop in the rain. If it ever stops, I will finish the edging and our hay guy is going to bring a more substantial mower over and knock the grass back.

    After hardly any rain this spring, we are getting so much now. The fall hay should be much better than the spring hay. The grass is thick and growing tall quickly. Our riding mower couldn’t even handle the lawn at this point.

    Last night, many tomatoes and peppers were harvested and today, the now ripe grapes picked. The tomatoes along with a bag I had frozen are simmering on the stove. They will be canned this evening. The Jalapenos are pickled, and the grapes crushed and covered to ferment into red wine vinegar for the winter. Though the garden is a mess, we will take what we can get. The rain has encouraged the pumpkins and gourds to try to take over, so there will be fall decorations, pumpkin pie, and pumpkin soup.

  • Olio – May 31, 2026

    Olio: a miscellaneous collection of things

    The month is drawing to a close. It has been a good month, with a trip to see youngest son and family, a month long spinning challenge, a very heavy work day with local grandson making headway on cleaning up parts of the property, walks and wildlife, seeing more production from the pullets, some social time, some living history, and not enough gardening.

    We often see snakes, turtles, or today, a lizard on the paved trail. The morning was cool enough that it was warming on the dark pavement, and yet delightful for a brisk walk.

    We saw our first fawn of the season this week, crossing our gravel road into the woods. Tiny little one that quickly tucked itself between Mom’s back legs as we were approaching.

    Yesterday on my way to an annual spring spin in at a friend’s house, I saw another with it’s Mom in route, then yet another on our gravel road on my way home. The spin in is always enjoyable, the weather was a delight and the potluck ended up mostly salads, many Mediterrean in flavor. A good friend who I see only at this event and at an Arts and Fiber retreat once a year as she and her husband live a state away, gifted me a tiny spindle made by my favorite spindle maker, Ed Jenkins. Most of my spindles are on the smaller size, but this one is really tiny. Seen next to a US quarter for reference. Much to my surprise, it spins for an amazingly long time once a little fiber is added.

    For the spinning challenge, all done on Jenkin’s spindles, I spun 165 g of wool. Other spinning was done during the month on other types of spindles, some at living history groups at the museum, some on my own at home as I work toward enough to finish the other 3/4 of the blanket in progress. So in total, I probably spun about half a pound of wool this month. And I started lessons for one of my friends and fellow living history re-enactors. This month, I won’t participate in the challenge and there are no scheduled groups other than the weekly session with the local spinning group. I will likely meet up with my friend again for another lesson for her.

    The garden is growing, the raised beds are doing well and have been weeded a couple of times, but I never did get the rest of the garden set for corn and pumpkins, nor have I gotten the blueberry bed weeded. We did get almost a week of rain toward the end of the month.

    The pullets, I think are now all laying. The most I have gotten on any one day was today and there were 7 eggs (9 pullets). The Marans that I didn’t think had started, have given me 4 eggs in the past couple days and two of them today, so I know they are both laying. As I don’t know for sure what color the Mystic Onyx breed lays. The web says light brown and there are 3 Buff Orpingtons that also lay light brown. I did get 3 light brown eggs in the mix today, so at least 3 of the 5 light brown layers are providing.

    As they get the hang of production, we sometimes get an oddball one. This one on the left when cracked open, had 3+ yolks. The one on the right is a normal sized pullet egg.

    I have gotten doubles before, especially when they are young and soon after starting to lay again after molt, but three is a record for here.

    After our walk, a few quick stops, we managed to get the yard mowed, partly edged, and the fence around the young oak planted on our pup’s grave reinforced. It is now time to let the day fade, spin a little more, or maybe knit a few rows, and look forward to a new month beginning tomorrow with new adventures.

  • Time to grow

    The tomatoes and peppers have moved out to the deck during the day, watered and brought back in to the floor in front of the south facing doors for the evenings. The herbs started in the Aerogarden, except for the basil were transplanted into a large pot on the back deck a few days ago with a cover ready if needed at night, but it hasn’t been necessary. The future weather forcast for here looks stable with a couple of rainy days, so this evening, the tomatoes were pruned of all of their lower leaves, only the top pair left and planted on their sides next to the A-frame trellis purchased last year. They are deep enough to create strong new roots along the buried stem and if necessary in the next few nights, small enough to cover with medium sized terra cotta pots or gallon jars. The 8 pepper plants, 4 hot, 4 not were planted in another bed and the sides of that bed are high enough that it can be covered with plastic if necessary. All of that was watered in well along with a soaking of the bed with peas, lettuce, and spinach. Tomorrow is to be a rainy day which will help.

    Also the end of last week, 3 large pots were sown with mixed flower seed. Tonight, I rescued my False Indigo from the mountain mint, planted it in a half barrel half buried in a ring in the back of the house that helps us locate the septic cleanout door. Around the half barrel, more mixed flower seed was planted, then all of the deck and back yard pots given a good soak.

    A few Christmases ago, a friend gave me a wax covered Amaryllis bulb that sprouted a gorgeous stalk of vivid red trumpet shaped flowers. When the flowers were spent, the wax was removed and the bulb planted in a pot and it grew leaves. Each summer it goes outdoors, each autumn it comes back in and when the leaves die back, it goes dormant. The following year, the blooms were about a month later, last year another month later, this year it waited until the very end of April to grace us with 4 lovely blooms and leaves already.

    On a recent walk, we found a native Flame Azalea. It wasn’t very large, but the golden blooms are so pretty tucked in the edge of the woods.

    Recently, the hummingbirds have been at the feeder regularly and an Eastern Phoebe keep landing on the back of the porch swing on the covered front porch, then flying off toward the protected breezeway and upon investigation, found this nest.

    Her chicks have hatched as she is now in and out constantly feeding the brood. It is too high for me to peek in and see how many. Once they fledge, the nest will be hosed down and the logs scrubbed off to prevent rot. At least one of the birdhouses in the vegetable garden is hosting Bluebirds. They were most unhappy with me working in the garden this evening, so work was done as quickly as possible to get away and leave them alone. I could peek there to see how many babies, but didn’t.

    The beans probably won’t go in the ground for another week or so and toward the end of May, the popcorn, gourds, and pumpkins, but that end of the garden needs some work first. The asparagus are amazing at how quickly they go from barely breaking the soil until almost too big to eat. I have to admit to having to compost a few as they didn’t get cut until the tops started opening. Fortunately, daughter’s family likes them as does a friend I see every week or two and they have definitely been my green vegetable of choice for a couple of weeks.

    The mountains are now green almost to the top and fully leafed at our elevation about halfway down. It is such a pretty time of the year here.

  • Old Skills

    Last Wednesday evening, I trekked over to the museum to teach an old skill. No costume required for this event. We set up 4 stations for 4 ladies + 1 second grader accompanying her Mom and they learned to make basic lard and lye soap. We used a mix of old school and modern skills and equipment so we weren’t there all night stirring the mix. Of course they were given some history of soap and soap making and why we now use a lye calculator and a superfatted recipe to be sure we end up with a body friendly product. I put together kits of a small heat safe plastic bucket, two rigid plastic stadium cups, a spatula, and a silicone loaf pan for each participant that they keep at the end of the session, along with the a three page history, instructions, and two recipes; one for the lard and lye and one for a vegan soap with Shea butter, Coconut Oil, and Olive Oil, and of course, their mold of soap. We “cheat” by stirring with an immersion blender to speed the process up to keep our session within a 90 minute window. As I dug out some of my equipment and essential oils to scent their individual batches of soap, it seemed a good time to go ahead and make soap for 3 friends and our household.

    The batches at home were made Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. On Tuesday, a double batch of one scent was made and I won’t do that again as it took forever to get to the consistency to pour it in the molds and is still not as firm as I would like to slice it into bars. The
    Wednesday batches will be unmolded and cut tomorrow to cure for a month before going to the folks for whom it was made.

    Today as I sat waiting for hubby to have a consultation visit and then I waited for my annual mammogram, I spun. In public, I spin on either a top whorl drop spindle or a Turkish spindle. When doing it, there are surreptitious glances, to out and out staring and occasionally someone will ask what I am doing. Followed by the question of what I then do with the yarn I spin.

    The other old skill that really hasn’t been done so far this year is canning and preserving. There have been pickles fermented and stored, but the tomatoes haven’t produced in sufficient quantity to bother canning them. I have frozen a couple of gallon bags, made one big pot of sauce to use one night for pasta and the rest frozen in wide mouth pint jars. There is a basket of Asian pears from the orchard sitting on the dining table with a couple of oranges to make pear/orange marmalade, but I haven’t gotten around to dragging down the canning pot to do it. As there are still many jars of applesauce from last year unopened, I doubt that any will be canned this year. The only other produce that has come in quantity are greenbeans and I freeze some of them, but don’t like canned one at all and barely tolerate them from frozen. I like to buy local, but come midwinter when green vegetables are at a premium if at all available, I do buy from the grocer.

    All of these skills have been learned since retirement. You can teach an old dog new tricks. And I truly believe in the each one teach one. I am grateful to the friends who taught me to make soap, spin, and improve my knitting skills. The canning and fermentation, I have learned from books and the internet.

  • It’s Been a While

    Not to anything dire, just not wanting to keep posting the same routine.

    It has been a hot, wet summer and the garden has suffered. Raccoons got every ear of corn and started on the tomatoes as they ripened. Green beans have been very prolific as were the cucumbers. The cucumber vines have now died off and were pulled from their trellis yesterday afternoon and the first planting of green beans also pulled as I had been away for 5 days and most of the ones on the plants were too large and soft to be desirable as we don’t like the “southern” way of cooking them with fat back until they are practically mush. The second planting has just begun to provide.

    We set about on Monday to get the lawn mowed after lunch. I sent DH out to get gas for a fill up, thinking there was enough to start while he was gone, but I backed the riding mower out of the garage and it sputtered to a stop. Instead of sitting idly by, the bed of flowers by the east side of the garage was a weedy mess and the grass was hanging over into it, so much bending, stooping, and sitting on a step stool that sent me into an unplanned hard landing on the grass, and all the grass and lambs quarters were pulled, a new edge dug. He began to mow while I was doing that so the line trimmer was used to go around the house and over to the vegetable garden that had lambs quarters, wild amaranth, and horse nettles as tall as me that the line trimmer couldn’t handle. This is the result of hand weeding all of it and the orchard grass growing in the paths.

    That pile is about 2.5 feet tall, what you see behind it is the same mess that is in the closed off chicken run that I can’t access until the fence is removed. I don’t know if it will compost as I had no means of chopping it up, so it is a stack of 5 to 6 feet long stalks mixed with mats of Creeping Charlie, Bermuda grass, Smart weed, and other unwanted greenery that had taken over the end of the garden not in use this summer. I’m thinking about trying to move the inner fence to cross just above the part of the garden in use and letting the chicken have at the rest. It will leave them unprotected from the hawks but that is a chance I am willing to take.

    Yesterday a very early venture over to the garden to harvest beans and tomatoes and finish weeding a small section I never got to Monday, found all of the Tithonia and Sunflowers full of sleeping wild bees.

    Yesterday afternoon, after a trip to the nursery, flats of spinach and Romaine lettuce seedling, a row of Little Gems lettuce seed, and three rows of turnips were planted in one of the empty raised beds. The one the first green beans were in will be reserved to plant garlic when it cools more.

    The reason for my 5 day absence was to travel to Black Mountain, North Carolina for my favorite Art and Fiber Retreat. We meet at the YMCA Blue Ridge Assembly. It was rejuvenating and a bit heartbreaking. The group is a wonderful mix of ladies that spin, knit, crochet, weave, and do other paper arts. The heartbreak was to see the damage caused by Helene and know that though they have worked hard to recover, only 40% occupancy is available still as they lost a couple of buildings and had damage to many others. The motel style lodge where we stay and where meals are prepared and served by the staff was the first to be repaired and reopened. Helene took out every power pole leading up to the buildings except for 3. It took them 4 weeks to get any power back. The creek that became a river down the west side, that damaged the old gym so badly it had to be torn down is now a gully 16 feet deep and washed through the woods taking out trees and rhododendron to now look like a dry river bed.

    This is an area above the retreat that is up the mountain. All of their hiking trails in that area are impassable still and a lower priority than restoring the rest of the buildings.

    Part of the repair is placing 14 foot arches where roads were to divert the flow, instead of smaller culverts that had always handled the creeks in the past. Also where two landslides sent mud into buildings, have new reinforced walls at the top and the slides seeded as they are now open meadows.

    In addition to visiting with friends I see seldom, I finished a skein of yarn I had been spindle spinning, took a needle felting class and made two little pumpkins, and started wheel spinning 8 ounces of Coopworth and Alpaca roving purchased from a friend that raises the animals and dyes the wool before the mill processes it into roving. Also some knitting on a pair of fingerless mitts was done with the wool I purchased in Alaska in May, spun on spindles and plyed on spindles.

    Now back home, my food consumption is focusing on smaller portions and healthier choices as we always have a snack table with too much sugar and fat on it, and though I did take a walk up as far as I could go up hill above the retreat one day, I consumed too much not so healthy snacks in addition to the three meals a day they provide. Now home, I have resumed my daily walks with DH of 2-2.5 miles. It has been so humid though, it feels like you are breathing fog.

    We have a cooler week of so ahead, it should help make the walks more enjoyable. We see early Autumn in the air as the early turning leaves are coloring and some are already falling. Until I have something new, stay safe.

  • It’s Gone

    For the past several years, our youngest son and his family have kept their RV parked on our farm. It leaves occasionally for them to use as a mobile hotel and was often used for them to stay in when visiting us. The last couple of times they were here, they stayed in the house due to some repair issues on the RV. I would start up the generator every few weeks, keep mouse traps baited and cleared, but otherwise just mowed around it. They now have a mini homestead and have moved it home. It is odd driving down the driveway and not seeing it, or doing a double take out the front window when noticing it isn’t there. In addition to the RV leaving, a pile of roof and vent repair items that have been in our garage left with it.

    Weekend before last was the only fiber festival that the Jenkins, makers of my favorite spindles attend. A distant friend that attends each year has offered and proxy shopped for me several times as the festival is in Oregon and I am in Virginia, so attending in person hasn’t happened. This new plum spindle will soon join the spinning fun.

    The Jenkins spindle group to which I belong on social media holds a fun scavenger hunt each year during Tour de France, called Tour de Fleece. Many groups hold versions of Tour de Fleece, many with challenges on who or what team can spin the most, but our version is more laid back and more fun. Each day, we are given an object to find and photograph with our spindle in progress on a spin. Each day the spindle needs to have more spun or plyed fiber on it than the day before. I have several small Jenkins Turkish spindles that will be used during this period. There are prizes donated by members of the group if you find enough of the items and post your photo within the 24 hour window. This year, I am doing it just for the fun of it and have asked not to be included in the prize drawing if I find enough items and follow through with the daily posting.

    During DH’s broken clavicle healing, my trigger finger surgery healing, and our cruise, I didn’t post much in the group. It is fun to be back involved with them.

    Most of my evenings have been spent knitting on a shawl with a skein of handspun. Last night, I began the Old Shale Lace border using a different skein of handspun alternating with the other skein as there isn’t enough of it to finish without adding the skein of similar colors. One 4 row repeat of the border has been done and the next begun. We will have to see how many repeats I do before I either tire of it or it begins to distort the triangular shape of the shawl. It is difficult to tell with it scrunched up on the needle.

    After days and days of heavy rain that damaged our driveway, filled the ditch above our culvert (again), and damaged the state road that had recently been graded, it is dry. The garden will need to be watered if we don’t get a thunderstorm soon. Yesterday was a mild day in the upper 70’s, today it is nearly 90. That is usually a recipe for a thunderstorm, at least I’m hoping so.

    My current read is a new release called “Reckoning Hour” by Peter O’Mahoney and as I read it, I feel like I have read it before, though it was just released in April. A bit of research and I think it is very reminiscent (almost too much so) of a Grisham book.

  • The Seasons Change

    Each day the trees are greener, the grass taller. When I first moved here, the last expected average frost day was around Mother’s Day, in the 19 years, it has drifted earlier and earlier and is now around April 25. About 3 weeks ago, I started some Nasturtiums, Zinnias, and Marigolds in the house to put in the deck pots. Though it is only hovering around 40 right now, I transplanted them into the pots and sowed some “Bee Nectary” mix seed in a few other pots. We had a 28f night last week, but it didn’t frost and the fruit trees did ok. There are no very cold nights expected in the next 10 days which almost puts us to the “magic” date. The Columbine is beginning to flower and the strawberries are growing.

    Yesterday, 80 herb, flower, and vegetable seed were planted in the grow lite starter trays. They will go out into the garden by the end of the first week of May.

    The asparagus didn’t like the 28f night, but more new shoots are coming up and there will be some to pick in a couple days. The peas, onions, and garlic did fine.

    Two years ago at Christmas, a friend gave me a wax covered Amaryllis bulb already about to bloom. When the bloom stalk was done, I removed the wax and planted the bulb in a pot and put it out on the deck for the summer. That fall, it was brought in to overwinter and around last March, it again produced a flower stalk, then leaves and again it went out to the deck for the summer. Last fall I brought it in and the leaves didn’t die back until late February, but soon after, the new flower stalks emerged. They are amazing as they grow about an inch a day constantly seeking the bright light of the French doors, so it gets rotated a couple times a day. The stalk is taller than it has gotten before and the bud just started opening last night.

    Soon there will be 3 or 4 trumpet shaped red flowers, this year for Easter instead of Christmas.

    If we have a night that threatens the newly transplanted flower starts on the deck, I will line the pots up against the French doors and cover them with a sheet or shower curtain to protect them.

    Later this spring, the front of the house is going to get my attention. Since we lost all but two of our Nandinas two winters ago, there are no shrubs or flowers across the North facing front. That bed will be weeded, planted, and mulched and two large pots placed on the stoop with flowers that can tolerate mostly shade

  • All Good Things Must End

    Yesterday was the beginning of meteorological autumn, not the autumn marked on your wall calendar if you still have one. And right on cue, we started seeing the trees beginning to show their color, or at least we noticed it. The first to turn are the Tulip Poplars and the Locust trees. This Poplar acts like a Ginkgo and turns yellow all at once in a matter of a couple of days.

    And loses it’s leaves first.

    After being away for two weekends and hobbling around for 7 weeks, I finally got out into the garden this week. The heat and time of year ended the cucumbers and bush beans, but the tomatoes and peppers are producing wildly.

    Every day a basket like this is brought in and frozen. Once they are all ripe, I will make a pot of sauce. Two pounds of peppers were cut and put in the fermenting crock to make into hot sauce in about 5 or 6 weeks.

    Yesterday afternoon, the popcorn was harvested, shucked in place and brought in. It is now in two crisscrossed layers in two large baskets to finish drying for about 2 or 3 weeks, then we will have more than a year’s worth of popcorn. It is fun to put a cob in a brown paper lunch bag and pop it in the microwave for a couple of minutes. Then you have a bag full of air popped corn.

    Fall is also the time to make soap. Soap for gift giving, soap for a friend who loves my soap, soap for us for a year. There will be 8 or 9 batches made over the next week and cut to cure in a guest room. The first two batches were made yesterday, cut today, and set to cure. I am awaiting an order of essential oils and shea butter to continue the process, but the first two batches are unscented.

    Today it much milder outdoors and as my foot still isn’t allowing exercise walks and since I did have my physical training session this morning, I tackled some garden chores. The cucumber and bean plants were pulled, given to the chickens, the bed that grew the peas in the spring and has been idle was weeded and the weeds put in a large tub to die off before being added back to that bed as compost. That bed also got a wheel barrow of chicken coop cleanings a month or so ago and it was spread out over the surface. There are now two and a half idle beds. One will likely have some fall veggies, the others covered in straw unless I can get a cover crop in quickly. The corn stalks won’t be cut until the Tithonia and sunflowers planted in a row up the middle of them finish blooming. There are so many hot peppers already canned that the rest will be allowed to turn red. The Ghost peppers will be infused in olive oil with sage and garlic, the jalapenos and cayennes will be crushed once dried for crushed red pepper. There are two tiny ornamental Thai pepper that are full of red peppers but they are very hard to harvest, though hot if you can get some.

    The chicken tunnel has been mostly a success. There are a few plants that grow into the tunnel they won’t eat, but do keep mostly scratched down, and the creeping charlie and smartweed that are reachable through the wire, they ignore so another day will have to be spent clearing the blueberry bed. The raspberry and blackberry half barrels were mostly a failure, though I see some volunteers outside the barrels. With all the wineberries and wild blackberries that are on the property, I should just not bother with the barrels. There are also several you pick berry farms around here.

    Not much spinning was done last month. Reading, a little travel to visit Son 1 and then to a retreat where I did spin both on my wheel and spindles, knit, and took both a wet felting class to make a small bowl and a project bag sewing class occupied my time with visiting friends I see only rarely. If I ever finish the knitting project, I will finish spinning the fiber I have worked on for two months slowly. I got a lovely braid to spin as a door prize at the retreat and a bag of felting wool from the gift exchange game.

    So you see from this, I am alive and well, not posting much here, on Facebook, or Instagram, but still here. Take care, enjoy the fall colors if you live where they occur, and get ready for another winter.