They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit.
At the farm there is a really big rock. It has been there since we bought the farm, just kind of sitting beside the barn. I rolled it a couple of times a few years ago, just to get it out of the way, so I could back the trailer up, but it has more… Continue reading Rolling Stones
The rainy season is almost upon us. We got three days of rain this week, so on Monday we prepared for it by making some much needed repairs to some roofs. The irony of living in the PNW is that about 1/4 of the year, you don't actually need a roof at all. A medium… Continue reading Repairs
Monday the 31st was our first big tomato harvest, and our last big bean harvest. Winnie helps pick beans, and conversates the whole time. "Daddy, why are you so tall?" "Because I started growing before you." "Daddy, what number are you old?" "I am 41." "Daddy, you are going to die." Pauses thoughtfully. "You are… Continue reading First Big Tomato Harvest
Another bumper harvest of Elderberries last Friday morning (Aug 28). It took about 90 minutes to strip them all from the stems, yielding about 9 Lbs of berries. We steam juiced these on Saturday. There was enough berry to make two batches of elderberry "Port" wine. The steam juicer is a very handy way to… Continue reading Elderberry “Port” and Elderberry Wine
Tuesday was a rough day for Gertrude. First time mama-pig, with a litter of 10 piglets. She had a long pre-labor on Sunday into Monday. 6 hours of labor to produce the first piglet on Monday, then 3 hours more to bring out the rest of them. Then they were nursing all night. She was… Continue reading A Rough Day for Gertrude.
Late August, the garden is gathering for its final burst of activity before the dark period. This is the most massive and vigorous stand of buckwheat we have ever grown. And the bees seem to be doing their job. I just hope we can get it ripened and harvested before the rains comes on hard… Continue reading Buckwheat, Triangles and Homeschool
We ordinarily try to avoid making Sunday a canning day, but when you have 65 Lbs of peaches sitting in boxes in the garage, you can't let them sit too long. They don't keep, especially when they are picked by over-zealous kids who have a tendency to drop them into the box, rather than gently… Continue reading Canning Peaches, on a Sunday
Yesterday was a long and stressful day. At 4:30 Gertrude had still not had any piglets. First time gilts can sometimes go a day or two longer than the 114 days gestation time, so we weren't too worried, but we decided to move our school to the farm instead of staying at home, just to… Continue reading A Harrowing Farrowing
This is our first batch of home-brewed blackberry wine and mead. Bottled, labeled, ready to go down into the "wine cellar" for aging. By wine cellar, we mean the space under the air conditioning duct in the garage, at least until we get a space set up in the basement in the farm. Some of… Continue reading First Batch!
This many banana slugs this large on the farm in August. There shouldn't be this much cordial and liqueur aging in the kitchen fridge at one time. It had to be moved to the shop to continue aging, out of the way of our daily food. There shouldn't be a band-aid case from the Pierce… Continue reading There shouldn’t be…
Little Farm in the Big City 