Yesterday's midafternoon dogwalk was slightly snowy.
Snowy horses.
Snowy forest
Speedy dog baffles camera. Zoom!
Today, though, I feel pretty bad and would like to just crawl back in bed. K is going to have to take care of the Zoomies this afternoon.
I used to hike to the top of the mountain on New Year's Eve or NY day every year, just to take time to reflect. One and a half miles uphill just was not feasible this year, but I did spend about an hour out on the lower part of the mountain. Instead of pure hiking and meditation it ended up being more trail maintenance; there were small downed trees and dead branches just everywhere. I definitely got a workout, so I shall try to feel good about that.
Overcast, very quiet woods. Lady was the only dog I brought along, and my old cat followed me (complaining the whole damned way.) Next time I go out that far I'll be able to take Rosalie along.
Thanks to all who followed along with the farm adventures this year.
I started trying to do a brisk morning walk every morning in mid-December, only to be waylaid by a set of nights with terrible sleep and possibly a cold virus. This morning, thankfully, I got back to it.
BOY do I ever love seeing the sun spreading across the valley. Any time of year.
Sometime I need to come down here with my boots and slog across the creek to get some watercress. It's a very cold-tolerant herb, and tastes better when it's cold. In the summer it's terribly bitter.
Yay for something to forage in winter!
Taken the dogs out, got the woodstove started for morning, cleaned up the kitchen and started the dishwasher. Can't really get started cleaning, yet, because my husband and K aren't up. I've been feeling pretty damned rocky the last week or so, and I sure hope today is better.
One thing I noticed recently; I go down to Home Farm to do a chore or drop something off, and my son and I get talking. However, I have to leave soon because I have something else going on, or I need to get home for dogs' potty breaks. Then I remembered being young(er) and how my parents never seemed to want to visit me. Come over for a quick visit or a meal, leave immediately. A whole LOT of my parenting strategies have been based on my reflections about my own parents (not surprising). Both good and bad, truly; they both did some thing very right and other things .. uh.
Anyway, I did have to go to HF yesterday, but the library/book-tidying job I was expecting was much smaller than I thought. When I was done I asked him, do you need some alone time right now (he had just completed some STRESSFUL finals) or would you like a visit? He was up for a visit, so I sat down and we talked for quite a while. Until I was sure he was finished. That felt good.
Both kids are so kind and caring toward me. I'm so lucky.
@woodelf68 yes, the woodstove is downstairs, on a concrete floor. The lovely thing about this is that, if your feet are cold, you can stand near the stove and the warm concrete feels so comforting. There are two iron pots on top for water to gently steam and raise the humidity a bit. Cold, wet coats and winterwear can hang on a rack nearby to dry off. There's a door behind me (as I was taking the photo) where wood is brought in. We usually have a wheelbarrow of wood sitting to one side.
There has been a lot of moving and changing with the critters, lately. Nutmeg was transported to Home Farm last week, to potentially hang out with Roomate's goats Hanz, Franz, and maaaybe baby Juniper? Hanz and Franz were, I found out, named after the SNL duo. Also, this story contains farm butchering for meat - so if you don't want to read that, stop after the picture of baby Juniper.
Hanz settled down before too long and stopped trying to test dominance with Nutmeg. Franz would Not Quit butting heads, so K and Roommate decided to move him up here (thanks? I think?) to eat brush and hang out with the horses.
While that was in process, Roommate asked to talk with me about horse issues.
Hero and Missile have been buddies since early summer, and Roommate has ridden Missile a LOT. However, when the oppressive summer heat turned to cooler fall temps, Missile's behavior got a couple notches spicier. Then, after getting some shoes that made his hooves more comfortable on our stony ground, he got even worse. Rearing so precipitously that he and Roommate were in danger of going over backwards. Trying to yank loose when standing tied for a few minutes to get tacked up. General buttheadedness trending toward actively trying to hurt his rider.
Given that he was borrowed from a friend anyway, (apparently ALL the central Maryland horse people know each other) Roommate decided to return him before blood was spilled. He found another horse he is interested in that would be, theoretically, a good ride for him but also calm enough that other folks with less horse experience could ride.
I appreciated him keeping me in the loop, and wholeheartedly support the switch. An animal that is a danger to humans has no place here.
[This is getting long - apologies]
[William Conrad voice] Meanwhile, back in the goat enclosure, Nutmeg has become fast friends with Hanz and little Juniper.
Sorry Nutmeg is so overexposed in the picture, but we're all mostly interested in Juniper, right?
She is babey. Will hopefully grow up to be a milk goat.
Franz, on the other hand, did not want to hang out with horses or eat brush in the field. He wanted to eat the chickens' feed (no!) and climb the stairs to stand on the porch. Lady had a really, really AWESOME time chasing him off the porch and down the stairs. Given permission to herd a beafte! Just what she's ALWAYS wanted! And she was getting praised and petted for it! But, jeez.
Roommate originally bought Hanz and Franz to butcher. Then he got a little adhdistracted. It happens. When K let him know that Franz was not being a good guest, he came up that day and took care of it. The carcass is hanging in a cool basement for a few days, then Roommate and I will butcher together so he can learn how I do it. Will probably make a bunch of loose ground sausage, because what I made from the bear turned out so darned good.
Welp, I did my winter bed-update just in time. There are snowflakes drifting in the air outside!
Last evening Husband was checking the weather, and decided we'd better move the apples and potatoes from cool storage in the woodshed up to the attic. The attic stays cold in the winter, but never dips below freezing, so it's perfect for storing root veg and apples. The only drawback is lugging them up there. It took us a couple of trips lugging 5 gallon buckets, boxes, and wire baskets, but we got them all in. The attic also gets quite hot in the summer, which (I hope) means that if there were any mold spores from last year's potatoes hanging around, they'd be killed off by heat.
We have So Many potatoes and apples. I made two pies yesterday.
Down in the (haunted) gap
Technically, I think there's just some serious temperature inversion going on there in the evenings; warmer air in the valleys rises and cooler air rolls down the sides of the ridges in an invisible wave. What you fell, though, when you're walking through hereafter sundown, is a distinctly chilly, creepy breeze. It's just temperature inversion, though right?
Same reference photo, but wood vs canvas. This image made me hate negative space SO much.
Oak leaves.
One solitary floating sycamore leaf after a flood.
Fall has been nice (scenery-wise), but I do hope we have a good, cold winter this year.
I'm ready for this. But with more snow.
This is my favorite rock.
There are other massive limestone chunks about halfway up the mountain, quite some distance away. This one, though, is just sitting at the base of the mountain all by itself. It is perfect for sitting on (or beside). It's incredibly calming. It's a great rock.
Yesterday evening, on the second-to-last dogwalk of the day (eye-roll), I was enjoying the leaves behind the ridge. I picked up Just One, as one does. Then more. And more.
If you want to paint or draw them, feel free.
Yesterday evening we saw a big tractor-trailer and several other pieces of large equipment leaving Home Farm. A man from the radio tower company saw me a couple weeks ago and mentioned that they were going to fix the huge ruts in the tower road (that I also use to get up to the fruit trees on the ridge.) I'm hoping they did a good job fixing, and I'll be able to drive up there without worrying about my car's undercarriage. Fingers crossed!
Well, we have returned from the ridge, and can report moderate success for the road repair. What it really needs, on top of being graded and having the erosion ditches filled, is some waterbars along the way to help shunt runoff to the side of the road. Picture a speedbump, but instead of slowing down cars it's making water flow off the road. Very drivable right now, though, and WAY better than the hot mess that was there. Can't wait to take Hero up there!!
Apologies for the fact that my stupid camera completely overexposes the sky if there is a hint of a shadow in the picture. They're still a half-decent representation of the what the ridge road looks like right now. Lots of trees! And a half-decent gravel road.
Yesterday evening we saw a big tractor-trailer and several other pieces of large equipment leaving Home Farm. A man from the radio tower company saw me a couple weeks ago and mentioned that they were going to fix the huge ruts in the tower road (that I also use to get up to the fruit trees on the ridge.) I'm hoping they did a good job fixing, and I'll be able to drive up there without worrying about my car's undercarriage. Fingers crossed!
The first dogwalk of the day was lit by the last light of the super Hunter's Moon. It was lovely, especially with the crunch of frost beneath our feet, but I had no way to photograph it. The second dogwalk of the day was midmorning.
Lady, the leader of the pack, dramatically backlit as she surveys her domain (the yard and garden). Rosalie was unphotographable, as she was lurking under my feet.
The smoke from the woodstove drifts out across the field, mingling with rising mist as the frost goes back into the air.
Big logs waiting to be cut and split into firewood.
I didn't think about counting the rings on that tree slice before I started painting on it. I sat down with the second one, though, and made as careful a count as I could. The rings at the outer edge are so narrow that it's hard to be certain of an exact age, but it's definitely over 100. It's amazing, honestly, that it lived over a hundred years and stayed so small! Also, it seems to have started off with a double trunk, which is not the best. I originally thought it was from a dead ash, but Husband said it was elm. It may have gotten Dutch elm disease near the end of its life, and cut way back on growth because of that. It had been standing dead for a few years before it fell, but we could estimate that it sprouted around 1910.
There's about 15 feet of log like this that could be cut into 'cookies' for painting. Also a smaller-diameter section that could be fun, too.
The rain stopped, at least enough for me to take Lady out for a walk. As Sondheim said, Into the Woods!
Happy dog, drippy woods.
Here is a little bit of a new trail the Bike Boys have been working on. This section goes across the slope instead of straight up or down.
Many, many tiny shelf fungi.
I've recently seen several critiques of 'cottagecore.' They seem to hinge on the fact that the folks presenting and consuming this type of content are (I'm searching for words, here) more about appearance and aesthetic than actual life. It's a bit thought-provoking for me.
I have a garden and an orchard. Chickens. I frequently walk around barefoot. I have long hair. I know how to milk a cow or goat. I make jam, forage wild foods, and can vegetables.
Am I cottagecore? (seriously, if you're a follower and have an opinion about this, you may share it)
As I read and learn more about this, I think that I am probably not. However, I could make an argument that I'm what cottagecore would like to be. I've lived this way all my life. My mother, grandmothers, and further back lived this way. Nothing that I'm doing here is done to be 'cute'; it's all 100% functional. Hero happens to be cute and functional, but he's allowed to be. He was born cute.
It's just weird to read and essay or watch a Youtube video that critiques cottagecore by claiming that this stuff is kinda misleading and made-up-for-internet-clout (it sure can be) and that people don't actually live that way. We. uh. Some of us do. And were doing so a long time before the internet existed. Makes me feel a little weird about posting my farm stories, to be honest.
I've been posting garden 'progress' pictures every month on the 25th since my husband planted the first things in March. How can six months go by so damned fast and also seem subjectively like two years? Things are close to wrapping up, now.
Beets, carrots, potatoes, and sweet potatoes are all still in the ground. I need to dig them, but they're happy where they are and low on my list of priorities.
The bell peppers produced exuberantly. My husband took a bin of them to a church with a food giveaway last week. They may produce more, or may decide they hate the wetter weather and give up.
Kale, chard, basil, zinnias, and tons of unwanted weeds just going to town, here. As soon as my oven is fixed I'm making a big tray of kale chips and another big tray of roasted root vegetables.
I - don't know what this is. It volunteered in the asparagus bed. There were small, decorative gourds in there last year, but this is quite a bit bigger. Winter squash? Gourd? Hybrid monstrosity? Who knows, certainly not me. As long as they don't start walking or talking, I'm fine with them.
