Hey...it's suddenly fall !

The caption on this guy says "Harvest Man".I liked it so much, I made it the photo on my husbands Facebook page.   (It kinda looks like him in his winter beard) lol


  38 degrees here this morning when I got up at 6 AM.  Guess it's truly officially autumn.  It's quickly becoming that time when I start bustling around, tying to get the herbs in and dried,  checking every little thing every day, because the things that are left in the garden from the first planting are starting to peter out, slowly but surely.  I think they're just so grateful to not be in the blistering heat that they are actually growing happily and getting a second wind.  It's nowhere near time for our first frost...and the green beans that we planted a few weeks ago are flourishing...all healthy looking and lush, and loaded with flowers. And so are the snow peas--over 6 inches high now.  Driving up the highways towards the local towns, you can see fields littered with bright orange pumpkins, cornfields in stages of destruction and soybeans turning that tell-tale yellowish green they get before finally drying on the vines. The general tone of the world changes perceptibly when you live in the rural parts of this country. (Probably every country). Savvy homemakers are decorating their doors with autumn themes, cornstalk scarecrows are leaning up against trees and garage doors, beckoning a time of slowing down and easing into winter. Kids are all back in school and it's amazing how just a few weeks time changes things so much. 

 I love this time of year.  Mostly because it means that the hard work of summer is behind me, but also because it's a time of R&R..both for me and for the land. The fruit trees are starting to shed their leaves,  the tulip poplars are starting to turn, and even my little red maple is going through changes.  My potted flowers on the back deck are still in full bloom, even the stalwart geraniums are bobbing their petal laden heads in the cool crisp mornings.  Because we finally got some rain after the drought of the summer, everything is really lush a little later than normal. It's just beautiful out there. I as thinking I need to take my camera out and get some photos. Maybe on my break today.  lol


  I have my list in progress  for this Monday. It includes laundry and bread and all the normal daily things that need doing.  I might also take a run into town and run a couple of errands. Or I may not. Depends on how it goes.  I had a pretty full weekend and am a little tired today. Not that I really did much yesterday, except to run my nephew home (45 minutes away), but that was something, I guess. I also cleaned the chicken coop and put in new straw and worked in the garden some, harvested more lemon grass and tomatoes and peppers and carrots.  Pulled the last of the first carrot planting and had several really good looking ones too. VERY happy with carrots this year...

  I spent Thursday cleaning my house and getting the guest room cleaned up so that my nephew could sleep in there--and that meant washing and changing bed linens, vacuuming, dusting.  The rest of the house too. I roasted a turkey breast I had in the freezer that needed using, thinking I would use it for turkey sandwiches for the picnic, and since it was cooked and I was tired, used some of it for supper that night too. (There was plenty). I made some mashed potatoes and gravy and stir fried some Chinese cabbage with onion, garlic and carrot in it and called it a meal. I hard boiled a dozen eggs or so to make deviled eggs with Saturday morning before we left. Finished things up on Friday and then my son came home and stopped on his way to get his cousin, so I didn't have to drive down and get him. I made a big spaghetti dinner with salad and garlic bread for our supper and we sat around the table for a couple of hours, talking, laughing and eating.  It was great. I got up early Saturday morning and put the finishing touches on the picnic lunch to take to the powwow . We met my youngest brother and his wife and daughter there, and watched the dancers and toured the teepees and had a really good time. It was Sky's first time at a powwow and she loved it. She bought a little hand drum and  we all had a ball. It was a cool and windy day and the dancers were superb and the drums were a group called Na Ma Wo Chi  from North Carolina. I bought 2 of their CD's that they sell to help finance their trips to powwows around the country. 

   This is a fancy shawl dancer, and she danced several times. It's hard to get pictures of the dancers, because you can't take pictures during the sacred ceremonies. But she posed for us.

 This is one of the teepees that came with the travelers, and here is another one-much bigger, that you could look inside and see how they are set up..with a campfire in the center and roomy enough to sleep probably 20 people in a pinch.

So, that was our exciting weekend. And now the boy is back off to Iowa, the nephew is back home, the husband is back at work...and I am sitting here enjoying the silence and serenity that comes with living in the country. Thinking about all the things I have to do, looking at my list and wondering how much of it I can put off. lol  I need to get looking for a source to buy some organic dry beans, I have decided to cook and can some more varieties besides just pintos and black beans. Maybe some  Great Northerns  or some kidney beans or adzukis. I don't know about those though...they are a little fragile after they're cooked sometimes.  And I have never seen them canned...hmmm....


  Guess I've stalled about as long as I can here. lol  Time to get out of these pajamas and get some things going. It's a cool 64 degrees in the house this morning..makes it easy to just stay snuggled up in this fleecy robe.

 Have a grand Monday, everyone!!!!




Namaste.

Tuesday running along...

  Ahhhh....beginnings and endings.  Not sure what that has to do with my day, but pretty sure I'll find out.  lol

  Taking a break after vacuuming...got  a friend and her 83 year old aunt coming by this morning, so am trying to clean up a little.  Things aren't too bad...but haven't done much in here the last few days, so there's a little maintaining to do. Yesterday I worked outside all day--cleaned and re-arranged the back decks. Tended flowers. Scrubbed down the outside walls, gutters and doors with vinegar/water solution to remove the green mildew-y mossy stuff that grows every year.  It comes off easy enough with a scrub broom and an old sponge mop, but it takes time to get it done. I still have 2 more sides of the house to do... but the deck area looks awesome. I scrubbed the deck planking too...some places that stuff gets pretty thick and it gets slick in the rain.

  The housewarming party was nice. My friend Mary's new house is beautiful, even though it's in a neighborhood where everybody lives on top of each other. lol  Not my style for sure...but I live out in an old hippie-chic place in the country, so what do I know?  Most people could probably not imagine living like I do wither. Saw several friends I hadn't seen in a while, and that's always good. We didn't leave there until about 10:30.  I saw her yesterday too, she called needing a phone number for our local produce folks, and I drove over and met her there, because I wanted a couple of things too. Took a break from the scrubbing--I was a sight.  lol

  Got to pick beans and blackberries again today. The weather has finally taken a dive for more normal temperatures. Thank goodness. Tempers were flaring, grass was burning up and it was something else. We still haven't gotten any rain, sigh, but at least yesterdays high was only 91.

  The garden made it through okay...the butterbeans are flowering like crazy, the watermelon vine turned out to be cantaloupe, tomatoes are finally ripening and the edamame is making pods of beans.  I've been doing some dehydrating --summer squash and carrots, apples and peaches.  Hope to get into town today and pick up a 20 pound bag of organic carrots to dry.

  My son is gone for the week...working on a big job down in Cape Girardeau, MO.  I drove him down to get another truck to a place about 45 minutes from here that he was to drive down there and back--so I have my car back.  He seems to be finally making peace with the soon-to-be ex...he also cleaned up and moved into the studio apartment a few days ago. He'll have a lot more freedom and not feel like he's living at his mom's. lol  He'll also pay some rent to help offset the utilities, which will help me. win/win  He cut back all the berry brambles for me on Saturday...that was a big help--some of them have gotten so out of control. These were blocking the greenhouse entrance and interfering with my bell peppers too. They had to go!

  Okay--I have to get back at it.

  Have a grand Tuesday y'all....

Namaste.

Late night ramblings...

It's Sunday night--oops. Monday morning, technically. I am tired and should be in bed, but I started reading blogs and now I'm awake enough to stay here in this chair being annoyed by this damn fly that keeps crawling over my monitor. A fly.  In late November. Hrrrmmppphhhh.  Unheard of.

 I like this.  I seized the opportunity to can some pinto beans (6 quarts, to be exact) yesterday.  Looking at the jars, they look awfully dry, like the beans soaked up ALL the liquid in there.  I swear--I followed directions this time. I don't usually, but I have never canned dried beans before.  I soaked them for about 10 hours too. We'll see how they are, I guess. I wanted to can another batch of pints too, but....maybe on Tuesday I'll be brave enough to try it again.

  It's been a slow and  quiet couple of days since the end of Thanksgiving. I have puttered around and not done much of anything. Hurray for me!  lol I almost vacuumed this morning, but decided to let it wait until Monday morning. Instead, I watched the Sunday Morning Show and played on the computer for a couple of hours before going to MissB's.  The Irishman was back home from his meeting by lunchtime, so we ate up some leftovers in the form of a hot turkey sandwich...turkey layered on stuffing and covered in gravy, with cranberry sauce on the side. It was good and filling, and a nice touch of comfort food on a cold and rainy day. The weather never did clear up and  temps tonight are down in the low 30's and moving into the mid to high 20's the next few days. If the weather service is to be believed, it appears we are finally moving into some more typical late November weather.
   

    We have a Jack Russell Terrorist with a tummy ache tonight... seems the Irishman took her to the reservoir and let her run and she found something nasty to chew on. He never learns...

   This morning he opened the fridge and our quart jar of popcorn fell out and broke. So I spent a portion of my early morning vacuuming anyway.  A post feast problem...too much food and too little room. lol  I think I may be out of popcorn now.  THAT is a disaster in this house.

   I think I'll spend tomorrow cleaning out the fridge and relegating stuff to the compost bin.  I'm  SURE there's stuff in there that needs to go. Not my favorite job, certainly, but one of those ones like cleaning toilets that you have to do if you want to stay in your house. I try to be careful about how I cook, and it's only the two of us, but this just gets like this from time to time, no matter what.  Are there people out there whose refrigerators are always spotless? That never have icky science project type foods in them?  Not at my house.  lol

  This weather is bringing me a lot of achy joints and neck pain. I might actually be calling a chiropractor tomorrow morning. I got word that my favorite chiro in the world is winding his business down, and only opening 3 days a week now. sigh...You could barely get in to see the dear man when he was open 5 days... I am feeling really tired of feeling crappy, and some days can barely walk. I am going to get this darn MRI soon on this knee and see if there's something can be done. I'm only [almost] 59 years old, but if it's time for a knee replacement, then I have to get one. I tell everyone it's an old rugby injury. (Most of them believe me without question).  LOL

 

    Alright. I need to go to bed, it's after 1:30 AM .  I'll be up early probably, and I need some sleep. One of my cats just went out, against my advice, and one came back in.  Bella came in and wanted to get in her kennel and go to sleep. I checked the furnace because it felt cool to me, and the damn thermostat has reset itself again and was set at 60, so I jockeyed it back up to 69 and it's running like it's supposed to and warming the house considerably. It's one of those programmable ones and we have never figured it out. But it will run along just fine for weeks and weeks, and suddenly start resetting the temperature. arrgghhh...

  Sweet dreams all...

Namaste.

Hi Ho, Hi Ho...

 The green beans are looking great, in spite of the weird cold snaps we've been having. This bed also holds a small edamame patch and a few cukes down at the other end. It's about 30 -35 foot long.

Oregano. Planted in the bed where the old pea seed I planted didn't come up. I'm making REAL sure this year to date all pkgs of seed.  lol  Oregano is a perrenial that will come back with no special treatment.


    It's a glorious day here. Rained yesterday, but not a lot. Apparently it was saving itself to go up and knock the heck out of Judy's barn this morning. But it's 82 at noon here and tomorrow is supposed to be dry as well, with temps around 91.  We have no plans really for this holiday weekend,. but next weekend is our annual family reunion/camping weekend. I still haven't found anyone to come feed the animals while we're gone. Very worst case scenario--we don't camp and just go down for the big Sunday noon potluck. 


    I have hotdog and hamburger buns raising...they are whole wheat this time, because I am apparently out of white flour! (I know...I can't believe it either.)  I also am out of vital wheat gluten, which I use when making whole grain bread because it helps it rise better. Sigh...At any rate, I'm sure they'll be fine.  We will have smoked brats for lunch today, with some pickled beets and some devilled eggs. Maybe I'll open a jar of pickled peppers too, and serve it all up with chowchow...Also have some corn chips left I think, with salsa. Then I have to head down the road to sit with MissB. 


  I'm off to get some lunch ready, he should be home anytime. He's out picking up roofing felt and straw bales...lol..another holiday weekend in the life of parttime homesteaders I guess.  We have to redo the roof this summer, and are going to start picking up supplies a bit at a time so we don't have to pay for everything all at once. The shingles we will, so that they will deliver them up to the roof, and save these old people from having to carry the damn things !


  Happy Memorial Day weekend everyone.



Namaste