Max the jingle dog!

One of the great things about the Christmas season is the prep work. In our home, it usually starts the day after Thanksgiving, and sometimes that night. It first starts with the lights that are strung on the outside of the house. Shannon does an exceptional job hanging them. Then it migrates to pulling out all the plastic totes filled with the previous years  decorations. The childlike excitement and wonder begins to fill our hearts. Max gets excited about what is in all the boxes. While going through boxes we find that one exciting object! It's his beloved jingles. It's a cute red and white collar that has bells on it. The excitement! He perks up and is so excited to wear it . When we go to the local Christmas tree farm to cut down our tree, we take Max with us. It's pure joy to see him so excited to wear and show off his jingles. He also tends to leave his mark on the little trees for future holidays. He he! 

The Journey...

The smell of Fall is in the air. This morning I was walking Max (our sweet little Corgi), and the crisp morning air made me realize how fast Autumn is approaching.  The fact that the leaves are starting to blanket the ground did not help. I am not ready; I still have tomato sauce to can, and green beans to pick-so many things to do to prepare for Fall and Winter. I was feeling a little behind, then something made me stop and enjoy the journey. Shannon often reminds me to enjoy the journey and not focus on the end result.

This morning I was walking down the hallway, and out of the corner of my eye I saw something that brought tears to my eyes. Last weekend while Shannon was running errands he stopped at an estate sale and found a beautiful antique rocking chair (he also bought a huge, cast iron frying pan). Next thing I know he called me and told me he found a few things for the house. When he arrived home he pulled the beautiful rocking chair out of the back of the truck. I knew exactly what it was for and where it was going. Last night he brought home a handmade flannel baby quilt from our church's penny auction. Sitting in the corner of our room with the baby blanket draped over it, the rocking chair is quietly awaiting the pitter patter of little feet, waiting to rock a child to sleep-bringing sweet dreams to a precious child. For now, it soothes the awaiting Papa and Daddy. Thank you rocking chair.

Peach Jam

Ross and I made peach jam today from peaches grown in our very own orchard.  So far we have nineteen half-pints made from our yellow peaches (the other seven were in the water bath at the time of the photo).  We were discussing canning some white peach halves tomorrow. We also froze a whole bunch to use in baking (along with the rest of the blueberries!).  Today is the first real payoff we've gotten from having dug those big tree holes in our rocky, Connecticut soil.  Now if we could only get the apples and pears on board…

Oh, and by the way, the best way to eat our homemade jam is on Ross' homemade bread, fresh out of the oven and warm.  

Summer Bounty.

What a haul today from our backyard.  Peaches, blueberries, potatoes, tomatoes, eggs, and if you look very closely some bell pepper seeds (for next year).  This doesn't even count what Ross used in making dinner-salad (lettuce), parsley potatoes (potatoes, garlic, and parsley from the herb garden), and sausage and peppers (bell pepper).  The only cost to our dinner was the sausage, some butter, and the fuel to cook it all.  While Ross did some chicken herding this evening, I picked the blueberries and the peaches.  This is the first really productive batch we've gotten from both fruits since we planted the trees and bushes several years ago.  God has been good to us this year.  I wish we could say the same for all those suffering in the drought!  Bless you all.

Summer is here...

Summer is here and it feels like it is going by quick. The garden is doing well. We had an abundant amount of peas so far. I think Shannon might be getting tired of peas. The tomato plants are doing well, along with the other vegetables. It is exciting each year to start eating the bounties of our labor. This year was the first time we were able to harvest enough blue berries to make muffins. Yum! I think I ate more than Shannon did. Oops! They are my weakness. 

Speaking of things growing…two little babies are growing like weeds! One look at Mr. Whiggins, & Dahlia Blue, they melt your heart. We had family visit recently and great grandma was charmed by the two rascals. It is nice to hear the pitter patter of little feet running across the wood floors. 

Friday Night Fox

What a beautiful night we are having.  The sky is clear, the stars are twinkling, and the air is alive with noise.  Earlier tonight Max started barking at something outside.  This wasn't his normal barking at the neighbor's coming home barking, but a more urgent, something's out there, and I don't know what it is barking.  I went outside and heard another short bark off in the distance.  It was a fox.  I read online that they bark like this for either mating or marking territory; sounds like a typical Friday night, sans the bar. Anyways, I got the fox's bark on video (although the screen is black as I was sitting on our porch in the dark recording the noise).  After I came in to download the video to our computer, I could hear the boom of fireworks in the distance.  It sounded like a pretty big show, although I could not find anything online that would have had a fireworks show for this evening.  Guess it was a private soiree.  After I finished downloading the video, I stepped outside again and heard a great horned owl hooting quite close to the house.  Like I said earlier, the air tonight is alive with noise!

The Roar of the Crowd (Of Bees) Part 2

We lucked out as the swarm of bees decided to move into our empty hive! We went out to run some errands.  When we got back, the cluster was gone, and the bees were swarming around the empty hive body.  We were lucky we got back when we did because all the action was over within a half hour.

The best part was getting to see the bees scent-fanning.  There were bees all around the entrance pulsing a scent with their wings that allowed the rest of the bees to know where the entrance to their new home was.  I had read about this but have never seen it.  It was really exciting.   The other best part is that I got video.  I could hear Ross talking to our friend Lizzie (letting her know that the bees took our hive), and he told her exactly how close I was to the hive.  Let's just say that I had bees flying all around me.  The video is below.

The Roar of the Crowd (Of Bees)

The swarm's cluster.

Yesterday, our friend Lizzie came over for some artistic inspiration. She was interested in bees and who else does she know with an active beehive in their backyard! Well Lizzie came on a great day as our beehive swarmed.

Swarming is a natural process that bees usually perform in the Spring (it can also occur later, but Spring is the optimal time as it allows both the new and old colonies to strengthen before winter).  The old queen will lay some queen cups and then at some point later will leave the hive with about 60% of the worker bees and some drones.  They will form a cluster nearby the original hive and wait while scout bees go out and look for a suitable new home.  They can wait for a couple of hours or a couple of days.  Once a new home is found the cluster will move right in.

Just a note that swarms are usually not dangerous to humans as the bees have no stores or brood to protect as long as they remain unprovoked.  If you should happen to get a swarm on your property, call your local agriculture or state's environmental protection agency to get a list of beekeepers in your area.  Many beekeepers will happily come get your swarm and take it away if they can reach it.

Swarm in flight.

Beekeepers do not usually encourage swarming behavior of their existing hives, and take steps to keep it from occurring.  The loss of 60% of the hive can be devastating to honey production.  We were hoping for a swarm this year though as we lost our other bee colony late last year.  We cleaned up the empty hive and then patiently waited.  Well, Lizzie came on a great day to look at the bees as we got our swarm.

As we walked out into the orchard I noticed honey bees flying in and out of the dead hive.  This was a sure sign that the hive was swarming and the bees were looking for a new home.  We looked up and lo and behold, the swarm was hanging on a tree limb of the large oak the sits right at the entrance to the orchard.  This sort of stinks though because they are out of our reach.  Had they been closer to the ground we could have captured the swarm and placed them in the dead hive ourselves, but now we have to wait and see if fate will bring them to the hive on their own.  They did overnight as a cluster in the tree, and there still is a bevy of activity happening at the dead hive today so things are looking good.  We have our fingers crossed that soon we will once again have two hives to manage!

At one point while Lizzie was here the cluster dispersed and all the bees were flying around.  It was so loud and all you could see were all these black dots whizzing through the air in a frenzy.  Below is video that I took of the cluster reforming on the oak branch. (Sorry that the video is a bit shaky as I was holding the camera up as high as I could to get the best shot of the bees).

Messes and Memories

On Sunday, Ross and I had some friends over for dinner.  It was the culmination of a heavily loaded weekend, and it was much needed.

When I was in eighth grade my mother and I visited Washington D.C.  As part of our sight seeing, we went to Mount Vernon-home of George and Martha Washington.  I don't remember much about the tour, but I do remember the guide mentioning, I believe, Martha Washington's diary.  In it she had chronicled the day to day visitors to their home.  The reason why this stuck with me is that there was an entry in the diary that mentioned they had no visitors on a particular day.  It was the first day in many years that that had happened!  Oh, to be so loved...

This memory came back to me as I stood there looking at the aftermath of our dinner.  I had had such a delightful evening, and the conversation was so buoyant and easy.  The food was tasty-Ross had made the Lebanese food of his childhood.  Overall, it was just one of those great moments that you wish could go on and on.  As I looked at the mess, I mused that there had to be some correlation between how great the dinner party was in comparison to the disarray that was left when it was over. As I started to wash the dishes I thought back to our conversation with a smile on my face.  I don't know if Martha Washington ever chronicled those many delightful conversations she had, but I thought I just might this one time...

Here's just a snippet of where our conversation rambled:

-Ross' Grandmother and food.
-the personification of animals.
-do people today live in reality?
-the life of a milk cow in Litchfield, CT.
-reference to the book Everybody Poops.
-Baba Yaga (Google it).
-things that make Target sales associates go hmmmm.
-table runners vs. drapes. vs. tea towels.
-Polecats.  Stinky Polecats...
-the whispered utterance of the question, "may I please see the knives?"
-peeing outdoors.
-and finally, the story about cat milk and milking a cat (which continues to bring laughter  and tears of joy to the eyes).

It was a great evening!

Eye Test

Here's a little eye test for you.  Can you tell any difference between the two lower windows?

As part of renovating the house Ross and I had hoped to replace the windows some day.  That was some day.  We never painted the muntins, rails or stiles (all the wood around the panes of glass) because of this.  For the past four years I have looked out our bedroom window and was always left looking at the dirty pea green/possibly citron color that the room was originally painted, and I mean everything in the room (the windows, the closet door, the back of the bedroom door, and all the trim).  Thank the good Lord that they left the ceiling white!

Of course windows cost money.  Money we don't have right now. So, we decided to do some work on the windows.  The other day we painted all the windows in our bedroom white (to match all the trim).  It actually seems to make the sunshine outside brighter. Who'd of thunk!  I also decided to replace the old screens with new material; that is the difference in the above picture.  The window on the left is the old screen (looks darker) and on the right is the new one (looks brighter).  It always amazes me how subtle changes can have such a big impact.  Now all I have to do is paint the rest of the window interiors, replace the other half of the screens in the house, replace all the weathered and worn glaze around the window panes, and paint the window exteriors. How much are new windows again?...

Bzzzzzzzz!

Worker brood.

Today is a great day; it is really warm and sunny. I thought it would be nice to give our surviving bee hive a quick checkup and remove the entrance reducer that we put in place last Autumn.  The girls are strong and healthy.  There is a lot of brood, and I think they might have re-queened.  They are also beginning to store honey.  Nice.

We are really hoping to get some honey this year.  Two years ago, we got several frames out before a bear decimated the hive (see our older posts for more on that).  Last year we started two new hives. The strongest of the two died off while the weakest one continues to be the Little Engine That Could.  We're pulling for them and so far so good!

Marching Right Along

Today was a beautiful day.  Sunny and warm.  I have the windows open and can here the chickens' beaks hitting the tin as they peck up the chopped apple treat that Ross just gave them. Max is groaning because he wants to go out and play with the chickens and his daddy.  Earlier I planted our large front porch pots with an assortment of annuals. Other than the black flies (oh how I hate the black flies, and I rarely use the word hate), it was a great day to be outside.  Each day seems to get warmer and sunnier!

I walked around and looked at our gardens.  Flowers coming up all over the place.  Most of our hostas have little heads popping up.  Our other perennials are also just coming back to life. Lemon balm that I planted last year must have seeded as it is back and looking strong.  Seeing all this new growth is exciting. Of course, as all these new plants are starting to grow others are coming towards their end.  Our forsythia and daffodils are at full strength. So are the hyacinths and bluebells.  Soon the tulips and allium will replace them.  Time keeps marching right along.

Our fruit trees are also starting to flower.  The peaches are at full bloom.  Our bees, plus some big bumbles, have been busy pollinating the flowers.  The plum has also flowered. The apples, cherries, pears, and blueberries are close behind.  I included a picture of one of the apple buds as I thought it was just stunning.  I have high hopes of getting some good fruit this year as the fruit trees are all now several years old.  Of course, I will have to wait until each of these fruits come into season!  Everything in its own time.

Spring is Sprung!

Spring is here and with it comes chore after chore. Many are fun, such as starting the garden seeds (which Ross started quite a while ago and is still ongoing).  Others are bit laborious.

This year I decided that I wanted to build a wood shed. Well not exactly a wood shed, as the property that it sits on is designated as "undeveloped" for tax purposes.  I did not want to build a permanent structure and toy with messing up this blessing (it's a small story and we'd be glad to share it with you over a glass of wine). So I built this quasi-structure with left over poles from the electric fence and some two by fours. It's good enough to keep the wood at the bottom from soaking in mud and then being frozen to the ground in the winter.  Of course since I built it, I felt the need to get some wood on it.  I split almost all the wood that is on it today.  I think I'm going to feel sorry for that a bit later.  Thank God that some of it was already dry and easy to split! What you can't see are the two huge trees laying in front of it that I dropped and still need to cut up and split.  I will have this baby filled in no time.

On another note.  Ross' baking endeavor is heating up.  He has had some large orders as of late and repeat customers.  I have my fingers crossed for him. He is a natural at the baking, but the business part of it is where he has room to grow.  I try to stay out of it as I don't want him to feel like I am his manager; I chime in as a pushy mentor.  He has moved forward on several steps that he needs to accomplish as part of starting this growing business.  He makes me so proud.

Lastly, it makes me so happy to see things pushing up all over.  The daffodils are up, the forsythia is in full bloom, and just recently our bluebells and hyacinths have popped out.  I can see the trees start to leaf.  The bees are in a frenzy.  Life is just pushing forward at full strength.  It is such a glorious time of year.  I keep telling myself to just stop and take a moment to take it all in.  And then that nagging voice in the back of my head tells me that there is more wood that needs split.  Oh well, I guess I better get back to my Spring chores.

Brambles, Brambles Everywhere

Every year, since we bought our property, Ross and I clear a little more land.  Sometimes this new land becomes part of the yard, and sometimes it becomes something else-like the orchard. This year we decided to clear the land the left of our house.  It is a small tract with several young trees in it and blackberry brambles right along the small, stone fence.  The reason why we feel the need to clear it is that this land is a bit of a hill, and all the young trees are close enough to pose a danger to our roof someday.  We decided to cut down most of the trees and clear out the old, dead brambles to give us better access to the live ones.

I decided today that I would work on the brambles (as this will make taking care of the trees much easier).  The goal was to cut out the dead stalks; blackberries work on a two year cycle where the new shoots (primocanes) do not bear fruit, and the one year old shoots (floricanes) do.  The floricanes will die after bearing fruit so they need removed, or they will turn into a hard, prickly mess designed to tear your clothes and flesh.  I knew going into this that I was coming out scratched and scathed.

The biggest problem that I knew I had to tackle was the Oriental Bittersweet.  This stuff was everywhere on our property when we bought it.  I have cut it, pulled it, ripped it from the ground, cursed at it, and even contemplated doing the old slash and burn on all our land in hopes of killing this crap of a plant off.  It is invasive, and every time I go out to tackle it I secretly curse the previous owners of our property for allowing it to get so overgrown.  I am so used to it I can spot it half a mile away and even can spot it in the winter when it has no leaves.  I am winning the war here, but I had never really attacked it in the brambles-that is until today.  I pulled some and then pulled some more.  I'd turn around and there would be another strand.  I would start pulling out a root that would go on for ten feet.  I hate this stuff, and my recommendation would be to kill it everywhere you see it.  Even if it is in your neighbor's yard!  Tell them you're doing them a community service.  Believe me, it would be better to do it before you're stuck in the middle of a bramble patch getting sliced to threads trying to kill the bugger.

You Know It's Spring at The Farm...

This is the first sound of Spring here.  Every year about this time the Spring Peeper Frogs start 'peeping' at the fire pond across the street.  This is the sound they make (the video starts with me walking towards the pond from the back of our house, but I don't think there is any difference in the noise).  By the way, there is no picture as I took this at night when they are much louder; our neighbor asked how we can stand the sound.  We actually love it.

Happy Summer, ehrr, um, Spring!

Why the confusion you ask? Cause on the first day of Spring I'm wearing shorts and a short sleeved shirt and working up a sweat doing yard work!  Winter was more like Spring this year so it makes perfect sense that Summer should come early.  I was at the hardware store today and they had Pansies out for sale.  I kept telling myself, "it's still March; it's still March; it's still March."  We did receive a nice Spring surprise today-our first Daffodil bloom.  The Crocus are also starting to bloom, and the Hyacinth, Tulips, and Allium are all peeking their heads above the ground.  Hopefully we get some nice Spring rain here soon to water all these young sprouts as we had no real snow melt this year.

There is only bad thing about not having Winter-lots of bugs.  We have already been smacking mosquitos, and the ticks are really bad.  I picked two off my leg just before I came inside, Ross has already removed several from his clothes today, and Max, well, Max is just a walking tick motel. We have to thoroughly check him every time he goes outside. We usually get from two to four ticks off him each time.  I'm thinking of teaching him how to use the toilet, but am worried he might try to flush his brother Bootsy for fun.

My last offering for this first day of Spring, before I head back outside, is a thank you to our friends John and Jane.  They recently gave us a gourd they had grown and dried so that it could be made into a bird house.  I had not ever done something like this before so it was a fun learning process.  I cleaned it the other day, and cut the holes and painted it today-Sunburst Yellow.  I can't wait to see what takes residence in it! There were a bunch of seeds in it.  I'm hoping that we may grow some gourds of our own this year so I might be able to return the gift!

Happy Leap Day!

Happy Leap Day everyone.  An event that comes around once every four years.  A rarity. Something unique.  Say, like getting a couple of inches of snow on the ground!

In any other year that wouldn't be too strange for Connecticut, but for this year...


We have had some trace amounts of snow (outside of the epic October 2011 snow storm) this season, but nothing to write home about has really happened.  Today we got several inches of snow.  How appropriate to receive an oddity on an odd day.

Speaking of odd, that is Ross making a path to our garage for the outdoor kitties.  I believe he did that before clearing a path to our door.  No commentary here.  People are always welcome at our home too.

I'm Feeling the Spring Itch!

It's that time of year again when I start to pull out all my vegetable, flower, and herb seeds. The other day I had the entire table covered in seeds, diagrams, and supplies. I realized that I was behind in starting some of my seeds indoors. So, I pulled out my starter pots (made locally), and began getting my fingers covered in dirt. Oh, the feeling of dirt between my fingers.  It is such a rush that helps satisfy my Spring itch to dig in the soil. The excitement of planting seeds, and waiting for the final moment when I can start harvesting the joyous bounty. It's exciting to walk into the local hardware stores, while seed packets, dirt, manure are becoming more abundant. Some people get the rush of shoe shopping, I get the rush of seeds, dirt, and the excitement of eating fresh vegetables and herbs out of the garden. Happy planting to all!

Old Dog...

My sister-in-law Teri had me for our Christmas gift exchange.  She made me flannel pillowcases and a night cap (hat, not drink) in a monkey motif.  She also gave me a cross stitch kit.  I have never cross stitched and was pleased to learn that it is not a very difficult skill to learn; that is if you can see it.

I had to go to the local pharmacy and buy a pair of those magnifying eyeglasses just to finish the sewing.  I had to get a magnification of 2.75.  I already wear glasses so this is probably the first sign that bifocals are on their way.  What a nice incidental Christmas gift-the gift of feeling old.  Oh well, at least this old dog can learn a new trick.

It's Official

I've always wondered if I was just overstating the facts a bit when I referred to our property as a farm. We have several acres of land which used to be pasture land of a much larger farm.  It is now mostly woodland.  I never thought that having a small orchard, a handful of chickens, and two bee hives really counted as having a farm (and I shouldn't forget the electric fence). I think the fates are trying to tell me otherwise.

For those of you just tuning in to my ramblings, we sell eggs via a cooler on the side of the road.  We work under the honor system-the eggs are in the cooler as well as a bit of money to make change.  You take a dozen eggs, you leave your money.  We don't produce that many eggs so our customer base is a pretty small and loyal group.  Many a time someone also returns their used egg carton.  Yesterday someone returned a carton on which they wrote "Ross's Chicken Farm."  I had a good laugh when I saw this.  We aren't sure who wrote it, but they sure do know who we are.  That was the first sign confirming our 'farmdom.'

The second sign came in the mail today.  We received the 2012 National Agriculture Classification Survey from the USDA.  This is a mandatory form that we have to submit. I picked it up with a "yeah, right" thought going through my head.  There are four qualifying questions on the cover.  If you respond no to all four then you just send the survey back stating that you are not farming.  We have to answer yes to three of the four questions.  

I guess all signs are pointing to us really being a farm.

A Glorious Nativity!

I thought I'd share this with everyone as it has brought a lot of joy to many this year.  This is the creche sitting on the altar of our church. Here is the story:

Many years ago I asked my mother, an artist/retired art teacher, to make me a nativity set.  Most years I receive a character as a Christmas present.  I say most, because, as an artist, if the character does not meet my mother's expectations I will not get it until the following year (hence the reason why there are only two wise men at the present time-Gold did not meet her expectations; I joked that he made a wrong turn in Albuquerque).  My mother's thought was that these should be set up in three vignettes-the manger scene in one place of a room, the shepherds in another, and the wise men in a third location.  As we have cats that pose a dangerous threat to the fragile pottery pieces, these characters have never left the safety of their glass doored hutch.  That is until this year.  I asked our pastor if she would like to display them on the altar and here they are.  I set the two wise men today after church to mark Epiphany Sunday next week (Epiphany is the celebration of the three wise men coming to the Christ child).  I have received many compliments on my mother's work including someone commenting that they should be placed in a folk art museum.  They are precious and, to me, priceless.  I hope you can enjoy them as much as the members of our church have.  Below are more detailed photos of the vignettes.

Luke 2: 8-19

Luke 2:1-7

Matthew 2:1-12