An interesting week on the wee homestead, worth a quick update with many happy snaps and a couple of video clips.
Weâve had some wonderful days and nights of rain, too much for most, but quite fine for me. Hubby will unfortunately have to repair some fencing, nothing new there.
All the usual erosion issues will fall on him and his little old tractor once again, so I make great efforts to contain my glee. Our water is out and so is the phone, but thatâs not unusual either.
The creek overflowing its banks and the pond washing out.
Shadow sniffing around, but not nearly as tuned into the wildlife as our livestock guardian dogs. In fact, he seems to be a bit allergic to the great outdoors, especially in summer!
I think he prefers his time lounging in the hammock with Daddy. đĽ°
He does also appreciate chasing the pigs and goats and sheep, as much as we keep hollering at him to knock it off.
If youâre wondering whatâs happened to scar up poor Pattieâs back like that, zoom in on the following photo to find the culprit.
The rains have certainly seemed to wake up the wild lifeâjust in the past few days weâve seen a scorpion, 2 water moccasins, 2 copperheads, and Hubby even thinks he saw a coral snake.
I followed one for a couple of minutes as he made his way back to the pond.
Water moccasin making its way back to the pond
There are some more pleasant sitings as well, like these, wild butterfly weed (Asclepius) and Prickly pear cactus (Opuntia).
And some cute mushrooms that I havenât been able to identify.
The garden is doing fine, tomatoes are growing very well, all from our saved seed. Beans and cucs just coming in and the peppers are getting their first flowers.
The first datura bloom, the German chamomile flowering by the snap peas and a nasturtium blooming near the wild spiderwort (a medicinal Iâve posted about here).
In closing, a quick view of honeybees bathing in Poppy pollen.
And other news this post, including Hubbyâs big mistake, lots of garden snaps, critter updates and the new normal weather chaos.
Big ones, small ones, skinny ones, fat ones . . .
Black ones, white ones, green ones, yellow ones . . .
Letâs see, perhaps a bit of 80s pre-conditioning before our current day âYou vill eat ze bugs!â?
Weâve never seen so many, and such a variety. They do not look the least bit appetizing and clearly the birds agree, or there couldnât possibly be so many.
Iâm not exaggerating when I say you cannot take a step without seeing one. Iâm hoping they turn into gorgeous butterflies and soon weâll have a garden full of them. But I havenât looked them up yet and they could easily become some voracious relative of horn worms for all I know, about to attack the tomatoes.
Theyâve destroyed my spring cabbages and are working on the fava beans and snap peas now.
Fall cabbages in the back compared to spring cabbages up front
At least the goats appreciated all those Swiss cheese-like leaves.
Snap peas donât last long here anyway and while those creepy crawlers get the leaves of them, and those of the radishes, at least they leave us the fruits.
Iâve already made a large crock of sauerkraut and a quart of fermented radishes. Plus weâve been getting loads of mulberries thanks to Hubby who has been destroying the tent worms that have been appearing all spring. Those little buggers love the wild cherries too and can easily destroy all leaves and fruits in a matter of days.
So, big kudos to Hubby for coming to the rescue, and spending a fair amount of tedious time harvesting these little beauties as well.
But, Hubby is also responsible for the misdemeanor crime of killing our potatoes! I shouldâve caught it. I know, he was just trying to help. So, he filled our potato buckets with too much compost too fast and now we have potato disaster.
Lesson learned, you can only add a couple inches at a time, even if the greens are much taller than that.
Iâve got lots of herbs companion planted with the tomatoes that are all looking great.
Thyme, cilantro and dill growing between tomatoes
One of the best garden decisions Iâve made is far more flowers in the garden. Not only to attract pollinators, but to attract us too. Itâs a far more inviting space than just rows of crops and makes me want to go in and play. đ
The Peggy Martin rose just one year after planting a cutting from a friend.
And the Burr rose, many years old, huge and seemingly indestructible, even from constant nibbling by the sheep and goats.
And one of my garden favorites, which my photo doesnât do justice at all: Nigella, a delicious seed and lovely tiny blooms in blue and white.
Their seeds have a grape-like flavor and are delicious in bread and kombucha.
A larger garden view
Another fruit that so far seems successful are the persimmons. We have both Virginia and Asian planted and the flowers on them are so unique, just like their fruits.
Iâve also got the citrus planted at last and Iâm so excited! I cannot fail! (Says no one but me and Iâve gotten quite a few discouraging words from others on this venture.)
Planted along with the new âkiss me under the garden gateâ flower which is doing quite well, and the still unfinished wattle fence.
In the best news we have our first kids just born this morning. Milking season approaches too quickly!
The weather madness continues, unfortunately. Big surprise.
Some still think these are contrails! Good grief!
This weekendâs forecast looks like a drop-down menu: 1/16th inch rain possible, or severe storms, or flooding, or hail, or tornadoes. Try planning for those options, peasants! đŠ
Hope life is a little more predictable in your neck of the woods!
Almost entirely happy snaps and almost no complaining at all, really! The garden is mostly great, the weather mostly fine, summer in full swing already, ready or not.
Itâs been busy around here, as usual. But, busy in the country way, which is very different. Our preservation season has already begun, and itâs fixing to get very busy very soon. I have mixed feelings about that, but here it is anyway.
Iâve been saving the rose petals for drying and kombucha after admiring their scent and beauty in many lights and angles.
The poppies continue to pop up in random places, among the roses and in cracks and crevices, like dandelions.
And the bees love them as much as I do.
Another rose variety, the thornless Peggy Martin, I just planted last year, is now getting its first blooms.
Iâm so very pleased with the transition from cool-season coral honeysuckle blooms to the Dortmond rose takeover, lovely! I especially like the short spell they co-habitat.
The wattle fence I began with the best intentions is languishing due to too many other priorities. It has been a sheep deterrent at least, since the mamas and lambs have taken over the front yard. And even Shadow doesnât dare stand in their way!
This is where the citrus will go, my new big project. Iâm even considering throwing an avocado in there too. I know, very ambitious! But, I want to give some of the new methods a try and it seems like a good time. This side of the house is ideal, the house breaking the north wind and the heavy late afternoon sun. Plus, thereâs the extra warmth accumulated in the walls of the house to help in cold snaps, along with the extra heating and draping methods that seem to be working for others.
Ooohhh, anticipation!
Just like the tomatoes and cucumbers coming so soon, right around the corner, and I can hardly wait. The last fermented cucumbers we used up a week ago, amazingly, and they were still crispy and flavorful. I plan to continue and expand my fermenting efforts this summer and fall. More herb pastes, more tea blends, more spice mixes.
The lambs are still doing fine, my how fast they grow.
Spring lambs on springs! đ
My garden mascots, two white rabbits.
And my single complaintâthe spray continues to ruin our beautiful days.
Is this why we can so clearly see these colors, because we have an atmosphere saturated with reflective particulate matter?
Cool pic, or chem-filled haze?
âIâm no prophet Lord, I donât know natureâs ways.â âAnticipationâ by Carly Simon
As much as I complain about the weatherâthat is mostly, the man-made weatherâI feel I must give credit when credit is due.
Weâve been having a spectacular spring. Not one hail storm, flood, tornado to speak of. Perhaps still too light on the rain for my liking, but itâs been enough to keep things growing beautifully around here.
So I just thought Iâd share a bit of that splendor here and now, even though I havenât the time or energy for much else at the moment. Iâve been preparing all week for another basic fermentation workshop, which means a lot of mise en place (thatâs a fancy French expression for âget your shit togetherâ). đ
The coral honeysuckle, looking more amazing than ever, with the rose growing in there just about to bloom too. And a hummingbird finally showed up to enjoy it too, but thereâs not a chance to catch him on camera without many hours to spare.
I tossed poppy seeds out by the hundreds, everywhere. And theyâve shown up in the most unusual places, one at a time, in the tiny cracks between wood and grass, under the dogwood, under the mulberry, in the garlic patch and the turnip rows, just one each, out of hundreds.
Iâm glad, I so love them, but I donât get it. Why there? And where are the rest of them?
Everybody loves the turnip blossoms, especially the bees and goats!
You can see Chestnutâs abscess has almost completely disappeared, hardly visible anymore. But Walnut behind her has torn her ear something terrible, probably in a fence somewhere, doing just what sheâs doing here. We may have to change her name to Van Gogh.
Getting some good kohlrabi and kale and potatoes, and peas, and strawberries and clover, and just about everything, coming in strong.
Iâve been meaning to get some cute lamb vid soon too, really! They are at that adorable stage. Next month come the kids!
The exciting season continues! Mostly plant talk this post. And, weâve got our first lambs, Iâm workinâ my first wattle fence, thereâs some flower photos and fancy garden plans.
A first-time mama is the first to drop a perfect set of twins!Dogwoods blooming beneath oaks
Trumpet, or coral, honeysuckle on our front porch usually attracts hummingbirds by now. Itâs looking gorgeous and Iâm quite proud of it because itâs one I propagated from the wild. But, where are our feathered friends?
Seed saving has definitely upped our game in the garden. Buying seeds is certainly far easier than saving them. Where we once just had to plan one large garden space, now there are three. It feels like juggling! Youâve got to keep all the spaces perfectly coordinated. I had to make a chart. I am not a chart sort of person. Iâm the kind of person who instantly glazes over at the mere inclusion of a chart in any piece of literature.
So really my chart was more like a list of doâs and donâts in a useless graph format. Donât plant the pumpkins with the zucchini. Donât plant the luffa with the Trombetta. Do plant different varieties of cucumbers, peppers, melons and watermelons at least 1/2 mile apart. (Is that even possible?) Musk melons and watermelons are safe to plant together, but French cantaloupe most certainly cannot be planted with American varieties or with green melons.
And thatâs just the summer seasonâs produce, thereâs a whole different set of charts for the winter veggies.
Luckily, Iâve got some good guidance in a great book and, even better, some bigger minds to follow in the form of Gavinâs Newsletter. Heâs just started a book club and his first book up for April just happens to be the one Iâm reading.
Why save seed? From the book we learn a few good reasons: *selecting for specific traits, *preserving diversity, *saving money, *creating superb plants, *And, going on an adventure. âThe art of saving seeds may so intrigue you that youâll branch out to your own plant-breeding adventures with such long-term seed-saving projects as growing oaks from acorns.â
Perhaps that could be me! Or perhaps I shouldâve started this about 30 years ago.
But, those do all sound like good reasons to me, plus Iâll add one more. Itâs a good way to exercise your body and your brain at the same time.
But, propagating something so slow-growing from seed at this stage of life, I think Iâll need more bang for the buck than an oak. Like, this magnificent magnolia!
(Photos sent by a friend in UK, wow, what a specimen!)
Of course, not all seed saving is complicated. After all, it used to be something every farmer would do, and their children, too. If Iâd grown up doing it Iâd probably think Iâm making much ado about nothing.
In particular, most of the common herbs we loveâdill, cilantro, basil, parsley couldnât be easierâlet them go to seed, collect the seed once dry, keep in a paper bag over winter, and sprinkle back out in spring.
Easy-peasy, leaving more time for flowers!
More flowers, herbs and medicinals has been the big goal besides seed saving. Iâve always liked hollyhocks and other traditional âcottage gardenâ favorites. How fortunate for me to find one Iâve never heard of before, with a really cute name.
Inspiration photo only, real or photoshop, no clue
Flower name: âKiss me over the garden gateâ Latin name: Persicaria orientalis (formerly Polygonum orientale) is an annual member of the buckwheat family. The tall plants produce pretty pink pendulous blooms.
Iâve just planted it under the bedroom window inside my work-in-progress wattle fence.
Whatâs a wattle fence?
I had no idea what that was until I read about another blogger, Re-Farmer, building one. It looked like a fun and do-able project perfect for a precision-challenged person like myself.
And it is! There are lots of YouTube videos on the process, but I think this one was the bestâa much taller and longer wattle fence than Iâve tried to produce, but who knows, as my skills develop I could step it up a notch. đ¤
The other big garden plan this year are a few citrus trees. Weâve been wanting them for a long time, but all fruit trees are a challenge here with our crazy weather. (And itâs not just us! All kinds of complaints about it from YouTubers and neighbors alike. It didnât used to be like this.)
Anyway, this guyâs got some great suggestions and solutions and we so love our citrus, so weâre going to make an investment toward our citrus-filled future with Myerâs lemon, Mexican lime and Satsuma orange.
Another small plan is more peppers, specifically seasoning peppers, also called spice peppers (though they arenât always spicy as in hot), like pimientoâs and such.
As much fermenting as Iâve been doing I see they are an excellent addition to all kinds of dishes. Plus, peppers do pretty well here usually, and they harvest in fall when thereâs little else happening, and they are lovely little plants some folks grow just as ornamentals. Four excellent reasons to squeeze them into the rotation. Hereâs one variety Iâm trying:
â(C. chinense) 99 days. (green > orange-red > red) [Venezuelan heirloom. Seed source from Donna Hudson in TN.] Has the same shape, size, color and aroma as Habanero, but is sweet, spicy, and delicious, with only a trace of heat. Highly aromatic fruits; their flavor is unusual and complex, with overtones of black pepper and coriander, and undertones of other spicy flavors. An excellent choice for sautĂŠed vegetables, rice and bean dishes, paprika, or herbal vinegars. The thin-walled pendant fruits are 1 x 2 in., tapering at both the stem and blossom end. Plants have good foliage cover and bear at 18 in. high. Seedlings grow slowly at first, but grow rapidly later in the season to 48 in. or more.â
Like I said, itâs the exciting season on the wee homestead!
Such an exciting season around the wee homestead! Weâve got mostly happy snaps and cute vids to share this postâgrowing piglets and bees and veggiesâyippie!
Iâll save the unsavory stuff til the very end, that way those who must can just skip it. (Mighty generous of me, eh? đ)
Letâs begin with a bumper crop of piglets, 11 of them, here trying to figure out the basics. This is just one day old, my arenât they some quick learners!
Later we have a couple more from today, at one week old.
Sheâs been an excellent mama, Patty, this is her 2nd litter.
The garden is going strong already and this is definitely the earliest Iâve seen bumble bees out and about. March 15 is our average last frost date around here, for whatever thatâs worth. Considering weâve seen snow-covered Indian paintbrush before, we donât put a lot of stock in that date.
If we donât get a late frost this year it will be our earliest ever for summer planting. Iâve already got cucumbers in! The tomatoes are just about to go in and the peas are presenting perfectly.
Peas and fava beans planted together. If it gets too hot too quickly they will be a bust, but we do love when they succeed.
On left in the basket is celeriac, another fav of mine I try ever year, but like the fava beans and peas, it all depends on the temperatures if weâll see a harvest. Next to them are tomatoes started under lights indoors and hardening now before planting in a day or two. Iâll plant some indeterminate varieties in about a month, hoping theyâll last longer through the heat. On right, the onions and garlic are looking great.
The old pears have already flowered over a week ago, here you can see Papa Chop napping while surely enjoying their sweet scent wafting on the breeze. Along with the bees!
On the right you can see me filling up the new hive with bees that over-wintered in the nuc where they positioned themselves last spring.
This was such a memorable experience last year that we managed to catch a bit of on vidâwell worth the watch as the colony we just captured as a swarm moves from the hive I tried to put it in into the nuc Iâd placed as a bait hive, moving themselves within just a few hours from one side of the garden to the other.
This was a swarm we caught and first tried to transfer to a different hive on the other side of the garden. The bees had a better idea.
This was the swarm last spring. It was just a small one and I guess they just didnât feel quite ready yet for the big hive I tried to place them in.
Thank you maâam, but we prefer it over here!
Well, this time they were a little more receptive to my preference and they are in their expanded home doing fine. đ¤
The piglets are so cute itâs hard not to take multiple vids watching them. I donât edit yet, but maybe someday Iâll venture into more serious farmish filming.
And another âŚ.
But, itâs not all peaches and rainbows for the piglets. Because you know, âmale privilegeâ. Last year Hubby learned to castrate, which is an absolutely necessary skill if youâre serious about raising pigs. He did the deed, heâs gotten rather quick and good at it, so we made a couple of vids this time. Hereâs the intro.
Iâll refrain from posting an example of the dirty deed though, which I could barely film! Yes, I admit one of my many bad qualities is squeamishness. But in my defense, I know many others way more squeamish than me!
If you really want to see it, youâll have to send me an email. Donât worry, I wonât judge. đ
And in other bad news, yes, they still spray our beautiful days away. đŠ
Still, itâs a beautiful life, and while we may complain, we know how to appreciate it all, too.
When all else fails, learn from Bubba.
âOh, you only meant to dry the cushions here for freshening? Let me test that out for ya.â ~So Says Bubba
Thanks for stopping by, wishing yâall a glorious spring!
Shadow pointing out which wild cherry suckers I should try to grow into trees.
This post weâve got some happy snaps, the usual weather bitching, a bit of pre-planning and some good news on two healing fronts.
(From bottom left: mini-mustard greens and new lettuce germinated inside about to be transplanted to replace all weâve eaten; several types of onions and elephant garlic (which does best here, by far); and turnips for us and the pigs. đ)
The cauliflower is long gone, the broccoli nearly so, but a new crop is already in the works inside on a heat mat. Succession planting has its limitations in our East Texas Yo-Yo Season (formally known as âwinterâ). Sometimes you get lucky with a warm stretch and get a nice surprise (yay, third times a charm, the carrot seeds finally germinated!) other times you get premature bolting (that dumb broccoli didnât even produce a good head yet!).
Premature bolting đ But some nice butter lettuce still doing well by covering during cold swings
I do not appreciate it, and I think it stresses us all at some level, not just me, not just the more sensitive 4-legged and 2-legged, but all of life. Five warm days go by, in the 70s (but feeling hotter), with an unseasonal and hot stinking wind coming from the south, then suddenly, the very next day, itâs 40, lows in the 20s, and the dogs are shedding, also unseasonably.
Our âArctic chicksâ â confused broody hens confusing weather whiplash for spring
Yes, we get the surprise arctic chicks on occasion. Itâs nice to see a bee or two about. We get early daffodils. But we also get another lost fruit crop because it is sure to frost and now, again, everything is blooming far too early.
And it seems to me, the more folks are catching on, the more the establishment pushes back, with the gaslighting and the misdirection and the normalizing.
Going back to the 1800s! And howâs that working out for us?
Despite the man-made manipulation, or maybe because of it, Iâve come to appreciate the old adage âLet nature take its courseâ on a whole new level. Weâve had two overlapping critter health issues these last months, both with their unique challenges.
Shadowâs blood-spurting ear was by far worse, but still, in every case, I donât like not knowing what to do, stressing about my lack of knowledge, feeling useless, and thatâs how I felt during Chestnutâs ordeal as well.
Please allow my whine for just another moment, itâs been illuminating for me, in a way.
Self-reliance is a cornerstone goal for us. Relying on vet care is not an option for a number of reasons, beginning with the cost, ending with the lack of trust we have for the medical establishment, and with a very long and convoluted journey in between where we try to figure out how to bridge this enormous gap, with no training.
We are lucky for the internet, but you know how that goes. One problem, a dozen conflicting pieces of advice. We ask around as well, we are certainly grateful the many suggestions offered, but still itâs nerve-racking making ill-informed decisions, and no matter what anyone might pretend, health is not an exact, one-size fits all kind of science.
Chestnut was acting strangely, very suddenly. She went from just fine to a few hours later she was lethargic and not eating much and separated herself from the herd.
My goat friend suggested Ivermectin and it seemed to work fine. Then she quickly developed an abscess on her side. Related? No clue. It looked terrible, but it was not bothering her at all. I read lots of advice, but decided to let nature take its course after reading one description that sounded most similar to what I was seeing. Though they recommended lancing it at the end stage to avoid âinfectionâ. (In the above photo you can see the âbefore and afterâ, the photo on right taken yesterday, sorry for the blurriness.). It got very large and it was not easy to do nothing!
Itâs been over a month now, and it is healing nicely. Patience was the correct remedy, not lancing. I think we have an addiction to unnecessary interference in our culture.
The ordeal with Shadow was a serious challenge. You might recall the middle of the story from our last Happenings post. It started all the way back in November with a little nick on the tip of his ear. The cat?
Who knows, but it was shockingly difficult to get the blood flow under control.
We had much advice, some of it new and excellent (thanks again Kath and Zoe!), but wow, did that take some patience and perseverance, which mostly landed on Hubby, as per usual. (Male privilege! đ)
Three months later and it is completely healed and allâs well that ends well, thank heavens!
What exuberance, no one around here can keep up with him! He runs circles around us all, then sits patiently by Hubbyâs side until the next round.
We LOVE potatoes, but they arenât the easiest to grow here. This âbarrel-layeringâ technique has proven to be more successful.
We love potatoes so much we also buy them in bulk when theyâre on sale and Hubby cans them up and they fry up in tallow so quick itâs like a delicious fast food thatâs a cheaper and healthier alternative to the industrially processed varieties.
It is a long and labor-intensive project, thatâs 45 pounds of potatoes there, it took him the best part of a day to do, but weâll be appreciating the effort for 28 delicious meals. đ
Looking ahead weâre doing a bit of planningâIâll be giving another beginnerâs fermentation course next month and Hubbyâs got some good livestock trades in the works, weâre committed to foraging more for mushrooms and cultivating our own.
Patty, our mama-to-be, eating up the last acorns. Already many of her piglets claimed for bartering deals. đ
Hereâs a current little visit with our herd, including, hopefully many healthy, expectant mamas with kids growing fine.
Not that little guy, heâs our first buck, we call him Teaky.
5 expectant mamas among our St. Croix-Dorper flock
Incorporating more permaculture design in the garden and orchard is an on-going big goal. We have a couple spaces empty and Iâd love to try something really unique like this:
Permaculture-Inspired image Iâm dreaming about!
Where Iâd be including my fun garden-art projects, like these:
Lots of grand plans in the works, always, but itâs the simple things that make the hard stuff worth while.
Our seasons change. I donât just mean from north to south, east to west. There are the calendar seasons, and the four seasons, though some unfortunate folks only get two.
Then there are the seasons of lifeâchildhood, adulthood, old age.
Here on the wee homestead we have our own seasons now, too. These, of course, are the most special of all seasons, to us.
Here we have just ended the killing season. Hallelujah!âA very unique sort of season to mostâvegetarians certainlyâbut also to most of the western world, who no longer process their own meat.
This is an extremely challenging season.
For Hubby!
He has full and sole responsibility for the slaughtering, the gutting, the skinning, the scalding, the hanging, the butchering, the grinding, the rendering, the canning, the smoking, the curing, the broth-making.
WOW!
â
For my part, I do the packaging.âPlus a bit of pâtĂŠ, a smattering of curing.â Not exactly an equitable deal.
Mostly itâs DeliciousSeason for me! Our small space is full of meats of many flavorsâbacon, ham, pâtĂŠs, sausage, lamb pastrami and various other cures, beautiful chops and ribs and roasts, the aroma of broths and meats that he pressure cans, filling up every corner of our little cottage and wafting out to season the surrounding vicinity.
Roderick and half of his harem. Notice the PVC pipe on Walnut? That was a temporary fix to keep her horns out of the fences, and it worked like a charm.
Cheese season has also just ended. Now my divas should be comfortably pregnant, their season also having shifted thanks to the services of our friendly neighborhood Billy (aka Roderick). That means our herd shall be greatly increased by early summer, gods willing.âRoderick has since moved on to more fertile pastures in the next county.
While the Gouda-style and the Camembert-style are more difficult to make, the Mason Jar Marcelin and the herbed cheese balls aged in olive oil couldnât be easier. A 3rd grader could do it! Donât let the moldy surfaces fool you, beneath their scary exterior these cheeses are quite mild and very tasty.
That means itâs also a season for some difficult decisions. We are at our ideal capacity right now. We donât want to grow. We donât want to get âinto businessâ. Such an odd thing to reject, considering where weâve grown up. It gets in the bloodâthis mindset/worldviewânow what, whatâs next, whatâs new. Get big or get out! Whereâs the market? Donât you want to open up shop? Sell to the public? Get all licensed up and grow, grow, grow?
Oh, hell, no!
What if, we donât care about all that? What if we are in a season of life where we care about quality over quantity? Others can, and will, âget bigâ and in some cases (a precious few) more power to âem.
But, Iâm in my Delicious Season. I have an extra roll around my middle to prove it. (So do Hubby and all the dogs and pigs and even the sheep!)
Nope, my main concern at the moment is, how delicious can I get delicious to be? It sounds decadent, I know. But, maybe further refinement, compared to mass production, could be a really good thing?
Quantity over qualityâwhether in words, or food, or strip malls, or entertainmentâhas not worked out too well for this world seems to me.
There was a time, in my peak ambition years, I did strive for more instead of betterâmore travels, more experiences, more friends, more leisure, even more work. My season has shifted. I definitely strive for better over more these days. What if I could make the most delicious cheese ever made in all the world, and only 3 people ever tasted it?
Fine by me!
Of course, then how would I know if itâs the most delicious? Maybe thatâs not so important either. Maybe itâs sufficient that what we produce and process and serve is delicious enough to make all the hard work worthwhile.
Weâll be spending some cold days relishing in our Delicious Season, because right around the corner another season is waiting.
Bubba and Buttercup LOVE when it gets really cold! When itâs under 20 degrees F they get to camp inside under the kitchen table. đ¤
âBut the hills that we climbed were just seasons out of time.â
As the entitled, privileged, white western woman I identify as, I now have Hubby all to myself.
Now his best, his most creative, his most talented and productive self gets expressed here, at home, instead of off in some far away place for some unknown people.
âEvery man looks at his wood pile with a kind of affection.â ~Henry David Thoreau
The benefit for me has been huge, off the charts. Most recently in the form of a beautiful Christmas gift. Weâve spent most Christmases of our 20 year marriage apart, usually with Hubby working offshore. This never felt like such a big deal to me considering we donât have kids and we are neither religious nor consumer-oriented.
It was a pretty good deal actually, because he got bonus pay and we got to feel generous at the same timeâoffering the holidays to the Dads among his co-workers.
No matter how good of a sharer one is entrained to be, especially I guess as a selfish, entitled, privileged, white, western woman, giving the best years of life to âthe systemâ is not nearly as fulfilling as it might sound to some.
Like most modern Westerners we worked hard for many decadesâwe devoted years of education and training in order to fulfill our function in the economy and we played by the social rules and did some right investment things and we feel weâve earned our relative liberty.
Weâve bought our freedom, so to speak. For as long as that lasts anyway.
We have earned our right to withdraw our energy, time and talent from an insane system earlier than scheduled. A âgiftâ hard-earned and well-deserved, Iâd say.
Many years ago I was told that âAmericans live to work, while the French work to liveâ in an attempt to describe the comparable âwork ethicâ of these two cultures. In general, Iâd agree, at least back then. Certainly in past centuries Americans have prided themselves on their reputation of being hard workers, with high productivity, and all those industrious accolades that go along with thatâlike ingenuity and resourcefulness and determination. Now we desire to benefit from those hard-earned character traits.
Retirement is Redefining Fun
I preferred the French style of cultivating more joie de vivre and laissez-faire attitudes, but not just for the more obvious reasons of the pleasure and sensual rewards of the good life. I also saw how unhealthy it is to encompass so much of oneâs raison dâetre âself-esteem and community connections and social structure and really most aspects of life âin with oneâs professional occupation.âBut this is what the majority of us have been trained to do.
âBecause work is an activity in which all initiative and energy is extorted from the individual in order to generate profit for someone else, and because it is unbearably unpleasant, futile and barren, âfreeâ time looms before labour as a garden paradise. Fake sickies are then engineered and labour-saving devices purchased to extend the Pastime Arcadia by a minute or two. But because access to wild nature and genuine culture is curtailed, weekenders are forced to buy their pleasure as they buy everything else, from huge corporations which, to turn a profit, appeal to the lowest common denominator of its demographic, thereby producing, in lieu of satisfying art, addictive titillation and anxiety. In other words, once we have freed ourselves from work, we then have to submit to a world made of work.ââ 33 Myths of the System: A Radical Guide to the World by Darren Allen (2021)
Leaving all the variables asideâlike retirement wasnât exactly intentional and was certainly untimely, yet irresistible, and as yet permanently untenableâthe rewards still far outweigh the risks.
Retirement is Reprioritizing.
The old adage âtime is moneyâ casts an evil word spell. In actuality, time is precious, as money is profane.
âThe second new technology of control invented by the Greeks , was MONEY â an impersonal, indestructible abstraction which rendered people, objects and, eventually, the entire universe as a collection of homogeneous quantities, things which could be bought and sold. It was thanks to the attitude that money engendered that Greek philosophers began to view the entire universe as a composite of discrete, rationally-apprehended granules, or particles (a.k.a. âAtomsâ), and ideas (or âplatonic formsâ), chief among them, the tragic atomâcut-off, isolated, alone â we call âmanâ.â (D. Allen)
When man is no longer âtrading hours for a handful of dimesâ to borrow a Doorsâ passage, fantastic things can occur. Iâm not saying they will occur, only that the potential is created that they might. That is, a space where no space existed before, where moneyâs place in time is squarely upstaged by something infinitely more appealing.
Some folks plan multiple decades for retirement only to be overwhelmed by timeâs infinity once they reach it. They succeeded in their dream. Right?
Whether they scrimped and saved or invested and won, still they cling to the âtime is moneyâ fallacy and once retired spend much energy agonizing over their dwindling resources and increased hours to fill with distractionsâsome new fanaticism âbe it sports or politics or shopping or so, so many other means for their entertainment, that is, their entrainment. Your money and your mind.
Theyâve been so acclimated to the Earn-Spend Ferris wheel of existence that time shifts almost instantly from precious to perilous. The ânever enoughâ crowd, born and bred to earn and burn, to forever cast the pearls of their finite energy into the infinite abyss of acquisition.
Where to burn, once that ride threatens to end? Could a new retirement hobby ever be enough?
Or will it take a new lifestyle? A new way of being and perceiving in the world? Maybe even re-integrating the simple satisfaction of chopping wood and carrying water?âAfter all, why pay a gym membership?
Or, as my beautiful Christmas gift suggests, maybe making furniture?
As best we could, with limited knowledge, skill, money, we set ourselves up to succeed at this moment, and against the odds. Will that be enough? There are no guarantees.
But, the meaning of âsucceedâ has shifted with the territory. Itâs our own meaning now. No masters above, no slaves below. Itâs working at our leisure, at our pleasure, on projects and activities that reflect who we are, what we want out of life, how we envision a better future.âItâs personal and imperfect and itâs the way we are trying to practice more than we preach.
Retirement is spontaneity. After having planned ahead.
Yes, it was a tornado that took down that cedar, and many other trees as well. Yes, our tools are still inadequate. No, we donât have the money to âupgradeâ. But the financial restraints require creativity and frugality, which weâve cultured over the decades. And the self-reliance fosters self-confidence, which weâve been diligently cultivating for decades as well.
If the best things in life are free, what to do with our freedom? Do we spend our precious time perfecting the dance of life, or perfecting our costumes? Do we spend our greatest efforts making it easier for ourselves to play, or for others to watch?
Perfection is the enemy of the good. In the world of corporate work, perfection is the goal. Perfection is the construct upon which all human effort is poised. Your regenerative human resource creates their sustained capital. Perfection in the eyes of the corporate beholder is maintained through mechanization, that is, mechanization of the resource, be he human or time, quotidian or universal.
Retirement is unstructured.
Our only intention now is to never go back. It is a soul-sucking system, not just a time-sucking one. Iâd say thatâs why so many donât get out sooner, or whenever they have the chanceâtheir souls have been too drained already.
Mechanization of the body or soul is equal under the laws of the system. But, unstructured time allows plenty of opportunity to de-mechanize.
What is one man capable of without the lifetime expectation of the system? Without the chaotic pressures of the market?âWith just a bit of time and skill and opportunity?
Thatâs what retirement should be, according to me. The freedom to be unpredictable and unperfectable. The freedom not to be adjusted or tampered with anymore in order to support a slippery system we unwittingly inherited.
âMost people do not know what to do with free time and when it appears they feel only an anxious need to consume corporate fun or, at best, cultural familiarity.â (D. Allen)
A great number of disjointed fragments came together to make this wholeâincluding a tornado, a scamdemic, a hand-me-down gift of turquoise stones, a random forum post about âsteampunk styleâ and a lot of time, and desire, and a good bit of skillânone of which had anything to do with me directly.
I only breathed just a hint of enthusiasm at just the right time and voilaâhe has crafted a unique treasure that will forever recall the transformation of a painful memory recast into magnificently unique beauty, form and function.
The deeper fissures in the wood filled with lovely turquoise stones.
If itâs the only piece he ever creates, I am over-joyed! If it leads to a hobby that fills his desires, I am thrilled! If it leads even further, to actual work, like, for others, well, maybe, Iâll be forced to pull that Retirement is Selfish card again.
Wow, Iâve posted no update since the end of August (aka Late Swelter Season). Now here we are already well into Weather Whiplash Season, my how time flies!
This post weâve got lots of happy snaps, the usual weather bitching, some cheese boasting, and long laments about our dear Shadowâs woes.
Notice the band-aid on his ear? Useless. But, apparently we needed to learn that the hard way.
Sometimes time flies, but when things get really bad, it crawls. Especially when it goes instantly from nothing much to Holy Shit!
And as bad as it is, in the big picture the weather whiplash is still way worse. So, best get that report out of the way first. No rain, in our rainy season. No real season at all, just a rainless rollercoaster, and not nearly as fun as that sounds.
Not natural clouds, folks! And soon the kids wonât be able to see any difference, though the atmosphere has significantly changed in the last two decades, as the weather has changed, as they lie about their climate scam, and charge âcarbon taxesâ to ordinary folks to pay for their madness. Makes me SO FURIOUS!
I could be taking such photos on a regular basis, but it gets old. And then someone could comment on the âprettyâ sunset. đ¤Ż. Argghhh, Noooo! Canât someone please make it stop?!
No? Ok, moving on.
More bad news. Weâve had the most prolific acorn year since weâve been here, thatâs about 15 years. Sounds like good news, I know. It is good news, in many ways. The pigs are getting fat, the sheep and goats are gorging. Literally. And thatâs the problem. One of the young twins gorged himself to death. It was terribly sad. His little stomach ballooned up as if his body couldnât contain it anymore and he was suffering for hours.
Iâd read baking soda could help, but it did not in this case. Perhaps it was too severe. I also read thereâs a surgical procedure which would alleviate the pressure in his gut, but I donât have the confidence to perform that myself and the vets around here donât treat goats. I held the little guy for a long time, trying to keep him warm and help him feel better, but we lost him. Oh the perils of animal husbandry!
Another problem of the acorn bumper crop is much less severe. We live under a large oak tree and have a metal roof. Itâs been rather windy lately and once those nuts start shaking loose, itâs kinda like the sky is falling. If our veteran neighbor with PTSD comes by I expect heâll be darting for cover quick, because it sounds eerily like machine gunfire when they get popping off the roof.
The acorn perks include some plump pigs and happy goats, two of which Iâm still milking, which is making for some very tasty cheeses.
Under the oaks: happy pigs, sheep and goats.Can you spot the perfectly camouflaged foraging pig?Happy goats make for delicious cheeses.
Iâve gotten so successful Iâm confident enough to get very daring!
Chèvre wrapped in sassafras and fig leaves for aging.More aged chèvreâthe top log is covered in dried goldenrod leaves and flowers, the bottom one is wrapped in honeybee comb.Our first pecan harvestâless than impressive, but still delishLactarius paradoxus mushrooms, homemade goat cheeses and first Japanese persimmon
Our fruits were nearly non-existent this summer, but we did just get our first âcropâ of persimmons, a whopping 5 of them! A couple of years ago I harvested lots of them from a neighborâs tree and they were delicious; that was the first time weâd ever tried them.
Fuji persimmon
We planted both varieties, but the American variety takes much longer to start producing fruit and the fruits are generally smaller. These pictured above are Fuji, quite different, harder, larger, less sweet, not at all astringent, and also very tasty. The closest in taste Iâd say would be a very ripe mango, the American varieties are especially super sweet, like jam.
If youâd like to learn more about this fancy fruit, hereâs an enthusiastic lesson from James Prigione.
Weâve been getting a few mushrooms, but the lack of rain is certainly hindering our foraging experience. A friend brought us a huge chicken of the woods, our first time trying it and it was excellent.
Laetiporus sulphureus
The lactarius paradoxus are hard to spot and deceptively unattractive. In fact, they are exceptionally tasty and have a longer shelf-life, and of course a different season, than our favorite chanterelles.
Even while foraging mushrooms it seems the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. đ¤
In the garden we do have two nice full boxes of varied cool-season produce we protect from the frosts with row cover cloth. In addition to lettuces thereâs some broccoli and cauliflower, spring onions, cilantro and parsley, radishes and Chinese cabbage. Weâve also got our garlic already shooting up and a couple rows of turnips started for the pigs come spring. Our neighbors are now buying eggs from us, so we throw in the surplus veggies when we can.
3 of 6 colonies survived our terrible summer. The hives are a bit hodge-podge at the moment while we do maintenance on them.
The honeybees are occasionally making an appearance, though since the frost there is little for them to forage. One of their last favorites is another one considered a ânuisance plantâ by the âexpertsââitâs called tree groundsel and itâs pictured after the frost in the right photo above, in the background behind the boxes. Quite a lovely late-season plant, if you ask me.
And approaching it before the first frost sounded like the buzzing metropolis that it was! A last hoorah for the bees.
So we come back to the current day and our crazy Shadow drama. It all started with a tiny Band-Aid.
Heâs got the ear-span of a small plane and we have the living room space of its cockpit. When he shakes his head he invariably hits some piece of wall or corner of furniture with his Dumbo ears and itâs actually pretty amazing it didnât happen already: a tiny gash on the tip of one ear that he doubtlessly cannot even feel.
Forever happy and oblivious
We were racking our brains for several days, trying everything we could think of and just digging ourselves deeper. One tiny failed Band-aid led to bigger Band-aids led to bigger wraps led to taping menstrual pads to the poor creature!
Nothing was working. We also tried several over-the-counter products, like liquid Band-aid, blood-clotting powder, and some spray-on crap. Not only was nothing working, they all seemed to be making the problem worse.
We even tried to craft our own âNo flap ear wrapâ made out of my doo-rags, which also didnât work. So, we purchased a pricey one online which should be arriving any day now. Obviously, this is a universally common dog issue. A result of over-domestication no doubt, but thatâs fodder for another post.
Then I start racking my pea brain in frantic desperation. How to stop the blood flow pronto?! Crimp his ears with clothes pins? Tie his ears up on top of his head with a scrunchy? Stitches? Soldering? How about just cut the whole ear off? Yes, we did briefly consider the vet. But weâve been spending the many months since we got him trying to detox him from all the vet potions and it feels we are finally making some headway there. I kept imagining the new meds that would be required for this new issue and their invariable side-effects, which would start us off at square one with his detox.
Clearly I donât think very well in high-stress situations. I was really trying hard and the bad ideas were piling on. The blood, which had gone from a tiny occasional drop, to a full-on drip, to a steady stream, and from then within a few hours a sprayer-hose in every direction with every shake of his head. And that boy loves to shake his head.
Between the blood splatter and the acorn fire it feels we could be living in a battlefield training zone.
Yup, the crazy, bloody mess had arrived and is still visible all over our living room, deck, porch, siding. We covered all the furniture and even the walls with old towels and sheets. Hubby started following him around everywhere, with a giant towel extended between his outstretched arms each time he sensed a head shake was about to turn into a sprayer-hose of the sticky, red, splatter paint across the windows, the screens, the ceilings even. (Where are those magical elves when you need a deep house cleaning?)
We needed a miracle, and fast!
And thank the heavens, I got that miracle in one brief email. Thank you UK herbalists, Kath and Zoe, miracle workers! It shouldâve occurred to me sooner. Me, especially, considering I did start the Herbal Explorations pages earlier this year and have been getting educated on herbal remedies. It honestly did not occur to me that herbs could solve this acute issue. I didnât think anything would be fast or effective enough, especially when every other thing we were trying had failed and even worsened the problem.
Zoe suggested powdered myrrh as her preferred method in order to stop the blood flow, but we didnât have that on hand. I ordered some online, but in the meantime chose among her other options, yarrow, and we have plenty on hand because I like it in Kombucha. I made a strong tea with it, as well as grounding some up into a powder and that whole concoction I held on his ear a few times with a cloth, some of that powder getting into the wound and sticking there, and the blood flow finally stopped. Holy Heavens! As of this writing we are still in good form and have our reserve remedies soon arriving in the mail.
What I clearly need now is an official Herbal First-Aid course. Herbs are not just for gentle healing and routine health, I see, they can be used in emergencies, too.
Why did I not think about it sooner?! It seems like such a no-brained to me now, that Iâve started to consider other potentials that didnât occur to me at the timeâlike the old Russian folk remedy bees podmoreâwhich I just happen to have been saving for a rainy day for 3 years now.
Quite an expensive lesson, but a welcome one nonetheless. đ
Thank you from Hubbyâs âWhite Elephantâ! đ
A huge thanks and deep bow to Kath and Zoe, from all of us on the wee homestead! đ đ¤
