Whirlwind

Every time-related adage I can think of is absolutely true. Being the mother of young kids? Time goes by so fast. Getting older? Time goes by so fast. Farmer in the summer? Time goes by so fast....

And when they all it at once it is absolutely mind-boggingly exhausting. My favorite is when people are just getting to know me and asking questions to scratch the surface... "oh. You work full time? And you're building a house?".... "oh. And you have kids with all that? And animals?" The beginning of the conversation may have people politely wondering about everything and putting themselves in my shoes.... by the end they can't even fathom it anymore and start looking at me as if I MUST be an escaped mental patient, and surely nothing I am saying is true?

And yet here I am, once again, sitting staring down the downhill slope that is the rest of the summer. I'm not sure how we did it, but we're past the point of no return on this particular frantic season. It's time (or was time a bit ago) to get my fall and winter garden in, and I never really aught up to my summer one. It's time to get the house finished (so close!) and get ready for winter. It's time to resist the urge to hatch out more chickens, give up on breeding the rabbits, and stop putting cuttings and small plants in new pots. Thankfully, it is NOT time to stop canning, because I don't know that I could ever get my fill of that one.... and I don't feel like it's something I get to do a lot anyways....

But I don't have a choice. And while it seems that most of the people staring at me as if I'm batshit insane and from anther planet entirely from the one they pleasantly and sense-numbingly nhabit are terrified of that, I relish not having a choice. I would never ever get 1/2 of what I do done (and that's far from how much I'd like to get done) if I had a choice about it.  My kids, the house, the garden, the animals, if you bite it off, you have to chew.

So I dream of being able to blog as much as I'd like, and I dream of being able to do many romantic probably-pinterest-inspired things as I feed, schlepp, nurture things along.... and try not to plan too many more big bites for the next year.

The Acorn had a birthday!

LOVES Kombucha!

Babies!

Veggies!

BUMPER crop of marigolds

Fur harvest.

Gherkin, Oops.

Haven't barely harvested any this year... :(

Snarkles began his photography career

Mommy's trunk = best playhouse!

Blueberry Wine - pt 1

Back when I lived in California, which seems like oh so many years ago, I used to make blackberry wine. I had a gazillion blackberry bushes at my disposal and I am such a hoarder when it comes to that sort of harvesty stuff that I couldn't resist.

Enter my current patch of blueberries... while we have picked maybe 5 of the available 30 or so gallons this year (no joke, but many are too high up to reach...), we have put up maybe 3. And I have decided to make a (small) batch of blueberry wine as well.

Unfortunately I lost the first several pictures due to my phone momentarily becoming an idiot, getting stuck in 'recovery' mode (like that's going to trick you out of thinking your phone is just half dead...) and losing everything on it. Mere hours after taking said photos. But that's a whole different story...

Crushed pureed blueberries, sugar, yeast & water in the primary fermenter.

I pushed this cap down and stirred every day for three days. (if you look closely you can tell it was bubbling)

Straining through a flour sack towel, my cloth of choice for these sorts of things.

It's important to let it drain with a proper weight on top. In this case, expired yogurt I brought home from the store.

Mmmmm... fruity.

Added to the secondary and topped off with our particle free, PH neutral well water.

Update in Pictures

Again - I apologize my dear friends and Lone Reader (hi mom!) for my absence. I seem to be apologizing for that particular thing a LOT these days, but life has picked up its already ridiculously fast pace, and I have no idea where the time is going. I feel perpetually behind on all things, but am hell bent on enjoying today with the kiddleywinks. Yes.

So without further ado, please admire my beauteous captions and pretend to be updated in no particular order (because the blog is not cooperating):

Re-post this may be, but happy to be seeing these guys in our garden. They keep nibbling critters away and if they're around, big copper colored ones are not.

The Lone Reader bought us these Vincas while she was visiting so I would have something pretty to look at amongst the bare dirt, chicken poop, and the flotsam and jetsam. They are thriving.

New 'pants chickens'! We got four Silkie chicks, 2 black and 2 buff. The boys call them 'pants chickens' for obvious reasons.

Cindy is molting. And she looks like a porcupine.

This guy was stunningly beautiful despite his only having 7 legs.

Some of the 'baby' chickens checking out the new Silkie arrivals.

Cotton flowering

When I ran out of gas mowing the meadow, the Redneck came to my rescue on (in?) his trusty Yota steed.

The Vincas are re-seeding themselves already

Silly Silkies - can you find all 4?

WTF North Carolina people. These didn't move the whole 10 minutes it took me to get this picture.

While the mass o' freaky caterpillars wasn't moving, I picked 3 gallons of these.

A couple of hours later they had changed color, grown spikes and gotten both more hairy and more scary.

Chicken Confusion

My (not-so-small-anymore-) baby chickens have found a new favorite game.

Up to no good in the blueberries

Firmly perched.

They are still young enough that they are light and are able to fly. Which is great in terms of survival for baby chicks, but damn annoying for me when I'm trying to pick the first of the first flush of blueberries - and much better than last year's - off the 15ft tall bushes.

And they managed to perch in far enough so I couldn't reach them, and just high enough that dousing them with water also doused me.

It's Starting!!

Woohoo! It looks like the ample rainfall earlier this spring is helping to ensure my bumper crop of berries this year - I just hope it doesn't drought on me now that they are starting to ripen. This year's berries are turning out to be SUPER delicious!

A Bit of Space

It seems that I may have needed a wee bit of space. Everything in the past (almost entire!) month has been a bit much, and I could not keep blogging up on top of everything else. And while this week doesn't seem particularly better, it is time for me to get going again.

I must say that having my mother here with us has been amazing. She did the lion's share* of the work, and now my garden is weedwacked, cleared of almost all of the shrubbery I wanted to get gone, my two new beds are filled in (and deer netted!), necessities have been purchased, surfaces have been cleaned, new routines have been established regarding the Acorn** and his bedtime... all good things.

And my sister came to visit for the first time. I always loved showing people around when they came to visit us in Japan. I think it can be so cool to see your mundane existence through other's eyes as they see it for the first time... and Stoneyhaw is definitely different! She was only here for about 2 days, but we did manage to pack a bunch in there and I was very glad to see her before the insanity of her home ownership and impending induction into motherhood swept her away for a bit.

I also managed to get my garden in (mostly) and while the strides seem hobbled and not nearly as big as I would like them to be, we ARE making them.

Or at least that's what my mom told me!

My mom and sissypants.

It's important to partake in southern food immediately upon deplaning.

The Battalion eye their first greens suspiciously.

This Wyandotte has completely changed in the 2 weeks since I took this picture.

The Battalion has also learned how to roost.

Feeding was getting a wee bit frenzied at the end of their confinement there. Glad that's over!

They took to free ranging like champs and go back to the coop fairly late. For chickens. We have stopped feeding them all but a few handfuls of scratch grain here and kitchen scraps there. They keep their crops bulging all on their own. So proud!

They got a bit confused the first downpour they were in - and some took to huddling under a scrawny bush. Please note they were 20 ft from their coop, 15 from the Brigade's and about 10 from 2 barns and a camper - all with ample shelter... and under the big barn and the camper is where they hang out often, so not so foreign...

Some of them have taken to being toted on the Acorn's head

So. Many. Berries. Can't. Wait.

And I found some!

My dad's least favorite vegetable. Fortunately for me, I LOVE chard!

Mr. Toad.

Daylilies from my Godmother. Hi Roxanne!

Have you ever seen a potato flower?

I love them!

How about an onion flower?

Leftover metal panels from the construction of the Chicken Palace will be guiding my beans this year.

Baby beans!

Garden visitor. We like these guys.

*please note that at this time 'lion's share' translates as 'all'.


**aka 'the Spawn'. Trying to change what I call him. But he's still kind of 'The Spawn'-y to me.