Blog

This weekend I picked the Jarrahdale and Oregon Homestead Sweet Meat squash that were growing in the compost pile.

Lots of good eating there! And with the vines having completed their mission, I cleared them out to prepare for the harvesting of the compost itself, which I think has probably been cooking for at least a year now.

Rich and crumbly- can’t wait to get this good stuff into the garden beds.

Had Daphne and Fiona in the shed for hoof trim/treatment today and got a couple decent shots of how their fleeces-

Daphne’s crazy sunbleached ringlets

And Fiona’s champagne superfluff- which is showing more promise with each passing year

Daphne says “hey”- and wants to know if you brought ‘falfer pellets. 🙂

I will be waiting til next spring to shear these girls- and hoping that they don’t manage to crub them up too much over the winter!

Alas, I’m not any further along with my travel project plan. Lots of ideas, no clear direction yet.

But, thanks to The Man, there is applesauce!

Batch number one canned, subsequent batches probably to be frozen. Made from the transparents on the tree by our pumphouse, and some red delicious from the ancient tree out back.

I love warmed, spiced applesauce as a snack in the winter. And it is also great for baking, so always good to have on hand.

I’ve been working on getting the summer garden wrapped up. Harvesting the last of the tomatoes, cukes, peppers, etc. Yesterday I selected this year’s overwintering specimens from amongst our peppers to move them inside before the weather turns colder. I dug out one jalapeño, one svoboda, and one baklouti, potted them up and pruned them back hard.

The svoboda and baklouti didn’t yield me any ripe fruits this year, but hoping that with a headstart next season they might have more success.

Also planted out some shallots and garlic in the hoophouse. I’ve got kale and broccoli coming up, but they are still too tiny to go in the ground.

In wool work this week, I’ve been focusing mostly on Esther. Two different spins- one high twist, one low-twist.

I’m glad that I have quite a bit of her wool in the stash, but it’s kind of bittersweet handling her locks. I do so miss that girl.

Speaking of sheeps, I was just out giving the girls some treats-apples and yellow squash. What a glorious fall afternoon-

Dottie says “hey”-

While she is still limping , it seems like she is putting a bit more weight on that injured back leg lately, so I’m hopeful that it’s slowly healing.

Have a good week folks-

The Romas are coming, The Romas are coming!

It took a bit longer than usual- perhaps because of the cooler summer, or because these guys are kind of enormous.

The variety is “Gladiator”, and a couple of them that I’ve weighed have come in at nearly a pound! Nice and meaty, tho- so, I guess worth waiting for (?)

The Man has been getting them processed so we’ll have summer tomato flavor tucked away in the pantry for soups, stews and sauces during the cold months.

And I’m back at the drum carder- this time making blended roving

No particular end product in mind right now. Just some color therapy.

Countdown to cross-country travel has begun (annual trip to FL)- which means I need to get some sort of knitting project in the works. Preferably some thing substantial, but not terribly complicated.

Guess that will be the goal for this week. Getting a project plan together.

The needles, that is.

JUiST no 2 is designed with a rolled neckline, but since I’d hemmed the bottom edge and the cuffs, the rolled edge on the neck just wasn’t sitting right with me. So this afternoon it went back on the needles to get a different finish.

Picked up stitches and knit 3 rows, one turning row, then another 3 rows and whip stitched it down on the reverse. A quick try-on confirmed that the revision was a success! So now it’s blocking. And maybe it is truly done.

I’ve been steadily spinning up a worsted weight Esther yarn in hopes of starting a sweater soon, but no firm plans yet. I’m torn between doing another JUiST and another Smokeshow. The spinning has been really enjoyable, working up the singles on the SpindleCycle, then chain plying on Moto.

Now that I’ve pretty comfortable with the flip wind-on technique, I find the spindle spinning to be a lot of fun. And fast!

Out in the garden, I finally harvested this year’s one and only Petite Gris de Renne melon

It was SO tasty. Worth waiting for, but a shame that it was a solo act. I think next year I’ll go back to trellising them. Perhaps they didn’t get enough attention from pollinators sprawling on the ground?

Another major development in the “single fruits” category is this beautiful little quince

For those of you keeping score at home, this is the first fruit that this tree has ever produced. I can’t find a record of when we planted it, but our original quince tree died in 2012, and we replanted shortly after that, so It’s been a good long time coming.

Have a good week everyone-