Not

All the things I am not doing....

Not getting ready for Christmas
Not keeping the house even remotely clean-ish (my pre New Year's resolution)
Not sewing
Not cooking
Not gardening
Not blogging.

If things change, you'll be the first to know.

Local

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I hope you have the opportunity to reflect on and appreciate all that is important to you. I, for one, feel incredibly fortunate in so many ways.

I tried to stay out of the Black Friday fray yesterday, and managed to not go shopping. Later in the evening though, we did go out to meet a friend who was only in town for a few days and available only last evening. So we did purchase some beer and snacks from our favorite local spot.

This morning, I went out to feed and water the ducks from the new spigot that the SB installed in the garden as my Christmas present. We had discussions about draining the hose. Of course I would do it. Daily. Except for yesterday. So the hose was pretty well frozen when I got out this morning and turning it on split the hose and caused an icy shower that the ducks didn't even seem to be interested in. So I hand carried some water from the kitchen, down a steep flight of stairs and out to the duck house. Which makes me feel fortunate that this happened on a weekend and not as I was trying to leave the house for work. I also broke one of the duck water containers. Really it was just an old cat litter pan. When I turned it over this morning to dump the ice out, a big chunk broke off. But I pretty much knew that was coming.

So at 8AM I took off out to Southern States to get supplies. A new water container, flexible and meant for being left out of doors, a bale of straw and a bag of layer crumbles. I also found some very toasty flannel lined leather gloves that I think I am gonna like just fine, thankyouverymuch. I needed some new gloves anyway, so this was a treat.

THEN I went off to one of my favorite local hardware stores, Meadowbrook. The gentlemen there are super nice, SO helpful and not condescending at all. I bought a couple of very nice quality hose repair bits, the metal ones that are about a million times better than the plastic bits. They are only 2 or 3 times more expensive, but truly, you will replace the hose before these things. I bought the kit to fix the hole in the hose and a new hose end as the one on the new duck hose is crushed and no longer round. When the duck hose goes belly up, I'll take my parts off and save them to repair the next hose. I am hoping to get the hose repaired before the SB can give me the lecture about how I already got the lecture on draining the hose....

And guess what.... I got a free calendar from the Meadowbrook guys. They totally have the Currier and Ives promotional calendar. It kind of rocks. Not because I am a fan of Currier and Ives, but because it is so totally retro fantastico.

Buy local this season, y'all.

Yummy

The weather has turned toward chill though not really cold. It was the perfect day to bake. So this morning I made some cornbread from The World of Breads cookbook, which I love. It the Sweet Corn Bread with apples added to it (you can and I have also added blueberries). This bread is pretty rich and is sort of between a tea bread and corn bread. Cream together 3/4 cup sugar and the same of butter. Add three (duck) eggs and mix. Add 1 1/2 c. coarse cornmeal and stir. Add these dry ingredients (2 c. flour, 1/2 t. salt and 1 T. baking powder) alternately with 2 c. milk. Bake at 374 for 40-50 minutes in a 9 or 10 inch square buttered baking dish. The house smells heavenly.

I am also planning on a cream cheese pound cake and some sandwich loaves for the leftover turkey I am planning for but I need more flour. Which means I need my car, but it needs to be jump started. The SB was putting new bulbs and wipers on for me the other day and drying out my trunk, which always seems to be damp and we sort of ran the battery down. All worth it though to have a (relatively) clean car ready for inspection. Life is good.

Looking forward to a few days off work this week and some catching up around the house. Some knitting too. I just joined Ravelry. Can you believe it? And I already found my first project. The cowl I made myself turned out WAY too huge, so I had to frog it. I also ran into the Juniper Moon Crew at the market this AM. SO exciting to see them there. Total stroke of luck that when they decided to leave Martha's Vineyard they decided to relocate here! Super great addition to the area. I hope to check out the farm soon on one of the open farm days.

Darkness

One of the real downsides to the change in the time (thanks to daylight savings time) is that there is no light when I get home. This is a trade off, as for now, there IS at least light in the morning when I have to go out and tend the ducks. But that is something of a rushed thing. The evening hours are when I had been getting my quality time with my feathered pets. Anywhoo, dark at 5:30 also means that I don't have much opportunity for enjoying my garden... Which is, currently, gorgeous. Here are a couple of photos from the AM which don't nearly do it justice...


These are my multicolored carrots from this morning's harvest alongside a leek. I am hoping to get to some greens freezing today. Last night I came home and whipped up a little pasta with ham and greens with cheese for dinner. It was pretty handy to have those greens in the freezer all blanched and ready to go. A super 20 minute meal. Normally the SB is not so keen on allowing the compost pile volunteer squashes to run rampant, but this year they got a reprieve as they were well placed and covered a bit of ground that was convenient to have covered. As a result, we got about 2 dozen squashes. We'll see what the quality is on them, but it is always nice when the volunteers decide to be productive.

With the recent Nor'easter there has been rain rain rain. In other words, pretty much duck heaven. Our little bit of land here is riddled with rivulets and they all start running with a good rain. These bits of water and puddles are what ducks live for. I have felt bad about not letting them out in it as much as they would like, but schedules have been a bit hectic. The ducks would stare longingly from their pen to the puddle just on the other side of the fence. It was heart wrenching. But in an attempt to make up for earlier deprivation, they have been out since 8:30 this morning. There is much duck work to be done in the next several days, but I feel sure they are up to it.

M.I.A.

Wow, I have been out of it for a while... And there is soooo much to report on....

Waiting for pictures of C in her Halloween costume that I made. She wanted to be a princess, because she is 4. I made her a purple and gold number with flow-y sleeves and lots of bling. And a cape. A sparkly cape. Cuz everyone needs a cape. Don't tell me you don't. THAT took up a chunk of October weekends, but it was the good kind of taken up.

We had a party. Which worked out great considering it rained and it was an outdoor party. It just didn't rain much and we had a fire and music and lots of beer. So it was definitely a good party. Getting ready for the initial one that we canceled and then the one that went on took two weekends.

The garden, well you really must see it. I instructed the SB to take pictures since I am not home during day light hours thanks to daylight savings time (booo). He went out to take pictures and got distracted by ducks and then his batteries went on the fritz. So hopefully you will get to witness the remarkable and inspiring beds of greens that are overflowing right now. And hopefully you will get a good picture of where the ducks have sheared back the greens as far as they can reach through the fencing. So much for ducks being garden helpers. With the recent rains they managed to turn our garden paths into a mud fest. Really, I don't know where they got all that mud because it wasn't there before. Re.mark.able.

Over that last week, with the help of my friend V and my back yard neighbor, I have launched my duck egg empire. I was whining to V about too many duck eggs and the hassle factor of listing them on Craigslist when she reminded me that we have a neighborhood list serve for this sort of thing. Oh. Right. I listed the eggs and got some interest.... Then one of the interested neighbors forwarded the email on at her work place and I got orders for 7 dozen eggs. Seven. Dozen. I told the SB that we clearly needed more ducks. At $4/dozen, it won't be any time at all until we are rich, I tell you, RICH!

Gleaning

We have been out. Two weeks ago camping in Floyd, then near Clarksville. Both great experiences. The old time/bluegrass in Floyd is something to be seen. Quick, before it becomes Disney-fied. Right now it is just a lot of normal people of all ages and backgrounds enjoying a bunch of music. Soon it will be Teh Thing and everyone else will be there and you will miss what is truly lovely about the whole thing. Which is that people seem to know each other and enjoy going downtown in small town VA and dancing to traditional music with their friends and neighbors. Saturday at 6:30 PM in a small but lovely town just north of South Boston the slave cylinder on the SB's car gave up the ghost and we limped into town. Just to make the point... It was 6:30 on Saturday, meaning all repair shops were closed until Monday. Somehow we must have been living right since the guys at the car parts store we stopped at managed to find the part, though initially we were told we could get it by Monday. AND they knew a guy that would come over and put it on in the parking lot where the car was. In less than 90 minutes we were on our way again. Shocking and delightful.

We visited Prestwold on Sunday. A fantastically restored 18th century plantation house. Since no one else was there, we got the 2 hour tour from a delightful young man doing his PhD on the house. And he is in school in C'ville. I think we will hook up for a beer at some point.

This past weekend was spent in Reedsville on the bay with my girlfriends and their tiny ones. The oldest 4, the youngest 2 1/2. Wild times. Good wine, relatively few tears from the younger set. So hard to say good bye. But I talked up the ducks so hopefully they will be receiving visitors.

In the interim, ice cream made with duck eggs (of which we are getting an alarming number- stop by for a few) and paw paw. It is the SB's new favorite ice cream ever. This afternoon he went out and gleaned another 5 or 6 pounds from an undisclosed site nearby. We'll be freezing those babies for more ice cream later in the year. If anyone has any great methods for removing the pulp from the skin and seeds, please fill me in. As it stands, I sort of know how tomorrow evening is going to be spent.

The garden is looking great. SO excited about all the greens coming along. The cold weather stuff has taken off since the rain last weekend. I think this weekend is the last for the peppers, they will be coming in to be frozen. By mid October we'll probably put the garlic and shallots in for the winter, more to get them out of the kitchen than to get an early start in the garden.

This weekend I have to go out and rearrange the bees and make sure everything is in the right place for winter. Crossing fingers for no rain as there is much to do. The duck yard needs a dig out and we need to head to Southern States for straw and float-y food for the ducks. All the errands made better now that they are laying....

Hive check

I am a little behind in posting, but a couple weekends ago I went out to check the bees. All in all, a bit of an odd situation. There is an very nice sized colony. Bees covering the frames, a large brood section. The honey super, however, has not even a drop of honey. The bees never even made wax this year, the slackers. Odd. I emailed my bee mentor (who rocks) who did not comment on why my bees may have decided not to fill a super this summer despite a record breaking honey year for most beekeepers. He did address my thought that perhaps my bees didn't like the foundation I had provided for them. He said it was unlikely the cause. Anywhoo. I am going into winter with significantly more bees than last year and am hoping like hell they don't eat themselves out of house and home. I still need to do another check and make sure the brood is in the bottom box with some nice honey stores on top. That'll probably be the first weekend in October. Good thing I still have honey from last year. It would really be a bite to have to buy bees AND honey this year....

I got three eggs this morning which became the SB's breakfast. I haven't heard yet how he liked them. The ducks seem to be eating more, I don't know if it is because they are beginning to lay eggs or because they haven't been out as much lately. I really wish I had a video of the "incident" the other day when the cat was very casually walking down the driveway, playing it totally cool and the ducks noticed him. The ducks, being both quite curious and impressively dumb, took off after him, en masse, to investigate this new animal. The cat, upon noticing the interest of the ducks, took off like a rocket. I think the ducks were somewhat disappointed. The SB reported they were trying to have a conversation with our resident groundhog the other day. The groundhog was more interested in lunching.

The fall garden is coming along, some things better than others, but one really exciting thing... I saved seed from my lettuce plants this spring and planted them among the cabbage seedlings and what do you know, they came up and are now sprouting like gangbusters! With luck, there is going to be some serious lettuce in a few more weeks....