I’m a morning person; have been for a while now. While I could wax poetically about various aspects of mornings, for me it comes down to two things. Solitude and beauty.
I got hooked on mornings during my time in the military, standing morning watches. I have memories that defy description, most of which are related to mornings. It’s the reason I like doing outdoor chores around sunrise.
🙂
P.
I’ve posted about our first time tries at making several fermented products.
There was the mead, small batches of plain sauerkraut and a probiotic sauerkraut/fermented vegetables version. Plus, there was the crabapple cider vinegar I posted progress on recently. (all of these links will open in new tabs)
The jars of sauerkraut and cider are in locations that I can easily check on them. With the lack of fermentation in the mead, I’ve found myself eyeballing the jars harder.
I was feeling suspicious.
So this evening, I took down a jar of plain sauerkraut and took the filter off. It seemed okay, but I went to check the other two, anyhow.
Oh, dear.
Continue readingWhile doing my rounds, I noticed something about the storm damage to one of our elms that I hadn’t before. I simply didn’t stop to look, since it’s still to wet and snowy to start cleaning the damage up, until today while doing my morning rounds.
This branch here isn’t just broken.
It’s broken off completely. The only reason it’s not on the ground is because it fell on another little branch that’s holding it up!
The girls and I had to make a trip into the city today, and while driving around, we saw so many damaged trees. Some were large ones that basically split apart at their turns, as heavy branches on different sides broke off in different directions.
Continue reading
Little Susan in one of the ornamental apple trees.
Gosh, she looks so much like her mother!
Apparently, my fingers are tasty! LOL
One last catch-up post!
In the middle of when our internet went wonky and I couldn’t upload photos, I was able to move on to the next step in making cider vinegar with our crab apples.
You can read the first part here. (link will open in a new tab)
Continue readingI’m finally getting caught up on one of the posts I meant to do a while back. I wasn’t able to upload all the photos until after the blizzard was over!
At the time of this writing, everything you see in the photos is now covered in snow! I got it done, just in time. We had one warm day on the Tuesday and, even though it was really too windy for the job, I broke out the lawn mowers. I knew I wasn’t going to have another chance before winter. Wednesday, the temperatures started to drop, the winds increased, and we started to get rain. Thursday, the blizzard arrived.
I am so glad I got this done first!
Even with all the rain, I didn’t have to do all the inner yard with the riding mower. Once I got the big stuff done, though, I broke out the push mower and started into the trees; something I’ve been really eager to do since my brother brought us the repair push mower!!
Continue readingThis morning, while doing my rounds, I was able to go further into the spruce grove, after checking the trail cam. Near the trail cam, I found a small poplar that was broken, and a few more broken branches. I also found that the asparagus have been completely denuded of their berries!
Which reminds me; I had been showing photos of the yard to my mother and she saw one of the red berries on the asparagus and asked me where it was taken. I told her were, and wondered about how they got there. My mother says they’ve always been there! Which would mean there have been little spears of asparagus growing here for some 60 years!
Wow.
Anyhow;
In the spruce grove, I had made note of several dead trees that I wanted to keep an eye on, and one of those came down during the storm.
I don’t know why this picture ended up so out of focus. 😦
Unlike the other trees that have come down, this one does not have signs of ant damage in the trunk, so it took quite a lot for the wind to knock this one down!
It landed right on another tree, which you can see bending under its weight. That little tree (which I think is a living maple, but it has no leaves right now) is the only reason it is not on the ground!
The other bent tree to the right isn’t actually under the fallen tree; it just looks like it from this angle.
The two dead trees in the foreground are right near the one that feel, and there is another dead tree a bit further back, behind it. I am hoping we’ll be able to cut those down before they fall, like this one did.
Here, you can see where the top of the tree is right in the top branches of another spruce.
Which is also dead.
By the time we finally clear out all the dead trees, the spruce grove is going to be a lot more open than it is now!
While making my way out, I had to stop and get pictures of this unusual tree.
It’s another dead spruce, but I’m fascinated by how this one spruce has been so stripped of its outer bark. Almost as if it had been sand blasted for something. It’s the only tree that is like this, though.
My goal for this year had been to start clearing into the spruce grove, so that will be my goal for next summer. The first thing will be to get at and clear away the dead trees that are already on the ground. Then figure out how to get down the ones that are fallen, but hung up on living trees. Only then can we start looking at cutting down the dead trees that are still upright.
That last part can wait another year or two, though (except the ones we’ll be hiring someone to take down for us, because they are closer to buildings). I need to start clearing the outer yard, too! At the same time, we have to keep on top of the areas already cleared, so they don’t get taken over again.
Little by little, it’ll get done!
The Re-Farmer
Happy Thanksgiving Day!
I had lots of kitties greeting me when I went out to feed them. Much to my amazement, one of the cats that came running, and even let me pet her, was Rosencrantz!!
Then, after I topped up the inside food, I realized that one of the cats eating was Guildendstern!
Continue reading
