I have been able to stand upright today for almost three hours so far! Also, getting up and down is easier. Trying to do what I can, yet not overdo.

Went outside with babysasquatch and helped strip and stack the ripening sunflowers he cut down. We will both miss the privacy they offer, but at least this way we get to eat the seeds later. (If you can see the ( Read more... )

Today we cut down five towering sunflowers, gave some of the leaves to the hens and saved some for mulch, and stacked a shock of the flowers on the front porch to dry. We grabbed a couple of buckets and started picking the Italian prunes off the tree by the mailbox (the blue ones, that is; the yellow fruit from the rootstock is already salted in ( Read more... )

So many summers I moved, right around my birthday: hell, five times just since I began this journal eight years ago. One of the biggest changes since, well, ever, is that all that energy that went into moving is now going into staying in one place. That said, I should get off my ass and wash and cook apples for sauce (25 gallons of them), pickle ( Read more... )

From the Italian prune tree by the mailbox, we got probably forty, fifty pounds of fruit. Kevin put all of it through the dehydrator and ended up with 18 pounds of really delightful dried sweet/tart chewiness.

We had delicious nasturtium and arugula salad from the garden. The potatoes are in. Parsnips are coming right along. Onions will be great next year, and chives. Couple kinds of thyme, some terrific savory, parsley gone to seed. The deer ate the brussels sprouts and kohlrabi and tomato plants. Yesterday we picked the luscious little Italian prunes ( Read more... )

Oh, man, that was delicious. Leftover (and thus exponentially more potent) aïoli with delicious bratwurst grilled by hippybear and deep fried potato discs. Plum sorbet to follow. EDIT: the sorbet is perfect. I want to make some black pepper shortbread to go with it.

Locals must MUST come and pick plums, preferably at least three gallons.