So clearly there has been a lot of focus around here recently on birth and birthdays. But not everything else has been at a standstill. Here's a whole host of things I didn't really touch on much in the recent posts, but are worth noting as they are part of the fall fun and chaos around here.
We have harvested all our winter squash. I had very little to do with it other than photographing the weighing fun. I'll have a lot to do with it in the coming months as we dry it, ferment it, roast it, cook it, add it to soups and casseroles and burritos, etc... I think the total winter squash matter in the root cellar is in the 500 lb range - I lost track of the calculations. While our trombone squash (pictured here) did horribly at the beginning of this year (meaning not many got to full maturity), we had a pretty good PA Dutch squash year. So glad we all like squash so much! Recently, I've been on a kick just cutting it in large chunks and roasting it. It is delicious with just a bit of coconut oil and salt. Sometimes we just eat the insides out, but more recently I've been eating it skins and all. And, the trombone squash have re-surged here at the end of the season and we are enjoying a nice amount of summer squash now that the "stink bug season" has ended.
The sight here is pretty unusual, as our evenings tend to never feel very spacious. But all three of our girls enjoy hair brushing and playing with hair (which is a real benefit to those of us who enjoy having our hair played with - ME!). The relaxation element is diminished somewhat when we don't get started until after 9 p.m. and the littlest is still somewhat interested in the activity but is also entering her "rammy, need my Mommy very close" stage of the day. Here she was nursing and trying to wield a brush at the same time. Jason and I were talking about our evenings on one of our rare morning jogs today. Jason came up with the perfect analogy for what they feel like: playing Blokus. At the beginning there's so much space and it just seems like it will be no problem for all the pieces to fit together. Then as the end of the game nears, the space all of a sudden closes up at a speed you are surprised by every time. That's our evenings for you!
As the weather cools we are definitely enjoying more daytime activities outside all together (for brief stints on the "all together" part). We planted more sweet potatoes than we ever have this year, as we risked some outside the garden fence. Thankfully it was a low-to-no ground hog pressure year and so we got some! The biggest trouble we have when harvesting potatoes (sweet or white or yellow) is negotiating who gets to pull the treasures out of the soil. No one seems to fight Jason for the hard digging job, but the fun of unearthing the potatoes is a much sought after activity. It tires for Jason, but I think it's getting a bit better as girls get older (at least until Terah gets old enough to care).
We had very little bug damage or disease in the sweet potatoes. That tends to be how this crop is for us, which is partly why we love it so much (not to mention that there are hardly any ways that sweet potatoes are prepared - other than loaded up with marshmallows - that we don't like). There were some pretty huge ones this year and a some of those were obviously too tempting for the few voles that have taken up residence in our garden (and survived the lurking black snakes). As Jason pulled one large hill of sweet potatoes up in which one had a huge chunk eaten out, a little vole scurried off with a baby clinging to its backside. We are glad to have the sweet potatoes all in the garage now, in a little tent of blankets with space heaters on to cure them. We'll be enjoying them for months to come!
With shorter days comes longer evenings. Those are welcome, even though right now we are at a pinch point with fall harvests and getting cover crops in before winter (so we appreciate every hour of daylight we have). On one recent evening (going back to birthday celebrations), we had a little joint party for Terah and her Aunt Sue. I won't give anyone's age away, but we discovered they were actually in a fun kind of way the same age this year - we'll let the math wizards among us figure it out (didn't take Kali but a minute). You can see here that the aunt was more enthusiastic about the joint celebration (Terah's keeping a close eye on her). That was, until she got her very own little basketball from her aunts. She's been having fun with that (as has her big sister, Alida!).
And then the next day comes along and back out we go. The next round of harvesting was alluded to in my last post with the video of Terah learning to husk corn. While the first two pictures here are of the girls working on corn, what pulls on my heart strings are the sweet and simple shows of affection for each other - Alida with her hand on Kali's shoulder and Kali rubbing Terah's head. This kind of thing is as common or more so than the daily squabbles that no doubt also dot our days. It's so obvious at the core how very deeply they all care about each other (even when Terah pulls Alida's hair so hard before we can get to her that Alida breaks out in sobs).
Terah loves being outside so I feel hopeful about more family time outdoors in the garden in the future. She was so cute sitting in a pile of corn husks with the breeze blowing her hair. You have to keep an eye on her as often I feel like it's 1 step forward and 2 steps back when she is "helping" me. She is great at reorganizing my organization of husks and cobs (or anything else I'm trying to organize), or unloading whatever container I've just loaded. One of our largest corn patches was right beside where the pigs are currently stationed (their last location I believe before our fall butchering date arrives). They were very pleased to have knobby ears tossed to them and were often heard tussling over the tasty morsels.
We really have enjoyed having pigs. Jason has pretty much done all the work caring for them (with us bringing the occasional treats and my dad helping out with chores some on the weeks they are upstairs) and, while it has added to morning and evening chores, has been overall fun for him also. On one of our late night walks (when Terah was not able to settle nursing) we finally took a step to simplify something about our life (probably a good time to discuss simplification - when I'm so tired from the day that I can't see straight!). We decided that after butchering the two pigs we have later this month, we are not going to dive into raising another pair of piglets. We decided that taking a break for the winter felt like a relief, and seeking relief from the pressure we often feel these days was a good thing. We'll try to keep reminding ourselves of that when tempting opportunities present themselves to us.
One of the fall harvests I didn't take any pictures of was the amaranth. Jason did some of that with the girls when I was at work and has tucked in the rest of the harvesting in other pockets of time here and there. It's in various stages of getting the grain out of the stalks, winnowing and then drying it for storage and use. The black amaranth comes from what we have called the "veggie amaranth" and what we thought was not considered edible as grain. We have discovered otherwise. We soak some of it with rice and make a blend - Jason said the other night when we had it that he thinks we'll likely soon never make just plain rice. It is a pretty combo. It's also sticky. When Kali went to get Terah out of her high chair she chuckled and ran for the camera. Someone didn't quite get all her amaranth in her mouth!
So you might be getting a sense of the flow of our days through this post - harvesting, eating, harvesting, family time indoors and out, food preservation, planting, playing, and round and round again. So once again out we go, this time to get the fall garlic in. This year we are moving the garlic into the root field rotation, taking the place of the onions. It will be 1/2 again as much garlic as we have ever planted and that is a thrilling thought! Jason did a lot of work getting the beds ready so that the rest of us could join in and enjoy the planting. I have been embarrassed to admit that the backs of my legs have been a tad sore the last two days from planting - this shows how little gardening I've gotten in on this year. Points entirely to my need to get out there more next year! The older two girls have joined Jason a lot this year (especially Kali, but also Alida in stints here and there). Here's some proof that we were ALL in the patch:
Ok, I think my time is about up. I've been making mozzarella cheese while I type, and getting frequent visits from a little gal who I think is getting ready for lunch. So better switch gears from writing about our life to living it! I'll end with three photos that I took on Terah's birthday. As we were at the swing-set I looked over at our home and was just struck by the beauty of the perennial sunflowers in Alida's garden and the mountain in the background. The thought "who wouldn't want to live here" crossed my mind. I want to continue to savor and not take for granted the gift of our home.
I'm also enjoying the fun, manageable, small harvests of the end of the season. I made sauteed garlic, squash and tomatoes for breakfast this morning and got another round of paprika peppers dehydrating. We pick up a few chestnuts here and there, munch on persimmons as we make our rounds, and try to enjoy the less than optimal tomatoes that are still ripening but without the mid-summer flavor. I'm nearing being ready for the first fire in the wood stove of the year (I guess last year we had had one by now since we had one the night of Terah's birth - so it's about time!).
But until frost, I'm trying to soak in the diversity of color that still decorates the beautiful outdoors. When Terah and I were out on her birthday, we were admiring the mums in Kali's garden. It was one of those times that I didn't realize the detailed beauty until I downloaded the picture. The light was just right to capture the droplets of water still on the flower. It's a favorite!
We have harvested all our winter squash. I had very little to do with it other than photographing the weighing fun. I'll have a lot to do with it in the coming months as we dry it, ferment it, roast it, cook it, add it to soups and casseroles and burritos, etc... I think the total winter squash matter in the root cellar is in the 500 lb range - I lost track of the calculations. While our trombone squash (pictured here) did horribly at the beginning of this year (meaning not many got to full maturity), we had a pretty good PA Dutch squash year. So glad we all like squash so much! Recently, I've been on a kick just cutting it in large chunks and roasting it. It is delicious with just a bit of coconut oil and salt. Sometimes we just eat the insides out, but more recently I've been eating it skins and all. And, the trombone squash have re-surged here at the end of the season and we are enjoying a nice amount of summer squash now that the "stink bug season" has ended.
The sight here is pretty unusual, as our evenings tend to never feel very spacious. But all three of our girls enjoy hair brushing and playing with hair (which is a real benefit to those of us who enjoy having our hair played with - ME!). The relaxation element is diminished somewhat when we don't get started until after 9 p.m. and the littlest is still somewhat interested in the activity but is also entering her "rammy, need my Mommy very close" stage of the day. Here she was nursing and trying to wield a brush at the same time. Jason and I were talking about our evenings on one of our rare morning jogs today. Jason came up with the perfect analogy for what they feel like: playing Blokus. At the beginning there's so much space and it just seems like it will be no problem for all the pieces to fit together. Then as the end of the game nears, the space all of a sudden closes up at a speed you are surprised by every time. That's our evenings for you!
As the weather cools we are definitely enjoying more daytime activities outside all together (for brief stints on the "all together" part). We planted more sweet potatoes than we ever have this year, as we risked some outside the garden fence. Thankfully it was a low-to-no ground hog pressure year and so we got some! The biggest trouble we have when harvesting potatoes (sweet or white or yellow) is negotiating who gets to pull the treasures out of the soil. No one seems to fight Jason for the hard digging job, but the fun of unearthing the potatoes is a much sought after activity. It tires for Jason, but I think it's getting a bit better as girls get older (at least until Terah gets old enough to care).
We had very little bug damage or disease in the sweet potatoes. That tends to be how this crop is for us, which is partly why we love it so much (not to mention that there are hardly any ways that sweet potatoes are prepared - other than loaded up with marshmallows - that we don't like). There were some pretty huge ones this year and a some of those were obviously too tempting for the few voles that have taken up residence in our garden (and survived the lurking black snakes). As Jason pulled one large hill of sweet potatoes up in which one had a huge chunk eaten out, a little vole scurried off with a baby clinging to its backside. We are glad to have the sweet potatoes all in the garage now, in a little tent of blankets with space heaters on to cure them. We'll be enjoying them for months to come!
With shorter days comes longer evenings. Those are welcome, even though right now we are at a pinch point with fall harvests and getting cover crops in before winter (so we appreciate every hour of daylight we have). On one recent evening (going back to birthday celebrations), we had a little joint party for Terah and her Aunt Sue. I won't give anyone's age away, but we discovered they were actually in a fun kind of way the same age this year - we'll let the math wizards among us figure it out (didn't take Kali but a minute). You can see here that the aunt was more enthusiastic about the joint celebration (Terah's keeping a close eye on her). That was, until she got her very own little basketball from her aunts. She's been having fun with that (as has her big sister, Alida!).
And then the next day comes along and back out we go. The next round of harvesting was alluded to in my last post with the video of Terah learning to husk corn. While the first two pictures here are of the girls working on corn, what pulls on my heart strings are the sweet and simple shows of affection for each other - Alida with her hand on Kali's shoulder and Kali rubbing Terah's head. This kind of thing is as common or more so than the daily squabbles that no doubt also dot our days. It's so obvious at the core how very deeply they all care about each other (even when Terah pulls Alida's hair so hard before we can get to her that Alida breaks out in sobs).
Terah loves being outside so I feel hopeful about more family time outdoors in the garden in the future. She was so cute sitting in a pile of corn husks with the breeze blowing her hair. You have to keep an eye on her as often I feel like it's 1 step forward and 2 steps back when she is "helping" me. She is great at reorganizing my organization of husks and cobs (or anything else I'm trying to organize), or unloading whatever container I've just loaded. One of our largest corn patches was right beside where the pigs are currently stationed (their last location I believe before our fall butchering date arrives). They were very pleased to have knobby ears tossed to them and were often heard tussling over the tasty morsels.
We really have enjoyed having pigs. Jason has pretty much done all the work caring for them (with us bringing the occasional treats and my dad helping out with chores some on the weeks they are upstairs) and, while it has added to morning and evening chores, has been overall fun for him also. On one of our late night walks (when Terah was not able to settle nursing) we finally took a step to simplify something about our life (probably a good time to discuss simplification - when I'm so tired from the day that I can't see straight!). We decided that after butchering the two pigs we have later this month, we are not going to dive into raising another pair of piglets. We decided that taking a break for the winter felt like a relief, and seeking relief from the pressure we often feel these days was a good thing. We'll try to keep reminding ourselves of that when tempting opportunities present themselves to us.
One of the fall harvests I didn't take any pictures of was the amaranth. Jason did some of that with the girls when I was at work and has tucked in the rest of the harvesting in other pockets of time here and there. It's in various stages of getting the grain out of the stalks, winnowing and then drying it for storage and use. The black amaranth comes from what we have called the "veggie amaranth" and what we thought was not considered edible as grain. We have discovered otherwise. We soak some of it with rice and make a blend - Jason said the other night when we had it that he thinks we'll likely soon never make just plain rice. It is a pretty combo. It's also sticky. When Kali went to get Terah out of her high chair she chuckled and ran for the camera. Someone didn't quite get all her amaranth in her mouth!
So you might be getting a sense of the flow of our days through this post - harvesting, eating, harvesting, family time indoors and out, food preservation, planting, playing, and round and round again. So once again out we go, this time to get the fall garlic in. This year we are moving the garlic into the root field rotation, taking the place of the onions. It will be 1/2 again as much garlic as we have ever planted and that is a thrilling thought! Jason did a lot of work getting the beds ready so that the rest of us could join in and enjoy the planting. I have been embarrassed to admit that the backs of my legs have been a tad sore the last two days from planting - this shows how little gardening I've gotten in on this year. Points entirely to my need to get out there more next year! The older two girls have joined Jason a lot this year (especially Kali, but also Alida in stints here and there). Here's some proof that we were ALL in the patch:
Ok, I think my time is about up. I've been making mozzarella cheese while I type, and getting frequent visits from a little gal who I think is getting ready for lunch. So better switch gears from writing about our life to living it! I'll end with three photos that I took on Terah's birthday. As we were at the swing-set I looked over at our home and was just struck by the beauty of the perennial sunflowers in Alida's garden and the mountain in the background. The thought "who wouldn't want to live here" crossed my mind. I want to continue to savor and not take for granted the gift of our home.
I'm also enjoying the fun, manageable, small harvests of the end of the season. I made sauteed garlic, squash and tomatoes for breakfast this morning and got another round of paprika peppers dehydrating. We pick up a few chestnuts here and there, munch on persimmons as we make our rounds, and try to enjoy the less than optimal tomatoes that are still ripening but without the mid-summer flavor. I'm nearing being ready for the first fire in the wood stove of the year (I guess last year we had had one by now since we had one the night of Terah's birth - so it's about time!).
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