Monday, May 25, 2020

Marking another anniversary, eggs, gardens and a clean house...finally!

Here goes nothing! I've had "blog" on my to do wish list for a number of days but have been feeling rather discombobulated and unsure if I could pull off anything that was either articulate or a good reflection of our life of late or anything we'd want to read later or anyone else would want to read. And, in the process of downloading pictures from our camera for this post, I completely forgot I had started cheese on the front porch and boiled milk all over it. So the porch has had an unplanned wash and I'm back.

I'm also clearly losing track of the days. My work life and home life and family life and farm life and social life are all an odd mix that I haven't created new systems for helping me keep track of whatever new rhythms and routines may be emerging. This morning Jason and I went out early to weed the herb and spice garden in the cool of the day. When we came in for breakfast, I marveled that it was after 8 a.m. on a Monday morning and my inbox wasn't filling up. A little later, I settled in to catch up on some work things. It wasn't until I had been at it for quite some time that I sent a colleague an email and got an autoresponder noting that today is a holiday and she'll be back tomorrow. Oops! It's a paid holiday today and I had completely forgotten. So I wrapped up what I was doing and went out to mix up the next batch of fermented chicken feed (messing up the recipe) and putting leaves in several chicken coops for fresh bedding (which I managed not to botch).

So here's my best attempt to share some visual and word pictures of life for us at Tangly Woods of late. I ended the last post noting that I was off to make breakfast on Mother's Day. It was one of those breakfast that just begged to be photographed, so I did. It tasted as delicious as it looks! Sausage and eggs from our chickens, fresh spinach from the garden and barley grits also grown on our land with homemade butter on top. Barley grits are a new favorite breakfast porridge in this household (made from grinding our homegrown barley, sifting the flour out of the hulls and grits and then winnowing out the hulls, leaving the grits for soaking and eating). Yum!

We aren't the only ones eating good around here. The younger gals, especially Alida, have more or less trained the chickens to come running when humans are nearby. They expect treats - and often are rewarded with either stale bread or popcorn kernels. There is something incredibly entertaining and enjoyable about feeding animals things that they relish! We are once again in the season where weeding is not only fun because it creates such striking visible changes in the gardens but also because we get to cart the weeds to the pigs and see what they go for. The most surprising thing to watch in recent days is seeing Rosie go for thistles. She has to work at it, but she clearly seems to find it worth the effort! We are so happy to have her take thistles and turn them into piglets!
 
So there's a lot going on with eggs around here. On one of our recent jaunts on the trail behind our house, Jason burst out laughing as we neared home. He proclaimed that he had spotted it, and we all knew immediately that he must have found the only Easter egg we have not been able to find of the 100+ hid for the girls along that trail. Sure enough it was intact and had very stale snack mix inside. It probably was not in the original hiding spot as it was clear that some critter had attempted to get it open without success. 

We also seem to have a very high number of nesting birds all around our place. This robin made a nest in one of the piglets' paddocks. There are some in even closer proximity to where we travel to and fro regularly - there is a cardinal next in the blackberries right along the path of the side garden. There is something that feels affirming about having so many birds choosing to raise their young here at Tangly Woods; to know that they deemed it suitable and a place with enough nourishment to raise up baby birds. I hope that it doesn't disappoint and that snakes don't find too many of the nests. I am also trying to have feelings of graciousness for what the increase of birds means for our strawberry patch! We did resort to putting some bird netting over a portion of the patch to increase our chances of at least getting a share of the delicious fruits.

And then we have eggs hatching often - both in incubators and under broody hens in coops. LOTS of chicks! I am happy to report that we no longer have any live hatched birds residing in our home. At one point we had over 60 chicks and nearly 20 birds that were able to fly. That was a bit much on many fronts! The 60+ chicks have made their way to their new home and the larger birds now reside in the compost coop until the females from that group go to new homes. We continue to get regular requests for eggs and for chickens and are unable to meet the demand for either. Jason plans to set another incubator with eggs tonight in order to have more chicks available as folks contact us. 
We still love best to hatch eggs under broody hens. It's a fun experience for the kids (ok, adults too) to get to watch chicks hatch and the hold them. So I guess I'm still glad we do a mix of both. But you can't beat a mama hen for teaching chicks the lay of the land. I love watching a new mama show her chicks what food is. She picks up a piece, throws it down, makes a specific kind of clucking sound and repeats. The chicks always come running to see what is up. Jason has also seen a mama hen teach her chicks about something they should not eat. The mama with larger chicks outside is still hanging out with her brood, but she's likely to be very ready to be done with them in a month's time when they head to their new home at Allegheny Mountain Institute. It's exciting to see an increased interest in raising chickens in general and for some of Jason's breeds in particular. We'll see where it leads... For now, chores on the home front have gotten much longer and more complicated with coops and broody pens nearing capacity and more hatching on a regular basis.

Moving to the gardens, I've been in them a lot more lately! We had several very full days of gardening as a family and made tremendous progress on getting all the spring plantings done. It was really fun to work on it together. And most of the time I left the camera inside so there are not very many photos of our family work days. Here's some of the things that have filled our work times together. The first hay cutting (I did a little bit of scything!) was used to mulch the garlic after a thorough weeding. And as we walk to and fro doing our various tasks, we have to pause to take in the beauty of barley and crimson clover!
Here's a smattering of what we have planted recently: basil, slicing/sauce/drying/cherry tomatoes, sweet and hot peppers, okra, sweet potatoes, cucumbers, watermelon, cantaloupe, yellow pole wax beans, flowers, and trombone squash. Here in the inner garden, we are attempting to save some of the naked barley harvest (barley without hulls) for us and so are using bread bags to cover the seed heads until they mature as the birds were already into them. We are not attempting to grow baguettes!

When we are not seeding or planting transplants, we have been continuing the weeding and mulching rounds as we are able! Jason and I have enjoyed early morning weeding time while the girls sleep. We often have a 3 hour start on the day by the time they rouse. Now that I'm not confined to the indoors until they wake up, I'm enjoying the expansion of options for those early morning hours! There is no better time to be on your hands and knees weeding than the cool of the morning when the bugs also still seem to be resting!

We aren't into the thick of harvesting yet but we have put the first 2020 produce in the freezer. We were gobbling fresh spinach by the gallon bag so fast in early spring that I hadn't put any up for the winter. It seemed time to change that so we have frozen two pickings now - which might be the last of it! I love when I have a system for food processing that feels simple and efficient. That is the way it is now with spinach, such that I can process a large sink full and have it chopped and in the freezer in less than an hour. While there is not a lot of other food processing tasks happening in the kitchen yet, there has been a lot of creative concocting happening by my daughters. Kali made a delicious round of bread pudding recently and then yesterday Alida made a brownie pie using our cornmeal (it's the only flour-like substance we have at present) with two kinds of frosting. While we have moved on from watching the Great British Baking show (for now), the inspiration she received, continues to bear fruit (in the form of baking experiments and kitchen messes!).
As noted in the last blog, we had a night off cooking on our 21st anniversary when we enjoyed Gray Jay pizzas. We ordered enough that it fed us for 2-3 meals rather than just 1. And the second meal was breakfast where I was introduced to a favorite from Jason's youth: cold pepperoni pizza with coffee. I'll admit, I wasn't all that impressed. It was fun, though, to eat something that I knew took Jason back in years. I know there are things that take me on similar rides that do nothing for anyone else in the family. So, while fun, it's not something I need to experience more than once.

We were in such a groove eating outside there for awhile and then had a string of rainy days. So it's time to get back in the habit. A new feature to the concrete pad is the swimming pool is there now for kids (since it is no longer housing chickens in our home). Terah was very impressed with this turn of events and did not join us at the table at all for this picnic. As of this morning, I saw that Kali's ducks had not only found the swimming pool but one had gathered up enough courage to get in. It's fun, most of the time, seeing chickens and ducks making themselves at home here. We would prefer that the chickens lay their eggs in the nest boxes we provide for them rather than finding new and carefully hidden locations to hide them. And we'd be happy if they didn't feel a need to find any place we have recently disturbed soil to scratch in. But we can't have it all...

The animals are not the only ones out and about foraging for food and drink. It's so enjoyable to watch Terah especially munch her way around the place. She knows more wild edibles than I knew when I was 30! She was recently enjoying the nectar dripping from the bottoms of the red hot poker plant flowers. We have watched chickens jump up at them and the other morning a finch was sitting on the top and dipping down to get a drink of the sweet juice!

Now all the wonderful things in the outdoors kept us outside while the sun was shining and there were plants and seeds to get in the ground. All the while, the house got filthier. The chickens had moved out and we needed a rainy day to clean! I laughed the day I noticed that both Jason and I wore our indoor shoes outside for a picnic. We joked that maybe we were trying to track some of the dirt from the inside out! Yes, it was pretty bad!

Now I know that some may doubt me, assuming that dirty for me was really not that bad. I have no idea if one should consider it personal growth or not, but my tolerance for a dirty house has definitely increased over the years (sheer survival tactic possibly with a household of 5 unique individuals with varied levels of comfort with messiness). As is true for most folks, we haven't had others in our home for months so it really has been just up to us. And we reached our limit and dove in all together (ok, mostly me, Jason and Kali) to finding our floors and other surfaces again. Has cleaning ever been so satisfying?! The pile here was just part of what was swept up in the girls' bedroom alone. I will spare you more photos, but you get the idea!

With the house clean, Jason and I got our best anniversary treat. We left the girls downstairs and retreated to Mom and Dad's place for a few hours while they made us an anniversary meal. It was so luxurious to read and nap and talk and be called for dinner, following our noses downstairs to find happy daughters and a scrumptious meal awaiting us. Terah had wanted to do her own thing with food so she was in charge of the raisin pictures on our plates. There were name cards and a cranberry sauce made by Alida. That complimented the last of 2019's garden peas and Kali made a sausage sweet potato bake!
We definitely spread out our anniversary this year in that it was days later that Alida and I did a baking project together to add one more food memory to this year's celebration. When Jason and I got engaged and told my folks, we celebrated by cutting into a funny cake pie. So they have been part of many celebrations since. Alida and I did a funny cake pie with a twist - making it as bars with an oatmeal crumble crust and then making the cake with 100% barley flour grown and ground here at Tangly Woods. I don't think it will be the last time we do such a combo!

Well I can't get to the end of this post without sharing the biggest news from the last two weeks. This seems an appropriate picture to use to announce it! In the days leading up to my parents' return to Tangly Woods (for the first time since COVID-19), Terah was literally trembling with excitement at the thought of being able to hug Grandma and Grandpa. And she is ready to tell anyone who will listen that they are here and that she doesn't have to stay 6 ft away. Just this morning people she doesn't know at all swung by to get a phone number for our neighbor. They expressed just the slightest bit of interest in her and how her day was going and she gave them an earful - including that Grandma and Grandpa are here and she doesn't have to be 6 ft away. She is one happy girl! As I type, I hear laughter coming from upstairs.

So the girls are practically in heaven. "Can I go upstairs?" is the once again the most common question asked in our home. Terah has spent hours coloring in "the cave" since they arrived, and even went up to color the day they were gone (I guess to just absorb the essence of their presence)! My heart swells when I see how much they are soaking up being together again - they are not taking these days for granted (I think they have developed a whole new appreciation for the time together).

It was not a lightly made decision for them to return. We talked a lot, processed with others and then proceeded with what felt like a low risk and healthy step of being together again. That said, I'm probably not the only one second guessing our decision multiple times every day - especially any time I feel any sensation in my body that feels other than normal, or when one of the girls sneezes or when Terah sprouts a bumpy red rash on her belly. This season in life has been a hard one for my natural tendencies towards anxiety. It's definitely when the benefits of years of mindfulness training and meditation practice would come in handy (hmm, really need to work on those skills!).

So here we are finding our way, like everyone else around us! We are trying to pay attention to making good decisions in the day to day, and that sometimes feels like it takes about all the energy/processing time we have. We try to find ways to make the virtual connecting work as needed, but are also sprinkling in outdoor, in person, small get togethers with others - it's really hard to replicate Tangly Woods popcorn made over an open fire on Zoom!

At the same time, we want to challenge ourselves to not get bogged down entirely on the smaller picture of our lives and how to live them in these days. We also feel the need for and want to stay committed to paying attention to the long term issues and conversations that we need to also be having with each other! In that spirit, Jason and I are so glad to be taking part in an excellent course being offered by Movement Generation called "Course Correction: Just Transition in the Age of COVID-19." They are helping all of us think about and reframe the crisis, encouraging conversations around how we might address the structural inequities that got us into this mess and how we might act collectively to make shifts (ecological and economic) that have been needed for a very long time and are becoming more obvious to many of us in this time. It's not too late to sign up!

There's a lot of hard work ahead of us! Maybe only a tiny bit like the work of moving our very large 500+ lb pig to a new location last evening. What lessons were there to be learned for life in general and for living in what feels like unprecedented times? Well, here's a few for starters: 1) Don't do it alone; 2) It's much less heavy with many hands; 3) Thinking through solutions together fosters better solutions; 4) It's important to take breaks; 5) It's good to look up and get perspective on the bigger picture. There are likely many more, but I'm realizing that I need to get potatoes in the oven for dinner so I'll have to call this reflection session to a close!
If you made it to the end of this lengthy post, CONGRATULATIONS! Here's a four leaf clover, found by Kali, for ya!

Sunday, May 10, 2020

Donating Blood in Memory of Nora this Mother's Day

Oh how I love these people! Here's to getting reacquainted with them in the coming weeks. I think my 10-14 hour days in front of a screen are behind me, for the time being. Relief floods through me at the though of that. I have a few big projects to get through yet, but I'm hoping by our 21st wedding anniversary this Friday I will have a handle on those as well. Yesterday was the first Saturday in awhile that I just worked a few hours and then in the afternoon we all went outside to work together. I was almost giddy as we weeded red raspberries and asparagus, put a biochar/compost mixture on both asparagus beds and mulched the paths around them with a thick layer of leaves. At one point I commented out loud that I wasn't sure when I had last felt so happy and alive! I also got to take loads of weeds to the piglets and Red Rosie (Jason has named our red pig!), who we are happy to report has missed a cycle and so is very probably pregnant. Yay for piglets in August!!
So it's Mother's Day. And I'll get to spend it with this trio of gals. Right now I'm trying to encourage the two older ones to get out to care for their chickens/ducks so we can have brunch together. Since it is now 10:25 a.m., it appears that brunch will be turning into lunch. My children definitely did not get the gene associated with "morning bursts!" But Jason and I enjoyed a bit of one this morning - we slipped outside early to do chores together (knowing that neither of us should be carrying full 5 gallon buckets following giving blood). Then, with kids still slumbering, we headed to the Red Cross Donation Center in Harrisonburg. It felt odd, as it was the first time we've been in the car together for months.

Due to COVID-19 we cancelled our June 4 blood drive. The idea of holding a drive where kids couldn't come, hugs couldn't be shared, homemade snacks couldn't be served and we'd all need to wear masks and keep physical distance didn't sound like the meaningful ritual we aim for. It felt better to just encourage friends and family to individually give in memory of Nora over this time. And, for me, Mother's Day felt like the perfect day to give in her memory. I felt more nervous today on our drive to the center as I was turned away on my last attempt due to low hemoglobin. I wasn't sure what to expect but hate being turned away when I've geared myself up for it. When the first finger stick yielded a read of 9.9 (I think the minimum is 12.5 for women), I more or less lost hope of a successful donation. But they always call another person in for a second stick on the other hand. And it was 13.2. Yay! I know it is silly to feel euphoric about being allowed to donate blood, but I'll admit to feeling pretty happy. And the icing on the cake is that my actual donation time was 4 minutes - the person that stuck we actually had to try to slow the flow down as I was giving almost too quickly. That has never happened for me before! Normally I use about every allowed minute. I guess I was very ready to give! I'm really glad that today will provide points of connection with all four of our daughters!
In other news, we had a hard freeze last night. While we will likely have small losses especially in fruit this year due to it, we are thinking more of friends who likely have lost their entire grape harvest for this year and wondering the future of the blueberry patch next door. We also wonder how many eager gardeners are finding dead tomato plants this morning. It feels like March in May as I sit by the fire in our woodstove.

It was odd to see such a heavy frost when there is so much lush green all around. Everything looked a little shocked this morning but most things will bounce back pretty quickly. The saddest looking crop right now is the potatoes, which Jason just finished doing the first hilling on this week. It was the most impressive before/after kind of project and looked amazing at the end of it. Now it looks like hills of soil with dead plants sticking out. But potatoes should recover. Not as hopeful about kiwis, grapes, apples, blueberries, etc... We will need to savor the fruit we have on canning shelves and in the freezer. Terah is eyeing the first strawberry blushing. It looks like we have four more days of bringing in all our plants every night. As of May 14, it appears that we aren't expected to dip below 55 degrees at night. Then the summer crop planting will commence in earnest.
We are still sharing our home with 19 chickens. We've never had them in the house so long but we are trying to stretch the inside time long enough that we don't have to use supplemental heat outside (running lots of extension cords). So they should be pretty good and tame - which is great since they are going to families that might enjoy chickens that are comfortable around people. They fly up onto the box and even perch on the edge and look around the room. What is amazing is they normally look around and choose to go back to "their home." I am not enjoying the dust or smell, but they are likely only with us inside for another week or so and I'm finding enough about the experience to be fun for it to feel worth the mess!

And, finally, as Jason's and my wedding anniversary approaches, it brings back plenty of memories of this time last year. It is very clear that the only direction I can go this year (compared to last year's shindig) is down - in terms of surprise and celebration. So it will be a low key year, but we are looking forward to enjoying Gray Jay food again for our anniversary as Friday happens to be our anniversary, the day I pick up pig scraps there, AND their pizza day. And, who knows, in honor of our anniversary, it seems likely that one of our girls will don my wedding dress since Alida and Terah have been on a little "play wedding" kick recently.

Ok, time to cook some barley grits, fry some sausage, steam some spinach and make eggs. Also, better stoke the fire so the water for our decaf coffee comes to a boil.

Sunday, May 3, 2020

Two more weeks gone by (100+ more hours on a screen)

I've just taken my computer outside and am sitting on the porch swing while Terah plays in the sandbox in her underwear. Kali is laying the grass looking up at the sky and Jason and Alida are blowing dandelion fluff in the pig paddocks to grow more of the pigs' favorite food for them going forward! After another 9+ hour work day, our first ever virtual CJP graduation is over! This week I "moved upstairs" for a good number of hours to have a larger work station and multiple screens for managing the end of the semester. Just four more capstone presentations happening tomorrow and then I will get to move even more behind the scenes (just the way I like it) rather than managing tech logistics for largish events.

There is no doubt that I've participated in the most meaningful virtual events of my life this week. A three hour circle with our graduates yesterday and a beautiful service today that required a hankie at my side. I'm very grateful that we've been able to gather in groups of 20-200 to reflect, dream, celebrate, grieve, laugh and cry together. AND I really miss the in-person times. Yesterday was a gorgeous day and pangs hit me throughout the day that for the first time in years we would not be hosting the CJP graduation party. I've been glad for spaces to lament what will not be, and for opportunities to also be grateful for the ways we can still connect. Today one of our graduates sang a powerful and soulful version of May Erlewine's song I Won't Be Afraid. Months ago, Jason had pegged this as a perfect CJP graduation song and it was. Here are some of the lyrics:

I won't be afraid
Afraid to fall
I'd rather be broken
And give it my all

I won't be afraid
Afraid to believe
Show me a future
I want to see
I won't be afraid

But it's gonna take
All that we've got
I know it's true
It's gonna take
every little bit of our love
Me and you
It's gonna take patience
Patience and time
All of the courage we have
and all the faith we can find

..Side by side let every voice sing
From every mountain till true freedom rings

...Not stepping down and not letting go
It's gonna take every last one of us
One and all
Gonna take building a bridge
Not building a wall!

Yearly on the evening following the CJP graduation celebration I normally feel two things really strongly - a deep exhaustion coupled with a deep sense of wonder that my life has intersected with such courageous, wise, compassionate, inspiring, loving, dedicated, powerful, and passionate humans. They have mentored me, challenged me, extended grace and offered friendship. To be a small part of their journeys has been a privilege.
So the weariness and gratitude is coexisting in me as the day comes to a close! I don't have a long thoughtful blog post in me but will share a few bright "non-computer moments" from the last two weeks. I'm hoping come mid-May I will find myself getting reacquainted with our gardens, animals and most importantly my family, who have been amazingly tolerant and supportive in this time (Jason has joined me on the porch swing and is rubbing my shoulder while I type!).
We enjoyed a physically distanced hike and picnic with dear friends! 
Make that, 2 of those! Our weekly walk/talks with neighbors and friends, Jonathan and Christen, is a consistently nourishing time in our week.
Last Sunday we spent part of our sabbath time doing a walk around to observe and enjoy what's bursting forth in all the gardens. Walking through the barley patch with one's fingers brushing across the tops was a highlight for young and old alike.
Some of the rye we planted last fall has crested 6 feet in height!
After a lot of activity in the pig paddock (making us hopeful about August piglets), we said goodbye to the boar who had visited for a few weeks!
The chicks in our house are growing so fast - adding to the fun and smells in our home. They are testing their flying abilities and we have had to put quite a few back in the confines of their swimming pool pen!
Hikes to the top of our hill continue to be a highlight for us all. 
Sister love makes my heart swell!

The potatoes have sprouted! Thanks to raised beds (that we keep raising higher and higher), they haven't drowned in the recent rains!
A precious visit from my parents went all too fast. It was particularly hard for Terah who would ask me quietly, "Can I touch Grandma?" The next day she verbalized how much she misses her and at one point exclaimed, "It's annoying that I can't hug Grandma." 
Our girls took it upon themselves to make masks. Kali taught herself and then taught Alida. Here's to sewing with Grandma and unschooled kiddos who take initiative to learn new things and believe they can figure things out on their own. 
 
The other evening, we took a quick jaunt down the road (with rain clouds threatening to dump on us but just sprinkling us). I wanted to show them a new trail on the mountain that Emily had introduced me to. It had lovely stepping stones across the stream. I wondered what the state of it would be with the rains we had been having. We'll have to return when the stepping stones emerge again above the water. I see some stream play in our summer! For now, I think it's time for supper, shutting chickens in and the next episode of the Great British Baking Show! Editor's note (from Jason): How ironic that our family's current chosen "veg out" involves barely any veg!