Musings during a summer thunderstorm!

Jason and I were out doing the summer cutback in the welcome garden when the clouds rolled in, along with thunder, lightning and a rain storm. So instead I'm doing some email catch up while Jason also does some writing. An email update from fat activist, Jes Baker, summed up what I feel I'm living into these days. I can't say it better than her: Joy, pleasure, ease, and rest are powerful, and the more we become intimately acquainted with them, the more capacity we have to hold and work with grief, pain, oppression, and trauma. 

While our eldest is seeing and experiencing so much in the Philippines and our younger two are enjoying a double sleepover at Ivy's this weekend, Jason and I savored a Saturday afternoon NAP after also watching a movie (if you haven't seen Her, my goodness what a movie...)! Maybe I'll get good at this "rest thing" yet?! I've got a ways to go and summer on a farm is not the ideal time for practicing it...well, actually, maybe it is the perfect time!? It is a really nice feeling to be enjoying some time here at home just the two of us, knowing what a wonderful time all our children are having in other places. The look of delight on their faces on the pictures coming through to us makes my heart feel all warm and fuzzy! 

But that "summer on the farm thing" is keeping us hopping for most parts of most days, most especially Jason. And he's been working a number of days each week away from home/farm. He's got several jobs he's juggling right now, hoping to finish up one of them - a tile job - this coming week. It seems that those he's working for continue to feel so happy with his work, and he continues so much to want to devote all his time and energy to the work he feels most called to do in this world, i.e., ecological agriculture. So there's some ongoing discernment and exploration happening. It seems easier to find people willing to pay to have their bathrooms tiled than to have an overwinterable sugar snap pea seed developed, despite us having the opinion that one is likely much more valuable for the human population in the long run.

But for the short term, there are bills to be paid and the construction work is fulfilling that need. And some of the bills are unexpected and frustrating ones, which I don't wish to use much scrapbook space for. But for the record, the 2022 scrapbook would not be complete at the end of this year if I did not mention our disastrous unfolding roof nightmare that none of us seem to be waking up from. In short, the metal roof was installed incorrectly 11 years ago when the in-law quarters were being built and unbeknownst to us until Jason discovered it last fall, water was infiltrating the roof cavity and causing a big mess. So there's been a flow of carpenters, insulators, solar installers and roofers here for weeks working on this very expensive repair that no one is ready to take responsibility for at this juncture. And as the rain pours outside, we have once again put the bins under the leaking skylights and are grateful for a mostly dry house and are eager for this saga to be behind us. One paragraph is more than enough on that!

The good summer rains mixed with sunshine and warmth mixed with continued improved and healing soils means that the gardens are booming (our delicata patch is ridiculous this year, in a good way)! We are settling into our "every other day harvest" schedule and keep updating the list of what needs picked. The current list includes green beans, cucumbers, trombone squash, tomatoes, sweet peppers, okra, and blackberries every other day. And then parsley, basil, lettuce, tea, and collards as we want them or when it's time. The canning shelves are starting to have more 2022 contributions, with the first batches of pickles and dilly beans added. And berries and beans are slowly filling the empty crevices in the freezers. And because we can't help ourselves, we also go away from Tangly Woods to harvest things when the opportunity presents itself! Last night that was for peaches up the hill, netting us peaches that need to be processed FAST before the brown rot gets them all so we are eating lots, made peach jam today and am slicing a bunch for freezing. After getting peaches, we went to the blueberry patch since Jason hadn't been there even once this year (he often stayed back to be on "chicken duty" so no foxes took advantage of all leaving while the chickens were free ranging). We deemed it officially our last picking as the bugs are making many of the berries soft now. And, finally, earlier this month it meant an evening excursion to a friends' woods where we filled our cooler with wineberries!

Here's a whole smatterings of other updates from the first three weeks of July:

We started the month with a small chicken (and one duck) butchering that enabled us to retire the "rooster condo" (heaviest clunkiest of our coops!) for the season and also brought more peace to the duck pen (now Duckie is the only male duck which eliminates fighting over the females!). Alida and Terah helped and Terah was especially proud of helping with the evisceration process for the first time. I found her when she was tugging on some internal organ with all her might to extract it. Our next butchering will be in early August and will be a much larger one including the first of the young birds for this year. There are some coops that are in great need of a population reduction!

We enjoyed two unrelated things around the 4th of July. First we got to enjoy the fireworks at Massanutten Resort out our front windows again. It's so lovely how we don't even have to leave home and the noise is lessened by distance (which also means it doesn't match when we see them since sound and light travel at different speeds!). Better than the fireworks was enjoying a short day trip to WV to meet up with my now 50 year old sister for a little birthday surprise get together. Alida and Terah got to go the day before with my parents and enjoy Lookout Cottage for a bit longer. They were still NOT at all ready to leave!

Speaking of time with my parents, there are many times every week (if not every day) that my heart swells with the sweetness of my kids getting to grow up with grandparents nearby. Whenever I can't find Alida or Terah, it's a pretty safe bet they have migrated upstairs. The puzzle table is always the best guess, though if they hear me coming they are more likely to be under it than at it! The planned meals and times together are great, but it's more the simple moments where they see something outside that they want to share with Grandma and Grandpa, or they see them through the window and go up to say hi. That's when I'm awash with warmth by their sweet connection, not to mention that I also get to enjoy those kinds of moments, too. 

In addition to grandparents, the girls continue to savor regular playdates with Ivy. And we can't keep up with how fast Luca is growing and changes. He used to sit and listen excitedly to books. Now he wants to eat them!

Speaking of books, we hit a new record on our last library excursion. Our receipt was to the floor!!! And that was before we used Jason's library card so we could check out more than the DVD limit of 10. I learned my lesson to never leave Jason downstairs with the DVDs to "pick out a few we might like to watch" while getting books with the girls upstairs. We came home with many! That said, we have enjoyed a few, especially the movie Her that Jason and I watched today - so well done and so much to think about! And the girls are getting their fill of Max and Ruby!

So some additional updates on the gardens. Our beet harvest was like none we have had before, or at least not in a very long time! We will be enjoying them for some time to come. I was a little overwhelmed the day I pulled them all but processing them went pretty quick once I dove in. We are storing a bunch in our extra fridge and still have some more beet greens to enjoy in the coming days. I'm feeling particularly pleased that the round of lentils I just made with them pleased Terah's palate. That was a win on two fronts as she hasn't been such a fan of cooked greens or lentils. Her tastebuds and preferences are expanding - I love when that happens!

I'm missing my green bean snipper and tower creator (not just because she helps with food processing!!), but hopefully there will still be beans in a few weeks when she lands home from the Philippines. Alida hasn't made any towers yet, but she enjoyed her one snipping stint. Since then my mom has done most of the snipping - it's kind of magical how we leave bins of beans with her and they return to use with the ends snipped off (except that it is anything but magic - it's her wonderful generous contributions to the daily flow here...additionally, our laundry also often "magically" appears on the line and then disappears and shows up folded in the wash basket at the top of the stairs!). It's definitely the time of year when more sets of hands are welcome... As I walked around looking at the loaded tomato plants, I did have the thought: am I really ready for tomato season again?!

In between rainy times, Jason has gotten to some of the threshing and winnowing. The wheat and pea seed is now drying in trays in the common room.

It's the time of year where I can be found photographing my plates kinda often. I was thinking the other day how I'm almost never inclined to photograph a bowl of ice cream or something that doesn't really have personal significance to me. Trust me, plenty of bowls of ice cream are being savored in this house, but it just doesn't have me reaching for my phone like a plate with the first steamed green beans, the first cucumber dill salad and the first tomatoes in a salad with a parmesan black pepper dressing I just made for the first time which is (was...it's gone) a hit! I do find it's the time of year where we are eating so much roughage that I get full but then don't stay full! Like right now, the Smiley's ice cream is calling, so I better wrap this up!

I'll end on a sentimental note and share something that maybe lots of other people know but was new to me from my current pregnancy/birth book that I'm reading that I LOVE (Like a Mother: A Feminist Journey Through the Science and Culture of Pregnancy by Angela Garbes). 

But first: I've been thinking about the people that have been significant in my life and who are no longer with us. I went upstairs recently to ask Mom if she had any cheerios as I really needed to have a bowl of cheerios with fresh blueberries on top (It would be even more authentic eaten with a tiny glass of orange juice to the side) before the season ended. She came to my rescue! That taste combo will forever be associated with my Grandma and Grandpa Myers and visits to their home in the summer when we would have that breakfast and also could crawl under the bird nets in the blueberry patch and eat fresh berries to our hearts' content.

Then last night we were up on the hill picking peaches and taking in the beauty all around us. I always feel close to Samuel up on that hill, knowing his hands and heart were integral to what that hillside became and we continue to benefit from the fruit of his labor, creativity, and passion. 

And then the thing I learned about this week: microchimerism. Am I the main one that has been in the dark about this? In short, I learned that some of Nora's cells may live on in my body and that some of her cells could even be in Alida and Terah. I am overwhelmed by how beautiful this feels to me as I read more about it. Here's a few snippets that I pulled from online that I'll share in closing for those who are curious. 

...Did you know that both mom and baby also share each other’s cells during pregnancy? As early as the second week of pregnancy, there is a two-way flow of cells and DNA between the fetus and the mother. Cells containing DNA from the fetus cross the placenta and enter the mother’s blood circulation... Most of the cells coming from the fetus are destroyed by the mom’s immune system, but some persist and become embedded in various organs, and become a part of the parent. This phenomenon is called microchimerism, from the word “chimera,” referring to a mythical creature made from parts of different animals...The fetus typically transfers more of their cells to the mother than the other way around...The fetal cells have been found to stay in the mother’s body beyond the time of pregnancy, and in some cases for as long as decades after the birth of the baby...In one study, more than half of adults still had maternal cells in their blood. In some cases, even cells from maternal grandmothers – acquired during a mother’s own gestation – can be transferred to the fetus. Because some fetal cells stay in the mom’s body for years, they are also sometimes transferred to future brothers and sisters of the first child. In this way, older siblings can contribute their cells to those of their younger siblings...What happens to these fetal cells once they reach mom’s body? Some studies show that fetal cells are beneficial to moms, and help in healing maternal wounds – interestingly, in mice, fetal cells actively journey to the site of injury. Furthermore, these fetal cells have been found in the healed scars following caesarian section and actively participate in the healing process by producing various skin components, like collagen. The fetal cells in the mother can also transform into cells needed by the mother, including brain cells, heart cells, and various cells of the immune system... what is certain is that mothers and their children carry a piece of each other for many years following pregnancy and birth. 

Where did the second half of June go?

To the sound of Max and Ruby in the background, I'm going to try the monumental feat of getting this scrapbook up to date! Terah and Alida are enthusiastic participants in our library's Summer Reading Program, especially because it got us to the library to stock up on books (and some Max and Ruby DVD's). With it being about 90 degrees outside today, popcorn and a movie is a fun way to spend part of an Ivy playdate this afternoon. And, as it is after 2 in the afternoon now, it's about the time when Kali's absence is more felt here at home. It's about the time she might be up, done breakfast and duck chores and would come asking what's happening today. :) Instead it is probably about her bedtime (I've discovered that facebook messenger tells me when she was last active online so I can attest to the fact that she continues to be a night owl even on the other side of the world). In her daytime hours she is having lots of new experiences and is learning to be a barista in the Coffee for Peace coffee shop. We'll be eager to hear many more of her stories directly from her maybe over some fancy cups of coffee! As much as we miss her, we are also doing ok here. Knowing that she is doing well there, staying healthy and surrounded by caring people makes the distance between us and her so much easier. And, as expected, it feels like the weeks are just flying by so I also don't want this time for her to go faster than she wishes. I can't seem to keep up with the days OR the many things growing and changing around here!

Without Kali here as the recently minted popcorn seed tester, a new one is coming up in the ranks. Terah was very proud to mostly pop all the cobs of hers recently to test for seed.

And she had some great seed candidates!

I'm gonna be all over the place in this post, but I'll try to knit things together a bit. So while on the "corn theme," I must admit that I'm a little proud of the field I'm calling "my" corn patch! This is a complete misnomer as Jason did the hard work of prepping all the corn holes, but I did do all the planting myself and it came up really well. There are two patches and we are doing a new management style for the paths (using our battery mower). We just took the crates off and I weeded the hills the other day. The one patch looks great and the other is a bit tattered since it was planted alongside wheat that the chickens were having a wonderful time jumping up and pulling the seed heads down (often landing on corn on their way back down). We should still get a nice crop of flour corn. And all of the girls' popcorn patches look great. All were happy for the side dressing of compost we gave them recently. We think we have outwitted the chipmunks with planting the corn inside and then planting out robust little plants. Fingers crossed it keeps working! 

Let's continue on the garden theme for now, as there is a lot to share in that realm. It's the time of year with such dramatic growth, especially when we are getting good rains. The most recent update is that we pulled about 5 bushels of high quality garlic yesterday. It was odd to do it without Kali and Jason, but my parents filled in for them and we had a great crew despite missing those two! While our onions are really struggling to thrive this year, we should have an abundance of lovely garlic all winter.

Historically, I have had the tendency to easily see (and point out) all the things not thriving or growing well here. I'm trying to be intentional about also celebrating the plants that are responding with amazing vigor to our attempts to provide them a favorable home. The delicata patch is growing outside the bounds of its patch already!

I just picked the first handful of cucumbers today and the vines are loaded and look really healthy. Now if only we hadn't weeded out dill the one year we had so much of it, we'd be ready to make pickles!

While the onions look pitiful, we have a lovely patch of shallots nearing harvest time. 

Peas! I love them SO much! We have one bag of hull peas and one bag of sugar snaps in the freezer to save until Kali returns so she doesn't miss them entirely this year. It's the first time we had enough sugar snaps to freeze for many years. Those seasons are coming to an end, and I'm not ready!

I haven't kept up with drying things this spring - didn't dry any teas yet. BUT we can't skip oregano! So I dried round after round and we have two lovely jars of oregano in the pantry. I hope we never have to go without home dried oregano. It's so much more flavorful!

We have had a bad slug year (or a good year for the slugs) and many little plants have struggled to get started. For some reason, the PA dutch squash did fabulous! It was painful to thin out many beautiful plants. We took each hill down to 4 plants and it's about time to pull out half of the remaining ones. 

Our potato and dried bean patch was my focus for a number of days recently. Jason did the second hay cutting in the early mornings and then I took on the job of raking the hay and mulching (sometimes working at it while he was away doing Sassafras Enterprises construction work). We wanted to mulch the cucurbits and then the potato/dry bean patch. I admit that I even called my parents down to see the root patch where I mulched "all by myself." It felt like a monumental farm project for me to do by myself and felt good to have the energy to do it. I normally like to do a job all at once and be done with it, but I'm learning that I can actually enjoy some things more if they are spaced out and they also then don't feel so daunting. This was definitely the case here. I sure did feel a sense of satisfaction when the amount of hay we had exactly completed the mulching we wanted to do. Now I do wish our potatoes looked healthier but...

There are many farm jobs that Jason could tout doing "all by himself." The most recent big one was harvesting a new variety of wheat, which he's pretty excited about. He was doing that right up until the sun went down. Next up will be threshing and winnowing it (not to mention trying making bread with it!). 

So much more could be said about all of that, but let's shift the focus ever so slightly to FRUIT! We are in the thick of berry season... And are looking forward to other fruits down the road. We have a lot of apples on our trees this year. And so far we haven't seen the squirrels taking their daily treks to and from the tree with unripe fruit in their mouths. Will we get any? Time will tell!

What we've been enjoying from our home lately includes black currants, red currants, black raspberries, red raspberries, goumi, mulberries, gooseberries and yesterday I ate the first wineberry. I'm so glad that berry picking is something that the girls have more stamina for than some tasks. We've had some helpers! We had enough currants this year to try juice. It's potent!! And I was surprised to like the black currant juice more than the red. Both required a fair amount of honey! We are trying to tuck away some of the fruits to enjoy with Kali when she returns home. That said, we aren't feeling too sorry for her as she is enjoying many delicious looking fruits where she is! She's clearly not suffering in any way in the food realm!!

We are getting several quarts of domesticated black raspberries every other day! Amazing!!

As if we don't have enough fruit to keep up with at home, we also went and picked some sour cherries at a friend's place. I had seen the offer on Facebook, mentioned it to Jason and then said that I really thought we shouldn't add anything. So we were gonna pass up this amazingly wonderful opportunity to get a fruit Jason loves! Then another friend emailed asking if I had seen the post and noting she'd be in that tree if she lived geographically closer. My resolve weakened. We went! Mom and Dad joined and then Mom made a double crusted sour cherry pie. We didn't regret our decision.

And now it is blueberry season next door. And it's a bumper crop year! We've gone over a handful of times, often meeting friends there, and come back with a bucket full of blue treasures. We picked SO MANY last year, so I still have some in the freezer. For that reason, we are trying to exercise some restraint...

There's so much color in the world at this time of year! The foods and flowers are just making splashes of color all around us. Throughout the last number of months as I've walked around the land here that we call home, the phrase "let the land heal you" fills my mind often. There are so many ways that this is happening, but one is definitely the gift of beauty. Sometimes it's the flowers in Nora's garden. At other times I take in the clouds on the mountain or the moon rising or a rainbow after a storm. 

Before I close, I'll do a quick laundry list of some other happenings with pictures to accompany them. Each one could be a post all on its own!!

We savored some playdates with baby Luca before he took off with his parents for their summer trip. Just looking at photos to put here had me pining for some snuggles! We enjoyed some "just Luca" time at our house, which was a fun new thing, and then also enjoyed an evening by the fire with all three of them. As you can see, he already loves books!

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Alida joined Jason for a day trip to Allegheny Mountain Institute for his annual chicken workshop. It meant leaving around 6 a.m. and arriving home after 10 p.m. but she was in great spirits upon their return. I imagine that could be an annual thing they enjoy doing together. And they get to enjoy a pretty scenic drive doing! Jason noted that it's always one of the highlights of his year.

The girls joined me for one of my Friday town errands trip the other week. I think the total number of stops might have crested 20. They did great AND I did better having them along. They made the whole day more fun. We did all the normal egg and cheese deliveries and picking up pig scraps. But we also fit in a trip to the library, some thrift store shopping and an italian ice cool off. I love how enjoyable spending time with them is (much of the time)!

And, I also don't mind when they go away for a few days and have fun elsewhere, leaving me and Jason to have fun by ourselves! They hitched a ride to PA last weekend to get to be part of TWO cousin birthday parties. It was chock full of social times, pool times and less sleep. They came home in good spirits and then did a hard crash. I think now (on the other side of the crash), we are all quite sure it was worth it. Jason didn't work away from home while they were gone so we enjoyed spending most of all that time working and playing together here on the farm. It was a very restorative time for me, and I think it's safe to say for him too!

We are now coming to the end of another really full week, especially for Jason. Juggling farm and home, family and outside work is no small feat (I'm somewhat familiar with the juggling act!), and he's got a lot of balls in the air right now. I am grateful that at his one job he gets to enjoy lunch by the river and at the other job he gets to check on the frogs in the tiny pond he has restored/fixed up.

Well, if you have made it all the way to the end of this post (likely that is only my mom!), congratulations! Many more thoughts, emotions, and stories lay behind many of these images and the brief overview of some aspects of life. I didn't even mention our disastrous roof project, but there's no way I'm ending on that note! So I submit this sliver for the scrapbook. :) 

P.s. While much in life has changed, some things have not: