A little hike

This morning we did some homeschooling, and in the afternoon we went on a lovely hike just ten minutes from our house. We have such a good time together, Sena, Aiyana and I. They are my little companions and I am so grateful to have them to share beautiful things with.

We hiked up to this lookout, and were surprised to see that most of the trees down in the valley are still green. Only along the river did the foliage turn red.

 We had a little snack of cheese and crackers

And had some fun taking pictures

Peace

Homeschooling has begun. Ed's been doing math, physics  and spelling and I've been doing Earth Science and Poetry. We're not on a full schedule yet, because we're still very busy with the CSA, but next week will be the last week of CSA and after that homeschooling will be our main focus.

I've done some research on curricula for Sena and Aiyana's grade levels, with particular attention to the Mansfield school curriculum. I like to make sure that we're studying at least at the same level as the local schools. In any case, I put together a plan about a month ago, containing all the major topics we want to study this year and a daily schedule to go along. But, before we even started, I changed it on sudden inspiration, and instead of studying a little bit of each subject each week, I decided to do an intensive session of about three weeks covering only two subjects at a time. Part of the beauty of homeschooling is that you can be flexible like this, and go with what seems most appropriate and most fun for everyone.

So our two topics of intensive study these past few weeks have been Earth Science and Poetry. I am very excited about how well things are going. In Earth Science, we learned about how the earth formed, the processes and natural cycles that have shaped our world and what drives them - stuff like earthquakes, volcanoes, and some introductory geology. All fascinating. The girls want more. They are asking for books on tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanoes.

The other topic of study, Poetry, was also embraced, to my relief and delight. When I was a child in Romania, we had to memorize classical poems, and although I didn't appreciate it at the time, now I am often comforted and inspired by those poems and their beauty. I thought that it would be nice to have Sena and Aiyana memorize beautiful poetry, so they too can carry it with them always. I was very happy when they took to it right away. We fell into a routine, where we read poems together, which I select, we study them, and then they chose the ones they want to memorize. Their memory is amazing at this age, and they love to recite to Ed or I whenever we want to listen. They've been reciting to their grandparents too for a treat.

Two weekends ago, a couple that is part of our CSA offered to bring their telescope to our farm so we could watch the sky. This just happened to  fit in perfectly with our Earth studies. They came on a beautiful, calm Saturday evening just after sundown, and we set the telescope up in our field. It was an 8 inch diameter telescope, with lenses that magnified 40, 100 and 200 times. We were able to see the moon, with beautiful detail of the craters, as well as Saturn with its rings and one of its moons, and Jupiter. We also saw Andromeda galaxy. The whole thing was awe-inspiring, and made a great impression on all of us. I went to bed that night feeling more connected to the vastness out there, and it was all very helpful as a reminder for putting our lives in perspective.

Aiyana turned 9 on Sunday. She had a party on Saturday, with her friends and grandparents and us. I made pizza from scratch, which Aiyana requested and it was a hit. I also served my home-made feta and other appetizers and a winter squash soup. My sister and Ed's parents brought food as well. My sister made icecream cake, which was a huge success. Ed's mom made deviled eggs, always a hit. It was a nice party for everyone, and on Sunday we celebrated just the four of us. I can't believe she's nine! The old cliche that they grow up so fast is so true. It's scary. The only cure is to be present, and that is my focus.

Peace

Fall Equinox and some cow stuff

Happy Fall Equinox! What a beautiful time of the year! I love it, the light is so soft and rich, the trees are all in color, the days are sunny and crisp, the evenings and mornings so cold that I can see steam rising from the bucket when I milk Opal.

We have some good news: Jasmine is pregnant, and there are good chances that Opal is as well. Jasmine got pregnant the first time we inseminated her, in July, but Opal came into heat again and we had to inseminated again a couple of weeks ago. Jasmine should have her calf in April, and Opal in June if she is pregnant. So the herd is growing, although we most likely will not be able to keep all of the cows because we are land limited, and can only sustain 3 or 4 cows on the pastures we have right now.

Speaking of pasture, we have the cows nextdoor right now, on a field we're renting from our neighbor. Unfortunately the pasture quality is not that good over there, and we're seeing quite a drop in milk production. I'm getting closer to 2 quarts (liters) a day now, instead of the 3 I had become accustomed to our our pasture. But this is a learning experience, and I have come to honestly believe that every setback has a lesson to learn if we're open. In this case, I learned that we should've managed that pasture differently early this year, and I have a few ideas how, and if we had done that it may have been much more lush and productive by now. So that's something to take forward for next season.

Another recent setback I had is that Opal kicked me in the chest yesterday when I was by her side milking her. I think flies were bothering her, or I may have unintentionally hurt her teats somehow. I don't know, but I was quite taken aback, and I fell on my butt, although nothing hurt at all. I'm not sure what the lesson is in that, but today I was more careful. I don't think she wanted to hurt me, it was more of a "get off" kind of thing because of something I must have done wrong. In any case, I did slap her side and yelled a firm NO!

So we're learning a lot about cows and pastures these days. It's exciting and a little overwhelming. There are so many variables in farming, whether you're doing vegetables, or managing rotational grazing, or something else. The first step is always to get a clear grasp on the most important factors affecting production, and the only way you can do that is through intimate experience. Reading and conferences help, but there is nothing like getting to it and letting experience teach. After getting some idea of the main variables, the fun part starts, where you start tweaking them, one by one, or more than one at a time, whatever fits your system and your schedule, and see what difference that makes. That's were data recording and analysis comes in. It's amazing what a few plots of data gathered from the field will show you. So engineering did pay off, see mom and dad? All those years in college, and I can make some pretty fancy graphs now. And what better stuff to plot than vegetable yields, or milk production?

Last Friday Ed and I went to a cow conference in Massachussets. The "conference" was outside on pasture, in one of the most beautiful places I've been to in a long time: up on top of a mountain, with veiws of ridges like waves in the distance, a small country road traveled, we were told at the rate of one car per day sometimes, cows on green meadows, and people passionate about what they're doing. So it was a lot of fun, and Ed and I were joking that this was our big getaway for the year, but joking aside, it was a beautiful one.

That's the news from here for now.

Peace

The Harvest

This season has been exceptional. Our harvests of most crops, not all, but most, have been much higher than expected, and pretty much off the chart relative to previous years. It’s been a dry season, and without irrigation it would’ve undoubtedly been our worst. But, with a good well and irrigation, the crops did amazingly well. Many fungal diseases that affect us every year and lower the productivity of the plants, were only minimal this year due to the dry conditions.

I’ve been busy preserving the bounty over the past few weeks. Every day that I was not out in the field harvesting and preparing for the CSA, I spent in the kitchen, canning, freezing, fermenting and so on, in an attempt to store food for the winter. The shelves are almost filled with pickles, tomato sauce, apple sauce, apple chips, jams, etc., and the freezers are full as well. I feel blessed by this abundance. The earth gives us so much!

Here are some pictures of things I tried my hand at lately:

Sena harvested wild Concord Grapes, and I made this apple juice from them. I also made kombucha flavored with the juice, and grape jelly, which was quite a hit.

These are husk cherries (in the background with the husk, and out of the husk in the foreground). We grew them for the first time this year, and were very surprised at their sweet, pleasant taste that reminds me a little of pineapple. We ate many raw, and some, I made husk cherry jam with. The jam came out great - the kids like it on yoghurt or pancakes. My favorite way of having it is with cheese and black tea. I made a delicious Feta this week, and topped it with some of this jam, had a cup of tea on the side, and that has been my sustenance, body and soul.

Husk Cherry jam.

Peace

Down-home like

I should be really tired right now, because yesterday was a very busy and stressful day, and last night Sena threw up (she thinks she ate too much cantaloupe), and I was up with her so I did not sleep well. But, to the contrary, I am feeling elated. It’s just such a beautiful day outside, and everything looks so pretty. The sky is blue, and it’s only warm enough to be pleasant. When I was out inspecting the field and setting up irrigation this morning, I was taken by surprise by how red the apples on one of our trees looked against the blue sky, and how green everything in the background. Sometimes a little scene like that, which I pass by a hundred times a day, will look particularly fresh, and will take my breath away for one instant, as if I were seeing it for the first time. This “first-time sight” is a great gift, and it brings with it a certain lightness, and gratitude for being here to experience this awesome natural world that we are part of.

Here are some pictures from around the farm.

Olive is three-and-a-half month now

 Our young orchard. Ed's been working hard on it lately.

Winter squashes are doing incredibly well this year. They grew so much, some took over our stone wall, where I found these three hidden.

Tall spindle apples - not well known here, but very popular in Europe. Ed, Sena and I saw lots of them in the Netherlands when we we biking through in 2003.

Grain corn and beans will be part of our sustenance during the winter. Lettuces in the foreground.

Trellised Roma tomatoes, peppers, tomatillos and husk cherries on the left-center, salad greens on the right

Red peppers are amazing roasted. Been doing a lot of that lately.

Our bountiful peach tree

Wood stacked for the winter

 Laundry drying in the sun.

 Peace

We are in fruit frenzy right now. Everything is coming in all at once. We harvested hundreds of pounds of watermelon, and there are lots more to go. Peaches are ripening quickly. Asian pears and apples are also coming. We have husk cherries, a surprisingly good new fruit we planted for the first time this year. We are inundated by delicious fruits, and still, vegetables! Snack time is not a problem. Just grab a fruit, off the tree, off the counter, wherever.

Finding a way to store and preserve everything before it goes bad is a challenge. I know of no way to preserve watermelon, so they’ll just be distributed to the CSA, and we'll eat our fill. 

I've been reading Einstein's biography before I fall asleep, and rekindling my love of physics. Good stuff.

These are some pictures from the past couple of weeks:

 

I'm done with pickles

Made salsa verde with these tomatillos and jalapeno, plus garlic and cilantro

Sena and Aiyana were commissioned by my sister to hatch our some chicks. My sister's trying to increase her hen flock, so Sena and Aiyana put some eggs under their broody hen Cutiepie and she hatched out 3 chicks.

A cicada the girls found

Peace