Category: Uncategorized

I’ve been working in the hoophouse today. Garden work helps stabilize my mind and heart, even as it fills me with an ominous sensation that fall is coming. Another way to look at it — the future is coming, whether I like it or not. No way to just stay here among this late summer beauty/bounty for awhile.

I’ve harvested some lingering summer veggies. All of the peppers are picked, half of the eggplant, half of the basil, and a handful of okra pods. There are still some remaining: a few eggplant, a few okra, the massive bush of tomatillos (are they going to ripen?), and half a bed of basil.

I have some alliums curing in the hoophouse. I trimmed these cippollini and shallots and brought them inside for daily use.

There were several trips to the compost, taking remnants out of the hoophouse beds to make way for new plantings of spinach, winter lettuce, and arugula.

The house looked nice from the garden. That billowing row cover was supposed to provide shade to prevent sun scald on some prime tomatoes. I think it’s outlived its purpose.

It’s hard to convey the experience of living within a small forest of sunflowers. All of them were volunteers and currently providing feasts for all kinds of insects and a few birds and small mammals too. A lesson in generosity.

First strawberries for breakfast

The spotted salamander or yellow-spotted salamander (Ambystoma maculatum) is a mole salamander common in the eastern United States and Canada. (Wikipedia)

A beautiful morning after snowfall. Today, need to do prep work for tomorrow morning’s cooking.

Andrea and Randy came over and helped load the two cords of wood into the woodshed. Two cords fits well, leaving plenty of room for a walkway. Three solid stacked rows. They also examined the wood stove and lit a small fire using paper to check the draw of the chimney. Everything seemed in order.

Andrea knew the measurements of a cord of wood:

It measures four feet high by four feet wide by eight feet long (4 ft. x 4 ft. x 8 ft.) and has a volume of 128 cubic feet. The amount of solid wood in a cord varies depending on the size of the pieces, but for firewood it averages about 85 cubic feet.
What is a Cord? – Woodheat.org

They took a few little trees from the property to plant in their yard, a baby spruce and a few colorful maples.

Earlier in the day, I tried to heat the house with hot water. Turned on thermostat, turned on the hot water heater, turned the levers to show “gas on” – but couldn’t raise the temperature of the water in the tank or the house. Maybe there’s another step, or maybe it just takes a really long time. The sun came out and I switched off the whole thing.

Rainy all day today, I stayed home and cooked and puttered around until about 3 pm. I made potato leek soup and warm farro beet salad in the pressure cooker. I found the hardware for Aunt Gabe’s two tables and reassembled them. Good to have surfaces to work on.

Then I went out for some entertainment. I found some flannel sheets on sale at LL Bean. Plain beige sheet set, but a good price. I looked for some kind of containers to bring food to work, but no luck. I also went to Flexit and had a chai, and Hannaford’s for a few things.

I also started working on a crochet project – a hat with Suzanne’s midnight gradient yarn. I’m rusty, but it’s coming back to me.

Got two cord of wood dropped off this morning.

I returned to Hancock after a week in Connecticut.

Chilly. Waiting for instructions about how to turn on the heat.

Unpacked, started a new batch of kombucha, escorted two spiders out of the house.

Clothes hangers, toilet brush. Really need the end table from camp with the light for the living room.

Sam ordered a new faucet for the kitchen sink.

Bin of harvested potatoes and a giant beet on the front deck.