May I?

May I take one small moment for a teeny weeny little rant?

1. Why did I let someone talk me into joining Facebook. DAMMIT! I have other things to do.... don't I? I mean I thought I did, but...... DAMMIT!
2. Why oh why do all the cooking magazines have to do a special Thanksgiving issue? I mean, really, how many ways ARE there to cook a turkey? Really. A handful. I wonder if the editors all call each other "Say, Chip, we were thinking of doing the turducken this year, and leave the 500 degree roasting to you... we did it last year and in '01 and we want to be sure we get the proper rotation. Sam is doing the flattened fast roast and Frankie is doin' the deep fryer this year - the slow roasted stuffer is so pedestrian no one will go near it. You OK with this? Have your girl talk to my girl and they can work out the potato part of the business."
3. What is UP with the grass. A little rain, a little cool weather and BANGO, I am in the grass business. DAMN.
4. Why don't I have any chickens yet??

The Myth

I fall into this trap every weekend... It's Friday and it seems like the entire weekend is stretching in front of me. I'll spend the evening having a drink or two (ruby port tonight) and making a list of things to do. I will somehow convince myself that it is reasonable. Just a matter of priorities, right?

Yeah... It NEVER works the way I plan. I expect this has something to do with the fact that I don't plan time to mess around on the computer or stare out the windows or take a nap or other activities which take up a REMARKABLE amount of time. And THIS weekend. It will be raining. Which really throws a wrench into the gardening, but not so much the kitchen work.

My garlic arrived today. Broadleaf Czech, Lorz Italian and Shvelsisi-Chesnok Red (really!). So the challenges are to get it growing (apparently the best time to plant is in mid October after a light frost) through the winter, fertilized and growed up, and harvested, dried and saved until next fall so that I can increase my stock. Cuz I didn't get so much garlic for my $26. But I guess if I look at it as the seed for all the garlic I will ever need to buy in the future, it isn't so bad. The bed is sort of dug. So it shouldn't be too difficult to get it in if things dry out.

Rain

Finally we are getting a little more rain. It has been sporadic at best. Tons, then none for about 2.5 months and then 5 inches then 2.5 weeks then a little. What happened to the Virginia summers that included the 4:15 afternoon downpour that you could set your watch by?

It is chilly and fall-ish and lovely. I am looking forward to a weekend of winter type cooking. Maybe pot roast or bolognese and definitely bread. And with lots of chard in the garden, chard/sausage/pasta yummers.

I have already started scouring the SESE catalog and picking out what I want for next year's garden. So far, on first pass, I have found about $480 worth of seeds and starts. That should keep me busy through March/April. I must admit, mania does make this activity less cost effective. Hopefully on second pass I can make some exclusions. Especially considering the pile of seed packets that I have left over from this past year. Or I can put an addition on the house. In other needs for the garden, I have to get some floating row covers. That is so that I can keep my greens longer. Though with this weather, it seems like we will be having major frost before half of the stuff really even gets started. My bad. I started late on this. Who thinks "It's time to plant fall carrots!" on the 4th of July. Really.

Ok, now I have to come clean. I bilked the system. And I almost feel bad about it. I managed to get the LAST share of a cow herd in North Garden. While many well intentioned people were trying to make the world better for everyone, I was looking out only for me. And I got the. last. share. I can't wait to meet my sliver of cow.

I was emailing with the very nice dairy lady. I confessed my desire for a dairy goat in my future and she was very encouraging. She is a lobbyist for small farmers and is committed to helping people get dairy animals and promoting these small herd things. Anyway, it was nice to get encouragement. I thought that if I can't get the city council to change the city code to allow goats, I'll buy some of those holiday strap on antlers for dogs and disguise my goat as a deer. We have plenty of deer in town and no one has outlawed them. Downright discriminatory. And in this day and age!

So Long Summer

This morning I was out watering my chard before the bus came and I heard this little peeping noise. I turned slowly, expecting to see a maimed animal on my porch, compliments of my exceedingly bad cat. But it turns out, I had just rousted a hummingbird from the nasturtiums. It flew up above the flower pot and about 3 feet away and hovered there peeping at me for 30 seconds or so. I asked it what it was still doing here and encouraged it to head south with all due haste to keep ahead of winter. When it turned and headed off it was going west. Which is pretty much par for the course with my advice.

I don't know if it was one of the birds we had seen all summer or if it was just passing through and stopping off for a snack on the way. It was either a female or a young male as it didn't show the ruby throat of the mature males. I realize as I type the LB recently had a similar experience. You gotta wonder what is going on in the bird brain.

Hmmm

I checked the bees today. There definitely is activity. Though really, they are not going through they syrup like I would expect. The flights are more frequent and there aren't signs of robbing or incursions by stronger hives. The long and the short of it is that I am going to have to go in full tilt this weekend and take the whole stinkin' hive apart again and see what is going on in there.

I spent last evening with my neighbor. G is the sort of friend that one really needs in life - I am just lucky that she lives next door to me. She is British, and has a way with roses. She is an experienced naturalist and gardener. She keeps up on local and national politics and keeps the BBC as her webpage. She has an AMAZING cook book collection, a passion for prints, and a fantastic and fascinating living room. She is the neighbor that always has a cup of sugar, bottle of capers, a lemon or some ginger when your guests are on the way and you really NEED it. She can talk art with the SB all night long. She is wholly supportive of the chickens and ducks. And besides all that, she has some experience under her belt. Always nice to spend an evening in her lovely house sipping gin and bitter lemon and catching up on national politics, local gossip and personal plans for the future.

Transitions

Wasn't it only a few days ago that my market bags were overflowing with peaches and tomatoes? Now, when I cast my eye about the kitchen, I see winter squash, apples and sweet potatoes. My garden is pumping out chard and the ever present tomatillos. And raspberries (STILL!) though I thought they would be gone a few weeks ago. I bought peaches a week ago at the market. They were icky. I guess they had been in cold storage since earlier in the summer and they have the most revolting texture. I resolved not to buy more, but the Vintage Virginia Apples folks had some. I sampled them and they were not the kind of peach you might choose in high peach season, but they are DEFINITELY the kind of peach you choose in September when the other options are holdovers from June. It just makes me appreciate all the more the role of diversity. Produce for different purposes... peaches for spring, summer and fall- apples for eating, sauce making, cider and winter storage - tomatoes that are all ripe at the same time for canning or periodically for fresh eating. It's all there, we just have to dig deep and sort through it all.

My spider has suddenly disappeared in the night. I don't know what that means. The web and everything. Gone. No visible egg case. Interesting.

I visited the bees today. Considerably more comings and goings today in the late afternoon than in the past several months. Wondering if the addition of sugar water to the scenario has gotten the queen back into top form. Though it takes 21 days for he bees to emerge. It seems a little early. I guess that ultimately it doesn't matter why. I will go out tomorrow and check the syrup situation and hope that they are packing enough away to stay with us through the winter. I was going to say that my fingers were crossed, but since everything crossable is already crossed for a particular local (who shall remain nameless) in her own particular transition, I guess I will just double count some of those crossings for the bees. Good luck.

Dare I hope?

Not one to blog about politics, I will link to this, which at least gives me hope that even red states aren't fully red and that there may just possibly be hope - though I am far from betting the (urban) farm on it... Vote, people. Vote.