Resolution

 

My only resolution for 2014 ( other than the typical eat healthier foods and so on) is to update this blog more often. I always question my motive for having a blog in the first place; there are such a plethora of blogs to read, and many bloggers with much more to say than I. However, I truly enjoy blogging, and I also like looking back over my old posts and seeing what life was like two or three years ago. This next week will be a whirlwind of play auditions, back to school, putting away Christmas, and a tenth birthday celebration. After the nice, slow paced holiday we have just enjoyed, we are all looking forward to getting back to normal. I'm hoping normal includes lots of long walks with my camera, so that I can get back to documenting my life as a farmer's wife!

 

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A little update

In my typical fashion, I have neglected my blog. Sometimes, I just don't have a lot to say, and, during those times, it is probably best to remain silent. We have been busy, and life is full and rich and good, and we are grateful for the joys of the past year. I think I have felt more reflective, and less talkative as a result. Also, my mother's dementia has progressed, and been hard to watch, difficult to,process. We are busyness"putting the farm to bed" for the winter. The tractors are all being tuned up, the store is closed,,seed catalogs are arriving in the mail, and the once continuously ringing phone is now largely silent. We are enjoying the last vegetables of the season- the squash, potatoes,quince (fruit, I know), and onions. I also strained my first batch of raspberry cordial, and we are now happily sipping it around the fire in the evening.

 

We were pleased to host Thanksgiving again, once more turning the store into a festive dining hall. Delightful friends, good food, and plenty of wine to cheer us. Two of my three sisters were there as well, and I was once again filled with gratitude that we live close to each other and are best of friends. After the main meal,,everyone pitched in to clean up, and then we drove to the nearby home of our friends and dinner guests for desert and games. They have a lovely, large fireplace (and are gracious hosts! ) and we curled up,in front of it and savored the warmth.

I will wrap up this little update with a picture from a drive we take every year. This was taken at Sahalie Falls, and I will have to find my atlas (which is in the car which my son has right now) to tell you the exact highway this is on, but it is near the McKenzie River. Anyway, we hike the falls every year, and it is absolutely beautiful. Even my daughter, who hates hiking and would rather be reading anyway, loves this hike. Until next time!

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A little update

In my typical fashion, I have neglected my blog. Sometimes, I just don't have a lot to say, and, during those times, it is probably best to remain silent. We have been busy, and life is full and rich and good, and we are grateful for the joys of the past year. I think I have felt more reflective, and less talkative as a result. Also, my mother's dementia has progressed, and been hard to watch, difficult to,process. We are busyness"putting the farm to bed" for the winter. The tractors are all being tuned up, the store is closed,,seed catalogs are arriving in the mail, and the once continuously ringing phone is now largely silent. We are enjoying the last vegetables of the season- the squash, potatoes,quince (fruit, I know), and onions. I also strained my first batch of raspberry cordial, and we are now happily sipping it around the fire in the evening.

 

We were pleased to host Thanksgiving again, once more turning the store into a festive dining hall. Delightful friends, good food, and plenty of wine to cheer us. Two of my three sisters were there as well, and I was once again filled with gratitude that we live close to each other and are best of friends. After the main meal,,everyone pitched in to clean up, and then we drove to the nearby home of our friends and dinner guests for desert and games. They have a lovely, large fireplace (and are gracious hosts! ) and we curled up,in front of it and savored the warmth.

I will wrap up this little update with a picture from a drive we take every year. This was taken at Sahalie Falls, and I will have to find my atlas (which is in the car which my son has right now) to tell you the exact highway this is on, but it is near the McKenzie River. Anyway, we hike the falls every year, and it is absolutely beautiful. Even my daughter, who hates hiking and would rather be reading anyway, loves this hike. Until next time!

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Fall begins

I just spent twenty minutes typing a long overdue blog post. Ignoring lunch dishes, laundry, bill paying, and pear butter making to do so. And it was all lost, with the tap of a wrong button! So I am trying again, with fewer words- maybe that is a good thing! I went for a brief walk this afternoon and enjoyed seeing the signs of Fall all around me. The sky is a beautiful blue, the sun warm, and it is hard to believe that the rainy, cold, grey season is just around the corner. The raspberry bushes look a lot different than they did just a few weeks ago, when they were still a lush, overgrown green.

Pumpkins! Here is a sure sign of fall! Lots of lovely orange pumpkins, a field full of them. I picked up two or three little pie pumpkins as I was in the field, with the idea of making a Pumpkin Bourbon cake for dinner tonight. Then common sense came to me rescue; I have to leave at six this evening, and before leaving I need to clean the kitchen and make dinner and so the list goes. The cake will have to wait until I have free afternoon. It sure sounds good though, doesn't it? I am looking forward to the pumpkin patch being open this year!

The pumpkin field! It looks lovely with its green leaves sprawled all over the place, but by the time the season is in full swing, those leaves will be gone, leaving a tangle of vines snaking its way across the field. I actually look forward to the leaves dying off, as I can then see the pumpkins more easily. It is also a reminder that this, our last crop, is almost done, and the cozy, lazier winter days will soon be here!

More potatoes, almost ready to be dug! I love potatoes, and am so happy that our they did well this year. We have been enjoying huge pans of roasted potatoes, with olive oil, garlic, rosemary, kosher salt, and cracked pepper. I also made a big pot of lentil soup for lunch yesterday, full of potatoes and carrots from the garden. I also made bread, and it was coming out of the oven right at lunch time. These are the things I love about fall!

The last roses of the summer smell especially sweet. It is as if all of summer's warmth and sunshine and joy have been captured to give us one last taste of summer. As much as I love Fall, I am surprised to find myself missing summer-already. I miss sun warmed fruit, lunches eaten outside with good friends, warm evenings playing cards outside of our favorite coffee house, morning coffee in the garden, naps during the heat of the day. However, in the spirit of learning to be content whatever the season or circumstance, I realize that there are things to look forward to as well! Things like knitting by the woodstove, snow (please, please let it snow this year-lots), barn parties and hot apple cider around a bonfire, and the smell of fresh bread and soup simmering on the stove on a cold, cold evening. So! That said, happy Fall! Enjoy these last weeks of sunshine and warmth!

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Untitled

 

This little boy? Knows the difference between a baler, a swather, and a combine. He also knows the difference between a Dixon harrow, a disc, and a plow. And corrects me if I am wrong!

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Testing

Just seeing if I have finally figured out this blogging from an iPad thing. Is this working? Did my picture print? Here's hoping!

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dinner

Do you ever have days where nothing goes as planned and all of a sudden it is five 'o' clock and everyone is hungry and you don't have any idea what to make for dinner? I do, and today was one of them. What was supposed to be a half hour meeting with the nursing supervisor at my mother's assisted living facility turned in to four hours spent getting my mom taken care of.  Five 'o' clock found me staring vacantly in to an empty refrigerator, wishing we could just eat out. However, with six children, eating out becomes expensive, and since I love to cook, we save eating out for treats or true emergencies.

Taking stock of what I did have, I decided to do some experimenting. I had Italian parsley, mint, and pine nuts in the fridge. I found two pounds of the same type of pasta (a small miracle!), and while that was cooking, I made the herbs and pine nuts in to a pesto, adding garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, and a small amount of cumin. I roasted cherry tomatoes with fresh thyme, kosher salt, olive oil, pepper, and a dash of dried chili peppers. The package of Italian sausage links (which would have fed Graham alone) I sliced up and sauteed, and also sliced up and sauteed zucchini with rosemary, salt, and ghee. So, we ended up with pasta with really yummy pesto, topped with sausage and roasted tomatoes, and sauteed zucchini (you wouldn't believe how many time I had to respell that word to get it right....) . Despair to delight in just half an hour. Why is it that the meals I just throw together using what ever I have on hand are always delicious? I don't know the answer to that one, but I do know that this meal was easy, and inexpensive. It was a good reminder that home cooked food really is better tasting and more affordable than restaurant or pre-packaged food. Neither of those things are bad, and I have certainly relied on them as needed. But sometimes, we come to rely on these things so much that we forget that with a little creativity and forethought, dinner can be quick, healthy, inexpensive, and really tasty. It was a reminder I needed.

I would have taken a picture of our meal, the roasted tomatoes and emerald green pesto really were lovely, but my family always looks at me askance when I start dashing about the table photographing food as they are waiting to eat it! If I take pictures in the kitchen before taking the food to the table, I can hear long-suffering sighs and subtle hints as to just how hungry every one is, and "Gee- wouldn't it be great if we could eat soon?" kind of comments. So, enjoy the lovely garden scene and remember that leftover bundles of herbs can save dinner!