Late September

Fall colors are slowly building.

Red is a strong color

this year.

And so we shed September and face October when the heat goes on and off until it's all on and the leaves turn colors then fall until they are all gone and the days grow short as the sun falls lower in the sky each day until by the end of October we will see the beginnings of the cold darkness of the north country.

This time of year my mind always drifts to a day when we lost Katie and Suzie so many years ago. I wonder each year if, the following year, will I remember the day (I long ago forgot the exact day) or at least the time, the end of September, the time just before the fall comes on full strength. A hint of fall and a transition time to that brooding time of gray skies and soaking dark rains. I would like to remember them for a moment and smile for them as they never aged. We go hurtling through space but return to the same vicinity every year relative to the Sun. Perhaps I feel the same things that remind me every year of especially Katie. She gave me a longing for Vermont when I had no idea before meeting her. Here I stayed and when I first came, in November, I suffered through stick season (no leaves) and winter and enjoyed summer before waiting an eternity for my first fall foliage. Then it turned on like a magical light and I was hooked on the fall explosion of colors we have for weeks before the cycle repeats.

Hope you enjoy your fall reflections.

Mary

P.S. AOL is shutting down this Travelogue soon. Stay tuned for where ever I end up drifting to next. mg

Tags: fall, foliage, Vermont

Fall Harvest

Fall Harvest is progressing as it should while we take breaks to enjoy the fall weather which is the finest of the year just behind the first day of warm weather in spring.

We attended the Shelburne Farms harvest festival and green technology fair. It was a nice day as well and we got to pet the goats and sheep and witness the revolution that will cause oil to plummet in value and worth. Geothermal, grass pellets, solar and more ways to avoid the gas hogs. It is just the right thing to do and those 4 dollar a gallon price tags make it all worth exploring anything.

Today we made 2 things: Beet and Red Cabbage Relish and Jalapeno Salsa.

We also froze some Eggplant which were small but beautiful.

And sold a little at the farm stand. Nice to see people eating our excess.

Nice to see our food in the cupboard. We can rest later.

Hope you have enough to eat and you stay warm when you need to.

Tags: harvest

September and the Start of Fall

September and the Start of Fall

in the North Country.

There now, Tommy aka Napoleon has downloaded his picture which was

complicated by having to rotate 45 degrees and saving to a file God knows where. He likes to sit on Fred's lap while Fred is online. Like most pets he likes the smell of fresh worn sneakers.MMMM!

We got 12 bags of corn 2 cups each from our corn patch. Was better than we anticipated and all the raccoons are gone. No electric fence needed.

Business is slow on the farmstand. Traffic has been extraordinarily light and we hope if we cut back the gas prices will drop. Still waiting...

The Leaves are Turning

The weather a delight. One of such a few rare days that we recall with smells and feelings of cool mist and big fluffy clouds and long rays of sunshine making orange streaks across red leaves and green remains of spring. Great flocks of blackbirds whirring through the sky flying with one mind, one purpose, one life and together they talk without singing and see with their noses and forget the summer's work behind. Summer's work a tale of rearing and feeding and flying in that order and in rapid succession (to our mortal human concept of time)

The Start of Fall begins the travel beyond the flying to the flying with others, Like our lives beginning as children to when we fly along, the birds grow and then make their own nests here or there and start all over again. Each stage of the journey looks to be planned and I believe it is.

Hope you enjoy your fall flocks and the transition to cooler weather.

Mary

Tags: Birds, Fall

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Farmstand is Open

Our Farmstand is now open in NW Monkton. Now you can self serve a variety of vegetables and some zinnias.

And we renovated it a little, put some red roofing on it and fixed the sides and back. I think it does look nice.

We sell surplus vegetables and we can or freeze or dry or recycle the rest.

This year's varieties: Goliath tomatoes which have some blight but we picked them yellow, and

Zuchini->Raven is delightful and disciplined. We had

some slug damage but were mostly perfect.

Potatoes: Kennebec, Red Pontiac and Bintje.

Our plastic rows really help but the weeds, diseases and bugs work 24/7.

When we are done in the garden and exhausted from the sun and weeding and picking we come in and see our mischevious cat Napoleon aka Tommy aka many other names.

I tried to insert a photo of him but it was too hard today. I can try again when my patience for Vista and kodak and etc programs resumes.

Have a great night in your corner of the world.

Tags: Farmstand

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Martian Waters an expected mystery

The Red Planet

is now more desirable because they just found

Water

and now the real estate futures marketeers are studying how to lay out the subdivisions and lakes and infrastructures of the yet to be exploited

red planet

What is an expected mystery?

What is the meaning of water on Mars? It becomes clearer when you know for sure. But then, I've always known for sure that Mars must have water, a sister planet to Earth our present house.

Isn't it great the Nasa equipment on Mars didn't break down? Not like the stuff we buy on Earth. I wish it would start when we want it to and there's always something breaking down.

This is the last day of July and that puts me into a blissful August panic. The beans would come soon and then everything will start ripening and the animals, bugs and diseases will try to eat some of our bounty. I was fortunate to weed the beans last weekend although it forced me to hit the pillow early that night.

Don't hold your breath waiting for the real estate guide to mars.

But think about how in your lifetime perhaps there will be such a website and people will travel to the red planet and vacation by some of the pooled water under a solar canopy and fish for exotic species and good old fashioned ice cream made from synthetic proteins and maple syrup from Vermont.

 

A few things just can't be replicated.

May you discover an expected mystery of your dreams.

mary (the martian by zodiac sign)

 

 

Tags: mars, red planet, water

Tractors and subsidies

TRACTORS and Subsidies

We actually felt OK when the old tractor Ed drove the most went rolling down the hill pushed by the new owners, the 3 generations. Grandpa, Dad and son.

How else could we feel? It was just right to do. We agonized and pondered and finally decided neither one of us has that as either one of ours or even our dream. I got my picture snapped on the old tractor which was a challenge to climb up on. I had to use an old bucket and some twisting and wondered how Ed did it all those years. Fred drove it too and he told me stories more valuable than what is left of that poor worn tractor.

Someday the young boy will recall to a young boy his going out to the farm one sunny day and pushing the tractor down the hill with his Dad and Grandad. How do they not deserve it? I think Ed would have approved. If he could have he would have sold it too.

Now the next area will point you to a site for identifying farm subsidies

 

mulchblog.com

Check it out and put your favorite megafarm in and wonder how they got 100's of Thousands of our hard earned money and still hire (illegals) foreign manual labor?

Why are farms allowed to be subsidized when they are huge and eat up all the small farms?

If I saw some poor schmuck on the list I might have felt differently.

The garden is growing and the weeds and bugs competing. Now 2 young deer stopped by the garden tonight. Fresh worries.

Went to the mailbox and my farm subsidy wasn't there. We couldn't even get a farmer loan. They didn't think we were serious about growing switchgrass for fuel.

Have a great day where ever you are. Hope you get the tractor you dreamed about.

 

 

 

Tags: Tractors and Subsidies

Solar and other alternatives to paying the middle man

The Sun is the topic of today's brief entry.

Carol even gave the sun credit for improving Mom's mood after surgery. I agree. A powerful healer.

How Warm it is and how Powerful.

How we miss it when the clouds keep it away like this week.

off and on with brilliant Sunshine which led to tall fluffy clouds and black bands of showers.

We we glad to hear from Mary Sue and a flash update. 27 trips around the Sun, our solar friend, and another pops up out of the blogosphere. Welcome, Mary Sue, back to know us, although we are not as young and no, things cannot be defined as the same as we remember them. Even photos have a different meaning over the years. An Enlightenment so to speak. Kind of bold but I believe true. Seeing the valley where we live in fresh LIGHT. Not better or worse or warmer or colder (although with menopause feeling a little warmer these days). Not greener but seeming so. So, Mary Sue, since I cannot write to you directly, take this as an invitation to see the valley in your new Light. And when you close your eyes you will see the cows in the valley and smell the warm Sun and hear the quiet and peace we still harbor here.

And in the theme of the SUN. here is a link to Frank's Bakery website, the solar powered one.

fathersunmotherearth.org

He also has a link to his bakery web site near 9N in Crown Point, NY. We spent Sunday am marveling at his solar bakery, his container grown food plants, and learning native americancustoms.

This all leads to the end where I go to sleep on this side of the planet and wake up in a different spin/direction so to speak. Hope your place in the universe is peaceful and lit by our father sun. mary

Tags: Father Sun