Harvest Time

Fall is our favorite season.

The corn is sweet.

The sky is clear.

Our birthdays inspire thoughtful gifts.

The grapes ripen.

The fog descends.

Sarah makes amazing soups.

Keith cleans his plates.

The fires are warming and meaningful.  They remind us of our genetic ancestry.

The lichen pops.

Can you find the goat?

Their beards are soft/

The goats know who love them.

And sometimes they nibble!

Llamas are curious, but reserved.

The water was cool.

Too many flavours to have just one!

Good friends share.

Good food, good drinks, and good friends.  Fall is such a great season.  Hope you all are enjoying your friends.

Gonna be a good day!

Labour Day... literally

Sarah and I took the day off from work to get some work done.  I had a meeting this morning, Sarah made the house look beautiful, then we ran some errands.  After all that activity, we decided to relax by doing some homesteading!

I pressed 6 gallons of cider from our very own apples!  The first part of pressing apples is crushing the apples.  There are more civilized ways to do this, but they all cost more than a Home Depot bucket and a log :-)

3 gallons of apples yields about a gallon of cider.

Sarah made an awesome spicy relish and canned some ungodly amount of tomatoes!  (roughly 17#s)

The jars are going up for the winter.  The cider is currently fermenting for Oktoberfest.

8 hours for labour.  8 hours for recreation.  8 hours for rest. 

Apple season!

So, it's officially apple season here, in New York.  The weather is in full herky jerky mode.  A few days ago it was in the low 60s, yesterday it was in the upper 80s.  We had a week and a half where we had to water the garden, daily.  It's been raining now, off and on, for three days.  We love it all and secretly pray the fall on, but don't want to openly wish time to speed on.  Sarah and I are truly Fall's children.  Sarah loves to play on her sailboat, like an autumn leaf being blown by the Northern winds out and skirting across the water.  I rummage through my hats for for a little more warmth, and pull my flannels out of the back of the closet.

At Pat's I picked apples as people have for ages and used a bag that was probably made around the time the first apple was picked.

Here's a secret picture I took of Pat (she hates it when I pull the camera out and usually goes diving out of view) with all her creatures, great and small.

Erik and I met for a brew at the Crooked Rooster and then went up to Seneca Gun Sports to look at .22s.  Fall means small game season!  Rabbit stew and maybe some duck and turkey, too!

Our friends at Hopshire Farm celebrated their new New York licensure that allows them to sell beer by the pint!  The held a party and served beer in Ball pint jars and pulled pork sandwiches.  

I continue to split and stack wood for the winter.  Always trying to be more like the ant than the grasshopper!

This is the A-frame that I built for our cucumbers and squash plants.  The cucumbers love it, but the squash is rejecting it.

Our hop vines did pretty well for their first season.  They will get bigger and stronger every year.

I like my new knife and wanted to carry it.  There is no leather shop around here so I made a temporary sheath out of the box the blade blank came in.  

I'm gonna make some brandy, so I picked some apples...

And some more...

and some more...

and, finally, some more.

Sarah did some weed whacking under the apple tree.

Found this cool little arboreal trilobite in the tree.

I made this out of a pallet (part of a pallet to be accurate)

I made these with the help of master canner Sarah Bassman.  Thanks Babe-O!

We both agree that our home is looking pretty great.

My new role in the district

Talking too much.

Click on the picture or here to read the article.

Chenango Blues Fest 2013

Last weekend we headed out to Norwich, NY (pronounced Norich, and filled with zombies and invalids) for the 753rd Chenango Blues Fest.  We met our good friend Emily (also known as Shmem) Jones and her sister and brother in law.  Dinosaur BBQ was set up there and beers were in cold cans for $3, so everything else was a bonus.  Sarah was super excited to see a woman called Valerie June, but we hadn't heard of anyone else.

Ms. June was of a foul disposition, but did her best to persevere, and did play a good set.  She played a couple guitars, a banjo, and probably something else, and sang with a haunting voice.

As soon as I saw the line up, I was super stoked to see a guy called Ben Prestage.  Like everything important (books, wine, whiskey, trucks, horses, axes, hats, guns), I judged him by appearance, and again was proved right in my approach.  Anybody who wears a beard and mustaches under such a hat MUST rock.  And rock he did.

Dude makes a helluva racket!

Check out that cigar box guitar!

We had a great time!  Hope to see both artists again and go to the Blues Fest again, too!

Just a couple shots of things we've been up to!

We've had some good fun and have some cool stuff to show for it.

After the township came and topped the already ugly pine trees in the front yard, we figured it was time to do somethin' else.  I took the trees down for firewood and then we went to the nursery and talked to a really knowledgable guy about ALL the trees that we could possibly plant in their place.  We both loved this little paper bark maple, so it has a new home.

Sarah picked some HUGE and tasty carrots for a chutney she made,

I finished the handle on my new knife and am super pleased.

I taught myself to split big difficult logs with lots of little wooden wedges.

This is what passes for our pantry.  What it lacks in cellarness, it makes up for in quantity and quality.  That's 100 proof goods all the way down!

This afternoon I made a super rustic rack for our outdoor fireplace wood to get it out from under the shed to make room for the the incoming winter heating wood.

And also today, I scored a couple big drum brakes.  You're looking at the future centerpiece of my blacksmith shoppe!

So who has time for work?  Tomorrow Sarah starts her intermediate level sailing course, so think windy thoughts.

Cheers!