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Quote of the Day: The Sun!

October 26th, 2014

When the sun is shining I can do anything; no mountain is too high, no trouble too difficult to overcome.

Wilma Rudolph

Yesterday the sun finally came out, you could almost hear a sigh of relief from everything: the pigs, the birds, the trees, the humans…
the sun 1
the sun 2
It was refreshing to our spirits and to our souls. I spend as much time outdoors as I could, hanging laundry, feeding animals, hiking, and cleaning up the gardens.
laundry
The quote above is very true, I am ver much affected by the level of light. This becomes clearly evident this time of year, when I am lazy to get work done if it’s cloudy and gray. The sun is like fuel for me, perhaps I’m more connected to the grass and earth than I realize.

Do you find yourself affected by the sun?

Still Harvesting

October 25th, 2014

One night ear lier this week they were calling for it to get down into the 20’s overnight. I knew my falls peas wouldn’t do very well with temps that low, so I decided to harvest as many as I could. When I got up the next morning it was in the mid forties, no cold snap as expected.
fall peas
The warm flush of weather from last week aided in the plumping of the tiny peas in their pods. I had a much better harvest than anticipated, which I was quite happy about. If the weather continues to stay as mild as it has been, I should get at least another harvest and maybe two. Three cheers for fall crops!

What’s in your harvest basket?

I Spy……Noah?

October 24th, 2014

It’s been raining, and raining, and raining, and then raining some more. It’s been pouring buckets and coming down in sheets, I’m fairly certain I saw some cats and dogs out there as well. This has been going on for days, what actually seems like an eternity. Everything is soggy, drenched, and soaked to the bone.
rain
The mud in the pig paddock is about 8″ deep, I lost my boot a few times while giving them dry bedding yesterday. The chickens have been locked in their coop, partly because of the rain and partly because of that pesky weasel. I would have taken my camera out to get photos, but the rain never completely stopped so it wasn’t possible.
rain
The only happy creatures around here a the ducks, who stand in penguin mode looking up at the sky letting the rain roll down their backs. They play in the puddles that are everywhere and generally are having a blast. Everyone else is completely miserable, including myself. I checked the rain gauge yesterday afternoon when the rain lightened a bit and it was overflowing at 6.5″, who knows how long it was like that, I’m guessing quite a while. I’m guessing we may end up with close to a foot of rain when it finally moves through.
quote
This quote came to mind yesterday “Even darkness must pass, a new day will come, and when the sun shines, it will shine out the clearer?” Samwise Gamgee. You can bet I’ll be standing outside letting it shine brightly on my face when it does. I’m also thinking of Karen Carpenter’s song “Rainy days & Mondays always get me down”.  However the rain is good for the garden and rainy days make us appreciate the sunny days all the more.

What are you waiting patiently to pass so you can feel the sweetness of the opposing force? 

Back in Business

October 23rd, 2014

YAY – we’re back in business. The internet is up and running, well, sort of. No wifi, I think the one of the devices got zapped with the lightning strike. It’s been a bit of a crazy week, no down time with not internet. For starters, I’ve been having to run down to our local library to get on the internet, so I park outside and e-mail and get work done quickly. I’ve been taking two trips down there every day. Yesterday morning when I got home I noticed the pig fence was bowled over, then I realized the pigs were out – OH NO!!!
pigs (1)
I fixed the fence and realized there was no charge. When I checked on the charger I realized it had blown up, literally – GREAT. So I quickly rerouted the pig fence so I could hook it into the charger in the chicken coop, thank goodness it was still working. Then I opened up a gate and called for the piggos. They came running and went right in, this is when training animals to a specific dinner call comes in handy! Back inside the fence I heard one of them get a few good zaps and then I went on to the chicken coop. Luckily they didn’t do much damage while they were out either, lots of walking and sniffing.
Chickens 3
Then I found a weasel had made it inside the electric fence there and had killed my favorite hen – GRRRRR. This means WAR pesky weasel!!!! Then a few minutes later the internet service guy came up the drive and got my internet partly working – YAY. At least now I’m semi back in business, no laptop work, but that’s OK. I can now work and of course most importably BLOG! and of course research how to get rid of that pesky weasel! When it rains it pours it pours, because it’s pretty much been raining the entire time this has been happening.

How has your week been?

ZAP

October 19th, 2014

Last night I was down eating dinner at the neighbor’s house and a thunderstorm moved through. All of a sudden lighting struck and a spark came out of the outlet in the kitchen. Then there was no internet. After looking around the next morning they seem to think it hit a big tree and the little one room schoolhouse a little ways down the road. But that means there is no internet, so no blog posts, no photos. I’m down at the local elementary school with our neighbor BJ getting a little work done. Not sure when it will come back on, stay tuned, I’ll be back to blogging like normal when it does. At least we still have electricity!

About

This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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