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Quote of the Day: Maria Augusta Trapp

November 20th, 2011

Now it was November,
and the trees had shed their last golden tear;
the weather was often rough.

Maria Augusta Trapp The Story of the Trapp Family Singers

All the leaves are gone from the trees now and things are getting stark. The weather is shifting from fall to winter; the days are no longer warm and golden as the fierce winds blow away the remaining bits of fall.

One of the things I appreciate about the trees being without leaves is that we can see the sunsets in all their beauty. From mid-November through March we notice the sunset each evening and are often captivated by how beautiful it is. I suppose it’s this nice all year long, we just can’t see it because of the trees that block it from our view.

What time of the year do you notice sunsets the most?

Resting up for Next Week

November 19th, 2011

As is the case with most families, things get a little hectic around here during the holiday season. It starts ramping up the week before Thanksgiving and doesn’t really slow down until after New Years. Unfortunately on top of being gone last weekend I managed to catch a cold *UGH*. I don’t sick that often, in fact it’s been two and half years since my last cold.

That being said, I’m taking the day off trying to rest up and get better since I have tons of cooking to do next week. A cup of tea and bit of rest is just what I need to be back in the game next week!

Any colds/flu in your household? What’s your favorite way to heal?

Still Hanging On

November 18th, 2011

Amazingly, I still have a few things hanging on long after they should be gone. We’ve had frost and temperatures in the high 20’s, but somehow a castor bean that’s still gracing the garden with it’s beautiful tropical looking foliage.

I thought the mustard should have been nipped already, but it’s actually just starting to bloom. I’m glad it’s hung on this long as this is the perfect time to get a cold snap to kill it since it’s a cover crop. It will provide a nice layer of mulch to keep the weeds down next spring. This bed will be planted in potatoes come spring, because mustard does a fabulous job at mitigating the pests/diseases that often plague potatoes.


Other than these plants, nothing much is left in the garden, at least not of the tender plants. I do have some beautiful ‘Red Russian’ and ‘Lacinato’ kale that will stand all winter long providing some much needed greens in our diet. Thankfully the ‘Red Russian’ plants are all volunteers from a plant that went to seed this spring. A light snow is falling as I write this post, the castor beans and mustard won’t last much longer.

Do you have any plants that have lasted longer than usual?

Passing Along the Love of Nature

November 17th, 2011

Last Wednesday we met my parents and our nieces & nephew down at the family cabin. It was a beautiful November day, perfect for a day out in nature! We had a grand day doing all the fun stuff that I did with my siblings and my cousins as a kid. We hiked around the woods, played in the creek, built forts in the pine forest and had a gun safety lesson. Mr Chiots worked on rebuilding his tree stand as well. Here’s a slideshow of our fun day. Use the arrow buttons on the side of the player, if you click on the small icon in the top left hand corner you can view the slide show in full screen (click the button again to exit full screen mode when you’re finished).

[flashgallery folder=”Fun at the Family Cabin”]

It’s nice to see that the kids are growing up having the same wonderful experiences that we did as kids. Hopefully they’ll have fond memories as I do of the “Briar Patch” as it’s called in our family!

Do you have a place that you remember fondly from your childhood?

I Claim This Land for Chiot’s Run

November 16th, 2011

Mr Chiots and I have been wanting to buy the lots on either side of us since we bought Chiot’s Run almost 10 years ago. Not being ones to get into debt, we weren’t about to borrow money to do it. We worked hard and paid off our house last year and have been saving with hopes to purchase a nice sized plot of land in a few years. As luck would have it, this spring the lot below us went up for sale for less than half of what it sold for 5 years ago. We purchased it and started clearing it to add more full-sun garden space; something severely lacking here!

We made a reasonable offer on the lot above us 2 years ago, but the owners refused wanting twice what we offered. Being patient people, we decided to wait. They put the lot up for sale with a realtor and waited for 2 years without an offer. Right before we went on vacation in July, they contacted us again wondering if we were still interested in the lot. Since we had just purchased the lot below us for a great price we said, “Well, not really, especially not at the price you’re asking.” We offered what we paid for the lot on the other side and they accepted. The funny thing is that we purchased this lot for 20% less than what we offered them 2 years ago. Because we were patient we got a great price on both lots and have been able to expand our property to 3/4 of an acre from the 1/4 that it was originally.

This lot is just like the one below, filled with trees both big and small. There are six gigantic tulip trees that are at least 80 ft tall on it. We plan on clearing out the trees to make room for lots of edible garden space and using a lot of the wood to heat our house and to boil down our maple sap. Hopefully we’ll be able to clear it out by spring and spend the next year or two growing cover crops to improve the soil. The lot below that we purchased this spring will become an orchard when we finish clearing it.

We’re still saving money to buy 100 acres someday. Originally we were thinking of staying here in rural Carroll county, but with the arrival natural gas drilling and fracking, we’re considering a move to New England, maybe Maine or Vermont. It may happen before our original goal of 10 years if the gas/oil company starts drilling wells nearby. We’ll be “getting out of dodge” before our property values tank and our water gets polluted by the fracking. This is very sad because we’re investing a lot in this little plot of land and we really do like our community. Until then we’ll garden as if we’re not leaving, you really can’t know for sure what will happen in the future.

How big is your garden space? Have you been able to expand it at all?

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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