Happy Solstice, Happy Winter!

The latest improvement at the place is this barn that is going up around and over the chicken coop.

Our micro-barn/chicken coop
Still under construction but functional.
The chicken wire behind and above the picket fencing is there, but not visible.

In the past we have just been putting tarps over the pen and the coop during the winter months to keep it clear of snow and a bit warmer, but it has always been ugly, wet anyway, and awkward to work under.
With this structure we have plenty of head room to walk upright and it will keep the area dry.  The barn, as I am calling it, is made from all reclaimed materials and a few posts of downed trees from the woods here, except for the roofing material, which is corrugated fiberglass, which I purchased new.
It's is way expensive but I love the light it lets in.  We have been using it for years around here and so far it has held up well to the heavy snow loads and falling acorns and branches and the UV.
Another nice thing is that the LED rope lights that I have hung in there, solar charged, have their light dispersed and reflected by the fiberglass, so the whole place glows at night.  It helps when we go in there after dark.
We are thinking of using the glass panels from reclaimed sliding doors to close up the sides this winter.  Eventually I think drop down fabric shades will be the choice for the walls.  These can be easily raised and lowered seasonally.
I still have some finish work to do on the barn but it can do it's job as it is.  The mild season so far has allowed me to enjoyably get this job done even though I started it late.
Happy Solstice.

That's my Pie kitty!

This year is the first that we have had enough apples from our trees to really be in good stores.  I think I am on my 5th pie of the season.  One a week might be about what I am making but I could be eating more than that.  The apple trees, a granny smith and two winesaps, that are bearing right now really produced this year.  There is yet another tree to reach an age that it might bear fruit, maybe next season.

Apple pies, a constant in our kitchen this year!

When I was young and going to college I used to spend a good portion of my mornings sitting in my Grandmother's kitchen, drinking coffee and eating apple pie.  The pie was store bought, but the quality of the company made up for the quality of the pie.  Now, after she is many year's gone, the pie is compensating for my missing her company.  It's not the same as having her around, but it helps.
My pies are simple:
peel and slice up about 5 or 6 medium apples
marinate in a bowl overnight if possible w/ cinnamon, a dash of nutmeg, teaspoon of vanilla extract, half tablespoon of lemon juice, and about a table spoon of brown sugar.
Non of these ingredients is absolutely necessary since fresh apples are plenty flavorful on their own.
The crust is 2 cps flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
3-4 tablespoons milk or water
one stick of butter
Baking is for 10 minutes at 450, then 45 minutes at 350, and usually turning the stove off and letting the pie sit for another 10 minutes.

First Frost

Over the weekend we had our first frost.  Two nights in a row with below the freezing mark on the thermometer.  I don't have much care for getting out before the sun on cold mornings like that.  I'd rather stay inside, tend the wood stove and enjoy the morning coffee and light moving thru the windows.
We are only two years into keeping the chickens here and as such I am still a bit unsure of things like how cold is cold to a chicken.  What makes it even more perplexing is that although the thermometer is reading below the freezing mark, I go out and don't feel awful, but then again, I am dressed well and can return inside when I want.  I suppose I will put the shutter on the last window that lets in cold air, just to be on the safe side.
So now is the time for fires at night and in the morning and during the day we'll just let the sun warm up the place.  The trees are showing more orange, yellow, and red than green and the air seems to be constantly filled with falling leaves.  Now, instead of ducking into a shady spot, I find I tend to move into the direct light and warmth of the sun.
The new roof is on the shop and that is a comfort.  I just hope none of the big oak trees happens to fall down on it after all that work.  The kitchen is full of food and cooking seems to be the main activity indoors.  Caning and drying and freezing so that thru the winter we have many choices of tasty things to eat.
While working the market yesterday I looked up to the north and thought that the dark edge on the clouds signaled a bit of rain possibly coming down on us.  I was wrong, what came down was snow flurries.  It is the middle of Autumn.

Peaches and Apples

We are into the second week of September and yesterday I noticed that the ground under the peach trees was littered with fallen fruit.  Today will be gathering, cutting, cooking/freezing.  The peaches are sweet, a bit on the small side but juicy and good.

The granny smith apples have looked ready for a week or so now and today I decided to pull one off to try it.  Delicious!  I will pull enough off today for a pie but leave the rest to be taken as needed.  The winesap apples look as though they still need a week or so yet.

Another new addition

The family keeps growing.  It is springtime so I suppose it makes sense.  In this case less so as I understand that it is better to plant trees in the Fall, but, this little Dwarf Sweet Cherry tree should be OK.  We will try to make sure it is.

New Dwarf Cherry
In the background is the older Cherry

We are now up to 2 cherry trees, 5 apples, 1 peach, and 2 plums!  Those are the trees outside in the ground.  In pots so that they can live indoors in the winter are an orange (great marmalade), a fig (first year in the pot), and a banana and an avocado that we don't expect fruit from.  They are just living here.
The new cherry is in the spot where the fig was and didn't do so well.  The cherry should do just fine there.

The busy time of Year

Warm weather, new growth, and good fortune, all add up to lots to do.  Our neighbor had some trees taken down that were over the power lines.  With the weather these days, any trees that can fall onto things you don't want smashed are a real threat.  The trees also threatened her home.  The sad thing was that one of the trees was a big, old and beautiful Spruce.
The up side to all of this is that the crews doing the tree work gladly agreed to give me all the wood and all the chips.  The wood, most of it, will be heating the house next winter, and possibly the one after that.  The guys used their big machines to stack it all in the upper drive where I can still get around it but where I can get at it and work it in the shade (bonus).  The spruce may become spars for some small boats to be built in the future!
The chips are being used in a few different ways.  We are using them to line walkways in the garden.

Well trodden path to the chicken coop now
covered in wood chips

 They will help reduce the amount of weeds that come up, and increase the amount of moisture in the garden.  It is impressive how the chips can be dry on the top layer and very moist just below.  It is forecast to be a hot and dry summer, and it seems that we might be due this unpleasantness.  The other measure we are putting in place to deal with the moisture issue is using the chips to create a swale.  In this case a swale is a small ditch where runoff will travel and hopefully stay for a while.  The ditch is filled with the chips, which are porous enough to let the water flow but will help to keep the ground from eroding.

The main garden now has paths covered in wood chips
and the swale borders it's uphill side to hold moisture and prevent erosion
from runoff.

We also have chips around the base of the fruit trees.  Even if the season is not as bad as forecast, these chips look nice, reduce the amount of weed pulling, and will relieve some of the pressure to water.  They also smell great!  The perfume of a dead, ground up evergreen.
Momma sneaky snake just shed her skin and is looking really great.  We saw junior yesterday.  These are the garter snakes that are here each year.  It took us a minute to get used to them but now they are like family, and have even become a bit complacent about us being around them.

Momma snake warming up in the sun on a cloudy day.
The dog is sleeping next to her just off camera frame.

Two new additions to the place and family this year are plum trees.  They are young but someday we might have some sweet tasting fruit and a lovely tall tree.

Kind of spindly now but give her a few years
and we may have a nice tree to sit under and plums!

The arbor for the grape has turned out to be a great visual improvement and hopefully a practical one for the grape.

The grape arbor in the distance.  this makes for a
nice place for morning breakfast.

I have really been enjoying the "sunrise deck" that I put up.  Each morning I take my cup of coffee up there and set it aside while I to a bit of meditation.  It is a really great way to start the day.

sunrise deck from the cafe table on the porch

sunrise deck from the peach/plum tree terrace
That's the grape arbor on the right.

I now have the summer to get the wood cut, split and stacked.  It is really a lot of wood and that makes me feel two ways at once.  The first is that I feel comfort in knowing that the little house will be toasty warm this winter.  The second way is that I have a bit of time ahead having to hear the drone of that chainsaw and smell it's fumes.  I may try and move logs a piece at a time with in range of the electric chainsaw, which isn't so unpleasant to use.

It's a busy time of year.

Lots of little plants have sprung up from the seeds we planted.  Now the thing is to keep them alive!  

Tree house?

At the highest point of the property, and the most western point I have built a deck/platform, ten feet by ten feet.  Upon it I have put a tent.  It is a place I go in the morning to watch the sun rise up over the trees and to enjoy the view of our place.

The view from the deck that I am calling "sunrise deck"

The hens tend to come and gather under and around the platform while I am up there.  They scratch for bugs.  The deck is higher than the top of the house and is surrounded by trees, so much so that it feels like a tree house.  The front of the platform is about three and a half feet off the ground and the back is a foot off.  It's a pretty steep section of land.
The deck is made from the doug fir boards I scavenged a while back and I still have some left.  The posts are all pressure treated and on rock footing.
I am looking forward to spending a night in the tent but haven't gotten to yet.  So far the platform is a great place for a bit of morning meditation, and coffee!
I have found that the more I improve our place, the less inclined I am to leave it to travel, which is a bit of a conundrum being that I have and enjoy a few things that are just for traveling.

We added two trees this year, so far, two plum trees.  I give them 2 years until we get fruit.