It's funny how as soon as you give something up for lost, it will show up again. Thank you to Kay for finding my camera, and returning it safely to me; I hadn't realized how twitchy it's loss had made me, until it was returned.
I'm doing well, although the lack of a job is starting to become a concern. All I really need is something to get me through the winter, and once the spring rolls around again, finding something to do, shouldn't be a problem, it's figuring out what to do until then, that is proving to be a challenge. That being said, I'm curiously unstressed by the fact of my pending unemployment. Part of it must be that so many of the people I'm surrounded by are doing jobs of a similarly seasonal nature, and we're all in the same boat, right now. The park season ends this coming Thursday, and this will leave essentially everyone I know, who isn't farm folk, unemployed.
It's a fascinating dichotomy in this part of the world. There are park folk, who are here because of the park, and they are liberal, progressive twenty-first century people, MY people, and there are the locals, conservative old-fashioned people, and oddly enough, they are MY people, too. It's weird because to them the park is nothing special, it's the background of their world, but to those of us who came here because of, or have chosen to stay for the park, it's the center. Enough pontificating...my thoughts on the subject haven't gelled yet, but they keep circling around my brain, and there's something there, although I don't know what it is yet.
I've written a couple of short stories I really like, lately, and I've got a couple of cool ideas in my head, waiting for characters to give voice to them. I think one of them might be a novel, but I can't say for sure, yet.
I went to my first Country(pronounced Contra) dance last weekend. I was assured over and again by the girls that it wasn't a square dance, but there was spinning around, and changing partners, and a man giving instructions(not to mention several square dances), which I would say qualifies. It was, and I still can't really believe I'm saying this, a lot of fun. Some days I wonder what has happened to me, and others, most of them, really, I'm just enjoying it.
As for life on the farm, it's good. There are still many crops to be harvested, and although the hot-weather crops aren't really performing to expectations, there isn't really much we can do to change the weather. The age old lot of the farmer. It has been gray and rainy for most of the last week, with only a day or two of even partial sunshine in the forecast, which I love from an aesthetic point of view, but from the perspective of a farmer just hoping for the tomatoes to ripen, it's not so nice.
We started going to the farmer's market in Sequim this week, in addition to the one in PA, and we're all excited about that. It's great to have another chance to sell some of the produce we've all worked so hard to grow. We harvested our first brussel sprouts this week, and we've been picking apples and pears for a while now. It's autumn, there's no more denying it. The leaves are changing, and combined with the misty atmosphere it allows for moments of peacefulness, anytime I pause, and look around me.
Now for the picture posting portion of our post(You like that alliteration? Pretty good, huh?), I'll start with a couple of shots from my last trip up Storm King. I really love that hike, and it presents surefire proof that a summer of working on the farm has left me more fit than I began. I almost made it to the top of the mountain this time, but realize when I got about three quarters of the way up, that I was free climbing in my sneakers, without a buddy, and without anyone having any idea where I was, and prudence won out over the desire to say I did that.
The view from the lower peak:
A view of the upper peak, from the lower peak(see if you can figure out how high I made it based on the pictures from where I stopped climbing):
A view taken while hanging onto a rope on the trail(well, techinically after the end of the sanctioned trail, but there's a rope, so it's a trail of sorts):
Le Sage, from across Lake Crescent:
The chicken coop, which we spent a day cleaning around this week, and extended the fence to give our ladies more room:
Our pigs have a new home, which I've been calling the Sty-stead('cause I'm a nerd), pretty snazzy, huh?:
Flowering parsnips:
Canadian thistle(our weed nemesis), and another, altogether more pleasant thistle(did you know artichoke blossoms smell fantastic? Me either, until now.):
Weird looking mushrooms:
Some views of the farm in the gray:
Pickles - onions and watermelon rind:
Harvested lunch yesterday:
I think that will cover me for now. I'm going to go bake some bread, get some grub, and take a hike. I probably won't do another post until after I get back from Rachel's wedding, so I'll probably see most of you before I write another one of these. I can't wait...
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