Happy Thanksgiving(and the snowstorm of twenty-ten)

It's the day before Thanksgiving, I'm baking one loaf of bread, a long pie pumpkin and three heads of garlic, which will also be transformed into bread before the day is through. I'm off on a road trip, or will be in a few hours, and I'm jittery with excitement, and coffee, but mostly excitement.

It snowed here in Port Angeles on Sunday, an unseasonably early storm of impressive ferocity. We got somewhere between eight inches and a foot, on the farm there were drifts as high as three feet in some places, but I'm getting ahead of myself. On Sunday we went and saw the new Harry Potter movie. It was, as we all had to assume, quite dark. I love the animated tale of the three brother right in the middle of it; thought the animation was fantastic. I enjoyed it, but I have to say that it in no way compared with going sledding at the highschool with Maggie, and Jen and Nathan afterward. That was easily the highlight of my week, if not the month.

The day afterward, however, was back to farm life, and let me just tell you, farming in the snow? Even inside of the greenhouse...not ideal. We got it cleaned out, however, harvesting the last of the peppers and eggplants, and some green tomatoes that may or may not ripen off the vine. Yesterday we finished pulling up all the fencing, and cleaning it up as best we could, and then cleaned out the chicken coop. Ah, the glamorous and idyllic life of farm folk.

I've been getting some quality writing done, I think, and I've been enjoying my time immensely. Although living in a trailer during the snowstorm has taken some of the romance out of it, it was undeniably beautiful. Some pics from around the farm(it should be interesting to see what survives this, but I've learned not to underestimate the resilience of plants).


Chickens do not like the snow:
The display garden, lettuce?:

Leeks:

Parsnips:

Brassicas:

Asparagus:
Flax:

Raspberries and Blueberries:
Leaving the Athair's the morning of the storm:



Sometimes you find beauty in the most unexpected of places, like the skin of the greenhouse the morning after:

As for my Thanksgiving plans? A rented house on the Oregon coast, with some friends and some strangers. There will be much cooking, and celebrating, and, on my part at least, being thankful for what I have, for the opportunities I find myself with, for my friends and loved ones, and for all of you who care about me and my journey.

Thanks.

Remember, remember, the fifth of November...

Anyone have a big exciting Guy Fawkes bonfire? We did, but only incidentally. It was a gray and rainy Saturday, and farmer Kelly took the opportunity to set the burn pile alight. I was working market, however, and so I missed the festivities. It's November, which means it's NanoWriMo time again. I think the story I've started is probably more of a novella than a full-fledged novel, but that's just fine. I've been writing everyday, but my output has been severely reduced over the summer, and now I'm finding it really challenging to find the time to write seventeen hundred words a day, but I'm managing(even after starting over after two days and having to make up the page count, because I'm a stickler).

On the farm we've been continuing the same program we've been on. We're taking in the last of summer crops; we took in the flax and field corn this past week. The corn didn't do great, but we've gotten enough to make cornmeal for the farm, and I think that was really our intention. The sunflowers didn't make it. They went moldy before they finished maturing, and were consigned to the compost on the same day I harvested the corn. Tant pis.

Flax, wheat, and corn:



I've been as busy as ever. Contra dancing, knitting and crocheting, reading, both fiction and some seminal farming books, cooking, baking, and pickling, and yoga. Yesterday, Maggie and I went hiking in the Elwha, which is really beautiful. The mountains are just beginning to show signs of snow at the peaks, and the deciduous trees and ferns make an incredible contrast with teh vibrantly green moss and Doug Firs. There has been a great deal of reading aloud, including, but not limited to, a read aloud children's book group, which was a great deal of fun. I read several Just So Stories, and some poems from Where The Sidewalk Ends. That was the sort of book club I can get behind.

What else am I reading, you say? Why these:

The beginning of my first knitting project:

I'll post more pics of my handiwork when I've finished.

On a recent Monday off(Hooray November) I spent some time walking through the outdoor sculpture garden in PA. I took some pics, which I present without commentary:


That one's my favorite(What? Oh yeah, no commentary. I did say that. Fine. I retract my previous statement.).

Some pics of some recent bakes; I've been doing even more bread than usual the last few weeks. Ciabatta al Funghi:

Roasted Beet Bread:

Perhaps the simplest, but most delicious loaf I've made since I came to the PacNorWe. A pain au levain:

These are bay laurel cuttings that Kelly took from a job, and is rooting next to the greenhouse. The day he put these in the ground, the wind carried the scent of them over to the wash station where Kay and I were cleaning produce, and all day long we'd get a whiff, and wind up smiling like schoolkids. It was fantastic. If you've never had the chance to smell real fresh bay, not California bay, but the Mediterranean variety, seek it out. It's a whole other thing.

Bodie and Willow, Newfoundland and Pony, from next door:


Some shots from around town and the farm, which make me smile; just looking at them is enough to make me smell woodsmoke:





It's easy enough for me to remember to be thankful for where I am. In considering what I'm to do once the farm season is over for well and for good, I've been thinking about the logistics of returning to Georgia long enough to grab my bike, and drive across the southern edge of the country, but haven;t quite worked out the details of what that trip would entail(aside from wool and waterproofs). It's all still theoretical, but the more I consider it, the more I like the idea. It would give me the chance to visit with everyone, and catch up, and it would be an experience unlike anything else, I'm sure. I hope you guys are all doing as well as I am. I really miss you, and wish we had the chance to talk more often(i.e. at all), but I know we're all busy. I love you, and hope you're all looking forward to the holidays; I can't wait to see some of you in California for Christmas. I just want to know, who's bringing the tree?

Another post, heavy on the pictures. Now with less yammering!

I don't really have a ton to share. The farm work progresses apace. We harvest, we plant, we weed, and we market. I think we've all really fallen into our stride. I raked up a mess of beds the other day before we mulched the display garden, and it was as natural as if I've done it my whole life. Still hard work, and more time-consuming than you'd think, but the steps need to accomplish the goal come naturally to me now, and not once did Kelly stop me to show me what I was doing wrong. That was immensely satisfying, I must say.

To start with, I went back up to Lake Angeles, two weekends ago. It was a gorgeous gray PacNorWe day, and it satisfied all the things I go up on the mountain for.

Banana Slugs and Fungi, Wildflowers, gray hazy trees, and mountain top lakes:






I just finished writing a really cool short story, a fairytale of sorts, inspired by this second trip up to the lake.

Last weekend I went hiking with Maggie and Ari, a very cool young man with whom Maggie resides, he has a disdain for shoes, which I found contagious. This led to me wandering through the woods without sneakers on. It was oddly pleasant, at least when we were walking off trail. It was a good hike. We saw the biggest ribbon snake I've ever seen; not large at all by east-coast or tropical standards, but for the maritime northwest this guy was a giant.

Baking bread: many-seeded rye, my first loaf of gluten-free sandwich bread, roasted garlic and shallot sourdough, Miguel's Zucchini fritters with Feta:






Some shots from around the farm. the display garden, freshly mulched:

Ms. Floriana Redflint(That's a name screaming for a story, eh?):

Melons:



The pumpkin patch:

Long pie pumpkin blossoms:
Spaghetti Squash:


Winter squash, shaping up nicely:


Pickles, waiting to happen:


Tomatoes, flax, wheat:


Elephant garlic flower:

My volunteer harvest from my Sunday morning farm constitutional, all of this fruit was on the ground, begging to be eaten despite the fact that some of it isn't yet ripe:


And in closing, a correction to the addendum to the answers to our trivia questions...or something like that, these:

Are not in fact Indian pipes, but a relative of sorts, pinedrops, these are the same ones I first pictured, but a week older. Thank you Maggie for your plant nerdiness, without which we would all remain ignorant...

So, how am I doing? I'm well. Most days, I'm really well, and on the days when I'm not, all it takes is for me to step back, look around at where I am, and I'm immediately reminded how lucky I am to be here. It's interesting to me how easy it is for people who've spent their entire lives here, to take the magnificence of this place for granted.

Went up to Hurricane Ridge to watch the perseids last week, that was a late night, followed by a long day of farm work; it was awesome.

This morning I was bitten by a pony. The lesson learned from this, quite painful, experience? Don't feed a barnyard animal unless you know the proper protocol.

I hope everyone is doing well. Those of you who'll be at Rachel's wedding next month, I'm really looking forward to seeing you all. I really miss you guys, and even though I can now say without any doubt that I won't be coming back to Georgia to live, I find myself missing parts of it, too. Not sure what the future holds. This is causing me a little bit of apprehension, but I'm self-aware enough to know it's also contributing to the excitement each day holds. Love y'all.