Is it dark where you're at?

Because apparently, this far north? It gets dark, right early, and it's only November, I shudder to think what it will be like in January. Despite that, I have to say this place is incredible. Even on a gray drizzly day, perhaps especially on a gray and drizzly day, this place has a beauty...you know what? I'll shut up and let the pictures speak for themselves.

From my trip up to Hurricane Ridge today.




It's not really that snowy; in fact, those are pictures of every square inch of snow there was.

What kind of Mushrooms are these? I don't know. They looked delicious, however. Also on the mushroom front...pickled chanterelles:




I've not been doing a great deal, you know, the usual:

Knitting and crocheting:

Baking(roasted potato fendu and peanut butter cookies):


Also in the kitchen, the controlled spoiling of foods, the powers of fermentation...cider in the process of hardening, and milk in the process of seperating, that I might use the whey in further fermentation projects, and the curds in the name of cheese:

Farmering, which this week mostly involved planting garlic:



Also harvested the last of the apples, this week:

Pink pearl...yeah:

I've been doing really well, but I'll freely admit that the early darkness can be a little wearing. It's fine as long as I have my friends, but when they're not around it can be a little...frustrating.

I'm enjoying the opportunity to work market on Saturdays. I'm getting to know my regular customers, and my fellow vendors, and it makes for a nice change of pace from working on the farm. We are rapidly approaching the time when farm work become very difficult due to the weather, but despite that fact we seem to all be in good spirits.

I like the story I'm writing for NanoWriMo, I think it will probably turn out to be a novella, actually around fifty thousand words when it's complete. I hit the halfway mark today, right on track. All I can say is that it's a good thing I'm not trying to do this in July. That would have broken me. I've got a lot of stories to edit once this is done, and I'm giving serious consideration to taking another crack at rewriting my first novel, given the experience I've just had, I feel like I could write it a more authentic voice, and I have an idea of how to fix the ending, but all of that will have to wait until December at the earliest. A preview:

That's my life, these days. Hanging out with Maggie, and the kids down the street at the Lazy J, who, after an incredibly productive summer, are quite justifiably exhausted. I'm doing my best to reward them all with cookies, and my company, although whether that last qualifies as a reward is up for debate.

I've made my reservations for Christmas in California, and since I'm not driving I guess I won't be able to haul a tree a thousand miles for aesthetic reasons, but it just made more sense to fly. Truly excited to see everyone again, and to celebrate with Grandma Pooh and Saba. Sunshine might be nice, as well.

I've got preliminary plans for Thanksgiving that I'm totally jazzed about More on that when I know for certain what's going on, or I might just leave y'all in suspense, and share after the fact...let it suffice to say you needn't worry I'll be alone and depressive on the holiday.

I hope you all have big plans as well, and I hope you're enjoying your lives, and if you want to talk, feel free to call or e-mail, and if you have, and I haven't gotten back to to you yet, I promise I'm working on it, but the allure of the yarn is becoming hard for me to resist. Not sure what that's all about. Love you guys. Miss you, and hopefully I'll get to see at least some of you, soon.

Did you miss me?

I missed you. I was busy on Sunday. It was the most relaxing day I've had in recent memory, and I'll not apologize for the lateness of this update. I have been incredibly busy since last we talked, both on the farm and off.

I attended a young farmer's mixer on Vashon island. It was a lot of fun, but it was a long drive, and early start on the farm the next day, but it was my first chance to take a Washington state ferry. There was great local beer, and a pair of spit roasted suckling pigs, and plenty of delicious fresh produce. It was a good chance to get to meet other farm folk, and to hear how the season has gone in different parts of the state. There might have also been some square dancing.

There was another contra dance, and I was slightly less awkward this time. I brought cookies, because that's what I do. It's fun, and I didn't hurt myself quite so badly this time. It's funny how sometimes you have an opportunity to learn something you'd never know. For example, when Contra dancing you might find yourself realizing that some men, are much better, i.e. more fun to dance with, than others(I am not one of them, alas).

I've been going to see some films at Peninsula College in PA, they're running a series of foreign pictures on Friday evenings, and it's been fun so far. The movies are from the GlobalLens series, and are a good excuse to get off the farm.

This past Sunday Maggie and I went to see the two dams on the Elwha river, since they are going to be demolished in the near future. We also checked out Westwind, one of the other local farms, and went for a hike, which was especially nice since it had been several weeks since I'd had a chance to go hiking. I also got a short story idea out of it, but I just started writing it today, so it won't be ready for a while yet.

I'm writing this post from the Blackbird, my coffee shop, where my barista of choice is about to embark on a mission to Nepal. Adventures for everybody, no?

Some pictures to round out my ramblings.

Produce, from around the farm, and from the market this past Saturday, which was my first market alone(although Christie helped me get set up, and broken down):


Pumpkins and other winter squash:


Black Kabuli Chickpeas, waiting to be turned into hummus, and sprouted mung beans, waiting to be stir-fried:


'Maters:


Cereal Rye, cover crop on the ground where we grew potatoes, and it might not look like much now, but we're all really excited about it. We're getting the ground ready for the winter, and that is a good thing:


And another exciting development, one we've been a little worried about, but the weather cooperated for long enough to get the harvest done without major incidents. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you...Wheat!:

There was something about this harvest that was satisfying in a way that picking zucchini just isn't. Some sort of connection going back to antiquity, a knowledge that though the tools might change(I'm fairly certain they didn't use hedge trimmers) civilization itself is based on the idea of a group of people banding together to harvest and process the grain. Very cool.

Bread, Roasted Chanterelle Ciabatta al Funghi and Mini Cinnamon Raisin Bites and Oregano Olive:


Pics from the woods:


Ain't that something else? Love ya.

In which there is a reunion, between man and machine...

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...