As 2016 draws nears its end, I bid adieu to the drought conditions welcoming any gloomy rainy winter days ahead. The 2017 Farmers Almanac predicts a snow storm for us mid-February. Whatever precipitation we get will be welcomed. The winter birds are slowly returning to our forest. Across the gravel road in Clay's woods, the great male Pileated woodpecker pounds trees (never getting a migraine) in search of insects. The downy woodpeckers prefer balancing on suet. I also spotted the long-absent red-bellied and two hairy woodpeckers on oak tree trunks. Yesterday the male and female rose-breasted grosbeaks showed up at the heated birdbath. Cardinal sightings have been scarce all through the drought period. Maybe now that the creek behind our house has a small stream of mountain water again, the cardinals will return to the feeders. The first snowflakes floated quietly down melting as they hit the pavement this afternoon. It's winter. Time to slow the pace, do a little
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When your children become adults, have families of their own and live many hours driving distance from you, Christmas Day is calmer and quieter. Through the years we've found holiday travel is too hectic and nerve-wracking. Today the house is void of family commotion, talking and laughing, little children spilling drinks and food on the floor. When it's just the two of you Christmas dinners unfold smoother without the bumps. This year Barb and Mike planned on joining us for the dinner. She was making her mouth-watering apple pie and a deliciously moist dressing. But a few days before Christmas, she developed a strong cough and this Christmas morning was worse and felt she needed to stay home in bed. Smart move when you're under the weather. Cliff and I would still do our Christmas dinner and see them when she recovered. When I removed the turkey pan from the refrigerator, just enough thawed turkey juice spilled from the pan to run onto the shelf of our clean 2-day
At 7:15 this morning the forest was still and serene. It was 47 degrees on our mountain. Warm enough for me to still walk around the porch and soak up up the quiet. Early morning is a good time for my brain before any infiltration of useless chatter or world news enters my ears. I often wake with thoughts I'd like to "pen" but the computer's not awake, (I could pick up a pen, I suppose) or I need to get moving for Zumba class, but this morning all is quiet and hushed. No matter what the temperature, stepping outside with my coffee awakens my brain. Brisk air on cheeks and bare feet remind me I'm alive and can sense nature's wonders. Early foggy mornings have a moist smell and feel. Fog doesn't have any taste. The house tucked in the woods up on the hill seen from our back porch, lights up when Christmas visitors come from Florida hoping to see snow. This year there will be no snow. I think of my family as Christmas Eve nears. Lauria and Jim r
I'm ready for Santa. It's been too warm for snow, which really is ok. While waiting for the new refrigerator to be swapped out, I basked in the sun on the porch with a hot cup of holy basil tea. Even as the clouds rolled in, we reached sixty degrees. I'll soak up the sun while I can because January is not far away. Newest refrigerator with leveled doors and working water dispenser. I spent the morning bringing frozen foods out to the garage freezer. Luckily, I had room to squeeze foods in. Our Christmas turkey had been thawing in the refrigerator since Tuesday but I had to stick it back in the freezer for about ninety minutes while the old refrigerator was removed and the new one set up. I was able to put some of the foods on the back porch in the shade and milk and cheeses in the cooler. In the summer we keep a beer and wine refrigerator on the porch but with winter coming it's unplugged and stored in the garage. Now we're all set up and ready f
Rainy raw weather is a perfect time to sort through old magazines, with no intention of discarding any. As I browsed through issues of Mother Earth Magazines, articles that had been passed over sparked a new interest, something I haven't thought of doing or something totally out of my comfort zone, like "Build a Backyard Pond"or "Beekeeping Basics." Last spring's issue "5 Delicious Wild Greens" caught my eye when the paragraph began, "Free food abounds at your feet........" This "food" is none other than common weeds growing in most gardens and lawns. Amaranth, which my mother called "pig weed," terrorizes gardeners and farmers in every corner of the land. The author of the article puts common chickweed in salads as it is higher in iron than spinach. Lamb's-quarters, another of my mother's favorites, is exceptionally high in calcium and vitamins A and C and can be used in place of spinach in frittatas.
I think we're finally out of the drought cycle as we've had days and days of rain with no complaints heard from anyone. As of today, we've probably had about three inches. We actually got excited to see a trickling little stream flow down the rocks on Boulder Creek Rd. We need many more weeks of rain to soak the forest floors and extinguish the still burning fires. We've had a few cold nights and only lit a fire a few times, but there's a big push of cold air heading our way this week with temperatures dropping into the teens at night and 30-40 degrees for daily highs. It's winter soup and cornbread time again.
Our Thanksgiving Day was quiet. Just the two of us and a slow cooked turkey breast. We talked and texted the children wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving Day. Michael and Mike Jr left Ossipee, headed south to Hudson and spent the day with my sister and Vic and their family. Out in Shawnee, KS, Mark and Jen had turkey at John and Carolyn's house. Friends in Virginia shared their home and table with Lauria, Jim, and the children. The last two nights brought us the first measurable rain, over two inches, in many months. Wind gusts here didn't down trees or take out power as they did in other areas around us. The saddest thing is watching the fires destroy the Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, TN areas. At least 14 fires burned in and around Gatlinburg forcing tourists and nearby residents to evacuate. Winds up to 70 mph knocked out power and blew embers igniting new fires. Families still await news of missing relatives and in some areas only ashes remain of homes. It
After enjoying weeks of lovely warm days and mild nights, our first real sign of fall weather arrived this weekend with wind gusts up to 20 mph and rapidly dropping temperatures. Cliff built the first fire in the soapstone yesterday morning to take the chill off the house. I made a three-bean vegetarian chili and stone ground cornmeal muffins. With the combination of kitchen heat, fireplace warmth and full sun coming in the windows, by mid-afternoon we had to open doors and let the cooler air back in. We thought with the predicted winds all day, we'd need the fire. The absence of leaves allows full sun all day and a warm house. Still no measurable rain and we're still in an extreme drought. Some communities have evacuated their residents and livestock. Cliff has been responding to brush fires, started by fire bugs as we haven't had any lighting, and by a few ignorant people who insist that the fire ban doesn't pertain to them and those who feel it's safe to
Last Thursday we headed north through the smoky Nantahala Forest, up 40 through Asheville, picked up 81 toward Warrenton, Virginia to spend a long weekend celebrating my 70th birthday with Lauria, Jim, and children and a pug and two cats. Lauria and Jim installed an old rope swing like we used to swing on when we were children. We played Spinner, which is like Dominoes but not like Dominoes. I call it "chicken feet" due to the way it branches out like chicken toes. Grant ladling Jim's vegetable soup. Grandchildren helped me blow out the candles. Looks like a bonfire! Sofia plowing over the raked leaves on the wagon-mobile. Olivia popping up through the leaf pile after Hayden buried her. Olivia and I doing our yoga together. Saturday we did the buffet at Mandarin Gardens which is always a treat because the buffet offers so many culturally different foods not available to us in Murphy. And a delightful surprise from my sister. And C
The extreme drought continues with no rain in sight over the next few weeks. This morning's sunrise. We're under hazardous air quality alert again this morning. Any morning that we enjoy a colorful pink/orange glow to our east alerts us to take caution with outside activities. From our porch. Below are a few pictures of the burning in the Nantahala Forest. On our return Sunday from celebrating my birthday with Lauria, Jim, and our grandchildren, we had to travel via Knoxville, Cleveland, and through the Ocoee Gorge in TN when the Forestry Service closed the road to all travelers. Portions of the Appalachian Trail are closed and there is a ban on all burning.
Our weather is still unseasonably warm which makes me want to be outside working the garden. But with the sun lower in the sky now barely appearing above the tall forest oaks and pines, the garden is limited to only four to five hours of direct sun. The fall garlic was planted a couple of weeks ago. Last year I did twelve cloves and got eleven beautiful heads of garlic in June. It was so exciting to dig, dry and use home grown garlic that I planted thirty-five cloves this year. The garlic bed is covered with a layer of dead leaves and six inches of straw. My last couple of CSA bags contained lots of orange and yellow peppers. Eating the rainbow is healthy and delicious and allows me to try lots of new recipes on Cliff. I chopped and froze four peppers for use during the winter and yesterday made fiesta stuffed peppers with the remaining ones. They're even better tasting the next day after the flavors have soaked in and blended together. One afternoon last week, Barb
Where is that gang of squirrels from the hood when you need them? We've been squirrel-less this spring and summer. They weren't around to yell at or throw blame at for things happening our woods. And now when I need them to gather acorns in their cheeks, carry them off to their storage holes in trees or where ever acorns are hoarded, the annoying pests are absent again. Even without a breeze, we can expect hundreds of acorn drops daily. I sweep three to four times each day, mostly because acorns are painful to step on with bare feet and sweeping prevents leaves and broken acorn morsels from being traipsed into the kitchen. This one mighty oak shading our side porch is the culprit. We're thinking maybe most of the acorns have fallen as today was quiet and the porch is still fairly clean. This afternoon after returning from my Zumba and toning classes, it was time to tackle the two kabocha squashes from my CSA deliveries. The kabocha is a fascinating squat squ
It's been raining acorns. Winds from hurricane Matthew caused showers of acorns but no rain. Can't remember the last time we had any rain. It's been months. The oak tree that canopies our porch was full this year. After gusts from Matthew died down, Cliff used the leaf blower to clean the porch figuring most of the acorns from the big oak were on the porch........but the dropping continues. A barrage of pounding, then silence, so I sweep. I find comfort in the sweeping. The to and fro dance with the broom like my grandmother and my mother sweeping their porches. Grandma Still had an old rocking chair among the other chairs on her rustic front porch. Adirondack chairs and a bench beckoned friends and family to sit awhile on my parents porch. So with a comforting rhythm I sweep our porch four and five times a day. Folklore says a thicker acorn shell means a colder winter and an abundance means a cold wet winter. The Farmers Almanac reports we're in for a col
I've been remiss in updating the refrigerator dilemma. We did purchase a new Kenmore Elite. I love it. There's a little more room in the upper and definitely a more spacious freezer. Has a drawer and a slide shelf above the big bottom bin. The slide shelf is great for freezing flat bags of our garden basil, spinach, and kale . Got my third CSA bag of fall vegetables Tuesday. Fresh watermelon, red onions, a squash resembling a pumpkin, all in the same family, a bag of salad greens, and two eggplants. Wednesday night I made eggplant Parmesan using gluten free bread crumbs and the jar of Cabernet spaghetti sauce we bought at the John Campbell Folk School Art Festival on Saturday. Nothing like the taste of garden fresh vegetables. It seems our hummingbirds have migrated south much earlier this year than other years. I saw the last female perched on the back porch feeder on Tuesday and none since. The feeders are still out, will remain out for at least another we
Last Thursday morning we left Murphy pointing the Kia toward Kansas City for a visit with John and Mark and their families. Our stopping point Thursday evening was Marion, IL. Early Friday afternoon we arrived in Kansas City, MO. Mark was thankful he had a valid reason for leaving work Friday noontime to be home when we arrived. Mark with his and Jen's rescue greyhounds. Ember, closest to Mark, was anxious around us so I was lucky to get this picture of her. She was rescued from an abused situation and our visit made her uncomfortable. She adores Mark and Jen. Mark reassures her by picking her up and cuddling her. Schroeder posed for his picture. He was more comfortable with us as he got used to our being there. Panther led me up the stairs to show me where his dry food feeder was so I could remove the top and hand feed him. It's a timed feeder that drops food once in the morning and again in the evening but he figured I was a new person in his life and he
Wednesday is Benjamin's 7th birthday..........already. I try to text or email the children a few weeks ahead of their birthdays reminding them to send me their wish-list. That way their birthday gifts arrive before their day. Ben only asked for one thing and Lauria included the Walmart link so I could easily purchase the correct item he wanted for his birthday. I went online to the Walmart site using her link, ordered the Battleship Game, and designated her as the pick-up person. So today she went to her Walmart to pick up Ben's gift but it wasn't there. Cliff installed a virtual private network on my computer some time ago so I figured it accidentally went to Phoenix, AZ or Butte, Montana but it didn't. The game was ready for pick up in Murphy. When I texted Lauria about the gift, I asked her to explain to Ben that his Pau Pau is old and sometimes she gets mixed up! I'll pick up the gift and mail it to him before he turns eight. Pulled up all the tomato
With the sun a bit lower in the sky now, the garden gets fewer hours of required light needed for plump tomatoes and yellow beans. We've been weeks with little or no rain leaving the soil cracked and dry. Morning watering can't compare to a soaking day-long rain. A few days ago I pulled up the green and yellow beans and put in a few new dill weed plants and two dozen onion sets. No more beans. new fall onions Basil did well this year. Basil doesn't like soggy feet so I had no black rot on the stems and leaves. I've frozen eighteen cubes of chopped basil leaves in olive oil and eight chives in water cubes for winter cooking. morning glories Early morning temperatures have been about 58 degrees. Before the heat of the day set in this morning, we did our walk around Konehete Park in town then built my pott