Early fall in Pownal

Our girls eating grass in the morning light...

 So many beautiful sights here as fall progresses!  You can just begin to see the changing colors now!

 Apple harvest will come soon...

When we walk by the bee hives on the way to and from the house (in the morning and at night especially, when the air hangs low and there's not much breeze), you can smell the intoxicating scent of rich honey.  It's an indication that the hives are getting full!

I might literally have cucumbers coming out my ears soon!  But first, I'm going to stuff them in baskets, bowls, and jars.  Pickles abound!

 Sarah came up for our weekly visit on Friday, so what did we do?  We pickled carrots!  Of course!

Jon found this little Eastern Red Bellied snake under the wood pile... and five baby Garter snakes under the yurt!  Cuteness!

 We have started to dig the drainage ditch for the yurt.  Our friend John (who just so happens to be the best plumber in the world) is helping us to figure out the details.  Lucky us!

 First, dig a long, straight trench from just under the yurt down the hill.  Try really hard to get the bottom 20 feet to be level.  This part has taken us a few days... more to come soon!

 And we had our first frost!  I, of course ran outside in the morning (after getting warm by the fire in the house) to see if I could capture the wonder...  I got an "are you crazy?" look from Kathy just before I ran out the door...

A walk in the woods

We went out on a foraging expedition this morning, and didn't have to look too far... can you see the mushroom here?  To find black trumpets you really have to tune your eyes because they're hard to spot amidst the decaying leaves!

 Erin spotted this sea of caterpillars which clung to this tree trunk and remained very still unless you blew on them, at which point they would all squirm about en masse.  It was the strangest thing I have seen in a while!

 Kathy, searching amidst the witch hazel...

 We didn't pick this one, but I thought it sure was purty!

 This is what a short two hours allowed us to find.  Our winter cabinets will be chock-a-block full of mushroomy delights!

Images from the farm

Jon, playing with Isla in the medicine wheel garden:

Lazy wife beans, getting toward the end of their growing season:

Older rows of spinach and lettuce, buckwheat cover crops in far back:

Checking out the pumpkins (which have completely taken over the back and side of the gardens):

Dick and the turkey lurkeys:

Kathy and her beautiful compost:

Jon and I beside our little taters from Argentina:

The "terlet" (as Kathy calls it), at home in our yurt bathroom:

Little butter bean, checkin' it all out:

Sink and tub:

Duckie:

Isla is cute, but she has surprisingly big feet!

Lying the the yurt with Tula, who has come for her first visit here!

And hanging out with everyone...

 

 

The someday kitchen:

The tractor ride that made Isla nervous at first:

Isla and Mer:

And Jake the kitty- Isla's favorite:

A day of firsts

Energy for getting projects done has been building with the fall weather, and today I figured out how to remove sliding drawer hardware so that I could fix the faces of the drawers back onto the cabinet.  Once we make and set our countertops, our kitchen sink will fit here right in front of the window.

 We cut the cement board that will go underneath the tiles around our wood stove, and screwed them into place.  Tomorrow I hope to start tiling!

We used our composting toilet for the first time, and we brought our bed down to the yurt!  It was interesting to see how much we will be affected by the moon with our big dome skylight.  It reminded me of the Mama Roja jungle, sleeping out in the elements, under the moonlight every night.  I remember nights when I could barely sleep because the moon was so bright.  I'm sure we'll get used to it, but it was different!  And chilly!  We were warm under our blankets though...

 I'm excited to move more things in so that it really starts to feel like home!