Nineteen: 52

 the 52 project.
Portraits of my main squeezes, every week.

I do believe they are plotting against me.
And, um, O…dude, I can see your cards.

I planned the usual sort of post, but long days outdoors, preparing for potential frosts the last two nights (meaning the gooseberries are covered in Felix the Cat sheets, and pillowcases are staked over the blueberries), and then a bizarro power outage for several hours yesterday afternoon/evening meant I didn’t get a whole lot done involving the glowing box.

There were moments squeezed in for dandelion-picking. These petals are destined for a batch of dandelion wine. We are using this recipe, but I had begun to follow another at first and already have the flower petals steeping without any of the other ingredients. I’ll just heat it up a little today to dissolve the sugar, and continue with the Katz recipe as written. More on this process to come!

Oh, and the duck eggs? I found those in our neighbor’s yard. We had noticed the girls weren’t laying in the coop anymore…it seems they are just dropping them whenever and wherever they get the urge. I also found one on the driveway.

Oh, and the goats? They were reunited with their mamas and cousins to pasture out on a neighbor’s land. A great escape was made at midnight and now they are all back up here on the hill.

I am surrounded by silly, exasperating creatures.

Good thing they’re cute as buttons.

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It’s official

I’m going to miss this place.

I’ve been spending my days in a wistful haze, quietly drinking in sounds and smells, trying to take in as much of this amazing seasonal transition as I can…knowing the seasonal shifts in the redwoods will be the merest of subtleties compared to the utter bursting forth that is a New England Spring.

I’m going to miss this girl, too:

My Alice.
But she’s a Vermont girl and has zero interest in long journeys and the salty sea. She likes bracken. And lots of it. And she probably won’t miss me all that much. Or at all. But I’m okay with this.

Really, I’m okay with all of this. If only because I am very distracted with the fact that I have only two more weeks until Twist and less than that to ship out for Maryland Sheep and Wool.
I have been mad prepping:

Have not even begun work on the shiny new thing that I intend to have ready for both. Luckily, I can run remarkably well on very little sleep.

Since C has been back and housemates have still been away, there has been family time and even a few quiet moments in the day…I had forgotten what it was like. We are quite the efficient little unit when we have our own space and time to manage. I really enjoy not needing to schedule my laundry and showers.

C leaves soon…in a few weeks time. A solo drive. The whole storage idea became ridiculously expensive. So, the standard moving rig it is, and we’ll just have to move everything around a lot when we work on things like the floors and such. The little guy and I are still planning on taking the train…just the two of us…a few weeks behind C so he can get some of the more major work done without having to worry about kid-safety, or un-safety as the case may be.

I’m going now to soak up the remaining bits of this glorious Spring day. And eat a popsicle.
xoxoxo

OMGoats!

They’re heeeeeere!
I love them.
I knew I would love them.
But, I really love them.

Meet Alice:

She is on a lead, getting a tour of her new surroundings. She and her babe had not been exposed to much in the way of grazing, so they have been timid to leave the barn and enjoy the green-y goodness of Spring.
Baby Isobel:

Miss Isobel is very shy around us, but I know she will warm up as she watches her Mama. Alice is all about being noozled and pet, and she gives us lots of kisses. The Little Guy is a bit intimidated, as Alice is very curious about the small human. She just wants to sniff him all over and nibble the buttons off his clothes. They really do try to eat everything. Our neighbor gifted the Little Guy a tricycle, and Alice promptly ate the tassles off. Now we don’t bring toys inside the goat fence.

Isobel is almost weaned…we may be able to milk Alice, but we’re not sure. She’s very comfortable with C already, so it could happen.
Did I mention I love them?
I think there must be nothing more adorable than a romping baby goat.

In other news:

We made this:

Black gold, baby. Beautiful, loamy rich compost. Last year’s food scraps have become fuel for this year’s harvest. Ain’t that a beautiful thing? Note my high tech sifting method in the middle.

Here is a bit of my progress on the kitchen garden:

Sorry about the shadows strewn about that last image. Anyway, first shot is the tilled patch, weeded and ready to hoe. A lot. I now have some serious hoe muscles. This patch is a good thirty feet long by five feet wide. Middle shot is after mixing in some of the aforementioned fabulous compost. Finally, four raised beds ready for seeding. This will happen tomorrow.

misshawklet

, we’re finally using that sweet little book I bought from you a billion years ago! I really need to map it well, as I’m shooting to get not only culinary herbs, but medicinal and dye plants in there, too. Thirty feet sounds like a lot of space, but my pile of seed packets is enorm

ous.

And because no post is complete without a booty shot: