Berry season

We passed this field of blueberries this morning. This afternoon we made our second blackberry trip down to the rock lot.

The rock lot is on the side of a valley, with tumbled granite and roughed out cliffhanging roads. I went barefoot for better purchase.

Every rock piled up is sharp side up, and most of them are wobbly, having just been uprooted and piled or shoved to the side. I found a loaded blackberry bush, berries as big as the end of your thumb, and started picking. As blackberry bushes are wont to do, I was lured around the side, and then over the back, a ten foot drop. I perched among the sweet fern where the berries were especially juicy.

I sidled along, picking, and worked my way down to a huge flat-topped boulder. I picked almost two gallons before the sun started to set. The Firebird and Willow each picked a fat quart. Ten added another two gallons. We are going to make another attempt at jelly. Our first picking yielded eight jars, but it did not set well. I was tired and impatient and disappointed with the sure jell liquid pectin. Still...delicious!

Willow and I picked a quart of blueberries today. We may stop again tomorrow for a few more. Blueberry jam sounds pretty good. I also have 2-1/2 gallons of wild apples that are heading for jelly or sauce or maybe apple butter...yum

Waiting for the Big One

I promised the kids we would make it to the beach again and we went yesterday. We had a big rain the night before, which I slept through,but it must have been quite the storm since there was actually surf!

Usually at our favorite beach the waves just lap at your ankles during the summer months. Yesterday some of the waves were well over four feet. Willow got swamped a couple of times. I bodysurfed and played with her for about a half hour. The Firebird, now a good swimmer and also six feet tall at almost thirteen, was begging to go to Reid, notorious for its big surf and undertow.

Having had him nearly swept out to sea when he was Willow's age at Reid, I politely declined.

So the two played in the water the whole time. The floating seaweed was pretty thick, having been stirred up by the storm and surf. Willow had seaweed matted into her long hair. Once I stood up from a good bodysurf, and had it tangled in my top and bottom, both of which I lost(fell out of) several times- hopefully not to the laughs of the big crowd on the beach.

String bikinis are not bodysurfing equipment.

After we got home, I found the Firebird's swimming trunk pockets both filled with seaweed.

We had a great day!

Happy August

I've certainly been wondering if I'm bi-polar lately: periods of short sleep and intense activity followed by two days of crashing...

The garden is wild! Here is one bed, typically overplanted.


I have two types of beans, yellow wax and Italian flat; two types of tomatoes, Roma and Big Boy; a row of potatoes, and some pumpkins. The beans are producing like crazy, and we have harvested a couple of summer squash out of another bed. The carrots flopped, and the bright lights chard had erratic germination but are finally taking off. I gave up on the few carrots and turned them under this weekend.

I've lost a lot of weight. Remember when the doc was giving me a hard time at 130? Down to 115! Ugh skinny boyfriends will be the end of me! That passionate affair ended this weekend in a great crash and burn , so maybe I will put on a few pound seeking solace in endless tubs of ice cream and cookies. Mmmm.

Saturday running late

A gloomy drippy humid Saturday morning and I have five minutes left of my comp time.

Tired.Trying to get the new pasture finished at Prescott. Boss decided to have us run along the tree line coming back, which added another two days to the job. I had a fit.
"nope, not doing it!"

Luckily I had Ten and R come in on Thursday. so I took advantage of them and had them clear the line. Imagine an overgrown rock wall with old fenceline and rotten posts and trees and poison ivy. Yup, that was a job for the guys.


Yesterday we nailed insulators on the trees. Today I am tired, it's the Farmer's Market so Boss will be heading out for that. Ten and Willow are coming in with me.

Monday we weaned some of the little bucks off their Mom's and took them on the hill. I haven't been up to see them yet, but one or two of them was yelling like they were being strangled yesterday. Can't wait to see the little guys today!

The four -yearling bucks went to Prescott with the big bucks. They are not trained to the electric fence yet. Yesterday Ten and I turned around and we had "Tack Room Baby" standing in the field with us, to be shortly joined by "Jumping Jack". We put them back in and then had to fix fence where they went through. Oh, gotta love goats.

Time's up, time to feed my own ...hope everyone is having a nice weekend!

Friday

Pretty quiet so far this week.

Yesterday was a big day at the farm, at least in my book. Ten had another day off, so I took him in to the farm and R was back again, so Ten, R, and myself headed off to Nash to get more fencing for the Prescott job.

We pulled all the fence (electric) out of Nash yesterday! Huge job! Whew! A good work crew can sure get a lot done!

Ten broke four green stakes trying to get them up! A green stake is a metal fence post about 7 feet long. They are very sturdy. I was wiggling one when I heard a giant *crack* and saw Ten go flying onto his ass. He broke his at ground level. I couldn't stop laughing. I couldn't believe anyone could break one of those stakes.

Then he went on to break three more. I was going to ban him from the green stake pulling but they were ones R and I couldn't budge either.

What a hot job! On the way home we stopped at the Village store and the thermometer in the sun said 107 F.

I was going to work today, but Ten's Dad asked me for a lift to the bus station. He is going to Florida for a month. Ten had a fit and wants his Dad to fly, but his Dad has macular degeneration and said he was more comfortable dealing with the bus than the plane

I said it might be cooler in Florida.

Another Tuesday

We had another busy week. Last Tuesday night we went to Hallowell to catch some live music outside along the river. Not a dancing band, just folks piled around on the benches and under the trees in the little park by the Kennebec. If we go again I think we will take fishing poles and see what we might catch in the Kennebec.

Wednesday we went to the beach for a few hours in the afternoon. It was hot even on the beach! I went into the water twice. I spent most of the rest of the time on my stomach exchanging heated tests with Ten over a huge disagreement. I was wearing a brand new string bikini (the only thing left in my size at Walmart last week)...and I fried my butt. Well, everything but my butt. The tag was sticking up on the bottoms and I had a white tag tattoo on my lower back. I even had the bow from the top outlined in white on my back.

The kids had on 8 hour, waterproof SPF 35 and Willow still got a bad burn on her back. She started peeling last night. So you can imagine my burn with no spf (hardcore)

Willow made this cool sandcastle by dripping handfuls of sandy water.



That night we went to the Walker Brothers circus. I almost nixed it because of the sunburn I was developing. As a result of that and my dark mood in general, I did not enjoy it as much as in previous years, but the kids had a good time. No monkeys this year-or elephants, or dogs even. A short pony run around the ring act and some trained pigs! yes, trained pigs. That was pretty funny. Also Paolo the young juggler grew a couple inches...lol such a small circus you get to know all the performers by name year to year.

The next few days were pretty quiet. I tried to work on taking the fence down at Prescott one day with R (he came back for two days) and the other day with young D. Between the sunburn and chasing snagged line around a huge wooded pasture I just about had a meltdown. Fencework with a sunburn in the sunny nineties...yeah right.

I had a moose go through my own electric fence (in one side and out the other) snapping two lines , breaking insulators, and creating a nightmare of a repair job of my own.

Saturday was a blast. We went to the Strawberry festival and ate homemade strawberry goodies and listened to a nice little acoustic band.

Saturday night Ten and I went to the Blues Festival and tore up Main Street dancing to every band. The night hit an early snag when Ten forgot his wallet and then couldn't get into any of the bars for lack of ID. They were carding pretty heavily, but of course not me..lol how embarassing.

So we did what a lot of other folks were doing, went up to the local RiteAid which happened to sell liquor. I grabbed a bottle of Cuervo Margarita, some cups, and a bag of ice. LOL. We were all set.

Ten and I had never danced, although we both have boasted of our prowess. I felt fairly confident as I have managed to hold my own in bowling, pool, ping pong, and swimming. LOL. We heard a good song and Ten urged me upfront- where I usually prefer to dance...then grabbed my hands and what a disaster! LOL. I have never danced holding hands, and although we both have great rhythm I could not sync up with him.

We had to have a big talk, lol, and after that we danced together not holding hands. Once in awhile he would try and grab me and the disaster would repeat itself with me almost falling on him. Otherwise it was a great time. We left Rockland well after midnight and the party was still going on.

Pretty quiet schedule for this week. I am going to try and do some stuff around here, that sounds familiar, doesn't it? LOL

What Day is it Anyhow?

LOL! I'm a little froggy this am! HOT! and tired. Working and playing to the max!

Boss came to the decision to move the bucks out of Jenny Nash. We were already semi-established at Prescott, but not enough pasture for the boys. The job was moving the fencing out of Nash and establishing a new pasture at Prescott.

P, R, D and I spent a day winding electric rope and ribbon:D pulling the white step in stakes, and then D and I rocking and pulling out the green metal stakes. R told me his planned layout, drove in three green stakes, and then has been out of work since.

D drove the rest of the green stakes with me steadying them. We use a big rectangular metal driver which is more than I can handle on my own. I ran the top ribbon to mark the fenceline for clearing and was then told the loppers had disappeared, the weedwhacker was out of line, and I could use a pair of hoof shears for trimming.

Ha. I spent an hour crawling along the roadside ditch head high with wild roses and other shrubs, blistering my hand on the shears and was about ready to abandon the task.(um...the title of a song came to mind, "take this job and...." lol) Luckily, I found out that my sweets, Ten, had the next day off and convinced him to bring his landscaping tools and give me a hand. He cleared the whole fenceline and then pulled five runs of wire-embedded rope off the winder. Yeah! End in sight!

D and I ran the last ground line, put in all the white step in stakes, and wrapped an apple tree with wire to try and protect it. Saturday it was ready for the bucks.

Still more work ahead there with dividing it and pulling the rest of the Nash fence.

Last night we headed off to Bath for Bath Heritage Days. A terrific Reggae Band, Mystic Bowie, played on the main stage before and after the fireworks. Bath was jamming! Lots of food vendors, roadside carnival, live music...



We watched the fireworks go off on the other side of the river, nice but not as intense as our regular fourth of July spot where they go off right in front of you and ash frequently drifts into the crowd. This year luck was on our favor with the wind blowing it back into the cove. Here's a shot of last night's fireworks in Bath.




Back to last night, after the fireworks we went back to the band and Willow got her nerve up to join the rest of the kids invited on stage to jam with the band. I abandoned my flip flops and danced in the crowd cheering her on. The Firebird even loosened up at the end and started moving.




Lots more summer fun and work in the days ahead! Hope everyone else is having a dancing summer!