Autumn has finally rolled around again, and since I haven’t posted in a while, I thought I would share a snapshot of what this hearth is looking like this time of year. In many ways it’s a snapshot of my life right now. It’s a little busy, and a little messy, but that’s how it goes, and lots of good things are always in the works. Cider is fermenting away in three different flavors (plain, ginger, and juniper botanical). There’s a peach mead experiment going on that I’m not really sure about right now. Seeds are drying from some of my favorite sunflower varieties for snacking and next year’s garden, and rose hips from my Apple Rose are drying for autumn teas. The Glass Gem and Calico corn ended up being very small but colorful, and I’m hoping to try popping some of it for movie nights this winter. My white sage plant overwintered and thrived this summer, and I’ve able to dry quite a few smudge sticks. Soon it will be time for the first fire of the season and I’ll have to do something about everything on the hearth, but for now, it’s a haphazard thing of beauty.
You may be asking (as I do all the time), why I don’t write as often on the blog these days. To be perfectly honest, raising two 16-year-olds is a lot. These kids are amazing, and I am so proud of the young adults they are turning out to be, and it is taking my 150% to be their mom, work, and do all the homesteading things that I do. I have also been making a concerted effort to fit more down time and self care in there too, which often means the choice between taking some time to relax at the end of the day, or creating a blog post. When I was younger, this was definitely a concept I just didn’t get. Self care? What’s that? I’ve got shit to do! Now that I’m in my late 30’s I’m finally figuring it out. It means the difference between putting something out there or focusing some energy inward. I’ve been going with reserving that energy for myself every time there’s an option lately, and learning a lot about myself. Creative inspiration comes and goes, and I’m learning to be okay with not having anything to put out there sometimes. I have also gone back and re-watched all 7 seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and don’t regret a single minute of it.
While some things change, much is the same year after year, like all the gardening, canning, wildcrafting and hard work that goes into this modern homesteading life. We spent our August weekends filling up the cellar shelves with all the jams, corn relish, peaches, applesauce and grape juice they will hold. There are still plenty of pickles left over from last year, so we took a year off on those. The dehydrators have been filled with plums and Asian pears the last two weeks. The chickens are still going strong, and the quail lay enough eggs for me to fill jars of pickled quail eggs every month. Herbs are hanging up to dry all around the kitchen and pantry, and it’s looking like we’re ready for fall.
As the seasons change, this mountain hearth continually changes and evolves, and I’m grateful for the beautiful, busy, sometimes haphazard adventure that it is.
Leave a Reply