September and October are my favorite months to spend time in the backcountry. Days are warm, nights are cool and crisp, the summer crowds are gone, and it feels good to soak up some time outdoors before winter sets in. It is also the busiest time of year on the homestead with harvesting, preserving and storing the fruits of our labor and tucking things in for the colder months. Sometimes I manage ...
Autumnal Fruit
"Give me juicy autumnal fruit, ripe and red from the orchard." ~Walt Whitman ...
A Plethora of Pumpkins
When we went out to do a little work in the garden this weekend, we found quite a surprise hiding under the pumpkin vines and nasturtiums. Not only were the pumpkins ripe early, there were a lot more of them than we were expecting! The Magic Lantern, Goosebumps, Cinderella and Small Sugar pumpkins we sowed in the spring had become such a jungle that we weren't really sure what was going on in ...
Everyday Ways to Detox Your Life
Health is one of the most valuable things we have, and taking good care of it is something many of us strive for. Things like a eating a healthy diet, buying organic, avoiding processed foods and getting regular exercise all make a big difference, but still, none of us are perfect all the time, and we are constantly exposed to things in our environment we can't control. In spite of all our healthy ...
He’s Fancy!
I would like to introduce the newest addition to our flock, Fancy the rooster. He's a Silver Crested Polish that we adopted from an elderly woman who lived in the city and hoped he would turn out to be a hen, thus naming him Fancy. Once he started crowing, she put up a flier at the feed store looking for a good home. We have a history with special Crested Polish roosters, and once I told her our ...
Goodpasture Bridge
"Love is the bridge between you and everything." ~Rumi I have come to love and appreciate the Goodpasture Bridge as a local landmark and still-standing part of McKenzie River history. Built in 1938, the bridge is named for a local pioneer, Benjamin Franklin Goodpasture, who purchased the land to plant the hazelnut orchards that are still being farmed here today. The parcel included a ferry ...
Honey Spiced Pears
Fresh fruit is a real treat with breakfast, but on cold winter mornings when there is no fresh fruit to be had, home canned fruit is the next best thing. These honey spiced pears have been a canning staple of mine for a few years now, and I always look forward to those weekend mornings when we get a jar of them out of the cellar. I have always used foraged fruit for this recipe and ...
Full Woodshed
"The youth gets together his materials to build a bridge to the moon, or, perchance, a palace or temple on the earth, and, at length, the middle-aged man concludes to build a woodshed with them." ~Henry David Thoreau ...
The Cider Press
I am pleased to introduce a new, exciting, extra fancy addition to our homestead; the cider press. I have managed to borrow or rent various cider presses every fall, and have always wished I had one of my own. Unfortunately, they are not cheap. One of my friends who happens to be an inventor and tinkerer heard me say this enough times that he and his girlfriend went ahead and built us one from ...
How ‘Bout Them Apples?
Although not a fantastic apple year, I managed to glean a few decent sized baskets full off of abandoned fruit trees for pressing into cider. Our trees at home produced heavily last year and not so much this year, but as a result, we found some new picking spots that should be good sources in better fruiting years. Our garage smells deliciously of apples now, and I'm excited to break out the ...