This week, I noticed the mornings are getting chillier, and observed a few signs of autumn appearing around the homestead. Yellow maples are beginning to dot the hillsides. The apples are ripe, and ready to harvest. Leaves are falling in the understory of the forest, leaving branches bare. Our firewood is starting to accumulate in stacks, ready to be piled in the woodshed ...
Line Dried
The warm days of drying clothes out on the line are coming to an end, but I wanted to pay tribute to the deep contentment that can be found in daily work and the interface between home and the outdoors, with a quote I ran across at MaryJane's Farm: "...the powerful religion of ordinary life, a spirituality of freshly mopped floors...and clothes blowing on the line." ~Adair ...
Soaking up the Last Days of Summer
With mornings getting colder, maple leaves beginning to turn golden, and school starting back up this week, we decided summer was fleeting and set out for an evening visit to a nearby swimming hole to soak it up. We followed Blue River up above the reservoir until we came to some very well-worn pullouts, and picked one that looked like it ought to have a swimming hole down below. Sure ...
Pressing Asian Pear Cider
With the Asian pears on our trees ripening a little earlier this year, we found ourselves with many full baskets and the question of what to do with them. This is one tree fruit that doesn't keep well in our cellar, you can only eat so many fresh, and I dried enough last year so that we still have plenty. We really enjoyed making different kinds of hard apple cider last fall, and this presented a ...
Changing Course is Possible
Yesterday marked a new chapter for the Elwha River and for river restoration efforts all over the world. With the final blast and demolition of the Glines Canyon Dam, the Elwha now flows unimpeded from its headwaters in the Olympic Mountains down to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. As the largest dam removal project in the United States, this is an especially significant event. There is a wonderful ...
Hiking Olallie Mountain
In honor of the end of summer, we took a hike up Olallie Mountain on Sunday. Having just been up near Indian Ridge on the other side of the South Fork of the McKenzie, I liked the idea of getting a different perspective and was intrigued by tales of an old lookout tower on the top. We had also managed on Saturday to pick and freeze 10 quarts of huckleberries for the winter and pressed 6 gallons of ...
Wildflowers of Indian Ridge
There was a riot of color along the roadside at Indian Ridge the other day, and I felt some of these beauties were worth sharing. Aside from the Yarrow, Lupine and Pearly Everlasting that I'm used to seeing at lower elevations and in the Coast Range, there were a few other wildflowers in bloom that I enjoyed observing at this higher elevation I don't visit quite as often. Indian Paintbrush ...
Arctic Homesteading Documentary
Several years ago, when I was on an Alaskan homesteading documentary kick, I discovered this gem called "Braving Alaska," which I mentioned in a post: Braving Alaska: Food for Adventuresome Thought. Aside from the various high-quality documentaries on Dick Proeneke's homestead, I was unable to find anything else substantial at the time, and the Alaskan homesteading documentary kick eventually ...
Huckleberry Heyday
I heard a rumor that the huckleberries were ripe up in these hills, so one evening this past week, my mountain man and I headed up to gather our share of this purple treasure. I thought maybe with the blueberry season being so good, that the huckleberry season would follow suit, and was pleased to find out I was correct! It's a great year for huckleberries. The bushes were loaded down ...
The Fruits of Our Labor
One of my favorite things about this time of year is all the fresh fruit. During most of the year, fruit is such a treat or thing to be rationed, that having as much as I want around is a wonderful thing. It feels like a huge bonus paycheck for all the hard work that goes into growing and picking food. Apples, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and huckleberries are all coming on in ...