Bernard Pastel by Pamela Koster

Bernard Pastel by Pamela Koster
Bernard the Magnificent

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Plums, plums, plums.

Today was the first load of Japanese plums-- over 150 lbs. picked, washed, pitted, and bagged. I won't be canning them until Monday or Tuesday. Right now, I don't even want to LOOK at another plum.

But I will have to.... A neighbor of ours (curse him) has invited us over to pick Green Gage plums (Prunus domestica italica, for you botany nerds). Of course I couldn't say no to free fruit! So, I'll be canning some of those, but I think I will also freeze some halved, to use throughout the winter for tarts, pies, et cetera.

Also coming along nicely are the pears and apples. We're on the lookout for either a cheap cider press, or some kind of communal press. If I can get my act together, KTAO-- Taos's solar radio station, the world's only-- will allow a person to get on air and beg, borrow, trade, or sell stuff and services. As a novice at apple pressing, I'd like to borrow or trade. I could trade...PLUMS in return for the use of a press!

We're having a last of the summer heat wave, as high as 90 today, and no rain in our future until Monday. That means lots of dragging the sprinkler from one part of the yard to the other. Still, we've got lots of stuff still blooming, not to mention all of the veggies I've been yanking out of the garden daily-- cukes, cabbage, yellow squash, tomatoes, peppers, Brussels sprouts, potatoes, and dahlias! Yay! I've been getting a steady trickle of the smaller dahlias I planted, nothing much to crow about in the dinner plate department, and I planted over 35 dinner plate varieties. We've just had so much rain that every bug in the universe has moved in and settled down to dinner. Oh well, next year will be all pompoms and mid-sizes.

The dawgs and chickens are all fine, and I'm working on Brantly to get a couple of angora rabbits when the Taos Fiber Festival rolls around. I know the chickens would just LOVE them....

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Chicken chairs



Here are a couple of my new adirondack chairs. So far only Za Za and Bernard have a chair. I will be doing Mimi and Babbette soon....

Monday, August 3, 2009

Okay....

Now I all I have to learn is how to actually label the posts so it is clear what they are. Basically, the prior post shows some sour cherries from the front yard, a rainbow sprouting from the Cottonwood Inn, and my first dahlias.

Yay! Yay!





I finally figure out how to embed PHOTOS into a post. Here are some of our more recent of life at the Cottonwood Inn....

First Batch of Canning

Well, we have finished the first grueling round of canning-- about 8 cases. Two cases of apricot-cherry jam, 3 cases of Hatch green chili jelly, and a little over 3 cases of plum marmalade made from some frozen plums.

Also have been doing some experimenting on our head roo- Bernard. No, not the kind of experimentation that involves a trip to somewhere mysterious or a large cooking pot with sage. I trimmed his VERY long spurs last night, as well as tied some old towel cloth onto them, hoping this would slow the amount of feathers he seems to remove from the backs of the hens. I had bought "Hensavers," chicken saddles, to put on several of the girls, but after one experiment on Becky, who went wild, and was also ostracized by all the other chickens, I've decided to try out just a few more ideas....

Lots of interesting action coming off Taos Pueblo land-- and across our front yard! It's that time of the year when the Taos Indians take their young up into the wilderness to teach them how to live off the land. The procession of horses, with people wearing traditional clothing, has been fascinating to watch. I even had a group last night who, when they saw our sign, asked if they were too late for breakfast....

The garden news is purple cabbage, sweet peas, squash, squash, and squash, some spinach, broccoli, & radishes, not to mention the sour cherries. I keep meaning to assemble a veggie cornucopia to photograph, but we eat it way too fast.