A Tiring Week on the Homestead

A surprise bloom on a houseplant

Hello, friends.  It's been a tiring week.  All the house plants were brought indoors, which is quite an adventure.  We added a couple of large ones this year, including a rosella I want to try to overwinter, as they never bloom in time for me to harvest the calyces.  In fact, though it's covered in buds, the first bloom came the day after we brought it indoors.  We have two dwarf pomegranates, which have never born fruit, so J dug one up, so I can see if overwintering it indoors changes that.  They pretty much die back to the ground, so maybe this will help.  We've dealt with intermittent roof leaks for a while now, and have been up there at least a half dozen times, to try to remedy it, with no success.  On Sunday, we started the project of replacing all the tin on the original roof.  We were delighted to find there was no wood we needed to replace, and didn't really find a reason for the leaks.  But we now have long runs of tin, instead of seams in two places on each run, in case the wind was blowing water up the incline.  We actually started and finished replacing the roof on Sunday, which we're both feeling, in our 60-something bodies.  All that's left is small things, like replacing the boots and caulking around the soil stacks.  There's a spot at the gutter that needs some shoring up, but we're delighted the project is not going to take days, as we thought it might.  

A batch of suet was made for the birds.  There was a little more activity at the feeders, but not much.  I gathered tansy for seed, and placed most of the plates and bowls of seed that had been drying in envelopes.  I found more kale volunteers, this time two varieties.  Some were transplanted, and a dozen given to a friend.  She expressed interest in a beauty berry while here, so I dug one up for her as well.  The dogs seemed to have finished getting into deer funk, and were given baths in the outdoor shower, likely the last of the year.  When we potted the dwarf pomegranate, we used a mix of old and new potting soil.   We used a large nursery pot we were given, and had no dish large enough to go beneath it, so J suggested a barrel lid, which I cleaned and epoxied the seal, to make sure there were no leaks.  Some of the gifted worm castings were used to fertilize the lemons.  I dehydrated celery twice, and a few chanterelles.  One of the GF pizza crusts were pulled from the freezer, on a night J wanted ribs, and pizza sauce made.  I chopped up sweet pepper, garlic, and some maitake mushrooms I had canned for the pizza, and added black olives.  Yummy!

Six roosters is entirely too much male energy for one flock!

The eggplant is finally doing well.  A curry was made one night with it, a gratin another night, which also used yellow squash and our first picking of chard, and another night was caramelized onion, tomato and eggplant pasta.  With a forecast of a low in the 30's, I harvested all the basil.  Some went into the just mentioned pasta, and the rest will be made into pesto.  A batch of cashew parmesan was made, to have with the pasta.  It really satisfies my craving for cheese on pasta or other dishes.  With the weather turning cooler, I enjoyed lemon balm tea or lemon balm/spearmint tea several times.  I had gathered more hickory nuts, and J shelled them, using his press brake.  I stuck them all in the fridge, until I have time to pick them out.  I brought flannel sheets down from the attic, and swapped them with the summer ones, and got all my cold weather clothes down, though I haven't had time to swap them all yet. J started our first fire in the woodstove Sunday morning, which the pups loved.  Their dog beds are on either side of the hearth.  Wishing you cozy days this week!