By Andrew Haupt
We held a knot tying workshop on Saturday, which went really well. There were only 7 or so people there, which ended up being a good thing, as you benefit from some 1 on 1 help with spatially difficult things like knots.
Unfortunately, I woke up on Sunday morning to all my tomatoes, peppers, squash, and cucumbers in the meadow garden completely dead. It got down to 30 degrees unexpectedly overnight and that was that. Strangely enough, the few tomatoes we have going in the back garden seem to have survived -- maybe they’re a bit more sheltered back there. It’s really demoralizing, as growing those seedlings took a lot of time and effort. I guess we can chalk it up as yet another lesson learned the hard way. Next year I will make sure that I hold onto seedlings as backups, and also be prepared with row covers if the temps are supposed to get close to the mid 30s.
I’ve been feeling worn down by the upkeep on the homestead lately. Struggling to prioritize projects, keep our newly planted trees alive, squirrels digging holes throughout the entire orchard, rabbits eating newly planted perennials, dealing with the snowberry and poison oak that’s coming back an, thinking about water systems 24/7, getting the garden going, dealing with the requirements imposed by the fire insurance company... It’s all weighing heavy, and it often feels like a futile effort to stave off decay rather than a regeneration.
So I took a day off from the upkeep on Sunday. Bernie and Eric were both gone for the weekend and I didn’t see or speak to anyone except the dogs. I spent the day brewing a Belgian Pale Ale, finally upgrading to a larger batch size with a new 10 gallon kettle, and starting work on a table that will go next to the cob oven. It was good to get the creative juices flowing again. I ate some goat hearts for dinner too. They weren’t bad but a little chewy -- next time I’d cut them into thin slices rather than in half before searing them.
