The Edge of the Season

We went to our last Farmer's Market of the 2012 season.  For me, the end of market truly marks the turning of the year from one into the next.  Each of the last seasons have been unique.  I read a blog post once (and if I could remember where, I would cite it!) that said having a child takes you out of the comfortable life you've created for yourself and moves you to new, uncharted, and much more turbulent, territory.  The emotional highs are higher, and the lows are far lower.  I would add that each year is also a new adventure.  You're getting to know a new person, and they're getting to know themselves.  They learn to do new things, and you adjust your roles and your relationship.  Your relationship with your partner, and your family as a unit, also evolves.  I've gone from wearing my baby, to pushing the stroller, to having him follow me as we go about our Saturday morning market routine.  This year, for all but about two Saturdays, we biked to the market and loaded up the trailer with our produce for the trip home.  Next year, will he be riding his bike alongside mine?

Our Indian Summer is over now, and we are really into fall.  We had our first fire in the wood stove this morning to take the chill off the night.  We are at the edge of the old season.  We are at the beginning of the new.  I'm a little sad, because this year has been so great.  So many fun adventures, so much laughing.  

So it helps to remember that the adventures are not over, and time is really more circular than linear.  We can't always see what's around the next corner, but we often circle back to places of familiarity, even amidst change. And if we're really lucky in life, we have a great circle of friends with whom we can share the adventure!

Finding our way out of the University of Idaho Corn Maze at dusk...lovely!

The Colors of Fall

Once, when she was here at the end of summer, my mother remarked "these are the colors I know how to paint."  She said this as we drove around the Palouse.  A Kansas girl, she meant, of course, the gold of the wheat, the blue of the sky, and the white of the clouds.  Today the clouds were more grey than white, but in the morning, the clouds occasionally gave way to bright spots shining down like gold on the fields.

We spent the morning at Bishop's Orchard in Garfield, WA.  Red and gold and green.  As my four year old neighbor reported, the "apples have glitter on them" -- drops of rain leftover from last night, the first rain we've had in three months. 

Honestly, fall, when we have it, is there anything more delicious?

Flower Farm!

We love going to the U-pick flower farm in Pullman, Sunshine Farms!  It is one of our absolute favorite places to go in the summer!  From June to September, rows of beautiful flowers, and a good way to spend a lazy hour!  It is also amazing how many flowers one can get in a "child's sand bucket" portion!  Oh, would that my beds looked this lovely all the time!

 

Palouse Solstice

To say I love the Palouse in the early summer is a bit of an understatement.

 

 

May Gardens...

...are my favorite.  Of course I still don't have produce from the vegetable gardens (the lettuce is close) but my flowers are blooming and we've had a cool spell and I am happy.

I am also exhausted.  We have done so much work on the yard and gardens this year.  When I say I've yard work, what I really mean is landscaping.  When I say exhausted, I mean of the type that when your husband gets home, he takes one look at you and says "I'll do dinner tonight."  Generally I enjoyed every minute, but there were a couple of low spots.  I can't decided if the worst of it was accidentally eviscerating a muskrat while dredging the creek or transplanting a well-established Oregon grape.  The muskrat was grosser, but the Oregon grape left me covered in tiny puncture wounds that resembled a rash from a tropical disease on my arms.  My husband meanwhile has completely redone the patio, which involved hauling tons of dirt and trying to find places around the yard to stash it!

My Mother's Day garden--the north bed redone!

The infamous Oregon grape in the corner.

We are still not done. This is the pile of debris from the creek, as well as the wind storm last night that wrecked havoc on the willows.  I have a suspicion that I need to dredge out at least one to two more tarp fulls of creek detritis before the creek is completely free flowing again.

Meanwhile my husband still has to tackle this little project to finish off the new patio (a.k.a. my Tuscan plaza!).

But I also found some time to be crafty.  I have a tiny little obsession with succulents and I made this little planter in a cassarole dish that was given to us a wedding present but was cracked in shipping.  It's the perfect size for a table centerpiece!

I've also been trying to weed and thin the south perennial beds, but have not made as much progress as I would like.  It hasn't stopped the flowers from blooming wonderfully though!

One of the last of the tulips

And the first of the iris!

And then there is my little potager.  I am still somewhat in shock that almost everything (except the squash and beans) is planted.  This could be my best year ever!

Tomato growing in the wall o' water!

The workhorse of the garden.

Salmon swimming upstream through the garlic!

I finished up today by cleaning my "woman cave."  My potting table isn't quite as pretty as the ones I have on my Pinterest board, but it's functional and was made with love by my husband (Ok, it was actually his work bench until he wanted a new one and gave me this one, but he did make it and it is great)!

My succulent centerpiece that I made last summer.

Perception vs Reality

I could say a lot on this topic, but I'll restrict my comments to the vegetable garden.

This is the rhubarb and squash bed according to the plans so carefully made in January on my Grow Planner iPad application:

This is the way the bed actually looks (minus the squash, which I haven't planted yet):

Apparently the rhubarb had other ideas and has almost taken over the entire bed.  And that's after the rhubarb survived an attack of preschooler-driven construction vehicles!  Next year, all of the rhubarb will be out of the beds and planted by the fence.

Here is my entire plan:

I'm pretty stoked that I have most of the plants in.  It froze last week, so the tomatoes are protected, as are the peppers.  The squash and beans will go in on Memorial Day weekend.

Farm-to-Farm Bike Tour

Last weekend I rode on the Paloma Institute's Farm-to-Farm Bike Tour to raise money for farms in Haiti.  I went with a couple of my friends, but in typical Moscow fashion, I knew quite a few people on the ride.  All of the farms were in Moscow, but a couple of them I would actually classify as "people who live in old houses with really large yards."   In those cases, the families had good intentions to homestead, but found it to be difficult.  Except when you are homesteading within a mile of Safeway, it is much easier to just bag it and say you are "growing vegetables for the family and neighbors"  (note:  in the interest of full disclosure, I live a half-mile from Safeway).   


Of course there is nothing new under the sun, and the original homesteaders found homesteading to be pretty difficult as well.  Many of them had no idea what they were getting into when they started.  Some of my ancestors started homesteading in Kansas, but found droughts difficult to deal with and continued on to Tumwater, Washington.  Tumwater has pretty much the same climate as the one they left back east, with the exception that it is potentially even more mild.  The adversities of wagon trains/homesteading are also the reason that in all the times I played the computer game "Oregon Trail" on those first generation P.C.'s in elementary school, I never once actually made it to Oregon.  


Which isn't to say there isn't something worthwhile about at least trying to be somewhat self-sufficient, as long as you are also realistic about it.  I know I'm not going to be feeding my family entirely on things grown on my property.  However, it was somewhat reassuring to find out that everyone else's broccoli also looks pretty pathetic this year, and my tomatoes look better than some (thanks Doug!).  And I did get some good tips and saw a few pretty awesome farms, with people that actually are making a living farming.  Not to mention I got to eat some pretty good food, and had a great time hanging out with friends on a Sunday afternoon!

Our transportation for the day.

A very cool outbuilding at the first farm.

An even cooler outbuilding!

I wish I had a ladder like this!

I wish someone had told me BEFORE I dug up my garlic that you can hang hard-neck garlic to dry!

Another gratuitous photo of the awesome bike my husband built for me!

Affinity Farm in Moscow--totally awesome!