Fini

The beautiful fruits of Jackie's labor this year. We just posted this apartment on a site for seasonal rentals a month ago, and already had 4 renters and many inquiries!

Spring Things

Spring sprang after a challenging winter here.
We had visitors (two and four-legged) from Florida, New York and Boston. We enjoyed the flowers at Biltmore, the drum circle in downtown Asheville, walks in the woods, and just hanging around the house...
















Our garden's expanded and improved over last year's - the garlic is flourishing (I think Jackie must be secretly speaking Italian to it), and we've been feasting on our sugar snap peas and lettuce. I discovered a great recipe for pesto from garlic scapes. Buy them at the farmers market! My nemesis the flea beetle returned. I've sacrificed the arugula as a "trap crop". I'm doing incantations to prevent tomato blight...






We've also got culture - vermiculture! Looking forward to next year's worm castings for our garden...









Next door, Kevin and Laurel have added bees to the farm.

We had a wonderful visit to MA to see family and friends. We commandeered one of our favorite old haunts, JP Licks!

Here a Year!

We are grateful for our wonderful home, our excellent wood stove, and fabulous friends and family! We survived some record snowfall (for here, a foot), Jackie's hard at work finishing the basement to make a rental, and we're looking forward to planting soon.
Kevin and Laurel's chickens started laying eggs. We heard crowing one morning, and it turns out that "Belle" is actually "Bill"!

Happy Solstice!

We cut down our own tree on our land this year. It was a 60 degree day, so it didn't feel very christmas-y. Jackie fixed that!

Robots, Lasagna Gardens and Works in Progress

View from the kitchen window. Makes washing pots and pans pleasant.


We've enjoyed some fall veggies from the garden - kale, lettuce, still lots of beets and carrots - and are creating a couple of new beds for next season using the "no-dig" or "lasagna-layering" method. It has nothing to do with yummy Italian food (except maybe the dishes with good vegetables). It's basically making a compost bed - layers of green (like hay, grass clippings) alternated with layers of brown (leaves, compost, manure). We were motivated by Kevin and Laurel's gorgeous gardens next door, and the pain of roto-tilling this soil which is so dense and full of clay. We thought we'd give their technique a try!

First trip to the Feed and Seed Store.
Shoveling a truckload of goat----






Jackie and Caroline have been working on a deck for the entry to the basement (future apartment, we hope). And the woodshed's almost finished...










We had a robot visitor for Halloween. ("I come in peace!")

Jackie made a beautiful box for the kindling.


Hard to believe we've been here almost a year!

Getting Ready for the Hunkering Down...

We've canned peaches (from Caroline's trees next door), made apple butter, frozen yummy greens, and stacked firewood.

The siding on the house is finally finished, ready for winter winds.












We've had more great visits from people we love and miss.












Kevin and Laurel got chicks, so we're looking forward to really fresh eggs.




We had mixed results as novice gardeners - the carrots and beets are outstanding, but we don't talk about the onions or broccoli - and we're already fantasizing about a greenhouse. Fresh lettuce in the winter, mmm...

(Photo credits to Dana, who can make even our humble veggies look stunning! And some photos by Elizabeth and Jackie.)
















We mourn the loss of Jackie's beloved mom, Josephine - a wonderful, warm woman. She passed away peacefully on August 19, surrounded by people who loved her. We will miss her very much.

Yankees and Others...

We've had some wonderful visitors from FL, MA and NC! It's been a beautiful summer (here's a first - Jackie had to come in from the deck the other night because it was "chilly"!), and the siding is slowly getting done. We decided to put some cedar shakes on the east side, facing the road. We've been working with Kevin, who is doing a great job.
Jackie jokes that we have a "bonzai" vegetable garden. The onions failed (maybe too much rain), and so far things have been tiny, except for my first 'taters - they are healthy!
p.s. I may have "misrepresented" the goats - they belong to our neighbors Kevin and Laurel, but we did learn to milk Juliet, and I've got a regular shift now! Still experimenting with making goat cheese...