farm mornings and lesson learned

 Most mornings there is a heavy fog that covers the farm. Everything is drenched in dew. 

  The world just ends at the treeline. No traffic, no sirens, no neighbor honking the car horn.. grasshoppers, birds and the cow bellowing out like an agricultural lighthouse. "North pasture today ladies.."

 I like routine and predictability lately. I take a few minutes to grab my coffee or tea and sneak out through the well oiled front door. My usual perch on the porch.. 

 

  My favorite time of the day is very fleeting.  Very soon we'll be back to staying in the small house in town as the Maternal Unit will make her return. Insane situation.. but so it goes. How long she'll stay is a mystery. Not long is the general guess. 

 Right now is kind of an odd time for foraging as there is a bit of a lull. Very soon elderberry, black walnut, chestnut, hickory, puffball mushrooms, hen-of-the-woods mushrooms, apples, pears, plums and several other goodies will be ready. 

 We've still had no luck in finding work. To be blunt.. I am rather amazed at what we have lived off of for this long. Just the whole pride issue keeps me from getting assistance as I keep telling myself.. we're doing ok for now..  

 I am for sure doing better than I have been in a very long time. Granted the nerve damage from the diabetes has limited me.. but after spending tens of thousands on medical and insurance.. losing almost everything.. I seem to be gaining my health back. I've lost 30 pounds.. without intending to do so. 

 Losing weight with type 2 diabetes and poly-cystic ovarian syndrome.. to name just 2 things wrong..  that's flat out hell. That's like bailing out Lake Erie with a slotted spoon. 

 But we don't eat processed foods right now. If I drink coffee, maybe a 1/2 cup. No sodas, no conventionally grown foods.. no gmo...    None of this intentional.. and the effects are amazing. Most of what we eat is from what we have grown, what we have foraged, and what we have traded. It is almost entirely local, it is entirely organic.

 This blog is my luxury I guess. No cell phone, we've got to watch Falling Skies and maybe the weather.. but nothing else.. Too busy to be bored, and zero time for video games.  It does mean a lot more time prepping meals.. especially when it is hot out. I find I can make several meals at once, or darn close.

 Somehow.. even with this financial vortex we are in.. I still am able to feed others. Weird I know, but doing something like that makes me happy. Yesterday.. I had to roast a turkey. Had to.. power line got nailed and the freezer thawed before we got home in that last storm. 

 This odd year is teaching me a lot.. and teaching me the hard way. Always learning I suppose.


For right now.. I am collecting alfalfa seeds for AJK and wild bergamot seeds. Here's a bouquet of alfalfa flowers to show their range in color. Really a lovely and yet under appreciated plant!