stranded in brussels

After a lovely holiday in Cornwall, Chris and I made our way back to the airport and landed ourselves in Brussels, Belgium right during Snowmageddon in New York. They put us on our flight to Newark and we were about to set off, even though Newark was closed. Instead of taking off, they asked us to get off the plane, as the flight was cancelled. Now we are pretty much trying to make the most of it. If we are lucky, we will fly to Washington DC tomorrow and then onwards. If not, we'll see you in the New Year.

Now Bring Us Some Figgy Pudding

Heading across the Atlantic tomorrow to Cornwall for Christmas. Chris has been given the ok by his doctors and is feeling much much better now. Thanks to everyone cheering him on. We will be gone only 10 days, but that is 10 days of quaint farm life I will miss in exchange for 10 days of VERY quaint English countryside.  The weather is not looking so great, so we may get stranded in Brussels or Bristol, with snow forecasted for sure (trace amounts). Still, I have packed the bags, chosen 3 books, brought my current knitting project- socks, and have taken care of all the little things a farmer must before leaving. Thanks to my folks and our housemates Kate and Dave for caring for things while we're gone. I expect everything to be just as we left it- dusty, cold, cluttered and wonderful.

For all of you who don't know, Figgy Pudding is not pudding at all. It looks something like this. You set it on fire and try not to bite into the lucky coin. I promise you, I shall eat the figgy pudding.

The Little Winter Sunday Things

We wake up to ice pellets coating everything outside. This means it is an inside Sunday. Coffee. I bottle the last of the late honey, always messy. Cinnamon raisin toast. Chris works on his home improvement project- building a stone wall behind the woodstove. David disarms an electrical outlet in the way of the project. I felt a potholder I knitted. I box up all the holiday gifts I have yet to send. I look for some maple sap buckets on craigslist. I do a batch of dishes. I strain some red wine vinegar I have been making into a bottle. I eat a tofu dog and have some chai. Jimmy comes over. He and Chris work out a plan to remove the lower wall without having all the blown-in cellulose come streaming out. I collect 7 eggs and feed the chickens. I plan to keep knitting the pair of socks I am making Chris. I wrap some presies for Chris' family. I water the plants. I cuddle the cat a bit. I hem a pair of pants. I listen to Jimmy and Chris in the other room talking about the project. I look up some more blogs about homesteading on-line. I eat a homemade granola bar. I light a candle as darkness approaches. I check my email.

I think a lot of times the telling part or proof of living a sincere life is apparent only on the dull days. This is my hope- next year will be full of dull days where Chris and I do what we want when we want to. It is very satisfying and such a relief to have extra time to move slow, to appreciate, to focus, to concentrate, to fix the things that are wrong, to be more self-less, more self-sufficient and more selfish at the same time. Time and space are such a gift when you've lived without them. Homesteading is such a rush of activity spring through fall. The winter is really quite nice. A physical and mental relief. It would be hard to homestead in a climate without winter and without Sundays.

Low of 2

Come on. We have NO snow from the large storm system that passed through New England, yet have to deal with a low of 2 in early December? Wow. The chickens water fountain heater is all plugged in. I harvested a few pounds of spinach and covered it back up with row cover. I have stacked wood on the porch, but despite the woodstove, the furnace keeps kicking on this morning. The whole farm looked white this morning with a silvery coating of frost. I have given up on the idea of mulching the orchard. I will wait til spring. Too cold to be touching metal all day. I am feeling the drafts float through the house. We have actual wind currents in the house, depending on where you sit, so I know we are no where near to being tight and efficient. But still, when the oil truck came last week, they knocked on the door because they were shocked that we had only burned 7 gallons of oil in the past two months. They asked if we had a second heat source, and we do. Even better than sticking it to the man that day, every single piece of wood in our woodpile was cut, split and stacked by Chris, his father, brother and my dad. Zero money spent for the comfort of at least 2 warm rooms in the house. The kitchen is a chilly 52 degrees this morning. Upstairs is 60. We've learned to live with this. My feet are numb as I sit and write this, but it is an invigorating numb. If you want to look out a window, you have to choose a south-facing one, of which there are only 3, as all the other storms are covered with ice.

My thoughts on days like this still turn to memories of my dad, waking up at 4 AM every day of my life, even weekends, to work on an ice-cold well drilling rig around 34 degree water. How he did it for 40 plus years is beyond me to understand. I know Carhartt lined overalls were involved, but heart and spirit were more reliable. Shout out to my dad- tough as nails on the outside and warm and sweet on the inside. I hope you are inside napping today.

I am knitting, heading to the post office for more flat-rate boxes, and plan a trip to the Salvation Army to purge things I don't need and pick up a few work sweaters and maybe a good, thick wool shirt for chores. I am getting excited about our trip to England and just hope that all goes well with Chris at his next appointment. Mom and Dad and our housemate Dave will tend Stella and the farm chores when we are gone. I will go pick up some more chicken feed and fill the water butt with water before we leave. All the animals and plants will be lovingly tended I am sure. The farm can live without me for 10 days.

My Etsy shop is back open with lots of little additions to come once Christmas is over. Check it out if you appreciate handknit hats.

 Wingnut Farm Handknits

STAY WARM EVERYONE!

Wing Road Sting

It's official. The 2009 batches of hot sauce have officially been bottled. Aged in my refrigerator for a year, they have mellowed and blended themselves together. I added a bit more vinegar and used my hand blender to smooth them out a bit, as the texture was a bit chunky for some of them. This year's flavors are: Wing Road Sting Original, Habanero, Green Dragon, Green Gladness and Purple Nurple. The purple one is delicious on its own. The habanero is sickeningly hot, too hot for my taste. The Original is great for eggs. The Green Dragon is great for mexican inspired foods as it has lime and cilantro in it. The Green Gladness is great for heating up Indian food, as it has some cumin and cinnamon flavoring it. 48 5 ounce bottles in all. Lots of hard work and a long season of picking chillies. This year, I made 5 flavors as well and also pickled some hot chilies to see how that would add to my cuisine. Here they are:

The farm is MOSTLY winterized and ready for a blanket of snow. I still have to feed and mulch the orchard and rhubarb patch with the piles of compost and chips across the street. Hopefully, that will be my last task across the street other than mowing for a while, so I can focus on the land closer to the house and well. I've been knitting a lot and finally brought myself to go to a Beer and Knit club at Virgil's on Henry Street on Wednesday nights from 7-9. It was nice to meet other crafty locals and see what kind of projects they were working on. I have also been getting ready to ship overseas for the holidays, so am getting my Christmas shopping and carepackages done early this year. I have lots of Wing Road goodies going all over the place- soap, beer, candles, honey, tobacco, hats, our famous chili jam, and hot sauce of course. Hopefully nothing bursts in transit! 

The other major update is that Christopher is feeling SO much better now. After his first visit with the Infectious Disease Specialist named Dr. Leech in Glens Falls, we had a lot of our questions finally capably answered! We also got some hopeful news that the infection was most likely gone. Any residual swelling would be caused by an inflamatory response now. Although Chris' knee may be permanently damaged, the signs are showing that the damage may not be so bad as to stop him from doing all the things we love- hiking, snowshoeing, skiing, and hard hard work outdoors on the farm. Time will tell. He has just 1 more dose of IV antibiotics and he will perhaps have to take some doxycyclene again, but will most likely have the midline removed next week! I will only be relieved when he is with me on top of a mountain again. The physician's assistant said that it was probably the hard hike in the Adirondacks that even let us know he had lyme and that we are lucky it didn't go any further unnoticed. Apparently, some strong and healthy people can be infected and have no symptoms. 

Here are some more photos of recent goings on:

Stella and Meara have become friends!

We've moved the chickens to Kokomo and they are fertilizing the garden for free!

The chickens and ducks eating SCCC scraps.

Our winter spinach, growing strong.

The back field, ready for snow.

Our new Black Moor goldfish, Barack.