Snow on San Hedrin!
Oh my gosh! I’ve been contemplating doing a post for quite awhile…. but I didn’t realize it’s been months!
Weather keeps playing tricks on us….. We thought summer was upon us in February…. and now it’s early May, and yesterday it snowed on San Hedrin, with an inch of rain down here…. and wind you wouldn’t believe! The trees are swaying mightily again today….. and the mountain is still blanketed in white.
In the mean time, Kashaya’s tomatoes and peppers are ready to go into the garden, but we’re a bit apprehensive about the predicted frost this next few days….. Perhaps by the weekend. We do have rows of flowers in…. one gladiola row of over 500 bulbs planted by a book club that was staying here for a few days last month.
Early April, The Unrulies helping out…
Over Easter Break, Malanyon, Sarah and Zarya dug up echinacea plants I put in last fall…. figuring it was easier to pick out the plants and remove them from the weeds, and plant them in a new, weed-free row, rather than eliminating all the weeds from around the plants. So far, they’re doing beautifully!
Ranunculus planted last fall in front of the Dining Room.
The first of numerous bouquets …. but now, after 4 weeks of continuous bloom, the rain, welcome though it was, shredded the remaining blossoms.
We were able to uphold some Easter traditions this year….. Hollandaise Sauce for Eggs Benedict (this year made with richly golden goose eggs)… Uncle Steve’s Cinnamon Rolls…. and colored eggs for hunting (we may have had more fun hiding them than the kids had finding them…. but ALL were found, even the ones hanging from the willow tree branches…)
As well, we possibly created a new one. Elia and her family came up for President’s weekend to revamp the library, moving all the children’s books to the old office (I’ve moved the office), and all the games to the front room, leaving the big library for quiet and reading. The day after Easter it rained. I built a fire up in the library, so that my cousins, family and friends could finish up alphebetizing the fiction and straightening up the over-sized books….. while the kids played Risk….. and then sat in the children’s library and read. It was so lovely that I think we need to make sure it happens next Easter… or Thanksgiving…. or Christmas. Hopefully, the fiction will stay in order!
Goose egg yolks as compared to a chicken egg.
Not able to keep one of our lawns green last summer, I decided that it might be a good place to create a labyrinth. Taking a design from the web, I spent days attempting to reproduce it. Using spray paint was appropriate, but I kept running out of it, or the nozzle clogged. And, by the time I got it all drawn out, the weeds had grown so much that we couldn’t see all the lines from the earlier work. Fortunately, the weekend designated for “beginning the building” Stefon (an engineering friend) worked with me for maybe an hour, and got it whipped into shape perfectly!
The first weekend of hauling and placing river rocks.
The second weekend, and culmination of the project…. commemorated with a reading: “Left with the legacy of last week’s labyrinth laborers, we laughingly launched into late March logistics of lifting, sifting, lineating and landscaping. Our only lapse was for a loud, laudable, lucious lunch. We lamented the lack of Lady Kashaya, who had left for a little levity with a muscle-layered lady and a local loony. No lost lucre was located in our labors, but we listened, learned, lectured, laughed and lightened each others’ load. No longer a lump-littered lawn, our LABYRINTH how lacks a lyrical label.”
Trees…. some are at the beginning of their lives, some at the end. Victor pruned all our fruit trees again this year, then grafted some of our heirloom pears onto young rootstock. Bodie brought his excavator out to take down some of the trees that have come to the end of their lives.
It missed the bathroom between Ashanti and Ohana.
After months of waiting, we finally got more lids for jam making. Lots of Orange Marmalade…. beautiful Meyer Lemon Marmalade from a friends tree just out of Willits…. more Elderberry, Blackberry, Peach, Nectarine, Pomegranate, Strawberry….. Linden and Magnolia lent their stirring expertise when they visited over spring break.
Wendy just finished our most recent jam label….. which we will use as soon as we get them printed! The jam is as good as the label is beautiful!
I did get up one morning to find Linden sitting outside the big kitchen, very busy building. He was determined to create a corral of sticks surrounding the handful of snails he had collected from around the ivy shrouded rock wall in front of the house. No covered container for him…. he was using a flat board, assuring me that they were so slow, they’d never have a chance to get off the wood, and could easily be contained by his “fence.” Which was the case for awhile. Eventually, though, he thought that if he was going to take them home with him, he’d put them in the car……
Snailpocolypse!
Former kids campers, now veterinarians, visited at the end of March. His dad sent us this video he recorded of their stay:
2022 March: Emandal - a farm on a river
We’ve had a number of families come to the farm this year… with snow and rain in January, nearly summer in February, cool air in March, sunshine in April…. and rain again in May! It’s been grand! Summer will be upon us soon, and several larger groups are planning get-togethers…. as well as a bunch of smaller groups/families. This season we’ll be offering farm breakfasts…. with house-roasted coffee, hot chocolate, granola, homemade yogurt….. fruit and other tasty treats….. around and about the Dining Room.
NOT JUST COWBOY POETRY will make it’s appearance after a 2 year hiatus on July 16….. with Kristyn Harris and her amazing band, all the way from Texas!
It was terribly dry early on this year, but we were afforded nearly 8 inches of rain, and the river revived!
Robin’s Rock, April 2022
Canadian Geese are more prominent these days, both at the river and the lake. And boy, can they be aggressive! Kashaya was chased away from the lake when she happened upon a pair, with 3 goslings…. Luckily, they aren’t alway there…
Elegant Bald Eagles soar above us periodically, then perch in various dead trees above the lake and down river, until they take off again, searching all the while for tasty morsels.
And this adorable toad was making his home in one of our compost piles, until we disturbed his slumber.
Until the next time…….. be well!