New Location

I've changed locations.  You can find me now on fowlmouth.weebly.com

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Happy Tofurky Day

Tofu is something with so little character that if you eat it by itself, it'd put you to sleep.

~ Daniel Fletcher

Did it once.  Will never do it again.  Tofurkey, that is.  It had a flavor somewhat like chopped liver, the consistency of spam, and the visual appeal of a pile of...

Shit is the tofu of cursing.

~ David Sedaris

And, speaking of shit, an update on the real poo story.  It seems that $600.00 of pumping/repair to the septic system was caused by the failure of a 5 cent piece of plastic.

I seem to remember, a few blogs ago, I raved about the wonderfulness of zip ties.  

I wish to retract that statement.

Or at least qualify it.

Zip ties should NEVER be used in conjunction with septic system pumps, or with any project where failure would cause the creation of a vacuum in a bank account.

In other words:

For the loss of a zip tie, the high water alarm was lost.  For want of a high water alarm, the pump shut off was lost.  For want of the pump shut off, the pump was lost.  For want of the pump the system was lost.

Well Shit.

(Actually, in the country, you should probably never use those two words in conjunction)

Anyhoo, Hope everyone has a wonderful Givethanksing Day

Bandy Brandy Sandy Landy and Real Poo (not sham)

Shit runs downhill, except when it is pumped up.  Farmer Ann

And no, it is not a law firm, although it should be.

Well, here I am, shamefaced, after more than a month.  But, here I am.

Bandy

I went to see Iris perform her debut Wizard Rock appearance in Greensboro last month.

I wish I had recorded one of her later songs, where people weren't talking, but listening.  But I was floored.  I know that she has many talents, but this one came as a very pleasant surprise.  If you didn't know, you would have never guessed that this is the second time she ever performed in front of an audience.  Anyhoo, go to her website and buy her songs.  And pass it on!  

http://penelopeclearwaterrevival.bandcamp.com/

I had one little disappointment.  For those of you who don't know, Wizard rock are songs about Harry Potter (don't ask me to explain the phenom)  So I went in costume.  I don't have a picture, but I dressed up in a big hair wig, a workshirt, a garden apron with a spade and a rake and garden gloves in the pocket and a purse made out of a plastic pot.  And NO ONE got it!  It was a pun, you see.  I was Hairy Potter, you see.  Oh, forget it!

Brandy

About the middle of last month, our blueberry farmer down the road told us he had a few grapes left over from his harvest.  He grows for Duplin winery.

"Do you want them?"

"Sure"

"They're in the cooler back of the house, come and get them."

"OK"

Now, I am not normally into grape wine, because there are so many wineries around, but I thought, why not, a few gallons to play with won't hurt.  I sent Jim in the truck to get them, and he came back with about 20 bushels of grapes!!!

Holy crap!  I was not set up to do this kind of production.  But we slogged away at it for the whole day, out in the open, in front of God and every nectar loving insect in creation.  This is so not how I work.  We had gnats and yellow jackets and butterflies and bees in and around the juice the whole day.  So absolutely unsanitary.  Then I took enough juice for 10 gallons, put it in the primary fermenter and did my usual routine of mixing, measuring and adding yeast.  Then I let it do it's thing.  Then killed the yeast, added sugar and put it with the other carboys to let it age.

We will serve no wine before its time

Jim, on the other hand, schlepped his 50 gallons of juice into an old pickle barrel which he had been using as a chicken feeder.  No sterilization, no science.  Although I think he did wash the chicken feed out.  No sugar added, no yeast added, no measuring.  Just the wild yeast on the grape hulls and the natural sugar in the grape.  He left his outside in the hot and cold and weather.  It got rained on, sunned on, surrounded by gnats, etc.  He racked it twice and tasted it.  Good God!!  It was WONDERFUL!  Even without aging, you could tell it's going to be a great muscadine wine.  

Really??!!  REALLY!!!???

Well crap.  I'm throwing all my books and science out.

Anyhoo, he and the blueberry farmer are going to distill it into brandy.  Then I am going to attempt some port.

Sandy

We didn't have much trouble from Sandy.  We lost the big apple tree, but it was leaning so far over anyway that I wasn't surprised.  We never got but more than one or two apples, so I am putting in a pear tree.  The chickens were molting so there were a lot of feathers blown around.  It looks like a chicken pluckin took place.

Landy

The two frosts that we have had have taken the basil and the okra, but the collards, cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower are growing.  I am not sure that the broccoli and cauliflower will make before the hard freeze.  I just can't seem to get my timing right for the fall garden.  I hope to get some cabbages cause I want to make more sauer kraut.  The first batch was so good.  

I put my mini greenhouse up on the porch and attempted a drip system to water them.  There are still leaking issues, but I have to wait til the next watering before I solve them.

Side 1

Side 2

I am attempting to get tomatoes throughout the winter.  I have one old vine and three volunteers that I dug up from chicken tomatoes.

Old tomato plant

I hope they ripen

One of my aunties gave me some lemon grass, so I am trying to grow that too.

My venus flytrap, I think, now has a baby.  I am trying to get ahold of the person who gave it to my auntie so I can find out how to separate them.  In the meantime, it is eating everything it can close its mouths on:

wonder if the spider ever dreamed about this?

The chicklet and chickitas are all growed up.  The chicklet has now become JW's favorite.  She follows him around everywhere.

Chicklet now a hen

The chickens are still molting so not many eggs, but JW is so unroosterly without his tail feathers.

I am NOT a hen.

and finally...

Real Poo

Well, last Thursday, our septic pump went out.  We need the pump to get the waste from the holding tank to the septic tank behind the pond.  So, we had the septic guy out who removed the old pump and had to order a new one.  We hope to have a pump truck here today to empty both tanks.  The new pump should be here tomorrow, I hope.  Country time.  In the meantime, it's flush sporadically, dishes in tubs so we can throw the water out and no laundry.  Fortunately, I can still take my baths, I just have to empty the tub with a bucket and throw it out the back.  It's so 1800's!

bak bak

I'm Falling and I Can't Get Up

The morns are meeker than they were,
The nuts are getting brown;
The berry's cheek is plumper,
The rose is out of town. 
The maple wears a gayer scarf,
The field a scarlet gown.
Lest I should be old-fashioned,
I'll put a trinket on.

Emily Dickinson

Well, Emily, I've lost all my trinkets in the garden and in the chicken coop and in the yard and in the grape arbor and in the canned goods and in the frozen goods.  So I guess I'm old fashioned, again.  Or wait, maybe I'm drinking old fashions again.

Much news since last time.

Unfortunately, some of it is bad.  I have two aunts, one on each side of the family, and a first cousin who have been diagnosed with cancer.  Lots of prayers flying around for them.  I also lost a first cousin-in-law to lung cancer at the beginning of the month.

Here is the better news.

The fall garden is finally all in and the fence is up.  So the chickens have the run of the rest of the garden.  I have collards, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, chives and leeks.  We haven't had the plethora of rain that we had last month so I have had to turn on the pump from time to time.  I am still not satisfied with the flow so am going to have to do some adjusting.  Fortunately, the pond is nice and full.

The basil is falling over it is so big.  I always plant too much but the amount of pollinators is truly staggering.  I have counted over 15 varieties of insect over all the bushes.  Here are some:

Big Bee

Lots of these...

Seen better days

Moth or butterfly?

Big Bee 2

Awesome color

Can't be still

I have no idea on this one.  I've never seen anything like it

Moth 2

The chicklets and chiquitas are all grown up now.

Chicklet rooster and Chicklet hen

4 chiquitas

two chiquita hens and chiquita rooster

I really need to get rid of the two roosters, but haven't gotten a round tuit.

I 've also built my two ugly microgreen frames.  Appearance is nothing.  They work.  And I can transport them into the mini greenhouse in the winter for fresh greens.  Everything about them is bunk materials, scrounged from hither and yon.  I think I may have to paint them in camo to hide their ugliness.  And to make them last longer.  BUT... I did it all my own bad self!!!

Really??  nothing matches??

We don't care, just give us dirt, fertilizer and water

OOOH  pick ME  pick ME

I canned my first attempt at sauer kraut today.  It tasted real good before canning.  I got six quarts from the old stone crock.

And...

It's grape season.  I scrounged up about 75 lbs of grapes from various sources, crushed them and pressed them for 3 gallons of juice.  So I am trying the grape wine again.  I just mixed all the varieties together, so I have no idea what I will end up with.  I bottled my blackberry wine and it is kickass.  It is SO much better than Duplin's. 

In the course of scrounging for grapes, I stopped by Granny's old arbor.  I didn't think the vines were bearing anymore.  Boy was I wrong.  There were six vines, one had a huge trunk.  They were all LOADED with grapes.  In the trees.  I couldn't reach a one.  They were big and round and juicy and little and purple and juicy.  I just looked.  And cried.  

This winter, I am SO pruning and fertilizing.

That's about all the news I have time for.

Bak bak

The Shine in Caroline Is Kinda Hard to Find

Don't threaten me with love, baby. Let's just go walking in the rain. - Billie Holiday


Well, we had a week of sun now we are back to the rain.  Rain all week in the forecast.  I'm not complaining, I'm just moldy.  I got some collard and cabbage plants in the garden and planted some carrot seeds.  The cabbage and collards are puny.  I don't know what is about those plants, but they all start out puny and look like they are going to die, then come back to make strong plants.  

I also seeded some more cabbage and collards, some rockly, some cauliflower and some lettuce.  I haven't seeded the bok choy yet but I did get some volunteers from the spring.  I actually got to cook a head!  I got a packet of microgreens, but I have to build a frame for them.  It's getting harder to find scrap wood around here cause we have so many projects.

I've pulled up all the old corn and saved some seeds for next year.  I'm not sure how hybridized they are, but I am going to give it a shot.  My okra is coming in like gangbusters and I am on my third harvest of cow peas.  I am sick of looking at them.  I'm giving them away now mostly.  The cukes and green beans are done, as is the soy.  Next year I think I will do all black soy.  It seems to do better.

The garden toms are done and the potted toms are almost done.  I'll pull them up this week to make way for some greens.  I got a really good harvest this year and dried some, canned some and made some sauce.

I've bottled my strawberry wine and it seems to have lost some of it's flavor from the time I last tasted it.  It still smells like strawberry, but the taste is too delicate.  It has no finish.  The blackberry is still aging.  I got some pears from one of my aunties yesterday.  They are not ripe, but the squirrels are at them, so I got some while I could.  I still have three on my tree.  Amazing.

The chickens have started cranking up production after a summer of about nothing.  I get an egg every other day from each hen.  The chicklets are almost ready to be adults.  I will have to get rid of the rooster soon.  The chickitas are half pints.  They are still peeping but have been on their own quite some time.  There is one rooster in this bunch.  The other three are hens, so I beat the odds, finally.

So, I am off to plant seeds between the rain drops.

bak bak

Kentucky Day 6

"If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace." -- Tom Paine,

We started the day at Blue Licks Battlefield, which was a revolutionary war site.

It was very amazing to me that, given Kentucky had the most brother against brother fighting in the "Former Unpleasantness", I could never find a single war of northern aggression site.  I saw signs for some, but never found them.

Anyway, the Blue Licks Battlefield was the farthest north that we went in this trip.  The drive was pretty, but when we got there, the Pioneer Museum was closed for renovation.  Bummer.  We did walk around the site and we drove down to the river road.

We drove back through Georgetown since Jim stayed there for a couple of years.  The house he lived in was torn down, but the houses and dorm he remodeled were still there.  

On the way back, we also came across a covered bridge and got some pics:

One of the things that had puzzled me throughout the whole trip is the tobacco.  We saw fields of it, but I never saw a single tobacco barn.  Jim said that we have passed scores of them.  Oh no we didn't!

I was looking for this:

Kentucky tobacco barns look like this:

They are huge.  The wagon full of tobacco drives right into the barn and the whole plant is hung up to dry.  And they are still being used.  We saw a pile of sticks in the one I photographed, ready to be loaded with tobacco.

Also, on the way back we went through the town of Oddville.  They didn't have any boundary signs, probably because people steal them.

We also passed, finally, a war between the states sign.  It just had to be a last stand.

Finally, on our last afternoon, we went to an antique tractor show in Paris Municipal Park.  I saw my dream tractor:

What I learned:

Tobacco in Kentucky is different than tobacco in North Carolina

Alice Chalmers made the coolest tractor ever

It's a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there

There's no place like home, Auntie Em.

bak bak

Kentucky Day 5

The life so short, the crafts so long to learn.
Geoffrey Chaucer


Thursday:

After a breakfast at the cabin, we headed off to the wineries.  We toured three.  First we went to Acres of Land.  They had a tasting but no tour  Their wines were good but not great so we didn't buy any.  The view from the bistro was, however, fantastic.

Then we went to Jean Farris.  Their wines were excellent but the atmosphere in the bistro/tasting area was a little fru fru for our taste.  The wines were also pretty expensive.   We did talk to a couple of women from California who were visiting the area as well.  We ended up with two wines from Jean Farris.  Their table red, which smelled of bourbon and was really good and one of their specialty whites.

Lastly we went to Talon.  That's what I'm talking about.  Their visitors center was in an old farmhouse. Like over 100 years old.  The floors creaked and the entrance was through the back door.  The somalier appeared to be like 14 and there was one other person in the tasting room.  Obviously an admirer of the somalier.  When we showed up, he kinda faded away.  There was a storm kicking up while we were there so we stayed a while and talked.  Very pleasant.  And their wines were phenomenal, and very reasonably priced.  We came back with a case.  I especially liked their coyote red and their blackberry.  It was all very casual and laid back.  Our kind of place.

storm coming in at Talon

In the afternoon, we went to Berea.  This is Kentucky's premier art colony.  They have an artisan's village in one area and an art college in another.  We went through several of the artisan shops.  One was a jewelry smith.  Gastineau Studio.  He obviously hadn't had many visitors that morning.  We couldn't get out of the shop.  Jim kept trying to talk about the jewelry making but the proprietor, once he found out I was a vegetarian, wanted to talk about food.  He discussed tofu, tempe, the atkins diet, middle eastern food and on.  For about 1/2 an hour.  We hit a few more shops and I found some gifts for everyone at home, including a really neat stick for my daughter's fiance (long back story).

Then we toured the college.  That was really cool.  It was set up many years back as a way to educate poor persons who couldn't get an education anywhere else.  It evolved into a liberal arts college.  The tuition is free, if you work in one of the many craft shops.  They make furniture, weave cloth, throw pottery and make brooms to subsidize the college so the students can go for nothing.  Our guide, Jordan, was very personable.  He said he could be a tour guide for the rest of his life.  One interesting note.  I asked him where he was from and he said a little town near Asheville, and I probably had never heard of it.  Burnsville. 

Well I proceeded to tell him that I was a descendant of Ottway Burns, the town's founder, and how he was a privateer and a notable statesman and where he was buried and all.  He was amazed.  So I hijacked the tour for a little while.  Always willing to trot out the family history.

We ate dinner at Cheapside in Lexington again, as the food was so good.  When we got home, they had let the cows out into the front pasture so I got pictures.  The cows were so much more interesting than the horses.

What I learned:

Tempe is easier to make than Tofu

The Chambourcin grape is Kentucky's own local grape and it makes a very good red wine

Ale 8 is a very good soft drink, but regional

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