We began February under a Wolf Moon: a large full moon named by Native Americans. It is believed that they named different full moons to differentiate seasons, and that when the large Wolf Moon was up it would be at the coldest time of year. Wolves would howl in response to the lack of food…
Category: Outdoors
From The Ground Up
In January 2024, it seems all of our talk centers around weather, especially temperatures. We received an Alexa device for Christmas from one of our sons a few years ago and one of the few functions we use is asking about the upcoming week’s weather… and how to spell things. Early January was characteristically blustery…
The Flock
The wrapping paper has been rolled and stored, the gifts carefully stuffed into created corners and the last of the holiday leftovers eaten. We spend New Year’s day pulling down the shooting star off the shop, burning boxes, and feeding wreaths and trees, stripped of ribbons, to our sheep and curious chickens. There is a…
The Most Quiet Time Of The Year
I sit watching the snow fall from the sky in thick, ponderous plops to the ground. White rain. I can see Paul dragging chunks of wood that he had cut from the tree that had toppled into our driveway during the night. I finish plugging in the two crockpots of chili on the wood bar,…
The Community We Create
Stick season is upon us. I step outside to do an evening check of animals and a cold wind whips dried leaves around my ankles, making me wish I had grabbed a coat off the hook before leaving the house. We spend part of Sunday winterizing bee hives. We kneel on the grass in our…
November
I always think of October as rounding the corner. We begin the month with the foliage party: everything ablaze. We wear T-shirts to walk the dogs and still feel the warmth of the slanted autumn sunlight until late afternoon. The sheep mill around the pasture nibbling and enjoying afternoon naps at the edge of our…
Walking Into The Past
It has been one of those weeks; every line on every day in the calendar book full. This weekend the weather was sunny and dry and we decided to skip digging potatoes and hike heading to one of our favorite fall foliage areas in the Champlain Valley. Leaf litter crunches as a light breeze pulls…
Preparing
I close the gate to the pasture after letting the sheep in and push hard on the metal gate to the garden. Long tendrils curl away from the pumpkins, small yellow bulbs swell but don’t really resemble a Jack O’lantern yet. Kale plants, eternally hardy, faithfully push new leaves out for me to harvest. The…
Cidre
The leaves are beginning to drop. Some color is showing itself on the mountainside[s] but the majority of maple leaves are rusty, without their normal brilliance. Because we are Vermonters, we have to explain everything in terms of weather; this year, the lack of brilliance thus far is being put down to the unprecedented height…
Circle Of Fire
The red cider press is bolted to the deck and ready to go. Leaves spin down, our road already covered. Our apple trees are loaded with hanging fruit which are also beginning to drop. It is cider season. Tomorrow we will spend the morning of the holiday as we do most years, at the Labor…
Making Change
As we enter the Dog days we are spending a lot of time harvesting. I find that when I am kneeling at the earth’s alter, my hands busy pulling carrots that will be sauteed in a cast iron skillet until they release sweetness from under their charred exteriors, my brain has time to free-wheel. I…
Summer’s Not Over Yet
When I am looking out the window in early January, and the snowplow has just gone by creating a white wall at the end of our driveway making it impassible without a snowblower and some shoveling, and the only way to get water to livestock is in metal buckets filled in our bathtub, winter wins…