It’s been a minute, but autumn has fallen and winter is knocking at the door.
The trees have been gorgeous this year, so much color.
Picking Labrador Tea
We’re still getting into the upper 50°s during the day but hard freezing at night. Ice on the animal’s water buckets every morning. We’ve hunted for moose, picked a few berries & some Labrador Tea and photographed a lot of mushrooms.
Lil Bit harvested her garden. She ended up with a good little batch of green tomatoes and some potatoes.
We’ve been busy this summer working and doing everything else so our woodshed is looking pretty empty. For the last two Sundays we’ve been felling beetle kill at an elder friend’s house. Both to keep her safe and fill our heating needs. It’s a win-win.
Everyone helps, in some way or another. But of course it’s the biggest and strongest who do most of the work.
The wood stacker
The felling feller
The red dot in the brush pile is the little guy staying out of harm’s way.
Teamwork makes the dream work.
We’ve dropped 7 trees at her place, with a couple more to go. Those beetles have been busy. That has given us with a full cord and a half. 5 more cord to go. It takes a lot to heat this big old house when it gets cold.
The biggest helper trying to avoid the camera. He’s cute when he’s not making scary faces
Just a little gift from Jake this morning. His friend grew it and left it on his deck, a “little” cabbage. So he sends it to me and asks for a jar of sauerkraut. Okay!
After I trimmed the outter leaves and root off.
I forgot to weigh it before I started cutting but the best guess is it weighed about 20 lbs. It wasn’t a very tight head so not as much there as you might think.
BTW, to get the whey I strain out some plain organic yogurt in cheesecloth. The resulting cheese will be used like cream cheese, it’s delicious. It also makes the BEST cheesecake.
Straining my yogurt.
After it was all said and done I got about a gallon of kraut. Jake gets the little jar. 😜
Spruce bark beetles are ravaging our trees, everywhere. At home we have dozens dead but at the cabin they are more noticeable. Three lovely big spruce by the cabin have died and either us or the wind have taken them down. Cutting these trees was certainly bittersweet. I love these big ole trees. But they were no longer safe and had to go. Definitely a down.
Spruce bark beetle damage. There are thousands of these on a single tree.
It opened up the yard tremendously and let in more sunlight. Also less privacy, win some, lose some I guess.
The three stumps.
Jake came out with his mini excavator to help take down the trees closest to the cabin as well as pull some stumps for us. While there I had him dig a test hole in a consistently wet spot of the driveway. After about half an hour we had a pretty good seep of clear water so it looks like I’ll be developing a spring house for fresh water!! I’m so excited! Up for sure!
Little boy on board.
We still have several downed trees to turn into cord wood. And a deck to finish. And another coat of sealer to get on the cabin before snow flies. Our last two weeks of moose season will be filled with chores during the “not hunting” hours. Here’s to having a successful and productive moose camp! Hoping for a big ole up!!
No more stumps!My test hole full of water. Will be pumping it out and developing the spring here!!
We spent Sunday morning foraging. Niki, Mo, Thing 1 & I. City Hall has some crab apple trees and an abundance of rosehips that we harvested for jelly making.
Loaded little crab apple tree.
While there we enjoyed each other’s company and solved all the world’s problems. We also enjoyed the flower beds and various different trees planted around the premises.
Dusty Miller in the Soldotna City Hall flower garden.
We found a large patch of wild roses and harvested a nice amount of rosehips. Thing 1 had a good time practicing plant identification for her Botany class.
We harvested enough crab apples for jelly, cider, sauce… You get the idea
Cut leaf weeping Birch.
Also enough to share with others. Part of the joy of wildcrafting is sharing with others.
Some ornamental foundation shrubs.More flowers at City Hall.Another bed relatively untouched by the frost.
We also had to harvest our own plants. Lil Bit planted several herbs for her Botany class last year. They did very well and we’ve enjoyed fresh basil, cilantro and parsley this summer.
Lil Bit’s parsley she grew from seed. Harvested to use in our matzo ball soup for Sukkot.
Alas, Old Man Winter is knocking at the door. Time to harvest as much as we can. Hoping for another cranberry picking soon. And a moose.
Sunshine, a little wind. Glorious big low bush cranberries. A few blueberries left and a good batch of crow berries too.
Children running amuck. Playing with their friends like they just saw each other yesterday.
Also a great day for a campfire on the beach. Roasting hotdogs and marshmallows, drinking a little homemade rhubarb wine. Enjoying the beach with my buddies.
Alaska on my mind... 