Missing Willow Farm

We had the pleasure of participating in a blind sparkling hard cider tasting carried out on our back deck.  What we learned is that Virginia cider reigns supreme, absolutely no surprise to us.   If you can find Foggy Ridge Cider at your local wine purveyor, we highly recommend it.

Lizzie is so rambunctious and full of energy, she’s hard to photograph.  Here’s the best of the most recent batch.  😀

This is my first go at a wonky quilt.  The fabric is from the Alexander Henry Ghastlies collection.  The entire line is a lot of fun, they even have a Christmas edition.  I think I  need some more in my fabric stash.

Lizzie found her big girl voice and is using here it to warn off a flock of turkey buzzards.  We’ve also seen her barking at that little fox that’s been hanging around.  Good girl.

They figured out how to jump over our garden fence.  Here’s what’s left of our pumpkin patch.  The only thing left in our outdoor raised beds are hot peppers, but thankfully we’ve still got tomatoes in the greenhouse.  We start our annual gardening process in January with planting seeds under lights, so maybe 9 months of fussing with stuff is enough.  It will be nice to have a break from daily watering but we still need to clean up all the beds, clean out the empty clay pots, plow the potato patch, get more greenhouse flooring to kill weeds between beds, bring in the tomato cages, supplement indoor and outdoor beds with compost from our barns, order garlic and plant spinach, carrots and lettuce.    All in the next four weeks.

This cute little guy hangs out by our back deck and doesn’t seem afraid of us or Jack, who delights in looking for him every morning.  He’s cute, but he and his friends may be responsible for destroying our bush beans before we could harvest them.  All of them.   This is the second year we’ve lost them to critters.  I think we’re done trying.

One of the awesome things I scored at the event last weekend (besides a new cowboy hat) was sourdough starter from the owner of La Farm Cary, my favorite bakery in the world.  I wrote ‘Connie’s Pet’ on the container and hid it so folks wouldn’t mistake it for trash and toss it.  Oh yeah… the front of the container says ‘Do not touch under penalty of death’.  🙂 I’ve been feeding it every day and am anxious to bake some sourdough bread!

This past weekend was the fifth annual Lambstock event on our friend Craig’s farm.  Three days and nights of the most amazing food prepared by the most amazing chefs who ever camped out in a sheep pasture.  It rained the entire event but there were tents to keep us dry and cowboy cauldrons (and wine) to keep us warm.

It’s such a good problem to have!  They are starting to wind down now but we’re not tired of them yet.  The cherry tomatoes get oven roasted and frozen, at least one pan a day.  We’ll have a taste of summer in the dog days of winter.

Brian has a spot for his tools now!  We ordered a shed to match our house and put it where we had the bradford pear trees removed from the top of our driveway.   He gets to decide where the workbench and shelves will go now, a fun problem to have.  He also gets to add steps and lattice.  Not so fun.  I think it needs windowboxes full of flowers, don’t you?  🙂