Growth and Change

“Nature is too thin a screen; the glory of the omnipresent God bursts through everywhere”

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

I guess I haven't really been driving around much lately because just recently in the past couple of days I've noticed the explosion of colors! Its beautiful. I feel like this is the first time in my life I've ever experienced fall and I am in awe of what God has created. The reds and oranges and yellows! I am in love with these colors. 

When I first arrived here to North Carolina things were so different. The trees were all green and in bloom. I was showering outside and sweating buckets because of the heat and the garden was full of summer veggies. Things change. Now in order to stay warm I am pretty much always wearing my long johns and beanie. Its a mystery to me that after experiencing change in a variety of situations and times, it still surprises me. I've had a line from a John Denver song stuck in my head for the past several days "The changes sometimes frightening, still I have to smile. It turns me on to think of growing old". I'm not quite sure if its that I have been feeling "old" lately, but I have most definitely been feeling a strong pull towards stability and being settled somewhere. My time on the farm has been full of new experiences and so many learning opportunities. I feel a sense of peace about my decision to come here because it made me realize even more how much I love working outside and helped me discover my love of gardening and my new long term goal. My time here has also shown me how much I need to be doing something where I'm working with kids and/or youth. I miss that dearly and have been a slight crazy pants whenever I have the opportunity to interact with kids. I go nuts. The co-op grocery store where I work is apparently a breading ground for cute and adorable babies. They are everywhere and it takes everything in me to remain calm and not freak out every time one of them is rolled by my counter. I do however know several of the regular babies by name and now feel ok about squeezing their little cheeks and getting in their little faces. I just can't help myself. And I digress. Oops. Babies are not the theme of this blog post. Moving on. 
In the past couple of weeks though, I've begun to feel a pull back towards Texas sooner than what I had originally thought. I had been feeling homesick for a while so I decided very suddenly (me making sudden decisions?? get out of town!) to make a quick trip back to Texas for a couple of days. It was very quick and I really only saw my family and a couple of friends. It was so good for my soul to be around them and to be reminded why I had gone to the farm in the first place. I felt so loved and encouraged that when I came back it was hard for me to shake my feelings of really just wanting to be in Texas.

I also got to see Juliette, but we didn't take a picture together, So I just tried to find the most flattering picture I could of her. 

I realized within about the first month of being over here that Texas was where I wanted to end up. I wasn't ready to leave what I had started, but I was happy with this feeling of mine. Was was weirder though was the more I learned about farming and gardening and the value of being connected to your food source, I felt myself wanting to move back to the Bryan/ College Station area. This was such a strange thing for me to understand, because I never saw myself wanting to move back there. But now I do. And I am. I have made some decisions in the past couple of days regarding my time here in North Carolina and my future. I've decided that I'm going to move it on home around December 22nd and work on making a life for myself in Bryan. I want to be settled in place and start building my own mini urban homestead with chickens, bees a garden and beyond! I am finishing out my time here in this wonderful area living at a friend's house. I have been so blessed to meet so many wonderful people who instantly accepted me into their lives. I couldn't of asked for a better place.

The garden has changed so much since I first arrived. I'm glad I can relate. 

Baby broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower early in the season

Look how they've grown! 

Day of the Dead

I've been waiting to post this because I thought the title was fitting for the work we've been up to around the homestead the last week. I'm sure most of you are already aware of this, but I killed my first chicken. Not that I took joy in the whole process, but to be quite honest, it was such a neat experience. I now feel confident in the fact that I can butcher, pluck feathers, and clean out the inside of a chicken. I am very proud of this new skill of mine and am excited about the thought of one day having my own chickens who will supply me with yummy meat.

We are finishing up chicken number
by plucking the feathers off. She
had just been dipped in a pot of hot water

A few days later, we were informed by Barb that Mona Mi, one of the cats, had been attacked during the night by an unknown animal. So we were instructed to set up a trap in the woods, and catch the culprit. The next morning, there was a big ugly opossum in the trap. I'm not really sure how we jumped from trapping the opossum to then deciding to kill it, but that is what happened. Matt was told to take some greens over to the neighbors house in exchange for borrowing a gun. So Matt jumped on his bike, with a bag of greens from the garden and came back with a revolver with a pink handle. I was not really apart of the whole opossum killing because I was busy working on fire starters (Fire starters can be made a variety of ways, but basically you stuff cardboard egg crates with lint or saw dust an cover them in wax. Once they dry you cut them apart and use them to help you start a fire. Very easy and practical). Although I wasn't directly connected with the killing, I could see the whole event from the picnic table I was sitting on. The plan was to let the opossum out of the cage, and Matt would shoot it with the gun. However, he was also told to turn his head when he fired, which he did, therefore missing the opossum. The opossum took off through the woods, with Matt, Barb and Adam (another WWOOFer) running after it. Another shot was fired, it was a miss again and the opossum climbed a tree. Several minutes later, I slowly walked over to where everyone was gathered only to find an even more ridiculous event occurring. Adam was standing on a latter with a long tree saw trying to cut the limb in which the opossum was hanging on for dear life. Barb was right below with a blanket ready to cover it and Matt was ready with the gun. This took a couple of tries but finally, the limb fell along with opossum, and that was the end of that. I tell this long drawn out story because it was probably one of the most ridiculous things I've ever experienced in my life. Being a farm that believes in not wasting anything, we most definitely skinned and ate the opossum and put it in a stew. It was a bit too gamy tasting for me, but yet again, I enjoyed the experience of learning something new. Its not everyday you learn how to skin a opossum.

It should also be noted that in the same week that we ate our chickens and the opossum, our neighbor brought over squirrel stew for us to try because I told him that I had never tried squirrel before. It was certainly a most interesting week of food.

I love any excuse to dress up like a silly person, so when a heard there was a costume contest at work, I was ready to get creative. Well because I didn't really want to spend any money I tried to work with what I already had in my possession. With my abundant supply of flannel shirts, hobo hat and puffy green vest; I thought it only fitting to be a lumber jack. The night before Halloween I helped out with our neighbors harvest festival and was in charge of the chickens. The kids could come by and pet a chicken or hold it if they were feeling oh so brave. Needless to say, I confused several kids with my costume.

Not such a smart way to hold a chicken because it most definitely peed in my pocket. 

What has Meg been up to the last several weeks??

Winter is a coming! The weather has been beautiful lately and fall is definitely here. I love the fall. I love the colors and smells and how the trees take on a new look with the loss of their leaves. Most mornings I go for long walks with Buster and its been neat to see how the canopy of trees above the road are becoming a rainbow above my head. We've gotten a few cold fronts which has left me a bit chilly at night with it dipping in the low 40's. We're in the process of brainstorming ways to keep me warm during the winter months in my little travel trailer. It'll be interesting to see the end result. There has been talk of wrapping the entire trailer in plastic or tar paper and just cutting out holes where the door and windows are.  This idea makes me laugh, but who knows, it might just be the answer. In the meantime we are going to cover the windows with plastic and ducktape. Hopefully that will help a bit with the draft. We're also in the process of trying to figure out how to make our kitchen more winter proof. Our neighbor is letting us borrow a small wood burning stove for the winter that he got on craigslist for 8 bucks!

I've been busy around the homestead harvesting veggies, weeding, and drying basil, rosemary, tomatoes, and jalepeneos. I am such a fan of drying. Not only does the food taste delicious after the drying process, but it also allows you to enjoy your food all year round. I have decided when I return home, I will most definitely be investing in a dehydrator.

I know that I seem to discuss my love of bugs quite a bit, but lets me honest, they are awesome! The yellow swallow tail worms are living on a large patch of our carrots right now and they eat so fast, its pretty incredible. Take a look at the video. Its pretty cool.

The other day I was over at Cherrie's and we harvested a couple of the sweet potatoes. We just wanted to peek at them but ended up harvested more than we thought. One of the plants we dug up produced this odd looking sweet potato that unfortunantly looks a bit like a fetus. Weird. I wanted to share it with you. :)

Oh and I also learned to milk a goat in the last couple of months. It was a pretty exciting experience. It was also quite early in the morning so I don't really look quite awake yet in the picture. 

Cob Ovens and Birthdays!

Whew..once again, I have been meaning to write more frequently, but I find myself inside the house less and less which cuts down on my internet use. A couple of exciting things have happened since my last post but first I want to share about my adventure when coming home from work today. Because my trailer is so small and because I brought quite a bit of clothes for the winter, I have been storing some of my things in the barn. Well, I got into one of my bags the other day and forgot to zip it up. When I went in the barn today to grab something I saw my bag wide open on the floor and automatically assumed there was probably a mouse or snake family living inside. I was right! I saw the momma mouse jump out of the bag to which I screamed and ran out of the barn. As I was screaming and dancing around outside one of the guys said "Meg you can pick up beetles and bugs and spiders, but you can't handle seeing a mouse?" to which I replied. Yes! So I dragged the bag outside and carefully started going through my clothes. Once again I began to dance around and shreek because there were two newborn red little baby mice just hanging out in my bag with my clothes. Ugh!! It was quite an afternoon. They did however chew through one of my favorite black dresses and one of my many blue sweaters, but there are worse things. 

The cob oven we used to cook our pizza

So about a week ago we headed on down to Pickards Eco Institute for some delicious homemade cob oven pizza. Pickards is a teaching facility that has a beautiful garden and we spend time with the folks that live there. That is where we harvested all the edamame. When we arrived, I went and helped chop the wood for the oven. That was really fun because I felt like I was really earning my dinner. I had to work for it! The delicious sauce was already being prepared made from fresh tomatoes from the garden, garlic and peppers. We brought fresh veggies to put on top of the pizza from our garden. Peppers, eggplant, shitake mushroom from our mushroom logs, and basil. It was so much fun hanging out and eating delicious pizza. 

The veggies we took and our awesome shitake mushroom logs

Sara, Rachel and I getting ready to cut the yummy veggies

Matt teaching me his pizza dough skills

Then when we got home from eating the delicious pizza, Kenny drove his scooter down to the barn, so I went on a midnight scooter drive. Notice the cool driving hat from Norway. Thanks Sam!

The guys worked very hard on getting the fire going. 

Barb gave me this shirt. It was hers from 1983 when she was traveling around the middle east. I made it my official birthday shirt. 

The yummy food. Scramblies and baked butternut squash. 

So the next big event that occurred around here at the farm was my birthday! I felt so loved by my family and friends with all the calls, letters, packages and whatnot.So thank you!  We had a big potluck bonfire celebration on Tuesday and it was so much fun. I had friends from work and Durham come, along with some of our community friends. We brought out the banjo and had a lot of fun celebrating!

I'm totally posing. Not playing anything worth hearing. 

Matt helping Lyndsay hold the banjo

Matt, Lyndsay, Megan, Laura and I

The last and final big thing that has happened was my Gramanie and Aunt Anne and Martha came to see me! It was so great having family come and see this silly and exciting world i'm living in.

It's the Bees Knees!

It has been a pretty exciting week one of new skills and knowledge. We have two bee hives here at Old Oak, but since being here, I haven't had much exposure to the bee process. Well we went into the hive three times this week and each time it got easier and much more interesting. Bees are such fascinating insects. They work with such purpose and each bee type, the workers, drones and queen all serve a specific purpose which aids in the success of the hive. I am reading a beekeepers beginners guide at the moment and am simply amazed at what I am learning. It is very exciting stuff!!

So the reason that we went into the beehives is to basically just check on their progress. Right before I arrived they had harvested the honey and you really only want to harvest honey twice a year. The first day we opened the hives I went a bit overboard in my outfit. I did not want to get stung at all!! The contraption that I'm holding in my hands is the smoker. You fill the circular part with pine needles, corn husk, cow manure or wood chips and light it on fire. You keep the smoke going inside by squeezing the yellow fabric. Before opening the beehive, you want to smoke the opening and the top. This subdues the bees and allows you to work without them becoming aggressive and agitated. The honey that we harvest is found in the top three supers (the smaller boxes). The lower larger boxes are called the hive bodies. This is where the broods are located. Broods are the bee larva that the queen places in each individual comb. I'm reading a book right now to help me understand the intricate life of bees and it is just so fascinating. I'm convinced that one day I will in fact have my own hive!

To the left, Matt is smoking the bees so we can get a better look at their activity. On the right I'm lifting up a frame full of bees! 

The second day I realized I didn't really need the goofy suit. 

So not only have we been busy attending to the bees, but there have been several small projects we've been working on around the homestead. Yesterday we worked on digging holes and trenches for some raspberry bushes we are going to plant out by the fruit trees. It was really fun using a pick ax and getting blisters on my hands. I felt like I was really accomplishing something! The days have been simply beautiful here and its been such a joy working in the garden with my sun hat taking in the cool breezes. When we're not working, we spend a good bit of time in our kitchen cooking, reading, or just hanging out. Its such a cozy place and I love sitting around our little wooden table cutting veggies for dinner or reading a book. However we have had some interesting creatures lately in our kitchen. We had a family of mice living in two of our drawers. We don't use the drawers so I decided to let them stay. However, a couple of days later, we found a huge black snake under the drawers. Needless to say, the mouse family was nowhere to be seen. Then one day we found a baby copper head under our water bucket. That was kind of scary, but we trapped it and moved it to a new location. 

Baby Copper head on the left. On the right is a crazy bug that I trapped in our kitchen. I just thought it looked super cool. 

 Lately I've been embroidery quite a bit and working on my banjo skills. Yes that is right, I am learning to play the banjo! Slowly....but its going to be great!! 

What? I've been here for six weeks!!

Harvesting edamame at Pickards

Oh man, I feel like it has truly been a while since i've written anything on here or updated my thoughts. I have recently been busier than I thought and therefore have not been writing. It has been on my list of things to do, but of course, its been pushed back several times.

It truly feels like I have been here more than six weeks. I feel like I have already experienced so much and learned so much about gardening and my reasons for being here. Two days ago we went to the neighbors at Pickards Eco Insititute and helped them harvest edamame (soy beans) for the whole day! It was so much fun! We harvested at least 50 plants and then blanched and shelled the beans. My hands were all pruning by the end of the day, but we were sent home with 4 bags full of delicious nutty edamame.

Things have truly been going great! I love my job at Weaverstreet Market and the people I work with. I bring home so much free food that my farm people have also benefited greatly from the new job. Right now we're in the process of planting for the fall and its going well. We just planted spinach, lettuce, carrots, swiss chard, kale, dill, beets, turnips, and radishes. We've been harvesting cucumbers, tomatoes, bell peppers, jalepenoes, okra and yellow squash. Our summer squash is still producing which has been really great. We are getting our green house ready for the winter and were going to plant new crops in there the other day when we realized that there were already beets and bock choy growing in there voluntarily. I'm not very good at remembering to take pictures around the garden when i'm working, so I had Matt follow me around for a bit while I "worked" (ok I might of just posed for a couple of the pictures...but you get the idea).

Chopping up weeds to go into the compost bin. I love using the machete!

Tending to the winter squash plants

My computer and camera are both acting weird and not letting me post anymore pictures. So I'm going to fix the problem hopefully in the next couple of days and post more pictures. Its been really great having the opportunity to work outside everyday and learn through doing! I've recently discovered a new hobby and will leave you with a picture of the shirt I embroidered. It is very easy and makes me feel crafty.