Hrafinstaad

Although they are growing up,they still wonder at the beauty of the deep green woods.

   Yesterday, our escaping rooster left.It was time for him to go else where,yet again he escaped but this time Chance caught him before he could become "The Destroyer of Gardens". There is no way we were going to risk loosing our plants again.We took him to the feed store to be re-homed,he's a handsome devil so I am sure someone will want him.His handsomeness is what has saved him from the stew pot.

This morning as I was waking up I was wondering what was wrong in the world...kind of extra quiet out there...oh yeah,the rooster is gone.The rooster crowing hasn't been a huge bother to us and none of the neighbors have said anything to us but I think the quiet morning will be nice.When I went out to check on the hens this morning they seemed fairly happy and mellow.Maybe they like having the Roo gone too.

The re-planted garden beds are looking hopeful.The Green Beans we planted have popped up.Even though we re-planted late I am pretty hopeful we will still get some beans.I was reading through a copy of a Sunset magazines gardening book, which is dated from the '70's but still is useful, about how you can plant beans successively until mid-summer.I've never bothered to do this since we always get enough for fresh eating from one planting.My fingers are crossed it works,our last few summers have come late and stayed late,if this stays true we may be in luck.The weather here still seems to me to be a month behind so we shall see.

Another idea I found in the Sunset book was a shade idea for lettuces.You build out of wood a frame that is basically a rectangle on legs,the legs being about belly high.You then place this frame around your bed of lettuces and cover the frame with a sheet to create shade.This is not a new idea to me,I've seen variations around but re- reading about it reminded me that I've had this on my list of possible solutions.

We are still picking strawberries,none of which have made to the freezer,the boys keep gobbling them up too fast.Our raspberries are also ready for picking.We don't have enough canes to really grow enough berries to make much.We just eat them fresh while they last.The same goes for the 4 blueberry's we have.They are still just young enough to only give us a handful at a time for snacking.

July is a crunch month for Chance at work so I am not too sure how many projects we will get done other than just keeping things going.The turkeys have yet to arrive,pinning down a time when this can happen is proving tricky for all of us.

We did find time last week for the four of us to pack a picnic and head out into the woods for a hike.It was lovely walking through the dappled sunlight.We saw so many wondrous things I should do a whole posting about our day.The photo at the top is of the boys pausing to listen and wonder .We had many stops like that along our way. Seeing the boys exploring and still taking the time to stop to investigate something that caught their eyes was a joyful thing.I can only hope that even as grown men they will still carry their love of the woods in their hearts.And someday maybe they will stop with their own children to listen to the woods.

I had a few links I wanted to share before the old computer crashed.I was only able to find one of them.I'd like to try making these sugar cubes soon simply because I think they would be so fun to have around. Finding this has also inspired me to look into making Maple Sugar Candy***.My Dad and I love Maple Sugar Candy but I can only find it around Christmas time and it is a bit pricey. After seeing the the sugar cube idea I thought that maybe the Maple Sugar wouldn't be much different.

That's about it folks,just some everyday news. I really feel like Hrafinstaad has come to a point where we are done with large projects for awhile. We still have some areas here where we would like to tinker it into a more useful spot but have yet to come up with plans.It will happen I am sure.

Today I am calling around about picking raspberries for jam making.I missed the strawberries because I thought I would use ours but those pesky always hungry teen-aged boys had other thoughts.I am also looking into when the blueberries will be ready,soon I would think since ours are almost there.I'd like to put some in the freezer for winter.

   My final photo today is of the handful of tiny treasures I found on our hike.

           From the bottom up: Birch cones, the curl of white is a piece of paper wasps nest, there are 3 tiny snail shells, a bit of robins egg and at the top is a fluffy blue feather from an unknown bird.