Friday, October 28, 2011
Protest as a Way of Life
Posted by Aimee at 2:37 PM 4 comments
Labels: politics
Monday, October 24, 2011
The King Must Die (Goat Breeding and Divine Kingship)
I used to have my own buck. Storm Cloud, son of Flopsy, was (and presumably still is) an extremely handsome, healthy and virile tri-color purebred Nubian buck. He is black and white with brown points, tall, big-boned, from excellent milking lines, and also good natured, with healthy hooves, and never had a problem with parasites. Pretty much the ideal buck, in other words.
Posted by Aimee at 4:06 PM 3 comments
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Brewing Up a Storm (Drinking and Driving)
![](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xIe-iz1smSE/TqBy1e9o1SI/AAAAAAAABuA/8lBr2_5Gv_w/s400/ciderSmall-1.jpg)
Posted by Aimee at 12:03 PM 1 comments
Labels: apples, biodiesel, brewing, husband, self-sufficiency
Saturday, October 15, 2011
The Great Hen Giveaway (It's Not His Fault)
![](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BOabMlWAfaI/Tpoev44v37I/AAAAAAAABtk/wRtS_8u3vCk/s400/thumbnail.aspx.jpeg)
Posted by Aimee at 4:58 PM 2 comments
Friday, October 14, 2011
Filling Up the Freezer (Great Grapes!)
It was an insanely beautiful day today - much nicer than late October has any right to be. The sun was out in full glory, and I could feel the heat on my shoulders all day long as I completed various fall chores. This has not been a good year for leaves, and so even though the sky was a bright, washed blue, I did miss the sharp contrast of the yellow, gold, and red leaves against it.
Posted by Aimee at 5:55 PM 3 comments
Labels: preserving, seasons, self-sufficiency, winter
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
The Yucky Season Arrives (October Images)
Not everything about October is yucky. Apples, for instance. I love apples. I love apple season. I love the smell of the kitchen when an apple pie is in the oven, or the dehydrator is full of apple slices, or I am canning applesauce. I love pressing apple cider, even though it makes my back and hamstrings hurt for days. I love biting into a crisp green apple, juicy and tart, and following it up with a bite of sharp, homemade cheese. I love the amazing abundance of apples - so many forgotten trees, with so much surplus fruit that it falls all over the yard and the roadsides, free for the taking. I like giving windfall apples to my animals - every species loves apples. The horses, of course, but also the goats, the pigs, the chickens, and even the rabbits. Everybody loves apples. Even the apple-mast left over from pressing is useful; it makes wonderful compost. I love the look of apple trees in November, after most of the leaves have fallen but the apples are still clinging to the bare branches, bright red against a frosty blue afternoon sky.
![](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rfisEUjyCf8/TpSuHZd1jtI/AAAAAAAABtI/CbaMt2bI9p4/s400/images.jpeg)
![](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-u0iyPt_UMyw/TpSuHMd0JsI/AAAAAAAABtA/TTEY_zPFpzc/s400/images.jpeg)
![](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kE6jOvEcvqg/TpSuGwShITI/AAAAAAAABs0/4Blo7HlMPDQ/s400/images.jpeg)
Posted by Aimee at 1:57 PM 2 comments
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Selfish Neighborliness (More Milk!)
At the Second Annual September Swap Meet and Cider Press last week, I met a really cool neighbor lady named M. She brought apples to press, and we made a trade of a bag of (my) raw alpaca fiber for a bunch of (her) canning jars. She also has goats and we talked about that. She also moved here from a city and we talked about that. All in all we spent about 45 minutes chatting and exchanged phone numbers at the end of our conversation, saying we would get together and make cheese sometime.
Posted by Aimee at 2:10 PM 5 comments
Labels: neighbors
Monday, October 3, 2011
Cider, Revisited
As I wrote in my last post, our neighbors J. and L., our pastors and friends, are leaving town. In exchange for Homero fixing up their car, they are giving us all of J.'s homebrewing equipment - and a couple of lessons. On saturday, I went over to their house with a few gallons of freshly pressed apple cider to get my first lesson.
![](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ja4jeZghfEU/TooJO3QniiI/AAAAAAAABss/12e1IxndvpY/s400/IMG_1368.jpg)
![](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mHKl-Xks_DQ/TooJOAJqdyI/AAAAAAAABsc/uGKrfmUfyI0/s400/IMG_1366.jpg)
![](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-z23EREiErKE/TooJNy0SuAI/AAAAAAAABsU/NpC1S35YC-4/s400/IMG_1365.jpg)
Posted by Aimee at 12:01 PM 14 comments
Labels: barter, brewing, cider, neighbors, self-sufficiency, trade