Yes, I'm a fructivist.... article by George Monbiot

Heard on the radio yesterday that heating oil is currently predicted to go down as much as .50/gallon. Good news, sort of. It will likely still be at least $3/gallon, if not $3.50, and the $3 was too much for a lot of poorer folks last year. Kind of like the "good news" that some food prices are likely to be dropping as well. Whatever the drop, these prices are all likely to remain too high for some folks -- probably more folks than last year, given that some of the people who managed to pay for everything last year were only able to do so by running through whatever savings they had.

Meanwhile, although we're fine enough financially, L and I will continue to be somewhat conservative (or go back to it, since I did buy some frivolous things at Pennsic). Still, one never knows what the future will bring... also, prices of real estate are starting to drop, so I have fresh incentive to try to put extra aside whenever possible.

I need to go through my stash of stuff and see about prizes for Crestfallen -- prizes for crests in the specialty tourney -- best crest, best crest death, best overall heraldic display. This last can apply to non-tourney displays at the event actually, like those splendid heraldic sideless surcoats some ladies used to wear, etc. I was toying with something as simple as some quality chocolate for the prizes, but two years ago one of the winners was someone who doesn't eat chocolate, and she may be helping out with painting again this year, so best to not have more than one prize be chocolate, if I go that route.

Yesterday L and I started unloading a load of rowen into one of the mows - he was tossing and I was stacking - when he hit his head on a hinge that was attached to the floor joist above him. Said hinge had a rusty screw still in it, so we're off to the doctor's a little later this morning so he can get a tetanus shot. Of course we cleaned it and put on antibiotic immediately, but that doesn't necessarily take care of everything -- better safe than sorry.

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Didn't make it to the tri-county fair this past weekend -- too busy around the farm. But we did take some time off to go to an Open Farm at Manda Farm on Monday, just over in Plainfield. Chatted with the owners a bit -- sometimes we're set up next to them at the farmers market. Got to see their guinea hens, ducks, other hens, turkeys (brown, not white), black-spotted pigs, dexter cows, and Nubian goats (with guard llama). They're into raising heritage farm animals and raise them on grass and organic feeds. Some of the pigs get slaughtered each year, some stay on at the farm a while longer, and others are sold to other folks who are also raising heritage breeds. There's a network for people doing this, so that they have an optimal chance of preserving the breed for the future.

The guinea hens are pretty funny. They're smart so they're apparently a bit harder to catch, but they stay on the farm property more or less -- major problem is that the farm is on both sides of a road, so once in a great while one of them gets hit. But overall they're smart enough to pay attention to not only the road but also to wild animals. There are a lot of predators around, so hens that can help take care of themselves is a good thing.

The meat from the heritage pigs is absolutely incredible, btw. More $$ per pound than many folks would like to pay, but if you adapt by having less meat in your diet or by growing some of your own veggies, it's do-able. The Manda Farm folks sell the whole animal, every part -- even the lard. I forgot to check on when, but they're teaching how to render fat into lard this fall... there was an interesting discussion about it at the market last Saturday too -- how it helps make the easiest, flakiest pie crust ever. I use butter myself, which one of the buyers used to do until he tried lard and said it was even better. We both agreed that Crisco and its ilk aren't worth the time of day.

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The string (drive belt) on my spinning wheel broke last night. Happily L was able to replace it quite quickly and easily. It's taken 2-1/2 spools, but I seem to be working the kinks out of the wheel's operation... the weakening belt probably contributed to the difficulties, but now I think I have things under control. As soon as the current bobbin is full and I've plied two of them together though, I need to put the wheel away. Must get back to weaving a few more scarves for Fall Festival, and clearing space to get down to some serious artwork. With the weather finally turning, I'm getting geared up for more drawing and painting, thank goodness! Ah, if only autumn could last a little bit longer than it does... so much to do!

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My primary chiropractor is seriously into knitting, so we were talking about that a bit -- I think this will be her first year going to Rhinebeck too -- she should have a blast :)

She printed out a free leggings pattern for me that looks like fun, and we ordered a pattern for fingerless gloves. She's on ravelry so she can order things... I may have to look into joining so I can go pattern-hunting on my own in the future. Sorry, no pictures, but the gloves look kind of like armor gauntlets, very cool.

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Back is mostly up-to-snuff again, one more appt. next week.

The guys managed to get in some more hay yesterday and today. The weather has made it nearly impossible, and in fact the second load of hay is sitting on the hay rick out in the field, drying out some more -- this a good thing to do in open air, to avoid fire from combustion of still slightly green grass. Mind, because the hay's been sitting growing in the field for longer than usual, it's also drier than usual -- hence the ability to mow two pieces of the field day before yesterday, then tedder and rake it yesterday early in the day, and bale one of the two pieces in the afternoon (just a wee tad faster than usual!). I helped a bit yesterday as there were a few hiccups in how the baling was going, and Stuart also helped -- he's a friend of the family and business partner to L's brother Raymond.

Still more field to go, but the weather is not going to let it happen tomorrow...

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Mulched more plants yesterday and today. Harvested lavendar and a bit of feverfew yesterday as well. I took more off the lavendar than I usually do, but the survivors had all done this interesting thing this year of starting up a bunch of new growth in the center of the plants, so I wanted to remove all the leggy branches and give the new stuff room to grow. They're looking rather cute and petite now...

The leggy stuff doesn't look terrific, but they'll still do the job. Lavendar's good at keeping moths away, both the flowers and the leaves. So I've hung up mucking huge clumps of them in the back attic, the 2nd floor SCAdian clothing closet, and up in the main attic, where we have the bulk of our textiles/clothing. I might break one of the clumps up at some point in the future and make a nicer one for the little apartment fiber arts room...

I'll likely harvest some more of the feverfew this week, as it's doing a good job of falling on top of other plants, trying to take over. Honeybees don't care for feverfew, but sweat bees think it's just fine.

The echinacea are starting to bloom, yay!

On the hops, one of the four rhizomes decided to grow and I need to give it a pole to climb. It won't get very tall this year, but next year I'll need a serious pole/line arrangement. On the hops from seeds, 13 have germinated and are slowly making their presence known. Much to young to know their gender yet, of course.

And some other stuff has come up, that might be borage.... I kind of forgot to label a few things towards the end of spring/summer planting...

The corn is doing well, especially now that we're getting at least half days of sunshine.

I moved most of the ginger to the sun/shade garden, as I'd put them in the wrong place (full sun, and the neighboring plants weren't quite tall enough to shade them). In spite of being in the wrong place they've been growing though, so I'm hopeful.

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Work is proceeding on the west side of the barn. Cleaning and paint removal's happened, (William, Raymond, and neighbor Mary who sugared with us this year mostly. L's helped out a little). Now the nails are being spackled over. BIL Carl is here visiting and is working away on the wall now.