Katinka!

We had a lovely surprise as Katinka made it to Chico on her world tour. But first.... On Friday, I started working on the flower bed beside the glen. I bought a Daphne to go in this spot, but I have to thin out all the iris and day lillies first. They will be trimmed and replanted around the yard.

The dogwood next door is stunning right now.

 Rick gets some tilling done on Row 1, where the garlic starts are going to go.

So we went to brunch with Karen and Glen, and we hadn't been back for more than a few moments when Katinka showed up at the door. We took her to croquet.

Then went to the farm. We gave her the full tour, and worked on the bar a little.

Fortunately it was a lovely day. We wanted to go to Sierra Nevada for dinner, but they were having their 30th anniversary party, so we had to get Mexican food instead.

We were going to head over to Titus and Jane's to play Catan, but the heavy food put us all to sleep! So Titus came over the next morning, after we had breakfast at Cafe Coda.

Katinka plays with the amber crown. Titus showed us pix of Lori's underwater murals, and incidently showed me how to browse the internet from the PS3.

 

Then Katinka showed off HER new artwork: an amazing tattoo. It has all sorts of symbolism, including the rune! We had a lovely visit, but Katinka had to get back up to Redding to go through her mom's stuff.

It had been rainy all morning, but by afternoon it cleared up at little... at least for a while. So we went back over to the farm. We saw a murder of crows circling the hawk tree. Notice all that blue sky between the clouds.

I took advantage of the damp ground to pull out a row of tomatoes. Rick and Buddy helped separate and roll up the old wire. Then I put the chickens to work. We'll plant peas here.

Here you can see that I took out almost all of row 4, just leaving a few tangerines at the front of the row.

The dogwood is so lovely right now, and it only lasts a week or two so I had to get lots of shots.

We "fell back" this weekend, so sunset came early. And with the sunset came the rain. And then, it started to hail!

Unfortunately, these shots don't do it justice. The slanting sunset rays illuminated the hail so it sparkled and glittered as it fell. It started out looking like silver glitter, then became a glowing amber waterfall of golden light.

It was the most amazing and beautiful thing we'd ever seen! Rick, Buddy, Catherine, and I just stood inside the bar gaping at it. Although I did note that when a bunch of 50 and 60 year olds are saying "I've never seen any weather like this..." that might not be a good sign.

I kept trying to get shots that would display how awesome it looked. I had to rush out in the hail and put my chickens away. The poor things were all wet and bedraggled.

Rick points out how large the hailstones were.

We kept looking for a break in the weather. At the first gap, Catherine made a run for it. She got almost to the gate before another deluge hit.

We waited a little longer and thought we might get to the car without getting too much wetter than we already were. Ha ha! The water was up to the gate, and we had to wade through ankle-deep water.

The water was all the way across the street.

Bar Work

The weather continues to be glorious and we're making the most of it. Tuesday, we did more work on the bar. Everyone helps wrap the front in tar paper—even Cooper lends a paw. We also got the other window set in, so both the ornamental windows are installed, and they look really wonderful.

We ran some lighting over to the shed. Just a string of fairy lights makes all the difference. Here you can see the second window, and the beer sign.

Cindy came to join us too. Here she poses with Cooper while Rene relaxes with a well-earned beer.

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Weather Note
We've had just delightful fall weather so far. It's still getting into the 70s in the heat of the day (just warm enough to make you wish you hadn't worn long sleeves), but getting downright chilly at night. We also have been having rain every week or so. Today is sunny, but the forecast calls for rain over the weekend.
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Another front view shows the whole bar front with both windows.

And this shot shows how treeshaded and foresty it feels. 

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What We're Eating
The last of the peppers! I did a big picking of the jalapenos and serranos at the farm, and I roasted them all up and made pepper sauce, which I froze. 

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Yesterday was another glorious day. Jane, Melinda, and Delina came over and joined me, Rick, Buddy, Rick, and Catherine for some fun. We had a nice full circle at the table. And, Jane and Melinda helped us with eggs! The girls are starting to slow down a little, but we still have plenty of eggs. The sunset was amazing yesterday, and we all stood out in the garden and gaped at it. So where are the pix? Camera was at home! Grrr.

Halloween and More!

 Woo hoo... I've got lots of pix today. In preparation for Halloween, I harvested the pumpkins. The Galeau were totally ripe, and the Triambles could go a little longer, but I picked a few of the choice ones for decorations anyway. This Galeau was totally ripe, so it became the designated sacrifice.

 I cut it into wedges. The meat is very thick, and there wasn't much fiber. The seeds were also huge and fat. I cooked these wedges in the oven for about an hour, then blenderized it into a lovely silky puree, which I used for pumpkin bars and pumpkin-black bean soup.

 I put others on the porch for decorations. Jane took these two pix. This is a lovely Triamble.

And another fabulous Galeau.

 Of course, I had to carve at least one pumpkin. Laura came over to help me on Thursday, and she came up with the idea of making a chicken. We started with a turkey pattern, and changed it around to look like a chicken. It got a LOT of comments on Halloween night.

 It's hard to get a good shot of a lit pumpkin with a cheap camera...

 The Halloween party was on Saturday night. This was nice because we got to enjoy the trick or treaters on a different night. We had lots of great food. Laura brought her Ghoul-ash, and also poached pears and Catherine brought pumpkin cheesecake. I made "Fresh Tomb," the aforementioned pumpkin-black bean soup and pumpkin bars, and just to showcase the change of the seasons, I made the year's last batch of zucchini bread.

Bill came as a yuppie.

And Titus and Jane were really cute as bedbugs. Titus always has an insect theme going....

Laura was a beehive.

 Bill was a pumpkin farmer.

 And... we're not quite sure to make of Keith. He's getting in touch with his feminine side. And someone asked Noel if she was a jockey, and she said, "That's not what this whip is for..."

 Rick was a great Gnomish Engineer. You could also call him a garden gnome...

 And I was the blog. Yes, this blog...

 Melinda was vampirical.

 And Lori was such a cute "Farmer's Hoe."

 Cindy and Noel chat.

 Here's Jane with her lovely curler. Notice the I (heart) New York shirt...

 Now you just know these three are gonna cause trouble...

 Melinda, Jane, and Bill played a little music.

 Meanwhile, some folks hung out on the back porch, by the fire, enjoying the autumn night. It had stopped raining by party time, although it rained pretty good beforehand.

 It was a fun party, and I think everyone had a good time. Then Monday was an amazing, glorious sunny autumn day. I went to the farm early, and Rene and Buddy were already there. Rene was framing in the windows for the bar.

 And Ricky C brought over his tiller. On Sunday, we'd cleared all the old zucchini plants out of Row 3a, and set the chicken pen on the area for several hours. The chickens tilled it up pretty well, and mixed all the old straw mulch into the soil. Then when Rick tilled it, it made just beautiful soil.

 Here you can see him with a sliver of the chicken pen in the foreground. Look at that autumn afternoon light... so golden and glorious.

Yeah, I'm still digging on the light... bear with me.

It looks like Ricky C's doing all the work, but I did help a little. After he lined out the rows, I put all the starts along in the right spacing. He want back and filled in the furrows, because he can bend more than most of the rest of us! He just folds himself in thirds.

 And isn't this a lovely onion patch?

Meanwhile, back at the bar, Rene gets the window all framed in and trimmed out. One down and one to go. It already looks beautiful.