Thankfulness

It's just a few days before Thanksgiving, so it's a good time to feel thankful for all the bounty and abundance. First thing to be thankful for: Friends! Parties with friends! Jane threw a surprise party for Titus. Everyone came.

And Titus was surprised. It was the weekend after his birthday, and we'd already taken him out to dinner, so he had no suspicions.

Lori decorated her house, and set up Pictionary for us to play, with paper on a giant easel.

Miho helped me make pizzas on site and she quickly got the hang of it. That's another thing to be thankful for: Pizza!

We had a week or so of really glorious fall weather. The leaves turned great colors, and it didn't really rain until Sunday night, so we got to be outside enjoying the cold, crisp weather. Laura suggested a day of leaf paper making at the farm. I picked a bunch of leaves, and Laura brought everything else, although Catherine was quite clever to bring a spare ironing board.

Laura made a lovely piece.

I'm thankful for art and beauty. This time of year, when the fall colors just make your jaw drop, I'm so grateful for the ability to appreciate beauty.

And of course, the farm is a big source of thankfulness. It helps us appreciate the abundance of the earth and the harvest. Here is a good spread of how it looked on 11-19. We brought the tiller over and tilled up 7 and 8 and also 5b and 6b.

Since this picture was taken, we pulled a bunch of the chopped leaves out of Q and piled them all over rows 7 and 8. That's the area we plan to leave fallow for a season. We're sheet mulching it with leaves, and we'll put the chickens on it later, after it has a chance to start to break down. My thought is that it will attract worms, and the chickens will eat the worms and turn the compost.

The lettuce and daikon in 1b are producing like crazy. We've been eating fresh salad several times a week. I picked the first baby daikon, but they're still a ways from harvest size.

The baby arugula goes great with the lettuce, or as a pizza topping.

A bit of parsley came up in 2a. It's very delicious, and much more flavorful than store bought.

The sage is also growing like a weed.

Here's another view. A big portion of the back area is being fallowed for a bit.

The mandarins are starting to color up.

As are the very tiny fruits of the Algerian mandarin.

The geese have been migrating through, and I had fun trying to get some arty shots.