In which I try to remember where the buttons go on this thingy

Tap-tap-tap.  Tap-tap-tap. 

Is this thing on?

Hello, blog world.  It's me.  

I'm kinda surprised y'all are still here, but lytha over at HorseCrazyAmericanInGermany assures me that you are.  

Wow.

It's been a long time.

Lemme explain.  

No, there is too much.  

Let me sum up.

While the world, especially the USA, has been spinning off into cray-cray land, the farm has been...right where it always is.  

The sun rises and sets in the usual places.  

Sunset over the Calendula Garden, which grew some awesome veg this year

The animals need to be fed, sheltered, and cared for on the usual schedule.  

Foxie Loxie and Pooh Bear provide all the floof we need

The gardens are mostly asleep now because it's October.

I planted Blaushokker Peas in late summer, and we are eating them now.
I planted garlic this morning!

I'm still loving my "new" job at the Everett Library

Almost 3 years in, still having fun.  This was taken at a book club I run at the local high school, where we eat ramen and talk about books during the school lunch period.

Jim is still rockin' the Santa Look.

And the gnome look too!

The Dragon is still Herself.

Older, slower, but still 100% Dragon

We still dress everybody up in dumb outfits for Hallowe'en.

They will do pretty much anything for a cookie

The kids are adults now.  Lisa lives in Korea, Will lives in Everett. 

Family photo taken when Lisa visited during Sorticulture last summer

Has anything changed?  I guess I've gained some skills I didn't have when I started this blog in 2008.  Canning food, for one.

 

I accidentally canned about 3 years worth of pickles. 
I've sworn not to even plant cucumbers next year.

Growing tomatoes!  Two years in a row, even.  

A bucket of tomatoes and corn.  Amazing.

In fact, gardening in general is much more successful these days.

My strategy this year:  when a crop was failing, I'd rip it out and throw down sunflower seeds.

Jim finished his Master Gardener certification last month, and I started Green School (like the MG training but without the volunteer requirement) a few weeks ago.

Jim works his tailfeathers off doing Master Gardener stuff. 
I don't have enough time for that--so I signed up for "MG Light" instead.

I did sell my faithful horse trailer (as noted in my last post--in February!!) and bought Duana's trailer from her.  

I've been borrowing/stealing this trailer for years.

Speaking of the Dragon, we did a short version of the X-State this summer.

Drive-up window skill: unlocked!

The goats still idolize Herself, as they should.

Sunflowers are everybody's favorites

We raised 6 turkeys this summer.  They will be delicious.

I mostly took videos of turkeys this year, because still photos don't show the idiocy clearly

The chicken population shifted a little.  A friend gifted us with three "hens" and a cockerel, which turned out to be three cockerels and a hen.  Two of the roos moved to freezer camp because they were Bad Boys and were not kind to the hens.  

This is Kazoo Who, the remaining cockerel.  So far, he remembers that "no" means "NO."

We haven't seen the black cat Goblin for a few months, and we fear he met up with a car on the road.  We had similar fears about Sinbad recently...but then he showed back up again.

Someday Sinbad's poor choices will end in a final Bad Choice, but so far-so good!

Here's hoping you are all staying safe and warm with somebody you love.  Let me know how it's going via the comments, okay?

Q and Pooh Bear are Big Friends