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Saturday Jon and I will be at Fund Raiser for the Cambridge Food Pantry.  It’s taking place from 11am -3pm in town at the Briemen Building  at 77 South Park St in Cambridge NY.

Jon is donating a book and I’m donating one of my Potholders for the Silent Auction.  We’ll also both be there from 1:30 -3:00 helping out.  Jon said he’d be happy to sign any of his books if anyone wants to bring one.

I know that lots of volunteers from the Food Panty are making desserts to be sold and they’ll have many other things going on too.  All to help raise money for the Cambridge Food Pantry.  

This isn’t the kind of thing we usually do.  Jon and I both like working behind the scene at the Food Pantry, but as Jon writes about every day, money is tight and we want to help where and when we can.

Our neighbors are building on the field across the road from the farm.

Because they are Amish, they bring the lumber  on a long wooden wagon pulled by two draft horses.  Two giant white horses.  They stand in their blinders, tied to the big pine.  So still for hours the only movement is a toss of the head, stomp of a foot or rumple of their skin to flick the flies away.

Two days ago the men brought a wooden shed the size and shape of an outhouse and placed it in the spot where I had seen them working the week before.  It could be a well house, an outhouse or a shed to keep their tools.

Two men of the same height and build, same  blue shirt and pants, same straw hat.  From where I watch I can’t tell them apart, although their families would know, by the stoop of their shoulder or gait of their walk.

We’ve watched our neighbors build before.  First a big metal building, next the barn and few years later the house.

I hope they will still hay the hilly fields, or fence it in for their horses.

If we could have afforded to buy the land we would have.  It’s been a hayfield for years although I heard there was once a trailer on it, in the same spot where our neighbors are building.

We are glad to have them.  So much better than a busy, brightly lit business or a small neighborhood.

The dogs listen for the wagons and watch the activity  from behind the fence.  At first they barked, but already they seem to understand it’s useless.  They won’t be chasing anyone away.

I watch  through  my studio window or from the corner of the back yard.  I listen from the front porch.  I report what I’ve seen back to Jon.  Yesterday a shed today long slabs of lumber, and more on the way.

I’m intrigued by their process, curious about how it will all come together. Some things are almost certain, the house, barn, gardens and animals,  but others unknown. I wonder what they will make and sell and what it will be like to have neighbors so close by.

We’ll try to be good neighbors, maybe bring flowers when the move in.   I don’t doubt they will be good neighbors too.

(I wrote this yesterday but forgot to post it. I took the picture this morning, but already the land looks very different, the big pine cut down and big trucks delivering insulation and other building materials.)

I wrote on my blog yesterday about Theresa’s  GoFundMe.  She is a long time blog reader and is having a difficult time and is asking for some much needed and appreciate help.  This is the message she wrote yesterday….

“I want to thank everybody who is contributing to help me. I am sitting here crying just seem generosity of people who I don’t even know. I cannot believe that people would help me that don’t even know me. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you so much”

And I am grateful too, I know how much it means to her.  She is close to her  goal but could still use a little more help.   Just click here contribute to Theresa’s GoFundMe. 

This time I got to the nettles before the donkeys and sheep at them down.

Nettles grow wild on the farm and Jon and I drink a lot of nettle tea.   We like it iced this time of year and I try to always have a jar of it in the fridge.

I dry the nettle on this rack in the office/guest room.  It’s hot up there this time of year and doesn’t get any direct sunlight.  These are stinging nettles so I wear gloves when I cut and dry them.

When the nettles are dry I put them in the blender and grind them up. I could keep the leaves whole, but it’s easier to store this way.

To make the iced tea I put about three heaping tablespoon of leaves in gallon sized glass jug and put it on the back porch in the sun.  The leaves flavor the water just enough to make it refreshing with a subtle green flavor.

I started drinking Nettle Tea when a yoga teacher told me that she drinks it during allergy season.  I make a jug of it, put it in the fridge and drink from it all day long she told me.

On the worst day I also take allergy medicine, but overall my allergies have gotten better not worse.

What surprised me about nettle tea is that it may be helpful for diabetes in a few ways.  There’s some evidence that it helps manage glucose and has antioxidants that help prevent diabetes related-retinopathy.

I’m not saying it’s a cure-all for these conditions, just that it may help aid in managing them.

Knowing this makes me want to get out there and harvest more nettles.

A while ago I posted this photo on my blog of my magnets on Theresa’s fridge.   Theresa is a long time blog reader.  We’ve never met, but she’s bought  my Potholders as well as magnets over the years and we’ve traded succulents through the mail.

Theresa is having a difficult time.   Her son, who was disabled, recently died unexpectedly.  She also has serious health issues that require constant care.  She borrowed money to pay for her son’s burial and in July she found out that her rent was being raised even though she on a special state program (She contacted her state representatives but they were no help).

Theresa said she would sell her car to raise the money but then she couldn’t get to the doctors.

Last week Theresa  started a GoFundMe asking for $3000. On it she wrote….

 “I don’t like asking for money, but I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’m asking for just enough to repay what I borrowed and maybe get my red paid for September so I can get out from underneath this Rock…I appreciate anything anyone can donate.” 

While Braeden cleaned out the chicken coop I cleaned out the animals water bucket.  When I tipped it over to empty the water, there was  the toad nestled in the mud under it.

I’ve seen the toad in the barn and under the water bucket the last time I cleaned it.  That time I moved the toad back into the barn,  worried that she’d get crushed by the water bucket.

But this time I learned that, under the water bucket, is just where the toad wants to be.  So I called Braeden over to see her (I knew he’d want to), then put the bucket back, with the toad under it,  and filled it with water.

When Braeden finished  cleaning the chicken coop it was still early.  He’s gotten good at all the chores, getting them done more quickly.  He said I’d have to find more work for him to do and suggested helping rake leaves when they come down.

Oh what a delight!

I told Braeden about the big garbage bags  I fill up with leaves to put around my studio foundation for insulation every fall.   He is as eager to help as I am to have his help.

But that won’t happen for a while, so until then I’ll have to think of more things that need to be done that he can help with.

That shouldn’t be too hard.

The moon was impressive yesterday morning a day after it was full.  A glowing ghost hovering above the tree line.  The Sturgeon Moon,  last full moon of the summer.

I’ve been seeing the signs of autumn around me, I’m ready for the fall.

This is what I saw….

Turkey vultures migrating

My back porch garden is more seed than flowers and there are more dahlia’s every day.

The first wild aster growing by the pond

The thistle had gone to seed, snowing all over the farm (although I haven’t seen as many goldfinches eating the seeds as I have in past years).

The chickens are molting.  Losing their feathers and growing a new coat of the winter.   They’ve also stopped laying eggs and are stay in the coop long after I open the door.

The birdsong has dwindled dominated by the calls of bluejays and crows.

It’s dark at 5am

This morning I saw the first flock of Canada Geese flying south over the farm.

Making apple sauce.

I’m curious about the signs of fall in other places around the country or the ones nearby that I’ve missed….

All week I’ve been gathering apples from our big beautiful Macintosh tree.

This morning I couldn’t fit another apple in the drawer in the fridge so it was time to make the apple sauce.

Jon sat with me as I peeled and cut up the apples.   Fate sat nearby eating the  rotting apples I left on the ground.

When I had a bowl full of apple peels and cores I dumped them over the fence for the sheep and donkeys to eat.

Constance was the one of the first to come out.  But not everyone showed up.

It’s been a good apple year so I guess they’ve had their fill of apples.

There was a breeze that kept the mosquitos and gnats away, but it didn’t take the Yellowjackets long to show up.  They are brazen landing on my apple-sticky hands, the knife and the apples in the pot.

I made sure they were all out of the pot before bringing it in the house and cooking the apples.

With just a little water and some cinnamon the apples cooked quickly.  I’ll freeze most of the apple sauce using some in my muffins when I make them another day.

 “Give me spots on my apples, but leave me the birds and bees…”  Joni Mitchell

We have a volunteer squash  growing in the barnyard.  I’m convinced it got a good start and was able to thrive because it grew under the protection of one of the logs from apple tree.

Those plants that grow along the fence or close to a tree or rock are more likely to survive someone stepping on them, eating them or cutting them down.

The last time we had volunteers growing in the barnyard, there were so many they covered  the ground all around the hay feeders.  The fruit was able to grow,  it seemed to be some kind of hybrid,   A mix of pumpkin, squash and I don’t know what.

The sheep and donkeys let them grow till they were ripe then ate every one.

This volunteer has lots of flowers and I can see the little veggies already.   I was thinking of eating them before the donkeys and sheep got to them, but then I read this  from Oregon State University Extension Service…

“Vine crops including cucumbers and zucchini produce chemicals called cucurbitacins, which give a bitter taste to the fruit. In cultivated cucumbers and zucchini these chemicals are normally in concentrations that we can’t taste them. Wild cucurbits contain much higher levels of cucurbitacins, making them inedible to mammals.”

The donkeys and sheep didn’t seem to have a problem the last time we had volunteer squash growing in the barnyard.  I imagine if they were too bitter they’d just leave the to rot.  They seem to know what they can and can’t eat.