the elk came back : )

The same herd of Elk from the other day came at dusk this evening to munch on the lower field .. it was pretty magical... these photos don't even come close... : (

wine and friends...

Loads of friends visited in the last week or two..... It was super fine to see everyone and amid all the visiting we got our Syrah in ...

Johnathan came for some R and R and I really enjoyed his company... his friend Lauren also came out and she was a lovely guest as well. We had a lot of fun with all the creatures...










and this is Johnathan cooking a yummy curry for us, right out of the garden!... : )

June and Nancy came for a few days and I forced them into labor at the winery ...they sorted fruit when it came in... June was a trooper and Nancy as always was totally upbeat! thank you Ladies again for all your help!



The Fruit Looked beautiful! No surprise - thanks to Maggie! -
We are very excited about '06 and looks like '07 will be great too!!

















...and as always miss Clementine provided moral support...


This photo is from up in our woods I got a wild hair last week and thought I might find mushrooms in our woods..sadly I found a big fat goose egg : ( but it was pretty and I got my exercise : )

This Photo of chief is him at FULL attention the photo below is what he's looking at... it was a beautiful herd! (if they just look like brown smudges it's a herd of about 20 or so elk... they visited while Johnathan was here)










I managed to harvest more from the garden and pack it into the freezer...



And these Photos are of me and Porters feet!! Porter came for a super fabulous visit we hung out , went to an antique shop and had an in-house beauty visit. And on her last day we had lunch at with her adoption agency at an Ethiopian restaurant it was super great!

Sitting by the fire with my dog and my best friend getting a pedicure is my idea of HEAVEN!!!

These are Porters cute toes we both got rhinestones on our big toe nails : ) not very crunchy granola but VERY fun : )

Life off the Farm

The night before last was a pretty fun and full one .. Brian and I bought 1.5 tons of fruit for Rose and so I went into the winery to help sort fruit and help with care and feeding of the troops…

The Fruit we got (pinot) looked beautiful when it came in which is amazing given the weather we’ve been having… we hardly needed to sort it… Brian looked very pleased...I’m looking forward to making a rose… it will give us something to release while we wait for the Big Table 06’ Syrah which won’t be released till late next year …

What started out as me calling Deolinda and saying "is anybody getting fed down there?" Turned into a big old harvest meal…

We quickly decided that take out for 25+ people wouldn’t work at all… Deolinda graciously offered up the pork from one of their pigs (which dave grilled up)

and after a quick stop to pick up potatoes and beans and grab some home made apple sauce off my shelf we where all set for a feast!

Every one chipped in to make a big beautiful meal at the winery. Despite it being a CRAZY night and everybody going in a 100 directions we still managed to sit down and share a meal… Thanks Coelho's for hosting : )

Thanks to Miss Maggie for manning the camera while Brian and I sorted fruit.. and congrats again to you and Michael on the bun in the oven…

here are some more shots of folks at the winery all busy busy making wine...

harvesting on all fronts

Harvest is now officially in full swing… Brian got home Saturday night at 11pm yikes… I’ve been finding evening projects now that he’s working late (like updating the blog) … Friday’s project was homemade mozzarella. It’s been something I’ve been wanting to do for a while and I finally made the time. I managed to make a complete mess of my kitchen and used way more pots that the directions made it sound like I needed but the directions also said I needed a microwave which I do not have so I had to improvise a bit…

I certainly didn’t’ master it but I did manage to make what looked and tasted like mozzarella and was pretty tasty. Who knew so much milk made so little cheese!

I will say my pigs and chickens loved the whey! Which there was quite a bit of. I picked some of the season’s last tomatoes and found a little basil that hadn’t gotten hit with the cold fall air.

We are officially in “fire season” the wood stove is now in full swing… and I made my first “stove top stock” of the season on Thursday evening : )

Yesterday we had a nice breakfast, enjoyed our last melon from the garden (sniff sniff) with our home grown sausage and eggs.

And let me tell you we needed a good breakfast we spent the whole day working and hiking around the hill moving the goats pasture, shed and water tank and generally getting ready for winter.. this farming thing is a TON of work did I mention that yet…

On my mom’s suggestion I brought in about ½ our remaining pepper crop and put them in the freezer (Saturday nights project).

I’ve been picking some of the apples and pears for winter storage. After filling 4 boxes I just stopped. There is so much fruit out there I feel a little wasteful not collecting it all but maybe next year I can do more canning and freezing of the fall bounty.