A day in the life of the Funny Farm

Today, I thought I'd write about daily life down on our Funny Farm.

David is our fearless early riser. He makes sure everyone else gets up and gets going. Sometimes, he even wakes up before the chickens.

Speaking of which, here are the girls, Claudette and Henrietta. They are always awake by 7am, but sometimes, one of them has the urge to lay an egg at 5:15am, groan!

Why is this boy smiling?

Because that big pile of Canadian rocks isn't going to fall on his head? No, that's not it. It's because he doesn't have to get up at 6:15 every morning to get ready for high school! And because now, he's no longer a middle ground junior, he's a mighty SENIOR! This photo is from our February trip to Vancouver, BC. It was cold!

I'm usually the next one to make an appearance out of bed.

Once, breakfast is going, it's time to wake up Anni and Barkley. Here's Anni awaiting a cup of tea, and Barkley hoping she drops something yummy on the floor.

Almost last to make an appearance at the breakfast table is our recent graduate, Ari.

Hmm, maybe that's because she was celebrating her graduation and acceptance to the University!

And finally, we have a family member who only graces us with his presence when it fits his feline fancy.

Yep, you guessed it, Alchemy the cat.

Today, was Alex and Anni's last formal day of the school year, although we believe in year round learning; so we'll all keep our minds busy with summer activities. This morning, Anni and I potted up some Marigolds for teacher gifts, and then we were off to speech and OT appointments. This afternoon, all the farmers went in search of a new dog food for Barkley. The old brand was not agreeing with him. While we were at the pet shop, we found a pal for our lonely goldfish, Squeak (the big orange one).

Squeak's pal, Bubbles went to the giant fishbowl in the sky after a swim bladder illness that caused him to swim upside down, quite happily, for the last 3 months of his fishy life. Squeak has been kind of droopy since. Now, he has a new pal, a comet goldfish. The funny farmers have dubbed him (or  her) Eros after the asteroid due to make a close pass by earth later this year. They seem to be getting on swimmingly.

Today's weather took a turn back to normal Pacific Northwest fare; some sun, some clouds, and some rain.

Here's today and yesterday's garden harvest:

 Yesterday: strawberries, raspberries, blackcurrants, nasturtium flowers, calendula flowers, borage flowers, mixed greens of chard, mustard, kale, and arugula, mint, cilantro, and lemon balm.

Today: strawberries, raspberries, blackcurrants, nasturtium flowers, calendula flowers, chard, baby radishes, squash blossoms, and sage. These are pretty typical harvest for early in our season. We are also harvesting lots of chives and oregano. 

Our tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant, beans, cucumbers, and pumpkins are just beginning to fruit up. I can hardly wait. Here's a photo of last year's final tomato harvest, once the weather had claimed the foliage. We ripened all the remainders indoors!

What do we do with all this garden goodness? We cook of course! Here's Monday's dinner:

Baby potatoes (farmers' market) with parsley (ours!) sauce, local sole fillets sauteed in butter (local dairy) and chives (ours), cucumber (farmers' market) salad with nasturtium and borage flower petals (ours). It was delish!

We've been working using lots of stuff in our aging and temperamental fridge which has been slowly dying since last fall. Tomorrow (keep your fingers crossed) our new one should be arriving! After multiple attempts to resurrect the old one, we've decided it's time to give it up and invest in a new energy efficient model. Now, are veggies will stay nice and fresh! Yippee!

And since we like to end on a sweet note, after dinner and clean-up this evening, we make cookies!

These delicious little morsels are mini chocolate chip butter cookies with local WA walnuts. Yummy!

We're BACK!!!

Hi Everyone,

As you might have noticed, the funny farmers have been long gone from the virtual farm. We had a sad year last year as both my parents passed away within a few months of each other. We needed time to be nonfunny for awhile, but now the year has turned, the sun has finally reached Seattle, and the garden is in full bloom.

So what's up with the funny farmers?

The big news is Ari graduated from college with her Associates degree in arts and science, with a concentration in anthropology, last night. She was so excited at the commencement ceremony! And today, she received her acceptance letter into the University of Washington Anthropology Program. She was ecstatic! It seems like just yesterday she was the smiling Buddha baby in my arms.

Alex is about to become a Senior his high school. He is enjoying the challenge of the International Baccalaureate program and is busy checking out colleges to see where he would like to go after graduation. In April, we took a trip to the San Francisco Bay Area, so he could check out Stanford. What does he want to be? At the moment, it's a toss up between an eco-green architect and a medical illustrator. And speaking of this baby, my cuddly teddy bear boy is now taller than me by a few inches.

Anni has caught up to Ari in height. She has had a busy year working on all her goals and many, many activities. Her latest passions are art, baseball, and cooking. She's been learning and growing  with a great crew of folks all year and continues to make many gains. This summer, she's doing yoga, swimming, and going to cooking camp. Anni is also the funny farm energy monitor and recycling goddess.

David continues to go to college. He only needs a few more classes and he'll be the next college graduate the family. He's very interested in sustainable business practices.  I'm busy from dawn to midnight, keeping the place from falling down. I also joined a local yoga studio and gym to keep fit,and as always, I continue to write lots of stories and dance. In my spare time, I'm learning all about herbal medicine (as I sit sipping elderberry tea).

Once again we've expanded the organic garden and are currently growing 92 different varieties of fruits, veggies, and flowers. This year, we're interspersing the flowers all around the veg to encourage lots of bee activity. After a winter break, our chickens  became inspired and started laying eggs again. Henrietta and Claudette are getting on; so we hope to add a couple of younger birds to the coop over the summer. Barkley, the wonder dog, continues to keep the garden free of squirrels and most crows. Alchemy, the cat, sits and gives him disapproving looks from the deck. Bubbles, the fish, could care less.

Speaking of summer, we've also begun the season of home improvements. Or geriatric refrigerator has been slowly dying for the past few months. On Monday, the new one finally arrives, yahooooooooey! Then, it's painting season! And eventually, we really, really, really have to clean out the garage. Do we really have to! I don't want to! No, no, you can't make me! We'll I guess I'll have to force myself. Someone out there probably can use some those things we're not, and it'll save resources. It's not easy being green.

Pictures to come!

Happy birthday Julia!

Today is the would be the 100th B-day of Julia Child. We celebrated by having a delicious Salad Nicoise for dinner featuring organic red butter lettuce, dolphin safe tuna, tomatoes, green beans, herbs, and onion from the backyard funny farm, eggs from our hens, and several other delicious additions (mini bell pepper, olives, fingerling potatoes). It was delicious. Anni ate her weight in salad!

We are in that part of the yearly cycle where we harvest our herb crops. Over the past few days, we've gathered sage, thyme, oregano, rosemary, lemon balm, mint, chives, lavender, and raspberry leaves. After rinsing and bundling, we have herbs everywhere. The chives were flash frozen and reside in the freezer. The raspberry leave are drying in a basket. The oregano, rosemary, and thyme are drying in small bunches, and...

 Ari sorts herbs in the backyard.

 She calls in the reinforcements, Alex, to help with the bundling.

 A bowl of pineapple sage sits waiting on the kitchen table.

 Sage hanging from our impromptu drying rack between the dining room and learning center.

 Bundled lemon balm drying on a towel.

 Lavender hanging from the curtain rod.

Chocolate mint drying on the kitchen counter.

We'll gift, trade, and use the dry herbs over the coming fall and winter seasons. We love a mint and lemon balm combination tea in the evenings and a raspberry leaf ice tea during the day - yum! The funny farmers love the sage in buttermilk biscuits for breakfast. Oregano takes center stage in our home pizzas, and rosemary is tops with our small homegrown potatoes. And I love thyme in practically anything!

Our Northwest weather has been steadily heating up over the past week. We may even break a hundred on Friday! The veggie beds are ready to explode in torrid showers of tomatoes and zucchini. (Does anyone have a really heavy duty brolly?) I can hardly wait!

A warm day in the backyard farm!

 Today, we were in the warm eighties, practically a heat wave for us lily-livered Pacific Northwesterners. We spent most of the day out in the garden.

 We were visited by a bevy of beautiful Swallowtail butterflies.

Peas on the vine

Canterbury Bells on the stalk.

Blooming zucchini

Spanish lavender

Blackberry blossoms

 A hidden strawberry

   Anni looking for that strawberry!

We added organic compost to all the fruits and veggies and harvested lots of lemon balm, mint, and sage. Alex, David, and Ari tied the herbs into bundles to dry and later be used for seasonings and tea making. The garden is loving the warm weather. Tomatoes and zucchini are coming on in droves. We have lots of blueberries, and the blackberries are just turning. We are also enjoying plenty of beans and a few ears of corn.

Yesterday, Alex and I made a big pot of tamales to go with the corn. They were delish! We've also been enjoying all the peaches, plums, nectarines, and pluots available at our local farmers' markets.

To escape the heat of the later afternoon, we loaded up the Prius with books to take to our local book exchange. We came back with even more! Such is the curse of a family full of bibliophiles!

Traveling to the Ends of the Earth

Okay, well maybe not the very ends, but at least to northwest end of the continental USA! We took a road trip last weekend. We boarded an early morning ferry from Edmonds, Washington and jugged our way over to the Kingston dock. The sailing was just long enough for strong coffee and pastries to be consumed

Edmond's Ferry Terminal at low tide. See the ferry in the top left corner?

A hungry grey heron catches his breakfast.

 Julie Ann picks up a sleepy Dungeness crab. Mind those claws!

 A sunflower starfish craws beneath the pier.

 

Nudibranchs (sea slugs) were out in full force. We love these tiny little critters!

 A pod of sea life eggs. We aren't exactly sure what these are, maybe a dogfish shark?

We journeyed on to Port Townsend on the Olympic Peninsula. It was beautiful sunny day, in the nineties at our home, but in the low eighties near the water, perfect! We cruised around the suburb farmers' market finding delicious goat cheese rolled in white pepper and time, hard ginger apple cider, homemade crackers, cherry tomatoes, and lots of fruit. We had a delicious picnic lunch at one of the town parks.

Then we drove a very long and twisty road out to Neah Bay, Washington. Did I mention long? 

The distance didn't seem that great, but most of the curves were down in the 20-25 mph zone; 

so it took awhile! Here's what I thought of some of those hairpin turns!

But,

It was worth it!!!

We drove through Neah Bay and arrived at the trail head around 5:30pm.

David and Anni hiking the forest trail to the point.

Unusual trees lined the path as well as voracious mosquitoes. Apparently, they loved my blood the best!

Check out these photos of Cape Flattery, the NW tip of the continental USA

  There are lots of rock islands,

 trees at precarious angles,

water from aquamarine to deep blue,

 and huge sea caverns.

 Cape Flattery Light House.

 Sunset at the Cape.

 Heading back toward Port Angeles. A tired duo.

 Twilight on the Peninsula

 The moon over the water back at the Kingston ferry terminal. We caught the last boat back at 11:05pm. We all slept in the next day! 

All in all a most excellent family adventure to the end of the earth (or so it seemed).