Fruit (and Nuts)

Now is the time of year when we think about harvest (of course), and we think about fruit. Which is another way of saying, we think about all the things we have accomplished lately. Or for the last month, season, or year. What is the fruit of all that we have done?

Willa and I were walking to the ranch house after chores tonight and we noticed how nice things are looking. Not nice in the sense that everything is completely landscaped, because it sure isn't (yet). But nice in the sense that a lot of things are cleaned up (weeds), and things look a lot cleaner than they did last year. There's been alot of work done this last year and it really shows.

Still, there's a lot left to be done. Like I said, we aren't landscaped yet--but we will be someday. We could get discouraged if we think about it from the perspective that we still have a lot left to do. So the best thing is to keep our perspective evenly balanced, looking at what we have done together at the same time as looking at all the things we will do together.

Here's where the nuts part comes in. Last week, I got turned on to Earthbag housing. I think we are going to build a nice simple root cellar next spring to hold all our "goodies" from the garden. Now this might just seem kinda nuts. But since it fits with our mission statement to be good stewards of the environment, it fits for us as a community. The best part is, we get to use some of that barb wire we've been taking down and putting in rolls. Yes, feed bags, barb wire, dirt and cement. That what it will take for our root cellar to come into existence. That's just really cool.

Of course, if this works well for us, I think I'm going to try and see if I can get my home built that way. It is just too close to a "hobbit hole" for me to pass up. Of course, that will be decided by consensus, which means I need to talk everyone else into being just as nuts as me.

Can't wait to see what happens next around here.

Thanksgiving

As Thanksgiving approaches we take time in our lives to rediscover all that we're thankful for. Don't worry, this won't be some sappy Thanksgiving story, or a lecture on how you should be thankful.

This is just an observance in my own life of some of the things I'm thankful for this year.

It is our second Thanksgiving on the ranch. And here are a few things I'm thankful for:

• for the beauty we live in every day
• for the great people who are part of the ranch
  
• for all our great horses
• for the fact that we have weathered our first year and we are still a great community
• for our thirteen lovely chickens (who give us such great eggs!)
• for Sam and Rusty who keep the coyotes away
• for Boss, who even though he's old, is not crochety
• for our cats, Tuffy, Shadow, and Grace and all their hard work at keeping the varmints away
• for the ducks and geese who enjoy our two ponds
• for the incredible pumpkins we grew in our garden (and the corn, and the lettuce...)
  
• for the summer camps which really helped some kids (and adults)
• for my little "bunkhouse" apartment
• for the joy of seeing our dreams come true in front of our eyes.

I pray that your thanksgiving season is full of hope and joy. May you all find that there are many things to be thankful for.

More than one way to slice a carrot

Tonight, Willa and I were cooking dinner. Duck stir fry to be exact. Willa was cooking and I was doing some of the slicing.

We discovered she slices her carrots differently than I do. She learned how to slice carrots from a Chinese cookbook and from watching a Chinese cook. I learned from a Japanese Hawaiian. The object was the same--to get those nice diagonal slices without slicing your hand. But we did it two different ways.

That's part of community life, discovering that you do something differently, but it comes out just as nice.

Mostly, though, it's about being allowed to do it your way, and trusted with the result.

On another note, winter is coming, but fall sure has been nice. It was a lovely day today. Clear sky with a few wispy high clouds. Bright sunlight and no wind to lend warmth to afternoon. We were outside most of the afternoon. How beautiful it was.

This year we are much better set up for winter than we were last year. We have more hay stored, we have our grain storage in a better place and we have fewer steps to take to get our chores done. Better lighting as well and a shorter hose--so we don't have to walk so far to drain it. Like we did last year.

There are fewer weeds than last year and the new western pasture didn't turn into a muddy mess during this last rainstorm. Which is what the eastern pasture used to do. So the horses are more comfortable and that makes them happier.

All that work we've done for the last year has paid off. And once again we are reminded.

Little by little you cross the ocean.

All things in their time

. Today I tried to get the slide show again. And presto! There it was, right where it should be for me to select.

So now we have the slide show that I wanted in the first place.

...But no captions (sigh).

That's okay--they'll show up sometime.

Speaking of sometime. I took this week off to get my converted bunkhouse-to-apartment finished up. And right now I'm in the middle of the project when everything is someplace else and nothing is quite finished yet. It all looks like a very big mess.

You have had times like that.

In three days, though, it will look completely different. And I will have curtains over my new windows, and I'll be able to put up my pictures and it will all be neat and tidy.

So as I walk around and step over and spend time finding things lost, I'll look forward to three days from now. It'll be great!

Lions and Tigers and Blogs--Oh MY!

Tonight I'm trying to get the slideshow to show Dream River Ranch photos instead of the stock photos that we choose when we created the blog.

Well, I did get one photo album to come up. But the one I wanted (of course) is still hiding in the ethernet somewhere. Somewhere I can't seem to reach.

And such is life on the web. At least I did get some photos to load--so the slideshow is now our own.

Small beginnings I guess.

Speaking of small beginnings--that's our ranch. But sometimes small beginnings turn into big things. And even if we don't get huge, still, we do get the opportunity to help some, entertain others, and have a good time doing it all.

So even if the blog gets kinda scary sometimes... life on the ranch goes on.

Come and visit us and see what we're up to.