After the hurricane...

Irene has come and gone and Connecticut is cleaning up.  The southernmost part of the state really got the worst of it with high wind and flooding.  Northern CT got hit too.
See below...

Outside the SS&C building.

Farmington River, muddy and raging and now over it's banks.

Hanging wires

The wind whipped through the trees at my house too, but nothing substantial came down. My garden's taller plants got blown all over.

It' probably hard to tell, but this is my corn. All over the place.

Jerusalem artichokes.

My biggest brussel sprouts plant. It will live!

Today I was driving around and the flooding has gotten pretty rampant. This is a street right near the Farmington River.

See the little cows?

Well, we're alright anyway! That's it for now from the homestead. I need to do some serious clean up both indoors and outdoors. :)

School's a starting....what does that mean?

It means that it's mid-August and we finally made our first trip up to the camp in Vermont. After 2 months of flooding in the Spring and serious reconstruction all throughout Burlington, the place was habitable for the first time. Usually, we spend much of the summer there. So glad we were able to get up there and spend time!



Andrew tries tubing!

Sunset on Lake Champlain

Jeffrey and Daddy made some serious sand castles

It also means that the garden is in need of weeding and maintaining.  I have planted radish, beet and arugula.  I have begun harvesting potatoes, carrots and tomatoes.  Basil is amazing this year!  The corn is coming along although it was blown over by a recent storm.  I had to tie it up.  I don't expect anything from the pumpkin plants...they seem to not want to keep their blooms on at all.  I have also begun to pick plums, yum!

It means that we are still in the process of painting the house.  My husband is staying home from work tomorrow to make some progress on it.  It's a long process but every sweep of the brush makes an awesome difference.

It means that we are finally breaking down to call a exterminator to get rid of the horrible hornet problem we have in our basement entrance.  My husband has been stung 7 times and I have been stung once.  We don't want the boys to get stung.

It means I am thinking about Fall.  How to keep the homestead moving forward even when the cold months come.  I am wondering if we will have as snowy a winter as we did last year and praying we do not!  We have already been given a roof rake for this year, but I hope we do not have a need for it!

It means the kids go back to school in a week and I am a little conflicted.  As many of you know I am researching homeschooling.  Sending them back this year is a much bigger deal than last year. I pray it will be a great year for both of them, but I will also be in prayer that God makes it clear what will happen in the 2012 school year.

And lastly, it means that there is another God given opportunity coming around the corner to get close to Him.  To practice self discipline in more areas of m life, draw closer to the cross and live a life that give glory to Him in new ways.  To meet new people, talk to new people about Jesus, be a friend to those who need them and love and serve others. God providing.

Peace!

Gardens of the 19th Century: Our trip to Sturbridge

I had the kids take a day off from Vacation Bible School yesterday.  They were pooped.  Between VBS last week and this week, they needed some freedom and relaxation. One place I have been wanting to go to all summer and that we try to go to at least once a year is Old Sturbridge Village.  This village is in Southern Massachusetts and consists of a collection of historic homes which were saved and transported to created  realistic 1830's village, complete with outlying farms, tinsmith, church, and sawmill.

I find this place extremely inspiring.  To see how hard folks had to work just to make one meal is always a reality check for me when I feel like complaining about something.  Specifically I wanted to go to see how their gardens were doing.  I am always interested in heirloom vegetables and old gardening skills.

This is a shot of the "kitchen garden" which sets next to the Freeman Farm located on the outskirts of the village. This is bigger than my entire garden! But, the kitchen garden was vital to the livelihood of these people. The kitchen garden would be tended and grown almost the entire year long, providing staples like potatos, beens and dried herbs so that even in the darkest days of Winter, they would have something to fill their stomachs with. Specifically, you are looking at their bean bed - which will grow straight up these poles.

The Freeman Farm also boasts about twenty chickens. They are the true "free range." They were walking around, not afraid of us, pecking at the ground and happy.

I am pretty sure this is Dill.

Then I went over to the Roger Walker Herb Garden. This is my dream herb space! Tiers and tiers of rocked in varieties, some familiar some not.
I took photos of thing I would like to plant next year.

Dark Opal Basil...doesn't that purple color make it look so tasty?

Caraway! Has so many uses.

Yarrow, also has many uses and it comes in several different colors.

Tansy. This is a beautiful plant with a few uses, but needs to be planted away from some things as it sucks the life out of the soil.

And lastly, I am gonna plant this little guy in my garden too!