Holiday Fun

Here is our Christmas tree!  We chopped it down from our backyard!  And here are some of the award-winning entries of the First Annual Seager-Neel Sort-of Christmas Tree Giveaway Holiday Party!  

Jerry won Best Beverage with his delicious homebrew AND 

he won best appetizer with his homemade red pepper jelly and 

brie combo.  I don't have a picture of either, so I'll include a picture of Jerry's spectacular artichoke dip instead.  Man that guy can cook!!!  

James & Keri won Best Holiday Attire hands down!  James will say that he won, but we all know that it was the collective effort that brought home the gold.  Get a load of Keri's advent calendar outfit!!  Those kids are outta control!

Ahhh...

the idyllic sugar-frosted cabin in the woods complete with fish pond AND garden!!  Moon and Wes took 

home the coveted best gingerbread house award.  Nice work, team! 

My sour grinch martinis didn't win any awards, but look at that layering!!!  Forget teaching...bartending, here I come!!!  Just kidding.  ;)

THANKSGIVING!!

We got to host our second Thanksgiving this weekend - the first one in our new house. I'm so thankful for so many things. The first one is for having such a helpful husband!! Paul typed out a cooking schedule and copied all the recipes and started brining the Turkey on Monday. Then he made stuffing and pumpkin pie and gravy and vacuumed the house on Tuesday and Wednesday. The only thing we had to do on Thursday was mash some potatoes and roast some veggies! And cook everything according to the schedule! What fun!!

We had a smaller crowd than expected - Jacqueline, Becca & Andrew flew down to sunny San Diego, and Kendal & Edith Emily are still in LA - and even though we miss them all dearly, we've been having quite a good time playing our new games (Bananagrams, Dominion & Agricola), eating lots of tasty leftovers, cuddling with the kitties, doing sudoku, crosswords, &"homework", taking walks (okay, A walk), watching movies & decorating for Christmas!

As you can see, Robby's girlfriend, Elizabeth is quite good with the kitties! Pepper especially loves to be carried around inside Elizabeth's zip-up fleece. I don't have a picture, but it's kind of similar to Mojo's picture with Dad at dinner. Pretty darn cute!

Hooray for relaxing family holiday weekends!!!!!!!

Blah

This is our blah post. We don't really have anything to say right now. Except for that we finally decided on names for our kitties. Mojo & Pepper. They are awesome. Except when they try to eat our noses and our ears and smother us before we wake up in the morning. And except when they try to climb up the new curtains that we just hung last night. And except when they scratch the hell out of the back of our computer chair. And except for when Mojo isn't careful where he is sticking his tooshie. But otherwise, they really are quite adorable and cuddly and fuzzy and all the great things that kitties are. They are our cuddle monsters.

Cuddle time with the Kitties

We had our first full-on cuddle session with the kitties last night. They are really nice kitties. They like to purr alot. Maybe all kitties do....it's been awhile since we've had little ones around the house. :) We've been starting to call them Peanut and Jammers, but as in typical Seager fashion, we're not quite decided yet. Penny and Jude are also potential contenders. Jammers has really beautiful blue eyes, but they keep turning out red in my pictures. Oh...bundle of cuteness!!

Processing Produce with the Pipsqueaks ;)

A few weekends ago Bill & Jac & Andrew & Becca came to visit and we picked up some peaches at the market from our good friends (well, sort of....) from DeVine Gardens, and then we went apple-picking at Sm'apples (since we don't have any nice huge old apple trees in our yard yet). So we spent all day making applesauce and apple cake and dried apples and canned peaches. Andrew was a pro at the apple peeler. We spent some time hunting for Patches out and around the farm, but to no avail. We had a good time hanging out with the fam though. :)

Welcome Miss P & Mr. J!!

We brought the kids home from the hospital today. They didn't exactly enjoy the car ride home, and they are not exactly pleased with each other, but they seem to be getting used to their new digs. Miss P is a little scared. Of course, she did just have a hysterectomy. On top of that, her brother keeps growling at her! How rude. Mr. J is super cuddly and likes to purr (and growl) alot. He also seems to like the shower. I guess when the bathroom is all that you have to explore, you better get to every nook & cranny, even if it means wet paws. Paul and I are excited to be kitty parents again, but we are still missing Patches. We haven't been able to agree on official names yet....so if you have any recommendations....send them our way! We want to honor their predecessors by choosing P & J names so that should help narrow down the field of choices a little. :)

Kitty Eulogy

We went to the animal shelter on Saturday and found a pair of adorable kittens to adopt. They are getting fixed and we'll pick them up tomorrow. So on the eve of new cats we thought we'd share a few pictures of past kitties. Especially we want to remember Patches who left us just a few weeks ago. We miss you Patches!

Addendum to Zeitgest Addendum

I have watched the whole movie now and I thought a few more words might be in order. I still think its analysis of our monetary system makes this worth a look. I'm not so sure what to think of the Venus Project they advocate. Sounds nice I guess but doesn't strike me as terribly realistic in the near future. I would elaborate, but then you might feel like there's no need to watch this flick and you probably should. :)

They did have a nice section at the end about what we can do to change things.

Show Me The Money

I was just reading Adam's post on our economy and Kevin's comment. Good stuff.

I started watching Zeitgeist Addendum (its not really an addendum, more like its own 2-hour movie) this morning and it starts off with a good explanation of our monetary system and why it leads to problems like we are experiencing today. I would love to discuss this movie with people. Check it out.

More Visitors!

Kendal & Edie are visiting from L.A. for a few weeks. They brought Grandma up for a weekend work party at the farm. We had fun purusing the farmer's market, walking to Woods at Boulevard, cooking tasty meals, playing cards, playing peek-a-boo with Edie, and sitting around while Grandma pulled weeds and did dishes. :) Don't worry. Grandma got to do some of the fun stuff too....but boy oh boy can that woman put in some serious weeding time!!!

Getting Ready for Winter

The bees are ruthlessly excommunicating the drones. Only so many bees can survive through the winter on the honey they've made so far. The chickens have access to unlimited water now that Paul expanded their pen to include the rain-runoff-catcher-tub-thing that the previous owners installed. We gave in and bought a psuedo-tractor. It's a walk-behind kind of thing, not a sit-upon kind of thing, but it still TEARS IT UP!! So far we have a tiller attachment and a flail mower attachment, whatever that is. We (Paul) planted onions and garlic in the east garden beds and red clover for a cover crop in our newest bed right next to the house. Paul planted some willow tree babies and tore down some overgrown blackberries too. He's been busy!

We almost had another visitation: hot-air-balloon style this time.

Cider!!

We made cider! We got to visit the Shaffer farm and partake in the annual festivities. It was fun and the cider is tasty. But I am really bad at cutting worms out of apples.

Mushroom Hunting

Okay.....so I guess we weren't abducted by aliens after all. It did feel like that at times, however.

During the non-alien time, Paul's been working hard at hunting & gathering. Well...gathering mostly. He brought home a pound of chantrelles on Tuesday. We are trying to figure out a tasty way to eat them. So far our experiments have been fairly delicious....but we are hoping for knock-the-spores-off-the-mushroom kind of delicious. Any recipes?

Visitors

Whoah. I think we might have been abducted by aliens. The last thing I remember was taking this photo......and all of a sudden it's OCTOBER!! :)

We've sunk to a new low

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/9/2/amy_goodman_two_democracy_now_producers

A shift in focus

Hmmm....it gets harder to be a "farmer" when you have to be a teacher again. I did plant some wheatgrass seeds today, and we tried to pick blackberries and apples, but the blackberries need to dry out and the apples aren't quite ready yet. We did harvest some potatoes and carrots - the purple kind, even. They are actually orange inside. I was hoping they would be purple through and through, but they are still good carrots - proabably our best ever, actually. I think potatoes shall be our new rice. Potatoes are good for you, right?

Sometimes I get a little ahead of myself and I just want the farm to be done already - trees planted, full grown and healthy; greenhouses built and filled with sprouting seeds; old pool aqua gardens complete with fish and food; willow fences 8 feet tall sturdily keeping out those pesky deer; I could go on and on.... In my head I know that these things take time, and that the joy is in the journey, and yet I let myself get discouraged. What kind of "farmer" has to buy zucchini at the farmer's market???

Other times I feel proud of how far we have come and of the direction we are heading. It's funny what times of transition can do to a person's outlook. In a few more weeks, it will be fall. I love fall. I'll be used to having to work again. The apples will be ready. The blackberries will have dried out. Maybe our corn will even have kernels. Yoga class will start up again. In the meantime, I'm going to get to bed on time, not take life too seriously, and appreciate the present. :)

Tonight, Paul and I tried to imagine what the world would be like if it wasn't tilted like it is. Can you imagine no seasons? Kind of wild, huh?

WORMS!!

We are now the proud parents of, um.....LOTS of eisenia foetida, otherwise known as red wiggler worms!! My mom was the inspiration on this one actually. She almost couldn't go on the chocolate factory tour a few weeks back because a friend of hers was coming over to help her set up her very own worm bin. I thought, hmmm......worm bin...... and said, well, gosh....as long as you're going to get worm bin construction supplies for yourself, might you pick up some extras for me?? And of course, being the ever-selfless supermom that my mom is, she provided me with the instructions, the bins, and all the necessary parts - right on down to the teflon plumbers tape!! Now all I had to do was find the initiative to put it all together. So....after a few weeks....I read up on the directions, realized I would have to use some power tools, and called in for reinforcements. Usually, at this point, I would just give the job over to the power tool guy, but this time I was determined to do it myself (mostly). Once Paul helped me decide which of his three drills I should use, showed me how to put the drill bit in and how to hold the drill, I was READY. The 1/4 inch drainage holes were pretty easy. The 1 inch hole for the spigot thingy didn't go quite as smoothly. I guess you have to pull the trigger ALL the way back even though it makes a loud and scary noise. :) Paul pinch hit for the two 2 inch holes on the lid, but other than that, my first ever drilling experience was a success! Now I just needed to find some good bedding material and some worms! After way too much research, I settled on a combination of soggy newspaper, cardboard, straw, and a couple handfuls of sand and compost. Now for the worms. Turns out that Kurt Hawley 's mom lives right up the road from us, so instead of having to drive out to Sumas, we got our worms hand-delivered right to our doorstep. Thanks, Kurt! Thanks, Mom! Here's a picture of Paul giving them their first PJ's Patches meal! Mmm mmm good!

The Fun Guys

So the other night, in between episodes of "The Wire", in the waning light of the evening, we made ourselves be productive. What on earth are they, you say?? Why, they are mushroom towers of course! Layers of wood chips, straw, and mycelium (courtesy of Jerry, of course!) all wrapped up in tall hoops of plastic! My innate landscaping senses told me they would be a unique eye-catching addition to the "side garden". Plus, mushrooms need shade and water, so there weren't many other places for them to be. These better be some tasty fungi!

I Break for Baker

I think I might try to hike more often. :) This is Baker from almost the top of Skyline Divide. And this is just the view on this side. Talk about A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.

PJ's Patches is Jammin!

We harvested our first blackberries of the season last week. Paul triple-juiced three bowl-fulls of berries while I took an extended trip to the store for no-sugar pectin and now we are seven pints of tart but tasty blackberry jam richer! There's quite a few more berries out there, so come on over and pick with us if you can!

Bees on the Move

The bees have begun their Incredible Journey. At one foot each day (on the days we remember, anyway) they should make it to their new sunnier spot in about 3 months according to Paul's precise measurements (see below). We picked blackberries AND blueberries today. The blackberries were ours, and the blueberries were from the Koskela berry farm right around the corner from us. After running the blackberries through our juicer three times, we were left with some delicious blackberry sauce for jam and some tasty blackberry seeds for the chickens. Speaking of which.....apparently Rosie is a rooster. She's the second one from the left - the big one with the comb on her head and the big tailfeathers. Oops. I guess that means we'll be able to make chicken babies ourselves! (Well...not exactly ourselves, but you know what I mean!) Patches says hello from the farm! :)

Ruffin' it in the woods

We took yet another break from the farm (summer harvest season is pretty slow when you don't plant your garden until July) and headed to the hills with the B'ham (note the well-placed apostrophe) gang. It rained on us a little but luckily Julie and Jerry brought the castle tent so we could all (sans dogs) play cards, take naps AND stay dry! Juneau, Julie & Jill had some harrowing canoe adventures, not helped by the 40 pound puppy trying to escape into the lake, but eventually made it safely back to land. Adam and Paul took on religion and everyone pitched in a few words for the crossword. Adam kicked our behinds in Bananagrams, but Paul and I plan to hold training sessions for our victorious comeback. Meals were pretty impressive: locally grown (REALLY local) pesto garlic scape pasta with zucchini and chicken sausage; rice, bean & fresh corn burritos with all the trimmings; french toast, scrambled eggs & sausage; and breakfast burritos with more zucchini, pepper jack cheese & pork sausage. There was even ice cream and of course S'mores. All-in-all, a pretty darn good trip.