When a pendulum swings it pauses at either end and quickly passes through the middle. August is the middle. Things are changing quickly. We have gone from some of the hottest summer days on record to days of giant swings between the high and low temperatures. That part of our weather is actually good for… (read more)
This will be the hottest day of the year, 104 degrees. I’m glad to be in our straw bale winery at 74 degrees F. It is also the height of fruit season. There are cherries in the dryer; apricots in the refrigerator; huckleberries, blueberries and peaches in the freezer. Breakfast was fresh corn fritters with… (read more)
Usually I review diary entries from the last month to write this blog. I did that for June and it looked pretty boring. I also usually have a theme and had been thinking about “recycling” as the theme. That sounded like it could easily end up as another pedantic rant on sustainability from an old… (read more)
It’s that time of year again, Morel season. Even though there is a long list of things to do around the house, garden and vineyard, the call of the wild mushrooms lures us away to the sites of last year’s fires for a “Taste of the Wild”. This year we have been picking in the… (read more)
“A biome is a specific environment that’s home to living things suited for that place and climate.” (Vocabulary.com) Maybe I am still trying to apply my degree in philosophy, or just spend too much time alone in the vineyard, but there is a lot to think about in developing Regenerative Agriculture in a specific place…. (read more)
It has been 41 days since we got back from Hawaii and today was warmer than any day we spent there. So Spring has Sprung. We even ate asparagus fresh out of the garden today and Cheryl is setting up feeders for hummingbirds. The local deer have gone from mangy and rangy to sleek and… (read more)
We survived the moons of January and the moon is full again now at the end of February. Luckily we can see it at night so far but tomorrow will bring another two days of big snow. I would like to think of winter as a time to kick back a little indoors and catch… (read more)
January obviously involved a lot of lunacy bracketed by two full supermoons as it was. We encountered our share. Since it was the beginning of the year doing inventory and writing reports to the Washington Liquor and Cannabis Control Board and the Alcohol, Tobacco and Trade Board (TTB) was mandatory. (It’s curious that locally winemakers… (read more)
It’s officially winter since the winter solstice has come and gone. You would think that things should slow down. Critters are hibernating or have gone south. The crops are in. It’s hard to get around. But NOOO! We have a holiday season that revolves around Christmas. (Very little mention of solstice, which basically is “the… (read more)
I want worms! Earthworms that is. A few blogs back I wrote about how topsoil is the key to a healthy civilization reviewing a 1975 paper, Topsoil and Civilization. (This link will download the whole 159 page book as a pdf – or you can email me and I will send it as a 1.6… (read more)
