Sandhill Farm by Gigi
Fall is always a time of transition here at Sandhill. Whereas throughout the rest of the year, there is an urgency to the work at hand, now we can take it a little easier. There is more time for visiting, reading, traveling, getting to projects and ideas that have been on the back burner. Our population also drastically drops as the seasonal interns move on to their next adventures and the flow of visitors slows.
Jacob, from Red Earth Farms, has been staying with us for the beginning of the cold season. Among his contributions here, he has taken to inviting friends from the neighboring communities to join in the meals he has prepared. We've enjoyed the company of Alline, Kurt and Thomas as well as Alyson, Mark and Cole. These soirees are a nice variation to the large potlucks we hold weekly.
For myself, I have finished the installation of a new (used) furnace for our greenhouse. It has a much larger firebox then the parlor stove I had been using which means that now I do not have to re-stoke in the middle of the night! Speaking of which (as many folks my age have experienced) the middle of the night is a great time for reading novels. Among some favorites here have been: The Greenlanders by Jane Smiley, The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton and a few Zane Grey westerns.
Our gardens are basically "put to bed"-most areas are cover cropped, some greens, parsley, cilantro may over winter under their coverings, large compost piles are cooking, the perennial herbs have a protective biomass of decaying top growth. We are amply stocked with canned goods, dried fruit and shitakes, frozen veges, root veges stored in sand and squashes/pumpkins/sweet potatoes and garlic stored in the "cellar"-the downstairs of our earth sheltered multiuse building which averages around 50F in the winter. To supplement these preserves, we are eating fresh salads and greens from the greenhouse--an earth bag/timber frame construction which you can see on our website.
In other news, we have a new forestry crew this year, led by Stan and Apple with the rest of us as support staff. To help get oriented, we took a land walk together. We surveyed our woods, noting areas with downed trees, areas where preferred trees could be "released" and stockpiles of cut wood left to season from last year's harvest. We talked about which trees made good firewood and our future lumber needs as well. All our buildings are heated with wood and we use oak and cottonwood extensively in construction, with other species for building accents. We are lucky to have so much timber available to us and still the forest grows faster than our usage needs.
Renay finished her first season of junior high basketball. The girls did really well and improved significantly over the weeks of games and early morning practice, coached by Gary Hunziker. I was amazed how many parents, teachers and school administrators attended these games and we enjoyed the spontaneous cheering: S. C. Ti..gers, clap..clap..clap, clap, clap! The jr. high boys games were also fun to watch and compare their strategies with those of the girls team.
Stan was gone most of these past two weeks, in Manitoba visiting his family. They all celebrate an early Christmas together around the time of his mother's birthday. Temperatures up there were already -30, that's celsius but still pretty darned cold. He got to visit with most of his extended family as well as friends in Minnesota. One of his first queries on his return: "how's the pond ice?" We have already had a hockey game on our pond and a lovely visit to Old Lake with Thomas and Sparky from Dancing Rabbit.
We all went to the Holiday Band and Choir concert at the high school under the enthusiastic direction of Mrs. Hicks. This was especially fun for me as I had subbed in her class a few times this year when the students were practicing their holiday repertoire so I could recognize a lot of faces.
From all of us at Sandhill, we wish you a wonderful Christmas, Chanukah or just plain Off Work holiday season.