Bilberries and rain and fulfilling dreams

As most Europeans are suffering extreme heat, we have had a cold week. Last night it was 8C, and during the day it's from 14C to 17C. I think this is way too cold. Hb is content, because he's suffering anytime temperatures rise above 18C - he works in a freezer (literally). I'm suffering now.

But we had our bout of warmth earlier this summer, and for most berries and fruits it was a perfect timing, no frost nights during the time they were blooming, a lot of pollinators buzzing around and dry weather fot those buzzers to fly. And once the blooming was over, there was rain - plants can't make fruits/berries if it's too dry.

I've baked two bilberry pies so far - we call bilberries blueberries (They are original blueberries). D don't eat them, because bilberries make her sick. As do oat, milk, pasta, chicken, too much eggs, most fruits (but not raspberries, which make me  sick), potatoes, rice (but not rice milk), bread, cheese if not cooked, meat in most forms... But anyway, os and ys LOVE bilberry pie.

I told them they will have just as many bilberry pies during the winter as there is berries in the freezer. So far os has been twice picking bilberries with me!!!

Because of the heat wave and this rain, our firewood project is behind our normal schedule. We started cutting and splitting last weekend, and if it's not raining today, we might get more done tonight. Yesterday it was rain on and off whole afternoon.

A bit boring.

Old man decided to build a log cabin/retirement house. He has dreamt of three things in his life: learning to fly (got his license in early twenties), owning a forest (bought first forest in his fifties) and building a log house. Now it's time for him to fulfill his last dream, groundwork is done, just waiting for last signatures for the permit. Yesterday they were digging an old well, it was filled with roots and concrete rings were a bit loose. So all is now nicely clean and sealed, and after a while that water is drinkable. My cousin's digger on the other hand is not ok, it stopped working several times. Oh well, just like it always is, something happens and you just have to fix it.

And as for my mother, she has had her dreams fulfilled: a house of their own in the countryside, work from home, a nice garden.

My sweet kitten

It's been more than 10 days since out kitten left home for the last time. She's nowhere, no-one has seen anything. 'Suma can't find a trace of her- and she's actually a good sniff dog.

There's foxes, lynxes, eagle owls and raccoon dogs. There has even been a wolverine. No wolves, though. And Smart Girl is only cat missing in years in this village. Choose your guilty one.

House is quiet.  Cats are usually out or sleeping, they don't make a lot of noise. Now Baby Brother is out trying to find his sister. He comes inside,   seeks all hiding places, all sleeping places, comes to me asking where's my sister? His fur looks dull and his eyes are empty.

He is heartbroken. He has lost his sister, his best friend, half of his heart,  his joy and happines. I can't help him, I can't mend his heart.

Os and sys are just as heartbroken. How to console teenager boys with broken heart?' Suma is quiet, she looks out of windows trying to see something. I think she doesn't know what she's looking for, but she knows she has to look for something.

We are all lost. 

Time is on the run and I can't catch it

This summer is about to end soon and I just can't get everything done. At least I have been able to forage mushrooms. 'shrooms are what os eats. I had a target to get 20 bags of mushrooms to freezer, and I think I have done it already. 20 bags means mushrooms once every other week, more bags means I can feed him once a week with mushrooms. They are healthy (they have some fibre), nutricious (vitamins, mineral, protein)  and delicious.

During mushroom season I usually keep long nails. I cut stems of mushrooms with my nails, if I have lost/misplaced/forgot to take with me my foraging knife (happens every day at some point).This of course discolours my nails yellow/orange, so if I have to go to meet people, I have to use nail polish. Oh the vanity!

Mushroom season = magnificient nails.

I've cut about a dozen masks, but not been able to sew them yet. It takes about 15 min to sew one mask. I have all materials here. I tried to fill up my stash with more elastic, but in the fabric/cratf store I realized I have more elastics in my storage than that biggest craft chain has! I don't know if I'm ashamed or delighted.

I let kids choose their own fabrics (100% cottons) and made two masks each. Sys tried his on and told me he's not going to use any masks until it is compulsory - he looks like a communist. Ooookei, I didn't see that coming. But yes, we do have a long and winded conversations about world economics, democratic situations of different countries/continents, and factors that makes this country safe and some other countries less safe - why it is much safer to be a teenager or OAP in here than .. In Mexico, or Burkina Faso or Indonesia or North Korea. And what happens in US if dt gets re-elected or not.

I thought I might not get beans at all, they were so slow to grow. Luckily I have 1kg already in freezer and another 750grams needs to be frozen (I've blanched them already). And - most exciting thing ever - I HAVE PICKLING CUCUMBERS! I've got around ten in fridge waiting to be processed, I think I'd like to have mildly hot relish done. And of course dill pickles, if I get more cucumbers. Well, dill pickles they are not, we don't like dill, but something pickled, anyway.

Have you ever counted how much vegetables (incl. fruits and berries) you need to have in order to feed your family five a day portions? That's 500grams per person per day. Seven days a week. So it's 3,5kg per person per week. Doesn't sound bad, does it?

Thats 21 kilos per week for the whole family!

21 kilos, every week. 52 weeks per annum, that's about a ton of veggies. So if I want to feed my family the recommended amount of veggies, I'd seriously need a bigger freezer space...

If I give everyone 150g carrots every day (which is most likely, because they like carrots and we have them year round), thats over 6 kilos per week, and over 300 kilos or carrots every year!

50g cucumber - 100kg cucumbers.

100g tomatoes - 200kg tomatoes.

100g apples - 200kg apples

100g banana - 200kg bananas

 

My head hurts.

On more lighter news we are waiting for covid19 test results for ys and d. D got sick on friday a week ago. Ys got sick on monday a week ago, and they had tests on thu and fri. They both have been at home. No-one else is sick, they don't have fever (not at all), just mild throat ache and clogged nose.

They will be back to schools once they get their results. There's no Covid in our area, they are not really sick and there's bunch of beginning-of-the-school-flu cases at schools. But they have already lost more than a week of school.

Once they get their results, I'm off to Ikea. Ys's room is nearly done, I got floor done during the weekend. he needs a desk, a chair, few bookcases and a wardrobe. Unfortunately some of the furniture I'd like to get are not sold in net store, so I have to go there myself. I've tried to look around but haven't found anything that fits his room (there are some difficult corners) like those will.

Also d needs a wardrobe. Her room is a mess (teenager - do I need to say more?).

I don't think Ikea has any small bottles left. Pity, 'cos I like them, they're perfect size for Christmas hamper gift liquers.

Lost and found (again...)

On Sunday we were berry picking with sister. We found cloudberries (ask Ikea), blueberries (bilberries), bog blueberries and raspberries. I fell on swamp ditch, and I lost my glasses. It was a very warm day, so even if my right boot weighed a ton with bogwater, it was a nice trip.

When I'm talking about blueberries, I mean bilberries. Here in north they are called blueberries (in the Scandinavian languages Vaccinium myrtillus is called blåbär (or blåbær), which literally means blueberry. Therefore many Scandinavians erroneously call bilberry blueberry when speaking English. Ikea Blåbärsylt has bilberries pictured on the label).

There is suble differences in blueberries and bog blueberries. Bog blueberries have a distinct starshape crown at the end, while blueberries have a rounded end. And to add more confusion, North American blueberries have that starshape, too. And "our" blueberries are dark blue/purple through, bog blueberry and North American blueberry are pale inside. Also shape is different. Bogs on left, bilberries on right.

But yes, I can't cope without my glasses (they are reading glasses, and as I work mainly on computer/laptop, they are important to me - and I can't clean raspberries without them - can't see worms...)

So off to woods we went again (on monday with sys and ys who were bored to death even before we reached the edge of the swamp) and YES I found my glassess! Also more blueberries, bog blueberries and cloudberries. I hate foragin berries, by the way.

Black rimmed glasses are not easy to spot on ground.

But the trip was successfull and timing was perfect, this was the sight when we got out of the woods. 20 mins later (5mins after we got home) rain begun. Still raining. This is wet week.

From the garden I have been picking black currants and strawberries. I paid 20€ for 20 strawberry plants last summer, and so far this summer I have got more than 5 litres of strawberries (last summer I got maybe 1l), and they are still producing. Doesn't sound much, but to me it is, I've never been able to grow strawberries before! As strawberries are about 3-5€/l, those plants are already paid themselves after this summrerk  

This is a poor year for currants, one of my bushes is empty, one has few berries, and only one produced "normal" amount of berries. My mother's bushes have few berries, but hb's parents' have none. And they usually have loads. Fortunately I can pick our neighbours currants, so I might be able to get my mother enough currants so she can make cordial for the winter. You know, winter is coming...

I have got one patch of sugar snap peas to freezer, but peas are just flowering now. Might be a while before I can harvest them.

I think I need to fill up my freezers and pantry this summer/autunm, because Covid-19 cases are on the rise again in Europe. It is not granted I can buy veggies and fruits during the winter.

It's getting better

There is so many good news in my life.

Old man's surgery in June was a success. Tumor was completely removed (no growth ouside pancreas), and among all lymph nodes there were only few with suspicioius cells, and they were nearest to pancreas, further away nodes were all clean.

So, now he "just" have to adjust being diabetic (type 1)... Of course there's follow ups regularily, after all we are talking about cancer, not infected toe nail. But now we can breathe.

He needs to learn to eat again, it's been difficult (he had a weight loss surgery as well, because part of his stomac was removed - he was lightly underweight in the beginning, and now he is "moderately underweight"  he needs to gain at least 10 kg to be on healthy range.

Ys's room is progressed. I got all walls finished and we had electrician today working for four hours (he did more than just ys's electrics), now hb needs to build the ceiling so rest of electric sockets and light fittings can be installed. I'll put the floor down after that and then off to Ikea!

My last vacation week, back to work on Monday. Well, back.. to log in on my laptop. We'll be back on office next week - and only if someone wants to go to the office, we can work from home until November.

My veggie patch has started producing. I've been digging potatoes, first I had to dig six plants to get pot full of potatoes for my family (six people eat quite a lot of spuds at dinner), now it's down to two plants. My early potatoes are Colomba, they are a bit too creamy to my liking, but kids love them. And they are even sized and they have grown very well.

We've been eating lettuce from garden only for weeks. Haven't bought any. My strawberries have been really nice suprice this year, today I picked a little shy of 2l, because yesterday it rained all day and I didn't go to veggie patch at all. But I have been able to give kids handfull of berries each day (a handfull for each child!)

My beets (golden beets and striped ones) are growing strongly, but my Cylindras didn't even germinate, and those few that did haven't been growing. Maybe seeds were too old?

And carrots! yes, I have carrots, I've made carrot top pesto again (because I feed children carrots daily, I've had a few carrot tops, too) and now I'm drying some to get green powder to sprinkle into foods in winter... (my kids hate me)

Harvesting dinner

For a very long time this has been a good year to my roses, I have a soft spot fot these pink ones (don't ask me names or types, they all were growing here when we bought this place over 25 years ago, I was young and not interested in gardening).

They have a lovely strong (byt not overwhelming) smell, and it's been expecially nice this summer, because this is first summer for a very long time I have been abe to smell them! We keep joking that I have corona because I got my sense of smell back...

My mother had these by our front door when I was a child. Those bushes are gone, but my aunt took some of them to her house, which is now our home.

Otherwise i've sent my time in forest. Twice a day I take 'Suma for a walk, and finally I remember to take plastic bag and a knife with me...

These lovelies

And these little buttons

And those tiny pearls

Yes, foraging season is here!

Usually I pick only mushrooms, and get my berries from hb's father or my aunt or someone (like my co-workers in-laws), but because this covid-19 and my in-laws being way over 90 years I quess it's my turn to get my fingers blue.

Local blueberries are tiny, they are different from those garden varieties (which are originally from North America), it takes a long time to pick enough berries for a pie... But I even got kids to pick few berries, we have thermacell to keep mosquitos away.

I usually fry all mushrooms, that's how os likes them. First I boil excess moisture off, like this:

Some porchinos and chanterelles

Chanterelles

Many people think that frying mushrooms means that first you melt butter on frying pand and then toss mushrooms in there. It might work out ok that way, but these mushrooms we have here like to be first boiled in their own juices and then fried with butter and salt.

For freezer I boil mushrooms in their own moisture until it's almos all gone, cool them and bag them. That way they keep for a very long time (over a year). If fat (oil or butter) is added, they keep only few months.

My aim is to have at least 20 bags of mushrooms in freezer, so os can get fried mushrooms once every fortnight during winter. 15 to go...

And those blueberries...

Pie!

This is our go-to berry pie. Pie crust needs something to be perfect, but this is good. I don't blind bake the bottom, and white stuff is yoghurt, one egg and some sugar and vanilla sugar.

Just add heat

Crust looks darker than it was (this was eaten before it was even cooled down. Filling firms up when it gets cool.

Os ate half of the first pie I made, so I quess even with not so perfect crust it was delicious...

My children don't get to eat out often, not once a month, maybe three times a year. Now that d goes out with her friends, she's been eating out more, but of course it all came to halt due to covid-19.

Younger boys like sushi, and it's expensive to take them to eat sushi to a sushi restaurant. So we've mahde sushi ourselves:

Only authentic things were sushi vinegar and seaweed. Rice was pudding rice (rinsed before boiling), sesame seeds were found in the bottom of my pantry cuboard and a bit over toasted in frying pan, surimi sticks (fake crab stics) and shrimps, and cucumber sticks and cooked carrot sticks. Maybe not authentic but quite nice with soy sauce (in Ikea egg cup) and fake wasabi. I don't know how to use chopsticks but kids do.

I wanted to try to make tortillas, they were suprinsingly easy. But I don't think they worth the effort, because only half of kids will eat tortillas in any form or shape. But if I can't go to shops I know I'm able to make them. Another skill acquired.

An di finally after three years have a working remote for my car. Now I'm able to sell it - but also now I want to keep it 😁

Storm is a brewing...

Or not. According to weather forecasts we might get some rain, but storms will pass by us through east. Everything needs water right now, so I'm on second day on the row waiting. Yesterday we didn't even have clouds, today it looks more promising, at least whole sky is now yellowish grey.

These hot days (officially +31C, unofficially from +32C to +34C have been really tiring. Old man was in dire need of hydration, but because he has had a weight loss surgery as a bonus, he can consume about 1dl of liquids/15min. So it's been really hard, and they don't have ac at home. And he's having handfull of pills three times a day, it's difficult for him to eat anything after popping those pills... In two weeks he should be off several of those pills, so it should get easier. And being a stubborn old man, he didn't take his painkillers (I don't eat those, I'll make it without) he was sick and tired. Now he takes painkillers nicely, thank you. (His older sister had cancer operation four years ago, and is no shy of giving orders to her little brother, thankfully).

Everything has been busy.

I think someone thinks too much of himself (herself, aren't all working ants female?)

It's been too hot to go for 'Suma walks in to the village, so we have been walking in the woods, no matter how many mosquitoes and other blood sucking critters.

Early in the evening last monday (about 10pm). We don't have darkness at all now. ('Suma is in the picture somewhere)

Ceps are coming along, Not yet edible (or it is, for maggots)

Number One had his 3rd birthday last weeks (oh how the time flies) and he wanted to have a ghost.

I couldn't find any ghost at the supermarket I do most of my shopping (or mega market, what ever) and didn't have time to online shopping. But did have time to sew.

I think this is all right, even thoug it looks like a barbapapa to me. Sorry about childhood traumas, Number One.

Because having a vacation means I have had more time. I've cooked even more, and managed to empty not one but both two laundry baskets!

We had an explosion in the kitchen. I was boiling eggs (like I do once a week for hb's lunches to take with him to work) and heard a loud bang. Because nothing had felled to the floor, I checked eggs. Yep! That's and inch wide hole in that egg! never had that happen before, I mean of course one or three eggs crack and leak almos every time, but this was a new one. Never a dull day in my life.

Week 11?

I don't know anymore which week this is - the "new normal". I still can't do certain things that are part of my work, but I'm still overworked most of the time - I know I'm doing something wrong because some of my co-workers have had basically a long spring vacation and my hours keep adding.

But I don't actually care, I know I'm doing my part and when this is over no-one can tell me I didn't do enough.

Children are out of school, D has still one language course to attend (4h a day + homework for two weeks) but she didn't return to school in the first place like boys did, they had 12 days - but mostly they were biking, hiking, picnicking and studying outside the classroom and outside the school building.

But I'm relived school is over for now.

I've been in the veg plot, in polytunnel and all around. I try to work on my veg plot or polytunnel at least an hour a day, but it's not so easy in this househould.

Weather has been nice, too nice, if you ask me. We need rain - yes, we had snow during mother's day weekend, but it's not enough. And it's been several weeks since.

I still haven't planted everything on my plot or cold frames, Most seedlings are still waiting in the polytunnel. We usually cet frost in mid June (it was 10th June, but lately it's been near 15th - we do get the worst from climate change, no snow in winter but more snow in summer).

I have weeded strawberry boxes, I got 10 runners to plant (2 of them will go to my co-worker, they are from plants I got from our nice cleaner lady and I promised to give her any I can find). In another box there's plenty of runners left, but NOW it's raining so I'm not doing it. With rain come mosquitoes, and we have plenty of them in sunny dry days. I have seen several flowers already!

Glass greenhouse has all planted. Six tomatoes, two cape gooseberries, two spinach wines (I don't remember the name of that plant) and four aubergines. Plants are still very tiny, but if I'm lucky I'll get at least some harvest. There was a critters nest in the greenhouse, mole or mouse, I have no idea, but it was VERY productive during winter. I scooped droppings and used as a fertilizer in growing bags (I didn't change the mulch this year). So, time will tell how powerful those droppings are 😁

My corn is my biggest worry - os likes fresh corn cobs so I sowed over 40 seeds. I have six plants! All other seeds sown using same soil are doing well. Yestarday I saw few small green dots in pots - they might grow now, ut it's so late! I think I have to harvest them as mini cobs (like ones used in fry ups). i don't know what's wrong with corn, seeds were bought this spring and they were of expensive/hight quality brand.

Old man is finaly having an operation next week. It's a major operation, at least six hour in the theatre, a couple of days in ICU, few weeks in the university hospital and after that he'll be moved to local hospital to recover -if he makes it through the operation. First he was told the tumour was inoperable. Timing is always poor, of course, but at least he has done all firewood, all field work (potatoes are planted) and fixed his tractor.

I'm considering if I should ask my sister to live with mom for the summer with her family. Even with her partner working benefits overpower risks, I think.

We'll have a family meeting this weekend.

Week 7, Prawn casserole

Week 7 went by as fast as the wind that was blowing whole week. I have no idea how this is possible; days had just as many hours as ever.

We managed to put planks on the wall of ys's room. I also treated plastered walls with dust binding substance. There's 2 drywall walls, and ys wants them to be metallic. Fiiiiine.

Thin lines are strings we put to line up screws

Wood (spruce) was treated first with strong tea, and then with iron soaked vinegar (I put rebar bars into vinegar and let them soak for few days - the longer they stay, the darker the shade). If wood has tannin itself (like oak), tea treatment is not needed.

 Many people has been telling how they have been eating rhubarb for weeks now.

My rhubarb is finally growing

 At least I got something from my veggie patch (actually from one of the cold frames):
 

These are the very last parsnips!

 Because we can't (or want not) go to fast food places, I'm trying to get fun food for kids. Last week I made home made hamburgers (I found few bags of hamburger buns from freezer) and kids thought they were great, not like McDonalds but good.

I also made doughnuts (os can't eat store bought because they have cardamon)

I'm still trying to make meals from pantry and freezer. I found handful or frozen prawns and after toying with several ideas I settled on prawn casserole - kids don't like it but I do. I didn't have any tinned tomatoes (turns out i do have, but couldn't find at that moment), but had passata. I had some aubergine left, and instead of garlic I used garlic scapes from freezer. Last bag of spinach from the freezer was aslo used - and I have to say concotion was delicious!  A mighty great achievement considering I had no idea what to make when I took the bag of prawns from freezer.

Nature is aiming towards summer no matter what. We don't have here bluebells or wild garlic, instead we have all kind of poisonous plants:

Mezereon

False morel (Gyromitra esculenta)

Liverwort (anemone hepatica) trying to be a wood anemone.

 Of course there's other signs of warmer season. Somehow we still have a pair of swans, they usually leave after two weeks, now they have been here for five-six weeks? I don't think they are building a nest, maybe next year?
And then we have a pack of leverets of european hare. We have both mountain hares and european ones here, but I think mountain hare leverets stay more in the woods, and those european hare leverets stay on fields. I think mountain heres are pretty, european hares are a bit... I don't know, bony? This monday I counted 8 leverets in one group! They are not fully grown yet, maybe they find big numbers more safe? Because..
We have a fox visiting our yard - not very nice because our three cats. But hopefully it has enough food without trying to hunt out pets.  She will no doubt eat some of the leverets.

In two weeks kids will be back at school (or two youngest will be), but my orders to work from home might continue all throught the summer.

Today I might try to feed kids carrot and parsnip soup with toast. We shall see.

Social distance - week 1: Working from home and homeschooling

Oh, it's here. Covid-19, coronavirus. Whole Europe is shut.  Our children are at home, been since monday. I was at the office on mon and tue, I had to sort out my laptop which wasn't connecting to net. My office is told to work at home at least until April 13th -  as are kids homeschooling, too.

So this has been the first week of isolation (I'm not talking about social isolation, which is mostly the norm to us).

On wed I woke up at 4:30, just because I couldn't sleep anymore (hb wakes up at 4.15). Ate breakfast, checked emails, read all new info and, finally, when there was enough light, took 'Suma to walk. Then I put linens to washer, fed cats and read some more news. I let kids to sleep until 7.30 (usually I wake them up at 6.30) and fed them cereals. Nice slow morning.
Ys's teatcher had some papers for his class, so we had to fetch them - at 8.20 we were only ones at school (excluding staff).
So, the very first day of home schooling (not really home schooling, if all children in the country are at home and teatchers are teaching them via Internet). I was suprised all systems worked. I had trouble to go on with schedule - three childres all in different schools and of course they all have lunch breaks at different times - had to make quick lunch which was quick to eat. Tuna and pasta (a school lunch I have never made before...), at least I got one tin out of my pantry ;-)

Thursday was a challenging day, because I had compulsory training via skype - my lunch break wasn't at same time than kids etc. But we made it, and will make from now on. This is really a minor inconvenience.

Friday was another first: I was doing groceries to my aunt and Onld man and my mom. It took ages to find all things on shopping lists - there were plenty of everything, but I just buy different things. I had difficulties to locate them! But yes, I got all items. Also got medication for Old man, no problems there either. You can buy only one package of basic pain medication (30 tablets). Not because there isn't any, but because this way all people who needs it, will get it.

Shops here are in normal state. Toilet paper was missing from the shelves few days because staff was too busy to replenish them. Now there is mountains of toilet papers. Only shortage is hand sanitiser, but that will be solved next week, when basically all local breweries have set up their production lines for it.
Oh, yeast was missing, too. It is fortunate that there is at least a one yeast factory in this country (they produce CO2 for greenhouses, too) so this shortage is shortlived. I have both dry yeast in my pantry  and old fashioned block yeast in my freezer, it's that kind you can freeze (not all yeasts can be frozen).
Oh, cheap tomato tins were also missing, now that I think of it.

But mostly shops are like thay have always been. Salad bars are closed, staff have so much to do they don't have time to disinfect anything extra. Salad bar is nor necessity. There was actually a lot of reduced milk!
Prices have not gone up, at least I couldn't find anything with inflated prices.

Now they are talking about isolating certain areas, because people don't behave reasonably. I think there will not be curfew yet, but they might stop all travelling from capital area, and maybe other big cities.

I have only one more bigger issue: my car is due MOT very soon and it need some fixing before i can take it to MOT. but now I don't feel comfortable (or safe) to take it to garage. So - I might be buying a car in near future (not a new car, but one that has it's MOT done recently).

I have enough work to do for the next three weeks, so I will not worry that yet. Hb may have to stay at home some point, because he can't do his job from home and their products might not be considered essentials. I will worry that if it happens, and there's not much to worry, then. There's nothing I can do to prevent it.

Oh, I gave my name as a volunteer shopper/doing errands for those who are quarantined or isolated, our commune started to organize volunteers last friday; they also have staff at library if someone needs help and can't find anyone to help them. I can't work as a coordinator, because our poor phone signal, but I'll do what is needed.

Tomorrow is the first day of week 2. Ys will be baking cookies at home economics (or just at home), they all have video lessons or chats during the day. I have two skype meetings...

Keep safe, wash your hands and take care of those who can't do it themselves.
We will get through this, together.

It's not COVID-19, but miserable anyway

We've been sick for three weeks, first ys and d, then sys and d, and then hb and d and ys and now me. Not very nice disease, but at least this is not that corona-virus. I haven't see number Two for two weeks (and now she's tree weeks). My sister has sent me a lot of pictures, but it's not the same thing. Her children might be the closest I get to grandchildren, and right now I feel it of course it might be also this flu which is making me feeling blue - I hade +40C temp during the day today, but I think I'm on the mend now.
Maybe my body got the shock it needed when I was taking 'Suma for a pee and she found a raccoon dog and chased it throught the woods and I had to run(crawl) after them. Raccoon dogs do possum when they are threatened, they play dead. It's very convincing, at least 'Suma is buying it.
But now she's very pleased to herself and sleeps happily on the chair next to me. I can't sleep, I slept 5 hrs in the afternoon.
Third storm in three weeks, no damages to our property. Old man's cousin's forest got some wind damage, one bigger spruce fell during the night. We even had a power cut last night, but it didn't last long. Kids were very dissapointed, they wanted to use torches and light candles!
No flooding, ditches have a lot of water but it runs freely. I know near lakes there is floods, and near rivers even more. Fields in many places are lakes, and there's fish where's usually hares!

The not-winter of 2019-2020 so far

This endless November is depressing.  We get snow, it stays for three days max and then comes rain and all white and light is gone again. At least now we had few bright nights with full moon, so no need for torch while on 'Sumawalk.

 Lack of snow means lack of light. I take torch to 'Sumawalks, if I go to forest or if it really is too dark to see. If there's some clouds, but not too much, I get my "streetlights" from neaby town:

Town center is about 5km ahead (little lights are our house). Talking about light pollution! This picture is taken 4.50pm on 4th Dec.

This one was taken 1st dec 10.45am. We have had some sun! And snow!

This was taken on Friday morning, when we walked to taxi stop with sys and 'Suma.

Friday morning, 1,5h later with ys and 'Suma on our way to taxi stop. Same moon, although you have to imagine to see anything. That light spot. And no snow.

A year ago. So much snow and frost.

Lack of frosts and deep freeze is beneficial to our wood stores. I have used only one pile of wood, storage behind garage is stayed untouched since October (I used some of it when everything else was too wet or hard to get, but then we had a brief spur of frosts and I managed to shelter dry-but-left-under-open-sky-pile and when rainwater was dried off it's now usable wood for our woodburners. It's been seasoning it's time already.)
There's been winters I have had to lit fire to three woodburnes every day (stove or sauna and fireplace in the old side of the house and woodburner on the extension), now I don't need to lit a fire every day at all!

If this endless November continues, I might not need to chop any excess of wood this spring, it would be enough just to cut damaged forest trees and fell those trees around the field left untouched last spring. Which would be a good thing because old man can't help this spring.
I need to buy a decent battery chainsaw and learn how to use it. We have electric chainsaw but it's basically a toy, can't use it to cut wood thicker than 15cm.

I have been using my woodburning stove, I roasted two hams (for Christmas and for New Year) and at least twice a week I have been cooking dinner with it (it has an oven and a stove).

Frying potatoes and pasta and boiling broccoli

 I knitted only three pairs of socks for Christmas presents:

My three boys got socks. Sys asked for sig-sag stripes.

These are crocheted:

Jolly rogers reflectors - can be used as tree decorations, too.

Our Christmas tree was beautiful:

From our back yard! But no skull decorations.

These were gift to myself:

New kitchen clothes in colours I like. White cotton was bought over 25 years ago, I was living in a big town.

But I wanted to knit socks, so I did:

Actually, there's three more pairs, but can't find pictures... These are children sized and female sized.

Found this one, but two more are missing. These are men size pair.

Os had 20th birthday, I baked him a cake like I have done every year.

I accidentally dropped some whipped cream on top. Who cares. Cake was eaten, two pieces for os and others had one. No leftovers.

Preparing for colder months

Mid September. Somehow it feels like winter is going to be here right now, but in real life I know it'll take at least two months until we are really in to the winter.

I have a bunch of tasks to do before serious frosts and snow (and the darkness October and November brings).

Garden, veggie plot, geenhouse and polytunnel:

Things need to be done now (before we have first frosts at the end of this week):
- harvest everything that can be harvested (beets, chard, nz spinach, zucchinies, beans, corn, potatoes from bags)
- cover plants that need shelter (pumpkins, zucchinies, beans)
- get strawberry runners planted
- make sure greenhouse and polytunnel are kept ready for cold nights

Things need to be done ASAP:
- build a new additional cold frame for garlic
- build a new frame ready for next summer's cucumbers
- build a new additional frame for more strawberries
- empty compost bin to aforementioned frames
- harvest everything that will not be producing anymore from greenhouse and polytunnel (cucamelon, herbs, potatoes)
- mix old spoiled concrete mixes with sawdust and fill holes on the forest tractor tracks (so that tractor is no longer in danger to fall over or lose it's oil plug)
- forage more mushrooms (boletes are soon over)
- get chillies and peppers from polytunnel inside house (and buy a growing light for them)

Things need to be done before winter is here:
- harvest all pumpkins
- harvest all tomatoes
- harvest carrots and parsnips
- plant garlic to new frame
- empty all growing bags (excluding ones inside greenhouse) and pots into cold frames
- harvest everything else left in greenhouse and polytunnel
- empty greenhouse and polytunnel, rescue rosemary and ginger (they need growing light, too)
- harvest aronia berris from aunt's garden
- harvest rowan berries (from aunt's garden?)
- empty ash buckets to cold frames (this needs to be done several times to get all frames covered)
- take poly from polytunnel down and put it into greenhouse for winter
- try to figure out how to protect kale from hares during the winter....

And some additional stuff to be done:
- try to locate some free apples
- buy new winter shoes fro three kids
- check kids' winter coats if they neew new ones
- mix sawdust and (garden) peat for outhouse use
- get some heavy duty candles for outhouse
- grind ys's new room's outside wall ready for filler
- level out that wall with filler
- get one wall done with planks, treat planks before that
- fill, sand and fill again plaster walls to be painted
- figure out what colour ys wants for those plaster board walls (hopefully not wallpaper)
- make floor with vinyl planks
- move ys to that room!
- and then the toilet...

Back to nine to five (or eight to four)

So, back to work. Co-worker called he'd been admitted to half-retirement because of his poor health. His knees can't keep up the work we do. He's only, what? ten years older than I am. But I haven't never been an athlete or even a fitnes fanatic, so it wouldn't probably be my knees that give up, I'd bet on brains.

Now I remembered what I was telling about in that post I deleted. Our water is running out. Last time we had decent rainfall was 2017! Last winter's snow didn't thaw, it evaporated. We had a little rain in spring, but it didn't filled ground water reserves much. We have a rather shallow well, and sometimes in very dry summers water level drops too low to comfort. A good thing was, that in spring '18 we had really heavy flooding with all that thawing snow, so last year reserves were filled to the brim.
I have been waiting for rain since June. At the moment there is nice dark grey cloud hanging in the sky - but it comes from wrong direction, so it will not rain here (there's a lake and a big hill which divert rain from that direction). If cloud comes from east it usually rains, and we haven't had eastern clouds forever. Last autunm's jet stream/tornado? We had few drops, when half a kilometer away there were loads of hail.

Ground water filters from rainwater really slowly, it could take more than a year for rain to become groundwater, so this drough is result of last summers drought plus this summer. If the snow wouldn't evaporated, it would have stopped ground water levels going low.

So for a few weeks we can't take a shower all six people at the same day (we have a pool to use, which is helping), if I need to wash laundry and fill barrels to water veg plot. I can use dishwasher (it uses very little water, if I do dishes by hand, I use more water), so we don't have to use imagination how to make food without making dirty dishes... I'm not going to use paper plates.
If we really were in trouble, we have our outhouse, so we could skip using wc completely. Now it's only recommendation to boys to go outside to pee...

But we can take this, nature will cope with this, it will be all right. This is not like drought in India or Australia or California or Africa. This is a mild inconvenience.

It s raining now, only slight mist but water nonetheless. I went to pick gooseberries on the other side of the field and yes! my clothes got soaked with rain. What a joy! 'Suma didn't think it as a joy, but she is content sleeping on couch under ys's duvet.

This is going to be an expensive autunm/winter. D started her first year at local college, and even if the shcool itself is free (they get free lunch and free health care)  books and other materials costs dearly. We have so far bought four books, some new, some used. 135€. Today we'll go and spend some more euros for other books! A positive side of this is that the only book shop hereby sells used books, so we don't have to buy from internet - now we can choose and even be picky to get books that have all pages etc... And she needs a new laptop for school.

I'm trying to find a ways to spend less money on everything. Not an easy task, but maybe achieveable.

Being self suffiecient completely is not realistic aim at the moment, probably never. But we can be self sufficient on firewood:
 

This is my first ever attempt on creative woodtsacking. Sorry about blur - I found out I had a fingerprint on the lense. Blurry brown structure behinf the tsack is our outhouse (lighter on the left is garage).

So I cheated... No, this outside structure makes this stack sturdier, like cross laminated timber. Inside will be filled.

Btw, i have myself split all wood this summer. With that lethal screw splitter, which should be banned... Old man installed an emergency stop wire, I have tested every day it works just to be sure.

We are not only busy bees (notice no smudge on the lense).

My watermelon!

Field of trees.Not the kind of forest I like - there is no undergrowth, it's dark and suffocating place. And trees are not growing well at all.

Luckily that is only a small area (1-1,5 acres) behind our forest, it belongs to old man's cousin. This kind of forestry in no longer wanted, it doesn't produce much (much less than if you just let forest to grow how it grows naturally). They thought in '50's and 60's that if you get rid of everything else than trees, trees will grow faster because there is no competition. Wrong, so wrong. Trees need their neighbours, they need mushrooms, undergrowth, biodiversity. This field of trees is silently waiting spruce bark beetles to attack.