Emmalyn's New Explorations

Today's Goals:
Cut dead wood from front yard tree.
Clear a path
Start a dye bath
Burn up some of the excess wood



I made a fire break around the dye bath. Cleavers had started growing back. Since the fire was smoldering to start and not catching, I turned my back to it and started clearing up the hill. I found a bunch of fire wood under the weeds. Also found a battery, clothespins and a rope. Faun sent me a lovely new tool. I couldn't wait to try it out. It works divine!



The plum tree also lost a dead branch so instead of working on the Japanese Maple mess in the front yard, I worked on the fungus-diseased plum. It's coming back after the mulberry was cut down. It still needs more of a trim. The fire finally took while my back was turned. I got a walnut stew going. I won't dye the yarn until after it has been strained. Nothing worse than picking bits of shell out of beautiful wool.



Tomorrow rain is forecast. We'll see. Can't trust the forecasters. I am trying to build up my stamina. I only worked an hour. I did grab a wood pallet to lean against the fence. It'll keep Sam from coming under the fence. Sam is the neighbor's full size poodle. If I can get out again tomorrow, I hope to get some sawing of wood in. I still haven't put the chainsaw together. There is plenty that is too thick for the chainsaw. I have a hand held blade for that. I also have 2 more pallets to install. Then I want to take down all the steel conduit tubing, used in making trellises for cucumbers and tomatoes, and see how much of what size I have. Basically, I want to inventory it. It'll help me design a fence for next year's garden. I may move the box spring down along the fence so plants get light but the dog doesn't go through. I know it sounds very ad hoc, but pallets are free over at the Freightliner in Strabane. The box spring was an experiment that worked really well and is still useful. With today's prices, repurposing and free wood is nothing to be sneezed at.

There is so much more to do. The baby skunks screwed up my life by not being diurnal. Having them romp during daylight hours totally screwed up my world.

The quince may be decorative as well as tasty and abundant. They blossomed for a very long stretch in spring and into summer. It's a bush that is hedging its bets when it comes to frost. Being high maintenance, it produces suckers and grows very densely. Yes, it has thorns. The deer tend to leave it alone. It needs to be thinned and trimmed - you don't want someone to lose an eye. I imagine it would be excellent in a hedgerow.



The above is only a fraction of what we grew. I made jelly and quince paste. After tasting the quince paste, I decided it would go best on an English muffin. So I made some of those too. Not bad for the first time making them.



The recipe called for making 9 muffins, but I got 11. They were too good to wait for, so I scarfed some while waiting for the next batch to cook. IKEA had these great cutting rings. I am so glad we picked them up.





I wish I could find some crumpet rings, but I'm very satisfied with muffins.



Tomorrow I get to go to the store and see how much flour has gone up in price.