UPDATE

I started this post more than a month ago. Today is actually November 23rd. I've neglected making entries for more than a month now. There are a lot of things keeping me busy and I'm not disciplined enough to document as I go, though I know reflection and documentation are processes that would enhance efficiency and actually save time over the long run.
Last month, besides canning food I began winterizing, beginning with the animals. I took on the most unpleasant task first, goat poop. I spent about 8 hours on Thursday, Oct 16, shoveling, wheelbarrowing and spreading the...wealth. I fertilized all of the trees in the orchard, 30+, dug a five foot deep pit and filled it plus I spread some around the grassy part of the goat pen. The neighborhood had a distinctive air about it for a couple of weeks. I also finished my grape trellis which will support two-three new grape plants. I'm not sure why I need more grapes, I guess it's just that they grow so well and perhaps a red grape will give a new flavor to next years juice.

The bees are doing EXTREMELY well. they are consuming 4-5 gallons of syrup a week and should winter well. Next Spring I'm going to split my hives which will give me a total of four. I was told by a local expert that I could probably set up to forty hives, yikes. He said that the usual harvest per hive is 35 lbs and the fact that I averaged 60 per hive was pretty...cool.

I am considering ending the chicken enterprise, not that it ever yielded much. I'm space poor and we have neighbors who have chickens and may be willing to trade for milk. The section of the shed I'm currently using for chickens would be converted into a greenhouse of sorts. I've needed an area for starts for the garden and I think it would be a much more efficient use of space. Nothing set in stone on this.

The goats are doing fine. The young one is now pregnant, I hope, as is Pinky. I'll have to dry Pinky up here in a month or so. Come Spring there will be a lot of milk. Spot, the third goat, will have to "fall in love" in the Spring which will give her a break over the Summer and even out the milk flow. That will mean 2-4 kid goats in the Spring and 1-2 next fall. I spent almost the entire month of October procuring hay from four different sources. I hope there will be enough. The price of hay has dropped a little bit this year.

That's it for now. Needless to say, I'm getting deeper and deeper into the sustainable model, intellectually if not in practice. I'm also forging some spiritual linkages, not only with nature but with my own tradition, Christianity, particularly Mormonism. I've always felt there was an affinity between eastern religions and nature and it's been enlightening to make new and familiar connections.

Domestic Me

Not sure what's going on with me.  It seems every free moment I have I find myself preparing food.   My son and I went out and picked tomatoes and apples on Friday.  The orchard is chemical-free and I  have been taking care of it for a neighbor who has been deployed to Iraq.  Anyway, it is the same orchard where I have my bees.  I am thinking that one of the reasons the bees have done so well is because of the LACK of pesticides and such.  Anyway, the apples were pretty well picked over and we were left with the wormiest and smallest.  It's okay.  I'm really glad a lot of families were able to use healthy fruit.  There are about 28 trees.   

So I spent most of Saturday doing stuff for the animals, chickens and goats, and putting up applesauce.  

The applesauce would have been easier if we had been among the first to pick.  

My hands got all rough and cracked.  I only got 11 quarts for all the time I spent but the process was so...cleansing that I am sure the benefits extend beyond the nutrition and such.  Knowing that the ingredients are organic will surely make it taste better too.  The funny thing is that I've never really been an applesauce fan.

Today I'm making Italian tomato sauce.  I'll probably be freezing, rather than canning, it.  

I also made some green tomato salsa as well as some cheese. Actually the cheese takes a few days.  

I have included some photos of this weekend's activities and a few of the landscape after this season's first snow in the valley.

 Finally, a shot of my trusted companion.  Ebony's my walking-running partner.  She's a 5-year-old puppy.  She is as affectionate as kitten and as forgiving as a grandparent.  Not a flattering shot.  Good thing she's forgiving.

Grape Processing

Last weekend, with the help of my good friend Gianni, we picked and mashed the grapes into a large plastic vat.  

Every day for 4 days I pushed all the grape skins and whatever else was floating at the top of the mixture to the bottom of the vat.  I should have done it all barefooted or found a few willing maids with clean feet.  

Thursday we drew the juice out from underneath the...floaters, storing the majority of juice in a large glass vask.  Within 5 hours it began bubbling and has been doing so for almost 4 days.   All the gunk is coming out the top and I have to pour in extra juice to replace the stuff that's bubbling out.

What appeals most to me is the simplicity of the entire process. I feel like I'm participating in an

ancient ritual of sorts, bonding

with some primal, ancestral, instinctual...NATURal essence.  Does that make sense?

Summer has FALLen

It has been raining constantly for the past forty hours.  I was planning on harvesting apples and making applesauce and juice.  That will have to wait for another day.  The Indian Summer that we have been enjoying seems to have drawn to a close.  My last day of roaming the woods and getting paid to do it has passed.  I thought I'd include some pictures of that last drive. These pictures are even more beautiful when opened and enlarged.

The vehicle that is off the road happened to be at

 a particularly picturesque spot, where the driver was probably looking at the back side of Mount

  Timpanogos when s/he went over the edge.  I imagine there's a lesson in that, avoid distractions such as texting, etc., when driving; but, I'm willing to cut this person a bit of slack IF being overwhelmed by nature's beauty was the distraction.  I took a few pictures after radioing it in to dispatch.

I'll truly miss getting out and visiting with campers and talking about Smokey Bear to their kids.  But most of all I'll miss the Uintas.  I had not spent much time there before this year and I do not own a truck that will take me to many of the places I was able to see this summer.   Next season, beginning in May, I'll be back up in the hills, almost daily, again.