friday.

a giant antique rug from our friend jon's trash. i couldn't get a photo without at least one of my little critters in it, so i thought i'd post one with all of them.



a horn case:





and a grain scale. i'm planning to use it for a hanging produce basket in our kitchen.



i love helping people clean out their barns. so many treasures!

straggler.

another little loudmouth to feed:












this little rooster had escaped at the farmer's union after being removed from a box of baby hens. after catching him, the fellas who work there were puzzling as to what to do with him. i offered to take him, and they were greatly relieved. win, win! i like him very much. hopefully he never turns evil on me, i'd hate to have to eat him.

high wheel.

we helped our friend jon clean his barn attic. he collects antique bicycles. i stole some evidence:



ordinary.



hard tire safety.



sociable tricycle. (!?!)

round abouts.

apple bark grafts.



sinkhole.



over-winter brussels sprouts.



egyptian walking onions.



georgian crystal garlic.



hablitzia.

frugal kultur.

(ha ha)

aaron worked at installing hugelkultur beds for ramps and ribes alongside our road. hugelkultur is a permaculture practice that relies on the moisture and warmth of buried, decomposing wood to create luxurious living environments for perennial plants and fruit trees.

first he dug a trench:



then he lined it with punky fire wood, which he salvaged from the back yard of one of his landscaping clients.



people do make hugelkultur beds from freshly cut wood, as a way to make use of the trees that they need to cut down to create garden space. however, this wood was already very soft and moist, kind of perfect, really:



he was easily able to squeeze a trickle of water out of it.



he shoveled the soil over the punky wood, and gave the whole thing a generous layer of leaf litter.



the first residents of this bed are these gorgeous little ramps, which aaron got through a plant swap.





they look so happy already!

of course the best thing about this project is that it doesn't involve any purchasing. it uses yard waste, and the only investment is elbow grease.

end times.

garbage pie.

what am i going to do with all of this trash?





that will do.

i kind of scabbed together this recipe and this one, using what i had. i used coconut oil and stale cookies (plus a crappy stale dumpstered graham cracker crust) to make a good crust. i also sprinkled the top with shredded coconut. purchased items in this pie: coconut oil, shredded coconut, salt, corn starch. i froze the leftovers, and it became mind-blowingly good.

animals in cages.

we went to the stone zoo with family.









i'll spare you my various opinions on the captivity of wild animals, but suffice it to say i was troubled by conditions at this zoo. that said, i did enjoy myself, and managed to not let myself get bent out of shape about it all. but not as much as this kid:

1903.

on a high shelf of my uncle's shop:



my mom and i took it down and cleaned it off with paintbrushes, like archaeologists.

shazam:





what a fine old machine. it is a willcox and gibbs, from 1903. it is missing parts, but a lovely thing. we admired it, wrote down the serial number to research it, and put it back where we found it, to collect itself a new cozy dust blanket.

dunphy rhubarb.

we have our own heirloom rhubarb.



i can trace it back three generations, and my grandmother might know its history before that. i should ask her.



with a little mulch and some benign neglect, i am sure it will be overwhelming our family gardens for years to come.

old familiar.

stasis at my grandmother's house. items that were set down twenty years ago remain still, collecting dust. i love it there.

















my sweethearted uncle lives with my grandmother, who takes care of him. he is a quiet guy. he drinks a lot of coffee with milk & honey, speaks infrequently, listens to records, reads the same books over and over, and practices handcrafts. he is a person who finds comfort in a routine, and who likes to work with wood.



he makes these paddles (hundreds of them) from scrap wood he salvages from a local flooring company. i want to help him sell some of them by creating him an etsy shop. it would help him buy lacquer and glue, and help my grandmother with the finances.



it is his daily practice, but the volume of finished paddles is beginning to overwhelm my grandmother. his former favorite thing to make was teepees. he would buy dollar a yard fabric, no matter what type, to sew them up with.





the garden shed is actually filled with teepee sheathing, in various states of completion. he really needs his own sewing machine, one that can take abuse.



the whole place is filled with stories and treasures, filled right to the rafters with things i want to take down, clean off and cherish. this hat has been hanging here for too long.



o, hai! i really do want this hat, actually, but i put it right back where i found it. i will be patient, and let it stay still for a little longer.