Firewood

A cord of firewood was delivered today.  And just in the nick of time!  We had a freeze last night, and I have to say, it has gotten chilly at Little Bird Farm!  The leaves on the giant, old Cottonwood trees have turned golden nearly overnight, and are falling fast.  After I stacked the firewood (not quite in the precisions stacking manner the Commander would have done), I raked many leaves and wheel-barrowed them to our compost heap.  I am reminded as I rake leaves, of the leaf raking we did when we lived in North Carolina!  This is nothing like that!!! (Go get em', Josh and Paige, Debbi & Tommy!)  Raking leaves is one of life's joys - the fragrance of it, watching a little mound grow into an enormous pile.  In North Carolina, Tim learned that if you run the lawnmower over a stack of leaves several times, you can get a LOT more leaves in a lawn bag!  Otherwise, you are filling 50-60 lawn bags!!  This is not our problem here in New Mexico.  There are just enough leaves to fill the compost pile, and maybe two fillings of the trash bin.  Sheer pleasure!  I love every moment of it.  

I have friends who want me to go to the gym with them.  When I can garden, rake leaves, stack firewood, and generally, keep up with all the work that needs doing at Little Bird Farm, I can not begin to entertain the notion of going to a gym!  That would be a waste of perfectly good energy!  And if I used my energy in a gym, we would not be able to fully live out this crazy dream we have of our Little Bird Farm.   

 

October, Wedding Anniversary Month

So it is October - nearly a week in.  This is our favorite month.  It's a strange time of year to actually leave New Mexico, especially at Balloon Fiesta time!  The air all over New Mexico is wafting that indescribably inspiring aroma of green chiles roasting, and the brilliant red ristras hang at street corners and vegetable markets all over town.  Nevertheless, I boarded a plane and headed to Oakland, to visit the Commander, spend two lovely weeks together, and celebrate our 14th anniversary.  The Bay area has so many farmer's markets and in the course of 3 days, we have visited one each day.  They are fantastic!  And it is pumpkin time.  Something about pumpkins, especially multiple pumpkins, causes me to smile.  We have been smiling together all over Oakland and San Francisco.  

And we have been smiling in Wine Country - Sonoma and Napa.  As lovely as New Mexico is in October, I must say that Northern California's Wine Country is equally lovely.  Maybe not as enigmatically so, however.  We went to a wonderful Harvest Festival at Cline Cellars in Sonoma, an event we have eagerly anticipated for several months.  It was a blast - music, wine, delicious food, and friendly people.  This little family-owned winery sits in a picture-perfect spot in Sonoma.  It's one of our favorites, and we return there again and again.  Also a favorite of ours in Sonoma, is the Oak Hill Farm, where we feel right at home!  Little Bird Farm will be a better place because of our stops at Oak Hill Farm.  The spirit and flavor of this place is just right!  We drove on into Napa also, and had a bite to eat at Taylor's Refresher in St Helena. The bacon-blue cheese burger and Coffee Bean shake we shared there tasted fantastic, especially because we consumed it while sitting at a big picnic table under a shade tree out back.  

Pumpkins, harvest festivals, delicious meals at picnic tables.....sounds like October to me!   

The First Day of Autumn

We have spent the past several days laying out our garden.  This includes an attempt to give "bones" to a space that, for many, many years, has served as a riding circle for horses.  That is to say, the ground is hard-packed by horse hooves, and riddled with weed seeds from their leavings! It is a veritable challenge.  Our first efforts have been geared toward development of a pleasing layout for the beds and paths, and the creation of a pergola under which the gardener may retreat from a harsh NM sun.   The small vertical vigas are now in place, and we have only (only!!) to bolt and lash the horizontals to these 4" vigas, and then lay the smaller latillas on top. We will plant grapes as soon as we can locate the varieties that will thrive in the alkaline NM soil - and we will hope these vines and fruit will create shade! 

A Tree for "Baby Bird"

When Nate & Sara announced that they were having a new baby in the spring, I knew we had to celebrate with something special.  So Nate & I went together to Plants of the Southwest and selected a beautiful Arizona walnut tree to plant at Little Bird Farm.  We will tell our first little grandbaby that this special tree was chosen by his or her Daddy and Grandmama Gigi on a very special day.  The Arizona Walnut is indigenous to New Mexico and should be very much at home here at LBF.  Happy and healthy, just like the new grand!  

A Series of Big Events!

Houseguests with big NEWS, the 1st annual LBF Labor Day Wine Fest in the Orchard, and Papa's birthday party!  Late August, early September has been busy and FUN.  Hurricanes Gustav and Ike have kept The Commander away from Little Bird Farm, but the activity in his absence has been robust, to say the least.  Most notable: Come April there will be a new grandbaby in our life! Our first!  BIG news indeed!  We are thrilled!  Thank you, Nate & Sara.  Won't it be such a JOY?  Springtime is a perfect time for a new baby.

Also of note:  Our family, friends, and neighbors (our new friends) joined us in the orchard for a Labor Day grill-out and wine festival.  It was low-key, being the "first annual", but we will get better at this.  Seems to me if we wait until Little Bird Farm is actually party-ready, we will miss out on a lot of fun, meanwhile.  So, the partying continued...with Papa's 78th birthday bash; a sit-down dinner on the front porch.  We set up two long banquet tables, seating for 16 of us.  Papa's requested menu:  Steaks on the grill (we still use charcoal and a Weber), baked potatoes with all the trimmings, salad (Aunt Connie brought an Asian salad), and deviled eggs (Granny and Aunt Margie made these for us).  Gary and Mel brought two fabulous French wines from their cellar, which were perfect with the beef tenderloins.  Sara and I made Papa a Lemon Cake with Lemon Buttercream frosting and sugared lemon curls.   We served it with Granny's homemade vanilla ice cream and an Imperial Kir that Nate provided - excellent!  

Maybe the partying is over for awhile.  The houseguests are gone, the dust is settling from all the fun, and now the work of taming the acre continues.  It was good to have the break from the overwhelming work of moving in, unpacking and fixing-up.  But Little Bird Farm is ready for more parties any time!  Say the word!  I think a party will be in order with the return of The Commander!  A "welcome home" soire, for example!  Soon?