Autumn 2009 and a Wake-up Call

At first I didn't think there was much to tell about. We didn't go anywhere and our visitors have dropped off quite a bit. We have had many visiting birds come through. Here are some evening grosbeaks checking out the fountain. In looking back over pictures and calendar entries, I see that things have a way of piling up. We've actually been quite busy this Fall here at Thornbush.

I'll start with a week in September when Roger's parents and his brother Leif visited. Here's a picture of them at the Farmer's Market which shows off another milestone--Eric and Roger are actually farmers! That's right--they are selling produce from our own gardens and orchards. And they bought a new, shiny scale to weigh it.



Then, about mid-September we went to the Permaculture Convergence held on the Kitsap Peninsula at Sahale Learning Center. http://www.washingtonstatepermaculture.org. Here's a picture of Roger and fellow permies at a workshop led by Rick Valley on Storage Strategies, Including Carbon, Water and Keyline.

We came back from the conference and a visit to Bjorn and the twins with horrible colds that lasted a couple weeks. This was very frustrating as we were then faced with (dum, de-dum dum)--the Tyranny of the Harvest, as my sister Rosalie puts it. Everything was ripe and ready to deal with. Apples, tomatoes, bell peppers, chard (always), beans, aronia berries, huckleberries (before the towhees got to them), everything! I've been dehydrating, freezing, cooking down and otherwise using up for weeks now.



The weather this past month has been exceptionally nice. It did, however, frost for a couple days early in the month which took out my canna lilies and turned everything a beautiful orangey gold.

There was also a couple chicks hatched about this time. Stella had been sitting on her eggs and not producing, so Roger borrowed a couple fertilized eggs from some friends who owned a rooster and put them under her. We now have two cute little chicks running around behind their foster mom. And two of the pullets from the compost yard are now laying so we will be knee deep in fresh eggs pretty soon.

The Second Monday Book Club from Seattle came up to visit me for the day the first weekend in October. Our book club has been in existence since 1987 and now that I have moved up here I very much look forward to their annual visit. This particular weekend in the San Juans is Artstock, in which various art studios open their doors to guests so we took advantage of the occasion and of the weather. The book was Folly by Laurie King. It is set on a remote island in the San Juans.

Here's the mandatory picture on alder bench with dog.

And now it is time for the Wake-up Call part of this post if any of you are still with me. On Saturday, October 17th, Roger woke up and had trouble speaking. I asked him a couple questions that he was unable to answer correctly, like what his birthdate was. We ended up calling 911 and the EMT's and paramedic came. His blood pressure was way too high. They were going to fly him to hospital in Bellingham in a helicopter but a storm was coming in. So for various other reasons, I had to drive him to St Joseph's myself from the 11:15 ferry. We made it to ER seven hours after his "event". They administered various tests including an MRI which showed five past occurrences of TIAs otherwise known as mini-strokes.

Roger remained in the hospital for two more days and they administered many more tests which gave no evidence of where these TIAs were coming from. So they sent him home with instructions to take an aspirin a day for the rest of his life and to see a doctor about his high blood pressure and cholesterol. This was a long three days for both of us. But since we would not have known about the four other "events" if he hadn't had an MRI test, I guess it was a good thing.

Here is a picture of our first major harvest of chestnuts. We have over a pound of them. We also grew our best crop of quinces this year (see yellow fruit next to chestnuts). I'm planning to make quince marmalade soon. The Tyranny of the Harvest is not through with us yet. (Dum de-dum dum)

Cottage Industry

(Continued from May 2)

Once we had the sawmill, we started pulling the logs out of the woods with a winch. We also cleared the area where we decided to build the cottage, on the edge of a fairly level area overlooking the pond. Many of our current forest paths started with a log dragged 50 feet or more and then around a stump and dragged further still out to the mill.


From that point, it was a matter of turning the logs into beams and posts for our "cottage". There was a learning curve.

By the summer of 1991, we made progress and our 16' x 12' cottage was begun.

The cottage was put together backwards--first the posts, then the wallboard, then the insulation, then the outer walls. Many of you know the story already, so I won't explain it again.

It got the name "Birdhouse" because we were only able to build it a weekend a month over many, many months and the swallows took advantage, building a nest in the eaves. By the time we got the windows cut in, the swallows were in a panic, trying to find their way out. We waited until they had fledged to add the glass. Even so, months later when I was cleaning out the old nest, I found a dead bird, killed from exhaustion, I imagine.

Later, Roger embellished the theme by adding faux birdhouses to disguise the roof vents on either side of the gabled roof.

And many friends came up and helped us along the way. Thank-you Eric, Tom C, Linda K, Jay, Abe, Bjorn and all the others who pitched in to help.


At the end of the summer of '92, the cottage was complete. There was a worn path to the outhouse way in the woods and a 12-volt battery provided our lights. Each year brought more civilization. We had a well dug, we brought up the water by hand at first. Then electricity, then a pump. Hooray!

Our mill provided all the board & batten siding.

We added a propane stove. Now we're cookin'.

By 1993 (or was it '94?) we were ready to add a back porch. Our living space grew by 30%. No more treks to the woods, we had a real bathroom! The composting toilet and the shower were giant leaps for womankind.

To date:
1989 May: bought land
1990 June: pond started/ Dec: Windstorm topples trees
1991 Summer: cottage started: August: garden w/topsoil planted
1992 May: honeybees in cabinet/ cottage finished
1993 Jan: 16*F- 4"of ice on pond
1994 May: new well/ 'Sept: running water
1995 Feb: snowed 5"