Fall and a bit of a drought

Fall arrived a week ago Friday evening, and on cue, the temperatures dropped. Putting aside how surreal that sounds, I'm loving the cooler weather. I can spend longer hours hunting for tuco tucos without wilting (I'm not too proud to admit....yes, cats can wilt, especially Maine Coons). And the birds have been a little crazed lately hurrying about fortifying their nests before the onset of winter. We've had at least 4 broken necks/wings lately as they fly into the living room glass windows. I know...it's like fishing out of a bucket. I do attempt to put them out of their misery quickly.

The Handlers have been busy with their own things. Actually "busy" just doesn't describe it. For Male Handler (MH), it's long hours of pruning, field prepping the front pastures, keeping the newly planted fruit trees alive during this (hopefully) brief drought, and trying to determine if sheep would be a good thing in the orchard. Female Handler (FH) has been consumed with an inordinate number of issues in her work, and tending of goats has ended up being a positive demand requiring the need to leave her desk in the evenings.

Much of Handlers' days they operate on autopilot, or so it seems from my feline vantage point. The onset of cooler weather has on one occasion discombobulated MH. His evening routine after milking has been to take a quick shower. He is used to putting on three articles of clothing afterwards (boxers, shirt and shorts). Like Pavlov's dog, he put on three articles of clothing Thursday evening...boxers, shirt, and a long sleeve denim shirt to ease the chill. It wasn't until he sat down to eat that he realized that he might want to put on pants. And what's more, FH didn't actually notice something was amiss until he left and returned with pants on.

We've had very little rain the past 2 months, and this has created at least one positive outcome. The marcela plant has been flowering. The scientific name is Achyrocline satureioides. There's lots of good stuff in the marcela like antioxidants, anti-fungal, analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, cell reconstruction (FH going to slap yellow flower paste all over her face), and the list goes on. All of this would send Mini-Female Handler (ethnobotanist in training) to the moon and back with excitement...and truly the Handlers would use the plant for those uses if they actually had a need for it. Instead...they use it as a substitute for curry and cumin! MH prefers it to the actual curry spice now, and has spiced up goat meat sausage and lentils with marcela. So in case you're down in these parts, and come across a sandy dry area and are suddenly reminded of the time you were shopping for spices near Burrabazar, Kolkata (Calcutta), you'll understand how influential scent is on the mind and memories...

Marcela, here on the farm

Labor of Love

On one of the many beach walks during the holidays in December with the family, a fishing net was discovered long ago abandoned among the reeds and tangled in a small tree at the water's edge. What a find! Lead weights, buoys, and ropes of different sizes. After spending about an hour untangling it from nature's grasp, it was stuffed into a feed bag (also found on the beach) and brought back to the farm where nearly every animal had to give it a good sniffing down, including me.

Female Handler got started on a project in January with the hopes of finishing it for Male Handler's (MH) birthday. That didn't happen. Two sizes of ropes were selected.

It was finally finished today. MH has a new basket for his almonds.

Happy Pi Day

Seems appropriate on this day to show something round, but in fact these round bales of hay were what the handlers saw on their early morning walk today.

Happy Pi Day.