- The pasta is made for this week’s specials: Gold Beet & Thyme Gnocchi, Red Beet Farfalle, and our house favorite – Classic Gnudi (cheesy little pillows of goodness).
- Josh’s beautiful Sourdough Boules are cooling on the racks, while the newly popular Oat Breads are baking nicely. Bagels and Flatbreads are done. And we are wooing a new partner today with some bread.
- Seedlings are growing stronger day by day on the porch/greenhouse – I have just enough time to put up a few more trays of flowers and herbs. Duende’s plants were started first (she is very excited about her new garden this year!) and is the biggest, craziest jungle tray on the porch. And our dear friend Justin’s are the second biggest, as I am setting up some plants for his return from the nursing frontlines out West (Welcome Home!!!).
- As the apple trees begin to sprout buds (and maybe even a flower opening this week!), Josh has planted all the new baby trees (Beach Plums, more Pears and Apples, Willows, and the beach Rosa Rugosa) though we have some crowns and rootlings still to get in (Purple Asparagus, more Comfrey, Artemisia, Echinacea, Lavender, Bleeding Hearts, Hollyhocks, Wild Bergamot, Hops, & Phlox) and still some shade plants and more orchard companions on the way. And Duende has chucked her ‘seed bombs’ (I think this year mostly made of more Echinacea, Rudbeckia, Parsley, and Red Russian Kale seeds).
- Renovations are underway – the studio room is finished and has painted walls/ceiling, a new door, and will get this week a new pine floor (VT Coatings sealed), and a sliding barn door on the other end of it. And then, new shelving units built! Exciting! And then we will put in the new kitchen Marmoleum flooring and some star-tile accents (like the oven pad and back door area).
- Then outside renovations really begin, as well – we are getting a little excavator to dig up the back yard to level out and make an outdoor kitchen area with a bread oven, a grape arbor/pergola with seating, and a better play area for our glorious child. As well as a pond area we are shaping in the middle of the creek bed – Josh is building a little bridge this week and we are making wild bench plans, with cultivated spots of Ostrich Ferns and Ramps nearby.
- Meat Chicks come this week – and our brooder is ready. Who doesn’t love getting chicks in the mail (hilarious – thank you Murray McMurray!) though hopefully by the time they come we will have figured out how to discourage the little Red Squirrel who has chewed holes through the lids of the bins we keep the chicken scratch/food in…
It’s a precipice kind of week. All of our jobs have either started or we have ordered supplies for them and now we just have to buckle down and get them all done. I will tell you more soon but I have an exciting lecture for a lovely Garden Lecture series for The Good Life Center scheduled later this Summer and Duende has a month before her homeschool teacher assessment and graduation to 6th grade (wow – can you believe it?!!). We’ll keep you posted! Happy Day!
Rock Bottom Homestead 