December 31, 2024

Garden Notes: December 2024

It's hard to believe it's the last day of 2024. Happy New Year everyone!
 
Rainfall
  • 9th: 1.08"
  • 10th: 3.14"
  • 11th: 0.83"
  • 15th: 0.44"
  • 16th: 0.06" 
  • 18th: 0.35"
  • 27th: 0.11"
  • 28th: 0.93"
  • 29th: 0.83"
  • 31st: 0.01"
  • Total: 7.78 inches
 Temperature
  • range of nighttime lows: 19 to 61°F (-7 to 16°C)
  • range of daytime highs: 33 to 70°F (0.5 to 21°C)
Weather Notes
  • We've had plenty of cold this month and plenty of rain, but never at the same time. 
  • In other words, no snow. 
  • But, this is a typical winter weather pattern for my part of the country. 
  • Which is just as well because if 1 inch of snow equals 10 to 12 inches of rain, we'd be buried in snow about now.

Garden Notes

  • When the weather is nice, I continue to tidy up and mulch last summer's beds with fallen leaves and aisles with wood chips. I'm hoping to stay ahead of the spring weeds.
  • Our frigid lows have pretty much killed off everything in the garden except the kale and turnips. And I still have a few well mulched daikons that I can harvest for kimchi.
  • We're getting a few things from the greenhouse (on which we've made progress, update post soon).

Harvested 
  • kale
  • turnips
  • daikons
  • chicory greens
  • chickweed
  • lettuce
  • Jerusalem artichokes 

Photos

Early December garden lettuce and countertop ripened tomato

Jerusalem artichoke

greenhouse growings

I don't have many photos because there's not a lot going on. I only planted a few pots of greens for the greenhouse because the interior still needed finishing and I didn't want a lot of pots in the way. But it's almost done now, so I'll be able to show you that soon. 

Anybody working on their 2025 garden plans?
 
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December 27, 2024

My 2024 Reading List

I have always enjoyed other bloggers' reading lists. So much so, that I was inspired to keep my own reading and listening list this year. I'm including audiobooks because I seem to have gotten through more of these than paper books. Weaving, knitting, mending, sewing, and mundane tasks like shelling seeds or snapping green beans lend themselves to listening to books! 

Mine is not a fancy list. No reviews, no links, no pictures of book covers. Just a list. But I'm happy to answer questions if anyone has them.

Paper Books

  • Queen Isabella by Alison Weir
  • All Things Bright and Beautiful by James Herriot
  • Killer's Wake by Bernard Cornwell
  • Crackdown by Bernard Cornwell
  • Wildtrack by Bernard Cornwell
  • Babe The Gallant Pig by Dick King-Smith
  • How To Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren
  • Natural Small Batch Cheesemaking by Kate Downham
  • Never Grow Up by Jackie Chan
  • Tying Up the Countermarch Loom by Joanne Hall
  • Sophie's World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy by Jostein Gaarder
  • How Should We Then Live? The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture by Francis A. Schaeffer
  • A Dyer's Garden by Rita Buchanan
  • The Stowaway by Laurie Gwen Shapiro
  • The Ark on Ararat by Tim La Haye and John Morris
  • Gallows Thief by Bernard Cornwell
  • Uthred's Feast by Bernard Cornwell with Suzanne Pollak
  • Weave Classic Crackle & More by Susan Wilson
  • A Crackle Weave Companion by Lucy M. Brusic
  • The Last White Rose by Alison Weir
  • People of the Wolf by W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O'Neal Gear
  • Wideacre by Phillipa Gregory

eBooks

  • A Beginner's View of Our Electric Universe by Tom Findlay
  • Permaculture Thorns by Paul Wheaton
  • The Art of War by Sun Tzu

Audiobooks

  • The Thirty-nine Steps by John Buchan
  • History of the Kings of Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth
  • A Daughter of the Land by Gene Stratton-Porter
  • The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown
  • Putting the Most Into Life by Booker T. Washington
  • In the Kingdom of Ice by Hampton Sides
  • Taras Bulba by Nikolai Gogol
  • Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann
  • All in the Day's Work by Ida Tarbell
  • Vagabond Adventures by Ralph Keeler
  • The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
  • Across the Plains in 1844 by Catherine Sager Pringle
  • The Backwoods of Canada by Catharine Parr Traill
  • Orange Is the New Black by Piper Kerman
  • By Ox Team to California by Lavinia Honeyman Porter 
  • The Autobiography of a Clown by Jules Turnou
  • Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
  • Rez Life by David Treuer
  • Fathers of Biology by Charles McRae
  • Scott's Last Expedition Vol. 1, The Journals of Robert Falcon Scott by Robert Falcon Scott
  • The South Pole; an account of the Norwegian Antarctic expedition in the Fram, 1910-12 by Roald Amundsen
  • Ancient Civilizations of Mexico and Central America by Herbert Spinden
  • Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
  • Artemis by Andy Weir
  • Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup
  • Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave by Frederick Douglass
  • Peaks of Shala by Rose Wilder Lane
  • Across Asia on a Bicycle by Thomas Gaskell Allen and William Lewis Sachtleben
  • The Book of Ser Marco Polo, the Venetian, concerning the Kingdoms and Marvels of the East, volumes 1 & 2, by Marco Polo as told to Rustichello da Pisa
  • The Lost City of the Monkey God by Douglas Preston
  • Three Sisters, Three Queens by Philippa Gregory
  • The Martian by Andy Weir
  • The White Princess by Philippa Gregory
  • The King's Curse by Philippa Gregory
  • The Saga of the Greenlanders, author unknown, translated by Arthur Middleton Reeves
  • The English Governess at the Siamese Court by Anna Harriette Leonowens
  • Lucretia Borgia by Ferdinand Gregorovius 
  • Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick
  • Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
 
My selections were random, i.e. whatever struck my fancy at the time. But I like that it's a relatively eclectic collection. I think by keeping the list, I made a more concerted effort to read. But also, by using my evenings for weaving instead of poking around the internet, I was able to listen to all those audiobooks (a more productive use of my time!) I plan to keep a reading list for 2025 too.
 
Does anybody else keep a reading list?

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December 25, 2024

A Christmas Song of Hope for the Middle East

On Christmas Day, I'm going to share my very favorite Christmas hymn. This version is sung in English, Arabic, and Hebrew.


 

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December 24, 2024

Christmas Songs of My Ancestors: Celtic

Continued from Christmas Songs of My Ancestors: Anglo-Saxon

Digging deeper into my ancestral lines brings me to the Celts. The Celts are a diverse lot with a diversity of territories, languages, and cultures.

Source

The Celts were the inhabitants of the British Isles at the time of the Roman Invasion in 43. They are often referred to as Britons. Many of them fought the invaders, all the invaders actually: Romans, Saxons, and Danes. In the first century, missionaries introduced Christianity to them, so I can include the Celts in my Christmas song offerings. 

I've traced ancient ancestors from every country on the above map except the Isle of Man. Of these, the predominant group seems to be Welsh. So for the Christmas song, I chose a traditional Welsh carol. It's sung in Welsh, so the words won't be familiar, but the melody will be.

Next, a Christmas Song of Hope for the Middle East
 
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December 23, 2024

Christmas Songs of My Ancestors: Anglo-Saxon

 
I've been able to trace several ancestral lines back to the Angles and the Saxons, who, along with the Jutes, began to invade England after the Romans left in the early 400s. 

By mbartelsm - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=86531831

These Germanic invaders pushed the Celts (Britons) to the north and west, and eventually occupied much of what is England today.   
 
Source
 
The Anglo-Saxon language is also referred to as Old English. I have no idea about authentic Christmas songs and celebrations of the Saxons, so I have two offerings for you. The first is likely what the Saxons would have heard in church, the second is a more modern carol translated into Old English.
 
This time period predates Gregorian Chant, so in church, it likely would have been Old Roman Chant in Latin. This Alleluia is said to date back to the 2nd century.

 
To hear what Old English sounds like, click the image or caption below to view the video on YouTube. The carol itself isn't authentic for the time period, but the language is.

Click here to view on YouTube

Next, Christmas Songs of My Ancestors: Celtic
 
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December 22, 2024

Christmas Songs of My Ancestors: Vikings

Continued from Christmas Songs of My Ancestors: Norman French

In 793, the Vikings made their first successful attack on England, and for the next two centuries, they kept on coming. The term "Viking" actually refers to the activity of raiding rather than a specific people group. At the time, they were referred to as Northmen. Today, they would be recognized as Scandinavian. 

Once the raiders successfully conquered the lands, they took to farming it. The Danes were so numerous and so successful, that they claimed a large portion of 9th century England as Danelaw.

public domain

Of the Scandinavian countries, my ancestral lines trace back mostly to Denmark and Norway. So I set about looking for a Christmas song in one or both of their ancient languages. Something I learned, was that Danish has it's roots in Old Norse.

This video is different from the others I've been sharing, in that it isn't embedded at the request of the artist. The image below is a screenshot linked to the video on YouTube. Click on either the caption or the image to hear a 16th century Latin carol sung in Old Norse.

Click here to play the video

Next, Christmas Songs of My Ancestors: Anglo-Saxon
 
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December 21, 2024

Christmas Songs of My Ancestors: Norman French

Continued from Christmas Songs of My Ancestors: English

About the time of the Norman invasion of England (1066), my family tree begins to fill with Norman French ancestors who migrated northward from Normandy to England. 

Normandy. Fobos92, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Northern France was originally populated by Celtic peoples. In the 9th century, the Vikings began raiding, and eventually, the territory was awarded to the Viking leader Rollo, who became the first duke of Normandy. Consequently, Norman French evolved as the language of Normandy. Also known as "Viking French" it was greatly influenced by the language of the Northmen. (Northman easily contracts to Norman, so that's easy to remember.) Two centuries later, Rollo's descendant Duke William of Normandy invaded and conquered England.

For this blog series, I find that the farther back I go, the harder it is to find examples of authentic Christmas songs in the original old languages. If I'm remembering my music history correctly, songs at the time were either sacred or secular. Christmas songs would have been sacred and sung in Latin as Gregorian chant. 

For this blog post, I offer two video clips. The first is what my ancestors might have heard when they attended Christmas Day Mass. The second isn't a song, but a sample of spoken Norman French. Maybe those of you who speak French will hear the difference.

 

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December 20, 2024

Christmas Songs of My Ancestors: English

Continued from Christmas Songs of My Ancestors: Irish

Prior to my early American ancestors' migration to the New World from England, my family tree is filled with several centuries of primarily English ancestors. They were scattered about England, south to north.

This offering is an old traditional English Christmas carol sung in Middle English (spoken roughly from the 12th to 15th centuries).

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December 19, 2024

Christmas Songs of My Ancestors: Irish

Continued from Christmas Songs of My Ancestors: Native American

My 3x-great-grandfather migrated from Ireland to Canada sometime before 1835, which was when his oldest child was born in Nova Scotia. This child, my great-great-grandfather, "followed the sea" as they used to say, and ended up as a Master Mariner on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where he lived the rest of his life after meeting and marrying my great-great-grandmother.

Carul Loch Garman (The Wexford Carol) is a traditional Irish Christmas carol, with origins dating back to the 1400 or 1500s.

Next, Christmas Songs of My Ancestors: English

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December 18, 2024

Christmas Songs of My Ancestors: Native American

Continued from Christmas Songs of My Ancestors: Early American

My 9th-great grandmother was Wampanoag. She was the second wife of my 9th-great grandfather, who emigrated from England in 1651. They had four children, of which my 8th-great grandfather, born in 1674, was the youngest.

Map of Wampanoag lands (southeastern Massachusetts)
Noahedits, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Even though some Wampanoag adopted Christianity, I have no idea about possible songs that would have been sung at Christmas. Probably none, considering that the earliest European migrants to their area were Separatists, who did not celebrate Christmas. Noteworthy, however, is that the first Bible printed in North America was printed in 1663 in the Wampanoag language.  

I could find very few songs in the Wampanoag language. The closest Christmas song I could find to honor my indigenous ancestors was the Huron Carol, which is credited as being Canada's oldest Christmas hymn. The Huron (Wyandot, Wendat, or Huron-Wendat) and Wampanoag peoples are both considered eastern woodlands peoples of North America, but their languages have different roots. Wampanoag is Algonquian in origin, while Wendat is Iroquoian. This Christmas carol is sung in the Huron-Wendat language.

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December 17, 2024

Christmas Songs of My Ancestors: Early American

One of my interests is genealogy. With the help of community efforts at familysearch.org, I've been able to map a generalized idea of my ethnic and cultural roots. My offering to you this Christmas season is a variety of traditional Christmas songs that might have been sung by my ancestors: Early American, Native American, Irish, English, Norman French, Viking, Anglo-Saxon, and Celtic. Between now and Christmas, I'll post one a day, starting with my early American ancestors.

The first of my ancestors to migrate to North America came from England in the early 1600s. The Separatists (who wanted to separate from the Church of England) migrated in the 1620s and the Puritans (who wanted to purify, i.e. reform, the Church of England) began arriving in the 1630s. The Separatists did not acknowledge Christmas, and the Puritans in England banned the singing of Christmas Carols in 1649. Both groups, however, likely sang from the Geneva Psalter, which is based on the Book of Psalms. I have no idea what they might have chosen for the birth of Christ, so I picked one that I liked.
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December 11, 2024

What About Books?

I haven't done much to promote my books lately. Mostly because I assume that  regular blog readers who wanted them already have them. But with gift giving season upon us, I thought I'd give them a shout out, because books are always great gifts. 

My first book has been my most popular.
 
 
This is the book most people think of when "5 Acres & A Dream" is mentioned. It's been popular with people wanting to get started in homesteading, and even people who would never dreamed of homesteading have enjoyed it. That makes it a good choice for anyone interested in unusual lifestyles. 
 
What many people don't know, is that there is a sequel.
 

It's the story of how reality changes dreams. Which is another way to say that we learned so much from our experiences, that things changed. Not only the way we do things, but the way we understand things: nature, seasons, goals, critters, priorities. 

If you or someone you know enjoyed my first book, consider gifting them with this one.

The next one is for folks who want to understand what goes into buying and owning livestock. 
 

It's different in style from the first two, because it's my one professionally published book. That meant I was writing what the publisher had in mind, and that was an interesting experience for an Indie author and publisher. I did a lot of research for it, and you know what? I still pull it out from time to time to look something up, because I intended it to be not just an introduction, but a resource. It remains a valuable addition to my homestead library.

And here's one for the cooks and bakers on your list.

 
Oddly, I've had people think that this is a book about how to make baking powder, which is something one can find for free on the internet. WRONG! This is a book about kitchen chemistry and how to use everyday kitchen items to make light and tasty baked goods. It's a recipe book too, and so has a place on my cookbook shelf in the kitchen.

So if you're looking for something a little different for someone on your gift list, consider one of these. The prices are still very reasonable, which makes them a good option for everybody on your list.

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December 6, 2024

Greenhouse: Rain Collection Problems

The only thing left on our greenhouse project is to finish the interior. Over the summer, however, one of the rain barrels sprang a leak. So this had to be dealt with first.

Original setup. Photo from last April.
The tank on the right was the leaky one. 		 

At the time, Dan drained the barrels and took the leaky one down. He also wanted to change the pipe from the downspout, because the amount of water coming off that roof was more than the PVC pipe could handle. So we postponed dealing with the rain barrels and he set up a new collection tote outside.

Photo from last August

This set-up bypassed the greenhouse altogether, which was okay because I don't use the greenhouse in summer anyway. Now that the heater is done, it's time to get ready to put the greenhouse to use.

The experimental fix was to run a smaller tube off the downspout . . .

  . . . and into the remaining rainwater tank.

This will slow the flow or rainwater into the tank, hopefully not too much. It may need to be a little larger, but it's a start. We're supposed to get a good rain next weekend, so we'll know better then if a larger hose or other changes are needed. 

If this works out, we'll add a new second barrel soon.

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