Thank Gods Summer's Over.

Up here, the arrival of autumn is a relief.

We don't get a lot of summer, and people get a little nuts, running around outside, building, fishing, doing yardwork, taking hikes, picking berries, piling up wood for winter, panicking over cougars, going to First People's festivals, bird-watching, running to the beach to watch gray whales swimming in close to see what bait the salmon fishermen are using, catching smelt, clamming, generally Northern Exposure at top speed.

When the rains close in, we get to sit around the wood stove and -- I at least -- get to start heavy-duty into writing and drawing again.

I'm nearly at the end of the major project to get all the old books re-published or re-printed. I have 64 pages I plan to start scanning tomorrow for AFTERDEAD 1.3.

But autumn has its own outside activities, so we went mushrooming. We found a nice bucket-ful of Chanterelles, but we scored on Sulphur Tuft. The former are drying, the latter simmering. Tomorrow I'll can the simmered mushrooms and keep the drying ones drying.

And back to writing.

Down at Dryad's Rest

Helping out at Joanne's farm. Built the new blog for Dryadcon

Worked with Emily on the wattle fence around the blueberries, or at least half of it. This also uses up the vine prunings.

Not elegant, because it is partly to put the scrappy bits to work, but will keep the deer out once finished.

We can lean on it now.

Yesterday, ran up the road with Roberta to release the young possum who thought he'd found a new territory and had been sharing the cat food. We found woods with streams, lots of varied underbrush and an eagle and raven sharing something near the road. So there was food, and it was far enough away from the skin monkeys to give him a chance.

Dryad's Rest

Visiting our friends at Dryad's Rest, near Dryad, Washington. I will be posting more photos at Folktalk. In the meantime, if Roberta Gregory and I had not gotten a little lost, we would not have seen the dinosaurs down the road.



















MMMMM. If we were farmers of ancient Egypt, we would be thanking the Gods for the rich, soft, fine silt the river had generously bestowed upon us.

But because we are silly modern Americans, we are cursing toxic, sewage-laden sludge that threatens the houses we built on the floodplain.

Silly, silly amateur rural people.



















Fluffy! "Give me love, spin me around on my back, let me chew on you feeners!"

This is my cat fix at Dryad's Rest.

Rural Shopping

The most comments have been about the shopping list. Well, it's something we all have on our walls -- or our refrigerators, under the "dress me" magnets.

We live far out in a rural area. There are certain things that are just more economical if bought in bulk in Seattle. If I'm swinging by Chehalis, I'll include VJ's Bargain Barn for cheap new building materials.

The lazy suzan is just a shelving system under the sink structure, for hard-to -reach areas. I've been putting this together with new and second-hand parts -- the latter from Waste Not Want Not in Port Angeles -- for months. I'm slow, but I get there.

Fresh things, tofu, nuts, dairy products from the local co-op. Fish, clams, mussels, scallops and nettles from the beach. I am now the sprouts producer for the co-op. The first requests have been for alfalfa sprouts -- and fenugreek sprouts. Which reminds me, I'd better find some fresh seeds while I'm in Seattle.

Does anybody really want to hear about householding?

Visit The Little Store.

Grocery List

After I said my readers would read anything I wrote, even a grocery list, one of you asked for it. We live at http://www.sekiu.com/, so shopping is rare and complicated. The big list, for the annual Norwescon trip so far is:

Fix Drill! (My Dewalt has been drilled and screwed to death).
sardines (Dollar store cans)
yeast (for the microwaved summer sourdough.)
pain pills
Petromalt
jalepenos
vinegar
big dry milk
bleach
check to bank
chocolate for Joe (because the old guy on Highway 112 won't take money for eggs)
cough syrup
5 jugs of cooking oil (from the bulk restaurant store. Normally this includes 150 pounds of whole wheat flour and 150 pounds of popcorn)
dish soap
lazy suzan (for the kitchen project)

Visit The Little Store.