Let's All Gather Round the Ol' Packard

So here's a movie of me playing my new organ. It is new to me, but was built circa 1892. Its a Packard and what a beaut she is. In the video I'm playing one of my favorite songs from Mary Poppins, which I think is fitting for the sound of the instrument. I made another video from the other angle and even lit candles in the candle holders to show how it would have originally been played (it was, after all, built before electric lights were ubiquitous) but that video wasn't as good. The downside to this video is that you get a lot of pumping noise. Hey, I understand that this video looks all Alice-In-Wonderland and such, what with the giant chair that causes me to bend over to play..and the fact that there is an organ in my house...but I think that is par for the course of my life.

County Fair

Ah yes, the county fair pies. First you see peach pie, which won second place and was delicious. You can see the flavor just oozing out, which was a reduction of peach syrup and brandy.

Then you see apple pie, which did not place but was still very delicious. The filling was similar to that of one you used to be able to get out at the Tradewell in Lavalette. It makes me want a Red Faygo or an RC.

And here is a photo to show you the insides of the purple carrots.

More Garden Gems

So here we have some more goodies from the garden. First you see purple carrots. They have a brilliant orange hiding under the skin with a bright yellow center. I tasted the first one - wow! What a flavor. Very rich, crisp carrot flavor that bites you back. I'm glad I have more of these in the ground and a new batch coming!

Then you see some greens, which include wild rocket and swiss chard. Here the chard is red but I also have pink and yellow. And I threw in a couple of special nun beans for good measure. They have lots of nicknames - holy spirit bean being one of them - because of this special mark on the navel of the bean which looks like a nun praying. Or a dove, soldier, baker, or many other things depending on how you look. Click the photo for a more appetizing view.

Here's the first volunteer tomato to ripen. I'm not sure what these are, but there are about 20 of them on the plants and they have a small donut shape to them. This one was tasty. I also have German Lunchbox tomatoes - small and pink, hot and sweet. There are about 30 of them on the plants but they are also taking their time ripening.

Garden Gems

Here you see some coriander seed and some little purple potatoes that were dangling at the bottom of one of my potato plants.

A few days later I was tilling the soil so I could add compost to then plant veg for the fall. Lo, there were more potatoes chilling out in the ground! Apparently they don't just stay under the plant.

Here is a large baby bok choy that I will probably eat tonight for dinner.

First llamas, then ducks

And here was another surprise in the yard - ducks. I came home from telling stories in McWhorter, WV to find some ducks outside of the back door. This is where my neighbor's cat stays and therefore the lawn doesn't get mowed here. I figure that there were some nice insects lurking about for the ducks.

Phone Updates

I couldn't figure out why the leaves on my potato plants were disappearing - if deer were to blame then why were they only eating those plants? Well, I found the culprit.
Here's a rumtopf update. So far: cherries, strawberries, gooseberries, wine raspberries, apricots, red currants, and now shirot plums.

On 4 July I was on my back porch and I could hear bells - lots of tiny bells. I figured I should see what was going on so I put my book down and went around the house to find this:

Llamas in my yard - eating the shrubs!!

Here's the replica of James Rumsey's steamboat in the 4 July parade:



And here are the llamas in the parade. Their owners parked outside of my house for the parade lineup.