we wish all of our friends in blogland, and their families,  a very Merry Christmas!!!

we are sorry to have been away from the blog for so long, but we will update you in the new year about all of the stuff that's been keeping us busy! Merry Christmas from both of us to all of you!

kymber and jambaloney

november 9th, 10th and 11th

november 9th was a beautiful day!



i turned 47! the greenhouse wished me a happy birthday by still producing! thank you greenhouse!



jambaloney bought me 100 bobby pins which i go through like mad! he also gave me another wonderful present which i will tell you about later.

he also dug up the rest of the carrots.



they are just baby carrots from the second round of planting but they are soooo tasty! he brought the box in for me to trim the tops...and in the time it took me to open the scissors drawer to get a pair of scissors - this happened:



that cat can smell a box from 18 miles away. i had to pick him up 3 times and move him and he kept getting in the box! finally i had to put him outdoors!

we don't really celebrate our birthdays but this year i wanted to do something different - i wanted to take my big sis C for a facial. so november 10th is when i got my real birthday gift. jambaloney paid for me and my big sis C to go and have facials and a nice lunch together. here she is in all of her glory and beautiful smile.

of course, it was rainy and windy all day long. we had planned to go walking along the canal. we drove to the canal and stayed in the car.

here she is in a little cafe that we found. beautiful!

we went to a christmas store which was actually a flower shop, and then finally made it to the actual christmas store...it's too difficult to explain. we were hanging on to telephone poles and each other trying not to blow away! and then there were the sheets of rain belting us in the head!

C got some cute little christmas balls for her grandchildren.

while we were at the canal we noticed these lovely latrines.



it was the only place i could have a cigarette without being stormed on! we went back a few times throughout the day.

here we are grinning like fools because we are now heading off to our facials.

 C has never had a facial (not like she needs one - the woman doing her facial told her how beautiful her skin is!). so we each went into a room and both of us came out drunk. or that's how we felt! i fell off the bed trying to put my clothes back on and C said she was hanging on to chairs and other furniture to get her clothes on. they gave us beautiful facials but they also rubbed all kinds of stuff in our hair. C said her hair was sticking straight up and that she looked like bart simpson. so she asked to go to the bathroom to fix her hair and she wobbled down the hall from one side of the wall to the other because she could barely walk. i completely understood - i could barely see and was wobbly too!

we laughed and laughed and C is even considering doing another one, with our other friends, in the future. she thanked me for a beautiful day and i thanked her. it was a wonderful time out with my sis.

november 11th. when we were kids at school we always celebrated Remembrance Day. and our town always had a Remembrance Day parade. i always enjoyed the parade and through grade 7-12 i was always in the parade - our cheerleading squads were always part of the parade. and all the members of the legion marched and people waved and cheered. it was lovely!

i always felt special knowing that my grandmother, an immigrant, served in the military. i have her service card.

and i have mine.

i have a proper service card with stamps and signatures and whatnot but sometime in the early 90's we were issued with new military numbers which used to be our social security numbers. i can still rhyme off my social security number and military number without blinking an eye.

i'm a little late in saying thank you to all who served but i think that most of you know that i am and always will be thankful. to those who served and their families. not much is said about the wives and sons and daughters of serving men - but to me - their job was the toughest.

so that's been my last few days. now i gotta go harvest some more tomatoes - woohoo!

the most awesome autumn yet!!!

this october and so far, this november, have been brilliant. temps are a little higher than normal, lots of sun, lots of rain, lots of beach.

lots of good food like bulgogi, rice, 2 kinds of kimchi and a grilled mushroom.

and bass. lots of striped bass!

and sunsets that put you in a trance.

and salads with raw tuna, avocado, kimchi, pickled ginger, green onions, carrots, lettuce and a nasturtium flower.

of course there is always kimchi being made.

we made and canned 40 different broths/stocks (we made beef, chicken and chicken with turkey).

more beautiful days even when cloudy.

and then pizza. we think we are off the pizza. neither of us felt well after eating it.

but striped bass? there is plenty! jambaloney is allowed to catch one a day and one bass gives us easily 3 meals. imagine?

this free striped bass meal came with our own potatoes, tomatoes, brussel sprouts and poor man's capers (which are delicious i must add!!!). the remaining cooked bass became breakfast fishcakes the next morn.

so many free meals and so many beautiful days.

harvests looked like this.

i love zucchini fritters so whenever i have one we make them. notice the tomatoes and also notice the beautiful bird's eye chili peppers that my friend Dani from South Africa sent me.

teriyaki chicken thighs with mushrooms, lettuce, tomatoes, carrots and grapes.

the kicker with that salad is the homemade thick carrot-ginger dressing.

oh and river days.

the sun stayed with us on our whole trip.

it led us straight to a new island that has a bit of a beach.

we, of course, named the island "ours". we name all of the islands we find "ours". these islands we find are amazing - no foot traffic or old paths, no garbage or beer bottles or anything like that. these islands really are "OURS".

we like a homemade sweet and sour chicken every now and again.

but salads are a must in our house. almost everything in this salad came from our greenhouses. in october????

but we've been having such gorgeous days!

and eating lots of different salads.

corn. can you ever get enough corn in the autumn? i could eat it every day for 3 months!

yum. told ya i love zucchini fritters.

the beach.

we know it is a beautiful and serene place but now we call it "the free food place".

that baby was cooked up pronto with some bok choi and grapes.

more beautiful days.

and harvests.

and the alpine strawberries that jamie dug out of the hugelkulture (that thing was full of weeds), he replanted them in pots in the greenhouse.

all of them are flowering and putting out berries. woohoo for us!

korean pancake. stuffed to the gills with green onion, cabbage and carrot. deevine!

the squash harvest.

they went in late and didn't really get a chance to ripen. i am taking no chances being it november and all - so i am going to try and ripen them on window ledges.

a ton of grilled veg on rice. nothing more needs to be said.

fish and chips. made with free-from-the-beach-striped-bass and our own potatoes.

with deep fried shrimp and musshroom. homemade tartar sauce and kimchi. best fish and chips ever!

last saturday night was our halloween dance. my Big Sis C wanted a pic of my buns.

my two young friends S and K wanted to put the glowsticks on my buns. i gave all my girlfriends spider rings to wear. we had a blast and a hoot and a half. a great time was had by all.

my Big Sis C bought a bunch of pumpkins to put on her deck and then told us we could have them. don't mind that at all, i sure don't! tons of roasted pumpkin and pumpkin soup coming up this winter. not to mention all of those delicious pumpkin seeds!

well, i must have bored you all to tears by now! but we have had a wonderful october and november is looking just as good.

we're hoping that you are enjoying autumn 2017 as much as we are!!!! xox

driveway...and early morning striped bass from the beach!

jambaloney here !

so as you all know we have a tractor now ( i like to call it "traktor" - it is the socialist in me ;-)

tibor's traktor


anyway - our driveway needs work - i normally do it by hand but at 160 feet down and 60 feet by the house - this has been harder and harder work ... so let's say hellooooo to the back blade!!!

first off i had to remove the backhoe - it was fairly easy - the bx23s comes with an advances coupling system - one person can remove the backhoe...

and install a 3 point hitch and a blade!!

i made sure to get a heavy duty model with various pitch and offset capabilities...

i started with the top part of the driveway... it is rutted and runoff goes all over the place..

i have never done this before but the idea is to grade it so the runoff goes down either side only...

after a bit of practice - i got the hang of it...

continuing around to the big part..

overgrown and rutted big time - the rain does a number!!

back to the top - i want the runoff to go around the corner here...

several passes and building up the middle

and a bit of practice on the downhill..

and quite a few passes required!!!

work at the bottom...

flatter and wider..

a LOT wider!!!

the round about took some work to get right...

back towards the house...

but finally results - rain on one side goes around this corner..

and on the other side this shallow trench...

here you can see both..

and final passes at the top made mini ditches

byproduct...

lots...

of...

ROCKS!!!!

the pics are a month old - the driveway is holding up great - it needs a bit more work to be ready for winter - but it will be MUCH easier to clear - plus we have a traktor now - saved a pile of $$ too so the traktor is paying itself off!!

i have been trying to get the right time for striped bass nailed - this morning was high tide and overcast at sunrise.. supoosed to be good - pretty ominous looking when i got to the beach

but it started clearing up..

when it is high tide the ocean actually  flows into the mouth of the framboise river - this is called the "gut" around here..

the sun is really coming up now...

and for sweet sandy... a nice striped bass !!!!

Hope you are all having a great October - cheers!

(kymber interrupts and says traktor is really named "drunk tractor-dura"!)