Eclipse Shadows

April 8, 2024 ~ Crystal Sands ~ 3 Comments

Today, in our part of Maine, we experienced a 99% solar eclipse. It was beautiful and eerie, and it was great hanging out with my family and our animals and observing it all.

I wanted to share this fantastic photo I took today during the eclipse. The light was so weird, so eerie, so beautiful. When I went to see what the chickens were doing, I saw the magnificent shadows of my Maple tree in our drive. Her shadows looked surreal, so I took a picture to try to capture it. I think it worked. The shadows look almost 3-D in this photo. Isn’t that wild?

I love that Maple tree and have taken so many photos of her. I am so glad to have this one of her shadows during the eclipse.

I miss Luna–and other updates

March 24, 2024 ~ Crystal Sands ~ 3 Comments

Tomorrow will mark the two week anniversary of Luna returning to the flock. We had to keep the bully duck separated for a week, but Mean Girl has now returned to the flock as well. Our plan worked, and Mean Girl is no longer Mean Girl and is now just Carmelita again. Luna is getting along very well, though, I swear, in all of the snow and ice here yesterday, I think she looked at me with a certain kind of longing for her warm fire and Back cello suites.

Still, she is doing very well overall. The other ducks will not let me touch them unless they need some kind of help, but every night, when I deliver the bowl of peas at bedtime, I just touch Luna all over her little feathers and tell her I love her so much. She lets me. And that’s the extent of our relationship now. I can’t stop missing her, and I am definitely changed for the better by my experience with her. This summer, I’m going to make our son play some Bach on his cello outside on the deck where she can hear. I want to see if she remembers.

In other news, the ducks and chickens are laying in full force. I have been too worn out to try to sell eggs, even to most of our regular customers, so I think right now we have about 10 dozen eggs in the house–and that’s with our son eating many, many eggs every day. He loves fresh eggs. It’s a good thing he lives on a chicken farm.

Look at these beautiful duck eggs. That striped one is the little miracle Luna left for us the last night she was in the house. I did pretty well keeping her out of the light, and she only laid an egg about twice per week. I guess her “ink” was doing funny things. What a treasure!

We have had some terrible weather the last couple of days. Everything was all spring like, and I was ready for it. Then, we got snow and then more snow and wind and rain and ice and then some more snow. Ron and I spent all of yesterday shoveling trying to keep the ducks comfortable and trying to stay ahead of the ice. We did pretty well overall, but still, this morning, I had to use warm water to open the doors on the chicken coop and shed with the straw.

I told Ron this morning that I had never seen anything quite like this morning, but then I realized I remember saying that last year when we had the -50 degrees with the wind chill and that this is what climate change is all about–a whole bunch of “I have never seen anything like this before.”

Speaking of climate change, I actually went back to really writing this week. I have been in a drought for a long time. I have much to write in the blog, but I spent last week working on an article about climate change in Maine that will be published next month. The article was interesting to research, and I learned so much. It also felt good to be back to work in that way. When I was really struggling with COVID, I made a bunch of deals with myself and the universe that, if I could just get better, I was going to focus my energy on things I love much more. I am happy to be back to writing.

I sure miss Luna though.

A Cardinal

November 27, 2023 ~ Crystal Sands ~ Leave a comment

This morning, I saw a female Cardinal at the bird feeder, and she was magnificent.

I haven’t written about the birds for a while, but I have meant to. The last time I wrote about them was when they all disappeared when we had the hurricane blow through Maine. The hurricane turned out to be much smaller than people had thought, and a lot of jokes circulated social media. Still, we had some trees come down, which is always a worry, and we lost our wild birds.

After this happened, some people posted on the internet that the birds were just in the woods, but ours were not. Our woods were eerily silent, and after a summer filled with the sounds of the biggest bird population we had ever experienced on our property, the silence around our home and in our woods was deafening–and devastating.

One of my dear friends used to teach elementary school, and she told me she used to teach her students about how the birds will hide and go away for safety when a hurricane comes, which makes perfect sense, of course. I was just surprised they were gone for so long–and they must have been far away for our woods to be silent for so long.

Eventually, permanent residents of Maine began to make their return, and it was wonderful to hear them in the woods again. I could hear the Chickadees and the Jays, and eventually, I heard the Cardinal. It was only last week though, many weeks after everyone left, that we first saw a male Cardinal at the feeder. I wondered if he was the baby I had seen all summer, who I watched grow up and gradually start to get his color. It had been so long since I had seen him, I didn’t know, but I hoped.

Ron said, “There should be a female somewhere,” and this morning, she appeared. She sat there at the feeder for the longest time, and I stood and watched her for most of it. Bairre wanted to go outside to see the bird, but I made him stay inside. I wanted to observe her and be so grateful for her.

I did, and I was.

Watching and studying birds has been one of the greatest joys of my life. I never imagined myself a bird watcher when I was younger, but that’s only because I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I love getting to know our birds, and I was devastated by their rapid departure due to the hurricane. Still, it just makes me appreciate them more now, and I am going to treasure every single Cardinal and Chickadee in the feeder this winter. I don’t even mind that the Blue Jays are stealing duck food again.

And, soon, I will have to write about our summer with the Chipping Sparrows.

photo credit: Joshua J. Cotten, Unsplash

Take Care of Each Other

October 26, 2023 ~ Crystal Sands ~ Leave a comment

I may try to write from my wholly honest self tonight. I don’t often do this because it’s just scary. But I feel so raw after the events here in Maine last night. I have been teaching writing online since 2015 when I left academic administration to homeschool and homestead. At one of my online schools, I work with a lot of first-generation undergraduates from both the northeast and midwest. I am a first-generation college student, and I love helping these students. Still, it’s a tough job. Some of my students have lived tough lives, tougher than my early childhood, and that was a doozie. I am so empathetic that I can get really down from work, and I have to be careful not to get overwhelmed.

I noticed about five years ago that my students were reporting more shootings in their lives than I had ever seen–by a long way. I was hearing about shootings from students in areas where I never would have expected to hear about shootings. The frequency and locations of these shootings were collectively worrying me about the state of things. I told Ron about this, and we hoped that Maine would be able to hold this off for a while. Maine is a safe place to live.

I am most heartbroken for the families who lost loved ones, some of whom are just finding out about their loved ones, but I am also heartbroken for our whole state. Maine is truly like a small town. I heard that when I first moved here in 2007, and I came to learn this was true. There are layers to our mourning here in Maine. The violence is here now. You know it’s possible, but you don’t want to believe it’s true. So you try to be hopeful.

It’s a heartbreaking thing to lose your hope.

The only way I could deal with this tragedy at first was to not deal with it, to keep busy. It’s only been tonight that I can feel the grief. All day today, I just focused on my tasks, and a large number of my tasks today were helping people. And helping people will keep you sane, won’t it?

I just focused on the work and how much I loved the people I was helping. As I completed each task, I just focused on how happy I was to be making someone happy. It kept me calmer, and it was through this that I realized that’s all we can when we are dealing with something so profound–try to do some good somewhere. Ron and I were working together for much of this, and we talked about the state of things while we worked. We talked about how we each perceived the situation and what our thoughts were. It was helpful to get his perspective, and I am thankful to have such an intelligent, thoughtful partner in this world. One of the things we decided was that it was important for us to take care of the people we love, our friends and family, in whatever ways we can. We have to take care of each other right now. We have to take care of each other forever.

Ron brought me home in the afternoon, so I could grade essays. He went back to finish helping a friend, and he said, while he was outside working, a gigantic murder of crows was all around him in the trees and flying throughout the neighborhood. He said it was quite the show and that he stopped working for a bit just to observe the beautiful crows. After a while, Ron said he called to them, “Thank you!”

I love crows. Ron loves crows. I love that Ron loves crows. I love that he got a visit from the crows. I have been fortunate enough to have a few myself, and it is good for the soul, especially the mournful soul. It feels like they know, and somehow, that helps, I think.

photo credit: Glen Carrie, Unsplash

Beautiful Maine

October 2, 2023October 2, 2023 ~ Crystal Sands ~ Leave a comment

I didn’t write all weekend because I have been having some accidental adventures away from home. My son, the cellist, had a big music camp this weekend, and I ended up having to chaperone the girls the first night. I was not expecting this and didn’t really want to spend my Friday night sharing a cabin and a bathroom with 12 girls.

It turned out great though because I loved hanging out with such smart kiddos. Those girls were great. Very sweet and polite. Plus, I got to stay in a beautiful place. I was in an uncomfortable bunk, but it was in the Maine woods, in the fall, on a lake. That helped.

I have found myself falling more and more in love with Maine the longer I stay here and get to know it. I have loved living here for the longest time, but I love it more all the time. I have always had the soul of a wanderer. I have lived in several states and moved back and for the across the country three times. I guess I was trying to find my place. I surely did.

On the drive to my son’s camp, I saw the most beautiful Maine. And, on the last day, as we drove to our son’s concert while the sun was low in the sky, I saw a tractor, on a beautiful farm, with colors of fall in the background, and the sun shining so orange. It was breathtaking. I have no picture, of course, as we were on the road, so I can only try to capture that beauty in words. I literally gasped.

I read that this fall is going to be particularly spectacular for the fall colors here in Maine because of all of the rain we have had. My Maple tree is turning full red. I’ve never seen her do that before. I can’t wait to see how she lets go for the winter. I’ll definitely keep you posted.

I am sharing this picture taken by my son at camp. There were these fantastic nut trees in front of the cabins at the camp (though this picture might be of an oak). I have to confess that I wanted to pick up all the nuts and take them with me if they were just going to sit there, but I resisted and left them for the squirrels.

Isn’t it a beautiful photo?

Summer Harvest

July 30, 2023 ~ Crystal Sands ~ Leave a comment

We are in the thick of summer harvest, and it is both wonderful and terrible. Mostly wonderful. Still, it makes for some long days in the garden or kitchen or both.

Today, I processed 12 quarts of blueberries. Some were frozen. Some were for jam. Some were for pie filling. It’s been a bumper crop for our blueberries, but we have just 8 bushes old enough to product, so we also visit a farm north of us and pick from their high bushes. The blueberries are giant this year. It has been fun to pick them, though the heat has taken a toll for sure. They are so yummy it’s worth it. Plus, the heat broke yesterday, so I am hoping to go pick one more time.

The green beans are also ready, and the raspberries are still going a little bit. We have put up 14 quarts of green beans so far, and more will have to be processed tomorrow afternoon when I get home from taking my son to music camp on the coast. Summer harvest makes for some late nights.

But I learned a long time ago that that can’t sleep on that garden. When things are ready, they are ready. If you want to eat from the garden all year, you have to be ready to process a lot of food in a short amount of time in the summer and fall.

Of course, I am so thankful that we have so much to harvest right now. Food is so expensive at the store. It is wonderful to have all of this food to help feed us all year. This year started out more than a little worrisome, and we lost some things. Overall, however, things are looking really good right now. We didn’t get many beets, and most of the cabbage rotted; still, we had a couple of each. And the onions and garlic look great. We just started eating the onions in our dinners.

The carrots are coming and look beautiful. The potatoes are doing well, though Ron has had to treat them for blight. Mainly, the tomatoes are gorgeous. Oh, how I hope they keep going! It looks like it might be a good year for them. Oh, and my three Sisters garden is coming along so beautifully. I’m going to need a long summer for everything to make it though. Ron says that’s the only way the melons and watermelons are going to make it–a late frost will be key.

You never know what might happen these days. Last year, we got our first frost mid-September, and then it got hot again. That was a bummer. But the year before last, we didn’t get our first frost until after halloween. That was nice but scary at the same time. Maybe we’ll get something in between this year.

Oh, and Mary Jane is hanging in there. She had a great day yesterday and even slept on the roost. Tonight, she didn’t make it up on the roost though. I saw her get into a nest box for bed. Last night, I was in awe that she was sleeping on the top roost, and then I saw she was leaning on someone. It was a small, brown chicken who was just sitting there patiently, allowing the giant that is Mary Jane to lean on her. I went back into the house to get the flashlight because I had to see what chicken was allowing this.

It was Bianca! That hen is the sweetest hen in the history of ever.

I’m an old bear.

July 10, 2023July 11, 2023 ~ Crystal Sands ~ 4 Comments

Right now is like a farmer-Crystal dream come true. All the berries we grow–strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries–are ripe at the same time! This never happens. I don’t even understand how it happened, but it has been a very strange year, as they all are these days, I suppose. Anyway, I am well aware that is probably not a good sign that things are this out of rhythm in the grand scheme of things but am in my own kind of heaven having all of these berries at once.

Of course, the strawberries are winding down, but they are still producing a lot of small berries. Today, when I got home from taking our son to music camp, Ron told me we had to pick blueberries. I was like, “You mean raspberries?” But he meant blueberries. They are gorgeous too. So gorgeous!

All of these berries are so gorgeous that I actually hurt myself today. I got greedy.

I have been having a few health struggles again in the last week. I am trying to figure it out, but having an autoimmune disease is all very confusing to me still. I pushed my body a little too far and really hurt my back picking strawberries. The berries are tiny, and there are hundreds. It’s tedious picking but so worth it because those little berries have had some sun here at the end of the season and are packed with flavor. I saw a beautiful berry patch in the far part of the extra-large raised bed and pulled a muscle in my neck.

I was so mad at myself. I know I can’t reach the far parts of the beds and have to get Ron or our son to reach them, but I got carried away because of the beautiful berries. I’m greedy for sure.

Later, Ron went outside to pick blueberries while I sat on the couch and watched television. This is something I never do, and it felt weird. I was also curious about these blueberries are that were supposedly ripe so early, so I ended up back outside with the plan to just watch Ron pick blueberries.

But then I saw them! Oh, readers, they were like dream blueberries. All of this rain has done them justice. We have eight bushes, and I have certainly never seen such an amazing year of blueberries. We may try to put up the nets. I am not sure though. I like to share a little with the birds. I guess it will depend upon how much the birds are willing to share with us.

Seeing those beautiful blueberries glisten in the raindrops made me forget myself again. I grabbed a quart basket from Ron and just kind of lunged at the berries. I winced in pain. I forgot how much my neck hurt. I whimpered.

“I’m like an old bear, grumbling around but needing to get to my berries” I said to Ron. “There’s nothing better to me than these berries.” I reminded Ron of my reoccurring dreams about bears, like that was evidence I was, indeed, really a bear.

“You are a bear,” he said. “And you grew up without your berries, but here you are now, in Maine with all of these berries.”

He was smiling at me so big but with worry behind the smile. My health struggles scare him. I have to get better. I am certain the berries are going to help.

A Cold May Night in Maine

May 17, 2023May 17, 2023 ~ Crystal Sands ~ Leave a comment

Day 3 of 21

It’s been cold here today. It sleeted or snowed or something for a little bit earlier. I had to wear a coat and hat on our walk with the dogs today. Thankfully, we just have our cold-hardy vegetables in the ground, but I’m worried about my flower pots. Maybe I should bring them in. I had better.

It was a lovely day overall though. I am in love with Maine in the late spring.

When I first moved to Maine, my officemate at the university told me, when I was complaining about Maine winters, to “just wait” that the springs and summers were so beautiful that it would make the long winters worth it. I told him I thought that was just because the winters were so terrible that, by comparison, everybody thinks the springs and summers are awesome.

And then May came, and I understood.

There are apple blossoms literally everywhere, in the trees, floating across country roads, on the cars in town. The greens are so vibrant. We have so many magnificent trees here in Maine that it feels a little wild, like Maine still keeps some of its wildness and just will not be tamed by humans.

It’s beautiful here.

On our walk today, I took pictures of some of the apple and pear blossoms, and when I got home, I got this picture of Rooster under one of our pear trees that is maybe my favorite picture of him. Isn’t he so regal? He has a regal personality, and the coolest thing is that, after all of these years, he trusts me. He is like me and trusts almost no one. I rarely “show my soul.” Rooster is the same.

He also worries like me. Today, Ron was trying to cut down an infested branch in our neighbor’s tree. He was up way too high on the ladder, and I was holding it but was very scared. It was not a wise thing to be doing, and Rooster was letting Ron know. He kept clucking at him the way he does when he’s trying to tell the flock to behave better, to be safer.

I told Ron that Rooster is my people. Ron laughed and agreed. I am so glad Rooster is still here. He’s so old, but he seems determined to hang in there. I am grateful to have him.

Ruby is doing well at Day 3 of her journey. Every day, I feed her some breakfast scraps because she’s so devoted to her eggs that she won’t get up to eat and drink much. I’ll have to write more about that tomorrow, but I made her eat a little, though was not able to get her to drink. I’ll try again in the morning. I did pull her out of her crate to get her to walk around a little because I haven’t seen her off the eggs for two days. She squawked about it and went right back to her eggs, but at least she moved around a little.

PS I just have to add one more sweet Rooster story. If he hears you sneeze, he makes this worried sound and checks on you. Every_single_time.

Magic in the Maine Woods

April 13, 2023 ~ Crystal Sands ~ Leave a comment

Day 339 of 365

I have many farm stories to tell but no time to tell them tonight. I was busy being in the stories all day and now have to work very hard to get my Thursday grading completed on time.

It was a very good day overall, but I have a chicken coop story to tell for sure.

I also went for a walk with Ron in the woods while our son was in chamber group rehearsal tonight. It was lovely.

When I lived in Oregon, I walked and walked in those Oregon woods. I loved them so. I miss them so.

But, truly, there is something about the Maine woods. There’s something magical, some feeling, some force. I don’t know what it is, but I love it.

Footprints in Snow

February 13, 2023 ~ Crystal Sands ~ 4 Comments

Day 280 of 365

Over the last two years, I have been collecting photographs of footprints in snow around our little farmstead. I love seeing the footprints of all of the animals who live here with us or just come visit us and share this space with us. I admire all of these creatures.

The other day, I finally landed footprints I have been coveting–crow footprints! I decided then and there I was going to share my collection in the blog. I hope you enjoy, as these are magnificent to me!