Sunday at home

A quiet Sunday and we needed it. An early walk on the levee, a trip to Carlyle to see David, the rest of a DVD, and a simple dinner outside with Miss Kitty. She ate the vole she caught, we ate the slow cooked pork butt (shoulder) that Mark slid into the WFO last night. Nearly 18 hours of slow cooking later it was moistly tender and pulled easily away from the bone. We ate it with a corn, tomato and feta salad. It tasted better than it looks in my photo. A cold Mountford New Zealand Chardonnay 06 went down very well.

A typical day on the farm

Having spent the last two days doing citylife work - it was time to get back to farmlife. For those of you who wonder what I do here - yesterday was a typical day:

Morning - we walked early and then I went to yoga - which is always good. A visit to Carlyle Assisted Living to see David, Verna and Marks's uncle George. Back home, the real work begins. Decided to make flat bread for tonight in the WFO, found a

recipe, made the dough. While that rested, I helped Mark pick

the last of the white peaches, then, because of the glut we decided to make peach jam. Had to do some research before starting. Mark cut up the peaches, I prepared the canning jars, then cooked the peaches, sugar and lemon, and waited while it became a dark rosy red tinged jam. Filled the jars, boiled them for 10 minutes, set them aside to rest for 12 -24 hours. Fingers crossed it will set. Continued preparations for dinner -finished making the flatbread - and we also tried a new Jamie Oliver recipe in the WFO - world's best chicken caesar salad. And it was. The flat bread wasn't bad either. Jam this morning was good - but slightly runny. Room for improvement next time.

The Next Day

Steve has been Mark's mentor and co-builder of our wood fired oven. They were up very early (considering our late night and wine consumption) to start the stucco (render). This is the final decorative stage of the whole WFO adventure. I oversaw the placement of my 4 italian ceramic tiles. They worked very hard all morning in 90+F. Barb and I had a drive around our county and a long walk in the woods.