February 9, 2018. Today we lost our blonde bombshell, The Cheat (named after a character in Homestar Runner) to a possum attack. Such a sweet, beautiful girl and a great layer of pointy-ended light green eggs. She will be muchly missed by me.
There's The Cheat, third from Rose (the white hen at twelve o'clock). She's in the three o'clock position.
February 5, 2018. First significant snowfall of the new year. Nothing quite compares to the beauty a sunny snowy day.
January 6, 2018. Our Indian Runner Ducks are entirely undeterred by the wintry weather. As long as they have some liquid water to play and preen in, they are happy. Although they are ducks (females), not drakes (males), we named our Fab Four after The Beatles. From left, that's Ringo (grey), John (black), Paul (white & tan), and George (grey). They are the living antidote to anyone's bad mood.
December 10, 2017. New additions to the Brightside menagerie: Leia (in basket) and Rey.
November 21, 2017. Duck eggs and bathing beauties.
November 4, 2017. Talking about local food at Yew Mountain Center.
October 28, 2017. Cider-making. Oh, the aroma!
April 28, 2017. A lot is happening in our mountaintop garden!
January 5, 2017. Finally! Time to process culinary herbs. Fall-harvested oregano, sage, thyme and sumac now ground and jarred. Yay!
December 30, 2016. The year ends with the arrival of Winter.
December 21, 2016. Fellow Pocahontas County Artisan Co-op members Rolf Brunner and Dawn Baldwin share elf spirit at the Co-op's Christmas Party.
November 29, 2016. Brightside Beauties hanging out in the goat pasture.
November 10, 2016. Compost. Returning the garden to itself. Nature's very best fertilizer.
November 6, 2016. Grandma Clyde, Mom Dora and little Avil, who gets bigger every day. We will miss him!
November 3, 2016. End of season kale and chard.
October 27, 2016. Final CSA delivery for Pocahontas County Produce on the Move! Heartfelt thanks to all our loyal supporters. Since June, your dollars have provided an income stream for five local growers.
October 19, 2016. Special Thanks to Pocahontas County CVB and US Tours for giving me the opportunity to conduct Herbal Tea Talks with terrific tour groups from Missouri and Maryland. We had a great time tasting the herbal wonders of our woodlands and meadows.
October 15, 2016. I've been busy processing the summer harvest of herbs for tea and cooking. It still seems magical to be part of this long, rewarding, and seriously aroma-therapeutic chain of events.
September 21, 2016. New batch of Miss Clyde's Goatmilk soap will be ready soon.
August 29, 2016. We're deep into tomato canning time!
July 14, 2016. Miss Dora gave birth to a buck today! Welcome Avil (short for Avillius), son of Romulus.
June 20, 2016. I had a great time this afternoon giving a talk about wild edibles to a terrific group of kids at Ambassadors for Christ Summer Camp. What fun!
June 1, 2016. Produce on the Move! kicks off tomorrow with 22 customers. Thanks everybody! It's going to be a delicious, nutritious season. Local, fresh, fantastic food from now through October 27. :-)
May 11, 2016. Best buddies Jake and Clio are enjoying the warm weather--as are all the two- and four-legged creatures at Brightside.
April 12, 2016. Produce on the Move! needs ten reservations by May 1 in order to launch the season. So far, we have eight. Reserve your share, or refer a friend, and you'll receive a super-wonderful Cutco vegetable peeler. We're not launching the season with fewer than ten customers. If you value this service, please refer a friend. :-)
April 7, 2016. Wow! Winter just isn't done with us quite yet!
April 1, 2016. Forsooth, Forsythia!
March 29, 2016. What's better than starting the season with a set of sharpened and lubricated pruners? Thank you, my David!
March 26, 2016. The view from the cabin toward Virginia. I expect the Loch Ness Monster's American sister to raise her head any moment.
March 25, 2016. Produce on the Move! is now taking reservations for the 2016 Season, June 2-October27. This year, our CSA is offering a single share and a family share portion of naturally-grown, chemical-free produce by the month and by the season. We also offer free-range eggs, whole chickens, and pork sausage to our members. Check it out!
March 25, 2016. Got super sweet goats! Our mother-daughter alpine team Miss Clyde & Miss Dora are loving life at Brightside.
March 24, 2016. More signs of Spring! Wood Frog (Lithobates sylvaticus) egg masses in the remnant root cellar of a long-ago farmhouse at Brightside.
March 24, 2016. What a difference two days make! Coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara) blooming on the Old Pike Road, very near our gate. We may yet have another snow, but this flower is indeed a true sign of Spring's warming earth.
March 21, 2016. A wee bit of Winter Redux. I know Spring is just around the corner, but some days I wonder about its arrival.
March 8, 2016. Nothing quite compares to seeing Cream, Jake, Ethel and Marzipan enjoying a dust bath in the unseasonably warm weather.
February 28, 2016. After a month of truly unpleasant weather, the girls are out and about again. It takes seeing hens on the loose to fully grasp the meaning of the term "cooped up"!
February 25, 2016. Brightside Acres representing at the Winter Blues Farmers Market at the Charleston Civic Center.
February 4, 2016. Our hens enjoying morning treats from the compost bucket: last night's veggie scraps!
January 30, 2016. Finally, our girls are back to working for a living! Just a little bit more daylight means more eggs. I love the Martha Stewart palette. We have one Dominicker, one Rhode Island Red, and 11 Easter Eggers sporting a delightful variety of feather colors and styles.
January 28, 2016. Incredible hoarfrost turned the county into a winter wonderland this morning.
January 24, 2016. Our first significant snow of the season!
