Finally! - January 30, 2026 @goldenoakfarm

On Friday when I pulled up the shades I was able to get this shot of the frost on the hall window. I had gotten up at 5AM to get the stoves going and I got my post up. I know I did something else before I left for exercise class but I can’t remember what…

Small clivia in the sewing room

Once back home from class, I got lunch and sat down until my #3 helper came at 12:30PM. We got the kitchen cleaned up and then we fed all the house plants. She did some chores while I sat down, then we got started on the elderberries.

Back in August 2025 we cleaned off the 2 elderberry bushes we’d been able to cover. This is what ended up in the freezer. In October my #1 intern and I worked on them and got 2½ quarts done, picking out the stems.

Ever since then, 2 of the Pyrex bowls I use a lot have been sitting in the freezer waiting to be picked over. So I thought a good sitting job would be to finish them. They have to stay frozen as we work, so it takes 2 people to do small bowls for that to happen.

So we emptied my bowls and I now have nearly 4 quarts of elderberries to turn into juice.

Another job I’d wanted to get done was repairing my wind chimes. Most of them have broken and I’d been collecting them in the clean room. So we dragged them out and got 3 of them done. But we needed heavier rope to repair the peace bell so we went up to the barn to get some. She wanted to see inside the barn and was fascinated with it.

But we ran out of time so we got the rope and she left for her next client. I was too tired to do more, so I cleaned up the table, got the fires going and pulled the shades.

As I went to pull the east living room shades, I saw the moonrise and the lovely pink glow in the east from the sunset. Sometimes the old camera and I get it right….

I made some supper and sat and watched 800 Words. I’m on the last DVD of the last season.

On Saturday I hope to start the bills/budget, but it’s to be the coldest yet, so I’ll be tending stoves a lot. My #1 intern is coming to visit at noontime, so that will be lovely. It’s to be sunny but barely making it up into the 20’sF during the day. I can’t wait for Tuesday, when the temps rise and it’s a more reasonable temperature for winter.