End of the Month Song: "The Doctor's Theme"

This is from the new "Doctor Who" - one of the most haunting solos, makes my skin go prickly to hear it. Just fabulous.

Plus it is nice and airy and melancholy, just like the end of October is.

Enjoy.

Harvesting Walnuts

So the previous owner planted 4 English walnut trees out front - probably cheap-y $1 saplings from the County Extension. Planted at least 2 years before we bought the land, so they got their first big years of growth when spring sprang for us in 2002.

Now, 7 years later, the nuts have finally started to fall. These walnut trees have had some hard years, the windstorms (and last winter's ice storm) have whacked most of the trees' upper branches more than once. But still they formed enough to get our first (small) crop of nuts.

Here's what we did with them:

More tips and resources

• U-Minnesota Cooperative Extension - "Harvesting Walnuts"
• NewHomestead blogpost about walnuts
• Finally, how to shell walnuts! (freezing and hammering)

Song of the Month: The Geeks Were Right

OK, this one is a bit more techie than our "down-home" bent in early song choices. It does mark the distinction between our "looking forward/looking back" thoughts as harvest comes to a (thankfully over) close and the day-to-day focus on Summer.

The Faint, "The Geeks Were Right"

First heard this as a background song as Adam processed evidence during an episode of CSI-NY, these are the 2nd verse lyrics that sold us on the song:

"Egghead boys with thin white legs

they got modified features with software brains
but thats what the girls like, the geeks were right

When I saw the future the Geeks were right"