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We started off May with a bit of a cloudy day and rain shower but the warmer temperatures are here to stay. And with the blessings of a rainy spring thus far our garden, vineyard and orchard are thriving. In the garden, we have planted the following: spinach, cucumbers, onions, garlic, lettuce, peppers, strawberries, blueberries, mint, eggplants, tomatoes, beans, zucchini, watermelon, cantaloupe, peas, and potatoes. We have starters for more spinach, asparagus, celery, carrots and melons. The pomegranate orchard is progressing nicely with a new well that produces enough water to feed our beautiful baby trees. Art has been busy installing the irrigation lines with valves and nozzles for each row. The grass is officially beyond knee high which means a lot of reaping with the scythe in my future. Bobi, the puppy has grown and found his growl and bark. We have two new additions here as well. I've spent the better part of the month editing and prepping the novel Recover or Yield, book two in the Ember in Time series. Official release will be June 1, 2021. Final Cover: Blurb: Danae and her brother Leon, descendants of Zeus, are thrust into a world they barely understand. A new responsibility to protect and serve the goddess Ember and the Castle of Teskom after Danae’s husband, Itra, a descendant of Mui, family failed to protect the castle from an attack lead by Poseidon and Medusa. Their first assignment, finding and retrieving a stolen artifact to restore the barrier that hides the castle from each dimension. An adventure that leads them deep underground and high above the mountains alongside a few familiar and new faces. The clock is ticking. Will they restore order or create more chaos? eBook, Paperback and Hardback versions will be published June 1, 2021. The eBook is available for pre-order on Amazon today. Our collection of book babies:

March came in with magical spring blooms popping up in nearly every corner of the garden, blue skies and loads of sunshine. We finished the water well and we only get about an hour of water three times a day which will be fine for the garden but not the entire orchard. Speaking of orchard, we have prepped 789 holes, ordered 800 pomegranate trees (400 Wonderful, 200 Davedishe, 200 Hicanzar) and rain is in the forecast for this weekend. I expect that the four walnut, four almond, four aroma pomegranate, and two olive trees we planted in the last few days in our garden this week were just the warm up. The field is prepped with a organic manure from local homesteads in each hole. But in all honesty the field looks like a giant game of whack a mole I used to play as a kid at Chucky Cheese. Do you see the resemblance? Our vegetable garden and the vine maintenance are about three weeks behind compared to last year due to a very soggy winter. We will spend the next few weeks with long days outside moving from one project to another. And time training Bobi, a black lab puppy and new addition to our homestead. We are still fermenting persimmons for a spring batch of raki. What kind of raki have you tried? In publishing news, Recover or Yield, the second novel in the Ember in Time Series is about a quarter of the way drafted. During the rainy days ahead I hope to squeeze in a large chunk of writing. I have completed the art for the cover. What do you think? Cheers to more crazy adventures and SPRING!

After a very wet, dark and cold winter, we welcome the warmer temperatures creeping up to sunny temperatures in mid 60°F/20°C. March had a cold snap and rain we haven't experienced before. Our project pomegranate is nearly complete. We will install a drip irrigation system by June but otherwise the trees are in the ground, the soil properly saturated with water and the ground around tree is fluffed and mounded. Art has moved on to a welding project. He is installing new supports to trellis the vines that need more space and support. Eventually, we plan to have do this in most sections including the driveway. Our garden is taking small steps to a reality. Garlic and onion planted only a few weeks ago are popping up and this year we planted 9 rows of potatoes. More veggies coming soon since the night temperatures seem to be heading out of freezing or below. The fruit trees are off to great start! We did take a time out to celebrate my birthday. It was a cool windy day, so I opted for snow and mountains. We drove up to Boge, a small valley town between two high peaks. We had plans to make it up to Theth to have a late lunch but mother nature had other plans. The corner just before the switchbacks was covered. After a few kind souls hopped out we were able to turn our little Jetta around. We had dinner in Razma, a cute mountain village, at the Golden Tower. A small lodge with a cozy restaurant, including a beautiful fireplace. We nearly had the entire place to ourselves. After reflecting on my *cough* 39 years, my long term goals always had an age associated. Create more than one income stream by 30, pay off student loans by 35, live and work abroad by 40, all of which were completed ahead of schedule. So cheers to new ageless goals in no particular order of importance: Install a long lap pool in between two rows of vines. (Art is on board) Finish and publish the Ember in Time Series. Book two first draft complete. Expecting four maybe five to complete the series. Create a guest space on property. Design and build an outdoor kitchen. Cheers my dear humans!

Ladies and Gentlemen we've struck oil, nah just kidding only water. The installation of a new well process has had it's share of unforgiving weather with rain soak filled days, equipment failure, and stuck pipes delaying the project's completion. Last week, they found a water pocket around 150 meters, but not enough to supply the garden and orchard so they went further. Another pocket of water hit around 220 meters. To be on the safe side they went another thirty meters. Why am I telling you this? Most wells in our area tend to be 100-150 meters max. So we are near middle Earth status or at the spring streams feeding the lake nearby. Guessing, the mirror I broke two weeks ago didn't help. Benefits of digging a well: 1. The massive mud pit it creates would supply a nice arena for mud wrestling. Who's up for it? 2. Hopefully enough water to keep and maintain our garden, vineyard and soon to be orchard for our long dry summers. 3. Empty wallet syndrome In other news. Art started pruning the trees and vines over the last two weeks. We have another cold front coming so this will be on pause until the weather improves. We are fermenting the last of the persimmons for spring raki brewing. And our thana (cornelius cherry) trees are starting blossom. A first hint of spring in the garden after a long wet winter. We have two new additions. Meet Gigi and Juju. And I got mail! I ordered two paperback copies of my book the Castle of Teskom and they arrived a few days ago. It's surreal holding a copy. I know it's been out for months but after see and touching it all feels very very real. If you have read the book and are interested in book two I plan to release the title and some concept cover art later this month. Finally joining the ranks with Art! If you have purchased either book, THANK YOU! And if you have read either book please take a few minutes to post a review on Amazon, Goodreads or Barnes and Noble. It helps to have some reviews (even if they aren't all five stars). The books we donated to the school libraries are still sitting in boxes awaiting new shelves. We hope to visit and assist the schools with stocking and cataloging the books soon. Hope all is well in your corner of the world.

We started off this year planning for the new pomegranate orchard and the first phase includes a well. Why do we need a well? From May to September we are usually in near drought conditions. Our first summer we barely had no rain just a short passing thunderstorm. The second summer included a few showers but nothing substantial. Great for the vines but hard on the garden and new trees. Why can't we just rely on the city water? Well the entire region is full of little homesteads and if we used the city water for all of our fields, the taps would essentially run dry. Art did what anyone does when selecting a new service or starting a new project. Research. The average depth of wells in the area are approximately 100 meters. The average price per meter was $70. We know from just digging and planting our garden the last two years that the bedrock under our land is pretty thick. We are estimating it will be closer to the 80-100 meter mark based on the neighboring wells. That sticker price was a shock because that doesn't include the pump, pipes and power to run the well. Insert big gulp. Regardless of sticker shock, we know that it is going to be necessary. We selected a group from nearby city to dig the well. They arrived yesterday morning and dropped off some equipment. What surprised me most about the men that arrived is that the youngest was probably mid-50s and the other two early 60s. Why is this surprising? Here in our tiny town there are dozens of young men in there 20s and 30s that occupy the cafes all day and night. This group of elders shows up with a grin and shrugs off the heavy equipment like it's no problem. Where are we putting the well? In the middle of our garlic and onion beds, why you may ask? Great question! When Art comes up with a reasonable excuse for ruining the beautiful garlic and onions we planted for spring I'll let you know. Before: Now: On a brighter note, our garden should thrive with the extra water available. We are prepping the land around where the orchard with a thorny bramble perimeter to keep livestock that roams out of the field we will be planting. And there are a few old pear cheers scattered on the land. I was given the task of chopping down an oak tree that was shading said pear tree. And I would like to report I managed to yell "timber" with pride. I have helped but never chopped down an entire tree on my own until yesterday. We have a bit more rain forecasted in the next ten days then hopefully we can start with the clean up and prep of the vines for the season. We do plan to build a few more trellises. They create great shaded areas in the garden. We've discussed setting up hammocks and/or bistro tables under each one. What's your vote? Other news includes a hardcover of Castle of Teskom on Amazon.

Short post but no less important. For the last thirty days I have been carefully checking and rechecking the stats since the release of the Castle of Teskom. I set a goal of 30 copies in 30 days. Crushed that at the end of week two and then hit a gap of no sales for nearly ten days which was a little disheartening, but then almost everyday since a copy or two has been picked up. Cheers! My gap years from traditional employment to full time homesteading has given me a lot of time to think and create. Summers are dry and pretty hot, early mornings in the garden only before the need to seek refuge in the shade inside or hike up high in the mountains which we did both this last summer. During my idle time inside I started writing. I kind of let my fingers type while my imagination and mind wandered all summer. Here's a glimpse at the timeline: June-August - Three months of a rough first draft September - One month of a second and third draft August - October - Cover Creation (lost count of edits) September - October - 45 days of creative edits and another post two redrafts November - Final proof edit, formatting, marketing, publish! I enjoyed the process of creating the characters and the storylines. Even the few Easter eggs throughout and few nods to my hometown. The editing was a beast! I was remarkably unprepared for the amount of hours I found myself with a red pen and rereading the same sentence 100 times for comma placement. Many high speed brick wall moments, but I had an amazing editor who took my novice skills and I soaked it up. The cover art was a ton of fun (formatting was a beast). I managed to use pictures of the Mokset Hills (no not a spoiler) and the archway is one actually found on this hillside with a few tweaks in PS and ID it came to life. I have started drafting book two and have ideas about where and how I will do things differently to save time, redrafts and hopefully find an audience to help with beta reading the next draft now that they have read the first in the series. If you are interested leave a comment below. If you've read the Castle of Teskom, please leave an honest review. I have problem receiving feedback good or bad. And if you haven't read the book check it out: https://www.homesteadalbania.com/emberintime Happy New Year! May 2021 bring you great joy and peace!

I took time to walk around the nearly bare garden and take in all the changes that occurred this year this afternoon. We managed to successfully brew raki from Persimmons, Mulberries, Thana, and Grapes. Made wine from mulberries (semi fail) and our grapes (great so far). Stocked our freezer with fresh figs, dried figs, sauce from the garden tomatoes, pepper, eggplants, and onions, fresh pomegranate juice, mulberry juice, beans, and enough blueberries to last until next year. Stocked the pantry and cellar with fig jam, pekmez (mulberry molasses), more beans, quince preserves, dried herbs and tea, potatoes, garlic, onion, wine, and raki. In the garden we have another round of garlic and onions, variety of cabbage, lettuce greens and leeks. Persimmons are ripening nearly every day. And we are starting the planning stages for next years garden including a new project. Art and I have officially signed a lease for the land next to our homestead to start a new pomegranate orchard for export. An adventure and challenge to add to the mix for sure. We know the pomegranate trees that are in our current garden and that grow wild here in the north require little maintenance and can tolerate our long dry summers. We hope that once we pass the initial planting and first two years of growth we can have a healthy productive harvest. Many challenges I have embraced since starting the homestead lifestyle and believe we are ready for this one. We are still working towards building a cabin or suite accommodation to host people onsite. We are thankful the healthy produce from our garden, orchard and vineyard, fresh eggs from our chickens and our bio meat raised here or next door. A major boost to our health and well being during a year where we stayed very close to home. Only a few minor excursions to the mountains. Speaking of mountains. Art manifested his dream of walking the mountains this year by assisting with a project here in the north to document the flora, trees and terrains manually. He was able to view the area from far above and document some pretty cool canyons and caves to further explore. From a creative aspect we have uploaded several videos to our Homestead Albania channel, opened an Etsy shop to share our corner of the world, donated two pallets of books to the local schools and written/published two books. So all in all a pretty rad, delicious and beautiful year.

Featured Author Adam Yamey: Adam Yamey, retired dental surgeon and author of several books about the Balkans, visited Albania in late spring 1984, when the Stalinist dictator Enver Hoxha still ruled the country with an iron fist. This journey is described in Adam’s book “Albania on My Mind”. Adam and his wife made a trip to Albania in 2016, travelling all over the country by car and talking to many people they met on their travels. “Rediscovering Albania” is about this trip and compares Albania in 2016 with what it was like in 1984. The book also makes references to the impressions of several earlier travellers to Albania including Lord Byron and Edward Lear. It also touches on the popularity of Indian culture amongst today's Albanians. Adam’s informative travelogue offers a new and interesting look at Albania: its valiant people, its intriguing history, its wonderful landscapes, and its myriad attractions. You can find Rediscovering Albania: Amazon Lulu Bookdepository Kindle Or by ordering through a bookseller [ISBN 978-1326807108]. Next author Arti Malaj: Arti Malaj was raised in northern Albania during the height of Communism. It was challenging. Religion was abolished, food rationed, and essential items limited. He lived in a multi-generation home; dinner was always a significant event with immediate and extended family, often followed by music, translated stories read by his uncle or legends told by his Grandfather Gjeto, never a dull moment. His journey post Communism included university studies, obligatory military service, immigration to the US, business owner, husband, author, and currently living on his tenth-generation vineyard, orchard, and home in northern Albania. Northern Albanian Folk Tales, Myths and Legends Generations of Northern Albanian are known as great storytellers. They shared many folk tales, myths, and legends with their descendants. The collected short stories include mysterious legends of lost treasures, mystical tales of mountain fairies, superhuman powers, century-old witches, blood feuds, and more written by a twelfth-generation Albanian. The lands described in the stories are still visible today, and locals share a sense of wonder and respect the mysteries that hide beneath. Northern Albania is a true treasure of raw natural beauty and a hidden gem in Southeastern Europe. You can find Northern Albanian Folk Tales, Myths and Legends: Amazon Other eBook And our final author Kim Malaj: Kim Malaj lives on a vineyard and homestead in northern Albania. Although she is a Show Me State (Missouri) lady at heart (Go KC Chiefs and Royals!), she loves her life at Homestead Albania. When she’s not writing, she tends to the garden, orchard, vineyard, or livestock. Even brewing up several batches of raki, making wine, and other sweet and savory treats made from the fruits and veggies produced in the garden. She is an avid photographer, keeps an active blog about their homestead, and hobbyist drone pilot, learning the art of drone photography and filming. Castle of Teskom Shiny ember rocks are fuel for time; the dull rocks are a fool’s dime. An old nursery rhyme, or so they think. Itra and Danae stumble across an ancient secret kept hidden behind a reflection in time near their Albanian home. A faded memory and cryptic messages have propelled them to risk an encounter with foes from Greek mythology, altering their perception of Albanian folklore and reality. Itra and Danae grapple with events set in motion centuries ago and must choose to protect and serve or risk having the secret exposed. Will love, loyalty, and lineage be enough to hold them together, or will they lose their way in a universe they are only beginning to understand? You can find Castle of Teskom Amazon Paperback & Kindle: https://amzn.to/3n5Aetj Barnes & Noble Hardback: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/castle-of-teskom-kim-malaj/1137830298?ean=9781666206975 Other eBooks: https://books2read.com/u/bpryMl If you have a book inspired by Albania and want to be featured in next month's spotlight piece, comment below. Our latest catch of Homestead Albania with the drone included because it's to pretty not to share. Cheers!

We spent the first day of December hiking and collecting pomegranates from the hills of Mokset. Three huge potato sacks and two full buckets with a million little scratches and thorns we returned home with a trunk full and heart happy. We had some intruders aka the goats trying to be up all in our business. The bounty was AMAZING! We squeeze and freeze the juice. On Sunday, we had some extended family over for Saint Nikolla. A holiday celebrated here in the north with lots of goodies like fresh fruit, lamb, grilled pork, pilaf, salad, potatoes, and persimmons. And here we enjoyed our wine. It was a beautiful sunny day and we ate our meal outside. The trees are still turning here in the north and took the bird (drone) up to get a few shots. The cabbage and leeks are still coming up and growing for this fall. The spring onions and garlic we planted a few weeks ago are starting to pop. And we are slowly starting to enjoy the persimmons. They are amazing! We set a small goal for December of thirty copies of my new novel Castle of Teskom to be sold and I met that after the first week. THANK YOU! If you have read the book, join us for online book club discussion on December 26th on Facebook: https://fb.me/e/hdIvkdsia If you haven't ordered: https://www.homesteadalbania.com/emberintime Happy Holidays from our family to yours!

Monday November 30th we will be hosting a virtual Book Launch Party on Facebook It is your chance to meet the author and celebrate the new book Castle of Teskom. What questions do you have? Ask in the comments below and we will be sure to answer everything during our live interview with Kim Malaj. Visit https://www.homesteadalbania.com/emberintime

Today I hit a major milestone and hit publish for the final copy of Castle of Teskom. The official book release is November 30th. You can purchase the book at any of the vendors below or even request the book at your local library. Cheers! Amazon: https://amzn.to/3n5Aetj Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/id1535303778 Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/castle-of-teskom-1 Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/castle-of-teskom-kim-malaj/1137830298?ean=9781663588050 Other eBook: https://books2read.com/u/mKz1VL We spent the day outside unchained from my laptop and enjoyed a glorious fall day here in Albania. We collected and juiced nearly five liters of pomegranate juice. Had a few mishaps with a busted bag but all good.

Art's collection of short stories, Northern Albanian Folk Tales, Myths and Legends, eBook is available on Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Tolino, Baker and Taylor and more... https://books2read.com/u/b5ZNOl Amazon for Paperback and eBook: https://amzn.to/2K9Z0Ky You can even request your local library to purchase. My book Castle of Teskom comes out November 30th. Paperback and eBook on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3n5Aetj eBook Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/id1535303778 eBook Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/castle-of-teskom-1 Hardback and eBook Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/castle-of-teskom-kim-malaj/1137830298?ean=9781663588050 Other eBooks: https://books2read.com/u/mKz1VL You can even request our books at your local library. We have had a few nice sunny days after a pretty chilly and rainy October. Art, our brewmaster, has been working on our fall grape Raki and we are brewing a special batch of Thana (Cornelius Cherry) Raki all bio from our trees to the barrel aged for 3 months. What is Raki? Check out a video we did last year. Art had many mountain adventures in the last few months while working on a contract to manually document the topography of Northern Albania. We captured some beautiful shots and videos which I will give you a few as a teaser for the next video. Update on our garden: cabbage and leeks are the seasonal veggies coming next. We planted the spring garlic and onion last week have pulled the last okra, olives, tomatoes, eggplants, quince, squash, and cucumbers from the garden. Failed plants this year included pumpkins, quinoa, and lavender. We constantly learning what plants can survive the long hot summer days with near drought conditions. Next up is one of my favorite times of year. We are squeezing pomegranates a few times a week, freezing the bottles, and the persimmons are just starting to ripen. We have had a noisy few weeks here. The city water cistern sits at the top of our mount behind our house is being upgraded. The path up to the top was dramatically widen to accommodate the large trucks and other heavy machinery up the hill. Destroying some of the secluded nature feel to the path that we cherished. The upgrade is necessary but the loss of trees along the path is truly sad. Check out the before video I did to capture the essence of the trail last year: And the after: Some sunset and fall love:

We started off October a little soggy, rain has fallen all but three days since the first. We did manage to harvest our last round of grapes before the rains started again. Art had the chance to discover more of our corner in beautiful Albania during our few sunny days. And the fall colors are just starting to show off. Hundreds of natural springs and waterfalls along the paths made work a little more interesting for him and the crew surveying the lands. Meanwhile, we are busy making wine and will nearly double our production of wine from last year. We did upgrade to a manual crank crusher this season which made things a little less messy. But so far we like what we sample. And we had a special visitor help with the harvest this year. Flat Stanly came all the way from Southwest Elementary to visit Homestead Albania. He is on his way back to Mr. Crowley's calls to share his adventures in Albania. And check out the Latest News our latest release news for November!

Yesterday we hand selected our second round of grapes for mushti (grape juice with a kick), wine and raki. We have no fancy equipment here just a large plastic tub and a hand crank crusher. In our vineyard we have small merlot clusters of grapes the ripen first, then our yellow and pink hafisali, and last our largest grape called Çilek, a native Albanian grape for our wine. How do we know when the grapes are ready? Taste and texture. We grape needs to be sweet and plump all or mostly all a rich dark purple. Each day we will smush the mush twice a day. In two days will pull mushti, a grape juice with a kick. We will store strain and filter the juice into plastic bottles and store in the freezer. We will smush the mush once a day for another seven days and will strain and filter the wine, rest for two days, strain and filter again, rest again for two days, and filter and bottle in five kg bottles to rest for six weeks before bottling in wine bottles. The remaining mush will rest for ten days and then we will distill for raki. By the first week of October we will pull the last round of grapes for wine and start the process over as described above. In our orchard, the fig trees are still producing, we have made two rounds of fig jams and even tried our first rounds of drying the figs. We have stored some in canning jars others in plastic freezer bags and freezing for winter treats. Our jujube date tree is ripening everyday we enjoyed a handful of crisp dates this week, true indication fall is nearly here. Last weekend we even juiced a few pomegranates. Still early will likely start harvesting to juice them in another week or two. The quince, persimmon and a apple tree are still ripening for for fall harvest. In the garden, our okra, melons, and climbing beans are still thriving. The peppers, eggplants and tomatoes are still producing but slowly dying off. The cabbage and leeks are growing more everyday and my sweet potatoes are nearly ready to harvest soon. We are down a few baby chicks this last week but the three survivors are doing well. We hope our egg production this fall will increase. We went from seven eggs on average a day to one or two. In other news, my first fiction novel was submitted to an editor this week for creative review. I am creating a few cover options, the title is still a work in progress but what do you think? I will add more details soon, don't forget to subscribe to Homestead Albania for the latest news and updates. And if you have any questions leave a comment below! Cheers!

Art's family rented a guest house in the Lëpushë Valley in northern Albania this summer. We have visited and hiked twice in the last week. From our home to their temporary front door is about an hour and half. Traveling through some magical scenery of the Albanian Alps always makes my day. The views are ever changing with the seasons and the amount of photos we capture from this region takes up a fair amount of data. Example below: The first hiking experience started along the side of a spring reaching a fenced section we encountered a local sheep shepherd and his herd. He offered to show us a path up to a mountain clearing of Maja e Berizhdalit. He was wearing a pair of house slippers and is 60 years old. He navigated and climbed the steep leaf littered path with the agility of a 10 year old on playground equipment. Admiration of this man's physical health and ability was off the charts. He has spent his entire life living in the valley sharing many tales as we climbed. Most of them I heard via third party since I was near the end of the pack but there is a stretch in the pass up the mountain where many Albanians were killed during the Communist era along the borderlands near Montenegro. He did mention a tale or two of fairies and their wild goats. When we reached the summit almost two hours later, it was a large clearing with a few abandoned structures, a spring cutting down the middle to lower pastures and 360° view of the mountains and valley below. After consuming some much needed calories we descended a new path coming across a family homestead who summers with their sheep on the ridge. Interesting fact, at one point there were nearly 50 homesteads that would summer on or near this ridge now there are less than five. We did cross a few springs on the way down refilling our water and eating the wild strawberries on the the trails. Waterfalls could be heard from the trail but not easily seen, Art managed to capture a few photos of one on the way down. Our second day hike started with a beautiful waterfall near the guesthouse, followed by a winding path through a thick forest. We paused in an open valley to take a breather and take some footage with the drone. We passed a few springs along the way with a built in water spout for refilling water bottles. We exited the forest into a large valley with an occupied homestead near the forest. Rising over the first rolling hill we heard before we saw several cows and a heard of sheep in a dip with an abandoned stone structure. We followed the red and white painted markers to Maja e Vajushes. Crossing the rolling valley to the far ridge we past a few more springs and even a waterfall. My nephew and husband chose the straight up path. Interesting fact number two, I learned my very tall nephew has a small fear of heights. The ridge at the top dropped pretty sharply on either side so I can understand the fear. My niece and I took the marked path up to the point marked with the Albanian Flag. The switch back path took us to a ridge over looking the Accursed Mountains and a distant city in Montenegro. We crossed path with a few goats, sheep and cows but otherwise no people the whole valley and mountains to ourselves. It was surreal and magical to be standing on top of a mountain. The amount of photos and video we took after resting at the top will never do it the justice it deserves. Albania is simply wild, raw, beautiful and home. Uploaded a new video to our YouTube channel Homestead Albania:

We are officially done with MULBERRIES! Well for the season. We collected more than 350 gallons mulberries for countless jars of Mulberry Pekmez Molasses, 25 liters of mulberry raki, and a test batch of Mulberry Wine. Watch the madness below: We are officially in summer with highs in the mid 90s F (33 C) making daytime gardening activities hot or evening only activities. We pulled three rows of potatoes yesterday evening. A mix of good and bad crop. We have about 15 melons nearly ready to pick. The peppers, beans, onions, squash, zucchini, salads, okra, and cucumbers all have been consumed in the last few weeks. Our cucumber plants took a turn a few days the leaves turned from healthy green to an orange brown. Sadly we have taken a few out to prevent any spread. Tomatoes are bright green and look healthy but not red yet. Watermelons and pumpkins growing. Pears are prime for picking and the first round of figs are big and plumpy!

July ended with adventures, growth and creativity. Art and I joined his family for three separate day hikes in the mountains surrounding the beautiful Lepushe Valley. I also to played tour guide to our American Expat neighbors, introducing them to the beautiful northern Albanian Alps. Their comments of admiration for the north was music to my ears. The heat of July forced our garden activities to early morning or late evening leaving the day available to work on my first novel and Art creating a beautiful wine cellar. Both of course very much works in progress. We have reduced our tour activities to just the vineyard and tastings until the temperatures cool a bit. We harvested all of our potatoes stacked in hay stored in the wine cellar, onions and garlic woven and hung in the lean to, bush beans shuck and dried, climbing beans consumed, nearly all the squash and watermelons we have enjoyed. We are still growing and picking tomatoes, cucumbers, okra, cantaloupe, carrots and eggplants. Plants that did not survive our very dry hot month includes one pumpkin, quinoa, and our blackberry vines. We planted five sweet potatoes and are prepping the garden for cabbage and leeks. In the orchard, we harvested the last of the pears. The thana (cornelian cherries) trees are now in season. Still debating harvesting for Raki. Figs are shortly behind compared to last year due to our late snow April 1st but we anticipate a healthy harvest this year. The quince, apple, pomegranate, olive and persimmon trees are developing nicely. Plum trees were a bust this year but we have several young plum trees that are thriving. And on to our vines. Despite a very dry summer the grapes are doing great. Our small merlot grapes are already ripening and the cylek grapes are slowly turning which is right on time. In other news, we received an additional donation of German books from a wonderful woman from Austria who lived in the capital Tirana, and monetary donation from family in the states towards our Stock the Library project. We also recently completed a carport to the home thanks to the craftsmanship of my husband Art. Art and I met five years ago August 2, we enjoyed the day with this side project and long swim at the lake. Our crushing sad news came from the states this week, my youngest niece is a US Marine and is part of a unit that suffered 9 fatalities after a training accident this last week. Our heart and prayers are with their unit and families of these service men and women. Love you Little!

Update on the latest before the Q/A. We are officially entering into our grape harvest and pomegranate season. Thrilled to restock my supply of fresh pomegranate juice (I ran out in early March). We freeze small bottles and use as tea, a splash of juice at the bottom of the mug with hot water is the perfect way to end the evening and a small shot in the morning. We picked our first round of grapes from the Merlot row for a round of mushti, grape juice with a kick, this week and will be pull the juice out this afternoon. Last week, I opened our blog up for questions that I promised to answer in this post: 1. How is the weather this time of year? We are entering the cooler evenings but still warm dry sunny days, little to no rain yet and are able to open windows in the evenings and not smother at night. We are finished with high 90s F (38 C) in the immediate forecast and evenings cooling off mid 70s F (24 C). Low humidity in general for the valley here so even when it is hot it is not too intolerable. 2. What kind of grapes do we have in our vineyard? We have four varieties of grapes in our vineyard including Çilek, merlot, hafisali pink and yellow. Çilek is our main grape and the sweetest. The wine we produce is a soft red, not dry but not to sweet. Similar to a Malbec. 3. Do you get lonely? Lonely, no but I do talk to my chickens and the pig. I spent years working away from home every week so the fact I get to wake up next to my husband is great. Do I miss family and friends outside of Albania? Yes. I have a lot of friends and family I keep in regular contact with through various forms of communication, texts, phone calls, group chats or a video chat. This week was rougher than most my grandma spent some time at the hospital but is now home with family doing well. 4. Why Albania? This question came from a stranger that doesn't know Art or I, but worthy of an answer. My husband Art and his family are 12th generation Albanians and originally from the land we live on. We are homesteading his family home and land. But why did I choose to make this our permanent home? IT IS STUNNING! The US has many stunning places but I have the best of the best scenery wise for 800 times less plus it has his family roots tied to the soil. It is a blend of northern Cali wine country, Boulder, CO hiking and mountains, and Lake Tahoe with lush green space and mountains all wrapped in to one corner. Just a few reasons of why we stay in our corner and not somewhere else in Albania. 5. What animals do you keep? Currently we have one pig, Chewy and 13 baby chicks, 11 hens and two roosters. The follow up question to this is why no dog? We keep what produces food plus the dogs that have visited so far has harmed our chickens, I love my fresh eggs. 6. What do you grow in the garden? The list is long, we grow seasonal vegetables, salads and some fruits: tomatoes, potatoes, sweet potatoes, squash, bush beans, climbing beans, zucchini, watermelon, melon, cantaloupe, cucumbers, garlic, onion, okra, spring green salad, spinach, quinoa, chamomile, peppermint and spearmint, strawberries, eggplants, peppers, blackberries, pumpkin, leeks, cabbage, carrots 7. What kind of fruit and nut trees do you have? This list is long as well: apple, cherry, peach, fig, chestnut, plum, nectarine, Cornelius cherry, mulberry, walnut, date, pomegranate, quince, pear, persimmon, avocado, lemon, olive, and a total of 46 varieties. Vine wise we also have kiwis. Not all produce every year and some are still growing to maturity but it is what we have on property to date. 8. What do you do? We work the land, make wine and raki, tend to the animals, and work on side projects. Currently, I am writing my first fiction novel and Art published his book in February. We support the local community in April we delivered on a our Stock the Library Project, and we sell prints and other items related to Homestead Albania online in our shop. Living here has inspired so much creativity and love of nature I can honestly say was missing from my life. I can't wait for each of you to visit one day and enjoy the peace and fresh air in our corner of the world.

We are midway through August and the grapes are thriving. We have a few weeks to go before we start our first round of harvest for wine and raki. We have four varieties of grapes in our vineyard including Çilek, merlot, hafisali pink and yellow pictured below from left to right. We anticipate at least three large barrels for the first round and we will be smashing with clean feet (LUCY style) when the time comes so stay tuned in the next few weeks as we document how to make wine and raki step by step. Update on the garden we harvested all of the garlic, onions, herbs, baby and baking potatoes and planted cabbage and leeks. We are still producing cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, sweet potatoes, egg plants, pumpkin, peppers, corn, cantaloupe and watermelon. We are starting to think ahead and plan more strategically to combat our long dry spells on where, what, when and how we plant next year. Plants that didn't produce well this season were our climbing beans, blueberries, strawberries, asparagus, spring leeks and some peppers. The science of soil, water and sun for maximum growth in our dry climate is an adjustment and for me it is still new since the only thing my family ever grew were pumpkins on accident. The fall fruit trees are full with the quince and persimmon trees needing additional support because of the loads of fruit weighing it down and the olive, jujube, and pomegranate trees are doing very well with harvest in the next two months or so. Plum, mulberry, thana and pear trees did great and we are looking forward to our new cherry, peach and apple trees next year. And last but not least our figs are glorious. Several dozens are picked each morning just to keep up with a half dozen mature fig trees, we have four different kinds of figs. They are so delicious! August is also wedding season here, we have attended two of five. Once we have attended all five I will blog about the experience, culture, food, music, dresses, and dancing. And let me just tell you this now, they go BIG.

From Vine to Wine - Step one, confirm the grapes are ready to be harvested. We had a local expert aka the oldest person in our neighborhood come down to confirm our grapes were ripe, sweetened and ready for harvesting. It took an afternoon and the next day to pull the grapes from the vines. Step two, one full day of stomping, yes I said stomping. DREAM COME TRUE, I was I Love Lucy grape stomping queen of the day! My feet were washed and wrapped in plastic wrap before I began my Lucy dance. By the end of the day we had two full barrels with our smashed sweet grape harvest. Step three, two days post stomping we removed what is called 'mushti' aka grape juice with a slight kick, extremely smooth and DELICIOUS!! The mush starts rise above the liquid for just a few days it is so sweet, so it is all about timing to scoop this up. Step four, smash the mush twice a day as the fermentation starts the liquid settles at the bottom and the mush floats to the top. Essentially to keep the yeast levels equal during this stage, it is necessary to 'smush the mush'. This process varies on temperatures and since we are a little cooler at night, we will ferment for a 10-12 days in the original barrels. Step five, follow our blog as we will continue to document the next stages of wine and raki.