Fall's Arrival

After several days of warm temperatures last week, our cool days and evenings have returned.  Although the house was at 64 degrees when I woke up this morning, I built a fire in the wood stove to chase away the chill and darkness.  Dawn doesn’t arrive now until 6:15 or so, and I’m still adapting to the long stretch of darkness between my rising and the sun’s. 

I’ve been heading out to the sheep barn as the sky begins to lighten, but before the sun is truly up.  It creates this magical light on the pasture’s tree line. The leaves have taken on their autumn hue (see Nora’s photo below), and the dawn creates a shimmering, fire-like effect as the breeze ripples through the gold, orange and red leaves.  I tried to capture it the other morning on camera, but with no luck.  Some moments simply have to be experienced.   

The house, too, is taking on its fall look.  Nora stopped by the nursery and picked up some corn stalks late last week.  They joined the mums on the front porch.  I added some pumpkins yesterday.  The Halloween decorations while liven up the scene in another week or so.  Photos to follow later.

With a week left in the month of September, winter preparations are in full swing.  The barn is stocked with enough hay and straw (hopefully) to get the sheep through the long winter.  With the first hard frost in October, the little ones will transition from eating pasture grasses to 2^nd cut hay (supplemented with sweet feed until they’re a year old).  This will continue until the pasture starts growing again in late April/early May.  Bill D., the cattle farmer down the road, will be delivering another 10 bales of old hay, which we pile up around the base of the big chicken coop for added insulation.  A heat lamp and heated base for the water container, along with using the deep litter method, work together to combine a sufficiently warm environment for the hens throughout the winter.  (Made-It and Daisy2 continue to come inside every evening, of course, but their small coop also has a heat lamp for those extra cold days.)  The wood shed is stuffed to the rafters with wood, and we have at least another year’s worth of wood stored in the main barn.  Jim will also be cutting down some dead elms along the wood line that, once split, will probably give us another year’s worth of wood.  No shortage there.

Other preparations underway include weatherproofing the wood on the front porch and chicken coops (thanks Jim), cleaning up the vegetable garden beds (tilling as necessary where the weeds/grasses took over, although my plan is to move completely to a no-till method by next year) and covering them with a nice layer of the sheep poo/straw mixture from the sheep barn.  This will give the manure time to break-down over winter and replenish some of the spent nutrients in the soil.  Jim has already prepped the pumpkin patch in this manner, and will do the same to a newly tilled strawberry bed.  (We’re down to 75 producing strawberry plants in the existing bed, so I will order an additional 75 over the winter for early spring planting in the new bed).  The blueberry beds have been weeded and the ground covered with a layer of cardboard.  Time and weather-permitting, Jim and I will go out into the woods and gather up a couple loads of pine needles to lay down on the cardboard.  Blueberries love acidic soil, and they seem to respond quite well to the slow decomposition of the pine needles.   

On the food front, I canned yet another batch of mixed berry jelly (the blackberries are just starting to turn, so I will no doubt be canning another batch or two of blackberry jelly as well) and made another 8 quarts of apple sauce.  We still have loads of apples on one of the late-ripening trees, which, if they hold out, will be taking a trip to Tess and Mike’s the first weekend of October and finding their way into the apple cider press.  I canned a few quarts of crushed tomatoes over the weekend as well, but I’m waiting for the bulk of our tomatoes to ripen (see Nora’s post below – ignore the comment about me painting myself blue and running around the table).  Onions and shallots are all tucked into the basement for winter storage.  The potatoes will be dug up in another week or two and will be joining them.  The rutabagas and butternut squash are looking good so far, and should be ready for harvest by mid to late October.  

Of course October brings a rash of to-do items – plant garlic, mulch strawberries and roses, plant bulbs and any fall-arriving perennials (of which there will be a few – I just ordered a mix of plants to start filling in the 8’ x 80’ bed in the front of the house; Lady’s Mantle, Cranesbill, Coneflowers, Shasta daisies, Meadow Rue, and Baby’s Breath), divide and transplant perennials (lots of shifting around to take place this fall), wrap and/or cover fragile shrubs, and I’m sure I’m missing at least 10 things, but you get the idea.  There will be a huge sigh of relief once November rolls around and everything is tucked in for the winter.  That said, despite the work, October is still one of my favorite months. 

What's on your dining room table?

So fall is here. And it came in pretty quickly. Although maybe not given we really had no summer to speak of. Anyhoo, we had another frost threat and decided to pull in all of the tomatoes as they had yet to turn. How friggin long does it take to turn red? I can make my face turn in an instant. But alas, I am not a tomato. Lynn researched how to assist in the ripening off the vine process online. As a result our dining room table is covered with green tomatoes.

Not entirely sure this is working but hey there aren't hurting anyone. Lynn also placed a banana, yes a banana, in each section of tomatoes. Apparently this is to further aid in the ripening process. The jury is out for me but if she paints herself blue and starts running around the table waving incense I will have to put a stop to it. Or at least capture it on video :)

Well hello Fall

I've missed you.

Reprieve

Although the morning air was a chilly when I opened the door to let the dogs outside at 5:30 a.m., I felt a slight bit of hope.  Chilly, but not the frosty cold of 32 degrees.  With some trepidation, I opened the iPad to check the temp.  38 DEGREES!  Wooohooo!!  With the break of dawn, I looked out the window to confirm, and sure enough, no frosty white coating on the grass.

Nora and I spent at least an hour last night tucking in most of the tomato plants using sheets and row covers.  She also found this rather large bit of material that I believe used to be the roof of an old metal gazebo my mother had at the house (sadly, it became a mangled, metal mess during a thunderstorm that rudely interrupted a family party several years back).  We draped it over chair backs to cover half of the butterfly garden with its zinnias and dahlias.  Turns out our valiant efforts were not needed, but better safe than sorry. 

So, it was with a much lighter step that I headed out for morning chores. About half way in I realized that 38 degrees is still rather cold and my stinging fingers sent me back into the house for some work gloves. Then it was back out to remove the covers in time to greet the morning sun.

Frost Advisory

(Note: Nora and I did not realize that we were simultaneously drafting posts on the same topic.  See her much more humorously written post below.)

We are under a frost advisory this evening.  Our “typical” fall frost date tends to be closer to October 5^th – not September.  For those of you who are not gardeners, this means little.  You will not understand the sense of frustration, and dare I say despair, that such an early frost brings with it.  A frost, no matter how light, has the very real potential for not only wiping out all the cold sensitive vegetables – tomatoes, beans, cucumbers, eggplants, peppers -- but deals a double blow.  This frost is likely to kill off my gorgeous dahlias, zinnias and sunflowers;  cut down cruelly and prematurely at the very height of their splendor.  I waited with great anticipation for the month of September solely so I could enjoy the richly colored, heavily petaled blooms of the dahlias and zinnias.  And the sunflowers – I love how their 10’ stalks and huge, fan shaped leaves seem to shelter you as you enter the vegetable garden while their sun-like faces smile down on you.  Now these gentle guardians of the garden will be struck down in their prime by some minuscule crystals.  It seems hugely unfair.

Mother Nature is on my last nerve

Dare I speak against her? Damn straight I will. I have had it. All summer long we have had nothing but rain and cold temperatures. (so much so that the mildew has mildew growing on it). Both of which lengthened the growing season. Finally we get a ton of healthy looking tomatoes not yet turned and now this terra trollop is gonna throw a wicked early frost our way? REALLY??? I drop trou and bare my buttocks to you harlot of the earth. And our flowers. The glorious flowers will be gone overnight. UGH. I am not ready to let them go. The color, the vibrancy.
YOU ARE NOTHING BUT A BIG MEANY!! We better have an awesome fall to make up for this.

I spent this afternoon watering our tomatoes in an effort to warm the earth around them. Later on we will cover them in sheets to try to protect them from the witch's evil icy hands. There is nothing we can do for the flowers. Just sit by and let them go. Do you have any idea how hard this is for a control freak like me? Deep breaths, deep breaths.
I also walked around taking pics of the flowers. It was sad. Who knew I could be moved by vegetation. I must be getting old. Anyway, thanks for letting me vent. Ha, not like you had a choice.