Sunday update

Today began with an early morning (2 a.m.) thunderstorm that woke me out of a dead sleep.  I love thunderstorms, but Nora was not as pleased.  We were expecting rain all day today, so I spent 7-8 hours outside in the gardens yesterday, and hope to get back outside tomorrow.  Today will be a slower day.  I'm baking bread, and plan on roasting a chicken for dinner.  Hope to do a little reading (I'm on Book 5 of the Game of Thrones series); nothing too strenuous.

Yesterday I started doing some much needed clean-up in the flower beds.  The cosmos had all developed a fungus from the cool temps and rain, so I pulled all of those last week.  They usually act as great filler and add lots of color in the fall garden, so it was a bit disappointing.  Thankfully I had some zinnias that were doing quite well in the vegetable garden, so I relocated many of them to the circle garden.

Pink and "Peppermint Stripe" zinnia in foreground with coneflower in back.  The lupine have all gone to seed.  I let the pods dry out a bit and self-seed here, as well as use in other beds.

I also talked Nora into stopping by Willow Tree nursery in Potsdam yesterday morning, so I could grab some perennials on sale.  They were having a buy 2, get 1 free sale, so I scored!  I came home with meadow rue (Thalictrum), which I've been looking for locally for over a year, columbine (to fill in a gap in the shade garden), speedwell, echinacea (2 purple, 1 white), baptistia australis (false indigo), and bleeding heart.  Most of those filled in gaps in the circle garden and the new bed near the chicken area with the exception of the shade plants (Columbine and Bleeding Heart).  I also replaced some of the spent container plants with small zinnias from the vegetable garden to give a fresh splash of color.

I have lots more clean-up, dividing and relocating to do in the flower beds.  The berry beds all need weeding as well, and there is lots to be done in the vegetable garden.  The cool summer did a number on my tomato plants; between early blight and pests, I've given up on them.  They're tasty enough for the chickens and ducks, but not good enough for me to can.  I pulled up the two remaining cherry tomato plants yesterday and may do the same for the remaining Amish Paste plants tomorrow.  The fruit still on the vine is not ripening and many of them have been half-eaten by some unseen pest. The only tomatoes I've been able to salvage for our consumption (on delicious BLTs) were the early Glaciers and the beefsteak.  Sigh.  No tomatoes next year; I can't take the disappointment.  Otherwise, we have some edamame still in the ground, peppers, eggplant, pole beans, walla wallas (the storage onions and shallots have all been harvested and cured) and cucumbers.  The fall crops are looking healthy so far.  The pumpkins (I will have to take a photo later; pouring outside right now) are HUGE! There will be some seriously large Jack 'o Lanterns at the homestead this year.

Fall flowers: aster, cleome, sedum, black-eyed susan and sunflowers towering off in the distance in the vegetable garden.  You can see a hint of autumn in some of the trees as well.

It's that time of the year again

Fall prep is underway.  Since moving here and adding farm animals to the mix, the first tell-tale sign of fall is the hay delivery.  For the past couple of years we have purchased our hay, whether it was "old" hay to be used as coop insulation (we stack several layers high around the outside of the coop as a wind break, and trust me, you need it up here when those frigid, north winds come sweeping across the property) or as feed for our three little dumplings, from our neighbor, Bill Dunkelberg. Bill raises beef cattle on 450 pristine acres.  He's also a hay farmer, primarily out of necessity to feed his head of cattle over the winter months.  But he's always had plenty of extra to sell to me.  He grows beautiful hay and his 2nd cut is green, sweet and nutritious, and my sheep love it.

Unfortunately, when I called to place my order a month or so ago, Bill told me he wouldn't be able to supply me this year.  "What do you mean?" I asked with dismay.  He said the summer has been so cool and wet that the grass had only grown to half its usual height.  His 1st cut was dismal and the 2nd wasn't looking much better.  He said he would be lucky to pull off the 3000 bales he needed for his own use.  He couldn't even supply any 1st cut from last year for the coops because he needed every bit of viable hay for the cattle.  Sorry.  I hung up the phone is disbelief and panic immediately set in.  How was I going to feed the sheep for 6 and half months?  What if every hay farmer was in the same predicament? OMG, what was I going to do??

I immediately ran to Nora to share the news, and she suggested I contact a friend of ours because she recalled that Angie had a hay contact through her father.  I did, and long story short, Angie was able to score both bedding hay (for coops and sheep barn), as well as 2nd cut from Farmer (Don) Eldritch. He didn't deliver, but Jim and Nora were able to make a few runs over the course of a couple of days. Jim, being a bit on the conservative side, was only willing to put 16 bales in the back of his pick-up on the first trip; he worked up the nerve for 20 on his 2nd and 3rd trips.  According to Nora, Don was finding his reticence quite amusing and told them about an "elderly" woman (mind you, Don is probably in his 70s) who shows up every year by herself, in her small "foreign" pick-up truck, and stacks 40-45 bales (by herself) into the back and drives off.  As Nora would say, "gotta love North Country folk."

2nd cut

Now we have almost 60 bales of beautiful hay stacked in the barn.  The sheep love it, I'm hugely relieved, and the first step in fall prep has been accomplished.  We also have a portion of the bedding hay in the barn.  Nora and Jim will likely pick up the remainder next week; I was much less concerned about that than the feed hay.

Bedding hay, next to some straw left over from last year

Next up, at least for Jim, is cutting and stacking another 5+ cords of wood.  We probably have enough wood in the wood shed and barn to get us through this winter (assuming we don't have a repeat of last winter). The wood he cuts this fall will have time to dry out for use next year.

Transitions

It’s been feeling like autumn around here for several weeks now with the chilly, foggy mornings (47 degrees the other morning) and cool evenings. The days continue to shorten, which brings a change in the routine of morning and evening chores.  I've already been up for at least 30-45 minutes before I let the hens and sheep outside.  In the evenings, the sheep start baa'ing for their evening tuck-in around 7:30.  The hens start filing into the coops around 7:50 or so, just as the sun dips behind the wood line.  Unfortunately the gnats, mosquitoes and Japanese beetles have yet to get the autumn memo, but I suspect they'll become scarcer over the next couple of weeks.  

The gardens are also beginning to show signs of fall.  Mid-August is a time of transition in our northern garden.  The early summer bloomers are looking a little worse for wear with browning leaves and smaller, less frequent blooms.  Beds that were rampant with color from day lilies, lilies, dianthus, peonies, fox glove and lupines are a bit more subdued.  But this lull will be short-lived; the late summer/fall perennials are just getting going.  The sedum and asters are starting to open...  

Line of sedum

New England Aster

The dahlias and zinnias are just hitting their stride, and several of the early summer bloomers (certain of the dianthus, delphiniums, and lavender to name a few) are presenting their second set of blooms, albeit often a little less spectacular at this time of year.  

Dahlia with some purple yarrow in foreground 

Other mid-summer perennials such as the heliopsis, roses, phlox, and hydrangea will continue to bloom until the first hard frost, which hopefully won't show up until mid to late October.  There is nothing more depressing than to have a fully flowering garden struck down by a premature frost in mid-September and then have a flower-less 4+ weeks of autumn remaining.

The vegetable garden is in full harvest mode, and the 2nd batch of strawberries are coming in. The blackberries have flowered and have small berries on them, which will become gigantic specimens over the next several weeks.  The apple trees are weighted down with fruit; some may be ripe enough to pick this weekend.  Can't wait for Nora's apple pie!

You talkin to me?

The elusive hummingbird

I have been trying to get a decent pic of this little one for weeks. Our good friend Lorna loves them and I wanted to get her a good photo. This morning I was able to snap some and this is the best of that group. Still not what I want. I'll keep trying. Little stinker keeps flitting away. You definitely want to click on this to enlarge it.

Can a carrot be obscene?

I'm gonna say.... YES

put an xtra large egg in there so you could relate the size better

Here's where the expression "Beet red" comes from

Sun shower

These are just cool to me. Kinda like lightening in a snow storm. We just had a brief one this evening so I took a shot of it.

Nora under Lynn's login.

Weekend garden shots

 Not in the mood to write yet, but wanted to share some beautiful shots Nora took the other day:

Riot of color in the circle garden: heliopsis, echinacea, lupines, cosmos, and roses and phlox in the background

Charlotte rose -- a yellow David Austin rose; I love the multi-layered complexity of the petals

Dahlia "Fleural" 

Dahlia "Chocolate Karma" -- love the deep mahogany color of the flower and the stems

Helianthus Maximilianii  - "Perennial sunflower" -- love the flowers, but they grow on 8' stalks that are very gangly  and tend to fall over in the first heavy rain

Lily against the sky

More lilies - "Fenice"

Poppy - a "volunteer" who has sown itself in among the red day lilies

Red Daylily

Sad day at the farm

This morning we had to say goodbye to our beloved fiery red head Ruby. Over the last few days she was rejecting food. I brought her to the vet yesterday and found out her spleen was five times the normal size. The blood test results came in this morning and her liver numbers were off the chart. She also refused any food. Lynn and I knew what our duty was. Ruby was 12 years old and there really is no treatment that would provide any quality of life and her condition was worsening rapidly.

That's the thing about being a pet parent. You are faced with making the ultimate decision. One that is daunting as hell and one that no one is really fully prepared to make. We have been faced with this before and it never gets easier. We knew what needed to be done for her. The ultimate selfless act. So we did.

I will miss that spine piercing bark. That bitchy and demanding attitude that she exuded. I chose her from a litter of sweet puppies. I chose the one who wanted nothing to do with us. She was fiery, brazen, demanding, and a task master. But most of all she was our Rubes.

We miss you little one.

So Rubes

Snow lover

Marilyn for a day

A rare(very rare) sweet moment with a young Magnolia

About to scream at me to let her in. 

Coffee Cup et al

Meet one of the five bunnies recently born in our field. I have named him "Coffee Cup" cause that is about how big he is. Friggin cute little guy. He let me get within 15 feet.

And here's a new pic of my girls. What posers. They make me laugh every darn day.

And a visitor at the coop. Sneaky little one. I'm pretty sure you're not a chicken.Not judging, just observing.

Colorful cauliflower

Lynn harvested this the other day. Yes, a purple cauliflower. Cool looking huh? I think so. Last night I roasted it and served it up for dinner. Roasted cauliflower is delicious even for those that don't traditionally like that veggie. Here's what I did:

Preheat oven to 400
Cut up cauliflower into small pieces as you would if you were serving in a vegetable tray.
Put the following in a seal able gallon baggie (or bowl):
3 tbsp olive oil
1/3 cup soy sauce
tbsp minced garlic
tsp black pepper

Add cut cauliflower and mix well in order to cover the vegetable with the mixture. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and spread the cauliflower evenly on the tray. Cook for 25 minutes on 400. Turn the florets every 10 minutes to get an even roast. Sprinkle shredded parmesan on top and cook an additional 5 minutes. The result, fabulous! Enjoy.