October 26-27, 2012

Sally staid in town and missed a beautiful weekend at the farm. Crisp clean air, blue skies, fall colors, hawks soaring overhead, with highs in the 50s and lows in the upper 20s. There was an inch and half in the rain gauge, but most of it must have fallen a week or more earlier. The ground was really dry.

Garden

Though we had had a light freeze weeks before, we now had several days of hard freezes forecast beginning with Friday night. So I figured I better harvest everything possible from the garden.

• The tomatoes were finally ripening and I picked 20 or more red ones and maybe half that many green ones. (This picture shows how the pack rats harvest them and carry them to their garden door, but can't get them through. I don't feel sorry for them.)
• The bell pepper was also loaded, though some were small. I probably picked 15 or more. Unfortunately none of them had even begun to turn yellow. I'd love to learn how to speed up that process.
• The two jalapeno plants were just loaded. We have a big bag from the last time out, but I went ahead and picked more than we will ever use (because they were there).
• I got a nice bit of chard, but only a little kale because of the dang little worms that have been devastating it. I'm hoping it will survive the freezes, but that the cold weather will get the worms.
• The summer spinach was still doing well (even after the frost), so I picked enough of it to fill a quart bag.
• I also chopped off the tops of much of the basil and spent a great deal of time picking through it for the good leaves (it had suffered from the earlier frost, was not in as good a shape as it appears from the picture, and was wiped out by Saturday morning). I ended up with enough leaves for a half a pesto recipe.

Saturday I went ahead and pulled up the tomato and the bell pepper plants.

Winterization

With colder weather it was time to do the routine winterization: put insulation into the top of the well house, empty the rain barrels (I flipped them upside down and put them in the back of the garage), light the heaters, and bring in the glass rain gauge. Tasks I knew I wanted to get done this trip.

Mow/Weed Eat

With it getting late, I decided to do a little mowing up front and out back -- mostly just to run the mower and charge the battery. Then I took the brush whacker out and cleaned up the first half of the road down to the pond.

Loveable Loo Invaders

I checked on the Loo Friday and found that something had been chewing on the top like they wanted to get into the bucket. That's a sick critter. From the droppings I would presume it was a rat. I'd rather they not do this, but how can I stop them. I also installed a coat hook so I could hang a wrap while visiting the pot in cold weather.

Walnuts

I had two projects Saturday, cut the dead field pine and pickup some walnuts. I cut the notch in the field pine so it would fall to the southeast. But there was a breeze out of the southeast, and I didn't want it to fall the other direction toward the fence. So I decided to get my rope, come-along, 4' steel stake, and mini sledge to pull the tree back to the east as I cut it. On the way back to the house I decided to pickup the nuts under the walnut near the old homestead. These were a nice size and the hulls were moist and soft. I would stomp on them and role them under my foot to remove most of the hull. I would do a half dozen or so and then pick them up, remove the rest of the hull, and toss them into a bucket. I'd move around, and pretty much picked up all from under that tree within about an hour. Back at the house I spread them on the ground to dry in the sun and the wind.

After felling the pine, I went to the large walnut just below the pond. It had been really loaded with nuts, at least 5 times as many as the other tree. I filled another bucket up there. They were smaller, but the hulls were thinner. I didn't make a dent in the nuts under that tree. When back at the house I spread them out on the ground as well, but it was getting late and they didn't have much time to air out. (The first batch dried out nicely.) Before heading home I had to bag them all and stash them in the rabbit hutch. I hope the second batch doesn't get moldy. I ended up with about 1 bag, though I kept them separated. It would be nice to get another bag full in the next few weeks.

Cut Dead Field Pine

Cutting any big tree down always makes me a bit nervous, and this was a big tree. Here you can see the rope and come-along I used to ensure it would fall to the east. If it wasn't for the breeze I probably wouldn't have used this, but I didn't feel good about it without this helper. I would cut on it awhile and then go over a tighten up the come-along – maybe three times. I didn't relax until I finally saw its weight shift.

The second picture is pretty amazing to me, it leaned over until the wedge held it and it just staid standing there. There weren't that many fibers holding that huge thing up. Just amazing.

And look at this third picture and note the 6 feet or so the trunk ended up, jumped, from the stump. I had trouble holding the camera steady. This was one big tree.

There's a draw right where it fell that drains this pasture. The smaller limbs I cut and threw into the draw. I cut the tree with my Stihl, but thought I would use the old heavy McCulluch to do the limbing (partly since it hadn't been fired up in almost a year). It was a little difficult to start, but performed well once running. I got the limbs off and cut the trunk into a few sections, and even rolled a couple of big ones over to the base of another pine. There is more to do here, but I was ready to move on to picking up more walnuts and my time at the farm was running out.

October 12-13, 2012

It was still warm, but fall is definitely knocking on the door. The Ash, Walnut, Persimmon, and Virginia Creeper were all in full color. We drove out in the rain, but it stopped by the time we got to Eureka Springs. There were two inches in the rain gauge, and then more fell with a line of storms that came through Saturday night after we left. Very nice, although the pond has yet to rise one bit.

Garden

It was muddy mucking around in the garden. Sally wanted the sweet potatoes dug up, so that was my job. I used the potato fork, but as careful as I could be I still speared a few of them. I was amazed to find more than 20, some very small but some huge, and some color variation in them. Most had splits in there skin, I presume from dry (drought) periods and then watering (or rain). Sally thinks the large ones will not be good, but I disagree. I made the mistake of washing them, a natural reaction after holding these huge muddy blobs. Later Sally said, oh yea the instructions said to just let them dry and then knock the dirt off. Hopefully they will still keep. We ate 3 (or more) of the ones I had injured for dinner sliced and baked with a little olive oil and salt. That was the whole of dinner, and it was good.

The weekend before we had received our first (light) frost. The only thing really affected was (sadly) the basil -- those nice tender new leaves on the top which have been perfect for making pesto the past months were blemished. Luckily we have lots of pesto frozen. The two jalapeno plants were so loaded we didn't even bother picking all of them, picked about 8 bell peppers (only 2 were beginning to turn yellow), about the same number of small tomatoes, and bunches of chard. The kale was up and growing but it is being decimated by some tiny worms we found on the back side of the leaves. After squashing all I could find Friday, more were back Saturday. Oh, the woes of the farmer.

Brush Hogged

Larry had been out and gotten everything brush hogged, so the fields were looking good. I didn't go back behind the pond to check where he stopped, but I should have. It still makes me sick thinking of all the pines I planted just to have them cut down. The survivors are now 15' tall. What could have been.

Pond

Sally and I took a walk to the pond, sans Tender. He is just not up to it any longer. He makes a fuss when we leave, but I think he is satisfied just snoozing in the house. The willow at the pond had a large mostly dead limb hanging out over the water that had actually put down roots into the water (the part keeping it alive). Since the pond was low, I knew this might be my only chance to cut it. I came back with my chain saw and cut it and another one hanging out over the water. I had to use the saw to cut through the thick mat of roots growing into the pond. (Apologies for the finger I got in front of the camera lens.) I just hope a new willow doesn't sprout out of there. (Hopefully the pond will come up and completely cover them and prevent that.) I sharpened the chain saw when back at the house, but it was really a pretty lazy weekend where I didn't get a lot accomplished -- bothersome to me.

September 29-30, 2012

It had been cloudy and cool with a good chance of rain for days, but we didn't get any. The gauge had only 2 tenths of an inch, although both rain barrels were full. Sally was so chilled she got a jacket out. Buffalo burgers and wine for dinner.

Mow

Even though we are still way short on rain, there has been enough falling to get the grass growing again – everything needed mowing. I did some in the morning, and finished up Saturday afternoon. Sunday I did some weed eating.

Beaver Den?

I noticed this pile of beaver sticks half in the pond while mowing, so went over to investigate. I certainly do not want the beavers to return, and thought this might be the beginnings of a new den. But there were no freshly cut trees, so I presume these were the sticks I had pulled out of the previous den and left up hill. I guess gravity pulled them down and back into the water. I'll need to return and drag them out at some point, and continue to monitor for beavers.

Tarantula

Sally was sitting out back reading when this guy decided to stroll across the yard (most Fall's we've seen at least one tarantula). It was Tender that noticed him and went to investigate, and thus brought him to Sally's attention. She said Tender's nose was right up to him. I came by later and he was still there for me to snap this picture.

Walk to Pond

Sally wanted to take a good walk, but Tender has just not been up to long walks recently. So Sunday morning he had crashed in the living room and we slipped out without waking him. There is still no water coming in and the pond remains as low as it has ever been. Leaves on the persimmon, some walnuts, and the few maples we have (like this one across the pond) are beginning to turn. We're not sure what kind of fall we will have given the drought.

Garden

Sally tended the garden, though I did some weeding. The jalapeno plants were just loaded, but we didn't pick any since we still have a whole bowl full from two weeks earlier. (Should have brought them to work to give away.) Lots of chard (with more coming up from seed along with some beets) and a little kale. One tomato plant has not produced more than a few tomatoes all year, the other had a few red ones and lots of green ones (all small). The basil has been fantastic though. Sally picked enough for a double batch of pesto, and another 4 cups for Sarah. I picked some for Donna and Joy and left it on the stems. Joy said she got 5 batches from her bag and Donna enough for 4 batches.