Early Sights and Smells of Fall

Wow, in only a few days it will be Labor Day weekend - the last hurrah of summer!  It's been a weird one for sure weather-wise - I just picked the first full size tomatoes today!  I sure hope frost holds off for a few weeks!

Here is a view from the driveway across the back yard to the field and woods beyond.  There are already a few leaves showing some color change.

One of the nice things about the changing seasons is the constant parade of wildflowers - here are some that are blooming now.

Out in the garden the roses are putting out a few more flowers, and the rose hips are large and red.

I got home from work on Wednesday or Thursday and found both of the combines in the farmyard - old and "new".

Turned out that the John Deere had a belt that was down to a few threads so the old combine was pulled out to be Plan B.  The oats were ready and are now in the bin.  Kori was home this weekend and helped out with baling up the straw.  Thank you Kor Kor!

I harvested the rest of the garlic on Monday and it is all hung in the garage - it really smells good out there and I love to just look at it - makes me kind of proud - it's really nice stuff.  It needs to cure for a while and then I can trim and clean it up.

The kids moved today from the Winter coop-yard back in with the does.  Hopefully they are fully weaned now.  I will know for sure when I milk tomorrow morning - they may be moving back out again if they are not!  Tamarack and Poppy also got their first hoof trims.  You can tell from the way Poppy is kind of crouching on the milking stand that she doesn't like what is happening here but she did enjoy the snack!

If we couldn't tell any other way, the changing season is announced by Ranger's odor.  Oh boy - it's hard describe the smell of a rutting buck!  He has been living in the back yard for the last couple of weeks but today he moved with his paddock and shelter much further from the house!

 Thank you for visiting the blog - until next time, be well friends!

Wheat Harvest and Garden Update

We have two kinds of wheat here - winter wheat planted last fall and spring wheat.  The winter wheat is Turkey Red, a heritage variety and that is now harvested.

First Rollie swathed it, which is really just cutting it with a machine called a swather - no pictures of that this time, sorry.  Then Kevin finally got to use the Behemoth - the new to us combine.  It's not so big by the big farmer standards, but much bigger than what we have had before.  It made pretty short work of the two little fields of wheat.

Back in the farm yard the wheat was unloaded into this dump wagon - to me it looks like the thing is vomitng!

The last thing to do is bale up the straw.  None of the usual help was available- Rollie and Ardis were off to a reunion, Kurt was working Duluth this week, I was still at my job and Kori was in Philadelphia on vacation. Kevin put the call out to his scouts.  Wyatt and his dad Tim came to the rescue!  By all accounts they had a pretty good time too.

I am working on another harvest - the garlic.  I have about 1/3 of it drying in the garage now and it looks very good to me.

Here are a few photos from the garden.  The tomatoes in the straw bales are doing way better than those in pots.

The pumpkins and squash love the straw bales.

I will close with an updated view from the milking stand.  Ever changing, I never get tired of it.

Until next time, be well friends

The Pleasure and Pain of Berry Picking, and another Turkey Curiosity

The raspberries are abundant this year.  I didn’t get time to pick them as I should have this week so when I picked this morning there were many that were overripe and many on the ground- a sad sight.  The deerflies are also abundant so there was a bit of bloodletting.

The strawbale and circle bed plantings are looking good – more on the garden and wheat harvest next week.

Ranger’s paddock and shelter gets moved every week or so.  This morning Kevin moved him right into the backyard.  What we call the Black Forest is a clump of trees that were planted in what was a garden area many years ago – “just for now”.  I am sure Ranger will enjoy the shade and chewing on the trees and some weedy shrubby things that have grown up along the edges. 

While Kevin was working on this project, I looked out the window and it occurred to me that there are some plants there that were part of a perennial planting along the edge of the old garden.  I quickly googled to find out if day lilies might be toxic for goats.  I didn’t find them on any list but found another problem plant – Lily of the Valley.  Oh dear.

I went out to check, hoping that they had maybe died down for the summer but there they were, thriving in the shade under the trees.  A beloved plant that reminds me of my grandma every spring had suddenly become a vile enemy and I got in there and started ruthlessly ripping them out and hurling them over the fence.  More bloodletting ensued but I got most of it.   

Ranger seems to be good with the new arrangement anyway.

So, can you stand to hear about the turkeys yet again?

You may recall that Peanut hatched these poults right around Memorial Day.  She kept them to herself and frequently took them out to the field.  After a few weeks she started keeping them around the farmyard more but kept them away from Penelope and Tom; if they came near she would defend the poults and chase them away.  More recently, all the turkeys are friends and they have melded into a flock.  The point is, Tom has had no part of the poult rearing – or so we though.

Last Sunday there were storms over a large part of our state – some quite severe.  We drove down to the cities right through a deluge for a family party and from the looks of things it rained pretty hard here at home too.  We got home after dark and I still had to milk.  I was milking Vinca (who was quite crabby about this disruption to the usual routine) when I noticed Tom roosting on the hay wagon – just a few feet away from me.  He had both wings spread out protecting three of the poults!  I could hardly believe my eyes, and no camera of course.  Kevin came by in a few minutes and I quietly told him to go get his phone; he was able to take this picture by coming around to the backside of the barn.  A couple of them had gotten down by then but you get the idea I hope.

 

I hope this post hasn’t gotten too wordy and long – thank you for hanging in there to the end.  Next week we will be posting about the wheat harvest.  Until then, be well friends.