Farm Life Update

I use my Facebook as a mini blog for the farm life.  We are usually up to something.  Even if it is something ridiculous.  My favorite season has always been summer.  We are currently wrapping up the summer and quickly moving into the fall season at least in regards to school life.  We've started the fall garden although the temperatures this coming week resemble nothing like fall, much to the chagrin of my pumpkin spice, fall loving friends.  My goal this go around with my blog is more for me and less for others.  I just want to document the "going ons" here on the farm.  Nothing fancy, just talking, writing, sharing.  

Short Update: We've been at the farm for five years now.  We passed the five year mark May 1.  It seems crazy how fast time as flown.  We've gone from three dogs as our total animal count to 15 laying hens, 26 replacement hen/roosters living in the chicken tractor, 2 kune kune pigs-Millie & Lucy, currently we have two Hereford hogs, to one dog and one puppy.  Happy is the remaining original dog on the farm and Elsie is the new farm puppy who turned 4 months old this weekend.  

We went to the TSC (all stores I frequent will have the article "the" in front of them.  It's fun and absolutely grammatically incorrect.  So if grammar is a big deal probably best to skip on by my blog writing.  We frequently the TSC often as the replacement hens and meat chickens eat a TON of food as do the Hereford hogs.  Dogs are allowed in the TSC so we took Elsie in with us.  She took it all in stride.  We dropped some dollars there and went home.

I managed to get these nice large flower pots half off for only $10/pot while we were out. I've come to embrace container gardening for my flowers and I am really preferring large containers over my smaller ones. 

This weekend was filled mainly with landscaping tasks.  Mainly pulling weeds and then digging up bushes.  Let it be known I am not a fan of the bush.  I have some Rose of Sharon bushes that I do happen to like but they have flowers for a long portion of the summer.  They seem less bush-like and more flower like.  That gets you a pass in my book.  We had extra help from the pup.  She loves dirt and she loves to help.  We purchased another hydrangea and we were getting it in the ground.  I consider hydrangea's to be flowers not bushes if there is any confusion on the matter.  We think they're pretty so they get a spot in the garden.

We had the helicopter crop duster flying over today.  I wish I had been quick enough to get the picture of him hovering over the barn but it wasn't meant to be today.  So here's a picture of him flying back to the airport or wherever he came from.  You'll notice I managed to get a corner of my Rose of Sharon bush in the photo as well.  I consider it just beautifying the photo.  

Fall Gardening Without Expectations

 I like gardening. I liked gardening as a kid. I always start out my garden with great intentions and lofty goals that subside by July as summer presses on. As I've gotten old my garden has grown. This year was an interesting year for most of us. This was my best gardening year to date. Early in the quarantine/stay at home order we added two more raised beds to our garden area and then fenced in the entire garden area. I started petunias in our basement for the flowers. We were invested in our garden. Since we had a lot of time at home it was the best taken care of garden I've ever had. 

Since fall has arrived we cleared out the garden as it was necessary. I tried my hand at a fall garden. I planted some cabbage, lettuce and spinach. Then when it started getting cold (not just cool) I had the husband help get the cold frame out of the shed and tucked them inside it. The lettuce and spinach are ready to be harvested but I'm also interested in watching and see how much more they might grow. Cabbage plants are nice looking, nothing to eat yet. I'm not a huge cabbage fan so this isn't a big deal either way. 

My cold frame soaking up some sunshine. Left to right: mix lettuce, spinach, and cabbage.

I also planted a couple rows of onions. Apparently they'll grow all fall and then they'll be ready to pick earlier in the spring. I've got time. I've also left my carrots in the garden. I pick them as I need them. It makes storing them much easier by just leaving them in the ground. 

The carrots are on the left and onions are to the right.

I tried a new crop this fall. Garlic. I like cooking with garlic. I buy my fair share of garlic. I read about growing my own garlic and it didn't seem that hard. So I went and bought some from the vegetable store down the road and talked to the owner about planting it as well. So far everything is going as planned. Well, except the fact that the middles are still skinny enough to sneak through the slats of the garden fencing and they find the green scapes delicious to munch on some days. They also like scratching through the straw I've thrown over the grown to help insulate them for the winter. So we'll see what the spring brings. 

It's not much really when you look at it but I've had fun working on my fall garden intermittently. It's less work than the spring garden. This could be because I have lower expectations for my fall garden. It has been a welcome distraction. Not having much to show for my fall garden we are already thinking about spring gardening. Two days before Thanksgiving our first seed catalog arrived. As a child I remember flipping through my grandparents seed catalogs that would arrive after the new year. I'd dogear pages of items I liked. Then the catalogs started arriving between Christmas and New Year's. The arrival of the first seed catalog has moved it's way up until we are now receiving them before Thanksgiving. I do love a good seed catalog. I love the flower selection more than I do the vegetables. So I've spent the last couple of days dreaming about what seeds we might start late winter and what we might plant come next spring.