And when we're done?
Good Morning!!
OCTOBER IS BACK!! Woo hoo!! October is my very favorite month: sweater weather, very low humidity (’crisp’ air), beautiful blue skies most of the time, fall flowers blooming (we have gorgeous chrysanthemums), pumpkins, and of course, fall foliage. We have maples lining our driveway that turn red & the last one to turn is bright yellow/gold in the front yard. The weather the last 2-3 weeks has been overcast, rainy, very cool ... even the local weather met said it would feel like “November” and it has.
I won’t be processing acorns .... leaving them for the deer, primarily. BUT I do need to take the 2 gallons of egg shells I’ve saved in the freezer & bake them in the oven, then grind to powder. I need freezer space, so that will clear a little.
So I have a bunch of projects on my plate ... trying to keep any particular one from progressing to dumpster fire status & so far, so good:
- Generator shed is cleaned out, new freezer in place. Original deadline was today, turns out it’s now Monday, so I’m ready early.
- Deer needs processing - harvested Thursday, 200 lbs live weight (big boy!). This will happen Sunday evening.
- Garden beds have mostly been cleared .... 3.5 of the 4 veggie beds (left the jalapenos). The zinnias are still in two non-veggie beds - a flock of finches flew out of them the other day plus I’m still seeing bees (bumble primarily) & an occasional butterfly. My SIL & I have both seen a Monarch on our flowers so we’re leaving them until they get killed by frost/freeze.
- Sunflower bed is cleaned out & weeded. The sunflowers were “giants” & most pulled out after working the stalk back & forth. Taking out the metal fence post I used to keep two of them from blowing over was more of a ‘job’. Bed needs compost this year.
- Compost bin needs digging out & compost (leaves from last year) need to go in the beds. This year’s leaves are starting to come down, but not enough to pick up yet, so this can go on hold for another week, maybe two.
- Mowing. Today/tomorrow look like excellent mowing days & the fields need it. I can do it guilt-free since the garden is okay to leave as is. I absolutely need to mow under the pine trees ... needles are starting to fall & I rake up about 12 large (33 gallon) bags to use for mulch in the spring. It’s a lot easier if the needles are on short grass instead of tangled up in long grass!
This weekend & next week should be just gorgeous October fall weather so I’m looking forward to spending a lot of time outside. Next Saturday is a church ‘yard sale’ so in the evenings, I’m gathering up my knit/crochet items to take - hope the weather holds for that event as well. Last year it was blue skies, sunlight filtering through gorgeous autumn foliage, a light breeze, & we even saw a Bald Eagle flying overhead ... good stuff :-)
Qiviut! A true gardener! Even your hunting references are couched in gardening terminology!
And when we're done?
We’ve had a couple light frosts as well, with more expected this week.
I got in all the tomatoes and peppers and have covered the few remaining butternut squash so they can continue to ripen on the vine. Those are coming in tonight as we’re looking as several nights in a row with mid-thirties for temps. Not a freeze, but certainly a frost if clear. Plus, we’ll be out of town for the week, closing up our cottage. So in they come.
I got my garlic planted this week. I spent one day clearing out the beds and amending them with composted manure, bone meal, a bunch of coffee grounds, some crushed up eggshells, and some organic time released fertilizer.
The next day, I planted the cloves, about 150 of them. I could hardly move that night.
But the important thing is, next year’s crop is in.
Mr mm and I also spent hours splitting and stacking firewood. That didn’t help the sore factor.
I just read that virtually all of the sunflower is edible. I'll leave that up to the experts tho, I'm not that adventurous.
What a great day to mow! Clyde & I ‘made tracks’ for 5 hours & got all the back fields done, the old horse ring & around the barn. Tomorrow is the yard, entrances, front field & the front pasture (where my garden is located). I’m estimating the time to get that done at 3 hours.
It was sunny & a bit breezy. Started out in long pants & a T-shirt. About an hour in, added a flannel shirt & the last hour or so, I had to wear a fleece jacket. I needed something on my hands too, but toughed it out.
It doesn’t “smell” like Fall yet - that distinctive ‘leafy’ smell. I did catch a whiff of turpentine when I hit a couple of spots that had some pine needles. The grass around the large pines is now cut so when the big pine needle ‘fall’ happens, they’ll be easier to rake up. The far back field has a corner we have to bush hog & it’s grown up with lots of Ironweed. I see I missed the Ironweed bloom which is disappointing - they usually attract a lot of butterflies.
I did have to walk the fields before getting on the mower & pick up branches that the winds from Ian remnants knocked down. As I was throwing branches to the base of one of the pines, I thought “hmmmm, that looks sort of like a ground bee hole” and about that time a yellow jacket flew out. The ground bees will ‘sleep a breathless sleep’ tonight & not wake up in the morning.
The full moon is actually tomorrow, but I’m outside watching the “Hunter’s Moon” rise in the east with a hot cup of tea & fleece jacket on - it’s really chilly. To the west, there will be frost tonight. Life is good!