Mercifully, things are starting to slow down a bit here at the Run. August was a whirlwind of canning, freezing, drying, well-digging and school prepping that left us all breathless and tired. Thankfully, that's coming to an end.
Isaac is adjusting beautifully to his new classroom setting: having never been in a daycare or preschool it took him a little while to get into the routine, but now he's doing very well. He's smart as can be, and we finally have that left-hand/right-hand ambidextrous thing figured out. It would appear that though he writes well with both hands, he's just a little more comfortable with his right. So, he'll be like his Mamaw and write right-handed, play golf left-handed.
The garden is starting to die off slowly. There's still tomatoes blooming, and our fall garden is beginning to come on. Our only disappointment this year was corn, and we learned our lesson. You simply can't grow beautiful, white open-pollinated corn in a patch 20 feet from a hundred acres of hybridized field corn. Our corn is bland, dry and hard as can be. So disappointing. Even the chickens wouldn't eat it. Next year, we'll have to look into a bi-color hybrid and see if we have any better luck.
Canning and preserving is slowing down too. I put up less this year than last year: you can only eat so much jelly and jam, you know? But on the other hand, we did a LOT of drying this year. The dehydrator is loaded to capacity with apples right now in fact. Still to can this year is pears and apples, plus there are sunflower seeds and walnuts to harvest and a fall garden to tend. The carrots are looking gorgeous as are the short-season Italian green beans. Here's hoping for a lovely, late harvest.
Given a little time to breathe and think, my attention has turned to getting the house ready for cold weather. We've been airing quilts and heavy blankets, emptying drawers of summer clothes and replacing them with fall/winter clothes. Stockpiling dry goods and putting together my 'pandemic closet' has also been WAY up there on the to do list. Short of an oil fill-up and new winter shoes for everyone, I think we're well on the way to being ready for winter.
So that's what I'm doing during this changing of the seasons.
What are you doing now that fall is on the way?
7 comments:
I'm still dehydrating and canning - our weather is still somewhat warm although we had a cool day last week. What I HAVEN'T done is plant my fall crop and I fear it is too late. I may experiment with a few things, but I doubt it will do well. Our extended vacation in August really set me back in this area - I won't travel in the summer unless necessary in the future.
I have one sick child at home and another feeling like it is coming on. I'm not sure if this was the flu - if it was, it was very mild. (I can only hope she is now inoculated!) Either way, the season of illness is already upon us.
Wes ripped out the rest of the garden today with the exception of winter squash. With nights in the low 30's it's time. We're going to re-jigger the whole thing so this gives him 2 months before snow flies hard to get beds re-done, solarized as much as we can and ready for spring. Leaves will start to fall faster and faster and the city guys will show up with dump truck loads for us to it will be mulching, compost building and putting things to bed for a while here. Cool weather makes it easy to work and we have abundant sunshine so it's all good!
We finished our cold storage room in the basement, just in time to pull the rest of the carrots, beets and cabbage. I have a food preservation workshop tommorrow but will be pulling up the beans after that. The corn is done-a great harvest but the racoons got the end of it. I have pulled out all of the winter bedding and changed to flannel sheets. We will be putting up plastic on the windows in the nest few weeks.
"We've been airing quilts and heavy blankets, emptying drawers of summer clothes and replacing them with fall/winter clothes."
Can't do that yet here. First, the weather's still in triple digits (oy). Second, we've just started fire season - pulling out linens to air would only result in them smelling like smoke (still getting morning drafts of the smell from the recent Station Fire). In fact, I might have to air stuff after our first rain of the season to finally get the smoke smell out of what caught wind during the smokey weeks...
But hubby's been having fun using the car as a food dehydrator!
Hey Andrea,
It's Todd from the Ohio Micro Farm blog. I am getting ready to save seeds from my Tiffin Mennonite tomates, and my Amish paste. If you're still interested in swapping, let me know!!
The Mennonites were a fantastic suprise. They are huge, pink tomatoes with tons of meat. The Amish paste performed beautifully, as usual. Our harvest of both was tremendous.
Let me know if you have anything to trade, this is an area of gardening I've been icthing to try.
Todd
P.S. Finaly got another post up on my blog, it's been a bit crazy around here.
Trying to stock up on cold/flu stuff mostly. Glad it's fall now! The fall garden consists of carrots and turnips, oops I was supposed to do more. Maybe next year!
It is definantly fall. I had a fire in the wood burner yesterday to take the chill out of the house. Still to early to turn on the furnace. My clothes dried great on the laundry drying rack nearby.
I have been trying to get all the windows sealed tight and all the compost covered.
I like fall but every season seems to bring on a pile of different work. I'm not going to complain as long as the snow stays away and shoveling is not added to my list.
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