A Change of Seasons

Fall is upon us, and while the work slows a bit, there is never a shortage of projects to be done, or completed.  I mentioned a while back that we were working to get our cows to the "back pasture".  For us, the back pasture means the back of the house, not the back of the property.  

A wet weather creek divides our 40+ acre property in half.  All of the buildings are in the northern half of the property, while the southern half is all trees, brush, and grass.  Al and a family friend have been working hard to get this area cleared in order to put up fencing.  It is nearly done!  

the east (back) pasture

the west (back) pasture

The barn will be a shelter for the cows this winter, but before it can be used for such, it will need to have trees cleared from around it in order to protect it from being crushed.  So the majority of what you see will indeed be removed soon. 

 

I had all these photos in order but they ended up reversed, so I will just share with you what they are.  The perennial garden is putting in a lot of fall growth and my cape daisies put on a second bloom.  They are so beautiful with their lavender petals and deep purple centers. 

The fig tree has several figs on them, and the few I have picked have been absolutely delicious!  I could never go back to eating dried figs after fresh figs! 

Here is the perennial garden.  This was supposed to be the first photo, but it ended up being the last of this set.  The mint is taking over the garden, but I am okay with it.  The fig tree is doing quite well there in the center.  Off to the left, the zinnias have rejuvenated as well as planted a second round of flowers for the year.  Next year, it will be a crazy invasion of flowers!  Other plants you can't see in this shot are yarrow, marshmallow, calendula, raspberry, horehound, and chicory. 

The grow towers were pulled from the back deck in order to put them in the shade.  I planted lettuce in them and hope they do better than my first planting.  

And...my volunteer potato patch is insane.  I never would have thought I left that many grape sized potatoes in the ground when I harvested our lame "1st harvest" in the summer. There is also a load of volunteer dill in the same bed.  

This was my experimental potato garden in which I planted the grape sized potatoes.  It is doing quite well now, though not exceptional since they took so long to get started.  

My purple podded pole beans are putting on some bean pods.  It will be nice to get a few fresh beans before winter comes. 

The few raised beds that have food growing in them: carrots, cabbage, kale, broccoli, beans, and chard.  All the pepper plants were pulled out after days of me trying to figure out what to do with all the hot peppers that were growing.  Much to my surprise, the chickens and turkeys ate every single pepper and leaf from the piles of plants I threw over to them.  I wonder if this means we will have some spicy eggs?  

the radish and chard bed, with beans on trellis

And, on an interesting note, our tomatoes have had a second "birth" so to speak.   These plants decided they would put on new growth and are loaded with more tomatoes.  They are taller than I am!  I had heard that they can have a second round of growth at the end of the summer and into fall, and I guess that is true.  I was worried that the cooler temperatures would mean less or no tomatoes, but found out they do their best growing between 70 and 84 degrees (give or take a few degrees).  

In other news, we found out we had another water line leak, so Al got to digging several days ago and found it in no time.  He fixed the leak, but still needs to put in new pipes to the shop. 

And, with the beginning of this season, we open our Biblical calendar to the seventh month, which is full of feasts and holy days.  Ten days ago, we "blew" in the beginning of years, with Yom Teruah (Day of Trumpets).  Yesterday, we kept Yom Kippur (Day of Atonements).  It also fell on the weekly sabbath, but since Yom Kippur is typically a day of fasting, I didn't prepare any meals ahead of time.  The girls were given the option to fast, and they all did a fabulous job in doing so.  Caleb was the only one who ate simple meals like toast and sandwiches.  When the sun went down, we all ate a light supper of crackers, bread, lunch meat, cheese, carrots, grapes, and kefir.  Of course, we replenished our water as well!  

So, all the excitement turns to the final festival and feast, Sukkot: Feast of Tabernacles.  The kids are absolutely excited beyond belief.  We decided this year to allow them to pick their snacks.  They each have a bowl of snacks, but there are also bags to share.  There is more than enough, that is for certain!  We also planned the menu for the week, three meals a day, s'mores for a few nights!  The plan is to sleep on the deck again.  This year, we will spread out a bit more with the dining canopy on the lower deck.  Year before last year, the big tent we got from my parents ended up with a hole in the roof when something fell through.  Then rain caused the tent to leak pretty bad.  Our other tents leak horribly and aren't really any good for sleeping, much less playing.  We will be doing tie dye shirts again and other crafts that didn't get done last year like candle votive holders and yarned pumpkins.