Looks like winter has arrived today with a lovely snow day. The forecast is for more this week. The biggest problem with snow is when one has to go out into it several times a day. However, it is beautiful.
Queen Esther arrived wearing a lovely white crown. She is posing with her mother Estelle behind her. She gives us the count of 5 ewe lambs with 3 ram lambs.
Here are the two being raised in the house, complete with Mickey Mouse diapers. They love following us around, but when tired, quickly go back to their bed.
One variety of tomatoes, peppers, cauliflower, and cabbage are up enough to transplant into individual pots. I forgot to buy beets, so they aren’t started. And I want to get some other tomatoes going. It’s all a matter of time and space. I planted snow peas and sweet peas today. Fortunately as soon as they are up, the cold snap should be over and they can go into the hoop house to grow.
When we got up this morning, we were 20 years older, than we are tonight. At breakfast, I decided we were not getting enough done and DH was doing nothing other than the gym and the dishes and napping. Well, that’s because he retired without hobbies. So using the phrase “mind over matter”, I told him, he is now 64 and that’s how he gets to act and think. WOW! I should have come up with this earlier. He actually did act younger. And since he is 20 years younger, I also am. So the greenhouse beds are all weeded.
I still need to clean the weeds near the entrance. I brought in a load of the cabbage leaves we love for our cooked greens
I washed them and stemmed them, then he cut and cooked them, freezing some.
Is it winter or spring, or perhaps half way in between? The Christmas cactus, that actually bloomed at Christmas, is once again blooming. Today though the winds were cold, the hoop house was warm.
I’m trying to squeeze a few minutes of sewing into each day, with some days being more successful than others. I’m ready to start putting this quilt top together now. It is “Spool Souffle” from the Fat Quarter Shop
This hole was put into this new piece of plywood by this
ram head. He managed to get the hole large enough by ramming it to fit that whole head including the horns through it. The neighbors asked what the sound coming from our barn in the middle of the night was and we didn’t know. They said it sounded like firecrackers or a gun and repetitively sounded 4 times. It was across the driveway from the barn, but this is what all that noise was about. It certainly seems like he should have a large headache. This is the reason one never turns a back on a ram. He simply doesn’t need a reason. He was head butting the cedar trees later in the day.
And these are for the Bonnie Hunter mystery “On Ringo Lake” She just put out the 4th step, so I’m a bit behind, but now the pieces are cut for these steps, and I just have to find time to catch up.
Though the garden is not growing very much or fast, we did get a sink full of kale today.
These are the only two pumpkins/squash that survived this year, though other produce did very well.
After all the stems were removed, there were 2 gallon sized bags of parsley to be dehydrated.
I brought in a few beets, greens, carrots, and onions.
Standing at the door, this is what is still growing.
Swiss chard which was picked Friday and onions, both of which will continue throughout the winter.
Winter broccoli or cauliflower, now I’m not sure which, but won’t be ready until early spring.
Kale that badly needs picking.
And my very own Tonka Truck – well, not really mine, but he has really been chewing away at the blackberries and cleaning the place up.
Autumn: These lovely ears of corn are turning into these kernels. I had thought they might be popcorn, but they are not. So they will be ground as needed in recipes. Aren’t they pretty?
We woke up to piles and piles of dead leaves. They are so crunchy as we walk through them.
They quit fighting each other just long enough to do some barn damage. They were inside this stall, and the girls were outside. What is the fastest way to get to the girls? Right through the wall! Ram! Ram! Ram! and he almost made it. I called the neighbor who has an electric cattle prod which did get their attention. They are now across the driveway from the ewes and still contending to see who is the dominant ram. The prod only gives them a bit of shock to get their attention and to keep the person behind it safe. If it really hurt them, they wouldn’t need it several times in the space of a few minutes.
In Costco on October 1st.
The grapes are finished for this season and
this crew was very willing to clean up the leaves and any left grapes that weren’t suitable for humans.
This stuck sheep showed some real talent in getting her head in here. She had to move forward while turning her head sideways. However, getting her out took 2 of us. One to pull her backwards and the other to twist her head. She just kept pushing forward. There are always lessons to be learned from these sheep.
Once we helped her out, she was very happy to join her friends in a meal of grain.
Garden update for 9/11/17 begins with these grapes. They are the beginning of the harvest. This was a 4 gallon bucket. I will be making some juice, some raisins, and some frozen grapes. If the birds stay out of them, there may be about 5 times this many.
We have eaten a number of small personal sized cantaloupes. This one is a larger one that isn’t yet ripe.
