Grandson Update

  Time for a pictorial grandson update. (I need to do a granddaughter update, but teenage girls are harder to corral for photos than little boys!)

Big brother Jackson - age 9 (almost 10), and little brother Caleb - 7 months. They are great buddies!

The whole family ate out Sunday for Rita's birthday. Caleb fell asleep in Grandma's arms after enjoying some ice cream!

Pretty cute little noggin (Caleb, not me!)

And, hangin' out with Uncle Steve & Auntie Wendy

Frost...but Hangin In There

  As many of you around the country did, we had our first frost last night. About 25-27, depending on where you were. The hybrid poplar trees lost their leaves early but this tree topper is hangin' in there!

  The maple trees are just starting to color up, but this frost should hurry that along.

  Here are some pictures from yesterday...pre-frost. Zinnias, roses and purple sweet potato vine

This bee was very sluggish but eventually flew away.

The loropetalum is blooming nicely.

A brave Stella D'Oro daylily still blooming

The new mailbox

Knock Out roses are still blooming

But this morning, post frost, a different look.

  We are due for another freeze tonight, about the same 25-27. High today 52. Then by next Tuesday we will warm up 25 degrees or more to 75 hi - 55 lo. 

Feels like October

  We're having a beautiful 65 degree day after a very foggy beginning.

  You can barely see the cows and bull at the hay rings in the center of the above picture. We haven't had frost yet. Wednesday we had a nice .70" rain. The forecast for the remainder of October calls for highs in the 60s and lows in the 30s. First frost should be sometime between next Tuesday and Halloween, which is just about normal.
  I picked a few peppers today, but the tomatoes have really slowed the ripening process, so we'll likely be picking the green ones off soon. We have eaten tomatoes every day for many weeks and we'll miss them.
  The Canby thornless raspberries should arrive any day. Remember the fiasco last spring when we discovered that the Canby raspberries were actually Japanese Wineberries, so I pulled them out. I am hoping Willis Nursery sends some nice replacement plants so I can give them a good review....otherwise.........!!!
  I fed the first round bale of hay a week ago, so the winter feeding season is underway. We are expecting a new calf in about a month, so life goes on!

Fall Garden Projects

  We are having beautiful Fall weather....high 70s to low 80s. perfect for outdoor projects. With the garden reduced to a few tomatoes and peppers still ripening, there is time for other things.
  I am really happy with the progress of the strawberries in the hugelkultur tires.

  The plants are getting established quickly with large healthy leaves. Just 3 plants in each tire and these were small rooted runners from previous older beds of berries. I have kept all the runners clipped off these new ones. I'm really anxious to see how they yield next year.
  I decided to build a large cold frame/raised bed and use the same hugelkultur method as the strawberry tires. I demolished the old compost bins I had built 3 years ago. They didn't work well....I had moved the compost pile out by the corral and these bins were just a catch all and hard to keep neat. So down they came.

  I had used primarily salvaged materials to build these and was able to salvage about 90% of the material again.The soil is from a 2 x 12 foot raised bed that was on the back side of the compost bins. I'll use it in the new bed.

  I started by marking out a 3.5 x 16 foot space for the new bed. I stripped the sod off it in squares.

  I used it and some of the dirt to make dams that will shunt rain runoff toward the pasture. I have had too much water on the garden in heavy rains.Still work to be done on that project before winter.

  This is the bed after "excavation".

  Now comes the fun part! Adding the hugel mass. I have a pretty good sized woodpile and some of it has turned "punky"...soft and rotting...perfect for the hugel mass.

  You can google "hugelkultur" and read some interesting things about the concept.  I'll post later with the final steps in completing this bed. After building the frame around it, I'll water in a mix of soil, compost and aged manure around the hugel mass and then fill the bed with topsoil and compost. I'm going to divide it into four 4' beds and make removable lids with corrugated panels (recycled from an old greenhouse at Steve and Wendy's place). So I can use it for a cold frame for early starts or late fall crops, but remove the lids in the summer.
  I have enough room here to make 2 more beds this size.........that's a project for another year!

Still here!

  I haven't blogged in several days. It's been a little busy with some doctor and medical things to attend to. In fact, I am having breakfast withdrawal as I write....I have a doctor's appointment at 11:00 AM and they will be taking a blood sample, so no food until noon. What a sacrifice!
  This might be a good time to post recent pictures of the herd. Here is Buster...not the best picture, but he is developing into a good looking herd sire.

  He sired the two calves I sold in August, Baxter and Bogart. He has 5 more calves on the way....in November, January, February, March and April.  Here are the 5 cows / heifers due to calve.

  We have been quite dry for several weeks and have missed many area thunderstorms, but yesterday we got 1 inch of needed rain. Hopefully that will give the grass a little kick and I can delay starting hay feeding by a week or two more.
  The storm front brought in cooler temperatures. Saturday was 89 for a high; probably the warmest day we will have until next April or May. The next 2 weeks are forecast in the 70s with lows in the 40's. The first frost at this point is forecast for Nov. 10, which is quite late. The average first frost date is Oct. 17. So we have a month of beautiful Fall weather to enjoy.

Fall Lunch and Fall Garden

  It is definitely Fall, even though daytime highs are in the 80s and lows 50s and 60s. I love this time of year. Nearly pumpkin pie time! Three days ago Rita whipped up this fine lunch....a big pot of vegetable soup, using many homegrown veggies, and a pan of yummy muffins!

  We should get tomatoes all the way up to first frost, which may be 2-4 weeks away. Also have a few sweet peppers coming on as well as okra, but the cucumbers are all done. 

  I have lost at least a couple of weeks of outdoor project time recently. I was "down in the back" for about 10 days and then last Tuesday I had minor outpatient surgery which claimed a couple of days. So it was fun today to get outside and get a few things done. I finally seeded 3 beds to crimson clover as a winter cover crop. I fully intended to get the seeding done this year by early September, but.....

  These 3 beds will be in onions and sweet corn next year. I also mulched the strawberries. This is bark mulch I get free for the hauling from the county. They tub grind all the tree trimmings from the city and county and Davey Tree and anyone else can drop off trimmings and even trees that have been taken down. Every March, the public can get the "good stuff" which has been ground twice and piled to heat over the winter. I hauled several loads last March to mulch the flower and shrub beds and hauled some to our kids as well. Next March I want to stockpile more of it to use as garden mulch. Here is what I dug into today to mulch the strawberries.

  Here are my new strawberry beds....Hugelberries. This is a special way of growing strawberries that I am trying. I can't give you all the details because it is from Herrick Kimball's book. Herrick was my introduction to agrarian blogging and I have the utmost respect for him. He is self employed now and I highly recommend his book. You can read about the strawberry method as well as find out about his book here:  strawberries-of-largest-finest-quality

  I have 6 tire beds in now, 2 Chandler, 2 Sweet Charlie and 2 Quinault. They look really good so far. If they are as successful as I expect, I will take all the others out and finish this row with more tires.
  Many more projects to complete this Fall. With October just around the corner, I'd better get busy!

Tennessee Fall Crop Tour

  I took a quick tour around the neighborhood this morning to check the progress of local crops. Some corn has already been combined and much more is ready. (Please ignore the date on the photos...new camera hasn't been set yet).  We need rain badly; this creek is nearly dry.....might get some rain tonight.

  Soybeans are at various stages. These double cropped beans are showing signs of drought stress.

 Some hay still being baled, but most of it is low quality.

Cattle still grazing pastures, which need rain.

Our new road is now all striped and very nicely done!

He Likes Ice Cream !

  I like ice cream.  Always have. The only thing better than ice cream is more ice cream. Somewhere we have a picture of me giving Jackson (now 9 years old) his first ice cream at the Oregon Dairy Women's booth at the Oregon State Fair when he was less than a year old. Friday I introduced Caleb (almost 6 months old) to an ice cream bar. He loved it! That's my boy!

Love those Popeye forearms!

  Now just lay back and savor the experience!

Chickens at Risk

  Yesterday morning this is what I saw at the chicken coop.

And this:

  

  I immediately counted noses (or beaks) and all 9 hens were accounted for.

  I was trying to figure out what the invader might be. The holes in the wire were about 36"-42" off the ground, so that rules out most smaller predators.

  I patched the holes and filled the dugout area with concrete. Last night after dark, I went out to turn on a yard light and turn the radio in the nearby shop to an all night talk station, with volume turned up. As I approached the area, a big dog lazily loped away. Looked like some kind of collie, shepherd type mix. I assume this was the culprit. This morning, all was well and no more signs of tampering.

  Don't get me started on dogs in the country! Everyone out here has dogs, many have coon dogs penned up, and they are NOISY at night. We keep the furnace fan on manual at night for background noise so we can sleep. And then there are always the dogs who roam freely at night, leaving there poopy calling cards in the yard. Less than a mile from the house is a road sign that touts the county's leash law. Yeah, right!