Day Before the Big Freeze

Yesterday it was 83, today it was 70, and tonight we will be around 30 with below freezing nights for the next three days (though the weekend will be warm again) so we had to harvest the remaining summer garden items, cover the fall garden with row covers, and prep for cold weather. Of course compared to Number 1 daughter Jen and her partner Steve who already have lots of snow, we are still enjoying a warm fall.

Boo Boo has decided its winter even though its still warm out during the day and in the evenings he has to be held and he likes being covered with a blanket. He is sound asleep in this picture with his front legs stretched out. Keep in mind this was a feral cat that we found almost frozen to death in Alaska one winter about 10 years ago...he is semi retired and enjoying the good life on the farm.

We completed our third and final black eyed pea harvest yesterday.

All together, we got almost 7 pounds of shelled black eyed peas that we have dried and stored for the winter.

And because of the pending hard frost we harvested the last of the tomatoes, the sweet and hot peppers, a couple small egg plants, and the last of the okra along with some rainbow swiss chard.

We have harvested so many cayene peppers this year and we have a ton dried and stored but we harvested more today and left about a hundred still green on the vine. We have Jalapenos, sweet banana peppers, cayene, and some little red and orange pepper we cant remember the name of that are spicy hot. We like peppers...

Maybelle comes running up and wont leave you alone if she sees you with a feed bucket and now Louise is losing her shyness and doing the same thing. We set a small feed bucket to one side for Maybelle since she is smaller than the other two but they all mob from one feed trough to another.

Thelma is still shy but what a magnificent looking animal. She has excellent lines, a shiney coat and her muscles ripple when she moves.

All three of the heifers get on well and we enjoy the nightly routine where they come down to the barnyard mooing and hollering for their treats.

And of course Louise is my favorite...and she is a chow hound. Always the last to leave the feed trough.

We also harvested the gourds today. These will be dried and finished for bird houses and spoons.

We actually use our old garden tractors to work around the farm when we dont want to use the bigger tractors and here we are hauling the gourds to the barn.

We never get tired of this and try to turn chores into fun events...why not?

Not a bad haul eh? And an update on the old Allis Chalmers, I got the tire patched up but the valve stem is rotten and wont hold air so still some more work to do. We will move it up to the shop for a winters project and we hope to be plowing with it next year.

This is just a picture of our back pasture and deer plot. Its hidden from the world and it is so peaceful in the fall. We have a ton of acorns this year and the squirrels, rabbits, deer and wild Turkeys are thick back here. Unfortunately, so are the coyotes and we think we lost the barn cats to the coyotes.

This is looking towards another of our wood lots and Bandit is busy looking for neon rainbows. Fall is a great time of the year and my favorite.

Chris planted carrots and they are doing great but he is impatient and had to pull one to check his progress.

Not much production for all that greenery! But they will get lots bigger over the next couple weeks and they are SWEET.

We also cut another load of wood yesterday and still need to split this.

And if you look at it, its all Black Walnut. Black Walnut is an expensive wood and hard as nails so it burns for a long time and very hot. We got these from trees that had been hit by lightening on a ranch where we work occasionally and it somehow seems wrong to be burning this type of wood for heat but it would have just rotted otherwise and it was too damaged to sell for commercial use.

Judy's old dog Jesse died last year and is burried up in the oak grove behind the barn. I am going to take this piece of wood, drill holes in the bottom and sink two pieces of rebar into it and make a headstone for Jesse. It will have Jesse's name and a few words on the front and then it will be varnished before we place it.

Just another fall scene of the old planter.

And at the end of the day we play best 2 out of 3 in games of yard darts to see who has to do the dishes. Judy and I are usually on the same team playing against Holly and Chris and we rarely have to do dishes......we play well because we really really dont like to do dishes.