October day

It’s very hard for me to sit in my office and write on a mid October day when the sun is shining and the temperature is reasonably mild.  I know that there will be few of these days left.  But duty calls and a writer has to have some self discipline.  But I promise to get outside later in the afternoon when it will be even nicer I hope.

 We had some excitement at 6 am this morning.  I was lying in bed and kept smelling this odd smell, I knew the smell but couldn’t place it.  It almost smelt like paint and since I could hear one of the dogs scrambling around I decided to get up and see if they had spilled something. 

 
I found Ginger standing in my big variegated leaved geranium plant and she and some of the other dogs were looking up at the shelf filled with plants higher in the window.  The crushed geranium was what I smelled.  I couldn’t see anything but Steve got up and poked at some of the plants and bam- a tree rat ( red squirrel) jumped out.  He didn’t stand a chance once he hit the floor and at least three dogs pounced on him.   That’s one down.   How it got inside I don’t know.

 Those darn things are in the attic, on the enclosed porch and a few other places in the house I guess.  They are getting in the attic someway probably through a hole under the eaves somewhere but we can’t find it.  Rat poison doesn’t seem to kill them and we can’t get into the attic easily enough to set traps up there.  I am seriously thinking about getting all the walnut trees around the house cut down.   I think that’s what attracts them to our yard.  And all the nuts on the ground are a big nuisance as well.

 I was hoping that the stray cat that has her babies in the woodchuck hole under the propane tank would kill some of them.  She sure does a number on the birds at the feeder.  But she must not be able to catch them or at least enough of them.

 Mama duck, that one that’s produced 25 babies so far this year was sitting in a lower chicken nest this morning.  All of her last bunch of babies were under the nest boxes waiting for her.  I told her to go ahead and lay there it would make it easy to collect the eggs since we do not need any more baby ducks this year.

 I am seeing tons of buzzards this fall, they’ve been around all summer but I think they are here much later in the fall than usual.  Maybe they are adapting to global warming or to the fact that there are so many dead deer by the roads all year round.  I think a group of them nest in our woods.

The wind has been so strong the last few days that the redbud tree I wrote about just a few days ago has lost almost all its leaves, as have most of the trees around here.  I can see the neighbors houses now, a sign its nearly winter.

cool days

It’s a gorgeous morning, sunny and cool here. The only thing wrong with late summer – fall mornings is that they are so wet- the dew drenches everything. Just walking to the barn left my pant legs soaked and the grass is short. Golden rod is blooming, which signals the end of summer. The buddleia is looking nice too. I have seen the biggest, fattest hummingbirds I have ever seen this year hanging around them. I think they are stocking up to migrate but I have never seen them this fat.

Our hens are laying quite well now although the eggs are a little small still. I picked up 5 by 9 am and I know more hens were laying. The turkeys were out as usual. Turkeys look so pre-historic to me. The bourbon red crosses I have are very pretty but they fly very well too. I must have the white ones butchered soon. Raising my own meat doesn’t seem as easy anymore.

Squirrels are back on the property. The mean little red ones too. I saw cedar seeds had been munched on the other day and today the first thing I heard when I got up was a crabby squirrel scolding something. There are some acorns and walnuts this year although I don’t know if the crop on either will be huge. I think what killed or drove them off this spring was a lack of food, there were few nuts last fall. It’s just as well because the population needed thinning.

I walked around the pond last evening and scared up the little night heron that always seems to be around this time of year. The pastures are thigh high except where Steve has mowed a path through. I always think of what could be eating that grass, even though my desire to have large animals around is tempered by knowing that winter feed is expensive and caring for animals in winter is a lot of hard work. Still some nice pasture raised beef would be real tasty. Steve kind of wants to do pigs again, you can get them raised in one season and butcher them before winter.

We still have three of the mixed cocker puppies left to find homes for. They are the biggest cry babies of any puppies we have ever raised. If one gets the slightest put down from a big dog or gets its toes stepped on it screams bloody murder and the other two join in like they are all being killed. They seem friendly enough and we are giving them more attention to try and work out the silly screaming business but boy, they can use their lungs. They seem to be joined telepathically or something, when one is injured or scared they all start screaming. Buddy and Tina, as the next youngest, seem to enjoy provoking screams, which they can sometimes do just by running up to one of the crybabies. They are as big as Tina, but then when she was six weeks old she was wrestling puppies twice her size and winning.

I wish this type of weather could stay around all year. I love cool nights and sunny, not too hot, low humidity days. The sky in late summer is so deep blue, and if rains have been good as they have been for us this year, everything is so lush. But I always get this lazy, hazy feeling in fall, the days are perfect for work but I don’t want to do it. I do want to store food like a little squirrel and cooking and baking seem more inviting. I guess I am preparing for winter- I am one of those people who are affected by seasonal depression – I want to sleep through winter. When the days get shorter my energy does too. I guess this type of hoard food and conserve energy instinct was good for my ancestors, so I'll live with it.

Lazy Fall days

We had our first frost on the 15th - a light one but it meant I had to bring in the tender stuff and cover the tomatoes. I put everything on the porch for 2 days then today I put it all back outside because we are supposed to have a spell of warm 80 degree plus weather coming up. I like it when everything comes inside all lush and shiny after a summer outside. It’s always a little crowded at first because I can’t stand to leave anything outside that might be saved. But some things die or get so bad looking that I toss them and that frees up space. My houseplants that I left inside this year have a bad case of scale, tiny shell like insects. They suck on plant tissue and secrete honeydew, which is tiny sticky droplets that are all over the window, etc. I am trying to clear that up before I expose any new plants to them.

I cut the pumpkin off the vine that grew by the back door and tossed the vine into the compost pile. The pumpkin is quite large and well shaped. If you turn the side that Henny Penny sampled from time to time, [ she left a few peck marks], away from you , it really looks good. Maybe I will get ambitious and decorate for fall soon. It looks better just to get that ugly vine out of the roses by the back door.

I find it hard to concentrate on anything in the early fall. I have a bit of allergy symptoms, probably ragweed, and I think the high air pressure in fall makes me feel drowsy and lazy. I just want to bask in the sun before these sunny days are gone. Later in the fall I will get my buzz on to prepare for winter and start loading the pantry, wanting to bake all the time and make craft projects. I guess this time of year I really start to appreciate what I’ll be missing before long and just want to soak it up. I went down to the pond and to the woods, just walking, collecting some seed pods and such. You have to be a little careful this time of year walking out in the woods - lots of people are very eager to hunt and some don’t wait for the official start of hunting season. There are sure a lot of deer around this year.

Usually our oak tree alternates producing acorns with the walnut tree producing lots of walnuts. This should be the year for acorns but it doesn’t look like there will be many. If this is happening all over there will be some hungry squirrels this winter. Maybe some of the little buggers will finally die- hopefully the ones that keep getting in my attic.

I am kind of ready to have the frost kill it all. I will have to water the potted stuff today and we are getting a little tired of tomatoes anyway. A heavy frost will kill all the flies and mosquitoes, which is always nice and I can then get rid of the hornets nest on the porch, in the sheep shed and under the fill lid on the propane tank. As of yesterday I was still seeing lots of hummingbirds. I guess they know there is still warm weather ahead.