Gold in the air

The redbud tree has turned to a blaze of gold outside my office window.  It’s about the only colorful tree I can see from here.  Our woods don’t exactly put on a fall display.  Most of the outer edge is poplar and their leaves are already gone.  One rusty brown tree is an oak and there is some green from pines.  On the west side of the property there are sumacs and even a maple along with walnut and oak so the color is a bit better.  But the one thing I rather regret is not planning for more fall color.

 It’s mid October and we still haven’t had a killing frost.  My tomatoes are still green although I will soon be pulling them green leaves or not.  The fruit had to be brought inside to ripen on the windowsill but we had bacon and tomato sandwiches for breakfast.  I picked apples from the tree by our west pasture today.  They are scabby because I didn’t spray this year but are good sized and will make a great apple cake later today.  

 The horses have been getting lots of windfall apples.  I actually have to pick them up so Lily doesn’t get too many.  The trees in the north pasture by the pond are loaded with apples but they aren’t quite as ripe and they are a lot smaller.  The deer have gotten most of the pears as usual.  The pears are on the east, and aren’t fenced, not that a fence bothers most deer.

 We put a roof on the new small chicken run this weekend and have started building a roof for the larger run.  I expect to go into the winter with nearly 50 birds and need more space enclosed than last winter.  I have a lot more birds than that now but Steve insists a great many of them be sold or butchered before winter.  Feed bills are really adding up.  I traded 3 turkey babies for 2 canaries, now we are down to 10 turkeys and up to 5 canaries.   I gave a friend 2 of the youngest batch of ducks and we are down to 21 ducks.  I was able to give away one of the frizzle roosters- down to 6 bantams. 

We still have 16 laying hens and 2 large roosters.  We also have 7 guinea hens.  I’d get rid of some of the guineas but they are so hard to sex and hard to catch that I think they’ll stick around.  The larger ducks are flying everywhere now- coming into the yard and garden to eat and roosting on the barn roof.  They are hard to part with- at least to butcher - as they are so pretty.  But ducks are very messy in the winter inside and I think the original pair and maybe 3 more are about all we need to really explode the population next year.

 If it was up to me and I could afford it I’d keep all the turkeys.  Momma turkey still has her four brown babies out in the front; I do have to figure out how to get them back with the other birds before winter.  I thought they were going to be typical bronze color but it now looks if they may be a chocolate color.  They are pretty and tamer than the 3 bourbon red ones left in the chicken yard.   But there are 3 toms so at least 2 must go.  The bourbons are 2 hens and a tom.

 The bourbon red hen turkey never hatched the last batch of eggs she was sitting on.  I feel bad she never got to raise any babies. Early on she hatched some chickens but we took them away from her.  But she is thin and needs to take a break from sitting.  If any more eggs are laid around here from turkeys or ducks they will be picked up and fed to the dogs or cats.  No more babies until spring.

Fall in the country

We are having beautiful fall weather here in Michigan. The colors are better than I expected and the cool but sunny weather is great. Cool is relative I guess because while its much cooler than summer was its still a bit above average.

Friday I had just came out of the barn after the morning chores when I saw three deer ambling down the middle of the road. There was a pick up behind them and it was almost as if he was herding them. They didn’t seem scared and they kept up a fast walk right down the center of the road. They were headed to the corn field southeast of us.

Saturday I was trapped inside on a beautiful day, hosting a fruit tree pruning seminar until about 3 pm. Then when I got home I went outside to sit by the pond in the sun to unwind. I was sitting on my redneck bench, an old van seat, watching all the dozens of kinds of birds eating the autumn olive berries in front of me. Suddenly my eyes caught movement across the pond and I watched a young buck strolling along, rubbing his head on everything and also eating a few autumn olive berries. He was there for several minutes before he was out of my view.

Later when I went to check the back pasture fence I scared up 2 big does. They had been resting under the arched branches of another autumn olive right up against the fence. That autumn olive is invasive but it sure seems to please a lot of animals. Lily my horse almost made herself sick eating the berries before I caught her doing it and penned her away from it.

We have had autumn olive on the property since we moved here, we’ve fought it like crazy, but I have never seen it being enjoyed by so many critters as this year. I remember some birds eating the berries, but usually a bit later. I never remember seeing horses and deer eat them. Maybe the drought kept more native plants like dogwood and Virginia creeper from setting a lot of fruit. That’s what would attract more birds, but hardly horses and deer. Maybe they are sweeter this year.

Autumn Olive berries can be made into jelly quite easily. I have done it. It’s a beautiful red color but has little taste. They are high in lycopene and vitamin C. I should pick some branches and let the chickens eat them.

The mast crop is big around here. We had tons of acorns come down and now the black walnuts make it dangerous to stand in the front yard. One hit the top of my plastic bird feeder and went right through. They make it difficult to walk without turning an ankle. I will have to sit in the yard and throw them into the street. Cars crushing them let birds eat the meats.

I suppose I should save them and husk them and shell out the meats like my grandfather did. But that is very messy and time consuming work. I used to have an older guy who would ask to pick them up every year but he hasn’t been around the last few years. Black walnuts may be fine as a woodland tree but why people planted them in yards is beyond me.

A big nut and berry crop- does that mean a long cold winter? It’s not predicted but we shall see.

Lazy, hazy days of summer

The song calls it the lazy hazy days of summer but I think here that time refers more to the lazy hazy days of early fall, although I guess technically it is still summer. You couldn’t ask for better weather, the sky is crystal blue, the deep clear blue of fall. It’s warm enough to be comfortable - near 80 - especially with a nice breeze and low humidity. The nights are cool and comfortable and in the morning we either have heavy dew or like this morning, fog.

A high pressure system is responsible for this lovely weather and I think that’s where the lazy comes in, you just want to sit around and bask in the sun because you know it won’t be nice like this for ever and the high air pressure makes you drowsy. Maybe people are a bit more relaxed right now too, although that might only apply to those of us who don’t have kids going back to school Tuesday. I sure hope most of you were smart enough to get the school shopping done early so you could enjoy this last summer holiday.

The trees are starting to turn, every year people remark on how early the leaves are turning and they certainly can’t turn colors early every year, but think about it, when have you ever heard people say “Wow- the trees are late turning color this year?” The fields are turning purple and gold - purple asters and goldenrod. I have been going out snapping pictures of weeds and wildflowers for my examiner articles - you can see them here but I can’t help snapping fall landscapes as I go.

We had puppies born this weekend, the first babies on the farm this year other than the wild kittens. Honey our cocker had seven pretty babies. Three are black like dad and 4 are light - either blond or red like Honey. They all appear healthy and happy, no obvious runts. I spent one of these beautiful days locked up with her, being her midwife. Honey does not do birthing gracefully. She thinks the pressure she’s feeling means she has to go to the bathroom and she wants to go outside. Even locked up in the spare room she has to get out of the box and squat over paper each time a pup is born and I have to be there to catch it and make sure she cleans it, otherwise she goes back to the box with the rest and leaves it on the floor. And she takes up to an hour between pups - which makes for a long day. This is her fourth and last litter. I am going to neuter Bubba and we won’t have to worry about any surprise puppies, he’s the last whole male dog on the farm.

I still haven’t been able to get my little brat horse Charlie gelded. He still has only one testicle down. We moved them over to the east pasture because the west was pretty eaten down and I don’t like them over there when the walnut leaves and nuts start falling. But the east side fence is the oldest on the farm I think, and last weekend Charlie broke through the road side of the fence when some riders came down the road and Lily followed him.

When I went outside because of the riders yelling, Charlie and Lily were running around the group of riders, tails up just as pretty as you please, showing them how much fun it was to run free as the wind - which did not make the riders happy. I was able to catch Lily with a bucket of food, of course, and Charlie came back to her in just a few minutes. The two rascals had to be locked in the barn overnight and then we had to spend most of the week on and off - fixing the fence and eventually running a hot wire around it. They are now back to full pasture on the east although I am keeping a wary eye on them.

All of this expense and time makes me seriously doubt whether I need horses, especially Charlie. Since we spend so much time fixing things I barely have time to handle them and while they are cute - the fun is wearing a bit thin. If Charlie were a larger horse I know he would be gone by now as he would be too dangerous. Steve wants me to sell him and get another mare for Lily’s friend. But baby bad boy horses need someone who cares about them too and he’s likely to get sent from one place to the next. If he ever gets gelded maybe he will calm down. Age will help too. I just hope Lily doesn’t get bred by him before he is gelded. We haven’t been able to separate them - he finds a way to get to her no matter what we do. He just turned a year old so maybe we are still safe.

If I could afford it I’d send him to someone to train. But it’s hard enough to afford hoof trimming, hay and gelding costs. So I should get my act together and just do it- right? (The training, not the gelding part.) Make him the poster boy for mini horse studs or mini horse geldings. A good Charlie horse instead of a pain in the butt Charlie horse. Ok, it’s a resolution- I’ll report on my progress here.

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.