I read on the internet (so it must be true), to wipe your fall gourds with a Clorox wipe to kill any bacteria, and then “grease” them with Vaseline to seal them and make them shiny. It sounded like a great way to preserve them through to the other side of Thanksgiving — and, it had the added benefit of making my hands REALLY soft after spending all that time dipped in Vaseline.
The problem is, it didn’t work. While the gourds looked clean and very shiny — they don’t seem to be lasting. At least a few of them have already sprouted soft spots, grown mold and hit the trash can.
But, the scarecrow is at the ready. The mums are blooming, the pumpkins are flanking the front steps and our pet crow is guarding the wine cellar.
Dirty gourds ready for a cleanin’ and a greasin’.Clean and shiny gourds — I should have taken a picture of the moldy, rotten gourds too — but that didn’t look very nice.Our scarecrow — a “welcoming” sight for any trick-or-treaters.I love the fall colors.It’s definitely fall on the farm.Our watchful raven — BOO!
Planting apple trees started the momentum. Once we had scoped out where additional fruit trees will go, we realized we had some space on the hillside just below the barn that is perfect for blueberry bushes. Chris had spent several weeks this summer clearing the hillside in anticipation of my planting plans for the spring.
When we were walking out of the Tractor Supply store the other day – there were blueberry bushes just sitting there looking at me with those puppy-dog eyes, saying take me home. I bought six of them. Then I realized that blueberries need a cross-pollinator, so I had to go in search of yet one more blueberry bush of a different variety from a local nursery. So now we have seven.
Thankfully, this dirt is considerable different than the concrete-hard dirt just 100 feet away. Chris tilled a path, dug seven holes and planted seven blueberry bushes in no time. Then he trenched a path just above the blueberries where we plan to transplant our raspberry bushes once they die back this fall.
So now we have a row of apples (three makes a row, doesn’t it)? A row of blueberries, and a row just waiting for raspberries. The farm is shaping up. And in the spring, we’ll be adding pears, peaches and cherries. Yum!
To get from this over grown mess…to this bucolic scene…took a lot of work…and a professional chipper/shredder to get rid of the mountains of brush.A trip to Tractor Supply for horse feed and a salt lick turned into a blueberry shopping expedition.Good thing we have that truck.Thank goodness this is nice soft dirt — no auger needed for planting these.The blueberries are planted and a row is tilled and waiting for the raspberries to die back this fall so I can transplant them in the spring. Then we can have fruit salad!
When we bought this farm it was an overgrown mess. Parts of it still are, but we’ve made tremendous progress – especially clearing out the land around the house. As we clear away vines, dead trees and brambles, the last thing we want to do is plant more stuff – only to start the cycle again. So we’ve decided to only plant things that have a purpose and produce something for us to use.
I’ve wanted to get an orchard started, but even with five acres, our space is limited. The first problem is that the front meadow which has sunlight, is too wet and boggy from the stream that runs through it. The second problem is that the side yard has several large black walnut trees, and black walnut trees produce a chemical that isn’t compatible with trees with seeds (like apples and pears). The third problem is that the horses now occupy the sunny, black walnut-free hillside behind the house. Figuring out where to plant an orchard has been challenging.
Getting the trees has also been a challenge. In the spring we went on the website for the Adams County nursery and every tree we wanted was already sold out. The website said check back in July. I guess they meant it, because by the time I remembered to check back in August – many of the varieties we wanted were sold out again and the ones we did try to order went into some website abyss and the order was never received.
So, at a Mud Sale in Bareville we happened upon some apple trees up for auction. I’m not very confident with auctions yet. I’m never sure whether it’s my turn to bid again or even what the price is up to – but I gave it a shot and got three dwarf apple trees (a Gala, a Granny Smith and a Jonagold) – for $28 each – a good price since the ones we tried to order on-line were $30 each.
I must admit, the pick-up truck came in handy. Bringing home three trees was no problem – but planting them – that WAS a problem. There is a sunny stretch of land behind the house and adjacent to our patio. I envision sitting on the patio, in the shade of an apple tree and reaching out to pick a beautiful ripe and juicy apple – in a couple of years. But the dirt was impenetrable. My daughter offered to bring over her post-hole auger and her friend Luis. It took Chris and Luis an hour per hole – manhandling the auger through cement-hard dirt studded with rocks.
Once the trees were in, Chris wrestled with a roll of wire fencing and made nice cages for the trees — after all that work getting them planted, we didn’t want to find them chewed to the quick by the deer.
Finally, our apple trees are in place and I can’t wait to make an apple pie.
The truck came in handy at the mud sale — the trees are loaded.The ground was so hard, we thought maybe turning it to mud would help with the digging, but it didn’t.The auger and Luis are what helped Chris to dig the holes.It was an all day project by the time we wrapped the trees in wire fencing to keep the deer away.And now our three apple trees just need to grow — and give us apples!
Chris has been going through new chains for his chain saw about once a week – that’s how many trees he’s been cutting down. We are trying to reclaim the meadow and open up space where we want to start our orchard. Cutting down the trees is just the beginning. Then he slices them into fireplace-size logs. Then he splits them with an axe. He’s turning into a regular Paul Bunyon! After all, we do have two fireplaces to feed, and the wood pile is growing.
So, Chris decided we need a woodshed for all the split wood he has been stacking up. And I decided we need a woodshed because I saw a really cute one with a weather vane on top.
We went back to Pop’s Barns, where we got the run-in shed for the horses, and ordered a 4×8 Quaker model woodshed with a chicken weather vane on top. That was the easy part.
Then the space needed to be readied for the woodshed. The pile of split wood needed to be moved, the land needed to be cleared, tilled and leveled. Then we waited – six impatient weeks for the shed to be delivered before we could stack the firewood into the appropriate compartments of the woodshed.
And now I know which way the wind is blowing.
The hillside before we cleared it, and with a wood pile that is calling out for a wood shed.“Visitors” stroll through the yard and inspect the wood pile.Clearing the weeds, briars, brambles and mess off the hill side.Finally cleared and ready for the wood shed.And here it comes up the driveway.Chris inspects as it gets slid in to place.Now he has to move ALL of this wood into the shed.The wood shed, sitting in place and full of wood.The wind is blowing out of the east — and now we have a Rooster on the farm!
The truck is beginning to pay for itself already! Chris picked up a load of hay and hauled it home in the truck. Yes, that brand new truck will certain make a dent in those hay delivery charges! With stray strands of hay flying around behind, we lumbered over hill and dale of back country roads. It was like lugging a Christmas tree home on the roof of the car, only to see all the needles flying off. I wondered how much of the bales would remain; for the most part they were intact.
It’s a multi-step process getting the hay unloaded. The bales go from the truck bed to the little green cart attached to the back of the John Deere, and then hauled up the hill behind our house where they are unloaded into the barn. Arianna enjoyed the trek back and forth – especially when she got to sprawl out in the empty cart on the return trips down the hill.
Considering that the barn only holds about 2 to 3 weeks’ worth of hay, I guess the delivery truck will be getting a work out. The horses are happy with the fresh hay, Arianna is happy with the tractor rides and the “farmer” is happy in his pick-up truck. I guess it’s a good day on No Rhyme or Reason Farm.
A truck load of hay — or what’s left of it, after some blew away on the drive to our houseTransferring to the next ride — the Deere to carry it up the hill.Of course, there’s a passenger to help haul the hay.And she looks like a movie star — with the car to herself for the return trip to the truck for the next load of hay.
After all our renovations, the last thing we want is for walls to come tumbling down. But, there was one wall that was really annoying me. It was a cinder block wall on the southeast corner of the spring house ruins. It wasn’t so bad during the summer, covered in vines and weeds; but once we started clearing the meadow and cutting/shredding more of the ubiquitous brambles and briars – the wall started to stick out like a sore thumb.
I’d been eyeing that wall since we first looked at this house. The cinder blocks were a blot on the landscape and an impediment to the natural flow of the spring. Chris took a sledge hammer to it. I’d like to say it tumbled into individual cinder blocks with one hard hit. That’s not exactly how it happened. Over the course of a couple of days, armed with a metal wedge and the sledge, he chipped away, chipped away, chipped away. Good practice if he ever needs to chip his way out of jail! Some cinder blocks broke into pieces, others stayed whole. We used the broken pieces for fill; the whole ones are up in the “bone yard” where we keep odds and ends of things we’ve found on the property (old metal fence posts, old bricks, etc.), just in case we ever need a cinder block or two.
Once the cinder blocks were out of the way, we found old pieces of galvanized metal that may have been the roof of the spring house at one time. That was another project to dig them out. With the cinder block wall and the galvanized metal gone, the spring now flows more directly into the stream rather than making a boggy mess. Now we’re left with the next step of the project — hauling out all the rocks that have collapsed into the inside of the spring house. We’ll pile them up to the side and wait for that day when we can rebuild the spring house to its original beauty. I found a picture of what I want it to look like…someday.
The spring house ruins — with the cement block wall. What’s it there for anyway?We started knocking it down — at least it’s progress.A pile of cement blocks to be sent to the “bone yard” in case we ever need cement blocks.How I want the spring house to look some day… when I win the lottery.
I love organization. Everything should be in its place.
The one place we had not organized was the basement. The basement is damp and dark and has spiders and things. It’s not a place I’m apt to “hang out” in order to spend time organizing.
Holiday decorations, luggage, and other stuff we didn’t need in the house were deposited there when we moved in last October. While most things were in storage bins, some things were still in cardboard moving boxes. We put 2” x 4” boards on the floor to keep the boxes dry – but it was an unorganized mess. Ugh.
With the rain we’ve had, everything kept getting damp. We didn’t realize how damp until two weeks ago when we opened the basement to retrieve our luggage. It had grown mold. It got hosed off, scrubbed with soap and disinfected with sunshine – and it was still disgusting, so we bought new luggage that will now be stored in the attic.
But, we still had a moldy basement. We bought shelf brackets, hardware and a dehumidifier and spent two days in the dark, dingy, damp dungeon – cleaning out cobwebs, building shelves and throwing out moldy stuff. The dehumidifier tank holds 90 pints of water. Chris empties it twice a day. The basement floor is the driest it’s been since we found this place. It must be sucking up water from the springhouse because it just keeps filling up, and we keep dumping it down the drain.
Finally, it feels cool and dry, the shelves are in place and it’s organized! But I still don’t like the spiders.
From piled up stuff,And things shoved on shelves —To this organized shelf of extra paint,And shelves of canned goods and kitchen supplies;And neat shelves of holiday decorations! It’s organized.
I wasn’t sure how the garden would do this first year. We had obstacles to overcome – rocks, stones and gravel – to begin with, questionable soil, and then pesky rabbits.
But those little seed packets seem to have overcome the odds and continue to amaze me. I planted two kinds of carrots – typical orange Nantes carrots and a specialty pack I picked up somewhere of “rainbow” carrots in a variety of colors – purple, yellow and white. Despite all the impediments in the soil, the carrots have grown fairly large, and mostly straight.
Digging the carrots out has been a bit of a challenge; the soil just doesn’t seem to want to release them. I thought a good tug would be sufficient, but it has taken a variety of digging tools to pry them loose.
Then they need scrubbing and peeling; but if you peel a purple carrot – you get an orange carrot. That’s just not fair. I wanted purple all the way through to add color to my soups and stews. So I scrubbed them extra hard and left the peels on. Then there is the chopping and blanching and chilling in a cold water bath and drying and then freezing on a cookie sheet.
The “girls” ate well — they loved the peels, and eventually – I ended up with two big bags of frozen carrots – a gallon of orange and a gallon of colorful ones. Now I need a cold fall day to make a big pot of vegetable soup.
Our rainbow carrots.The problem is, when you peel the red carrots, they are just orange underneath. That’s not fair.Blanched and ready to freeze.Peels and scraps for the girls.They’re happy!
So the saying goes, that Birds of a Feather Flock Together. I’m not sure exactly what that means in relation to our bird feeder. There are a lot of birds flocking there, and squirrels – which aren’t birds at all, but apparently, think they are.
Chris takes good care of the birds – the feeders are always full and the bird bath always has fresh water. We’ve been rewarded by a growing number and variety of birds that frequent our front yard. Whether it’s coffee in the morning or a drink in the late afternoon – we sit in the rocking chairs on the front porch and watch the rotation of birds.
There is the constant fluttering of cardinals, blue jays, nut hatches, wrens, sparrows and gold finches, sometimes interspersed with red-bellied woodpeckers and downy woodpeckers and an occasional blue bird. The hummingbird feeder in the back yard gets an infrequent visitor – but at least we know there are hummingbirds around. And flying overhead are hawks, black birds and sometimes turkey vultures. The other day we had something new and ran for the bird book – maybe some sort of an Oriole.
It’s a great place for bird watching; apparently there is a lot of flocking going on.
We have a colorful front yard. Red Cardinals.Blue Birds.And bright yellow goldfinches.Turkey Vultures.Red bellied woodpeckers — who actually have a red head, and I have yet to see their bellies, so I don’t know…And a “flock” of squirrels who are determined to get into the squirrel proof bird feeder.And these two — who clearly don’t belong at the bird feeder.
About this time last year, we had to have our cat put to sleep. She was old, wasn’t managing the move from our previous home to our interim stop at the Homewood Suites, and wasn’t going to live long enough to make it to the farm. So with a heavy heart – I took her to the vet. My daughter and granddaughter went with me for moral support.
The whole event, though sad, was done in a very compassionate way. We stayed with Shadow while they gave her the shot and she peacefully passed away. Arianna wanted to stay with Shadow for the process, but at five years old, I wasn’t sure what she really understood – and what she didn’t. Once Shadow was “asleep,” Arianna announced it was time to go – so we did.
Now, a year later, they have a cat that needs a barn – and we have a barn that needs a cat. Before bringing Riley to the farm, she needed to have her shots up-dated, and that has brought about a barrage of questions from the now six-year old Arianna.
Upon hearing that Riley was going to need shots, she’s been full of angst about how, exactly, does the vet know the difference between an “alive” shot and a “dead” shot, because she wouldn’t want Riley to go in for the shots to keep her alive, only to end up with the wrong shot. She apparently has given it considerable thought because we had a lengthy conversation about the alternative ways they could keep the shots separate. I suggested she ask the vet when they took Riley for her “well shots,” and she did. Apparently the “dead” shots are under lock and key, the others are in the refrigerator. That’s all she needed to know.
Now Riley has taken up residence on the farm. Chris built “cat stairs” so she can get from the storage side of the barn where her bowl of food is — to the outside, by way of the run-in shed side of the barn and she’s on the prowl to keep the mice away. She’s happy, we’re happy – and Arianna is happy that Riley only got the “alive” shot.
Riley in the barn where she sleeps on top of the hay.Riley perched on top of a fence post under the roof of the barn, trying to keep out of the rain while surveying the pasture.
No Rhyme or Reason Farm 