October News

"O, it sets my heart a clickin'
like the tickin' of a clock,
When the frost is on the
punkin and the fodder's
in the shock.
- James Whitcomb Riley

"Be like a postage stamp, stick to one thing until you get there." - Josh Billings

Lo and behold! It is October again, and we have had frost on the punkins the last two nights! It has been a long and (paradoxically) short four months since my last entry on June 9th when we were still in the throes of the torrential spring rains. Well, they finally did stop, and from mid-June on, we had a gorgeous summer with plenty of sunshine and just the right amount of rain to have a good growing season. The rains of May and June in addition to poor soil in a new garden caused a sad (read: tears more than once) loss of hundreds of plants. In mid-June, I had to completely write off all the work of May and begin again.

But the new seeds and seedlings finally did grow and actually thrive in the main garden of the last three years, and so the season ended up being a decent one - even though I had no summer or winter squash, cukes or potatoes (all lost in the rains). The lessons I learned are threefold: never count on a new garden even if the soil test seems to indicate that things will be fine, never start seedlings inside so early again and be very wary of planting any seedlings or seeds much earlier than the first week of June since we seem to be in a "very rainy May pattern" these last three years. It's just so hard to wait, but wait I will next year.

Other farm news from the summer: Thirty new pullet hens arrived in June. It is the first time I ordered pullets - young hens just old enough to begin laying eggs - and I must say I like it! They have been great layers of eggs and seem to be a happy, frisky group of hens. They really love my almost daily offerings of piles of weeds and unwanted greenery from the garden. They tear into things and can demolish a very large pile in a few hours.

I also raised forty meat birds in the chicken tractor on the pasture. They were Red Bros - a variety that is supposed to forage better on the grass than Cornish hens. They all grew nicely plump in 9 weeks and, after their date at the abattoir, most of them weighed 4+ pounds. When I am raising all these chickens, I completely lose my appetite for them, so I ate no chicken for about the last three to four months. Just two nights ago we ate the first one, and my, it was succulent and delicious! Chickens raised in a healthy setting on good grain and grass are a completely different culinary experience than those things that pass for chicken in the grocerey store.

The poultry pens were rounded out with nine turkeys who were a really delightful crew to raise. Turkeys are the best! It is true they are not too bright, but they are comical, curious, pleasant and make the sweetest trilling sounds when they are happy. They are all now in the cooler soon to go in the deep freeze. And they got quite big, bigger than I had really wanted - two are about 29 pounds! Although I am happy to have one less chore to do, I do miss their contented presence on the farm.

The gardens have almost all been put to bed. Most of them have received a good dose of dolomitic lime, and another good dose of manure or compost. They have also been spaded with our wonderful orange, Italian spading machine which does not harm the soil structure. So things are settling down nicely here as we head into the colder months.

Have been thinking and reading a lot about apple trees, and I think we will take the leap and plant some next year.
It is a big commitment but having our own, juicy apples should be worth the effort. Also would love to learn about grafting and try that on one or two of the older apple trees here. So many things to do and never a dull moment!