Though the upcoming week is going to be very warm, Fall came to the Farm about two weeks ago due to the forest fires and settled in nicely this past week. The mornings have all been cool (not quite cold), afternoons are mostly warm(ish), and Sunset seemed to be noticeably earlier every day. We have had quite a bit of rain, but not the cold rains of an early Winter. And the trees are starting to turn color and leaves are dropping. Fall has arrived and we are really quite happy about it.
Last Monday we pulled the corn plants and shallow tilled all of the garden beds we had harvested in the past month. This made huge chunks of the Farm look clean and tidy. And I ran Rosie the Tractor around and scrapped the tractor paths everywhere before Ann laid out fresh straw to keep thing from being muddy. The plants around the Farm are still growing (slowly) and those that are not we are pulling for next year's composting. Those plants still growing are mostly very colorful flowers or pumpkins and gourds so we have bright colors all over the place. All in all the Farm looks wonderful in the rain and spectacular in sunshine. Despite the flaws we look neat as a pin.
Our guest farmers have begun taking down there gardens. Their Summer growing experiments were mostly a success. Beth and Wendy came this week and pulled most of their plants, the harvest of which went to the food bank. They still have a few tomato plants out there, covered in ripening fruit. The coming week ought to finish these hold outs. CB and Hellen have taken out all but three pepper plants, some nice Thai peppers are still ripening, some are a dangerously red color. Christine's patch is still alive with color and growth, but she pulled a great many spent plants this week too. She has quite a bit more to do. A whole lot of gourds to be picked.
The Farmhouse build is going along pretty well. In the past few weeks we have had quite a lot of rain, but the new roof held out the water very well. It may seem normal for the roof to hold out the rain, but anything that goes according to plan here must be acknowledged, things don't always happen the way we plan it. We are "planning" to get the final roof cover up prior to Winter.
We spent the late days of the past week pulling wire through the Farmhouse electrical system. Our house is relatively small, around 1000 square feet, but the electrical system is relatively large and we have never done anything like it before. Figuring it all out has been interesting. Routing the wires through the walls efficiently takes a bit of planning since I had only drawn locations for the switches and outlets. We had to work each circuit out individually as we pulled it together. There will be about thirty circuit breakers in the final system and we are about half way through the process.
Jack (our son) started laying out the new utility shed this week. The site for this is located on the driveway, about half the way between the Farmhouse and the Road. Our permanent electric meter box is to be mounted on the outside wall of the new shed, so the shed must be built prior to our putting the power on. The new shed will also hold the water filtration and softening equipment, which has been temporarily sheltered near the well head, so we will also need a trench for the new water pipes to bring water to the shed and then to the new Farmhouse. We will get the final framing inspection after the trenches are dug, we expect to be ready a month or so out.
We have been working very hard these past few months. Our bodies get tired out, so we find fewer days where recreation seems desirable. This weekend we pulled the e-bikes out and spent a bit of time rolling around on the Banks-Vernonia Trail. The weather is perfect for riding: cool, dry, and with a light breeze. The leaves are beginning to fall and trees drop fruit everywhere. The cooler weather has also slowed the numbers of people using the trail too. Conditions are perfect on the Trail and, with a heavier shirt, the ride is fine.
Fall came down like a hammer this year. But the Farm looks better than it ever has (nearly tamed), the Fall colors are beginning to pop, and the Farmhouse project is coming along well. If only the rest of the country were doing so well as we are.
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