The weeks go by pretty fast around here. The days have become very short and the nights cold, all in the short time since my last post. The Farm is awash in Fall colors and the large trees surrounding us are all turning their reds and golds.
The Farm is mostly going into hibernations where we have annuals planted. Some of the herbs and lettuces are going to continue to grow until Winter sets in hard. All of the perennials were killed off last Monday when we got our first frost.
It's amazing how some of the very large plants, the pumpkins, squashes and gourds for the most part, nearly disappeared on one cold morning. One of the gourds had been covering about thirty square feet of dirt and the entire thing simply melted away. Cleaning up the remnants was simple enough. This year we decided to put the remains of these squash plants into a separated compost heap so that we can dump seed loaded compost on strategic locations next Spring. Last year we accidentally seeded pumpkins and tomatoes willy-nilly around the Kitchen Garden. Next year will be planned a bit better. Ann took all of our volunteer pumpkins and gourds out front and sold them off to passers by.
The new hens we bought in the Summer have finally begun producing eggs. Normally hens stop producing when the weather gets colder but we hung two heat lamps in the hen house and so the chickens might continue to produce a bit longer. We are back to selling eggs, but not quite up to full capacity yet. Our Runner Ducks are producing about one egg a day so we have enough for home cooking and little else.
The Farmhouse project is still going forward. We have been getting ready for our framing inspection for a few weeks now. The rough in wiring and plumbing were all done a few weeks ago. But the rough in wiring and pipes which bring water and power to the Farmhouse all had to be put in before the inspection.
Ann met a new neighbor at the front gate a few weeks ago. As it turned out the new friends husband has a lot of equipment which he is willing to rent, so I rented a very large Ditch-Witch digger from him to cut out all of the trenches we would need to bury all of the water and power pipes. The machine was quite a bit larger than I would have rented and cost much less, making a three day job into one inexpensive and relatively easy day. We cut enough trench to put in a lot of garden watering capacity and this should reduce the long lengths of water hose normally found laying on the ground everywhere. We have nearly finished putting all of the infrastructure stuff in, so maybe we'll have the inspection next week.
We found the tile for the new shower floor on Craig's List last weekend and saved a bunch on it. We also got a few of the other things we will need to finish the project. Prices of building materials have been skyrocketing as of late, so every penny pinched is more appreciated. This morning we found a nice $2400 refrigerator for $400 and brought it home. Craig's List is a real resource.
Time marches on. It doesn't stop or even slow down. And so we go along for the ride, keeping busy, trying to get stuff done.
No comments:
Post a Comment