Welcome Autumn!
Tonight is the Harvest Moon, and it brings to a close the month of Harvest/Ingathering. That does not mean, however, that we're ready to shut down the garden yet. It simply means that the bulk of the harvest is in.
I've been busy this month.
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| Husking corn |
We had a little corn, which I put into the freezer.
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| Roma tomatoes to blanch |
My tomatoes are coming in (I plant late varieties). Those I have frozen, and am now dehydrating them.
The freezers are full now, so I've begun dehydrating many things.
In addition to the tomatoes...
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| Dried green and yellow beans |
I've been drying green and wax yellow beans,
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| Dried celery leaves and stems |
Celery, and today I began drying apple slices. Our apple trees have produced a large crop this year.
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| My entire potato harvest |
I harvested my potatoes. There was hardly anything there! They all rotted in the ground before they even developed. I ended up with one quart of walnut sized potatoes. I usually get three bushels! With organic potatoes selling for $2 a pound, we'll simply be going without potatoes until next autumn.
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| Sweet potato harvest |
My sweet potatoes did a bit better. I ended up with about a bushel. I usually get three bushel of them, as well.
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| Aduki beans |
The dry bean harvest has begun. The Aduki beans ripen first. They are almost all picked now.
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| Picking Aduki beans |
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| Aduki beans |
I ended up with two bushel of beans. That's my usual harvest for these.
Now I've begun picking the other beans: kidney, black, Turkey Craw and Hidatsa Shield beans. The Cranberry and Good Mother Stollard aren't ready yet.
In my spare time (HA!) I've started to clean up the garden. That work will go on into November.
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| Bob at work |
Bob's been busy working on the front porch project.
He had to drive an hour and a half away just to get all of the supplies needed to finish the job. Due to supply chain problems, he couldn't get what he needed any closer. But now he's got all he needs to complete the job.
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| Framing the new porch |
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| Finishing the decking |
He has the deck down and is preparing to pour the concrete pad that the steps will rest on.
I repainted the front door trim after he made necessary repairs. It was hard to get two consecutive rain free days!
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| Finished door trim repaint job |
And now, on to our big geothermal project.
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| The big earth mover |
On the 14th, the crew dropped off the big earth mover that would be used to dig our trench.
They began work on the 16th and finished on the 17th.
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| The trench begun |
The trench ended up being much bigger than we were told it would be. Instead of being 125' long, it is 250' long! It's about 6' deep and at least 6' across the top.
They dug up nearly all of our non garden backyard space. In fact, the clotheslines and raspberries were torn out, and they piled dirt on 6' of our garden's southern border.
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| One view of the trench area |
Currently it's all filled in and somewhat smoothed over, but it's a huge, sticky mud mess! They said they'll come back in a month and rake it smoother and plant grass seed. But the 6' of messed up garden border is our responsibility. We'll have to hire someone to do this. It's far too much for two 60+ year olds to do with hand shovels and rakes.
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| Connecting the ground loop tubes |
Now we wait for the next crew to come in and do the inside installation work. In the meantime, we're trying to use up our stock of fuel oil. I think I'll need to take big tub baths more than once a week!
That's about it for now. We'll still be busy in the month ahead. Hopefully next time I'll have pictures of the finished porch for you.
Till then, enjoy the autumn.
Kathleen and Bob
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| We have SLUGS. It's as big as your pinky! |
