Seed Fall/ Frost Time 2021

First Frost

The moon was full this morning, just before the lunar eclipse. I was up to watch that. I normally rise at 4:30 but woke at 3:45. I figured as long as I was awake, I'd watch the eclipse. It was a peaceful way to begin the day. That full moon brought to a close our month of  Seed Fall/Frost Time.

Most of the news this month centers around closing down the garden for the winter.

Celery has all been dried to use later.

Six celery plants here!

Pears have been dried or eaten fresh.

Pears dipped in pineapple juice. Yum!

Beets and carrots have been harvested and are in the root cellar.

Cylindra beets

Scarlet Nantes carrots

The sunchokes have been dug and set down in the fermentation crock with kim chi spices. So good!

Sunchokes

Ready to get started on the "chokes"

Bob has dug the horseradish roots.

Starting the horseradish harvest

The roots are all washed and waiting. We will grind them and set them down on the 20th. That's our last job to do.

The garlic has been planted. I also planted some shallots and walking onions to see how they will winter over.

Cleaning up a bean trellis

So, the garden is finally empty! 

Bob covered each planting bed with mulched leaves.

Adding a layer of leaf mulch

I shoveled the decaying wood chips from off of the paths and put them on top of the leaves that Bob laid down.

Layering on wood chips

It took a couple of weeks, but the weather held fair and the job is all done. Everything is tucked in and ready to rest. It's a good feeling!

A big job well done

Seed Fall is also the time when I process seeds I've saved from the garden. I only grow heirloom and open pollenated varieties, so I can save my seeds with confidence that they will perform as expected when I plant them. Here I'm putting away Dester tomatoes, castor beans, garlic chives, coriander (cilantro), and strawflowers. I also put away some white patty pan squash seeds.

Saving seeds, a part of the harvest

On the heat pump front: the crew returned and did some clean up work outside, but the ground was too wet. I think they'll have to wait until the spring to finish up that job. Our heat pump is due to be installed any day now. All of the parts finally came in and they said they should be here to install the middle or end of November. That's okay, we're still using up fuel oil.

This is the time of year when we transition to rest time. Our focus shifts from providing for our physical beings, to providing for our spiritual beings.

Ready to settle in

We spend time relaxing physically, reading, thinking, enjoying nature and exercising our creative muscles. For me, that's needlework and harp work. For Bob, that's planning or working on home improvement projects and tending the bird feeders.

To live a balanced life is to live attentive to both the physical and the spiritual life. We like to think of our year like the ebb and flow of the tide. It's a construct that makes the most sense to us.

Ah, the snow is starting to fall again, inviting me to settle in and recharge.

We hope that you can make an effort to do likewise. It will prove to be well worth your while.

May your Thanksgiving be peace filled. Be careful and be safe.

Until next time,

Kathleen and Bob

Holiday treat, shortbread acorn cookies

 

Who needs a gym membership?

Song Time/ Falling Leaves Time 2021

Autumn in our ravine

Did you see the moon last night or this morning? It was clear and very lovely here. We have now left the month of Song Time/Falling Leaves Time behind for another year.

Our weather has been warmer than usual, but the heat has come on a couple of times. That's fine. We're still trying to use up our fuel oil supply before the boiler is removed. It's been a mix of dry and rainy weather, but the real fall rains haven't begun yet. On some of the nice days I was able to get all of my windows washed. I divided the job up into three half days. That was much more manageable than one long day. On my next rainy day I should plan to get my furniture oiled in preparation for woodstove season.

Old wood chips need to be moved

We've begun our autumn garden clean up. That's always a big job; plants to pull down, structures to remove and store.

Tomato plants coming down

This year we're "clipping and dropping" a lot, so it will compost in place. We are covering it with old chips, leaves and/or straw as well. All of the beds will have a mulch covering for winter.

This time of year people always ask me if our garden is all done. (Actually they begin asking this on Labor Day.) There's still plenty out there. Here's a quick survey:

A variety of beets

Carrots

Celery

Swiss chard

Kale and parsley

Fall lettuce

All of these plants thrive in the cool weather, even after a frost.

We have picked all of our apples and pears. We have bins of apples in the root cellar and laundry room. The pantry has bins of tomatoes ripening.

Red Anjou Pears

Bob's annual vacation was last week. We spent more than half of it working outside. On one very nice day we travelled to my hometown (two hours north to Lake Ontario) to check on my mother's grave site and marker. After spending some time at the cemetery, we ate a picnic lunch by the lake. It was a very nice, relaxing day. Another fun activity was going to the big used book sale in Ithaca. We got a load of books by our favorite authors, some CDs and a couple of DVDs, as well. There's lots of good reading awaiting us this winter. (Oh, alright, we have already begun reading some of them.) 

Bob works on the rails

The porch project is finished!!

The finished porch

It cost more and took longer than we anticipated, but we're happy with the end results, and feel it was worth it.

That's what we've been up to here at Thistledown. We're looking forward to shutting down the garden and taking time to enjoy the rest of the autumn before hunkering down for the winter.

A glowing and harmonious autumn to you all.

Kathleen and Bob

Nasturtiums in the garden

Viburnum in our woods 

Harvest/Ingathering 2021

 

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.

Husking corn

We had a little corn, which I put into the freezer.

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...

Dried green and yellow beans

I've been drying green and wax yellow beans, 

Dried celery leaves and stems

Celery, and today I began drying apple slices. Our apple trees have produced a large crop this year.

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.

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.

Aduki beans

The dry bean harvest has begun. The Aduki beans ripen first. They are almost all picked now.

Picking Aduki beans

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.

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.

Framing the new porch

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!

Finished door trim repaint job

And now, on to our big geothermal project.

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.

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.

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.

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

We have SLUGS. It's as big as your pinky!