Gee, this is getting kind of old. It’s supposed to rain for the next week, with only a day’s break with “cloudy” weather (which also usually means rain). Although it’s been hard to finish up our harvest and get the gardens ready for winter, we are making slow progress. The North garden is cleaned up and the cows have been let in to eat up the corn stalks, pumpkin vines, and weeds. Luckily, they love weeds because there were plenty! And the Central garden is cleaned up mostly. I harvested our row of Russian Mammoth sunflowers, the last of the dry beans, and Will picked a bit of corn he’s working on breeding. (His new plank cow corral fence goes through one end of the Central garden so he wants it clean enough to drive the tractor in without running down crops.)
We’ve got most of the Sand garden harvested, digging more potatoes and pulling more dry beans. When we went in last time, our old Labrador, Spencer, came too. As he loves vegetables, he’s not usually allowed in the gardens. But there wasn’t much left and he would be supervised. We dug two pails full of Dakota Pearl potatoes and were headed out. He knew he wasn’t allowed to pick up potatoes, but he felt he had to be harvesting too, so he picked up an old corn cob, quite proud of himself!
Every day I’ve been shelling dry beans and seeding peppers and tomatoes. I’ve found our little plastic greenhouses we start plants in are great for laying out seeds on coated paper plates. They keep the breezes out of the seeds, prevent Mittens from walking over them, and help organize the seeds and cups of fermenting tomato. I’m glad I didn’t take them apart for storage!
Will and I took the four wheeler out into the woods on the Wolf Forty yesterday when the rain had quit for a couple of hours. The maples are really gorgeous with their fall color and he showed me where the new pasture fence was being built, a little at a time, as he could. It’s coming along nicely and I was surprised to see several clearings with plenty of grass right in the “big woods.” It was an enjoyable ride as this time of year I don’t get much time in the woods. Gotta change that… — Jackie
We have had one three-week stretch when we had rain….other than that, we have watered every other day this summer! Unusual for SW Missouri. LOVE seeing the photo of Spencer. He is such a beauty. Good luck with the new fence, fields, and seeding. Blessings.
Thank you! Our weather seems to be going crazy everywhere this year, doesn’t it?
I get it about too much rain. We’ve only had about 6″ this year but we got a good 4″ all at once. The resulting flash flood left a high water mark 4″ up our home’s walls, invaded our garage and Arizona room and destroyed several boxes of things we had sitting on the floor along with two large area rugs. I still shoveling mud off sidewalks and out of our garage. Next project: install 6″ French drain to divert the water next time.
The good news is, aside from one small bed full of seedling carrots, the hard rain didn’t damage our raised bed gardens.
Rain is great but here in AZ too much rain can be deadly. This last storm–the last gasp of Hurricane Rosa–killed a local who tried to ford a wash.
I hear you, Ray. In New Mexico, we lived 1/2 a mile from a small branch of the Canadian River. Our young son, David, loved to go fish for small sunfish there; it was only a foot deep with one larger pool. But when we got a flash flood, that little creek would get 12′ deep with roaring water, carrying full sized trees down it. It was so scary! And we had a shallow wash on both sides of our road. When it rained heavily, it would also fill up and flow over the road with feet of water. And fast-filling too! You’ve got to watch out for Mama Nature!
Possibly it is the variety of corn in dog food and the fertilizer and bug killer in the corn in dog food. I love that he leaves the potatoes alone but found something he was allowed to carry.
Naw. That’s the sweet corn Will has bred, Seneca Sunrise. No GMOs or chemicals involved. Spencer just thought he should be harvesting something and knows better than to pick “human” food. So he was helping us in our harvest. Great dog!
I understand your balancing act trying to get the crops picked around the rainy weather. Our rain has been seemingly endless all year. Many seeds rotted and had to be replanted, weeds and plants are huge but the vegetables end up spoiling on the wet ground, crops are late without sunshine. Do you harvest your dry beans by pulling up the whole plant? We understand Will’s struggle with haying. Many here haven’t even gotten all the first cutting done. We’re just thankful for all we’ve been able to get, having overplanted many things. It’s been a good year to promote greenhouses and hoop houses. I’m already thinking about next year and can’t wait for your seeds to be ready. May the rest of your harvesting go well.
Rain sure can be a bugger. But then, so is drought! No, we harvest our beans by picking them by hand. Because many are kind of late maturing here in Northern Minnesota, I have to pick the dry ones and leathery beans, leaving the rest to mature more fully. Picking the whole plant is great if they are all mature. Then you don’t have to hand-shell each pod.
We’re about done with the harvest; just some hot peppers to transplant and bring indoors in pots, a few tomatoes more to seed and one row of carrots to dig! Hooray!
Our Lab will be 13 years old on October 15. He has less gray than Spencer on has face, but the hair between his paw pads is all silver.
He has to be kept out of the garden as he will “pick” (rip) ears off of the stalk and husk and eat them…ear after ear. He started with the post harvest field corn missed by the neighbor’s corn chopper. I have come to the conclusion there is nothing wrong ground corn in dog food. He has out lived our other 2 Labs and is in better shape at about 13 years old than either of them were at 12. He has eaten more corn than they did combined!
Spencer started to get gray-faced at five years old. Like your Lab, he thinks he’s a vegetarian; he digs up carrots and potatoes, eats whole tomatoes off the vine, loves sweet corn and any fruit, especially apples. He begs more for apple cores and peels than meat scraps when I cut up a deer. So much for those new “meat based”, pricey dog foods!
What a pretty baby he is, looks like my old girl who is 10 now. She has more white than black on her face. We are having weird fall weather here, cool one week and then back to hot almost 90’s. Actually reasonably nice for Oklahoma.
I’ll trade fall weather with you. It’s rained nearly every day for three weeks now! It’s getting kind of old….
So glad to see Spencer!!! He is beautiful, and a sure reflection of the love he has received through the years – remembering seeing the first pictures of him. Thanks!
Spencer is such a nice dog. He’s got a little arthritis but is otherwise very healthy. Every night he comes upstairs to tell Will “goodnight” and get his good night pats. Then he goes to the foot of the bed where he has his old twin foam mattress to go to sleep. We love him a lot!
Wow that is a lot of rain. We just got our first rain here in Sacramento, CA. It wasn’t much but every little bit helps. We only see snow every ten or fifteen years and then it melts in one afternoon. But I must say – I won’t want as much as you get!! I hope you are able to accomplish all that you want before cold winter sets in. Are David and Ashley going to get their cabin done before winter hits you all too hard? Thank you for sharing your adventure with us.
You’re welcome, Lisa. Heck, we got four inches of snow on Friday! That’s early, even for us. No, David and Ashley won’t have their cabin done by winter. But we are working on it, trying hard to get the roof on before serious snow falls. Once dried in, work can continue all winter as you can keep the cold out and some heat in via a propane heater.
Is the Dakota Pearl the unusual potato you wrote about last spring? Someone sent them to you as a gift??
No. That was my grandpa’s potato, Bliss Triumph, a block red potato. I did harvest the row I planted. However, as luck would have it, they had scab bad. I was able to save a few small potatoes for seed and I’ll plant them next spring in a different spot. It seems when scab gets in your garden, it stays around for quite awhile…. The potatoes were big and edible….just ugly as sin with their corky skin.
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