Sunday night, it dropped down to 27 degrees F. A clear sky made it inevitable. Bummer! Luckily, we had already rushed around and gotten all of our frost-sensitive garden produce inside. Will took the Kubota around to the pumpkin patches in the North and Main Gardens, filling the bucket, over and over with pumpkins. Fortunately, our friend, Heather, and two of her kids stopped by to pick up the giant pumpkin I’d promised Providence, so, besides picking up that one, they helped out picking all of the smaller pumpkins too. Boy, that was a huge help! You know the old saying “many hands makes light work?” It is so very true! Especially when you’re staring down a cold, freezing night!
After working at all the gardens, we got a phone call from our son, David, saying we were invited to join them for a bonfire at his house. As the afternoon was already getting chilly, we thought that was a great idea. We drove the golf cart over to the neighbors and enjoyed a nice visit. Grandpa Will had fun doing alphabets with Delilah on a piece of thrown away sheetrock and carpenter’s pencil. Then I took her and Dad for a short ride in the golf cart. Delilah wanted me to run through every single mud puddle on the driveway. After all, mud puddles are made for kids, right?
Now, we have plants and vegetables all through the house, with scarcely room to walk. Luckily, we also have the greenhouse packed full, too. So, that’s a whole lot of stuff that’s not in the house. We are, truly, grateful for all the harvest, despite the spell of unending rain, followed by drought. The corn is wonderful. We have lots of ears of Glass Gem popcorn that are over 10 inches long and so very beautiful. The various varieties of sweet corn are drying down nicely
I have to laugh; Mittens and Buffy, our cats, now “kind of” get along. They just glare at each other but can actually walk a few feet apart without a fight.
We’ve still got root crops in the ground to harvest but we have firewood to get in first, as we’re behind in that due to all the breakdowns Will had with haying equipment. But the woodshed is getting full, and he has piles in front of the two old pig sheds. We’re getting there! — Jackie
Yes, I do. (If you’ll check out my book, Growing and Canning Your Own Food, you’ll see I do that!) I also make Amish Coleslaw, which is a vinegar-sugar based coleslaw that’s great when canned up.
Oh how wonderful! Harvest time and Fall are my absolute favorite time of the year! A bonfire at David’s sounds perfect! I’m in Missouri and our cool weather will be here this coming weekend, I’m ready for it!
Harvest season is our favorite season of the year! Right now, you can hardly walk through our house for all the crates, buckets and piles of wonderful crops!!
When I first came across your blog, I’d read the comments that are so kind and loving toward you, Jackie, and knew your blog is so different from others. These are your friends and family and I wanted to be a part. I think about how if it wasn’t for the Lord this loving blog and loving comments wouldn’t be possible. It’s His presence in the world that makes all the difference. And I get to enjoy it here! Regards from far north California.
We do have a wonderful blog family! Thank God. I’ve read some blogs that were so hateful and negative all the time. I sure don’t go to those blogs ever again. I’m happy to have you as a part of our family!
Harvest time is just the absolute best! Even though the work is intense, the joy of having all that glorious food stored is indescribable. I picked the last of the dry beans and have been clearing out the garden. We are still so very dry, even though we did get a little rain yesterday. I am so very thankful for that moisture. The bonfire sounds so fun and I hope we get enough rain soon to be able to do that with my family. The grandkids have the most fun toasting hot dogs and marshmallows. I hope you get your firewood all in before the snows start. Prayers for a blessed week.
We do have nearly all our split, dry firewood under cover right now. It only needs stacking. Right now, some is in a huge pile. Will’s off to get a load of our round bales after loading a pickup load of rotted manure for a friend and going with David to get our new-to-us baler as ours is on its last legs.
Our root crops need to come in but that’s after I get the last tomatoes seeded out and the crate and a half more to get canned up. I love harvest too!
I had to pick all my tomatoes today as our temperatures are dipping into the below freezing zone tonight and tomorrow night. We are getting our greenhouse put up as we have the energy to do the work. The only cost so far are the cattle panels but we will have to buy the plastic. It will be nice to have to extend our growing season and to start plants in the spring.
Boy, our greenhouse and hoop houses save our butts!! Both in the spring and fall, they’re full. That takes a lot of pressure off the room in our house and makes our work much easier. We had a freeze and now I still have two crates and a basket of tomatoes yet to can up. I got half of one done today; the second batch is now processing.
Detente! Detente I tell you. That is the best case scenario when a newbie(s) join the family. Buffy emits the “I can hold my own” vibe. Sadly my late cat did not have that vibe so would avoid being near if she could. Kinda sad that the the two I took in still check her hidey holes.
Might get a frost tonight be our garden is in the best shape going into winter than it has been in the past few years (family issues will do that). Got the garlic planted this past weekend and I did one more weeding of the asparagus patch (saw some grass sprouting and a few small volunteer trees I missed last time). I see a weed or two in the strawberries which I might go after this weekend (rain is in our forecast). Missed giving away the daughters that escaped their enclosure but will do that in the spring. Plus I need to thin out the patch. After stepping on a lot of plants last fall working on fencing, I thought I’d have a lot of dead plants. Quite the contrary I must say.
Cleaned the garden shed (still have a few hand tools to clean once done weeding) and did the winter “switchover”. I do need to cut some catnip as it has escaped its area. Too late to transplant the sedge that is thriving in the asparagus patch (and catnip/asparagus small area). You can’t eat sedge (that I know of) but it is a native plant.
Doubt if they’ll be much colors in the area and when the rain starts hitting, the leaves will fall. This fall I’m going to do a better job of giving the compost more water before winter.
Yep, we’re playing cleanup, get ready for winter, get the firewood split and indoors and canning up the last of the tomatoes, BEFORE pulling the root crops and cabbages. What was I thinking, planting a 100′ row of Giant Chinese cabbages, anyway???
It sounded like a good idea at the time lol?? We’ve all done that as it is seems to be so easy to say “I’m going to plant this – and this, and this”.
Jackie, I’ve been looking at recipes online, how to pressure can cabbage. Some do coleslaw. Do you can up cabbage?
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