Whadda Wind!

Yesterday we had a wind storm like I have never seen before. No rain, just wind. And it winded (!) ALL DAY LONG. I don't mind admitting, it was quite the scary experience.

Supposedly the area experienced winds up to 75 mph and there was extensive damage throughout the county. Needless to say, lots of trees fell on power lines causing widespread outages. Some reports are that three-quarters of our very large county was out of power. Some was restored around one o'clock this afternoon after being out since yesterday. Other people are being told it may be a day or two before they are back on grid.

We have a solar power system that provides about half the energy we need. So anytime there is sunshine, we run on solar and store any extra in our battery bank. Yesterday was very gray with no sun at all but we were fortunate that we had enough battery power that we could keep going on solar. This morning dawned sunny so we were fine on solar again, and then in early afternoon grid power came back on for us.

We lost many trees but were fortunate none hit any buildings or vehicles.

This is what our main trail into our woods looks like today.

We had no frost with the cold front that blew in with the wind, but this window box of impatiens looks like it's been frozen solid, doesn't it? The box was lush and chock full of blossoms yesterday morning . . . before the wind. That's what caused the damage. Strictly wind damage.

We did suffer one loss. This is (was?) our high-sided farm trailer.

Roy's Uncle George was a farmer and right after we got married, he said he didn't need this piece of equipment anymore and offered it to us. We quickly snapped it up and have had and used it continually for forty-six years. We've rebuilt it twice. We've hauled horses, pigs, sheep, chickens and goats (lots of goats!) in it. Roy's shoveled more loads of manure into it and then out of it than he ever wants to see again. The summer we moved up here from Illinois it made nine (yes, NINE) trips full to the brim. We've hauled countless loads of hay, feed, building supplies, and firewood in it. It's transported boats, canoes, kayaks, and motorcycles. And lots of happy kids on top tromping down loose hay the years we had nineteen acres of hay land.

Our good neighbor came over this afternoon after hearing of the tree falling on the trailer. He said he wondered if he and Roy would have a winter project in his fully equipped workshop rebuilding the trailer. But as soon as he got a look at it, he realized (as we already had) that the basic frame is way too smooshed out of shape to salvage.

Oh, well. It's not like it's something that can't be replaced. But it hit me as soon as I saw what had happened to it was that even though it was just a rusty-old-seen-better-days trailer, there are one heck of a lot of memories of our life tied up in it.

Kinda silly, isn't it? But doggone, I'm gonna miss that trailer.

Flock Increase

I wrote earlier this summer about the surprise our little Miss Golden Laced Cochin bantam hen presented us with one morning.

Our poultry has daily access to a half-acre fenced in pasture including a heavily wooded area, and we don't take a head count of all the chickens each night when we shut them in their house.

Apparently this little gal made a nest in the woods and hatched out her own little family of chickies.

The chicks are now about six weeks old and completely feathered out. (Too bad their natural coloring makes for such good camouflage this time of year. It's hard to get a good picture of them.) They're about four to five inches high . . . little energized wind-up chicks scurrying around the poultry yard.

Here's the proud papa . . . who shows absolutely no interest in his brood.

Out of curiosity after we discovered the chicks, Roy went on a search through the woods to see if he could spot Mama Hen's nest. He never did find it but did come across one other little chick that apparently was born too weak and didn't make it. So she hatched five eggs, out of which these four have grown hale and hardy indeed.

We've always kept a couple/few bantams along with our regular sized birds. The banties lay more eggs than the bigger birds in proportion to the very small amount of chicken feed they consume.

No question about it, bantam eggs are much smaller as you can see by the above picture. Regular sized egg on the left, little marble-sized bantam egg on the right. If you had only bantam eggs, it would be difficult to determine how many of them to substitute when a recipe called for, say, two large eggs. I don't hassle with that. I never use the bantam eggs for baking as I have the regular sized ones readily available. But no reason the bantam eggs can't be used for scrambled, poached, or fried eggs. I regularly take a couple dozen eggs to a friend that I barter with and she is pickled tink to get some of the bantam eggs. Her little nieces visit regularly and they love hard-boiled eggs. She uses the bantam eggs for these treats and her nieces think the tiny eggs are especially for them. (And they are!)

Another point in favor of the bantams that we like is the fact that they tend to go broody often (which means they want to sit on and hatch out eggs) and are super-good mamas after the chicks are hatched. Sure makes it a lot easier for us than having to order (and pay for!) day-old chicks and keep them in a brooder in the garage for weeks and weeks (cough-cough, chicken dust all over EVERYTHING) before being able to put them outside. Bantams will sit on just about any egg you put under them. We've had them hatch out full sized chicken eggs and duck eggs. Goose eggs are juuust a bit too big . . . the banty hen keeps falling off them. (Seriously, she doesn't fall off, but there's just not enough little banty body to cover and incubate them sufficiently.)

So you go, Little Mama Bantam. You're earning your keep on this little homestead.

Fall Marches On

I think our fall colors this year are a little diminished by the dryness we're experiencing. But even though some foliage looks a little dusty and crinkled, most colors are still gorgeous and well worth any time spent enjoying them however you choose to do so.

The forecast says rain is supposed to start tonight and continue through the weekend. I don't want to spoil anybody's outdoor plans, but I kinda relish the thought of a wet weekend indoors . . . maybe even in my quilt studio! And we sure do need a really good soaker of a rain.

Our Virginia Creeper vine turns a lovely red as the fall progresses and as you can see by the above picture, it's leaves have already started changing.

I think I mentioned last year that this vigorous plant almost shuts out all light by nearly covering the one window in our tiny bathroom. As winter approaches and the leaves have withered and died and I cut the tendrils back, it's kind of a shock to have such a bright, sunny bathroom back again.

So here's a question for you. My daughter has always wanted to try to start some Virginia Creeper at her house. How would we go about getting some starter shoots from this mature, healthy plant? And what time of year should we do it? I'm guessing spring would be the best time? Possibly summer? Should I cut off some vine ends and root them in water? Help! Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

The Blueberry Weed Patch

Don't look now, folks, but our puny little blueberry bushes actually made some growth this year. I think it may have had a lot to do with the fact that I spread about four tons of peat moss over the whole blueberry patch this spring.

I thought the heavy layer of peat moss would act as super-efficient mulch to keep the weeds down . . . but it didn't. Quite the opposite. It seems there are certain weeds that just thrive in peat moss. During the summer I made a couple of weed-killing forays pulling every blasted weed I saw, but the darn things just kept coming back.

Then I will admit for about the last month I've turned a blind eye to the weeds while other things seemed to rank higher on my chore list. I have paid a price.

This is what happens when you let weeds have their way among your blueberry bushes.

This is probably the worst section in the whole plot. (Can't even find the blueberry bushes, can you?)

Well, dang. I just couldn't let the blueberry patch go into winter this way. We happened to have quite a good sized amount of sawdust back in the wood cutting area left from chainsawing our twelve cords of wood this summer. Roy estimates he brought about 12-15 wheelbarrows full into the yard and made a big pile in our mulch material area.

I took my trusty spading fork and hand trowel and went into weed attack mode. It took me two days . . . but I didn't work full days (that would have killed me considering our still hot, humid weather) to get out all the weeds and spread a heavy layer of sawdust.

Now if a bunch of weeds grow up again before winter sets in, I'm gonna be really bummed. But I'm fairly confident the heavy sawdust and wood shavings will keep the patch weed-free, at least until spring. I think. I hope. It better.

And maybe tomorrow I'll even be able to stand up straight again.

A Visit From A Famous Writer And Co.

Some of you may know Catherine Friend either as an author of books or from reading her blogs, Farm Tales and The Inkslinger. She and her partner, Melissa, write and farm in southeastern Minnesota. Catherine had a presentation and booksigning this past weekend way up here in the northwoods at our little local bookstore so she and Melissa and their Griffon dog, Molly, came north for a weekend of some business and some relaxation.

Melissa is on the left, Catherine on the right. The fuzzy one is well-behaved Molly. (Not to infer that Melissa and Catherine were NOT well behaved.)

It was so nice to get to meet Catherine in person. I can now assure you her personality that shines in her blogging is true to form. And, Author Girl as she refers to herself, is a craftsperson. Does she know her craft! Does she love writing! Does she have a boatload yet to write about!

Catherine gave a very interesting, informative and witty presentation Saturday night at the bookstore. Sure is a lot more to becoming a published, successful author than is generally known.

This is a shot of Catherine booksigning after her presentation.

I didn't know what Melissa would be like although Catherine has said in her blog that Melissa makes her laugh every day. This I can now understand fully. Melissa with the beautiful smile and mind that never stops! You can't be in the same room with her without seeing the gears churning and getting caught up in her zest for life.

Both gals were super-easy to be with and get to know face-to-face. Which just goes to prove that although there certainly is a dark side to the Internet, there are also many, many wonderful people that you would never get the chance to know (and even meet!) if it weren't for the technology offered through our computers.

Melissa on left, Short Stuff (that's me) in center, Catherine on right. Molly, almost in picture in front.

Sad to say, it was a busy, busy weekend and we never managed to be in the same spot with Chicken Mama so we could get a picture of the four of us. But Catherine and Melissa did make the hour ride out to Chicken Mama's on Sunday night for dinner and saw a deer, a fox and a bull moose on their way back to the cabin around 11 PM.

Look what they brought me. Some beautiful, natural, undyed yarn from their very own farm raised sheep! Catherine and I talked about dyeing natural wool but it all sounds a little technical and scary to me so for a while, I'll just enjoy touching and looking at this (very soft) wool in its natural state while trying to decide on something special to knit with it.

Thanks for the visit, gals. It was fun!

We Need All The Help We Can Get

Our growing season up here is very short. Spring comes late and is usually cold. Fall arrives early and is usually cold. So in order to try to extend our gardening season, we need help of some kind. (A 50' x 100' heated greenhouse would do the trick.)

We have twenty-six 4' x 8' raised beds that lend themselves to having a 4' x 8' cold frame set on top of the wooden bed frames. This enables us to add weeks to both the beginning and ending of our short "summer" season.

We don't put cold frames over all the raised beds but we do use them on about half the beds especially for starting crops in the spring.

A couple of months ago, Jordan of Blueberry Hills Homestead in New York asked me if I would do a post showing the construction of our cold frames. (Good thing the dear lady said there was "no hurry" as I'm just now getting around to this posting and pictures!)

This is a picture of one of the first cold frames we built. It's shown here sitting on top of one of the raised beds. We built them to slope slightly to the south. The back is 12" high, the front (south end) is 8" high. We used solid wood for the four sides, and it is heavy as heck. Hurtfully heavy. The handles on each end are for ease (ha!) in moving. Since I rotate crops in each bed each year, not the same bed will end up with a cold frame on top of it each season. The cold frame comes off many beds as soon as the weather settles. Also, we store all the cold frames stacked in one area out of the garden for the winter months.

You can also see the arm that holds the cold frame top in various degrees of open or closed. When the top is up more than halfway, it tends to act as a sail that gets hit by the frequent strong winds we have. Therefore, we found we had to secure the cold frame in some way to the raised bed. After trying a couple of methods, the simplest turned out to be good old baling twine tie-downs.

This is just a shot showing the basic construction of the tops of the cold frames. For our first tops, we used rigid, double layered, clear, fiberglass panels. They, too, added to the weight of the cold frames, so then we went to special UV treated flexible (heavy, strong) plastic. This was much lighter and so far has held up well. (Besides being heavier, the fiberglass panels tended to be brittle and crack in cold weather.)




To hold the tops open at various positions, we use a 1" x 2" length of wood bolted to the cold frame side (so it swivels), holes drilled in the 1" x 2", and holes drilled in the side of the cold frame cover. By inserting a good-sized nail through the hole in the 1" x 2" and into the hole in the cover frame (one 1" x 2" arm on either end of the 4' sides), the cover stays securely in position.

After a couple of years of grunting, groaning and straining lots of muscles moving the wooden-sided cold frames, we got a smidge wiser and decided that (duh) if the plastic on the lids made the cold frames lighter, why not use plastic on the four sides? (Double duh.) So we've started replacing all the old frames with new ones made of plastic instead of solid wood.

This gives an idea of possible framing for the plastic covered frames.

We've experimented with different heights for the newer plastic covered cold frames. This one (not being used at the moment) is 3' high and we had it over a bed of tomatoes last year. Big drawback found: By the time it's on top of a garden bed (about 12" high), it's too danged high to reach over and into to pick the tomatoes! We used it this year with a shade cloth lid on top to try to discourage cabbage moths from getting to our broccoli. (Didn't work.)

Besides the slanted cold frames made with the plastic sides, we've also made a few "risers." These are level (no slant to their framing) boxes we use to give more height for plants to grown in. The riser goes on top of the garden bed, then the cold frame goes on top of the riser. Our risers are 12" high. The cold frame in this picture is 18" at the back side and 12" at the front (south) side.

These are the four remaining beds protected by cold frames in the garden today. They're covering cherry tomatoes, sweet green peppers I want to turn red, lemon cucumbers and regular green slicing cucumbers. The lids are closed down tight in the late afternoon and raised the next morning before the sun becomes warm enough to "cook" the veggies inside the cold frame.

Hope this gives you some ideas for your construction, Jordan. And thanks for being patient!