By the side of the road

Two little pumpkins for $1, and rutabaga $1 each.

The pictures are of pumpkins and veggies left by the road today.

Rutabaga

The rutabaga had been through three frosts, so it was nice and sweet.  It came out of the garden today. 

Pumpkin plop

George and I wandered down to Blue Hill this past weekend for some boat maintenance.  We stopped first in Bucksport ("Ghostport" on signs) for breakfast  at the Harbor View Grille.   Great food, and we had the extra treat of being able to watch through a window as a lot of kids in Halloween costumes walked past towards a small fair on the waterfront. 

We stopped by Ghostport again on the way home, because I wanted to get a last ice cream of the season from a shop on Main Street.   George got French Vanilla and I got Pumpkin.  We sat with our ice creams on a bench by the water, enjoying the fall-flavored view of the river, bridges and Fort Knox.   The people walking by smiled at us. 

Someone at the fair had brought a large, home-made catapult and was putting it to good use.   It took three or so people to "set" the catapult and load it with a pumpkin. Then, a small child was invited to pull the string.   This released the catapult's arm, tossing the pumping up and out over the river.   It landed hard in the water with a satisfying plop, splitting on impact, and causing the eruption of a small fountain of orange water.

It took awhile to load the catapult between shots, and no one hurried.    There was a lovely leisure to all of this.

• "Oh, wow, that one went really far out".   
• Wonder if those seagulls will eat the seeds......no."    
• "Highest one so far!"   

Occasionally there was an appreciative "Ahhhhhhh" from the on-lookers, for a particularly good shot.   One green pumpkin went relatively far.   Nice to know there is a good way to use a green pumpkin.

I was skyping with one of my sisters in California, wondering if this was only a Maine thing, or if people enjoyed pumpkin catapults elsewhere.   She said "Maine".   Well, I guess people in California have something new to enjoy, if they want.

Unexpected sunshine

A view toward neighboring field to the south

Old haying equipment out back

The forecast for yesterday was 90% chance of rain.   Forecast for today is 100% chance of rain.

Yesterday, it hardly rained at all.   Today, the sky poured until shortly before the homecoming game between the University of Maine and New Hampshire in Orono.   I'm happy for people I know at the game.


I was able to work on cleaning in the garden beds yesterday afternoon.   I almost have all the worst, tall weeds pulled from bed #1.   Finally checked out bed #2, and it is not as bad as bed #1.   So, if we get some more warmer weather, maybe I can get that one cleaned out too.


I went to the craft fair at University of Maine this morning, and took care of quite a bit of Christmas shopping.   One crafts woman told me that it took her 5 years to get into this show, and the waiting list this year was over 90 people.   Prices were reasonable.   The sale goes through tomorrow.

Geese

I saw a very high-flying and large formation of Canada Geese heading south/south-west this week.   As usual, I heard them before I saw them.

This afternoon, a low-flying and much smaller formation of geese came in from the north but turned abruptly west, just before reaching the house.   There were about forty birds.  At first, I wondered if they were a local population.   But, I hardly ever see geese around here.

I watched them fly out the length of the hayfield, to the far end near the woods.   Then they banked left, and came in for a landing.   It is between a quarter and half a mile from the house to the back of the field, so they had a good, long, run way.  

I have to add another use for the hayfield to my list:  "sleeping accommodations for south bound Canada Geese".

Sunday morning rainy day notes

Raining here now.   Good morning for web work and paperwork.

We've had more interest in the hay this year!   Maybe the little "hay for sale" sign down by the road was a help.  I took the sign down yesterday. 

I also pulled more huge weeds in part of the garden, making weed piles along the sides of the beds.  In the past I'd have cleaned this up, but can't this year.  Feels like I've lost at least two years of progress on the beds, due to everything getting overgrown this summer.  

I'm still sprinkling rye seed in small patches of black, between the smaller weeds that won't be pulled.  Maybe I'll try to turn the beds twice next  spring, with a couple of weeks in between, to kill some of the weeds. 

I brought in a few pounds of carrots yesterday, and put them in sand in the root cellar.  I found a few onions that I missed before, and those are now drying in the wooden garage with the rest.   Frost took out the tomato plants, and I raked all the last colorful balls to the sides.  We're still getting broccoli for the table, and the kale will keep going for awhile. 

Yum.....hot coffee.

Turkeys and other things

 The picture at left is from a few days ago, when it was mizzling, as Nancy said - a fine, misty rain.  For shelter, some wild turkeys hung out under a small oak tree on the front lawn.

The rest of the pictures are from today, which was one of those gray sky fall days, which often show colors the best.  This picture is looking down part of the hayfield, toward the woods in back.  The grass is short in places because of the extra mowing we did this year, in order to knock back the weeds a bit.

 This is a picture of some green pumpkins, under pumpkin vine leaves, under pine trees.  The pumpkin vine decided to come up in the middle of the "no good hay" pile.  The leaves are just showing the beginning of a mildew, which isn't surprising this late in the year.

George and I cleared some old ply wood out of the basement.  I just painted part of a bed frame, and sanded a bookshelf to clean it up.  Two new lamps came in the mail.  One of the two unused bedrooms is almost set to be used, and a contractor is helping us with the other one.