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.

Random

Broccoli still flowering among the weeds, 9/28/2012

A few little items from the last couple of weeks --

• The pumpkin vine that planted itself in the old hay pile, giving the pile quite a decorative look, has now got 2 decent-sized pumpkins.   If the frost holds off a little longer, maybe we'll have a couple more pumpkins for the cellar.
• Arthur (sheep) tried to jump out of a pen and caught his back leg between the fence bars, flipping himself upside down and getting stuck.   He didn't break the leg, but it was pretty sore for awhile.   He seems better today - at least I had a harder time catching him.
• We grew some yellow tomatoes for the first time this year.  Verdict on the yellow tomatoes - worth growing again.  They are great on toast, with melted cheese.
• Vet from Foxcroft Veterinary Services came by and vaccinated the two remaining ancient sheep here.  He said that the practice was coming down to Orono routinely now.  Hooray!
• Monarch butterflies  seem to like to ride the hot thermals rising from the tractor's diesel engine, when it is being driven home across the hay field.

Bit of this and that before it pours

Got in that second cut hay a few days ago.   It is always so much softer than the first cut.  I brought in a few loose bales - I hadn't run the baler for awhile, and forgot to tighten down the screws a second time.  Oh well, the sheep are getting the loose ones.

Other than my husband George helping me attach the cutter to the tractor, and helping stack the last few bales, I did this run all by myself!  Cutting, two teddings, raking and baling.   The whole process is much more pleasant in cooler weather.

The garden is still hiding under all the weeds, since I lost control of it earlier this summer during a period when a leg and a back were very uncooperative.   It is about to pour here, so I've been scavenging around and weed diving for things to put in the cellar, freezer, or a stomach.

The beds full of tall weeds seem to be attracting a lot of small birds.  I flushed several, along with the neighbors' tabby cat.

The achorn squash are a bit small, probably because the plants didn't get enough sun.  They'll go into the cellar anyway.  The tomato plants don't seem to mind the weeds.   Amazingly, the carrots survived, so I processed some for the freezer.   I need to get to Park's Hardware and pick up some sand, so I can put some fresh ones in the root cellar.  That will be after this coming rain.

I picked a few New England pie pumpkins and put them on pallets in the garage to harden.   Again, far fewer pumpkins this year, and those are a bit small.  But they are enough, if I get thinking about pie in the winter.

Second cut weather

We are having a lovely run of weather with low humidity, breezes, and sun.   I cut a bit of hay yesterday, tedded it (spread it with a tedder), and tedded again this morning just after the dew was off.

It looks pretty good, but never know for sure until it is in the barn.

We do an "unusual" second cut.   Most people will harvest a first cut in early spring, then come back for a second in late summer or early fall.  Our field is not fertilized, so it won't support that.   But, we are finding our way to getting a bit of sustainable second cut.

Sheep and small ruminants like second cut.   It is softer, less stemmy, and easier on small mouths.  So, we always try to get a bit.  We do this by mowing part of the field in early spring, but not haying it.  The hay is tedded, and left on the field, leaving the organic matter to go back into the field.  By this time of year, that first cut hay is complete gone.   We can come back through and get the softer, "second" cut.

We also rotate some parts of the field.   In some years, certain areas only get mowed, sometimes more than once, and not hayed at all. 

Most of the area where I just did the "second" cut has been fallow, except for mowing, for a couple of years.   The hay looks pretty nice....now just to get it in the barn!

Alice

We lost Alice to coyotes.

That is Alice in the foreground at left.  The picture was taken a few years ago, in the fall at my old place in Augusta.  The sheep in the back with the white nose is Alice's older sister, Ophelia (the ewes in that family line all had names from Shakespeare).


Many years ago now, I got a disease in my flock that sheep people know as "CL".   This was before there was a vaccine in the US for CL.  I unknowingly bought a ram that had it.  The disease can be slow to develop and slow to transmit, but it is contagious among sheep.  It is an easy disease to buy.   When I found it was in the flock, I stopped breeding and selling lambs.

I decided to keep a dozen or so sheep, just to have them around.   This was an un-economic thing to do, but I felt like I owed them something.   That flock gave me some very good lambs.  Some lambs had been sold to spinners in prior years, and some went to slaughter.

I've had only three sheep for quite a long time now.   Been putting old ones down from time to time over the years, as they got sick, injured, or tied up with arthritis.   The three remaining were descendants of the first two ewes I owned many years ago, Cordelia and Chloe.

The sheep in the flock were mostly Shetland/Finn, which are highly intelligent.  I know that isn't the common view of sheep, but it is true sometimes with relatively primitive breeds.  Each has his or her own personality.   Alice was special to me because she'd always been friendly and relatively calm.  She got spooky the last few years because I didn't spend enough time with her, but she always calmed down quickly when I did.   She was the first one to check out any offering from my hand, like a bit of apple.

Alice was descended from Cordelia, and was born the year that a Finn ewe I had named Lily gave birth to a bottle lamb named Chester.  Alice and Chester used to follow me around.   Chester followed me because I was his adopted mother.  Alice followed me because she wanted to.  I will miss Alice.

A word about coyotes -- this is the first trouble I've had with coyotes, over about a 15 year period.  Most coyotes don't bother sheep, and the American Sheep Institute recommends leaving coyotes alone that don't bother sheep.   Coyotes are territorial, and will keep other coyotes out of the area. I'm still going to leave the coyotes alone, but I'll bring the last two sheep in the barn at night.    This time of year, they like to graze at night when it is cool, but now that needs to stop.

The two remaining sheep are Arthur (Alice's twin) and Sparrow, and they've both been shy since they were born.     Arthur has never been aggressive, but he likes to keep to himself.  Sparrow wants to flit away, although she is descended from Chloe, who was rock-solid, calm and friendly. 

Alice always gave me the benefit of the doubt.  Being brown and a ewe, she looked like a delicate little white-tailed deer right after shearing in the spring.  So pretty.

Alice was a very good sheep.

Alice in Orono (at left).  Ophelia and Sparrow at right.