Category Archives: Fall

Happy Thanksgiving

Chickens, Fall, Firewood, Reflections, Splitting Wood, ,

As far as weather goes, Monday was our best day of the week leading up to our Thanksgiving holiday. I took this opportunity to get out to the farm and work with my husband.

The sky was gray and the wind was brisk. I appreciated my winter coat.

Most of the trees are bare now and the pond level is still very low indicating that we are still in a drought. According to the US Drought Monitor we have moderate drought conditions.

The sun unsuccessfully tried to break through the clouds.

The chickens spent the day out and about. They don’t mind the wind and cold so much but when the snow comes they will spend most of their time in the coop.

They have been going through their molt and most have stopped laying eggs. I always feel sorry for them when I see them molting. They look so disheveled.

Many of them have gotten their new feathers in but won’t start laying again until the days become longer. For now we are still getting one or two eggs every other day. I’m thankful that my daughter and son-in-law have a new flock this year who won’t molt and should continue to lay through the winter. Hopefully I can get my eggs from them.

There isn’t a lot of work to be done at the farm this time of year but my husband has been working on cutting and splitting firewood. The large maple logs have been seasoning for two years so are ready to be split and burned. He had a stack cut and ready to be split.

We worked together – he placing the log on the splitter, me operating the lever, both of us removing the split logs and tossing them on the pile.

We also worked together to stack the wood once we had it split. We are so thankful for the gas-powered log splitter we purchased two years ago. It makes short and easy work of the task of splitting firewood.

Now as my husband and I prepare to watch the Detroit Lions Thanksgiving Day Game, I wish you all many blessings and a Happy Thanksgiving for those of you who are celebrating today.

GO LIONS!

Peak Color and the Garlic is Planted

Chickens, Fall, garlic, Planting Garlic, Reflections

It was Thursday, October 16, in the afternoon that we headed to the farm to plant the garlic. This was our best chance to get it planted since there was rain in the forecast for Friday and the weekend.

Despite having some frosty mornings this week our roses were still flowering.

This one had me confused as it was growing up through one of the hibiscus bushes. I had to take a close look to see what kind of blossoms they were. It is indeed a rose pretending to be a hibiscus. LOL!

Our pond is very low – the lowest we have seen it since it filled up in 2013.

Any rain that we get is very much needed and will be greatly appreciated.

I suspect that the fall colors were at peak, since the rain will likely bring down many of the leaves.

Some trees had already lost many of their leaves.

While others were putting on a grand display.

I spotted this apple that had dropped into the crotch in the tree and was being eaten by several types of bugs – yellow jackets, hornets, beetles, and flies all sharing the same fruit.

The sky was deep blue with fluffy clouds as my husband worked the soil where we would plant the garlic.

Rex (our rooster) and company showed up to help.

We set out our planting grid and it seemed in no time we had the garlic planted. 2 2/3 rows this size (338 bulbs). Less than last year but still enough for us and to share with family and friends. Our 2026 gardening season has begun.

Thanks for visiting.

Are you experiencing fall colors in part of the world?

Fall is in the Air

Bees, Black-eyed-susan, Chickens, Fall, Nature, Reflections, Ruby, Sunflowers, The Farm, Wild Flowers, Wildlife, , , ,

Fall is in the air but the temperatures this week were more like summer.

We’ve seen a lot of skies that look like this lately – deep blue with fluffy white clouds. How about joining me for a walk at the farm?

Ruby will join us, but since she likes to move faster than we do she will probably lap us a couple of times. Don’t worry if you hear something rustling in the weeds or the woods behind us it’s probably her.

I love these Black-eyed Susans that we planted along the fence two years ago.

Such a brilliant splash of fall color.

It was tempting to cut down this thistle, but the flower is so pretty. Maybe I’ll cut it just before it goes to seed.

Some of the chickens are enjoying their day foraging near the pond.

Maple trees are beginning to show their fall colors.

There are lots of bees in the golden rod.

Asters are beginning to bloom

The white ones as well as the purple.

And purple loosestrife is still in bloom.

This butterfly posed for a couple pictures then fluttered nearby as we walked the back field.

The oak trees are loaded with acorns this year.

Some have begun to fall.

The hickory trees have fewer nuts this year than last but still enough to feed some squirrels.

This Norway spruce is loaded with pinecones.

I wonder what kind of pinecone craft I can come up with. Do you have any ideas?

Oh my gosh! Elderberries! I’ll come back and pick these after we finish our walk. This is my first year picking elderberries. The first few years after we planted them I would wait for the berries to ripen but before they were ripe the birds would eat them all. I then discovered that the elder flowers are as good or better than the berries for making syrup or tincture, so I began harvesting the flowers in the spring. This year I forgot to harvest the flowers and while there are not a lot of berries here there are enough to make a small batch of tincture. 🙂

We’ve already seen a lot of the bees are foraging in the goldenrod and I’m sure some are in the sunflowers as well. One thing that you might notice, if the wind is just right, is the smell of honey drifting from the hive. This time of year, when the bees are in the goldenrod, is the only time that we smell honey while at the farm.

We still have a lot of sunflowers in bloom.

Some are so tall they are having a hard time holding their heads up.

Colby Jack (above) and Bernard (below) are waiting for some treats.

Should we give them some apples?

Somebody grabbed my camera while I wasn’t looking (and took my picture). You wouldn’t do something like that – would you?

Colby Jack and Bernard say, “Thank You for the apples”

I hope you enjoyed your time on the farm. Thank you for joining me.

A Peek at Peak Fall Colors

Fall, Reflections, The Farm

We had our first frost here in south-east Michigan last night as the temperature dropped to 30 degrees Fahrenheit (-1 Celsius), and while that is the only below freezing temperature in the forecast until next week, I suspect the damage is done. The leaves were dropping faster today than they had up until this time. We have passed the point of peak color and entered the point where leaves become a nuisance to clean up.

Here are a few pictures I took at the farm yesterday.

The above picture and below picture are the same tree.

Some trees are nearly bare while others cling tight to their leaves.

Last week, between rains, we were able to get the back field mowed as we do each fall. We have also taken down all the fences that enclosed the gardens (except for the blueberry patch). The field looks so much different, nicer, this year.

Thaks for visiting. Are you still seeing fall colors in your area?

September 2023 – Farewell Summer

Apples, Autumn, Fall, Firewood, Flowers, Reflections, Sunflowers, The Farm

Hello and Welcome!

When I last wrote, back on September 13, my husband and I were working on splitting and storing firewood also preserving our apple harvest. This post will pick up there.

Apple Harvest

We had a great apple harvest this year so I was able to can about 16 pints of apple sauce and freeze enough pie filling for six pies. We also gave our neighbor a couple crates of apples as she was canning sauce and making pie filling as well.

Firewood

We continued to work on cutting, splitting and stacking firewood for the next couple of weeks.

Since we use firewood in our fireplace to supplement heat from our gas furnace (trying to keep the gas bill down) this supply would likely last us at least two years.

In addition to moving all of the firewood from our proposed building site my husband spent a lot of time sorting and moving other equipment that we had stored in that area. Much of it was relocated as you see in the photo above.

House Planning

We have spent a lot of time this month planning our “dream home”. Picking the location on our property was something that didn’t take a lot of thought as we both agreed that it would be overlooking the pond.

In the above picture the house will be directly across the driveway. The large maple tree in the center of the picture will have to be cut down, as will two small oak trees behind it. We have also decided to take down the maple in the right-hand side of the picture so it doesn’t cause problems with the house as it gets bigger.

I expect my husband will begin cutting these trees within the next week. This is a big job and is going to take a while.

When I took the above picture I was standing in the area where our kitchen will be. There will be a window above the kitchen sink so I will never hate washing dishes. 🙂 The house will set up a bit higher so the view will be a bit different but at least this gives you an idea of what it will look like.

The above picture was taken from the opposite end of the pond. I zoomed in to try to capture the 4 orange flags marking the footprint of the house. If you look really close, you might be able to make them out. There are two just to the right of the maple tree on the left and two more to the right of the maple that is to the right.

Selecting the location was the easy part. We have also been working on designing the home. Our first thought was to buy a modular home (a home that is premade in a factory then transported to the site in sections and attached to the foundation) but after looking at countless floor plans, we were unable to identify one that we loved. It seems we are not very easy to please.

We are now exploring the possibilities of a stick-built house. It is supposedly more expensive to build this way but by designing our own home we may be able to cut out some of the unnecessary (for us) things that would come with a modular along with wasted space, thus bringing the costs more in line.

I did find this website https://archiplain.com/ that has been a great help in putting our design thoughts on paper. (It was free, and I didn’t have to download anything. 🙂 ) After about two weeks of designing, measuring, discussing, revising, measuring, revising, discussing, revising and so on, we met with our potential builder earlier this week to give him the rough plans. We did meet at the farm so he could see the proposed building site as well. We hope to hear back from him in the next few days on what it would cost to build the basic shell.

We also met with an excavator who would build the septic field and prepare the area for the home foundation. We are looking forward to getting an estimate from him soon as well.

Meet Taffy

In August my dad lost his companion dog, Baby, to cancer. Dad lives alone and doesn’t get out much. He has close neighbors, but Baby was his best friend – the reason he got up each day. So, when he called me a couple weeks ago and said he needed another dog I wasn’t surprised. I was a bit nervous because I knew it would have to be the right dog – an older dog who was content to spend a lot of time lounging around. I began looking at the website of our local shelter but also began praying about finding the right dog.

When I read the description of the dog named Taffy, a 7-year-old, lab/boxer mix who is a couch potato and loves to give kisses, I knew she was worth considering. I didn’t want to jump into anything so I decided to wait until the following Monday to see if she was still available. I talked with my sisters and my husband about the situation and we all talked to God about the need to find the right dog for dad.

On Monday I contacted the shelter and made an appointment to meet Taffy. Since I didn’t see any reason that it wouldn’t be a good match, I called dad and asked if he wanted to meet her. That afternoon I picked him up and returned to the shelter. It didn’t take dad long to decide that she was going home with him. Since she was scheduled to be spayed on Tuesday, we couldn’t pick her up until Wednesday.

On Wednesday afternoon my husband and I went to the shelter to pick up Taffy and take her to her new home. I was glad that he offered to go along since A) I wasn’t sure how Taffy would do riding in a vehicle (she did fine) and B) I wanted him to meet (and like) her. (If it ever comes to the point where dad can’t take care of her I’d like to be able to give her a home.)

She been at dad’s for just over two weeks now and they seem to be doing well. In talking with dad over the last couple of weeks I found out that he had seen Taffy’s picture and profile online around the same time I did. He had also been praying about whether she was the right dog for him.

I do think that this dog, who had been at the shelter for at least a month, and was grossly underweight, needed dad as much as he needed her and with all those prayers going up, I can only believe this is a match made in heaven.

A Few Fall Pics

We discovered a new wildflower on the farm.

There were several plants tucked away in a corner that we don’t visit too often. I took some pictures and showed my husband. The next day he went to see them and found a tree frog sitting on a leaf of the plant. 🙂 He came home and got a wildflower identification book off the shelf and discovered that this flower is called closed gentian, bottle gentian or closed bottle gentian. It’s a good thing we didn’t wait for the blossoms to open to try to identify it because they don’t, hence the name closed gentian.

It wasn’t our best year for sunflowers. The mammoth sunflowers that I planted didn’t have a chance. They first battled against too much rain then the ones that looked like they might make it got eaten by deer. The variety pictured above were in a fenced area and managed to survive the overabundance of rain. It was lovely patch which the bees and the birds appreciated.

The weather remained warm throughout September and most of this first week of October, but we’ve been seeing fall colors for several weeks now.

The rain that came two days ago ushered in cooler, more fall-like, temperatures that will hopefully bring an end to our mosquito plague. I expect leaf cleanup will begin soon.

Recommended Reading

Last month I mentioned that I would possibly do some posts about books that I have read. Since I normally read when I go to bed at night, I read several books in September. They included The Carousel and The Looking Glass both by Richard Paul Evans, an author whose books I have come to enjoy. Both are books that I would recommend to anyone who enjoys a heartwarming love story.

A third book which I really enjoyed was Bad Ground by W. Dale Cramer. It’s more than just a love story and I think it would appeal to a wide range of readers.

The Synopsis reads:

Poignant and thought provoking, this is a down-to-earth, sometimes humorous novel filled with suspense, action, redemption, and even romance. Seventeen-year-old Jeremy Prine decides to honor his mother’s dying wish and seek out his estranged uncle who was badly burned in the accident that killed Jeremy’s father. He finds the man working as a hard-rock miner in the south, an extremely dangerous occupation. His uncle seems a bitter and lonely man, but Jeremy senses more beneath the surface. Against his uncle’s wishes, Jeremy takes a job as a miner and soon his young faith is tested by his rough and gritty co-workers, the threat of danger…and the possibility of love.

It has a 4-star rating on good reads, and I would give it 4 stars out of 5 as well.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/184446.Bad_Ground#CommunityReviews

Thanks for visiting. Has autumn brought cooler temperatures and colorful or falling leaves to your part of the world?