Category Archives: Fall

September 2023 – Farewell Summer

October 7, 2023Apples, Autumn, Fall, Firewood, Flowers, Reflections, Sunflowers, The Farmruthsoaper

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.

Wrapping Up Summer

October 1, 2019Bees, Chickens, Fall, Family, garden, Grandchildren, Making Soap, Prayer Garrden, Reflections, Sauerkraut, Summer, The Farm, Tractor Pullsfarming, Homesteadingruthsoaper

It’s hard to believe that autumn is here. I just wanted to hold on to summer – perhaps indefinitely. Since it is humanly impossible to stop time, the best I can do is hold onto and treasure the memories that Summer 2019 gifted me. I have decided to place some of these precious memories in this post where, like keepsakes in a trinket box, they will be safely stored and I can return to them whenever I like. I will also share them with you.

At The Farm

In early August I used my hours at the farm for picking blueberries, watering plants, and mostly weeding the prayer garden (this is the time of year that weeds really start to take over if they are not kept in check). IMG_5686 (2)

I had mentioned in one of my earlier posts that the prayer garden was in full bloom. My husband said he wanted to correct that statement but didn’t. He is right of course – by design the prayer garden is in continuous bloom, from early spring, when the daffodils appear, until late fall, or at least until we get the first frost of the season there is always something blossoming.

By mid August my chore list had changed. We had some decent rain so we didn’t have to do much watering. We began picking tomatoes and peppers and I began cleaning our 2019 garlic crop.

For the past four weeks or so the focus has been on harvesting our garden and either cooking and eating or preserving the harvest. While most of the tomatoes have been frozen so far, I did manage to get 15 quarts of tomato sauce canned. We have been enjoying fresh red skin potatoes (boiled or made into potato salad), Swiss chard (sautéed with garlic, cooked into an omelet or added to a cream cheese stuffed chicken breast), baked butter nut squash, tomatoes (fresh on the side, on a sandwich, or cooked into homemade pasta sauce) and stuffed green peppers. I also cut up three small cabbages and started the process of turning them into sauerkraut. This is the time of year that all of the work pays off.

The Bees

Busy, busy, busy.

We have eight healthy hives right now and our son-in-laws hive is thriving as well.

We have harvested honey three times this summer from three different hives. Each harvest yielded approximately 30 lbs. of honey. After we harvest the honey and wax from the frames my husband sets the frames back out for the bees to finish cleaning them up. The picture above shows the bees completing this task.

A few weeks ago one of the hives swarmed. My husband captured the swarm and put it in an empty hive. He then placed a feeder with honey in it on top. The next day the bees had left that hive. We are not sure why they weren’t happy there but they did fill up on the honey before leaving.

The Chickens

The eight Jersey Giants that were cute little chicks this spring are now full grown hens. They began laying in eggs in August and will hopefully keep us in fresh eggs through the winter months.

Soap Making

Normally I don’t make a lot of soap during the summer months but I found I was out of a few varieties. I decided to have some fun with it.

My sister had given me some silicone mini molds so I made a few small bars using them. I can see making holiday themed sample soaps or using teddy bears or duckies as favors for a baby shower. They would however need to be clearly labeled “Don’t Eat It!” as I would want someone thinking they were white chocolate.

I have also been practicing using my soap stamp and getting better at it. It’s really a matter of stamping the soap when it is still just a little soft.

Family and Fun

In early August we planned a family picnic at the farm. Not all of the girls could make it but Tina and Ken brought our grandkids and Kara also came out. After we ate, our three year old grandson, Jackson, went fishing with his dad and grandpa and caught his first fish. I didn’t get any pictures of this because Tina and Kara and I had taken (granddaughter) Addy to pick blueberries.

Not only did Addy enjoy picking the berries she enjoyed eating them as well. The cutest part was that each time Addy, who is learning to talk, picked a berry she would say appo (apple). The first time she said it we thought it was so cute we laughed before telling her “berry”. So after that each time she picked a berry she would say “appo” and laugh then when we told her berry she would say “ber-ry”. Her laugh was so contagious that we were all laughing each time she said “appo”.

In August my husband and I went plant shopping. Normally I don’t like shopping. The exceptions are going to a greenhouse or nursey and shopping for yarn or other craft supplies. Each spring we usually go to a local green house and pick up a least a few plants for the year but it’s quite easy for me to get carried away and buy way more plants than I need.

You may remember from this post that my husband was working at a greenhouse this spring and was able to bring home many plants that would have otherwise ended up in the dumpster. With all the free flowers we had there was no need to go plant shopping…until August. While working the landscaping job that he started in July my husband had to make a trip to a nursery where they purchased anise hyssop plants that would be planted at one of the jobsites. “They had pretty purple flowers and the bees were all over them,” he said as he told me about the plants. I knew this herb had some medicinal properties and if the bees like it then we should definitely plants some.

I did a little homework and found that anise hyssop is generally a plant the deer avoid because of it’s strong fragrance. This sounded like the perfect addition to our prayer garden.

We purchased two large plants that were in full bloom and two smaller (less expensive) plants that should continue to grow each year until they are about a foot wide. I understand that these plants also drop seeds each year that will readily sprout into new plants. These plants are still blooming more than a month after we planted them and I saw bees foraging in them yesterday. 🙂

As we were walking through the green house I noticed a table full of flowers that I was not familiar with. They had bright orange and yellow flowers. They were marked $5 each. After asking an employee if the deer would eat them and being assured that it was not likely, I picked out two yellow and one orange. (There I go getting carried away.) The plant is called lantana. It wasn’t until we got them home that we realized that they are an annual so will not be coming back next year. 😦

We took a Sunday off in August to visit the Armada Fair and watch the tractor pulls.

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My husband and I wore our matching tractor pull t-shirts so my daughter snapped a photo of us. We were joined by daughters Kara and Lindell and Lindell’s boyfriend Brysen. We arrived early enough to walk through the animal barns and view the exhibits before the tractor pulls began. I’m not sure which is cuter baby goats or baby cows. I love seeing them both.

We also filled up on lots of expensive fair food. I wonder which was higher the calorie count or the price.

For those of you who, like Brysen, have never seen a tractor pull, let me sum it up. Basically tractor pulling is a competition to see who’s tractor can pull a weighted sled the farthest. If you would like a little more information see this article.

This tractor, named Cruel Intentions, is owned by the Capozzo family. They also own and operate the excavating company that dug our pond. This is the tractor we were rooting for that day and they did take first place in their class.

After the tractors were finished they brought in a couple of semi’s that did an exhibition pull.

In the photo below I was trying to get a shot of the score board that electronically records each tractor’s speed and the distance they pull but my aim was a little high.

After viewing this photo I did spot something I hadn’t noticed before. The street signs to the right of the score board mark the intersection that leads to the adult beverage tent. If you can’t make out the signs they say “Good RD” and ” Beers LN”. That made me chuckle.

The beverage tent was the other place we visited at the fair and while I mostly stuck with non alcoholic beverages that day I did end up drinking a glass of hard cider when Lindell ended up with an extra one.

Even though autumn has arrived, and the temperatures have been slowly cooling, we are forecast to have at least one more of summer-like day today and I will happily take all that we can get.

Have you ever seen tractor pulls?

What is your favorite memory of this summer?

Mornings At The Farm

September 6, 2019Bees, Birds, Fall, Flowers, garlic, Reflections, The Farmfarming, Homesteadingruthsoaper

September 5, 2019

My plan this morning was to clean garlic. There were about 150 bulbs that I wanted to get done. I figured it would take me about an hour to complete this task so I also took some time to enjoy the day. Would you like to join me?

As I walked past the garden I was greeted by this sunflower. I wonder, is it possible to look at a sunflower and not smile? As you can tell I was not the only one happy to see this flower. The honey bees were all over it.

This was the view from were I was working. Nothing but blue sky and sunshine this morning.

While walking through the prayer garden I discovered that the honey bees were also foraging the anise hyssop. This is a recent addition to the prayer garden and was largely added for the benefit of the bees. I only see one bee in this picture, but I assure you there were more that the camera did not capture.

My husband discovered that bees like this plant while working at his landscaping job. They had to go to a greenhouse to purchase some anise hyssop plants for a job they were doing, and he said the bees were all over the plants. A couple weeks later he took me to that greenhouse to purchase some for our farm.

Another visitor to the prayer garden this morning was this Hummingbird, searching for nectar in the hanging plants.

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It is a bit camouflaged by the green plants in the background. Do you see it just left of center?

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It is now to the right of this basket.

In recent weeks we have seen the return of an annual visitor. For at least the past 5 years we have seen this bird (or one like it) in and around our pond in the late summer. I am assuming it is the same bird and although we usually see just one at a time on rare occasions we will see two.

Since it was not a bird I was familiar with and was unable to positively identify it through our bird books or internet searches, in 2016 I turned to my blog readers for help through this post. While the answer did not come through the post comments, I learned that our bird was a Green Herron.

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He or she is a quiet bird and blends well into the grasses that surround the pond.

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Can you believe this is the same bird? It’s appearance certainly changes as it makes a quick getaway.

Before noon I return to the house with that batch of garlic cleaned.

September 6, 2019

Though there was rain in the forecast I was hopeful it would hold off and I could finish up cleaning the last batch (about 100 bulbs) of garlic.

The sky was gray and the sun was hidden. Before getting started I took in some of the surroundings.

Maple leaves are indicating that Fall is not far off.

Squirrels have been collecting nuts.

This sunflower with a fancy hairdo.

The Norway Spruce that is loaded with pinecones.

With the threat of rain it was not a good morning for cleaning garlic so my plan B was to work in the prayer garden.

As I brought out my garden tools the rain began.

Perhaps plan C, canning tomatoes, is a better job for today.

Thanks for joining me. Are you seeing signs of Fall in your area?

It’s Rutting Season. Why You Should Care.

November 4, 2017Deer, Fall, ReflectionsDrive saferuthsoaper

This afternoon as we were driving back from the farm we saw two deer run across the road. Fortunately they were far enough ahead of us that we didn’t have to slow down, but my husband said, “When you talk to the girls remind them that it is rutting season”.

The girls have heard this term before as every year since they have been driving we give them the warning. Rutting or mating season means an increase in deer activity. The deer are often running at full speed, a male chasing a female, and have no awareness of, or regard for, traffic in the area. So when we tell the girls that it is rutting season we warn them to be extra carful when driving.

What should they do to be extra careful?

Focus on driving. Do not allow yourself to become distracted by passengers, eating, cell phones or anything else.
Scan from right to left taking in as much of the area as you can.
Slow down, especially if you are in an area where you cannot see far off to the side of the road.
Use bright lights when driving at night if there is not oncoming traffic.
If a deer runs in front of you DON’T SWERVE. Swerving increases the risk of hitting oncoming traffic, trees or other objects, or even losing control and rolling the vehicle. It is better to slow your car down as much as possible to try to avoid, or at least lessen, the impact.

http://cultureofsafety.thesilverlining.com/driving/deer-vs-car-collisions

http://www.outdoorweekend.net/Articles-In-This-Issue-i-2013-10-01-216769.112113-PEAK-RUT.html

While these are practices that we should all use every time we drive, reality is we don’t, and sometimes it’s good to have a reminder.

Please drive safe.

	ruthsoaper on Glimpses of August
	K.C. on Glimpses of August
	Linda Schaub on Glimpses of August
	ruthsoaper on Glimpses of August
	s matai on Glimpses of August

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