Trick or Treat! The Farm Report 10-30-2024

 Trick or Treat!
The Farm Report
10-30-2024

Yikes! Trick or Treat indeed!!! If you're an internet follower, you'll know this is North America's only marsupial - the Opossum. The internet says they are wonderful tick-eating creatures that everyone should want to have some of in and around their homes. Well, NOT ME! They are chicken killers, and I no longer have hens because I got tired of feeding my birds to these little devils. 

So, how did I get this picture? Annie eats supper in the shop. She is a delicate eater, and usually her feed dish is only half emptied by morning when I go out to get her for coffee. Lately though, her dish has been licked clean. TaDa! now we know why. Oh, I forgot - the picture. Well the other night after a busy day, we quickly wheeled into the shop for last rites. Bang! Right there sitting on my chair as if to politely say, 'Tim, I want some dog food, too,' sat this little 'possum.

I've carefully worked with Annie not to be grouchy with others around her food dish. We've got plenty and she never has to worry about going without. Plus, I don't want a dog fighting me over whether I can put my hand in the dish when I'm delivering free food for her. Well...Annie was tolerating dinner guests without being rude. These two knew each other! Annie wouldn't attack, and the 'possum just patiently waited. I wasn't so polite. We'll leave it at that....

Wild life is part of living out here on the edge of civilization. I often joke that I live in the middle of nowhere. Here's proof. That's my house off in the distance. This is the view from my mother's cornfield to the east of the place.

This is the view of the cornfields off to the west of the place when you're sitting on my front porch. You'll notice a distinct lack of a need for a Home Owner's Association enforcement committee. I would never even think of doing it, of course, but I could pretty much drop trou and pee in the front yard any time I had the urge. The wildlife appreciate the privacy, too. It goes with the territory.

We have a new player, sorta, at Oakdale Farm. This is a real ermine weasel in winter garb. They turn white in the winter and have a little black tip on their tails. Ermine is the super expensive fur you see on Royal Robes such as the ones King Charles and Prince William and all the Dukes wear ceremoniously at the big events. The little black dots on their cloaks come from the black tips on the tails of the ermine who donated.

You'll have to WAY Biggie size this pic to see my Ermine. That's him way out there. He's that white dot Annie is watching. I don't have stoat weasels out here, but I do have a pure white tomcat who also happens to have a black tip on the end of his tail. He's a feral cat, so we don't sit together and purr, but he seems friendly enough. Annie likes him, and he does sometimes sleep in her shop kennel room near her. He's a hunter, and I need that. Rodent control is important. Anybody who can work for their living out here gets free food and a warm spot to sleep. They also get a free spay/neuter coupon good at the Fremont County Vet Clinic - if I could catch him!

It's that time of year again. Annie and I dug the spuds for the year. It's been a hot dry miserable gardening year. I only got about 1/3 the potatoes I usually get.

Sewing project! Used to be, everything came in 'Gunny Sacks.' Plain old burlap bags were everywhere. Now, nobody knows what they even are. Walmart keeps burlap fabric on hand, so I've been buying burlap and sewing my own 'tater bags. Burlap is perfect for root veggie storage. I have my onions in them as well as the spuds. They breath, they temper the temperature changes, they keep out a lot of light. They work. But you'll have to make your own.

Not only was my tater crop small, the potatoes were small, too. Waste not! I say. Little golf ball sized taters are the best tasting ones as far as I'm concerned. I decided to just can them up for making roasted potatoes all winter long. How to peel them? Youtube showed me this trick. Saw off the handle of a toilet brush and stick it into a drill. Add spuds and water to a bucket. Operate drill until clean. It works! 

Clean enough for me. I like the flavor of the peel anyway, so this is where I stopped washing and scrubbing and headed to the kitchen to prep for canning.

Yes, I did buy a brand new toilet brush for the purpose.

I know you were wondering....

"Plant your turnips on the fourth of July, wet or dry," says the old farmer's poem. "Dig your turnips on the 15th of October, drunk or sober," it finishes. So, obediently, we dug 'em. I don't really like turnips but they are fun and bullet proof to grow. And I can grin like a 5th grader all year long reciting the little poem to myself.

Another Trick or Treat - treat. I found some acorn squash hiding in the debris waiting for me. Such a simple joy, but they are so good. Acorn squash is among my favorites. Steam cook, a little brown sugar and a whole lot of butter. Heaven.

The rabbits ate my beets and I didn't get even one. So, not being a guy who gives up, I started some beet seeds in soil blocks to plant in the greenhouse. Beets can take some cold weather. Why not try.

Annie felt like Ermine needed to work in the greenhouse because she thought there were mice in the hay mulch underneath the hydroponic tubes. She hunted while I prepped the beets.

One beet per pot is the limit.

72 pots later, and we've converted from strawberries to beets. Stay tuned with your fingers crossed. 

I'm also doing some wicked Dutch buckets for Napa cabbage.

Napa cabbage likes low light and cold temperatures. This one is planted in DE mixed with cypress bark. The fertilizer and water wick up from the bucket well underneath. Set it and forget it.

Lettuce is a cool weather/low light plant, too. It grows like fire when things are right for it. These roots emerged from this pot just 5 days after I transplanted them. Fresh lettuce for Thanksgiving?!

Kratky pans. No pumps, no aeration, nothin' - just water and fertilizer in solution.

I like Masterblend. Regular Miracle Grow works, too. Try it!

These Walmart sweater pans are also set it and forget it. You've seen my lettuce pans before. This is how it starts. Hopefully, we have enough days of light left to make a crop.

The garden went to Hell in a Handbasket this year. The green row is carrots. I don't dig them until just before the ground freezes. Eliot Coleman says, "Sugar is Mother Nature's antifreeze." He's right. Cold grown carrots are the sweetest you'll ever taste.

I used cattle panels to support my pole beans and tomatoes again this year. Cleaning off all the spent vines and weeds can be a problem job. This year Annie and I used a little different approach: We tied them onto the hitch on the back of the Ranger and dragged them around in the field. When we got back to home base, the vines were totally cleaned off. You're seeing a little corn shuck leavings that will blow off in the wind. I laughed out loud while I was doing this. If anybody had been around to see this rodeo, I'd probably be writing from a home somewhere - with guys in white suits watching over me.

The herding dog DNA in Annie kicked in. She was tired, but she knew all those panels were important to me. She also knew that her breeding heritage was telling her the pack needed watching. So, dutifully, she sat for nearly an hour and just watched over the gang of panels to make sure nobody got out of line or tried to escape. Herding dogs be nuts sometimes!

For fun, I stopped by the National Corn Husking Championship contest. My son, Jon, told me he lived his entire childhood with my Joyce and I dragging him and his brother around to see historic sites and learn how they 'used to do stuff.' He seemed a little resentful, actually. But this is actually how they used to do it before combines and tractors. People walked into the field with a wagon and a team, and they picked and shucked the corn one ear at at time. The big white board is a 'bang board' so the husker could just toss the ear toward the wagon and it would 'bang' and drop in.

Nowdays, it is not a poor farmer's game. Beautiful horse teams, classy wagons, and all the gear to haul everything and everybody around is the course de rigueur.

Belgium horses, Shires, and lots of others were there. 

This is the parking lot with all the trucks, trailers and gear. There were people there in the contest from 9 different states.

People like to know how they 'used to do it,' Jon.

Let me finish with Annie's Ears. She pretty much talks with them. Heelers have 'bat ears.' When Annie's ears are up, she's a happy camper ready to get after it.

When Annie's ears are at half mast, she's still OK, but she smells a rat. "Whaddya mean I might not get to go?"

When I tell Annie she has to stay at the farm while I go to town her ears go down low (and yes, she does understand when I say I have to go to town). It's like she's saying, "Aw poop! I have to stay here." She doesn't like it, but she minds without struggle. She's a lousy rider. It's better for both of us when she just stays with Miss Kitty in the shop.

Annie also thinks she is a lap dog. When we take a little 'news break' after lunch, she often lays in my lap. One ear up to listen for evil spirits - or Ron's pickup truck. The other ear back to make sure she doesn't miss me getting ready to get back to work. I'm carefully looked after!

All is well here at Oakdale Farm. I hope all is well with you, too.

Cheers.

Let's Do It Again: The Farm Report 10-10-2024

 Let's Do It Again

The Farm Report
10-10-2024

When last we spoke.... I was talking about everything turning into 'bird's nest' soup. It's been a long hot hard summer out here on the estate. But I'm ready to get back at it. These little barn swallows - living in an actual bird's nest! - make me smile all summer long. I love 'em. Yes, they're messy. But they are so much fun to watch flying and cavorting. Wish I could fly like they do. These little guys were just ready to jump ship and go sailing off when I took this pic. They've all gone south to their winter home now. See you next Spring!

So, there's a lesson here. You can see their mud nest built under the eaves of my shop building. But back a little farther is the nesting tray I built for them last year. Last year, they used it. This year, they wanted a better view, I guess.

Let me whine just a little to get it cleared out of my system. What's been going on in my life? First, the shop AC decided it needed attention. There were mouse houses, leaves and general detritus spread all around the insides of everywhere.

There was cotton wood lint clogging all the heat exchanger veins inside and out. I had to literally tear down the entire sheet metal box that holds the unit. Of course, the engineers had designed it so the little tee-ninney screws that hold the sheet metal on were carefully hidden RIGHT AT THE BOTTOM under a folded lip where you could not see them. The Braille system was the only way to get to them. Of course, I'm an inflexible (I mean physically inflexible, thank you) old man. So since we were in the cold wet rainy season at the time, I was laying in the mud with a screwdriver cussing all engineers who ever were each time I found another hidden screw to take out.

I'm more stubborn than brilliant, so I eventually got it open and cleaned out - AND BACK TOGETHER - just in time for the sudden hot dry seasonal shift. For the record, there were no left over screws, either.

After a hot dirty miserable session fixing the AC, a nice hot shower was certainly anticipated. However, right at that exact same time. The Exact Same Time! My well decided that if the AC could act up and get attention, then the well would try the same trick, too.

New pressure switch and I thought we were good to go. 

It only took two days without any water whatever at the Manor House before we were clean again....

That lasted for about a week or so. Then the well said that it was so much fun to get attention, it did quit again. Yes, two times in two weeks without a drop of water when I turned the faucet. No warning, no signals. All I got was just a well's high and hardy middle finger stuck way up high in the air for me to see and deal with. 

This time, we pulled the entire pump up out of the well. We replaced all the pipes and the pump itself. We also put in new controlling electronic stuff that I don't understand - but need.

And I have water again whenever I want it. For those of you who are 'Townies' and think that since I have my own well and don't have a regular monthly water bill to pay, I have 'free' water.... Let me explain it as my Grandpa used to: Free, like Hell! Well guys don't work cheap. They dropped everything and came running to my rescue like the cavalry surging in on an attack when I called them, which was much appreciated. Still, it ain't free.

"How's your garden?", they ask. Here you go. This pic pretty well sums it up. We went from cold wet to hot dry in the wink of an eye. The crops didn't like it; the weeds thought it was great.

The garden got ragged and I lost interest.

Still and all. A messy garden can be a productive garden. The magazine photographers won't be pestering you for pics, but the garden will still help feed you. Here's my new Digital Electric canner and some green beans for winter.

The 'mater crop was minimal, too. But, we make do with what we have living out here on the edge of civilization.

Juice for chili, plain old drinkin' juice and whatever else will be good when it gets cold.

I even had enough tomato juice to make some pizza sauce. I know, it's a pretty crude setup, but hey, any port in a storm, they say. A spare camera tripod, a 5-gallon paint straining bag and a little scrap rope, and we're draining off all the unwanted 'mater water to get down to the thick pulp we really do want.

From strained pulp into dryer pans to make the pizza sauce even thicker and richer.

135F for about 24 hours seems right.

Thick and rich tomato sauce. It costs about 85 cents a can at the store, but I like to make my own. It can't always be about money.

I like it thick enough to be able to stand a spoon - or spatula - up on its own.

Peppers just love hot and dry!

From the look of her tongue, you'd think Annie had sampled some. I don't think she did, but maybe?!
She's not a big pepper fan.

I got boxes of Big Jim Numex and Jimmy Nardello peppers. They are not the hot ones - just lots of flavor for omelets and whatever next winter.

Ready for the dryer.

This is my homemade dryer for big bulky stuff. I actually made this a long time ago when I was teaching furniture finishing classes. We used it to dry our high quality real hair brushes. Now I dry peppers and sage in it.

Fun, historic and easy. 

I even built in a little thermometer so I can keep track of what's going on inside without opening the door. "If you're lookin' you ain't cookin'" as they say.

These are Numex Anaheim peppers. Again, not much heat but gooooood chili flavor.

I have discovered that if I pressure cook them for just 1 minute, then I can peel them like magic.

Like this easy magic. The 'meat' of the pepper just slips right off the tough outer skin by simply sliding a rubber spatula under it.

Into little jars with a bit of salt and I can 'em up. "Tim, your chili is always so good. What do you do?" I add my own home grown Anaheim chilies to it!

Here's another 'old school' trick I use. I'm lining the tables inside the greenhouse with plain old burlap. I discovered that Walmart sells it in bulk - cheap! It is a wonderful, sustainable fabric that has lots of garden uses.

I put my onions on it to let them cure for a few weeks before their final cleaning and storage.

I put a second 'blanket' of burlap over the top to keep the direct sun off them and to help wick away any unwanted moisture. All told, I put away 45.5 pounds of onions this year. That's fantastic for the season we had!

And now we're back around to Fall and time to clean up the garden and put everything away for the winter. I've had a miserable summer weather-wise. But it hasn't been anything like the folks who have been trying to survive the hurricanes in Florida. How can I be anything else but optimistic and tell you that, in spite of it all, All is Well at Oakdale Farm. Thanks for letting me have a summer break. Cheers until next time!