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.