10/31/19 Happy Halloween

First the forecast was for 32°. As you can see it was 28 at 6:00. A lot of things didn’t make it. 

The gate to the chain link kennel. 

Some weld wire I used to cover a hole in the kennel. Needless to say the new dog did not work out and went back. I will wait and get a pup later from Giotto’s breeder.  I spent the afternoon in jury selection but wasn’t picked. I got home just before dark. 

10/31/19 Wednesday & a new dog

The local station reported 36° when I went out this morning but it looks like some areas at my place were colder than that. 

I did some pen cleaning and bird rearranging to get ready to bring home a new dog. Then I unpacked the chicken plucker I bought almost a year ago. 

Assembly started out easy.  

But I ended up getting all the tools out. And still didn’t finish before it was time to go get Lobo. 

Lobo is probably a German Shepard mix, about 9 months old. He is pretty high energy, especially compared to Giotto. He’s in that gangly stage, long legs and big feet. He was totally not intimidated by Giotto and in fact began testing him right off the bat. 

I had tied Giotto up while I got Lobo out of the car. After a bit of sniffing, snapping and barking we worked our way out back to go to the kennel. 

First nights dinner, some puppy kibble drizzled with bacon fat, a raw egg and a raw meaty bone. Once Lobo was kenneled I let Giotto off his tie so they could get acquainted through the fence. 

Lobo scarfed his food down and started on his bone. He would charge the fence and growl at Giotto when he came up. I think because of the bone. Lobo was the biggest dog at his last home so probably used to having his way. Lobo doesn’t seem to know any basic commands, at least not in English, so we will be working on a lot of things in the coming weeks. 

EDIT AT 7:30PM

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It’s a blurry shot but do you see who’s escaped the kennel and come in the house with Giotto????  Mmmm. Do I dare trek out back and look at the damage. Nope. It’s dark and cold and I can’t fix a thing tonight anyway. 

10/ 29/19

This morning I cleaned a couple of pens and built another compost pile. 

When I came home from work I realized that some things had frosted last night, like the squash in the compost piles. 

Did I ever tell you I hate squirrels??

This Buttercup squash was wedged firmly between the boards on the pallet. 

Reciprocating saw to the rescue. 

Some Buttercup and Spaghetti squash. 

It was nearly dark when I got done. There were a handful of large green tomatoes by the sunroots. I brought them in. 

Hopefully these San Marzano tomatoes which I covered with frost cloth will make it. 

A Super Lazy Sunday

I did cut down some of the weed trees on the patio. Then I went to check out a possible new dog, a German Shepard mix about 8-9 months old. He is doing well with the lady’s other dogs, rabbits and chicken and seems calm and friendly.  He did jump over a low spot in her fence so I need to beef up a couple of spots on mine before bringing him home. I didn’t think to get a picture. 

I did some errands and picked up a load of spoiled hay for the compost pile. 

That is a San Marzano tomato growing in a pot. 

That tomato plant is totally astounding. It is loaded with fruit. It has grown over the pepper and an empty pot next to it. 

That’s the base of the plant. I think that’s just about an 18” pot.  I’m wondering how many pounds of fruit it will give and if any will ripen on the plant before frost. 

One Heat Master was ripe so I also picked a sprig of basil to go with it.  I did regular chores and watched a video. I spread some of that hay in different chicken pens and basically goofed off part of the day. 

10/26/19. Saturday

I got these tubs on clearance for about $5 each a long time ago. Just drilled some drain holes in them. I topped them up with fresh compost and added some poles. Two tubs were planted with sweet pea flowers and the other three with Dwarf Grey Sugar peas. 

I spent most of the afternoon in Superior at a Sustainability and Circular Economy presentation which was really interesting with some really yummy food. 

While doing chores I noticed the spaghetti squash is beginning to change color. They will be ready to pick after the stems turn brown. 

Driving has aggravated my shoulder a bit so just going to chill out for a bit. 

Farmer Friday 10/25/19

Picking flowers for market. 

First picking of arugula. 

Washing up a Green Wave mustard. It had a few spiffs from the Red Russian kale next to it so I’ll spray them with spinosad, a certified organic spray for chewing and sucking insects. 

Something has been eating the tops off the radishes. 

But the radish tasted good! 

Aren’t they pretty?  And no sign of root knot nematodes! Yay! But I forgot what they are. 

I added more compost to the bed. 

Ok. Don’t know why that’s upside down!  The radish is Salad Rose from Burpee. I planted Tokinashi turnips in their place.  

Well time to feed chickens and load up for Superior Farmers Market tonight. See you there!

10/24/19

Time to clean up the driveway. 

Now I can move the car up. 

Put the new battery in the truck. 

The back patio is a jungle. 

Four years of neglect. 

Haven’t used the back gate in years. 

I got a little bit done. 

My shoulder still hurts so I just did a little bit   I went to the store and picked up a few things. Off to bed early. 

10/23/19 just a Wednesday

Due to the root knot nematodes I had few tomato plants live this year. These were Heat Master and grew in a large pot. I haven’t posted much this week while my daughter was visiting. Today is a take it easy day since I’m stiff and sore from all the metal drilling the other day. 

This row of arugula is ready to start picking. 

There was space in the bed to add some experimental celery plants and to direct seed some Icicle radish.  

The next bed has some nice Lancinato kale and some radishes. I added some fresh compost to one side and direct seeded some red bunching onions. We’ll see how that works out. 

And other than a bit of watering and ordinary chores I was quite lazy today. 

Super Saturday 10/19/19

How to turn this WWII salvage bed frame that I pulled out of the brush where it’s been the past 50 years or so into a gate. Drilling through the metal was hard, even with a new high speed metal bit. 

Took all morning to install the hardware. 

Finally got there. 

Mmmmmm. I could have calculated positioning of the hardware a bit better. But thankfully the post was just tall enough to accommodate it. 

An old price of fence wired over the hole. A price of chain and a snap hook for a latch. I spent most of the afternoon going to lunch and visiting with my oldest daughter who is here for a few days from Florida. Chores are done, it’s almost dark, time for food and bed.