Seems like November kinda snuck up on us. We're 3 days into it & still posting in October! LOL
So catch on up, sit on down, & tell us what you're up to these fall days....
I've been making pumpkin butter, Cajun's been reading Louis L'Amour, & AZ left to go vote...
We came from here...
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1132562/
November Homestead
I have to get the horse blankets mended and patched today. Calling for our first freeze on Friday. Brrrr I still have 3 horses without a barn so they will be blanketed.
Also, I need to ask, will a frost blanket protect greens from a freeze? I'm thinking not but I'd like to hear from some of you guys who know more than me. Which is likely everybody. LOL I don't want my late season greens to get wasted. I'll pick them and make a stir fry and a vegetable soup. Also need to get my basil picked and in the freezer.
I would expect the frost blanket to help, but I find that most greens as well as broccoli, cauliflower, etc do fine in light freezes unprotected. They live through the winters here.
I think i will harvest the biggest ones and leave the smaller ones. Thanks
Gotta get out and finish the feeding and watering. just have the goats and horses left. Then I want to write another chapter in my book. It's coming along well.
The frost blanket will keep the greens going quite a ways into the winter. Certainly protect them from the first freezes.
OK, I voted, but sailed past the city limits sign (or whatever, Heber/Overgaard are not incorporated) without looking at the "altitude". Oh well.
I never got into L'Amour, but fell in love with Zane Grey novels when I was a teenager -- the first one I read was "West of the Pecos", and now I actually have that very book -- a 1st edition signed from my grandpa io one of my uncles n 1937 - - says "happy graduation, bon voyage". Don't know the story, that branch of the family lived in Chile for many years and I don't even know my cousins, I think one of my brothers keeps in touch. Famil'ys huge, we sort themselves out by "pre-war, post-war" cousins. Anyway, have acquired most of Zane Grey's novels in paperback since, even named my favorite dog Zane.
Yes, the original Zane Grey's cabin burned in a forest fire back in somewhere about 1990. I was lucky to see it a year or so before that. Have a treasured picutre of my late husband standing underneath a stuffed buffalo head at the cabin.. I think they later bujilt a replica of the cabin in Payson. Love his books, the heroine was always so sweet and innocent and the heroes were always a good boy gone bad, meets heoine, reforms and then they live happily ever after. Probably the reason I always wanted to be a cowboy. LOL
I've read that even if the leaves do freeze on salad greens, a couple of hours later after the frost has melted, that they will perk right up.
Chilly and drizzly here today, but it did get into the mid-50s. I've been working on pulling out dead plants and removing damaged vegetables on the plants in the tunnels the last few days when it was so nice out.
AZ, I know you didn't get the results you wanted at the meeting, but you did gain a little extra space. You're right about maybe the whole project will get stalled now that there's some major changes in the government.
Saw some pundit somewhere said maybe a stalled gov't would be a good thing... seems like every time they go to fix something, it just makes things worse. LOL So if they get themselves gridlocked at least things won't get no worse.
Just keep 'em all outa my hair. >=
And yes, some frozen greens will thaw & be fine. Just wait till things get good and warmed up midday before you pick.
I read a couple Zane Gray novels but I prefer L'Amour's writing style. I can read his stuff over and over. I have almost all of them.
Raining here and turning cold. Have I mentioned I hate cold weather?
I picked up an egg today that will not fit in an XL carton. Love my girls.
Hi all... Interesting reading here. We toured the Zane Grey cabine in the early 70s and if I could have run all the other tourists off, I would have moved in! It was delightful ~ what a view from the porch. Wasn't there a creek that it straddled also? Or is my memory fading.
I've read a few of his books, all of Lamours' books but the favorite western read here is a less known author. Gordon D. Shirreffs. Reading season started when I sprained my wrist and I have been wading thru the box of books I accumulate to read in spare time. I tend to be a serial reader. If I find an author I like, I want to read all their books.
Grammie ~ I am proud to hear you made your point at the hearing. The rancher no doubt got the message loud and clear to be afeared for his life ~ LOL What an idiot!
Speaking of stalled gov't, DH says they need to make laws expire. Then congress could spend their time revisiting those expired laws and re voting on them and quit making new laws and spending all the money.
Yes ~ I hate cold weather too. The only thing that could make it better is springtime ~ LOL I also dislike shorter, darker days. Makes me want to sleep more and eat hibernation foods. This too will pass...
OH, but I love those hibernation foods! LOL
This year I am ready for the break. I just want to spend a couple of months catching up on my reading. I'm going to check out that author you like, Podster. Anybody read "The Virginian" by Owen Wister? Sure did like that book.
Then there's the authors of the West, though not necessarily westerns. I've read a couple of AB Guthrie's and enjoyed them, though they're more about pioneers. And Ivan Doig is another good one. Can't stand Annie Proulx (sp?), her stuff makes me want to go out & shoot myself in the head.
Gonna can sauerkraut today. Pack for my trip to CA.
Podster, sprained wrist?
Jay, trip tp CA?
AZ, atta Girl! You have obviouly showed you are not afraid of the big boys.
I miss reading for pleasure. What reading I've done the past few years has been more for instruction or research.
Check out A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck.
It better not be a sad book about pigs...
Yup, I'm headed off to northern CA, home of really tall trees, to sit & watch paint age. Which is to say I'm going to be wearing my 'zen priest' hat. Lots of black, lots of rice, lots of no talking, lots of sore butt. And watching my idiot mind in great detail. Nothin' but re-runs. Bleh.
Got the 'kraut done... tasty! And now I think I'm all done w/the canning for this season. Phew!
Worked like a rented mule the last 2 days trying to get everything ready for the freeze. Calling for mid 20s in the morning. Brrrr Got blankets on the 3 horses with no barn last night. Good thing. Rain all night, cold and sleet, rain and cold all day. Hope I didn't forget anything.
We also may be having friends visit this weekend. It's a suprise for DH so I have been trying to get the house in ship shape too. Took me nearly 2 hours to get the fridge cleaned this morning. A bottle of syrup had spilled and I didn't know it. Had run all down the back and under the crisper drawers. It was a nightmare but it's sparkling now.
The cows are in!
Every year the local rancher turns his cattle into our 'hood, and since this is open range country, if you don't want them in your space, you have to fence them out. (They love to eat solar lights and chomp on any electric wires they can find, like those on the backs of pickup trucks & fronts of trailers,) My kids & I built an absolutely gorgeous rock & log fence around 3 sides of my 80 acres, the fourth side being the canyon. Took us 3 years. Took the cows about 3 days to knock about a hundred feet of it down, here & there, last Christmas. The rancher & his family were really sweet about it, came and rounded up the cows and actually helped rebuild the fence! This year I have electrified a wire clear around the property, with a solar charger. I am waiting to see if it works. I also went down to the bottom of the arroyo and put more T-posts & barbed wire on the fence down there (which is not electrified). Well, we will see!
This is a picture of part of the fence.
Why put cows there ? There is nothing to eat!
Cool Fence!
WOW!!! Nice fence!
Well, I guess they just like to eat my solar lights!
Here is a picture after the cows knocked down 2 sections, They are 10 feet long each. The fence consists of columns made from wire fencing, filled with rocks, and then the stringers are pine logs. We have lots of rocks, hahahha. They just sit on the ground, but after they get knocked down, I have been pounding T-posts in and building the new columns around them. Better late than never? We didn't count on the cows. Humans say "what a pretty fence" but cows just say ..... oh, moo.
Nice looking fence but what a lot of work to have it destroyed! Will the cows eat Lavender? I will surely hope not.
DH and I grew up on dairy farms and we have both concluded the only "cow" we want is the one that will fit on the plate.
In TX if the cow trespasses, the landowner can pen and charge feed & storage (for want of a better word). If the cows aren't claimed or the landowner reimbursed, they can be sold at auction. Most of us just want them off the property. Wish the same could be said for the person that trespasses!
You don't suppose those cows will eat wind turbines do you? Hmmmm...
Love the fence!
Just goes to show "the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence". LOL
Winter is upon us here. Got a good bit of rain before it turn cold, so now the ground is frozen solid. Got the open side of the hen house covered in crystal clear plastic, added another bale of straw for bedding and pulled some of the tall dead weeds that had grown through the wire covered top in their fenced side pen. I know I should have done it earlier this summer, but hadn't planned on getting chickens this year, so didn't feel rushed. Al made a feeder to hold 25# of feed, so we don't have to rush out in the mornings to feed them. They get a little miffed, if I don't get out there till mid-morning. The lone rooster is learning how to crow. He sounds so funny as he croaks out sounds, but every once in a while he'll get it right.
[quote] but every once in a while he'll get it right. [unq
uote]
Now why does that sound vaguely familiar ?
This message was edited Nov 7, 2010 1:59 PM
This message was edited Nov 7, 2010 2:00 PM
Dyson ~ let me take a shot at an answer... is it a "male" thing? Sorry ~ TeeHee...
I love the sound of a rooster in puberty.
try editing your [unquote] like this with no spaces. [/quote]
High-five on the answer, Podster. Dyson, there really was no slam intended. :)
I have done nothing today, except play a very long hidden objects game on the computer. No scolding required, as I feel bad enough wasting away a day. But I enjoyed it.
I made all the parts for the upper cabinets on a big kitchen today. Start gluing them together tomorrow.
Sat down for a few hours & watched Vikings - Cardinals game.
Hopefully a helper is coming tomorrow so we can start getting the big high tunnel up. Going with lots of tunnels next year. Only way to increase production as we are limited on land.
Strawberries, tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers will be main things in there. Also some lettuce & maybe try some zucchini also.
Bernie
Country, your high tunnels sound declicious! LOL
Sunday was "test day" on the fence with the electric wire. Sure enough, as soon as I left for a 3-day trip away from home, here came some cows. Monday morning got a call from the rancher, said her son had seen 3 cows inside my fence, wanted to know if I could come out and open the gate. Told her I was a long ways away, but told her where the front gate key was hidden. I guess she wasn't able to get word to him in time, because looks like he took the back gate off its hinges to let the cows out. No big deal, I can fix that, with help. when I got home after dark last night, I checked the fence and found that the electirc fence was still hot, so didn't have a clue how the cows got in. Today I drove along the entire fence line and found a break in the line way out near the NE end, and the line was hot ujp to the break, with the hot end dangling in mid air which explains why most of the fence was still charged. Fence fixed, mystery solved. This particular rancher & family are really super nice.
Pod, cows won't eat lavender but can trample it and also destory the PVC watering system. I sure wish they would eat wind turbines! Last Friday I drove up to the first wind farm, about 15 miles from here, and took a picture. The blades were not turning so I wasn't too scared, although they are scary beasts. there were no keepout signs, nobody around, the gates were open, so I just drove in. Took a picture form about 1/4 mile away from the first one, which is how close they want to put them from us people. Note that vegetation is pretty much gone.
I can only imagine the concussion blades that big must make. Like the rotors on a helo. That will be nerve racking.
Just months before I moved to Boone, NC from Annapolis, MD in 1980, they had the world's largest, and noisiest, windmill. One of the women here on DG helped build it... I forget her DG name, but she was in some metal-worker's union. The windmill atop Howard's knob got a second set of blades they thought would lessen the noise, but they didn't. It was not being operated by Fall of that year when I was there, due to complaints about noise and TV reception. Eventually it was dismantled.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard%27s_Knob
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,924182,00.html
I wonder if the constant concussion of those blades would have dire effects on a person with an irregular heartbeat? I can't imagine it would do them any good.
It can't be any worse than the power line over our garden. When it is powered up you will get shocks by touching metal to the ground. I was plowing the other day & kept thinking I had a sliver in my side. Then figured out my body was touching a piece of bare metal on the seat. It was a shock.
You're windmills don't look nearly as big as ours. Here they are 262 feet tall to the top of the tower. Blades are 120 ft long, I think. They say when they turn, the ends are traveling at 120 MPH. They produce electricity in winds of 8 MPH to 47 MPH.
There are thousands in southern MN & northern Iowa now. They produce an amazing amount of electricity.
None are close to houses, so don't know about that effect. They are in corn fields for the most part, with underground lines going to the grid.
We used to lease a pasture that was under power lines and noticed the same thing - a zorch from any metal especially in humid weather when the lines gave off an ominous sizzle.
There is a downfall to everything I suppose. In a perfect world we could all have our few acres and have systems small enough to take care of our own needs without bothering anybody else. But it's far from a perfect world that we live in. Heaven is still in my future where Jesus will be the light. I won't have to worry about any power bills there. LOL
Victory! This morning I looked out and some big black cows were marching down the slope into the arroyo -- they munched their way over to my barbed wire fence and turned around and went back up the slope!
I am so pleased, at least something works. Yay!
Hurray! Well done.
We need steaks
ha ha, Dyson, you are so right. When I am looking at the packages of steaks for $37.50 or whatever at the grocery store, I can't help picturing all those cows wandering around my place -- and when I drive through a bunch of ciws on the ranch roads, I say "you look delicious!"
I don't think they hang rustlers any more, but suppose rustling still isn't legal. 8^(
We had a delicious supper. A friend of ours came back from a hunting trip. They killed 5 deer. He brought us a doe. I deboned and disected a roast tonight and DH tenderized some of it and fried it. MMMM Have to get the rest deboned and into the freezer. Saving the back strap for Bambi Bites!!!
It sprinkled a little this evening so I put the blankets back on the horses. I have 3 horses with no barn. I'm finally getting some much needed weight back on them and don't want them to lose a pound because of a wet and cold night. Have to get a load of feed tomorrow and a load of hay on Saturday.