So Many Goings-On at the Farm!

 In front of this little building are two very neglected fig bushes. The one on the right had a big tree growing in the middle of it. That's been cut out:

 The one on the left was appalling, totally overgrown with thick vines. How was it even still alive? I rooted the vines out aggressively and cleared the area around the little bush. Hopefully next year I'll go a better job all through the summer.

Here's a side-by-side shot of the older chickens in the orchard (on the right), and if you look carefully, the newer chickens on the left, back behind that building in their new yard.

 (Those funny-looking contraptions are boat stands.) The seven chickens know each other quite well now. They spend most of the day on either side of the fence, taking dust baths and cooing at each other. The new hens aren't laying yet, so I'm lucky to get two eggs per day. Usually only one. Punkin and Ethel are slowing down a bit.

 The pecan hulls are beginning to turn, in the trees.

 

Baby and Ned both dig massive holes in the pasture. You could break a foot in them. We look down as we walk.
Adam's latest plan for willow trees is off and running! Here's our "mother willow tree," a pitiful, fallen-over plant, but with lots of new, soft branches.

 

Adam cuts them and soaks them in water until they sprout new root buds and some new leaves. This week he dug small holes (which had water in them, it's been so wet) and put them in the soil.

 
This is the wet corner where he's planting willow trees.

 

I've put two marjoram plants into my new tea bed. And I have four pots of spindly mint.
My lambs' ears are very bedraggled but still alive after the rains.

 I still have one tomato plant with pretty cherry tomatoes!

 And from one of those fig bushes, two deep purple figs.

 Here's my first loofah! I worried that I would not get any, then just one or two. Now? I counted yesterday, and I have at least 24 loofahs on the vine, and probably more coming. I suppose they come on later in the year?

 It's lovely weather for drying Adam's t-shirts on the line.

Here's what's on the loom:

 I bought a pumpkin at WalMart. I always do, each autumn. I'd love 50 pumpkins, all growing out in the field, and maybe some year we'll have success that way. But I must have at least one.

 And I painted it, for my Autumn Journal.

In addition, in the garden we have:
Sweet potatoes, looking lovely and blooming still, to be dug up in the month
White potatoes, not as prolific as we'd hoped, but new ones popping up
Asparagus, which we'll leave alone for now, quite healthy
Loofahs abundant, from which I'll save seeds
Lots of lovely kale
Some mixed greens, plus collards that aren't up yet
Peas, which we hope will come along soon
Garlic (5 heads divided) beginning to come up
About 75 onion sets, I think, just put into 2 beds
Blue Lake bush beans, just about ready to bloom

I'm pleased with our fall garden this year. I didn't know how much you could still grow in autumn, in the South!

Farm-made Pot-Pourri

A favorite little book this time of year is Forest's Robe, Penhaligon's Scented Treasury of Autumn Verse and Prose. Penhaligon's makes many scented books; they are a perfumers in England, established in 1870. I have no idea where this book came from; I probably swiped it from my mother. It still smells vaguely of a woody, autumnal aroma. Editor Sheila Pickles filled the tiny book with poems and excerpts relating to fall. One page is titled "Pot-Pourri." A few lines:

"There fir cones, pine cones, nuts and seed pods may all be gathered up and dried .... I collect anything with a pretty colour and shape, even skeleton leaves .... Bark from trees absorbs scent well .... Hedge clippings from box or privet may be made into a bunch .... In the autumn, when the hydrangeas change colour, they should be cut before they are full out .... When all the components have been dried they may be mixed together into a large bowl. Pot-pourri will have an autumnal scent of its own but a few drops of essential oil may be added, according to taste."

Well! This morning I went gathering around my house garden beds, although my items may differ from Sheila Pickles's in England. (She also authored The Language of Flowers.) Here's what I found:

Starting at the upper left corner and going in clockwise order: rosemary, lavender, lemongrass, camellia bud, cedar, rose hips, eucalyptus, and two echinacea flower heads in the center.

Later I'll go in the pasture and garden and see what else I find. We have many pine trees, but their cones are too large. I'll let you know what I find out there. I'm coming down with a cold today, so not feeling the best. I've been spraying saline up my nose and gargling with salt water too. Resting inside and drinking lemon juice and honey in hot water.

Update: My stroll around the farm lot produced more pot-pourri hopefuls:

 An assortment of evergreen needles, cones, nuts, and grapevine. I also added artemesia and yarrow. Later I'll collect rose pedals, of which we have plenty.
While in the garden I tugged a massive basil plant from the ground with both hands. It's drying on the front porch to provide us with winter herbs.

 I also snipped some tiny fall flowers for pressing. I use my Very Large Book, the Oxford English Dictionary, for such purposes.

 

The page fell open to "plantain," which I thought was nice. Here are some I started yesterday:

 This mushroom grows atop an old watermelon mound in the garden. The morning sun covered it with diamonds.

More Empty Nest Behaviors

I now know what The Empty Nest feels like. Hmm. New, different, wonderful but sometimes a bit empty and quiet. I enjoyed the first week or two, throwing myself into moving furniture and clearing things out, setting up my oh-so-fun craft room. Today is the first day I've sat around thinking, "Hmm. What do I do now?"
Anyway, before this pondering, I did finish some curtains for the other little house, AKA Julia's old room:

 They give privacy but allow some light in.
And a new one for the door:

I also, at last, made a simple skirt from this chicken-themed fabric. I'd bought it to make an apron, so (as you'd guess) the skirt has ended up shorter than my preferred ankle-length. I plan to buy some muslin to make a built-in underskirt or slip, that will hang longer.

Cute fabric, huh?

 I finished a rather unusual weave:

 And for the first time in a very long time, I went to Prayer Shawl at the Methodist Church on Thursday! It was delightful to see my old yarn buddies again and sit and click some needles in their company. I started a basketweave shawl:

The yarn is actually very blue; size 15 needles

 These are NOT our farm pumpkins. We have no pumpkins this year. I photographed these at WalMart.

 Our second go-around with potatoes are sprouting up now:

 And it appears we will have a good pecan year ... we hope. Some of the trees are loaded.

 Lastly, I had a bit of a scare today, walking back from the chicken coop (where Punkin was trying to lay). We'd noticed Ned had a swollen neck (jowel, hanging down below), and we wondered if he'd had another run-in with a snake. Here, they sat in the sun (after the thunderstorm), but notice the foreground ....

 I stepped so close to him! I squealed, oh did I squeal! Thankfully, Ned had already killed him. You can't see it here, but there are flies on him.

This is another one of those yellow-bellied (really orange-bellied) water snakes. They are pretty creepy to look at, but they are not venomous.
So THANK YOU, Ned, for being my protector and killing all snakes on the farm! Oh, how I do loathe the look of them.
Punkin was on an egg-laying strike for about five days, but she appears to be back up and running again. Life is generally quiet on the farm. We do hear from Julia, and she seems to be doing very well at college. That makes my mama heart at ease.
I hope you are enjoying your September thus far! Cooler days are coming!

The Farm in August -- Oops!! Forgot to Post This One!!

We are in full swing of transitioning the garden from summer to fall.

 We're still getting some tomatoes and making paste, which Adam has discovered he loves.

 Above left are the slim skeletons of some weary tomato plants. Most of them are  now yanked out and put out of their misery. The middle bed is the cleaned-up potato bed. Doesn't it look lovely? Lots of white potato chunks with little eyes are now in there. The green bed on the right is sweet potatoes. They're at their peak, blooming but not turning yellow yet.
Below is a small patch of bed for more Blue Lake bush green beans. They are now UP! and we'll be covering them well to keep naughty rabbits OUT.

 This is my new hen, Autumn. She's an Easter-Egger. That means she'll lay green/blue eggs, but is not a pure breed. She has a little silkie in her because she has an extra claw on each foot.

 We used the isolation pen again. She stayed in it about 24 hours. My other 3 birds in this yard are all young, about 12 weeks. So they're less likely to be aggressive toward her and more likely to receive her easily. And they did!

 These are the three young ones -- the two silkies and the black cockerel (young rooster). Jack, the white cockerel, went to live elsewhere. He was more aggressive, and I didn't need another rooster.

 I planted three loofah vines from seed. I now have 6 loofahs (hooray!) but I think I could have had more fruit if I'd snipped off flowers and some vines early on. But I'll save the seeds from these for next year, and do a more productive job. They are huge! I'll dry them and either put them in my soaps or sell them straight at the market.

 Our cat, Bill, died. Sadly, she was hit by a car. Adam buried her in the orchard. While doing so, he unearthed some good clay there, and he's testing it to determine if this clay is good for making cob.

Good cob clay needs to be about half clay and half sand. It takes 2 weeks for the soil to separate into its layers. He is hopeful about this clay. If he finds good clay, he wants to make a cob oven with cook area and a grill. This, of course, is far in the future, but it's encouraging to find some of the materials under your own feet. 

Back Log of Farm News

 Mysterious insinuations of autumn prick my senses sometimes. It's August yet, so I try to ignore them.

 Much earlier this summer Adam took everything out of a dead beehive. He's cooking down the wax for me on our hodge-podge outdoor grill.

 

Occasionally we have foggy mornings on the farm.

 I love that misty look.

 Adam's been scything that far field of tall grass again.

 

 My apologies to those of you who detest spiders. I find their sparkling webs fascinating.
Asparagus in the morning.

 Loofah vines. I now have FOUR loofahs growing!

 You can see the patch Adam's scythed -- this photo was from a couple of weeks ago. (See how behind I am?) He's done more now, in spite of the daily rain :(

 We harvested one big, beautiful watermelon. Adam ate it because I'm not really a watermelon person.

 We continue to harvest cherry tomatoes and abundant cucumbers, although some of them are ruined by bugs.

 Adam has cut and dried some potato pieces to plant. The raw edges have to harden off a bit before planting. These have good eyes.

 I brought home from West Virginia some delicious peaches (below) and lots of Wolf River apples (which you can read about here). This will help stock my larder for the winter.

This morning (Monday ... after a very LONG and exhausting weekend for me), we finally have a few minutes of non-rain, so Adam is out mowing again. I will pick in the garden, clean the house a little, make more applesauce or maybe peach preserves, tend to chickens (hoping to give away a roo this week), but most importantly -- STAY HOME. I'm such a homebody. Ain't nobody wedging me out of this place today!