Thursday, September 11, 2008
Frost?
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I am sore today. The kind of sore that is haleful. The kind of sore that proves to your soul that you worked the day before. We have a few very large poplars here at Othala Acres. Over the past winter, the top third of one very large one snapped off and instead of falling, hung up in another tree. A 'widow maker' as we call them. It could fall anytime and make your wife a widow. Well it has been in the corner of the Gods Grove the past few seasons and only the sheep go near it so I was content to leave it. Last month I took it down. I cut the tree at about 3 feet off the ground and let it fell. It was a bit spooky because the top thrid of the tree was broken and the tree fell in two pieces. Fortunately they fell pretty much next to each other which speaks more of luck than my skill with a chainsaw. The same day I cut the tree into wood stove lengths. Well yesterday I split all that wood by hand. Edward and Ingrid then helped me load up Lily's old wheel barrel and get it to the sheep fence where we then loaded it into the back of my waiting pickup. The Gods Grove looks funny having my pickup in it. Then the kids and I drove through the woods to unload and stack the wood next to the house. We got two truckloads full and it seems to be about a quarter of a cord of wood. This brings us to about a stacked cord of wood that I cut split and stacked myself. Nice accomplishment. All by hand. Yeah I know, "Yay Ron, Ron is so rugged. Now go get yourself a shower and a medal." :-) The floor of Lily's poultry barn is almost done. The walls will go up very easily after that. The sheep will need the fall shearing very soon and all the chicks and turkey poults are growing like weeds. However, almost all of them will be sold off. Cull time is hard because Lily has to choose which is the best of the best for our breeding stock. With life comes death and with death comes life. That is the ways it has ever been and shall ever be. Never more obvious than on a farm. We lost a turkey hen yesterday and it seems the 5 babies we let her raise are gone as well. We found two of them and the other were nowhere to be found. They have gotten chilled, which is easy when they are so young, and have died. Fortunately we have over two dozen turkey poults (babies) from earlier hatches this summer that are thriving so we still have a very healthy breeding program. I just really hate losing turkey hens. Bow season for deer starts in the next couple days and I was able to go up Gap Mountain and get the second deer stand we own. I should put it out tomorrow. I think Lily needs to come with me to help me place it where she wants it. This will be my first season trying my hand at bow hunting. I am sure I will like it although it will be odd hunting in warm weather instead of the cold on November and December. Speaking of cold, Intellicast said it was 39 degrees a little while ago, yet when I went out to let the birds out and check on them, the dew on the roof of the house was no dew. It was FROST! First frost of the year. Well of the season. Had the annual blacksmith event with Jim (Ealdhand) down in Litchfeld, CT this past Sunday. I don't think either one of us got photos. This was the third year we have done it and each year we get more into the period clothing and such. It is a 'old home days' event which mimics 19th century life, complete with Civil War soldiers and other civilian re-enactors. I brought a table I made this year on which we displayed a bunch things we made. Buckles, hooks, handles, hinges and such that a 19th century village blacksmith would be required to make. It added a lot to our setup as it gave us a bunch of talking points to interact more with the people visiting the event. There are so many apples on the trees this year. Delicious ones but also very ugly. I need to learn more about them to see if we can get them to be good looking apples or if they will always be gnarled and such. They are heirloom apples (russet & blue pearmain) from trees that were planted about a hundred years ago and neglected for the past 50 years of so. Maybe they are destined to simply be cider apples, which re awakens my desire for a good cider press. I know where to get them. But at a price of $500 or so, it is a bit verboten right now. Now is also the time to be thinking what bulbs we shall plant for next spring's flowers. Also any sapling transplanting should be done now. Get the whole root ball. Oh, rabbits. The 7 babies born the other week are all head and eyes. So cute. Great coloration on all of them and so different. One has the coloring of a wild rabbit and she gets to stay with us. The rest we shall sell or send to the stew pot. We'll see how that goes. Rabbit and dumplings are so delicious. --Ron |
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