We find ourselves already in the middle of September, wrapped up in the turning of the seasons and the beginnings of the Autumn season. We find ourselves in the midst of harvest, garden clean up, canning and preparing for the inevitable winter months that will follow.
Our garden has suffered from the hands of frost that touch it in the early mornings lately. The leaves have turned to a soft yellow almost brown colour as they dry up and wither away, taking away with them the last thoughts of summer and all of our hard work. We harvested all of our carrots and beans, pickling them and finding them a resting spot in our pantry. We ate the last of the zucchini, and shredded the rest of what we could to freeze for baking. We pulled all of our onions and leeks, letting the onions dry out in the pantry and chopping and freezing our leeks for soup later. The potato boxes have been dug up, the tomato plants pulled, and the tomatoes are ripening in the garage on folding tables. We had three folding tables worth of tomatoes to ripen, from cherry to roma. We have made several batches of tomato chutney, tried out hand at our first salsa and are now saving up to try out our own ketchup! All we have left is our little mini pumpkin patch with three whole pumpkins, our row of beets and the surprise cauliflower that has survived the odds.
The flower gardens are on their last breath of life. I have been able to collect seeds from the hollyhocks, cosmos and poppies to use for next year. The sunflowers have flowered, and although they may not be as big as they were last year, they are just as beautiful. I now need to dig up my gladiola bulbs to dry for next spring and collect the seeds pods from my sweet pea. It was a wonderful year for flowers and I am excited for next spring to carry forward with the knowledge I learned from this year.
It is once again time to deworm our chicken flock, so we had saved up a
bountiful supply of eggs to carry us through and
even had enough to do several jars of pickled eggs to add to our pantry collection. It has been a really wet summer for us here and so deworming and delousing is just a precaution for us heading into winter. The girls have been laying us almost a dozen eggs a day and George is just such a gentleman to have around.
The pigs are growing like crazy. They are taller now than the pot bellies but are still being told who runs the show. Tui is and always will be the “boss hog“ here. While he may be a cranky old man, he always loves some scratches behind the ear and a nose rub. It is good to see that everyone is now able to sleep and share the pig haus and nobody is left out in the rain under a tree branch.
We also added some new additions to the farm and adopted two little kittens. We have decided on them being named Milo and Otis (only my favourite childhood movie of all time). Right now they are living in the garage as we get them used to where home should be and get ready to introduce them to the dogs. Here`s hoping they will be good mousers for us!
Even here in the house we have seen the turn to fall. From fall decorations to tiny pumpkins, we have gotten into the autumn swing of things. It is after all my favourite season! From pumpkin everything, to maple flavoured goodies, I just cant seem to get enough. Now I am waiting ever so patiently for the season of woodfires, sweaters and tea all day!
Beautiful pictures as always & poetic writing. Well done Miss Hadleigh!