Fall Gardening

I've felt crummy for days, just sick to my stomach and icky. My DD has a nasty cold and tonight DH said he's got it too. I suppose this is the beginning of the flu season already! But even when sick the chores must be done, like milking and feeding all the animals. In the middle of it all I am slowly clearing off the back deck and getting the vegitables harvested.

The beans are Red Lady, I've put them in soups but they are really too tough to eat that way now so I'm going to let the rest ripen on the vine and dry them for winter use.

Here you see some flowers and a nice tomato plant on the back deck. We were trying to see which would give us more tomatoes, pot on the deck or in the ground. They each have given us lots of tomatos but the weather this year was so lousy I only got one red tomato and that was from the one on the deck. I see lots of green salsa in my future!!

I'm going to be putting most of these in the greenhouse in another week, hopefully they'll make it through the winter and I"ll have some nice plants next spring.

I've got three tomato plants that have green tomatoes on them, just not sure how to proceed with that. I hear you can put them in newspaper and then in a box and in a cold place and they will slowly ripen so you can have fresh tomatoes through Thanks Giving! Sound great! Another told me to up root the plant and hang it upside down, all the fruit will ripen at once and then you have to figure out what to do with it from there. We love salsa so I'm sure canning some would be in order.

Here is a nice suprise in my garden, turnips!! I've already started using them in my soups!! Nothing like it to help make good for you soup.

I know these are considered 'weeds' by some, but I love to look at them! Scottish Thistle is what my mother used to call them and they are a volunteer on our property. I like their pretty pink flowers!

Strawberries in September

Today I went out late to feed the animals and milk
the goats, and on my way by the strawberry patch
I saw some color...yum! I brought them in and shared them with DH. A nice little September 20th end of Summer treat.

Now on to working the farm: feed all animals, get teenager up, milk 6 goats, clean house for party today, make large pot of bean soup and bread to feed the hoards, and then maybe I'll get to that pile of fiber waiting for me in the shadows calling my name!

Ananda Farms Shetland Ram

I"m so excited!! For my birthday my husband got me a white Ananda Farms Shetland ram for my herd!!! I can see the beautiful crimp from here! He's a reall show animal, he is halter trained already (thank you!) and a real sweetie at 5 months old. I think it would be nice to enter him in a few shows as he's a reall nice ram with excellent conformation!!

Dairy Goats

We are slowly getting our building done for milking the goats. Last winter I was milking in the snow with out the canopy cause the winter winds tore it up, I decided I needed permanent coverage!!

Here you see Melody and Spot on their goat stanchions eating their favorite treats while the milking machine (sitting on the floor between them) milks away! No more wear and tear on my hands from milking since we got the milking machine.












As you can see we are still in the process of finishing up the buildings, I look at it this way, DH has his professional job, his farmer jobs and his building jobs. When he has time from the first two we get a little more building done.

Rainbow Angora & Wool Hand Spun Yarn

Once more I'm trying to get my fiber 'stuff' done. It seems like the more I do the more there is to do!!! Today I washed out 19 hanks of yarn that we spun up recently and they are now hanging out on the back porch under the canopy so the sun doesn't get them. My daughter dyed these and then blended the fiber on our cottage carder and then spun them up. They are a mix of angora and wool, with the green ones on the left being 100% angora, and the orange ones on the right a 50/50 blend of wool and angora.

I've got some of my ewe's wool on the wheel now that I just finished processing into a light weight yarn, I'm going to ply it using the Andean plying method and then wash and set the twist. If I can get enough of it done by the end of the month I'd like to knit a simple blanket for my DH, he does so much around here (and works too) I think he deserves a blanket just for him.







Here is another project I'm working on, it's recycled t-shirt yarn that I'm crocheting into a bath mat for my DD's bathroom. So far I've used up 3 old white t-shirts and I've got two more to de-struct and turn into yarn. I might have to go to the Good Will and get a couple more to finish it off if it's not long enough. The old cotton fibers absorb the water from your feet and make a nice texture under the toes too! I'm going to make another one just like it for the doggie jail room - which is the laundry room, when the dogs come in with wet feet they have to stay there for awhile until their feet dry or they'll get in real trouble when I sit on the couch and find wet spots!!