Winter is at our doorstep

Winter is at our doorstep. The sky looks like snow. The ground is frozen underfoot. The tall white birch are mostly bare. The ground is covered with a carpet of rust and gold. Snow is in the forecast today. Am I ready? I suppose I have to be.

 The kids helping dig potatoes last week.

Yesterday we picked mostly frozen cranberries for possibly the last time. We've been keeping a fire in the wood-stove burning from morning to night. We've had to plug in all the electric waterers, five total, one for each of two doe pens, one for the bucks, one for the chickens and one for the ducks. The ducks have a rubbermaid tub with a hole in the top. Otherwise, if they had a waterer like the chickens, just a two gallon galvanized metal waterer, they'd drain it in an hour. This way we can bring them a couple of fresh gallons each morning and dump out the old water. Last week I filled the duck pond for the last time. In a day it was almost frozen solid, so I dumped it - last bath till spring, ah. We still have four turkeys and some Ameraucana roosters that need eliminated. For now we are just giving them fresh water in tubs that are easy to dump the ice out of.

Today, aside from baking bread and canning applesauce, I think we'll all get up to the garden to clean up tools and pull the last of the peas and sunflowers for the goats. I'm thinking we might even take up a handful of does to let them run around and feast - and see if anyone shows particular interest in the bucks. So far two of my milking does that I don't plan on breeding till later this season, have gone into heat. As soon as any of our three junior does go into heat, they'll be going on a date with with one lucky buck.

Other than cleaning up anything on the ground that we don't want to lose under snow cover till spring, I think I can be ready. I've been enjoying my winter boots, worn gloves and favorite hat. We still have one bag of missing winter gear. As excited as the kids are for snow and sledding, it is a lot of work and it will be here for a long time. I wouldn't mind a some more time to enjoy the pretty fall carpet of colors, and not have to deal with snow yet.

I'm looking forward to being content indoors. To not feel the constant pull to be outside making the most of the sun and warmth. To not feel the panic that goes along with the final days before the snow flies. I'm looking forward to enjoying my kitchen again and not feeling like my time is better spent elsewhere. I'm looking forward to cooking with all this wonderful produce and meat we've been growing and harvesting. I've been thinking of things I want to make once there is more time for cooking, homemade pasta, more elaborate cheeses, cookies with the kids and some new bread recipes. Well here are a few more pictures of fall.

 frosty beets

Using the truck to haul carrots, beets, leeks and potatoes down to the house from the garden.

Noah's corn. We harvested a few dozen ears but only a handfull were mostly developed. The goats and chickens enjoyed the rest.

Snow is in the forecast today.

 A few more pictures of fall. These are from a couple weeks ago when the weather was still reaching into the sixties during the afternoon. The temperatures dropped significantly last week, by twenty degrees both during the days and nights. So we have switched gears from savoring the last of the warmth, to scurrying about like mice trying to prioritize and get ready before the snow comes. Everything is out of the garden. Everything is frozen now, even the kale, broccoli, the beets and hardy greens under row covers, all frozen. Certainly no big losses, I like to leave a little of everything just to see how long it makes it. I was by how hardy the broccoli and the parsley were, kickin it right up to the very end.  Dustin chipped the last of the potatoes out of the ground today, and even some of them were frozen through.

Our hallway is lined with buckets and boxes of potatoes and tomatoes. The onions and garlic are hanging indoors. Today I started an experimental root storage using hay bales. In the center of the stack I laid out about twenty pounds each of carrots and beets along with some bagged turnips. I'm going to check on them often. I'm hoping that the temperature in the middle of the pile will stay above freezing into November at least.

Last week I ground pork and caribou and made three types of sausage. I also cured and smoked thirty pounds of pork belly for bacon, along with a twenty two pound ham. Everything turned out great. As outwardly optimistic as I was, I admit that when it came time to fry up the bacon I was a little nervous, but it tastes like bacon, it's great.

Ah, so long fall.

 Avery's birthday cupcakes.

More Garden Pictures

Here are some more pictures of the garden. I took these not more than ten days ago, and now the difference is almost night and day, as we've had several nights in the forties and both the trees and ground cover are turning from green to more vivid fall colors. For several days I found myself pausing to scan the woods for the first blotch of yellow, not wanting to be taken by surprise and finding myself suddenly in the midst of autumn. Yet despite my attempts to prepare myself for the season, the woods did in fact change overnight. We woke up and fall was here and not only were there a few blotches of yellow, but it was everywhere, along with fireweed and currants turning crimson, and yellow leaves already dotting the ground.

There is so much to write about, but I'll save going in depth on some of what we've been up to for another day. We butchered the Cornish Cross this week. We've been enjoying roast chicken, bbq chicken, chicken soup, chicken salad, chicken burritos and at the moment I'm canning chicken stock. When the chicken stock is finally on the shelf I'm moving on to making and canning applesauce using local crab-apples from a friend.

Dustin has finally had a break from his busy summer work schedule. He has been cleaning out the doe pen with a skid steer. Today he cleaned out the Cornish pen and is now working on the Buck stall- I'm thrilled to announce. He has been cleaning out the woods, cutting up and stacking firewood from trees we brought down last year. Other priorities include digging some holes for root storage, putting a door on our milking area and installing a wood stove to heat our new addition.

Today I brought in bunches of garlic and onions that have been curing on the front porch. I also brought in all the tender houseplants that have been enjoying the summer outdoors. I've been packing away summer clothes, sandles and sun hats and have been replacing them with hats, gloves, boots and jackets, as I come across various bags of winter gear. We've been starting and ending the day in sweatshirts and hats, shedding layers in mid afternoon when the sun is shining. I've been making time to sit on the porch and bask in the sun in late afternoon when the day is at it's warmest - sixties and sunny - I'll take it.

Tomatoes in the greenhouse. Almost time to pull all the plants and stack boxes of green tomatoes in the closet to let ripen.

Just waiting on a storage option to pull the carrots and beets. We are talking about burying a few metal trashcans in the ground and then insulating the tops. Our first idea had been to dig into the hillside and frame out a root cellar - much more time intensive, and our days above freezing are numbered.

I've been picking sweet peas and bringing them into the house where they perfume the air with their intense and fabulous fragrance.

Sadly, my biggest winter squash, Sweet Mama. I've got a few more smaller ones, along with a small Sweet Meat, and one nice size spaghetti squash. I wish I had a couple dozen winter squash. They store so nicely in addition to adding nice diversity in the middle of winter. One of these years....

Leeks...mmmm.. Not one of the more cost efficient crops beings that I bought a bundle of transplants. But I'm excited about leeks for fall soups.

I think this week will find us pulling out the squash vines, tomatoes and green beans. We will probably pull most of the onions since they are mostly growing above the ground at this point. I've got greens under row fabric, in an attempt to discourage the moose. I may rig up some plastic covering as well to protect from frost once a hard freeze is expected, surely in the next couple weeks.

We harvested a bunch of raspberry leaves, dandelions and stinging nettles this week, that are now hanging under cover of our front porch. I'm planning on feeding them to the goats this winter. Other herbs I'm looking to harvest for medicinal benefits are plantain, wormwood and comfrey. We are still picking and drying chamomile and calendula although they are slowing. Several sunflower heads are going to seed, so I'll be saving those for the chickens and goats as well. I should be writing more now that the weather is getting cooler and we are spending more time indoors.

Moose in the garden

It's a hot cereal kind of morning. Cool and wet out, overcast and dreary. There has been a lot going on around here. Our backup fridge is overflowing with vegetables. We had our first Moose in the garden - ever.  For most Alaskan gardeners, Moose are our biggest pest. Amazingly we have never had a Moose stop by our place in the summer or fall. I guess we've just been lucky, but we were beginning to think that the smell of our buck goats was keeping them away. We have been planning on putting in a fence, but it is a serious undertaking cost and time wise and until this week did not seem pressing. To keep the moose out, we are going to put in an eight foot tall electric fence, with woven wire mesh fencing along the bottom four feet to keep chickens and smaller critters out.

One visit from a moose can be catastrophic. Fortunately I had some moose favorites in multiple locations, so I lost a few cabbages and Romanesco, but also a few were overlooked. The biggest disappointment was the celery. I had several beautiful celery, ready to harvest, just waiting to be eaten - completely gone. Almost all the broccoli got munched down, I'd harvested all the heads and have been enjoying side shoots. The moose munched on most the beet tops, so now I need to harvest the beets, which I'd been waiting for a couple frosts first, and a root cellar, or a better storage setup. The snap peas took some damage, the carrot bed trampled but mostly unscathed, the kale nibbled. Needless to say, as I was content to pace out the harvest, we kicked it into high gear this week. I went ahead and brought down the rest of the cabbage and romanesco. I harvested a bunch of greens and made and froze green soup this week. I covered the remaining greens and kale. I also put row covers over the remaining beets to try and discourage any more damage.

I went ahead and pulled all the garlic this week. A couple had root maggot damage, and only half of what I planted came back this spring, but there are some nice size bulbs. I went ahead and placed an order for some more garlic for planting. Last year I planted Northe, Siberia, Killarney Red and Chesnok Red, with the Chesnok Red the clear winner in size and hardiness, although it was also planted on the higher side of the bed, so was less exposed to the cold temperatures. I've been pulling onions as they topple over at the base. The beans and peas have slowed down significantly, but we are still getting some, so I'm not pulling the plants yet. A decent amount of tomatoes have been ripening on the vine. We are enjoying the fresh flowers. Currently I have a small vase of lavender, a jar of sweet peas and a bouquet of sunflowers on the counter.

We killed a few Cornish cross this week, and plan on harvesting the rest this week. The new black Sexlinks are beginning to lay. Dustin brought home a meat grinder this week, just in time. We think we are processing a pig this next week. The grinder is one horse power and can grind 9-11 lb. of meat a minute, and it has a sausage stuffer attachment. I'm planning on grinding up pork, a turkey, a few chickens and some duck this fall. When I get the grinder up and running, I'll take some pictures.

At the beginning of this week, I couldn't see any yellow in the trees. After a couple cold nights, getting down into the forties, now there are gold splashes everywhere. The fireweed and ground covers are turning orange and bronze. It is finally looking like fall. Today is our first wood fire of the season. The boys are bringing in firewood as I write this. So it is looking, feeling and smelling like fall.

Sunflowers and cauliflower

Yellow leaves are falling and the crisp cooler temperatures of autumn are here. Most of the Birch still have a majority of green leaves, but there are a few trees that are already completely golden. We have had enough rain over the last week to make up for our dry summer, or so it seems. We welcomed the rain when it began. Enjoying the rain on the tin roof while we slept. Watching the mushrooms pop up from the spongy forest floor. Before long we were bemoaning yet another day of rain, checking the weather forecast and wondering if we were ever going to see the sun again...revealing our true finicky nature.

Thankfully the weather cleared up today and the kids and I enjoyed our morning chore routine together. We harvested a couple eggplant, zucchini and a nice size cauliflower head. I made a layered eggplant, zucchini, cauliflower and tomato dish with lots of fresh herbs, goat cheese, olive oil and bread crumbs for dinner. Last year we had such a rainy cool summer that many of my sunflowers succumbed to frost before ever blooming. This year the sunflowers began blooming in July and are still looking impressive.


Broccoli Romanesco. I've got several heads yet to harvest and they are big and solid. Romanesco has the texture and a similar flavor as cauliflower but with a fun shape and a lime green color and was easier to grow. They are not early maturing and I didn't know how well they would do as it was my first summer growing Romanesco. I am a fan.

This is my third summer attempting cauliflower. The first summer it bolted and got ricey. Last summer I had tight but tiny heads. This year I have nice heads, they are still growing and keeping well in the cool temperatures. I've got a few purple cauliflower plants as well, but their heads are barely existent but growing. At this rate I wouldn't be surprised if we get a couple more weeks before a hard frost.

Noah and Avery are beginning to pall around more and more. She is starting to play more independently but also loves it when Noah plays with her. He tries to get her to follow him around or copy him, but she goes her own way. He ends up following Avery around, crawling after her and mimicking her actions, much to her delight. We've had such a dry summer that for weeks I've been able to put Avery on the ground in the garden and she crawls around, gets a bit dirty but is past eating inedibles and such. This week has been more challenging as she is use to getting down but the ground is muddy. She puts up quite a fuss when I try to leave her on my back or put her in the play pen. Recent accomplishments include going up and down the stairs, standing on her own and taking a few steps. She has taken up to six steps on a couple occasions. Fortunately it will be a little while yet before she is running around.