I know it must be autumn somewhere! Here that reality is still mostly in my dreams. We’re still in the 90s and still mostly dry. There are a few tiny signs of change though, that I’m magnifying in my mind, because I can hardly wait! It’s been a terrible summer.
(Very soon to be featured in an ‘Herbal Explorations’ post)
But, I’m not going to complain about that now. Instead we’ve got lots of happy snaps, and even a few scary ones.
We’re gearing up for the fall/winter garden, getting the beds ready for the transplants that have been growing under lights for a month and are very ready for their new outdoor home, just as soon as the temperature drops a bit.
We just started harvesting sweet potatoes from the boxes waiting for replanting.
Those vines helped keep the goats happy and healthy during the extra long heat wave.
None of the goats have warmed up to him, despite all his best efforts!
The peppers have come back with gusto after another dose of compost dressing and removing their shade cloth.
Jalapeños and banana peppers and the now monstrous cranberry hibiscus on right that is finally just starting to bloom.
Cucumbers again, yippie! Plus hurricane lilies, turmeric, zinnia and basil keeping the bees happy. And lots of bindweed (morning glory)—scourge to the industrial farmer—a hardy, lovely and welcome cover for the rest of us.
I’m getting about 1/2 gallon of milk a day from 2 goats and making cheese often—mozzarella and soft chèvre every week and a hard cheese whenever I can accumulate at least 3 gallons (preferably 6) in the freezer. The larger the hard cheese the easier it is to age properly and goat milk works just fine for cheese after freezing.
But I’m really looking forward to making Camembert and Munster again. Just like all things natural, cheeses also have seasons. I was very disappointed by a so-called Brie I just splurged on from the grocery store. They should call it a processed Brie-like imitation and market it in the aisle with Velveeta. Quel scandale!
A few more friendly faces . . .
As I mentioned last update, we had a sausage-fest this summer, that is, a super-high percentage of males born, of all species—cats, pigs, sheep, chickens, goats. So odd.
Now we have 3 young male cats, a new thing for us. But one of them is a real scaredy cat, we’re never able to get close to him and he’s rarely around except for meal time.
Also odd but true—our black cat, Mittens, hangs out with our black Shadow and our blond Tony hangs out with our blond Bubba and Buttercup—go figure!
I love spiders, especially these beauties, but some folks find them scary, apparently.
Now here’s a real foe . . . .
And he has a lot of friends haunting our compost heap. 🤢
But who loves ‘em but our very scary Halloween rooster . . .
Soon we will be making the tough but necessary fall homestead decision—who will get bred and who will shuffle off to freezer camp?
But not a care in the world for these contented creatures!
Hope you’re having a fine Sunday and thanks for stopping by!
Has anyone been able to identify the ugly looking creature from your compost pile? Thank goodness I never met one of those in my compost piles. I hate coming across things I can’t identify because I never know if it stings, bites, or is poisonous or if its going to hurt my veggies.
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Grubs, the larvae of various types of beetles. These are king size!
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i love those trees….the best root beer is made from the root. though i only take it from a small sapling that i want to relocate because it is taking up the fence. it smells so good!! i don’t want to take too much from a large tree, don’t want to kill it. I have made root beer with it and it is priceless as you can’t buy it anywhere! not real root beer from the sassafras root. all sodas are imitation just like all the foods and the cheese…butter that says ‘real’ in the store…isn’t real. make your own. you will know the difference. eggs with yellow yolks are not real. they are from sick chickens. the yolk from a free range chicken is ORANGE….again a big difference.
every product you buy that says made in china is an imitation of the real thing. a look alike shovel that snaps off the first use because it isn’t real…it is a replica. you pay the same price for a replica that you do for the real thing. but i digress. i love your update and your dogs.
people are starting to become replicas as well. family members that took an injection and changed completely. personality even their looks. they are not real anymore. replicas. they look and talk like the person i knew but they are violent and viscous to my animals. no mercy in them and they didn’t used to be like that. complete change.
don’t even know who they are anymore and in as little as a years time. they are Borg! machines inside and out!
I was so excited to find several of those trees on my property and i nurture them! in times of drought i haul water to them with a trailer.
have you found any SPICE BUSHES on your place.? they produce little red berries. not round ones elongated like an egg almost. the leaves, the berries, the bark and the root are edible and smell so good. i only use the berries and leave the rest of the bush alone to flourish. i dry the berries and use it in place of ”all spice”. taste so good in soups heavenly!
there are other bushes that produce red berries but they don’t have the same smell to their leaves as the spice bush. brush the leaf and smell it…no mistaking it. unforgettable.
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I’ve never heard of spice bushes and just looked it up—don’t think I’ve seen any but now I really want to find some!
Glad to get your updates too, but sorry to hear about the replicas! I think the zombie craze was meant as foreshadowing, predictive programming. 😳. The question remains, how will they end it? Mad Max, according to Dane and others!
We have quite a few sassafras around here, I don’t use them enough.
Thanks for stopping by!
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I noticed that your site is asking for a log in so when I click on the envelope icon I then click on E- mail & it comes right up. I then hit reply & it goes right through without any password. Easy Peasy.
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Good to know, thanks for update.
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I’ve seen these spiders on my property & leave them alone as they’re good at trapping bad bugs like grasshoppers. In fact I have one just outside my living room window & I’ve been watching it all summer through the safety of the glass. At times it’s only the size of my pinkie finger but when it nets a grasshopper it swells to the size of my thumb.
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They are fascinating to watch! Glad you now have one less grasshopper on your greens. 😁
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What do you do with a sassafras tree ?????/
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So many great things! Going to tell you all about it later this week, stay tuned!
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