All the quirky weather we have had in the last several years shows no signs of stopping. To date we really had a very mild summer and no one will hear me complain. Autumn is showing itself in the casting of longer shadows , cooler mornings and not the traditional periodic heat waves that are typical of July and August . I must admit I am still trying to get over being stuck in daylight stupid time without even a by your leave by the government of our county. It must be nice to play God. Thank you I feel much better but my clocks are and will be set on "standard" time forever. I just do the math if needed.
I had the delivery of 58 bales of alfalfa the winter hay for the goats. Last year I was able to stretch the same number of bales at about 125 pounds each last for October through June and expect the same effect this year. Of course the big thrill was the price was down to $18 a bale. These are the coffee table rectangle bales. Nice to shave a bit off the price to go to other items. Such as fire wood. As some of you know, heat with a wood stove. After eight years of having 42 acres for our wood needs it seems strange to have to purchase wood . But it was my choice to buy my wood and not pay PGE for it and the propane delivery. As I was only two years into a new stove much more effective than the older one I loved but was very old and large in the cabin from the last owner. All in all despite our crazy wet, snowy very cold winter I burnt only about 3 cords total. I have a bit of pine left over and will buy 2 cords of oak and 1 cord of pine to get through this winter. I also have the remains of the oak trees that died this winter to the amount of rain, melted snow and low temps to use also.
This is the current garden . My Black mission fig is happy in its home . Has a dozen figs developing on it . This is its third year and for a Mediterranean loving tree I am amazed it made it through the winter!
The garden is plugging along. It is by no means a huge amount in fact not enough for even canning. But it was started three times due to two false starts when winter decided to hang around and now yes, the cooler temps this summer. The great news is I got my fencing guy to fence off an L shape and hope for a relocation for the garden this coming year. I will keep some of the existing raised beds in the original garden such as my first year asparagus where they are. Redesign it for all creatures veggie wise that do well in not needing full sun and more herbs. I am thinking about putting down the ground cover of a variety that can be walked on but doesn't require constant watering and no mowing. Also able to withstand walking on. There are several types just have to decide.
The barn still needs to have some weather proofing on the SW end. The way our storms come in I need to have two more barn doors larger but the same design as the one I had put in on the tact room entry which also gives access to all four stalls. Since the previous owners had both of the ends open when the winter winds hit from the SW it blows right through the front stalls and out the backs of the back two stalls. I have finally decided that since they had horses and only lived here for 13 years before myself that the was a period when the state was in drought and the weather much tamer in the winter and much hotter in the summer. Other than that I would like to think they would have protected their horses from the 65 MPH winds we now get.
The above photo shows the sliding barn door I hope to add for the SW end of the barn giving an easy slide to cover the end keeping the weather out of the barn this winter.
