Not much here either. Warm for this time of year in Alaska--about 30 degrees F. We'll be hauling hogs to slaughter as soon as there is room at the slaughterhouse and we may be butchering a goat or two soon. Firewood cutting and stacking this weekend, and soon I'll be doing seed orders. A friend told me me was reworking her pastures and replanting. I've never done it in the fall here, but it may be worth a try.

My wife is always thankful when our intense summer (short summer but LONG days)is over and the gardens are out and food put up. She gets exhausted during the summer, but the winter is slower but involves hauling water for the livestock. She is kinda laid up with a shoulder injury now, but is recovering.

I'm glad to see this board is generating some interest. Haven't been here in a long while.
We had a bit of an eventful day. We farm 69 acres,with a declining number of cattle. And we are retirement age 60 and 61. So we're trying to make ourselves wind down.
We have about 35 laying hens and an old goat, (not DH) that is just a pet. Not really ours but she insisted that she lived here a few years ago, constantly in the yard, neighbors finally refused to come get her, so we fenced her in .
Today we returned home from the big city to find one of our Brangus having problems with having her calf. We pulled a nice bull calf. Hoping that's the last one we'll ever have to pull one, as we are completely selling out in the late spring.Just getting past the age of chasing these critters.
Oh btw, we live in southern Arkanas
I'm hoping the board will pick up some speed and get back to what it was.
Does Jamie and Velvet Sparrow still post here?
Ya'll have a great day
simpleme

Ducks still molting. No eggs in two months! Put in tomato plants as a start to my winter garden.Tarragon is just starting to bloom Also Propagated potted rpws and rows of Plumeria Pudica (frangipani)and other plants to sell.
harvested WORM castings and did the red wiggler round up!
Need to build muscadine arbors.
Saturday I will be one of the judges at a Fall Festival for a scarecrow contest.
tanya

The only thing here is fall is definitely here in Pa.We have a painter here to paint trim,barn vents etc but mostly give the log cabin some attention.We bought a really old log cabin from the historical society,the painter painted windows etc and stained the logs,looks good.

I have been drying off my goats and will take them for breeding in a week or so. I want April babies. It is nice not to be milking for a while. I needed a break from milking and making cheese. I usually milk my goats through for a year or two and breed every three years or so.

We haven't had a frost yet here which is very unusual for this area in Colorado. Last year we had two snow storms by this time of the year. I hope is isn't going to be a dry winter. We could really use the moisture in any form right now.

I hope the forum chatter picks up. I miss a lot of the "regulars" who chimed in on a variety of subjects. I even miss the chicken banter.

Bonnie

Got very little done the past month, as I had a terrible cold that just wouldn't let go.

Today I hope to do some major garden clean-up -- we're forecast for 74 degrees, and then it's going to be in the 50s next weekend. Definitely on the decline.

Only bought a few tulip and daffodil bulbs this year. Am putting them in an empty veg bed so I can cut them in the spring. Always hate removing any from the perennial bed in the spring! Finally put some plants I bought on sale in, hope they'll get settled before any serious cold comes.

Trying to figure out what happened to spook the chickens so they won't go outside. The ducks still go out, and one mama hen and her two babies go, and the roosters go. But that leaves about 20 hens that won't go now. I have seen the drakes chasing the youngest rooster and wonder if they've been keeping the others out. I hate for the girls to be stuck inside all the time.

Might sneak off to a movie this afternoon. Also might just take a big ol' nap!

--Johanna

Here is a link that might be useful: My place: Busy Solitude Farm

Well, I've drawn a conclusion on the chicken problem. Here's my blog post about it. Suggestions welcome!

--Johanna

Here is a link that might be useful: Bullied chickens

Getting sort of a break. Pepper plants in pots are still getting hauled outside during the day and in again at night. I'll be glad when that is over.

Tending house plants, waiting for it to stop raining so I can copper spray the peach trees.

I've just about got everything processed and stored. I roasted some Anaheims yesterday.

It looks like I am going to lose 3 boxes of pears to the compost bin. The pears that got into cold storage are keeping, but the ones in the house are going to be past their usefulness in a day or two.

I can't think of anything to do with the pears. I don't can any more, and my family doesn't like canned pears, anyway. Ditto dried pear. We'll eat dried Seckels, but not dried Bosc.

I've got some pear crisp in the freezer. But since apple crisp is better, I don't want to make a lot of pear crisp.

We'll probably eat one more fresh pear bleu cheese salad and that's it for the pears.

Sounds like there's still things going on even in fall.

Due to the forcast a day ago of record low barometer, hurricane force winds, rain,
what we did was go out at 6 am to get any loose thing inside. I took care of the greenhouse items like pots and flats left to spray outside taken inside the garden house, plants inside, garden decor inside. Husband took care of lawn furniture, closing buildings and barn doors and fastening them tight, putting augers down, and the list goes on.

Turned out to have a windy day and some rain, but not like what was being predicted. It came through and left, not much different than a regular old storm.

At least it got us to do things we had been procrastinating about!

couldn't be busier. We are about half way though harvest of our date crop. Jujube are starting today. Still, taking a minute to have a coffee and compute my blessings. So far the crop looks great even though we had 2 rains (NOT good for dates) they dried quickly afterwords. And I'm getting a good price at the farmers market. We are enjoying good weather now to work in. It's a glorious day.

Our first measurable snowfall last night. The wife is in charge of the Halloween festivities at church, so she has been baking and cooking for 2 days. The shy is clear, so it will probably be quite cold tonight. Most of the wood is put up, but i have to do some repair on the roof of the woodshed. The chimney is in the big greenhouse, but the wood stove is not hooked to it yet. No rush, though since we won't use it again until March. We have a smaller attached greenhouse that we use during all but the darkest months for lettuce, etc. as it is MUCH easier to heat and it is so handy. My neighbor has a u-pick orchard, and called this morning about starting a u-pick vegetable operation in the spring. I told her I would lend her my copy of $100,000 on 25 acres. Has anyone else read that book? If you haven't, it might give you some ideas on supplementing your farm income.

This is what I like to see on this forum: input from all over the country (and sometimes all over the world since we used to have a contributor from Australia). I really enjoy reading the trials, tribulations, joys and successes of all the farmers, homesteaders, and wanna-bes. Please keep it up.

i agree with doninalaska...love hearing from all over the country/world. Thanks for the book info..have not heard of it, but sounds interesting.
And softmentor, are dates harvested by machine or by hand? Also, to show my ignorance,please add more info on jujube if you would.

dates grow on palm trees and for the first 8 years can be reached from the ground but then you start needing ladders. when they get really tall, we start using a machine to put the worker in the palm but the picking is done by hand. They attach safety chains and hang from a "saddle" seat. For soft dates we then hang a basket like thing called a canasta under the fruit and pick what is ready. It falls into the basket. as the basket is filled, we lower the basket on a rope to a worker below who switches out the canasta for an empty one then puts the fruit into field lugs (boxes)
It's a lot of work! Here is my friend Jamie climbing a rather tall palm in his date garden. (mine are not as tall) Be sure to catch the grand finally at the end of the vid. The workers who climb the palms are really impressive athletes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIVDGcW6V2E

and people are not the only ones who climb date palms, here is a goat climbing a date palm!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kZ0L49zWTU&NR=1

Jujube grow on a tree, came originally from China, are mildly sweet and very delicious. Very healthy fruit both fresh and dried.
http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/jujube.html

Planted about 20 Tomato plants and several rows of lettuce and radishes some squash
Gotta love Florida!

Went out to the garden, and have fresh snap peas -- a few pods, and lots of blossoms. They're volunteers from my plants this summer. We haven't really had a frost yet (S. Ont) but expect one this weekend. Usually we get frost by the second week of September.

Putting a new roof on the tractor shed. We've had great weather here in southern WI all fall. Really gettng some work done since we got home.

I hope all of you got a chance to look at youtube link that softmentor posted on date harvesting. It was amazing! Makes me think dates should be worth gold!
Here's a question about them, though. Evidentally the palms cannot be "topped" to halt growth upward and just have growth outward?

And I thought picking strawberries when we sold them was tiring!

There seems to be an increase in coyote activity recently, in central MA. Not sure if it's seasonal, but the free range is getting a little less free, as we hunker down.

I heard a noise outside bedroom window one nite.My son said sounds like turkeys.I think hes right.They shouldnt be visiting people right now.Nows not the time..
I have one in my chicken coup ,he came visiting,friendly,he stayed in chicken house he liked it so thats where hes living,not a wild one.

"Here in pa, our weather has been nice but now rain tommorrow.Its been 70s,60s ,got alot of work done.
We had [ainterr come in paint barns,sheds,we have an old log cabin we brought in and restored,we had him stain the logs trim etc.so were ahead for spring.'
Hubbys getting ready for hunting.Anybody else hunt?>He just came back from elk hunting got a big bull elk.

Opening day is Nov 15th here. Probably will sound like WWII after dawn. I hope EVERY hunter gets at least one, more if they can. We are really overrun with Whitetails. We have the highest car/deer accident rate in the whole State!!

However with the aging of America, the hunter numbers are going down, just when we wish there were more actively hunting. Many just go out for fun. Our school is closed under the pretext for In-Service days for the teachers. Kids would be excused absent in great numbers, so better to just schedule the kids off anyway! Quite a few farm kids will get their deer and we have a special Kid Hunt time for kids only to go out with adults, learning hunting skills. There is also bow and musket seasons when the regular guns are done.

We get venison from friends, husband is not a hunter. They are good carcass cleaners, meat has great flavor, you can't tell it is venison at all. It is a dry meat, you have to be careful not to overcook it.

Elk are only available if you win the hunting license lottery, get a spot. Only a few spots given out.

Weather change for the cold should help keep the hunters awake! Warm day, warm clothes, most just sleep away the day!!

One of the guys that hunts on my property got a big doe on Halloween, with his bow. I wonder when shotgun starts here?

Have been watching a pair of female pheasants running around my property this weekend, driving my dogs crazy ... one kept coming up ont he deck and peering in the doors! LOL! My dogs were going nuts. We don't see many pheasants anymore.

Got the heated buckets cleaned up and swapped out in the barn, even the heated water dish for the barn cat. Have had quite a few frosts, and 2 hard frosts. The gardens are all put to sleep, burlapped some bushes to help protect them from the deer over the weekend.

Feel like I'm ready for winter ...

Just returned from Nevada...totally different than Ohio, but beautiful !
We missed all but one day of Ohio's Indian summer, which lasted the whole week. 60's and 70's,blue sky.
Pointsettias are doing well in the greenhouse. Have ordered some seed for spring. Have to get the cold frame around the pots of spring bulbs, if they don't bloom before winter gets here.
All the crops are in, all the corn delivered until January.
Fields that need it have been chisel-plowed (we live in flat land area) The guys are busy cleaning up equipment and buying seed for next year.

I wish the hunters would come and thin the deer in my area. I'm in a no hunting area and the deer are severely over-populated, semi tame, and very destructive.

I'm close enough to National Grasslands to walk out and shoot one there, but the over-crowding has left the deer looking diseased, and I would be afraid to eat the meat.

This no hunting policy has not been doing the deer any favors.

Oregonwoodsmoke
I'd recommend a big Dog but the deer know mine is behind a fence. They know they are safe and walk right up to the fence, passing within 3 feet of the dog. Maybe with obedience training I wouldn't need to keep him fenced in. I've had deer eating off an apple tree within 100 feet of the door, they also peek in the windows.
Dan

It's deer season (gun) here in Ohio this week. Have seen hunters around, deer are running. We have 60 acres of woods, and a friend who bow hunts shot two earlier in the year. Our son-in-law got a buck two days ago on his farm.
We'll see how many people find this year,as it seems they were over-hunted last year.

We've created the perfect habitat for them...some woods for shelter, lots of open fields, grain to feast upon and hide in. My husband says they need to be hunted to an extent, but personally, I would only shoot one with a camera.

Just like our daily routine feeding the animals, cleaning their cages and so on same busy day as always well this is how the farm life goes but I think I'll never get tired of this kind of life

Here is a link that might be useful: Chicken Farm