Winter Prep

This past week we experience our first cold weather  with temperatures dipping into the 20's. In addition to the other things we have been doing around here, I have slowly been working on making the shop more habitable so that once cold weather arrives for an extended stay I can work on some projects I have planned without worrying about frostbite.  My brother Tim gave me a bunch of leftover insulation which I applied to the exterior walls and covered with OSB board which helped quite a bit. However, memories of cold winds blowing through from the ceiling had me scrounging for a way to insulate all that space. i looked into buying the insulation and installing it myself when Lisa suggested we call our contractors to see who they would recommend.  Truthfully, I think she just didn''t want to spend time on scaffolding and ladders while I/we installed it ourselves. Of course, our contractor came through for us and recommended the same company who did our house. Truth be told, they charge just a little bit more than the materials alone would have cost me.

Today they came and in a matter of 3 hours completely installed R-19 insulation in the ceiling and knee walls on the ends.  Boy, what a difference in sound and warmth already. For now, I'll use space heaters to heat the space until I can work out something more permanent.

 R & S insulation 

The completed job

Now we are waiting for estimates on installing a ceiling  which we'll try to get done next month. 

I am also slowly working on getting beds ready for winter with mulch and soil amendments all around.The blueberries have a fresh layer of mulch as do the raspberries while the asparagus  has a fresh layer of dirt.  We also have a black walnut tree up near the road that drops  black walnuts (funny thing) everywhere. Yesterday I took the tractor up to clean up where they had dropped on the ground and picked up an entire front end loaders worth.They are a real mess and tend to sour the soil so it's important to get them up.  I took some of our bounty and "planted" them by throwing them into the woods in hopes they will grow.  The rest I just dumped on the edge of the woods for the squirrels to work on. 

nope, not tennis balls; black walnuts

Gleaning In The Garden

We are expecting our first frost this week so we went into the garden to glean the crops that will freeze. We grew some october beans at the end of the summer with the intention of having them dried for soup beans.

Unfortunately only about half of them were ready to pick today and the other half were still a bit green. The ready ones are a very pretty mottled pink bean. The green ones are....well green. We will make a pot of soup with them sooner rather than later.  The pink ones are drying on a cookie sheet and can go into a mason jar and we can eat them thru the winter. I guess next year we will plant them a bit earlier so they are drying in the pods when it comes time to harvest them.


We also picked all the remaining peppers that were on the plants and then pulled up the plants.  This is a huge bowl of them.  They are all sizes so Patrick cut up all the small ones tonight and we have 4 dryer trays in the dehydrator as I type.   We made a pile to take to work and share and the remainder we are leaving on the counter to turn red.  Some of them are already turning a bit red as you can see in the picture. If we were not expecting the frost we would have left them on the plants until they turned red.

    

I pulled 2 carrots to test size.  The really big one in front is one of the red carrots.  They are so pretty in salads as the outside is red. The next layer is orange like a traditional carrot and then they have a yellow center. When we grate them we end up having tri-colored strips.  Freezing carrots in the ground make them sweeter so we are only harvesting carrots as we need them.  The orange carrot is a "danver" carrot which grows well in heavy soil.  The grow short and fat as this one definitely is.  

And finally...........the row covers which prevent frost damage and lengthen growing seasons.  One bed is entirely lettuce.  The other contains the danver carrots, celery, kale, swiss chard, spinach starts which should overwinter and give us a jumpstart in the spring, and the remaining radishes which we will eat in the next few weeks.   

We let the chicken roam around in here today so they could stir up the empty beds.  They had a great time digging around and hiding under the pepper plants before they all got pulled up.  They then started trying to jump the fence to head for their favorite tree spot so I helped them get over.  They have not been out for a week now since Patrick has been trying to establish the grass so I think they enjoyed the freedom.

Overall it was a beautiful autumn day to play in the yard.  Hung a few loads of laundry on the line, had all the windows open, and ate on the porch.

Why we have been missing in action....

This blogspot has been quiet for a few weeks but that does not mean it has been quiet on the home front.  Pat has been busy in the evening reseeding bald patches in the yard and hunting each weekend (unsuccessful thus far). I have been busy working on a couple of sewing projects for the grandchildren for Christmas. I have a new fleece jacket that I want to cut out and assemble and a wall hanging that I want to experiment with. I have enjoyed having my new chair in my sewing room to design projects.  Now if I just had enough time to do all I want to do. 

Quilt for Bayleigh...Wyatt's is still a work in progress

Crayon roll for Wyatt

In between we have been helpful to our friends Bridget and Janet on the opening of their new winery. We have been part of their work crew for the past several years as they have worked to realize their dream. Last Saturday we helped with all the last minute things that needed to be accomplished for the grand opening, which is this weekend. We are excited for their new endeavor.

 https://www.facebook.com/pages/Belle-Nicho-Winery/507634275944927

We are the hosts and presenters for our local October marriage encounter meeting so we have been busy doing a few things around the house. It is amazing how dirty white trim can get in the short period of time since we have been in the house. So.... Sunday we spent the morning washing all the trim on the front of the house and it looks so fresh now.  Big job but satisfying to see it all clean again. 

We have also been in the discussion stages of getting some new chickens.  Our research has informed us that our chickens, which are in their 3rd year of life, are on the downhill slide of production. Between their molt which some of them did this last summer and their age, we have seen a huge drop in production. We are currently only getting 1 egg every 2-3 days and the other day at the farmers market I even had to purchase a dozen. OUCH! So we are talking with the farmers about getting a few 1 year old birds to get us thru the winter and spring while raising a few newly hatched chicks which will start producing in the spring. In the mean time we will start thinning out the 4 that are not producing. I see some broth and stewed meat pieces in our near future.

I got a few more quarts of applesauce made and continue to dehydrate peppers from the garden. Lettuce has sprouted bigtime and it is so pretty. Started harvesting it last week and we have it in a variety of growth stages so it should last a while. Lettuce from the garden is just so much better than that from the store. The cold damp spring did not give us a good lettuce harvest and we were so disappointed that we only got a few meals out of it before it all bolted and got bitter. So this fall batch looks like it is going to make up for it.  The hoops you see in the pic will support the row cover which will protect it from frost and cold weather.