Archive for September, 2005

September 30, 2005 – Gourds

Here is this year’s gourds drying down own the vine.

We’ve found that the best way to dry the gourds is to leave them outside over the winter. We’ve tried bringing them in the barn or house, but they just seem to rot. So outside they will hang.
See the August 26th entry for the gourds in ...Read more.

September 29, 2005 – First Light Frost

Had our first light frost – nipped some tips of tomatoes and some scattered frost on grass but didn’t kill much. Oh well – I was hoping for an end to it all!
Here’s a fall picture of the goats on a very green late September pasture.

September 28, 2005 – Flat World

I’m almost through with “The World is Flat,” by economist Thomas Friedman. I’ve had people from many disparate jobs and occupations recommend the book, I had to read it. The book looks at the breakneck speed of global economics and the threats and opportunities to worldwide and American ways of life. Although it ...Read more.

September 27, 2005 – Honey of a Day

Even though it was a town work day, farming work was done today. Today, Joanne extracted the honey from the first-year hives.

Here’s a section of a frame of honey still in the comb.

The frames go in the extractor.

The extractor gets spun around manually to spin the honey out – think a giant salad spinner ...Read more.

September 26, 2005 – Simple Things

There’s a million things (ok maybe that’s a slight exaggeration)that are on the list. Many of them are not difficult – it’s just that only one can happen at a time. The last few days, I’ve been working on one of those “I’ll get to it someday” projects – making some more shelving ...Read more.

September 25, 2005 – A Great Rotation

I’m especially proud of this rotation we’ve put together this year. First was potatoes and onions. After onions and potatoes were pulled, we planted buckwheat, which acted as a cover crop and great flowers for the bees. Now we are running chicken tractors over the buckwheat – the chickens are eating all the ...Read more.

September 24, 2005 – A full day (without camera)

This morning was the last farmer’s market for this season. I’m at the point where I am looking forward to the first frost to kill all the living plants in the garden. I’m through, for now, canning and freezing and ready to start eating!
After market we picked up some of the girls’ friends and ...Read more.

September 23, 2005 – Childhood Heroes!

Today Martin and Grandma Jo journeyed to Boone to see Thomas the Tank Engine live in person! It was a very big day for Martin and a highly anticipated day.

Martin gets to see Thomas close up but notices he doesn’t talk to him.

The steering wheel is really on the caboose and Martin is really ...Read more.

September 22, 2005 – High Hopes on Market to Market

This Friday and Saturday there will be footage from our farm on “Market to Market” on Iowa Public Television Friday at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday at 12:30.

September 21, 2005 – #$%@# Door

Today was another unseasonable 90+ day. It’s supposed to end tomorrow. I began replacing the door in the mudroom that April destroyed. It was not fun – I ended up sawing off part of the door header to get enough room for it to swing on the uneven slab in the mudroom and ...Read more.

September 20, 2005 – Harvest Begins

The last few days the first bean harvesting has begun in adjacent fields. Here’s our neighbor testing out the combine in the field adjacent to our place.

After the field was harvested, Marty wanted to go look. So we found some stray soybeans and gathered them up to show everybody.
Then he just ran and ...Read more.

September 19, 2005 – Cover Girls!

Here’s the cover of the insert section of Sunday’s Marshalltown paper.
Don’t those chicks look cute! The writer found us via our web site/blog and wanted a local story about chickens. He came out, took a few pictures and talked to us a while and did a good job on the reporting.

There are ...Read more.

September 18, 2005 – Nana’s Cooking

We had a great time testing out some new recipes from Nana this weekend. Here are some stuffed chicken loaves with sage leaves fresh from the garden.
They taste as good as they look!

September 17, 2005 – Birthday Girls

Claire and Emma have birthdays just one day apart this Friday and Saturday.

Claire lifts her birthday present aloft – tickets to her first big concert – Paul McCartney in October. She also was not allowed to have pierced ears until she was a teen, so that was the first thing she did on her ...Read more.