That Autumn Feel

 Finally, after what seems an eternity, the muggy, oppressive weather has abated.  It is peak hurricane season, so you never know what might blow in, but for now the cool mornings and pleasant afternoons are a welcomed respite from summer's wrath.  This time of year triggers something in me.  I'm not sure if it's a primordial sense of survival or just an ingrained process of seasonal preparation, but the beat-the-winter-sprint has begun. 

In the beds where I've harvested seasonal vegetables I've been trying to be proactive by replacing nutrients in the soil for next year's crops, specifically nitrogen.  I planted field peas where the garlic had grown, and the next day found neat little divots where each pea had been sown, and no peas.  I have repeated this sowing twice again to the same result.  Also, a second sowing of green beans met the same fate, as well as some salad greens.  While watering one evening I believe I met the culprit - a very well fed rat.  We do have wild rats in our area, the Wood Rat (aka Pack Rat), plus introduced Norway and Black Rats.  I know there is one living in the hay room in my barn, but now I've seen this one in the hillside garden and also one in the polytunnel, where it's been snacking on my ripest tomatoes.  Same rat, or is it a gang of rodents?  And people wonder why I welcome coyotes and foxes to my tiny kingdom.  

Speaking of predators, I was lucky enough to watch a bobcat saunter through the pasture this summer.

Magnificent.

I haven't seen too many deer or coyotes lately, but I'm sure they're around.  As well as a bear, as evidenced by a large scat pile I found.  

While I didn't have an abundance of any one harvest, I'm happy with what I did get this growing season.  The potatoes in bags actually did well, and I'll grow them like that again next year.  I didn't get a lot of large spuds, but what did grow is perfect for roasting.  The Kennebecs are a great all around potato as far as taste and texture, and the Red Luna have a beautiful yellow flesh that you would think would be really starchy, but isn't.  The Highlander onions were a bit of a disappointment as they never reached full size, but my mother likes the smaller ones for roasts and stews, so it's all good.  The shallots did really well and exceeded normal size.  Next year I'll go back to the Walla Walla onions.

Part of the potato harvest, all of the onion and shallot harvest.

We've had about four harvests of green beans; just enough for a meal or two each picking.  My peas did well but I made a huge mistake waiting for them to go by before planting cukes in the same containers.  I've had some decent pickings of the mini cucumbers, but the lemon cukes have only just started to come to, much too late in the season.  We won't get that heat or length of daylight to really push these plants to produce fruit.  Next year I'll pay attention and plant much earlier.

I am completely sold on growing tomatoes in the polytunnel.  I'll know next year to raise the pots up off the ground a little and have a better staking system, but I've been really pleased with the size and number of tomatoes I'm getting off each plant.  These are Better Bush Hybrids and are known for their sturdy main stems, compact growth habit, and medium sized, fleshy tomatoes.  My lack of attention is what caused any issues with them, and by the time I started to really pay attention, most of the plants were so loaded with fruit the branches began to split and break.  We've still harvested enough that Mom made a sauce, we've had plenty of Caprese salads, tomato sandwiches, and just plain salted tomatoes, and I'm still harvesting more.  Oh, and the rat had enough to keep his belly full, too. 

By contrast, the tomato plants I started inside and planted directly into the garden have been a disappointment.  Same variety, but they were started about a month later to stagger the harvest, and they have produced only a few small fruits, if any.  I'm not even sure they'll ripen before the plants are frost killed.  Being able to put plants out earlier under the protection of the tunnel and being able to regulate the heat and humidity has definitely proved to be the better method.  And not just with tomatoes - the pepper plants have absolutely thrived and are producing more fruit than I could ever need or want.  I've been giving most of the habaneros away and using the milder jalapenos in salads and whatnot.

The corn has been my greatest pride and joy.  The Sugar Buns Hybrid was very sweet and tasty, but ears were rather small.  The Silver Queen is just beginning to ripen and the ears are much bigger.  With its lower sugar content, it's not the corn most people would choose for a BBQ, but Mom and I both prefer it over the hyper-sweet stuff.  Mom is itching to get her hands on the stalks to decorate with, so there's an additional bonus.

It's a late season variety, too, so again - stretching out the harvest.  I'm learning!  I'm also learning about growing it in raised beds versus the ground.  This summer when we did get rain, it came in quick, torrential downpours usually accompanied by whipping winds.  As a result, I was constantly trying to prop the stalks back up after each storm.  Luckily instead of breaking, the stalks would just sort of tip over but not lose their grip on the soil, so it was just a matter of growing a third arm to prop them up, hold them in place, and set braces against them to prevent further damage.  

If I decide to use this area again next year, I think I'll try to work in some kind of support system before I even plant.  

The wildflower meadow was a complete disappointment this year.  It was absolutely clogged with wild Primrose plants that grew to shrub-like proportions, and a Tansy plant that showed up out of nowhere a few years ago suddenly grew to monstrous size.  The downpours also wreaked havoc on the Tansy, and it flopped to the ground, spreading out to three times it's actual size.  It never recovered enough to stand back up, and thus shaded out and smothered smaller plants under and around it.

 

Primrose

Tansy

I've removed the Tansy and have been pulling up the Primrose as they go by; these plants are important for night feeding pollinators such as moths, so I don't want to take them while they're still in flower. Crab grass has again filled in any open spaces.  Fleabane has self seeded like mad, and though it's pretty, it's overwhelming in numbers.  My autumn sowing of annual wildflowers just didn't do well at all.  I'm not sure if they didn't have enough room to get a foothold due to the thuggish self seeders, or if the birds maybe ate most of the seed last year, but I won't do another autumn seeding.  In fact, I'm torn between cleaning this area up and planting it as more of a cottage garden or trying again with wildflowers.  

Speaking of cottage gardens, the new ones at the front of the hillside garden have really started to take hold, and I'm very happy with them.  I may have - as usual - disregarded the right place for each plant, but next year will be the time to decide that.  This year was all about establishing a root system.  

I'm hoping next year the newer plants will really fill out.  I'm also hoping the Verbena Bonariensis self seeds, because I'm beyond happy with them.  Even Mom has taken a shine to them, and wants me to start more from seed next year so she can add them to her gardens.  My only complaint is that they really get lost with the buddleia in the background, since they're so similar in color.  The two buddleia bushes are quickly outgrowing their spots in spite of being cut to the ground each spring, so it may be time to move them out, anyway.  They will make excellent structural plants for the backyard gardens...if I ever get to work on those. 

If.  

{sigh}

First snow...time to wrap it up.

 Yup, we had our first snow November 19th.  Nothing major, just a few squalls on and off throughout the day.  It didn't even stick.

Still, it was a reminder that winter will be here sooner rather than later.  It spurred me to take care of the tender bulbs I had pulled and was drying in the garage.  They're all clean and trimmed and nestled in fresh shavings for the winter now.

Thanks to daylight saving time, I don't have a couple hours after work to putter around the yard, so I'm cramming everything into my weekends.  I grabbed a load of 50/50 mix to finish up the giant planter.  I can't lie, having a truck is so handy!  

Today I scoured the edges of the woods for some greenery to give it a holiday feel.  A giant planter of dirt isn't really attractive, and I didn't want the soil splashing up against the house if it rained.  Greens (and browns...I'm going for a more natural look) will help keep the soil in place a little better until it freezes.

 

My mother is a pro at floral displays.  Unfortunately I'm not.  But I have seed heads of asters, goldenrod, and staghorn sumac in there for the birds to nibble on, so it's at least serving a purpose.  I also put some solar lamps among the branches and string lights along the stair rails...for ambiance, I guess.

Quick edit - mom stopped on a roadside and clipped a bunch of Winterberries, enough to share.  Definitely an improvement!

 

I was given a load of sawdust earlier this summer and hadn't used it all, so I scraped up what I could and laid it over the landscape fabric on the tiered garden.  I'm hoping it serves two purposes - one, to weigh down the fabric so it stops sagging and stays in place this winter, and two, provide a base for the mulch layer I'll add in the spring.  

I did some organizing in the garage again, and can now fit the truck, tractor, snowblower, and generator in there.  I have a few furniture refinishing projects to work on this winter and once those are done, it will open up some more space.  And after I go through all the boxes of crap I still have, I can purge again and downsize my hoard.  

I was going to leave Reputa in the she-shed for the winter, but when I took out my snowblower to make sure it would run, I discovered that mice had packed nesting material inside it.  I had to remove a bunch of covers and clean it out so I could start it.  I don't want to take a chance of having mice move into Reputa's engine!  I was hoping I could fit her in the garage with the plow on, but there just isn't enough room for that.  Maybe next winter.  

Now I just have to make sense of my tools, and I'll feel better about the state of things.  

What a mess!!!  At least I can't say that I have nothing to do, right?

What They Didn't Teach Me In New Home School

This is the first time I've ever been in a brand new home. 

This is the first time I've ever owned a home with a finished basement.  

I grew up in a house with a dirt floor basement, and it's a scary, small, musty place.  My first home had a half dirt, half concrete basement that would flood annually and was a scary, small, musty place.  My second home was on short piers and had a crawl space under it.  It was a small, squishy, dank place.  My third home also had a dirt floor basement, which was a mildly unsettling, tall, musty place.  I'm not much of a cellar dweller to be honest.  I do not know the ways of concrete, or humidity, or the quirks of a newly built structure.  I'm practically an expert on living in a home that's over a century old, but this place?  I'm out of my league.

That's a long, rambling way of saying my concrete foundation has yet to cure, and between that and the copious amounts of rain we've seen so far this spring and summer, my lower floor is an experiment in mold growth.  No, not the dreaded black mold you find in ceilings and walls, thankfully!  But every piece of wooden or wicker furniture in my garage or media room or mud room has a fine layer of mold on it.  

Well, now that's frustrating.  

 

I researched the best way to tackle this issue on the interwebs, then spent most of Saturday morning hauling out furniture, spraying it with a vinegar/water mix, and wiping it all down.  I did what I could, then let everything bake in the sun (we actually had a sunny day!) for the rest of the afternoon.  Inside, I sprayed the floor in the media room with the vinegar mix and mopped, vacuumed what I could, brought the clean furniture back in, turned the heat on, and closed the doors.  It makes me shudder to think of running the heat at 78* in mid-summer, but it was necessary.  I ran the heat for 2 days and also have two dehumidifiers running nonstop.  Fingers crossed this will remedy the situation.

I also managed to mow the field, finally.  My intention was to let the grass grow and form seed heads, and when they dropped then I would mow.  That was a few weeks ago and with all the rain we've had the field was ridiculously overgrown.  I had to run the mower deck at its highest height and even then it mostly just pushed the grass over instead of cutting it.  I was about three quarters done and one of the belt wheels on the mower deck gave out, so I had to finish with my mom's riding mower.  I'll need to get my wheeled string trimmer going and take care of the brushy patches, but it looks pretty good.  That's the mulberry tree dead center, the reason for all the wildlife hanging about.

  Here's what she offers:

And this year she's loaded with berries.  After I mowed there were only a few scattered in the grass.  The next morning I went out and everywhere I looked there were berries on the ground.  It brought in not only the coyotes, porcupine, and deer, but an entire family of coonskin caps.

I also threw in the towel where my peas and lettuce are concerned.  The peas gave me three good harvests, and the lettuce has turned into something from a science fiction movie.  They've been pulled and relocated to the compost bin.  

My tomatoes look horrible thanks to lack of sunlight, but the cucumbers are obviously loving all the wet weather.  My onions don't look as nice as they did last year, either.  I did manage to mow around the barn and garden this weekend, too.  And get some shots of my poor three year potted plants that would love to go in the ground.

these stargazer lilies are actually only 2 years potted

echinacea "Hot Papaya"

pink tiger lily

crocosmia "Lucifer", which didn't bloom last year

my three year potted bergamont, still doing its best

I've crossed a few things off my lengthy to-do list, but there's so much left.  My wooden raised beds have arrived, which means my next efforts need to go into the tiered garden project.

Ugh, what a mess.

rain and lethargy and other stories

 Something strange is happening to me.  I'm not sure if it's because I had (for the most part asymptomatic) Covid-19, because I'm "a woman of a certain age", or maybe side effects of the Covid vaccination, but I can't seem to rally any enthusiasm for...well, anything really.  Lately I find that I have little to no energy and even less ambition.  I've been forgetting things and making foolish mistakes at work.  It's been difficult to get the house situated when I can only seem to get through a couple boxes per week.  I haven't done anything with my yard, which is depressing.  I want to get a fence up first so I can better judge where I want things to go, but lack of money and lack of  ambition are a hindrance.  I need to fence the mule track, but again...no ambition. I don't think I've ever experienced this level of apathy in my life.

We've also just clocked the 4th rainiest month in New Hampshire in recorded weather history.  If it's not raining, it's hot, muggy, and generally oppressive.  This sort of weather doesn't exactly bolster one's ambition, either.  It's been great for the gardens and the wells, though!  I haven't felt too guilty washing load after load of bedding, towels, clothing, curtains, and whatever else I've come across while unpacking.  Man...why did I ever think I needed that much bedding?  I had 3 bedrooms in my old house, and I think there were sheet sets and quilts for each bed according to season.  I'm happily purging my ridiculous amount of belongings once again.  

I have, however, been absolutely loving watching the wildlife through those huge windows.  There's a large doe and her spunky little fawn, a doting mother turkey and her two little chicks, Huginn and Muninn - the very vocal ravens who love to sit in the mulberry tree and shriek with delight, and a gorgeous blonde coyote I've been calling The Beast and her happy little pup.  I've even set up a game camera in the hopes of filming these wonderful creatures.  So far I've got about 30 hours of great footage of tall grass blowing in the wind.  With my trusty DSLR, I've had better luck.

Momma Turkey and her chicks; the second one is in the grass to the right.

One of the ravens.  No, I can't tell them apart.

The fawn spots Momma Turkey and her chicks.  One chick is just visible to the right of Momma.

Harassment.

 

Run away!  Run away!

 

The fawn would assess the situation, then slowly creep back toward the turkeys only to be chased off again by Momma.  This went on for a while.

The Beast, snacking on mulberries.

And after I had started this post, my game camera was able to capture some pretty amazing footage of the coyotes.  CoyoteS...plural.  It seems there are actually two pups, and another adult.  Mate?  Last year's juvenile?  I'm not sure.  The Beast decided to bring the whole family to the pasture in broad daylight the other day to stalk Momma Turkey and her chicks, but I won't have such shenanigans.  Not in the daytime.  Nope.  Whatever goes on under cover of night is fine, but I don't want the coyotes becoming too comfortable running around our yard, so I ran out and yelled, and the pack took off.  Mom brought Roo dog down into the pasture and Roo did her best guard dog impression, barking and growling and running back and forth, and the pack didn't return.  Momma Turkey didn't return, either, so I have no idea what the status of that family is.  

Thug life?  Nah.  Woods life.  Gotta love the drama.  😉

   

Occupancy

 In the past month a lot has happened.  The plumbing was finished, touch ups happened, and on June 1st - after 125 days of construction - I was issued an occupancy permit.  I think my mother was the most excited, because that meant she was going to finally get half of her house back, including her fabulous closet!  You would think I'd be set up by now and livin' large, but this hasn't gone without hiccups.

I was not surprised to find my belongings in the storage unit were a little worse for wear.  After nearly three years, the mice had done quite a bit of damage.  They had used nearly every exposed surface as a toilet, and in a few instances had chewed into bags of clothing and bedding and made nests.  Everything was transported to my basement, where it still sits, waiting to be gone over with a fine toothed comb.  Which brings me to the next hiccup.

So, I still don't have propane tanks.  No propane means no hot water.  No dishwasher.  No de-mousing hot water washes in my washing machine.  No soaking in my Pat-Boone-Made-Me-Buy-It tub.  No propane means no clothes dryer.  No propane means no oven or stove-top.  No propane has really stalled my efforts to put some semblance of organization in place with my stuff.  It's coming, I just need to be patient.  Hopefully by July 7th I'll have my tanks in place and be able to start my sanitation process. 

In the meantime I've put the finishing touches on my entry door.

I've started working on my island project.  All that's left is to finish the counter top and attach the legs.

I stained the legs to match my dining room set.

I've moved 85% of my stuff out of Mom's house, but I keep finding more things tucked away in drawers and cabinets.  I've set up a temporary living room upstairs, and a work space in the dining room.

I had to purchase a new futon mattress, as the other one had been defiled by the mice.  For the first few weeks I slept on the futon, but I have since purchased a new bed frame.  Unfortunately, I have not purchased a new mattress for it, so I'm still sleeping on the futon mattress.  Not the most comfortable thing, but it'll do for now.  

What you don't see is the piles of boxes and storage bins and bags everywhere.  I haven't even started on the downstairs rooms.  My refrigerator finally showed up, and I love it.  I'm still looking for a decent hood vent, though.  I've borrowed a knife, fork, and spoon from Mom to use until I can sanitize my own flatware, and I'm eating off of paper plates, but it's all good.

I've also done some outside projects. I finally buckled down and created some holding beds for my shade perennials and got those planted.  They were very happy to be out of pots for the first time in nearly three years.  Unfortunately, there wasn't enough room for the hostas, so they have to wait for another bed to be created.

The veggie garden is coming along nicely.  I've already pulled the radish and have been harvesting lettuce, peas, and strawberries galore.

I had our guy Corey come by with his tractor a couple times so far.  Yesterday he moved the deck frame (which we have the go-ahead to use as a deck off the back of my house) and my soaking tub into my back yard area, then I had him spread some of that massive topsoil mound around to soften the lines of the lower driveway area.  

I also had him pull the tree out that fell in my fence area on the mule track, and cut down the nasty cherry tree out back that had been damaged over the winter.  It was right behind where the tub is now.

I've planted some creeping thyme in the back yard, but I don't want to do any landscaping out there until the deck is on and I have a fence up, which might not be until next year.  

I still have the mule track to work on, and the tiered garden bed project is completely stalled.  I definitely have enough to keep me busy right through until snow flies, that's for sure!