• On the Farm •

Oh the weather is changing! The cool nights and heavy dew have stimulated the shitake to bloom. Really neat to see. Matt and I moved the store of logs that we inoculated two years ago out into it's permanent yard in the woods. It was both fun and work to stack the logs in piles that I hope will stand until the logs capacity to feed the shitake is exhausted. Potato digging is ongoing and we are trying to do more each week. It looks like we are coming to the end of the Cranberry Reds but are just beginning on the All Blues. There are still fingerlings, two varieties of red potatoes, more rows of Caribe, and then we get to the white potatoes. I dug just one hill of the Onaway which we baked and boy were they delicious! Anya has had her  fill of the chickens making themselves at home around our house and on and off the porches and sidewalk so it's time to get them housed and out in the field. The pears are light this year, last year having been an abundant year and for the most part the apples are following suite. I set out irrigation tape on the lettuce which we've been planting and it looks great! I'm going to evaluate the acorn squash which is blooming magnificently right now and see if irrigation would be in order there. I have one order for goose and we are only going to kill 9 of the 15. The other three pairs we'll keep for goose eggs and goslings for next year. I harvested off the oats and unfortunately that was a bust. I may have mentioned that I punctured a front tire on the John Deere which I need to run the combine. That pushed my harvest back for three weeks by the time I managed this week and the grass in the field had gone to seed with the heat. Adding insult to injury,   I was distracted when I went over my final mechanical check of the combine before running it and missed the fact that the clean out on the hopper was open. So, I combined the oats, only to distribute them in an uneven stream along the ground. I did look to see if I could salvage any but the amount of grass seed was entirely too high. I'm going to have to check the screens and blower before I make another attempt. For now it's off to the shed for the winter with the combine. I had planned to make up a new batch of chicken feed blending oats and the winter wheat and corn. I'll just adjust the recipe and make a batch with what I have. It should be more than adequate to keep the chickens well fed. I rarely make mistakes like that with the combine but every now and then I get distracted and so it goes. Timing and focus account for much of the success and failure on a farm.

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