What a strange year it has been weather wise, but then again we probably make that comment most every year at some point. For us after many weeks of heat and drought, we are finally seeing some relief. I believe our area is still short 6+ inches of rain for the season, but at least the pastures have greened back up. We were actually feeding hay in August which is definitely not a good thing. The horses are enjoying being able to graze again and are taking advantage of the steady growth of grass. We hope to get a cutting of hay in the barn here in a week or two. The hayfield near us that was all burnt up now has some lush growth coming up. Hopefully that will fill our barn loft for winter. We have actually dealt with two light frosts in the last week. I expect that come October but not in September. Since we've been getting precipitation again, we've been able to get a productive fall garden that we hope won't fall victim to an early frost. The last two "frosty" mornings a light watering on the gardens/plants has kept the damage to a minimum. They are expecting a pretty widespread frost in our area overnight tonight. I have the hoses/sprinklers ready to kick on first thing in the morning, if we can get the plants through this night, they are expecting temps to warm back up for at least the next couple weeks. This will get us well into October and with just a few weeks left of Farmers Market for the season. I've never planted fall green beans until this year, and we have started harvesting some of the most beautiful, tasty green beans we've ever grown. They are virtually bug free and we got a large amount from our first picking. I've got a couple more rows blooming now too, lets hope they can all survive tonight and we should have quite a large green bean harvest still to come.
We ordered a couple dozen more meat chickens (although a week or two later than we probably should have) and about 30 more layers. They are doing well, partly since we are able to adjust some of the heat lamps as needed during the day to accommodate the swings in temperatures. The young pullets should start laying in about Feb-March which should work out well. The meat chickens will be butchered the first part of November, lets hope it's not too cold by then. I was a couple weeks later with these than I should've been. I like cooler weather to butcher in, but don't like it so cold that my fingers go numb. Our spring pullets/now layers are doing well, we are getting in the ball park of 3 dozen eggs a day. We've got some new customers to our Farmers Market stand to purchase eggs, we really enjoy meeting them and seeing repeat customers. We have worked really hard this year to provide a good quality product(produce,eggs,crafts) at a fair price so people can afford to buy good healthy products for their family and to even try new things that they may not otherwise by having it at an affordable price.
It's hard to believe fall is already upon us. I'm anxious to see if we have any fall color in our parts with all the drought this year. Fall is my favorite season, I love the colors, the crisp mornings and the whole change of season. With us doing Farmers Market this year, it seems the growing season has flown by even faster than normal. I better get going for craft season. Hard to believe, but for those of us that make/sell crafts in the fall and winter we are getting into "busy" season. It's hard for me to walk away from the gardens and switch gears to crafting, but it needs to happen if I'm going to have anything to give or sell this year.
One more trip outside for me tonight, top off feed/water for the little chicks, kick up the heat for the night in their room, let the dogs out once more and catch some sleep for it will be an early morning to keep the frost off the pumpkin vines, green beans, zucchini, squash, tomatoes, peppers, etc, etc.
