Picture This ... and That!

Being mildly introspective (and needing to review some pictures for presentations this winter).  I thought I'd share a few pictures - some of which have already seen time on the blog.  But, rather than linking you to them -here they are.

The winter had moments of sheer beauty - complete with some beautiful hoar frost.  We should have known.  The last time we saw this much hoar frost was the Winter of 2007-2008.  Hmmmm.

 

And, there were bee hives on the farm for the first time.  There is still significant activity by these hives in October.  In fact, September and October have been the best months of the season for the bees.

And, the building that just won't go away -went away more early in the season.  Still more to do on it, but isn't that always the way of things on the farm?

 The temporary green cold frames only lasted for two seasons at most.  And, they have a tendency to break loose and fly away in a strong wind.  So, new cold frames from reused windows and wood began to appear.

The driveway became a good place to harden plants off.  This way, we weren't killing off any grass, water was nearby and we could keep an eye on things.   The problem was - we had all of this stuff to plant - and no place to plant them!

The garlic did reasonably well this year.  They survived the winter fine and looked good in early June.

But, the first signs that there were troubles came in late May and early June.  When it rained, it rained hard - crusting the soil over and inhibiting germination of early crops.

Then, the rains really came.  Only five days in the month of June saw no rain at all.  Many rainfalls were, shall we say, a bit excessive.   The first picture shows our peppers in June.  The second shows them on (get ready for this)...Labor Day.  As you can see, we did cultivate - so you can't blame the weeds.

In early July, we held a two day field day and put up a moving high tunnel.  We had several attendees and the tunnel was mostly up by the end of Friday.

And, in September - we have melons, tomatoes, peppers and green beans growing happily. We have harvested a few green beans and peppers.  The melons may still yet give one or two, as may the tomatoes.  It was an experiment - successful in that we learned some things about growing in the tunnel.  We knew the planting was late and expected little production.

And, so, fall plantings are where it is at this year.  The loss of some crops allowed us to spend a bit more time keeping the fall crops weeded and mulched.

And then, there is the Poultry Palace - or Poultry Pavilion...  There is now a nice room in there for turkeys and plans for two more rooms for critters.

And, the turkeys enjoy their new pasture and seem to be respecting the new fenceline.

And, then, there were sunsets like this one.  Reminding us to slow down and enjoy our lives and the place we now live.