Chickens, Dry Beans and Fall Crops, Oh My!

Here we are, in the month of November and it feels like September.  I won't complain too much since this weather is giving me many more opportunities than usual to get things done without wearing as many layers of clothing as has often been the case in the past.  Besides, I am positive I will still have plenty to do once Mother Nature decides to turn on the A/C unit and I am also quite sure I'll be frantically trying to do a large number of things on the day(s) just prior to the "big freeze" that typically comes right before Thanksgiving every year.

Portable Fertilizer Units
Once again, we are making use of our portable fertilizer units who double up as a clean up crew.  Our third (and final) batch of broiler chickens for the year are cleaning up the Western 2/3 of our tomato/basil plot this year.  They've done a nice job kicking the straw mulch around and exposing the drip tape so it will be easier to remove.

These boys go to the park on Sunday!  Who wants some chicken on Monday?

We will be taking the broilers to the park on Sunday night and we would love it if a bunch of people told us they wanted some unfrozen chickens for eating.  We will arrange delivery points in both Waverly and Cedar Falls if we can get enough orders.

Four Leaf Clovers Are In There!
Take note of the nice clover in the path by the bush line.

I know the 4 leaf clovers are there - they told me so.

Beans, Beans, the Miracle Fruit
The dry bean harvest is one of those that always gets put off.  And put off.  And put off.  We grow bush dry beans and pole dry beans.  The bush dry beans are much harder to pick usually.  At least this year, we kept them weeded so it won't be a treasure hunt in addition to a harvest task.

Ok, I took a picture of the wrong section of fence....

The pole beans on the other hand, haven't been a consistent success for us because we don't always get the fencing up in time.  It's a time thing and just the way things go.  This year, we had a wonderful crew of Wartburg students come out for a "Work for your Supper" event today and we got all of the dry pole beans done.  Looking forward to some excellent eating with the True Red Cranberry and Cherokee Trail of Tears we grew this season.  The vines weren't as heavy as they have been some years, but I would call it at least an average harvest - which is fine with me.

Bucket List
My bucket list is different than most peoples' bucket list.

Give me some nice paint buckets and the bucket on the tractor.

Hey, I TRY to Tell You We're Still Growing Crops
This time of year I get the comment from numerous people that goes something like this:  "Well, I guess you're winding down now.  Surely everything must be in by now."

Nope.  And, the deer know it.

The deer were giving our daikon radish too much TLC, so we thought we'd make it much less of a positive experience.  Also in the picture are watermelon radish, mustard greens, arugula, spinach, turnips and short season radish.  We may need to add some row cover in a bit, but here's hoping we can get what we want out of most of this before that point.