Fall has fallen

The image above is is of Persephone, by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, a Pre-Raphaelite painter.

In Greek mythology, the start of autumn coincides with the time the goddess Persephone returns to the underworld to live with her husband Hades. Persephone was abducted by Hades who fell in love with her and took her to the underworld. Persephone's mother, Demeter, goddess of grain and the harvest was so distressed by the loss of her daughter that in her grief, she withdrew her nurturing presence from the earth. Flowers wilted, and crops on earth died and became dormant. The earth became cold and barren.

It was eventually agreed that Persephone could return to her mother for two thirds of the year but would spend the remaining months with Hades. While Persephone is with her husband in the underworld, seeds lie hidden in the barren ground and when she returns to her mother, Demeter celebrates by resuming her divine duties and restoring fertility to the earth. Seeds burst forth in crops and fruits and life reborn.

We're still madly harvesting and putting up food for winter here at Seven Trees, but things are starting to wind down. Check out Newt, taking a break in a wheelbarrow of hay.

What are these two looking at? They were watching the mini-rodeo as we wrestled with Buddy.Buddy in the stanchion, getting his halter adjusted. Not long before Buddy & Doug will do their part in the cycle of farm life and feed us for a good long time. For now, we're giving them lots of treats and all the hay they can eat.

Is it spring yet?

It's that scary-licious time of year when we have to put down the seed catalogs and place our orders. Time to commit to a list of plants, and hope to get a year's worth of produce from them. Most of 2009's veggies are return visitors, but we're adding a few we've never tried before.

The picture above is Detroit Dark Red Short Top from Fedco Seeds, who say:

"Introduced 1892 and still the standard late variety for home gardeners and canners. Globular smooth uniform beets with tender oxblood-red flesh. This short top strain had the best roots in our evaluations."

Beets seem pretty happy here, especially with all the compost we add to the garden soil. We've grown Early Wonder Tall Top, which was good for fresh eating & pickling, but the greens were a bit iffy. Bulls Blood was a red-leafed variety we tried too. The "greens" were wonderful, with a deep purple-crimson color. The roots themselves were good, but stayed small. Since we get lots of wonderful greens from chard & spinach, we're going to concentrate on beets for pickling this year.

Most gardeners in the PNW were challenged by the cold spring of 2008. Plants just didn't want to grow! We ended up replanting more than one kind of veggie because the seeds rotted in the ground. Everything eventually got into gear, but by then there just wasn't much time to set and ripen fruit. We would have had a bumper pepper crop judging by how many green ones we managed to pickle. But I really wanted to try those candy apple red Jimmy Nardello's or have some Cayennes mature enough to gring into red pepper flakes.

This year we decided to hedge our bets and look for short season peppers. After hearing good things about the Czech Black hot pepper from Fedco and a few friends, we're giving this black beauty (see picture above) a try. Fedco says:

"Black when immature, the 21/2" long conical fruits ripen to a lustrous garnet... Mild juicy flesh runs with a cherry red juice when cut. The heat, a tad less than a jalapeño’s, is in the ribs and seeds... 2-1/2–3' bushes bear very early, setting about 20 pointed thick-walled peppers per plant."

Now that the only plants left in the garden are these topless mangel beets, the hens can get to work tilling in all the compost piled on the garden rows. They really look forward to it and it's a big help working in all that raw material.

Warning! Gratuitous critter pics below.

Crichton assembled a hoard of catnip toys and proceeded to beat the crap out of them. As you can tell by the rest of the pictures, no one was impressed....

Hope springs eternal...

We've taken part in that annual leap of faith known as a garden, yet again. In the left foreground are tomatoes, 3 rows of potatoes near center, and onions, mangel beets & cukes to the left. In the left background are mixed rows of shallots, carrots, radishes, beets, kohlrabi, 3 kinds of lettuce, broccoli, and cabbage. There's corn near the fenceline and to the right are green beans (including 2 kinds right out of a Bosnian garden, thanks to a coworker) and onions.

Here's the squash pit. It was a giant heap of manure & straw that we cleaned out of Stella's stall last summer. After a good going over with a tiller, it was perfect for planting our butternut, buttercup & delicata squash. I had planned to grow Uncle David's Dakota Dessert squash this year, but somehow left it out of my seed order. We'll try it next year. We're already planning for next year's squash pit, and planning to dump this year's stall clean-out in paddock 2 to mature into another squash pit.

It's been so green and lush lately that even 3 cows can't keep up. So we need to scythe down the weeds and seedheads once in a while. Look at Doug peeking out from behind mom.

Fergus got a new swim jacket. He always gets tired while swimming at Birch Bay, and this helps him stay above water. He got the hang of it very quickly, but the water was still so cold he didn't swim long. Stew tore off a toenail in his rush to bolt out the back door the other night, and we though a saltwater swim might help. It didn't, but he looks to be healing up anyway.

Here's Maggie, demonstrating just how tense his life is. Or is he catatonic?

And Fergus, either doing his impression of Magnus, or maybe a roadkill possum.

We interrupt this blog for Critter Porn!

Will the rain EVER stop? I need more cud.

Where are the cat treats?!

Got your "partridge in a pear tree" right here... in our bellies!

Adore me in my basket.

Fetch my slippers... before I lose my temper!

Stew attempts for lift off velocity with his tail. Fergus is noticeably skeptical as any Corgi would be.

Not the flash... Doh!

Passed out from cute overload...

Gratuitous critter pics!

These two found a warm sunbeam to nap in.

Professional sleeper, Crichton, again, demonstrating the nose-down napping technique.

Newt showing her disdain for papparazzi.

Look at that gigantic, earnest mug. What a dork! A four-legged demolition derby with a non-stop tail.

And the (hopefully) pregnant princess herself. We'll be having the vet out soon to confirm. She should be just over halfway to her due date. Stella doesn't miss a meal, or a treat, or a nice scritchy either.

Weekend @ Seven Trees - in pictures

Tilling and Sick Chick

Tilling the garden here. Right after finishing this area, the belt on the drive belt stretched out and failed. It's my neighbors tiller, so even though the drive belt looked old and had several bad spots, I am still mortified. No place to get a new one on a Sunday here though.

The two black star chicks have just not been as healthy as the others. First one had troubles, and then the other got weaker and weaker. Last night we brought both in for TLC to see if we can pull them through. Now there's a chick brooder box in the bathroom and we are feeding then every few hours. I am crushing the chick feed down a bit more as a tleast for one chick the normal sized chick-starter just seems too big. He at least looks to be eating more now.

After working all day outside, Fergus shows us how to REALLY relax! Corgi-style...

Making Compost and Oh how they have grown!

Lovely compost being nurtured and turned. We'll add a third bay to the piles soon as Stella the cow is producing manure for the garden at a stellar rate. I am hard pressed to keep up!

Stewart now...

And then! So little. He now weighs over 82 pounds! Always a toy in mouth, do note!

Fergus all grown-up.

And as a wee baby, over 2 years ago now!

Spoiled boy Crichton these days.

And imp-kitten heart breaker in 2001.

It's a dog's life...