Puca time!

Our berry patch out front usually gives us the first sign of the end of summer. For weeks straight, we're able to pick more berries than fit in the freezer. But eventually a day comes where the berries look good from a distance, but on closer inspection are all funky. Some have slug tracks, some are already rotten and dropping off, and some never really get ripe. We call this "berries gone puca". What the heck is a puca, you ask?

The Puca (also spelled Pooka, Puka, Puck) is a supernatural creature mostly associated with Ireland, West Scotland and Wales. It can take a variety of shapes, dog, rabbit, goat or goblin, but a large black horse with glowing golden eyes is the most common form. It has the power of human speech, and legends abound in Ireland of people seeking advice from a Puca, which are probably remnants of pre-christian religious rituals. Pucas are also known to abduct unwary nighttime travellers, taking them for a wild ride, then leaving them unharmed where they were found.

An ancient agricultural custom was that any crops left unharvested after Samhain (Oct. 31/Nov. 1) belonged to the Puca, and anyone gathering them would also gather the ill-will of the Puca. Parents would warn their children not to eat these crops by telling them they would make them sick. In many areas people would proactively leave a small portion of their crops in the field, called the Puca's share.

If you'd like to read more about this creature, including how one was tamed by Irish high king Brian Boru, check out these links:

The Pooka

Taming the Pooka

Our garden is just about done for the year. We left plenty for the Puca, and still have a lot of broccoli, chard, lettuce, kohlrabi & carrots planted for winter harvesting. Sitting on the gravel pad where the greenhouse used to be is about 20lbs of carrots, and a kohlrabi the size of a bowling ball. Doug & Buddy had fun gnawing on it. After 4 years of trying to integrate the greenhouse into our food production, we decided we could do without it. Four-season gardening is a wonderful thing, but we'd really rather take winters off and eat canned, dried & frozen harvests. The back porch will be mostly enclosed soon and will be an excellent place for seed starting, which is pretty much all we used the greenhouse for. The greenhouse has gone to its new home with our Endorean friends.

Last of the peppers! We pickled all of these, using a fridge-pickle recipe. We noticed that canning them in the hot water bath makes them not keep as well, and with a 2nd fridge in the shop, we have room for them.
Some of the squash have made it inside for their pre-storage heat treatment. They keep longer if they get a week or so in warm temps. When they're done by the woodstove, they'll go on a metal shelving unit in the pantry.

A persistent visitor to the sunflower feeder. I'm not sure if this woodpecker was after seeds or bugs living in the seeds, but it spends a lot of time at Seven Trees.

If mama's not happy... nobody's happy!

But this little bull packs a wallop too. This is young bull Ryder... small and cute you say? Yes, but also between 320 and 370 pounds, well over 2 to 2 1/2 times my weight. Something I became all too familiar with when he escaped his digs the other night when mama cow Stella had a yelling fit middle of the night this week. The episode was so traumatic, had us both rethinking cattle all together...

The mistress of malfeasance herself with her not so much a baby anymore Douglas. Stella is locked away from Douglas at about 5:00 PM on milking days so we can get that evening's milk come 4:40 AM the next day. Well Ms. Stella has been starting to self-wean Doug, so she isn't letting him nurse much at all, which means her bag gets full and uncomfortable very fast. Sometime between 2:00 and 3:00AM Monday night Stella started yelling for Doug for just that reason, and him being locked away meant he couldn't respond. Of course we woke up at the squalling as no doubt half our neighborhood did. A bellowing cow has the volume of something between a full volume trombone and a ferry horn. She's was very LOUD and very upset. All the excitement and stress got new bull baby Ryder completely worked up. When I went out to check on why all the noise was happening in robe with flashlight in hand that was all too much for Ryder who bolted through a hot wire behind his pen. Unfortunately, I'd had to unplug it to go out and check on everyone. Ryder tore through several other paddocks, tearing down the fence all the way as he tried to get to Stella in the ajoining paddock. I think he was close enough to having been weaned that he sees her as mom, and was more than happy to come help her out by nursing if he could get to her. He was pretty scared no doubt of course as well, being in strange new place. Fortunately (or unfortunately) for me he had a rope halter with a trailing rope still on and Stella is in a hard fence paddock, so he bounced off that fence, and I was able to get close enough to grab the trailing end. The fight was on as Ryder wanted nothing to do with a scary human in nothing more than her robe, carrying a blinding flashlight. He bolted and I hung on, and on, and on. I got drug around pretty good a few times, but would then get to my feet and brace against him. There were a few times we'd both stop and pant, each staring at one another, straining on our respective lead rope ends. Not sure if any one else remembered, but there was actually a meteor shower that evening, so as I sat straining on the rope, several of them shot across the sky. It's just too bad I wasn't really in a position to truly appreciate them. I knew that if I let go of the rope I'd never get Ryder back in, so I kept easing up, working him up to the barn, between bouts tug-of-war, getting drug, flashlight flying one way, me the other, scraped knees, rope burned hands, a few bruises no doubt on both of us in the process. FINALLY I got him close enough to the run-in I was able to get the rope around a 4 x 4 post and anchor him. The entire time we fought, Stella screamed incessantly, so it was about then that J came out and asked me, "Is everything all right?"
No, no it wasn't of course! It took both of us to drag resisting Ryder back into his area, and tie him off again. He darn near drug us both around the home paddock all over again just as above, but we somehow held on until he was secured. Still had Stella to deal with though, so J marched her right into the milking stall, got her milking gear, cleaned the cow up and got to milking. Then we both tried to get an hour's sleep before we got up to the alarm... not much luck there as we seriously questioned whether we may have gotten in over our heads!

Had a lot of this stuff on me the other night. If you think cattle might be the thing for you keep in mind that there's a lot of this involved! And late night rodeos too...

Fortunately we are pretty handy, so I spent most of Tuesday making Ryder a stall where he will remain, until he recognizes this place as home, and there is abslolutely no chance Stella can convince him to break out. I spent a little time working with Ryder as well, and he was a lot calmer. Pretty spent no doubt from the night before, just like me. Also repaired all the fence damage and when J got home we got to work on the stanchion shown above and below, modeled by our steer boy Douglas.

Doug fought a bit, but once I showed him the grain pan, then that was an OK place to be, stanchion or no. Trick is to get Stella and Ryder in it. Stay tuned for all your rodeo action here!

Also no, none of our battle royale was caught on video or still pictures. It was just me, Ryder and the eternal stars watching, or so I dearly hope...

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.