HighButtonShoe,
the farm update
August 31, 200
...the last day of August. The
last day of summer, perhaps. While I know the calendar deceives us into
thinking that we still have summer left until the official day of fall, we
who live here know the difference. It has had the 'feel' of autumn for
weeks now. Indeed, this morning when I got up, the deceptive sunshine did
not let on, that is was only 34.6 degrees and I feared my flower garden
that is so magnificent right now would have frost on it. The late evening
11PM news hinted at 'frost advisory', which leaves me wondering what is
the difference between advisory and warning and actual, yup my plants are
all dead?
After the morning chores of to
the polebarn to get the turkeys some breakfast, I wandered over behind the
house to the new flower bed that is SO magnificent with all the zinnias,
bachelor buttons, 4 (who planted those?) large sunflowers, my favorite of
the entire bed...it is absolutely FULL of poppies..FULL, and other plants
that I don't know the name of, as I just emptied many packets together and
threw them on the black dirt. They continue to thrive and have beauty,
even if I don't know their names.
It appears they may have made
it thru the night. I had hoped for another month of their beauty. Giving
them time to let the seeds for next year mature. I may not be given that
time. Drats!
With hooded sweat shirt, 2
shirts, jeans and shoes along with baseball cap I mowed the lawns late in
the afternoon yesterday and mowed the barnyard. I should have had on long
johns to boot as it was cold, with a cold wind. Yesterdays high was 61.
The rain we continue to get has made the lawns lush this summer (a term I
am most generous to use, as this was a non-summer), and all the new
grasses we planted have thrived and are most beautiful. We rarely had to
use hoses. We (the singular HE, not the plural him and me ...Ronnie) did
replace the hose that drenched me each time we used it, and there were
only a few days that a good drenching would have cooled me down from
scorching temperatures.
I am, however, content, with
the end of summer, which is a rare event.
I am planning to take the
summer things off the porches and decks, and put them up in the barn. The
yard chairs and the old wicker chairs will be put away. I don't usually do
these tasks this early. I have been known to be found out in the first
snows, taking in the collections of empty terracotta pots that are
everywhere. Not this year. I am ready. Write that down, this is not an
often event.
Looking back over the past 3
months, I am not sure I have accomplished much. The boxes in the barn were
barely touched. I did little in the pole barn with boxes either. I think
perhaps I spent too much time, sitting on that porch with coffee just
watching the day unfold. Or in the living room watching the sun cross thru
the french doors and flood the room with sunlight and shadows.
I did go thru several boxes in
the basement, and have a good idea what is there and where it is.
Temporarily, anyway.
I spent a lot of time
outdoors, admittedly with long underwear and a sweatshirt on, but still
outside.
It would be a good time to
start rounding up gloves and such. And my old trusty nasty hat. I have
even had occasion this summer to mow grass with my Japanese bomber style
hat on, that the flaps tuck down under your neck to cover your ears. I am
telling you it was COLD! Like one sock, gloves seem to only come in 'one'
here, rather than a pair. If you manage to find 2 gloves, they don't
match. I think I am doomed to go thru life, with one black and one gray or
brown glove. And if I have any luck, I will find my one orange glove, so I
can wander back into the fields and trees to begin my annual search for my
Christmas tree, while I can still clearly see the ground. This season,
that will be done with my cell phone, a whistle or bell perhaps, perhaps
the .22, and whatever arsenal I can carry and still navigate. The black
bear is here. While my tree search last year did not have him breathing
down my neck, I want to take NO chances this year.
Who would have thought picking
out a Christmas tree could be so traumatic/dramatic?
I am still mourning the loss
of Ruth Rochelle, as many of us are. I am not mourning Fritz the Anaconda,
whose demise came not by my hand but Ron's haybine. However, as Ron
'lured' me up to the barn to see something, and thought we should walk
around the back of the barn in the second cutting of hay, I walked, WITH
SHOES ON, in the track the wood truck had made thru the hay with his big
dual wheels and realized a Fritz-ling was slithering along in the same
tire track only feet ahead of me. I managed to stifle a scream that would
have alerted the neighboring farms that a snake was sighted, and only
merely TOLD Ronnie there was a snake. I don't believe I even used a
profanity, which generally occupys the same sentence as any snake
sighting. Ron, my hero, but not a snake killer, went ahead of me and
scared the snake off into the taller hay. And I followed behind in my tire
path, now watching intently for any other of the 'lings', darn that Fritz
anyway. Did I not tell you that he would find some way to even the score?
Ronnie was looking at the old
apple tree up west of the barn that is filled with apples to harvest in a
while. Grass up to my butt, surrounds it. If he thinks I am going
to be picking apples, he is mistaken. We have been making
applesauce and apple pies, for weeks, from the transparent tree that is
producing for the first year ever. And the pear tree is loaded too,
although not ready.
It is truly harvest time. I
haven't seen any pumpkins or gourds yet in the market. After the one gourd
rotted on my old wood floor this spring, having been there doing quite
well all winter, well until it rotted, I am now banned from having a gourd
sitting on the floor. This man simply has no sense of adventure. Except
for apple trees surrounded by butt high grass with a possible Fritz-ling,
of course. I have come to believe that men and women have different
sources of adventure.
I told you a couple weeks ago,
that I...me, the computer challenged of the entire decade, made me a
picture trail. Well. I planned to continue adding to it. And I am.
Over the weekend, I added more
pictures and yet again this morning. It is my plan (of which I am SO
famous for...NOT) to continue to add a few new things every day or so. AND
best part. I have reduced the prices on MANY of the things I have offered
for sale in the past. So please continue to check.
Also as I am no longer a part
of host sites, I don't write updates on them. But continue to check the
work of
And lastly, another very
sweet and talented girl is trying to do some good works in the form of
sales/raffles and such to help her brother in law who was hurt very badly
in an accident in July. Sandy Holt from Missouri Dry Goods. Find her at
www.picturetrail.com/missouri_dry_goods
Also, check the work of Dawn Gunning of
Okay, I am finishing up some
housework this morning and off to Bevins Crossing this afternoon for work.
Irene is coming to see my great flower garden this evening and I would
like to have the porch looking fall-ish, instead of dead-ish summer. I
have dried gourds by the boxes. Don't you just love dried gourds? Me too.
Obviously.
Remember on my picture trail,
as I am not making any new folk art, that most of the things shown are One
of a Kind. So it is a first come first email or call received type of
sale. And watch for sales in ALL albums! Sneaky, ain't I?
Oh, and if you have a website
or picture trail and want to link to my picture trail, let me know. I know
how to do that! I know. You simply don't believe it. He-- hath indeed
frozen over...
Thanks for asking to be a part
of the farm and our life here.
Should you not, merely reply
with remove.
in fond regard, Tilda
computer literate, kind of
need a hair cut, actually
content,
following new journeys