The Monday morning usual garden photo. It is mid morning and the snow has been coming down lightly for a while now .
From our house looking down the valley mid Monday morning during the snowstorm.
Remembrance Day today and I always on this day each year think of my father in the RCN in WWII, my maternal grandfather gassed in France in WWI and invalided back home in 1916, my great uncle Arthur who served with the Canadian army in France in that same war. My great uncles Harry Nuttycombe and William Kirby died in France during WW I. My Dad’s best friend from West Brant, died when his ship HMCS Regina was torpedoed in the channel in 1944. I knew only my Dad but I remember the others. And many more.
Monday: Spent a lot of time trying to get photos posted to last week’s blog. I often have difficulty loading photos and it seems likely that the problem is that there is too much data moving around in the evenings as this is when I have the most trouble.
There is nor too much left in the garden and this is some of it. Small immature cabbage and cauliflower that will be good to harvest for the leaves.Enter a caption
Tuesday morning the photos were loaded without a problem. We got another bed of three rows of garlic planted in the ground and covered ready for the straw mulch. The final bed has been prepared and the three rows marked ready to pop the garlic cloves in. Snowflakes were seen very few and very briefly late in the afternoon. The first that I have seen this fall. Last week in another sign of late fall, Aerron saw a flock of about 30 trumpeter swans pass over on there southbound migration to overwinter on Chesapeake Bay. We see very few swans on the fall migration but many flocks are seen during March as they fly northwest.
Looking over the completely planted garlic patch filling up with snow.Enter a caption
Used the tractor to bring the chicken food in from the end of the laneway. We hooked it up to an old trailer that we had laying about for several years unused. We dragged it out, oiled up the ball hitch, set a piece of plywood on the flatbed frame and were ready. It was not until we had the load on that we could see that both tires were completely flat. One tire split when we tried to pump it up. tub e seems fine. We’ll see if we can find a replacement pair of 7.00 – 16 tires, the wheels should be alright. We finished planting the final bed of garlic late in the afternoon with a snow/rain mix falling lightly. We now will start spreading on a light covering of mulched leaves and the straw mulch. Hopefully we will have a great garlic harvest next summer.
Nell with tail to the wind. The other two horses were on the other side where there was more shelter from the wind but Nell seemed to be happy enough here. The horses are getting a ration with cracked corn to help them out a bit with the cold.Enter a caption
We were back at trying to fix the water supply problem to the house (also this supplies water for the garden, chickens and the horses) but the leakage site can still not be determined. The search goes on. We used the trailer with the flat tires to move some straw. The side walls on these old tires are strong enough to take an appreciable weight before looking too squished out. We bought a pair of new wheels and tires for the other old trailer that we have, it once was a snowmobile trailer, but have not yet got them on. The wheel nuts are a bit rusty and it will take two of us and careful tapping on the wrench to free them up for removal. Meanwhile they get a daily squirt of oil.
This lot of chickens is huddling in a corner both to get out of my way as I bring in food and water and to keep warm and away from the east wall which is a bit drafty. I kept their door closed for the day as they won’t go out and an open door will just cool down there house even more.
Winter it seems is here now though it is quite likely that we’ll have more days in November and even into December that are once more above freezing. But of course that may not be the case at all. I have not yet heard any forecasts for what the winter might be. Spring seems a long way off from this point. The snow has been coming down nearly all morning and the forecast is for more all the way into tomorrow. It is light but it does accumulate.
Devon Acres Organic Farm 