Fran Sale Stafford

Oh Blessed Lawn Equipment

A few weeks ago, I wrote that the riding mower cable to drive the blades broke and the gas “you push it” mower wouldn’t start. They were both hauled to the repair shop two towns over and “rested” there for 2 weeks before both were returned in good working order. Grandson mowed once for me just before leaving to visit his other grandparents for the month. I mowed again a couple weeks later, but it takes me at least two days to do what he can do in a few hours because the mower beats my back to spasms. Yesterday, the riding mower was backed out of the barn and about half the yard was mowed, at least the important parts near the house and between the house and the garden, and then it just quit. Thinking it needed fuel, the tank was filled and still it would turn over, but not start. The remaining part over to the coop was mowed with the push mower.

Fortunately, it was uphill from the house when it quit. This morning, I hooked up the utility trailer and backed it up to the embankment and hubby and I rolled the mower down the embankment and onto the trailer and hauled it back to the repair guy. As soon as he turned it on, he knew the problem, clamped off the gas line and replaced the gas solenoid (didn’t know it had one or what it was). All this was done without even taking it off the trailer. Paid him $20 and left with the mower. After our walk and return home, the mower unloaded and most of the rest of the area was mowed. As I was going around the barn, I spotted blackberry canes full of berries and since I was wearing a straw hat, I picked them using the hat as a basket.

There is another patch at the top of the hill which still needed to be mowed, but the dratted mower either broke the blade belt or threw it just as I started up the hill. In frustration, the mower was parked back in the garage until I can check to see if the belt is broken or just off the pulleys. If it jumped the pulleys, it is probably stretched enough that it will break soon. It has been an issue getting the correct size belt for it. If the model number is entered, the belt suggested by Lowes is too small. The repair shop that used to deal with the mower knew which belt it took, but they are out of business/retired, and the guy that has repaired it twice this summer doesn’t have the belt size recorded.

Much of what gets mowed with the riding mower can be done with a brush hog, but ours gave up several years ago and hasn’t been replaced. Equipment is so stressful. Maybe I need sheep and goats.

Hot summer

The world seems hot, wild fires, drought. Our garden hasn’t been watered except rainfall and two other well water sessions, but the weeds don’t seem to care. It was looking terrible yesterday, so the line trimmer was taken over to attack the paths. The deadnettle has been regularly weeded from the tomatoes and peppers and when I see it in the beans, the copy cat weed. As the trimming was being done, there were many blueberries to be picked, a total distraction, but also realization that if weedwacking was done there, it would damage many low branches of those shrubs. That put me on hands and knees to pull all of the grass and the insidious creeping weed that is trying to overtake the garden, but the blueberries are clear for now and the corn bed was done too. Doing that showed that the only pumpkin that came up was gone. Seminole pumpkins take 60-90 days and we have that much time before first frost, so this morning, more were planted.

In the cooler part of the morning, today, the last of the spring peas were picked, providing about 8 ounces of shelled peas. A basket full of green snap beans also picked, a handful of blackberries. The blueberries and blackberries were added to my bag of frozen smoothie fruits, a favorite summer breakfast.

After lunch and our hot walk, more time was going to be spent in the garden, planting the fall peas, fall potatoes, and preparing the bed that will be beneath the little greenhouse for carrots, radishes, spinach, and komatsuma, but just as I reached the back door, we were given a severe thunderstorm warning that produced lots of noise and light close by, but almost no rain. It seems to have passed, so a bit more work will be tackled out there to get the fall garden started. The green beans from the first planting provided 3 more pounds today but are no longer flowering, there are a few more to harvest, and the second planting is coming along nicely and just beginning to flower. The later ones are never as good, but if picked young enough, can be frozen or made into dilly beans for later in the year.

The garden really needs a real compost bin system or compost tumbler. I’m in a bad habit of weeding and leaving the weeds to compost in the paths instead of turning them into usable soil. This morning’s weeding was at least added to the pile, but yesterday’s weeds need to be cleared and put in the pile, and the pile needs to be turned.

This is the time of year when the garden had gotten ahead of me and a few days of work put it back into a friendlier place that doesn’t frustrate me when I see it.

The storm was short lived so another couple of hours were invested, the fall potatoes and fall peas were planted. The spring potato bed was smoothed and the greenhouse frame set in place to show position of the rows for the other fall seed that will be sown this week. As soon as it was done, rain started to provide a heavy shower to settle the seed in. Another shower is expected before dark.

I opened this house while smoothing the bed, to remove old nests and found these feathered little ones staring back at me. That task can wait for another day. I didn’t see Mom so I’m not sure what they are as I didn’t want to disturb them too much. There has been an Eastern Bluebird gathering food lately, so maybe hers.

Though I’m not much of a selfie person, I had to take this photo in front of the tallest sunflower, I can’t even reach the top.

The cleaned up garden. Some weeding along the fence is needed, but that too will have to wait for another day.

The first tomatoes are coming in, the pepper plants all have some peppers on them, the cucumbers are growing, but not producing yet. We will take what we get. The Pinto beans are beginning to dry. It doesn’t look like there will be a great number, but fun to have grown my own bed of them for the first time. Maybe next year there will be a large bed of them and forego the corn that really hasn’t done much.

During all of this, spinning and knitting is still in the works. The monthly challenge is a scavenger hunt with spindle photographed with the item. And some of the spinning from last month and early this month is being knit into a chemo cap as a tribute to my friend that passed from cancer earlier this summer.

The Farm Provides

I am not an off the grid homesteader by any stretch, but in the 16 years in the house, 6 apple trees, 2 Asian Pear trees, 3 peach trees (though only 1 survived), a plum, 8 blueberry bushes, thornless raspberries and thornless blackberries have been added. With this is the vegetable garden, growing potatoes, sweet potatoes, sugar snap peas, shelling peas, bush green beans, Pinto beans, cucumbers, 4 types of hot peppers, 4 types of tomatoes, Seminole pumpkins, and hopefully some corn. There is a grape vine, but for the second year in a row, something has gotten all of the grapes before they ripened for harvest. Last year I blamed the deer, but netted it this year and have found the chickens under the net, so I think they may be the culprits. The fields are surrounded with wineberries and wild blackberries. There is a coop with 13 mature hens. Though the berries don’t produce a lot, there are some to freeze for yogurt smoothies and enough wild berries to make a few jars of jam. The peach tree is full of ripening fruit, the apples and Asian pears also, though the deer keep them pruned fairly high.

Yesterday, the spring planted potatoes were dug and even after several meals worth having been dug around the edges, there were 46+ pounds of Kennebeck and Russet potatoes in varying size from slightly smaller than a golf ball to decent sized ones. The ones that are very small and the ones that were close enough to the surface to be greened with Solanine, will be replanted toward the end of the month for fall potatoes. The rest will be cured then packed in wood chips for storage. Most of the peas are already harvested and some frozen, but yesterday the harvest also provided more than 4 pounds of green beans to be processed into dilly beans or blanched and frozen for winter use. The second planting that was put in late last week are emerging, and there are still many beans developing on the first planting.

The chickens that went through two heat domes and three broodies, are back to providing a decent amount of eggs. Last night there were 11 from the 13 hens, so they will stay and produce until next year’s batch are raised and laying next spring. The molt in the late fall will halt production while they grow new feathers, and by then it will be cold enough that few eggs will be laid.

A fall seed order is being planned and ordered. With the little greenhouse purchased in early spring and the 12 foot fiberglass hoops that are currently holding up net over the blueberries, there will be two areas of protection for fall veggies to supplement the hydroponics that provide winter lettuce. Hopefully, the garden will continue to give until a hard freeze takes it out.

Now with the bees, in a year, we will have all the sweetener that will be needed for us. We don’t hunt, don’t care for wild game, don’t raise cattle, pigs, or meat chickens, so we will never be totally self sufficient, but the fruits, vegetables, eggs, and honey cut the grocery bill, especially with prices rising. With the Farmer’s Market, I can get whatever meat is needed as well as cornmeal, oatmeal, and whole wheat flour, cheese, and any breads I don’t want to bake. This keeps most of our groceries local, keeping me busy, and helping support the local farms. In the fall, when the You Pick blueberry farm near us opens, more berries will be added to the freezer for muffins and smoothies. Even the milk for the yogurt comes from a local dairy, packed in returnable glass bottles.

Today, the potatoes will be spread to cure, the beans processed for later use, and clean up of the dusty footprints from someone with very high arches that chose to dig in sandals last night.