Road to Emmaus: Fall rush

It's that time if year that tends to be very hectic on a homestead. You're busy trying to get summer projects finished, like garden produce preserved and stored away. There's plenty of things to do to get ready for winter, such as cutting and stacking firewood. Couple that with shorter days and it's a rush to squeeze everything in.

I'm happy to report that the pasture/hay I seeded down a month ago looks beautiful. Hopefully it gets another month to grow and establish roots before snow and winter set in. The main advantage as I see it to fall planting of hay is that all the annual weed seeds will germinate and sprout in the fall, and then die over winter. I expect this will greatly reduce the number of weeds we end up with in the spring. Plus, there is now a patch of lush green grass to draw deer to my treestand?

I continue to make whatever hay I can. It's particularly hard to make hay this time of year because hay just doesn't dry out. I was fortunate to have 5 days of dry, relatively warm weather to make a final patch of hay. This was piled on the top of the hay stack and left uncovered, to further cure in the sun and wind, until just before it rained, when I put the tarp on the pile. I believe this is one advantage to outdoor haystacks as opposed to making bales: because the hay is not packed tightly in bales and stacked in a barn, it continues to have an opportunity to breathe and cure out.

In addition to hay, I will need some bedding for our steer through the winter. I'll likely buy some straw or cornstalk bales, but I do want to try and begin making use of what I have. I've considered a few options. First, I have some old farm found that is overgrown with tall grass and small trees. I cut some with my sickle mower and if it ever dries out, I'll stack it and use it for bedding. An added bonus is that by getting the old hay off now, the fired will have a chance to grow back with lush green grass next spring that I can graze and/or make hay. Second, I still have the patch of dried out sweet corn stalks. I'm going to cut them down and lay them in the cow pen. At a minimum I'll use them to create the base, which will encourage drainage. Third, as we dug potatoes today, we raked back all the hay we had piled on as compost this summer. I might use some of it as bedding as well. Finally, I'm going to try using fall leaves for bedding. They come nice and dry and are free for the taking. Regardless, in the spring the whole works will go on the compost pile.

I still have a few fall garden crops, such as broccoli and cauliflower, and will be planting a patch of garlic this fall. We even had some fresh watermelon today while we were digging potatoes. Delicious.

We've recently started using the wood cook stove in the mornings to warm the cabin up. It's a great opportunity to heat our water and cook some eggs for breakfast.

Here are some pictures from the last month or so.