Missing Willow Farm

Halloween is tomorrow but my newest quilt won’t be done by then.  I’ve finished piecing the top, though, and learned a lot of new techniques doing it.  I still need to back it, bat it, quilt it and bind it.  Maybe by next year.

October is garlic planting month around here.  We purchased some red chesnok (paper bag) and music (red container) seed garlic from a local farm that produces acres of the stuff every year.  They specialize in garlic and raspberries, an odd combination.  The giant cloves in the glass bowl were saved from our garden, and include our blue ribbon winning garlic heads from the fair last month.  I don’t recall what kind it is, we save our own every year and only propagate the best.  I got the easy job, which was breaking the heads into cloves.  Brian did the planting.  We’ve got three raised beds dedicated to this stuff, 100 plants per bed.  You plant a clove of garlic then next  June you harvest a head of garlic.   If you’re in gardening zone 7, grab some garlic from your kitchen and stick a clove or two in the ground.  Next Summer, you’ll be happy you did!

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Finally made it out to the pasture to see our new chicks.  I didn’t go past the pasture gate because I’m still using a walker since my fall and didn’t want to get poop on it.  😛  My husband brought a few of them out in a bucket for me to see.  They’re already getting their big girl feathers which is good because it’s starting to get cold here, particularly at night.  These are a critically endangered heritage breed of chicken called buckeyes.  We don’t usually start chicks this time of year because of the impending weather but they were free so we’re going to give it a try.  We’ve already discussed moving them into a chicken tractor inside the big barn until they’re old enough to join our other layers in the little barn.

 

Haven’t yet made it out to the barn to see our new baby chicks, maybe this afternoon when my Aunt Carol and Uncle Lynn stop by for a visit on their big East Coast road trip.  I did, however, find this photo from a week ago in my camera.  Our beltie cow Jessica follows Jenna along the fence line whenever she sees her.  It doesn’t matter which direction Jenna is going, Jessica lopes along until she catches up.  She ignores the other dogs, it’s just Jenna she finds fascinating.  They have the same coloring, maybe she thinks Jenna is a tiny calf who runs really fast?

Horseback riding is something I haven’t done in 35 years.  I had a chance to go last Monday on a beautiful trail in the company of friends and a beagle.  Unfortunately, soon after I got this shot the horse took off and I came off.  An emergency room visit confirmed I have no broken bones, thankfully, but still couldn’t lift my left leg.  It’s been five days and I’m getting around OK with a walker.  The hospital gave me an NSAID pain reliever prescription (dude… seriously?)  Luckily we’ve got a stash of the good stuff from a 1999 surgery that’s still potent.  Since my fall, we’ve added 11 baby chicks to the farm that I haven’t seen yet.  As soon as I’m feeling up to a trip to the barn, I’ll post a photo.  Can’t wait to see them myself!

Anderson Cooper is what we decided to call our new ram.  Andy for short.  He’s a handsome silver haired gentleman and the ladies all love him.  🙂

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Jenna gets a chance every day to move our sheep around, whether they need it or not.  She loves it and it reminds everyone who’s the boss.  She’s very very good at it.  She came to us trained, so we had to learn how to give her herding commands.  I’m positive she’s way smarter than us about it.  She’ll occasionally shoot me a look like… Really woman?  Is that what you want me to do?   Smart girl.  She’s the perfect farm dog.

Autumn leaves won’t last long this year here in SW Virginia.  I think we’ve hit our peak, a weak earlier than usual.  We’ve had a few gloomy, rainy days which I love.  This is the view from our front door.  Greenhouse, raised beds, asparagus patch, playhouse complete with flagpole, satellite dish and mailbox (aka our garden storage shed) and our rowboat sitting on top of our dock neglected.  We haven’t been for a boat ride in a while.  I think we need to go fishing!

Hermione and CoCo come out of the barn to see what’s all the commotion.  The answer is the cow is being fed.  The other goats and sheep (who have already been fed) are trying to steal the cow’s food.  She’s bigger than everyone but doesn’t challenge them.  It takes our border collie Jenna to get them off of her food.  There’s lots of snarling and nipping going on.  Why don’t I have a photo of that?  The answer is pandemonium!  We normally feed the cow remotely but the goats got into our feed room last night and made a mess so she got fed by the barn today.  Thankfully, we keep our food in metal garbage cans so they just ran amok and scattered trash and electrical components around the pasture.  No over-eating, which can be deadly.  Never a dull moment on the farm!

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Jenna looks forward to heading out to the pasture every morning but not before a few rounds of retrieving her wubba.  Our steep driveway keeps her heart healthy.  It’s also her potty (see the little stream on the right)?  That’s some good peeing, Jenna!  I guess the world is a dog’s toilet when you think about it.