Timing.

With the onset of Fall, our daylight hours are shrinking fast.  I swear the days get shorter faster than they get longer.  Cripe.  Did that make any sense?  It's sort of like weekend time - it goes faster than weekday time.  Really.  I timed it.

Rising to the top of my list is setting up the timers.  I have a complicated system of timers on all my various light sources.  While I did invest in new solar walkway lights for the path from driveway to front deck, it's still pretty dark out here in the boondocks.  Phase One of the timer set-up is the goat barn.  This is very helpful in many ways - the goaties are happier when there is light in their barn at night and I am happy because I can close them in when I feed them and they are content to munch away.  That also saves me another trip out in the dark.   Where I sometimes meet creepies - like the opossum I almost tripped over a couple of nights ago.  We both shrieked.  Setting up this particular timer system is rather complicated.  It involves 2 and 3 prong plugs, multiple extension cords, and balancing the whole contraption up out of the reach of the ever-inquisitive goaties. 

Phase Two is setting up a light to come on in the living room so that the dogs aren't in the dark (which seems to be more of a worry for me than them), and allows a little more light to emanate out of the windows onto the front deck.

Phase Three are the festive and holiday-themed outdoor strings of lights.  My October string is orange and it's wrapped around the front deck.  That gives way to the red/white/green lights that adorn the front deck and along the fence line behind the driveway.  About mid-December, it is downright cozy out there. 

Phase Four - the final phase - is for the darkest nights and the longest part of winter.  Mid/late January to early March.  This is when I take pity on the chickens and put a light in their coop.  It has nothing to do with the fact that I am desperate for eggs about then.  Nothing at all.

How do you handle the short dark days?  I am always looking for inspiration.

Cookin'!

You can sure tell when Summer has transitioned into Fall - I am in the kitchen and happy about it!  This past summer had me avoiding it like the plague.  Thank goodness, there were no two-legged dependents relying on three meals coming out of that particular space in my house.  The only thing I was capable of in 90+ degree days with 150% humidity, was slinging some kibble in a bowl with a splash of heavy cream.  Heavy cream, you say?  Don't ask.

But now -- I was cookin' up a storm this past weekend:  deviled eggs and plum crumble (GF) to go with  fried chicken and the delicious (quinoa) pasta salad my sister made for our mother's surprise birthday picnic; then peach crumble made from the same recipe - not quite as good, but I ran out of plums; my new favorite soup, recipe borrowed from Kim's stellar weekly menu - always a source of inspiration, then a turkey meatloaf stuffed with spinach, accompanied by garlic smashed potatoes for Kay and Nick (rather bland - I forgot the cheese in the stuffing! - but they were kind and et it anyway), and, finally, some of Marianne's amazing pork chops, marinated in soy (Bragg's) and lemon and garlic (see recipe here).  I also squeezed in a round of cheesemaking and have a nice, fresh pound of mozzarella in the fridge. 

My second planting of lettuce - although spotty on the germination front - has yielded enough leafy greens to get me through a couple of weeks.  I'm glad I have the cold frame, as Tuesday morning's temperature (at 4:30) was 32 degrees!  I am going to try to plant some spinach in the 'bald spots' to see if I can keep this up throughout most of the Fall and Winter. 

Speaking of the garden, it is a sorry sight, indeed.  I have prepped two beds for the spring - one will be planted in garlic this fall.  I have to pull out the tomato plants - which are still loaded with tomatoes, but I am so beyond caring - and I am still hopeful that I may get two whole pumpkins and four whole winter squash out of my half acre (not nearly, but still...) of plants that got zapped by powdery mildew.  I will give them a couple more weeks, and then out they go.  I've got my seed garlic ready and will put it in Columbus Day weekend.  I still have to harvest and dry herbs, and transplant my rosemary plant to a pot for safekeeping over winter, and cut down the strawberries to be ready for their nice straw blankie.  The leaves are turning and it's time to tuck things in for the year.

Summer's Over!!!

Can I hear a few amens?  I was stumbling across the living room this morning at 4:30 (dog toys, mouse bits, gnawed marrow bones - it's a jungle in there) when I saw, out of the corner of my eye, a little green light...blinking at me.  What the?  Once I got a light on and let the dogs go barreling out, I realized it was the 'Icy Conditions' light on my new indoor/outdoor remote thermometer.  I repeat, what the??  Then I looked at the outdoor temperature:  34.1 degrees.  It's September 11, folks. 

So, even though it is forecast to go up to 80 tomorrow, I am declaring Summer officially O.V.E.R.  Just to prove my point, I pulled out the cucumber plants, which were way skeevy anyway.

The Pearlies spent a chilly night outside again.  After noodling it over this morning with my herbal tea and no breakfast (had to fast for 14 hours for a blood test - it's gruesome), I decided that, if the Pearlies were too stoopid stubborn to go inside a nice, warm coop for the night, Mohamed would bring the coop to them. Just call me Mohamed Sweezie Mohamed.  I am going to build an enclosure around their roosting area.  It's just what I need - another project.  On this subject, I had an interesting conversation with my doctor.  She has Guineas and likes them.  But her approach to her limited animal husbandry is, what she calls, the Darwin Approach.  She orders 50 keets from Murray McMurray and, after six weeks, lets them loose.  When they've all been either picked off or took off, she orders more.  I told her that I thought this approach was not a great omen for her patients.  She thinks I'm a riot.  I think I am serious.  My approach seems to be Marshmallow Woman - or, I Am Here For You, Please Make My Life A Living Hell.

Hoops are going up over the Swiss chard, which is healthy and dense.  Like nothing else in my garden.  I am still on a day-to-day watch with Flora, but we seem to be making a tiny bit of headway.  Kay (the Angel in cute acorn jewelry) came over on Sunday morning and we rassled sheep, goats and a camel.  They all got Ivermectin shots and Apria got wormed.  She is definitely a five-man project.  So everyone is done for now.  I just checked my second favorite apple orchard and they have apples, so an apple-picking trip may be in this weekend's forecast.  Everything on the job front is static, so I am taking the stance that no news is good news.