November 4th: October had several surprises here at the Schlaver Seed Farm.The biggest weather surprise had to be the record-breaking October snow storm. Right before Halloween 5 plus inches of heavy, wet snow hit, bringing down many branches still full of leaves and for many, but not me, power loss. An "extra" visit from the Brooklynites let them enjoy the snow experience here. As the pictures show below, one day Cotton was having his final fling with his sandbox and Hot Wheels jeep and the next day he was making snow angels with his mom.
Earlier this month my sister, Marcia, made her first visit here from her home in Michigan and kept busy shelling beans for me while catching up with family tales and news. David was able to show off his nearby condo to her as well. He traveled to Notre Dame after she left for a long overdue visit back there and missed the snowstorm. A few remnents of the snow are still here as the nights are cold and the days are sunny but fairly cold. The first hard frost only happened on the night befor the snowstorm that hit October 29th so it was a long growing season. When the frost hit the beautiful dahlia blooms ended their showy display. Now I have to cut back the debris and dig all the tubers as well as the gladiola tubers for winter storage. This is one of the several garden cleanup tasks remaining.
While I have had to wait several days for the snow to melt and the leaves to dry again so they can be gathered, I was able to borrow a powerful wood splitter from a friend. I had a big stash of cut logs from recent tree cutting and gathering so was able to tackle the splitting with this machine instead of the backbreaking wood of hand splitting with my trusty maul, axe and wedges. For four days I went at it for about 4-5 hours per day and now have about two full cords of split wood for next winter. I need to now stack and cover it for the year-log seasoning process. I have plenty of wood already set for this winter. I put a small amount on the deck right near the door and the wood stove; another small pile in the garage near the ready-to-go snowblower and have big stacks in other nearby locations that I access throughout the winter. The splitter was still a grueling task for so many hours as many of the logs were big and some were in four foot sections so they needed to be cut with the chainsaw first to stove-sized length. I could not' be happier though, to now have so much of next year's supply in hand. I will be even happier when it is all stacked for that is a pretty big task remaining to be done.
November will be focussed on final garden cleanup and leaf gathering now. Many tasks remain such as protecting the strawberry and asparagus beds, and removal of the remaining plant debris. The only crops still in the garden are some leeks and some horseradish awaiting harvest. I continue to sell my jam, salsa and pickles and many beans are still piled up awaiting shelling. I made a big pot of chili this week using some of the recent bean harvest...it was good!
