October

October found us doing a bit of harvesting. We hadn't planted a very big garden this year, mostly because we have a patch of swamp grass that needs dealing with and is right where the garden is supposed to go. To rid oneself of swamp grass (or quack grass as it's called here) you must plow and plow and plow again.It doesn't spread only by seed but by root as well so the roots need multiple breaking up. Of course we don't own the expensive but capable tractor to do such a job but will be hiring our neighbour who does. Hopefully he'll get one plow in before the ground freezes for the winter. It has been a dry fall and clay soil becomes like concrete so we are hoping for some rain to soften the ground first.

With the little bit of planting we did do, here and there, among old flower beds and in one patch Geoff rototillered up, we did pretty good! Almost felt like farmers we did! haha

Tomatoes LOVE clay soil. The patch they were in was too far from the house to do much watering, the hose isn't quite long enough and lugging pails gets old real fast! :)  But that's one of the pro's of clay, it holds water and nutrients well. We ended up with more tomatoes than we could have imagined during what ended up being a very dry summer! And there is no tomato like a home-grown, fresh-from-the-garden-tomato!!

I once read that if you are living on a new bit of land and are unsure of how the sun reaches all the parts of the garden, that you should plant inexpensive, sun-loving petunias all over. The ones that thrive are getting good sun exposure and those which languish poor sun exposure. Equipped with this knowledge you can confidently place more expensive plants in areas best suited for their growing preferences. 

I tried this here but used leeks instead

They grew, but they were the saddest leeks you ever did see. It took all six leeks to make any kind of difference in the chili. So now I know one place that doesn't get enough light to grow sun lovers!

The best thing about growing your own food is seeing the multiplication wonder that God started all those years ago in the Garden of Eden. You put little things in, you get lots out. A small bag of seed potatoes and even in our thick-like-cement-soil and lacking-in-rain-summer, we ended up with lots of yummy potatoes. (here is one place we failed, we didn't weigh the potato harvest) but we have been happily sampling it! Delish!

Basil, thyme and sage plants grew into small trees. Cool.  Perennials took. So we'll have herbal plants we can harvest from in the next few years. Lavender, Peonies, Evening of Primrose, Mugwort, May Apples, Echinacea, Citronella, Lemon Balm and Calendula.

The sunflower patch The Youngest seeded was impressive! Most of them towered so far above me I wasn't sure how we would harvest them! The blue jays notified us to their readiness. :)

We harvested from the abundant patches of Yarrow that we were so pleased to find on the property and made a batch of what is supposed to the best insect-repellent going. Being it's mostly vodka and chopped yarrow, we joke that should we be "pulled over" while wearing our bug-spray we hope the police officer believes us when we tell him why we smell like we do. ;) (Here's hoping we don't have hic-cups at the same time)

Well, writing this has been good for me. All summer I felt like we hadn't accomplished anything in the garden, but looks like we actually did get more done than I thought.

We are pleased to inform you that October was also the month that we started our Worm Farm!!

Yay eh?! :)  Worm What?!

I am not going to give you the low-down here, but here is a link if you are interested in knowing more!  It'll be a way we can produce some of the best-compost-going during the winter while we don't have chickens or pigs to feed our scraps to and have them turn it into fertilizer. :) 

The Whole30 Diet has been a game changer for me. I have decided to make it The WholeLife Diet. I am feeling so much better physically, mentally and emotionally that I have no interest in "going back to my old eating habits". I will not be eating it 100% of the time, but I am already discovering that when I do veer off and eat something from the ta-boo list I pay for it! It's not fun "paying-for-it" so I will do that as infrequently as possible. I highly recommend that anyone looking eat healthier or get a handle on a budding health issue (or even an old, persistent one) look into this lifestyle change.

October was also the month Geoff and I celebrated 28 years of marriage and 27 years of being parents! We thank God for each other and the many, many blessings He has given us over the years!

Here's where I will have to exercise self-control. October found us looking at a litter of puppies and picking one out for ourselves. (that same puppy is laying at my feet as I type this, but that is next months blog, not this one, so you'll have to wait!)  I put out on the Village Facebook page that we were looking for a "Heinz 57" puppy. We wanted to avoid the many health issues that pure-breds seem to be (sadly) endowed with. We also weren't interested in the price-tag often attached to said pure-breds either. What we needed was a mutt. I don't know exactly what I was excepting from my ad? But less than 24hrs later we were looking at a writhing, yipping, fluffy, mass of puppy-cuteness! We had to pick one out right then, the puppies were only three weeks old but they were being spoken for fast, we had to act now or miss out.  Well, that was a bit sudden for my liking but we picked one and returned home to get prepared.  The best part of all this was her breeds, the ones that she is a mix off, are all excellent farm dogs.  Border Collie, Great Pyrenees and Australian Shepard.  Hopefully she'll grow to be a working dog that contributes to the farm. Scaring off deer and other garden destroyers. Guarding the other animals that are here (and the house and her people too). Notifying us about things she can hear that we can't. You know...dog stuff.   I can tell you her name as that was picked out before November.....Neela. (N-eeee-la....like la, la, la singing la)

Sorry but there are no pictures today.  Another thing that happened before the month ended is I discovered I would be starting up a Christmas Cookie Business for the months of November and December. I baked like a crazy-lady last week of October and tried out the Farmers Market. It was a success! Now every day I have a schedule....bake three types of cookies, starting with freezer friendly ones Monday -Wednesday, Gluten-Free on Thursday and delicate non-freezer and finishing touches on Friday. And then Saturday morning...."This Little Piggy goes to Market!"
Needless to say doing that on top of home schooling, eating from-scratch meals and now a puppy I have more than a full time job!!

So although things like blog pictures have to go....I am having that much fun I am glad God supplied the idea, the skills, the start up money and ingredients. This is going to be a busy couple of festive months around here! Thankfully I successfully slayed the "Sugar-Dragon" and although I enjoy the smell of spices and sweetness baking I have no desire to eat the product! The same can't be said for my poor room-mates.  If it wasn't for the "tasters and wasters" that baking produces I might have a mutiny on my hands. :)

Well, the time has come to start the day! This blog began in the wee hours of the morning as the puppy, bless-her-yipping-little-heart, needed some company and I wanted the family to get some sleep. No need of us all being sleep -deprived and grumpy! But now the sun is up and the family is roused and either I will begin to do the laundry (it is Monday after all) or start the days baking.....or...... I may take a nap since the shift change has happened. :)

Happy November blessings to you!