Barn Reveal

There has been a lot of activity around the barn this past week...

and these two are not impressed.

Just wait, girls, your shed is next!!

I spent a little time painting the greenhouse yesterday,

and Hubbs finished our outhouse.

I am pleased with how everything has turned out.

We dug a ditch beside the side wall that was replaced (due to some rotting),

and filled it with river rock, to keep the moist soil away from the barn siding.

The rest of this area will be landscaped next Spring.

When painting was finished for the day,

I sat in the donkey yard and visited with the girls.

As always, photos of the donkeys can be challenging...

they like to be right on top of me.

Somehow we manage.

I picked the rest of the compost pile tomatoes and roasted them.

I fill freezer bags with a pound each and freeze for use this winter.

Sweet peppers were harvested.

I'll freeze most of them.

More hot peppers were picked...and there are still more to come!

Finally the ghost peppers, and the Carolina Reapers are ripe as well as the Habaneros...

(see small orange Habaneros and large reddish orange ghost pepper in the center of the colander)

This batch of hot pepper relish will be for serious pepper lovers, only!

The garden is winding down now...

tomatoes are all but finished.

I had planted fall broccoli...so hopefully in a few weeks we will have that to harvest.

It was a successful summer for sugar peas, broccoli, kale, chard, eggplant,

lettuce, spinach, leeks, peppers, tomatoes, beans, squash, radishes, and cukes.

Carrots and beets were just so-so (next summer I will add peat moss to my root vegetable box).

Onions rotted in the ground... too much rain.

Cabbage rotted above the ground... again, too much rain.

Every summer is different depending upon the weather conditions.

When it is hot and dry, you can always water enough.

But when it is cool and rainy... there is not much you can do about it.

Luckily, we don't count on our crops for a living...

only for feeding ourselves.

We are lucky.

Serious farmers have a tough life.

Mother Nature can be quite fickle!

Every morning, now, when we head out for chores...

our first stop is always the duck pond to feed the ducks and the fish.

Every morning, lately, the Muscovies are here on the fence.

We say good morning and continue on to the barn.

Within a few minutes, the Muscovies have made their way to the barn as well.

They hang out with us there... stealing food from the runner ducks...

and visiting...

before flying back down to the pond again.

It's their morning routine!

It will be interesting to see if this routine continues in the winter.