Friends and Family

 My parents came to visit the weekend before Thanksgiving. We visited the farm, and this time, the weather was good enough to give them the full tour.

Later we made pizza. Here's my dad working on his.

 The original jock-strap pizza!

I liked Mama's shoes by the pumpkins.

We knew the first freeze was coming, so we battened things down at the farm. Last Tuesday, 11-23, had a hard freeze, and it's been freezing most nights since. We put lights in the citrus at the farm and at home. I also repotted our small lime tree and set it by the hotbox and the house. The summer crops let us know that summer is officially over!

So we started ripping out the tomatoes, and put the chickens on the empty row space. Here Catherine helps remove the pepper plants.

Notice the broccoli that was interplanted. It's now coming into its own.

And the garlic is thriving.

I took this picture just to prove that Rick C. still exists. We don't expect to see much of him.

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What We're Eating
This bad boy! I roasted him up and pureed all the flesh. A double batch of pumpkin bars barely put a dent in it. I also made two pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving dinner at Titus and Jane's.

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We got the brass rail put up at the bar. I cleverly failed to get the rail in the pictures, but it's there!

Bill looked too empty handed, so we gave him the growler.

And he got all excited.

Back at my house, the hotbox is in operation, and the first starts are coming up vigorously. Karen's endive is showing the first true leaves.

My green towers lettuce is coming up strongly as well.

The favas are sprouting.

Grape Mulch

We decided to mulch the grapes in oak leaves this year, because that will make the soil more acidic. Grapes like it slightly acidic, and our soil is highly alkaline, so mitigation is in order. Bill was kind enough to rake up the oak leaves into his truck and dump them at the farm. This pic shows the pile half gone. I packed it in buckets and hauled it where needed.

And here we can see it halfway spread. Yeah, I was half done when I said, oh! I should be taking pics.

This was the scene on the table. I love the golden tomatoes with the bright marigolds.

We're still pulling peppers and eggs out of the garden, but things are definitely slowing down for the winter. It's time to pull the rest of the summer crops up.

Karen and I planted seeds on Wednesday. We sowed whole flats of Green Towers romaine, endive, and radicchio, plus individual pots of fava beans. The hot box is officially open! These will just be here until germination. We can probably sprout another set of greens before it's time to put in the tomatoes and peppers.

 Looks like Rene snuck over and did some more siding.

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Seed Order
I bought more seeds from Johnnies. I got two kinds of arugula (regular and wild), three kinds of chard: yellow, magenta, and a white variety that is supposed to have a lot less fiber, and thus be very tender. I thought if it grew like chard and was tender like lettuce, that would be a real find. I also got baby bok choi, and green and red mustard greens. With that, plus the green towers I started, plus the broccoli and cabbage already in the ground, should make for plenty of winter produce.
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And I loved this shot of my blue pumpkin with the tiny gourd.

 Ths shot really shows the lobes.

 And here's one still in the garden. The triambles seemed later to ripen. I haven't eaten any of them yet.

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Weather Note
The weather was glorious all week, with the fall leaf colors particularly vivid and fiery. But a storm is moving in, and we're about to get some cold wet weather. Forecast calls for rain tomorrow, and temperatures are dropping into the low 30s. We need to prepare for the first freeze, particularly by protecting the citrus.
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Back to Work

After all that celebrating, it was time to get back to work. On Thursday, Rick planted a bunch of garlic starts. These are just a small portion of what he has started.

He got a three-row bed in Row 1.

And he got row 4 tilled and raked. We planted Paso peas in this row, but Catherine saw birds gobbling them up, so we'll have to see what happens.

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What We're Eating
I sacrificed this pumpkin. I was gonna make pumpkin bars but I got busy with work. I'll make them today. I also plan to make pumpkin black bean soup again, with lots of curry.

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Yesterday, Rene called up, raring to go on the bar. So we hustled over and got started. Rick and Rene cut tar paper to fit.

They carefully fitted the paper around the windows. We quickly realized we didn't have enough tar paper, but Billy had some, so Rick ran down and borrowed what he had.

Here is the bar all wrapped and screened on the south side. We're leaving those triangular top pieces open for ventilation.

 Then they started putting up the trim boards.

They were bustling about in a manly, power-tooled, building-stuff way, and I was superfluous. So I continued to work on that flower bed. The irises were unbelieveably thick. I was finding old grandpa roots 4 inches down, under 15 other layers. I eventually got enough dug up that I could plant the daphne and replant the day lillies. I didn't want to lose them by not getting them back in soon enough. I laid the bricks just to give myself a line, but the daylillies will actually be the border of the bed.

I also got almost all the naked ladies back in that had been dug up from other areas. This is gonna be one thickly flowered bed! I adjusted the end of the bed to give us a nice smooth curve into the glen area. I even replanted a little clump of grass that had survived there. I was excited, because it was like working with hundreds of dollars worth of plants.

Back at the building, Billy showed up after he finished his project. The first siding pickets are going up in this shot. Yep, that's our old fence!

 And wow! It's starting to look like a real building!

It's going to nestle in here and look weathered and natural. We even plan to face the 2x4 trim with bits of old fence so everything has that nice weathered look.

We had to restring the lights asap. I wanted to put the sign back up, but it was ruled "still in the way" so I have to wait. We're going to mount the brass bar rail along the front.

 I just love how it looks at night.

Catherine Retires!

 It's official. Catherine is retired. Wednesday was her last day to actually work. Her coworkers threw her a party, and one gave her this wonderful shirt. As soon as she was off work, she came over to the farm to unwind.

 Here's the back.

Friday, we had decided to have a drink in her honor. It was meant to be simple, but lots of folks wanted to raise a glass with her, so it turned into quite a nice little party. I made her a crown of marigolds. Our Autumn Goddess looks so happy!

The bar proved to be a very workable party space.

 Catherine is queen of the bar.

Folks hung around the fire too. Bill and Laura brought a bunch of good food.

Buddy, Rick, and Bill lurk near the food.

I just kept taking shots of Catherine in the bar because she looked so great.

Jane and Titus brought their gang of troublemakers over. Here Melinda chats with Rick and Jane chats with Ed.

Rene and Lori are having fun.

Jane painted an amazing picture for Catherine. It's so appropriate!

 Awwwwww... aren't they cute?