The Hint of Fall

Temperatures are a little bit cooler.
Humidity is a little lower.
The air feels a tiny bit fresh.
The trees' leaves are brownish.
A few are yellow.
It's not fall yet -- still a month away. But fall's prelude is happening, that vague and indescribable turning of summer's corner. And lo, there is much rejoicing among those who suffer through summer!

 Adam's favorite farm activity is beginning again. It's time to make dirt!!! He's mowing and bagging the grass. Soon he'll be raking leaves and pine straw.

We picked the gourds from the massive plant, and Adam pulled out the vines for compost.

The gourds don't look that great, but then again, this plant was a volunteer and we weren't planning on gourds.

And I picked one little pumpkin and one pretty gourd.

Ned the Farm Dog is still on watch.

 

 Last night he chewed up Adam's water hoses that runs water from the barrels to the pool. A bit of a mess. Adam says clearly it's time to work on the underground PVC piping for water collection to remove the hose temptation.
Some of our garden plants are on their last breath, like this cucumber vine.

 Or this indeterminate tomato vine which looks a little tired on the bottom but is still growing on the top and putting out fruit.

Another cucumber is younger and more vibrant on the left.

And our pepper plants are doing great on the right.

 

Our newly planted zucchini and squash plants are looking healthy.

Our bees are quite happy in their location facing the morning sun each day.

 The chickens are delightful.

 Isn't Bernie getting big and handsome? He's a true roo, and pesters his ladies and does his fancy chicken dance side-stepping at them.

 Above, he dances with Punkin.
Below are Ruby and Lucy.

 I was collecting one egg daily, and then one day I collected three! They were laid all over the coop, but always back in the corners where I had to dig through the straw to find them. I asked myself, "Why do they lay back in the corners instead of using those nice, comfy nesting boxes full of straw?" I answered myself, "Silly woman! You've turned the whole coop into one giant nesting box with all that straw on the floor! Rake out the straw and give them a dirt floor like all the other coops you've seen. Put straw only in the nesting boxes, and they'll lay eggs there."
So I did. I raked out the straw. It went into Adam's compost.

Did they use the nesting boxes then? No, of course not. They're chickens.
But I'm back to getting only one egg each day. I think I scared those other two. Punkin laid one of them (because it was blue, and Ameraucanas lay blue eggs) and either Lucy or Ruby laid the other. Poor girls!

 
We're always tweaking their coop, improving the fencing, etc. The next job is to fix their little coop door. The barn siding is deteriorating because of termites, as you can see on the "threshold." Adam plans to put a new board there and cut a new door in it.

And that brings me to yet another big project that he's in the middle of: termite treatment of all the buildings. We know we have termites because of the damage in the barn, but he wants to prevent them from damaging the house, garage, or out-building, and to stop the damage to the barn. Paying someone else to treat the buildings would cost about $1400-$1500.

So Adam read up on the job, ordered the equipment and chemicals, and is doing the job himself for about $350. It's back-breaking, unpleasant, and a little dangerous, and was really nasty during the bad heat. But he's about halfway done.

Never a dull moment here! He is working on moving Goldie outside more. Julia has returned to school for the fall semester. I'm about to begin working again. Hi-Ho, let's be happy!! Autumn is almost here, my favorite time of year!!