She is Visiting Tonight

Looks like the Winter Witch has finally come visiting. Other than a few nights of frost we haven't had any real Winter weather at all yet this year. To date I have only started two small fires in the wood furnace that I didn't even bother to feed just let em burn out.

But not tonight...

This morning was t-shirt weather and the rush was on to get everything put up and stored. I don't mind storms like we are getting this evening when I have a few days notice. By mid afternoon I had to put my sweat shirt back on and you could hear the old witch crying in the distance as the wind began screaming out of the North. By Sundown it was spitting rain and the temps had dropped some 20 degrees in a matter of minutes.

She was almost here.

The garden has been completely torn down, brush hogged and then mowed with the riding lawn mower. With the massive Sunflower production I had this year which left me with Sunflower stumps as big as five or six inches in diameter I had to use the brush hog on the remains first.

All the corn I let go to seed and dry on the stalk was removed, although I still missed a bunch. We have about a bushel of dried sweet corn seed and a few ears of the crimson corn. I am not sure if this seed corn will actually produce next year though as it was a hodgepodge of varieties with some hybrids mixed in. Still it is something I need to begin looking into as close as we are to acres and acres of hybrid and probably GMO feed corn fields, cross pollination of my corn is something I need to learn to deal with. 

I hope I can find a mixture that will resist the GMO stuff next door and produce on it's own.

The Brush hog is stored and the blade is back on the Old Ford just in case we get some snow but right now it looks like only a light mix and maybe some ice.

After getting the tractor tucked away in it's home and closing up the barn for the first time this Winter the wife and I attacked the Fall decoration pumpkins and began pulling seeds out of them. The pulp and rinds went in with the sheep. The ram was on his pumpkin piece quicker than a duck on a bug but the other sheep who have been on the Summer pasture looked at me like I was insane.

What the F&*k our we suppose to do with that?

Eventually a few of the older ewes began nibbling on the pumpkins but very few of the yearlings took the plunge.

Frazier has begun walking around like an over sexed pimp now making some kind of kissy faces with his lips all puckered up. I tried to get a picture of it but didn't manage it. He better get Seven with twins is all I got to say.

We got about 2 pounds of pumpkin seeds mostly smaller pie pumpkins and a green variety I want to try for next year. The bushel of questionable seed corn, about 2 cups of cowpea seed and half a gallon or so of Small-Hold pole Bean seed ready to go for next years planting.

Bring it on you Winter Witch. Time to batten down the hatches and rest up for next Spring. Two and half months until it's time to start the seedlings once again.

Now that we are getting temps low enough to keep the bees balled up for warmth I need to go out and wrap the hives. It's much easier to do without gloves and a bee suit so I usually take that last Winter step after the girls are kept reliably inside.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!