Sunday is Sunday- Fun day for most people, but yesterday I took it upon myself to begin preparing for winter. It is a sad turn of events when the weather gets colder and snow is impending. But, I find it to be best practice to get ahead of the weather rather than trying to play catch up in the snow or even worse waiting until the weather breaks in the spring. This meant a myriad of different tasks for me! I started out doing the last harvest of the garden as frost had nipped it on Friday. Low and behold I am overrun with green tomatoes, peppers and our watermelons. I was able to process and freeze the peppers for use throughout the winter, but I am still learning what to do with the green tomatoes. I made a batch of cheddar and green tomato muffins to give to the neighbors as a thank you for all of the garden produce they have shared with us over the summer, and I plan to make a green tomato pie tonight. Let me know if you have any suggestions for green tomato dishes that you have tried and loved! After harvesting the garden I pulled the rest of the dead plants and made the trek over to our manure pile.
Full disclosure, I have been wanting to condense my manure pile for years, and I finally did it yesterday. It was a bit of a learning curve with the operation of the tractor bucket, but it was successful! I was also able to get a scoop of compost to bring over to the garden to spread and add nutrients to the soil. I also plan to plant my garlic for next season today, so there is always hope and a positive forward look! I took the day to power wash and strip the back of my horse trailer. We will be storing it in the mines for the winter, and we are taking it on Friday, so this was a necessary evil. It always makes me sad to end the season, but I also enjoy more time at home with my family during the winter, so it is just a season of life. The next task I tackled was cleaning up the leaves on key areas of the property. All of the leaves tend to rest in the crook of our retaining wall and garage, so anytime you pull into the garage the leaves go flying in, in order to prevent this and frozen composted leaves outside our door I cleaned those up and took them to the new and improved manure pile.
I also power washed and put away our mower for the season, as the seemingly never ending season of mowing has ended. That is one major thing I am thankful for, I don't want to even think about mowing all year long!! I still have several tasks to complete, like adding all of the water heaters for the stock tanks, birds, and in the barn and attaching the plow to the quad, but those things can wait a few weeks. For now I am going to enjoy the 50 degree weather and make the most of the sun as I can.
I did get to spend a glorious hour yesterday brushing the horses in the field and holding the goats out to eat grass. It is a spectacular
completely calming experience simply enjoying the sun and the sound of your animals happily munching on grass. I hope you all get to enjoy the season with your goats as well!
Happy Goating!
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