Wovel Love

Finally! During the night we got enough snow so I could try out the Wovel this morning! First I had to add the "gravel wheels"--they raise the shovel part above the ground slightly for use on gravel driveway or paved patios. Admittedly, there wasn't a lot of snow- under two inches - but it was that heavy, sticky, wet kind of snow that is especially annoying and tiring to shovel, and the wovel performed great.

The wovel is a large shovel scoop that pivots on a lever on a wheel - you wheel along scooping up the snow and push downward on the handle to flip the snow off. We woveled our long driveway (I paced it off -it's about 335 feet from patio to road), the parking area by the garage and the patio in under 45 minutes. Ordinarily after shoveling my back is wincing--but no problem at all this time. I did get warm, though- woveling is not entirely effortless, but it was fun. And quiet. And fast. And created zero carbon emissions.

This photo depicts the two ingenious wheels of our farm--the windmill and the wovel. Rog conceded that if we don't get an unusually heavy snow this winter, we could probably get by without a snowblower at all, just a wovel (or two, so we don't have to take turns!) He was so impressed he said maybe we should see if we can invest in the company.

If any friends are interested in trying a wovel, feel free to stop out whenever we have snow, we'll let you test drive it. If you decide to buy one, please let us refer you and we will get a $15 reward from the Wovel company (which we can put toward wovel #2.)

Truck Success and Birdfeeder Mystery

Yesterday Rog was finally able to get the fittings he needed for the Willys truck and installed the hose, and then...it started right up! Woa- is it loud! (Must need a muffler). We only drove the truck around the farmyard because it really needs brake work, but Rog says he'll leave those to the professionals. He was beaming about his mechanical accomplishment, though.

When we got up this morning we had deer out in the yard, which made the dogs go bonkers with excitement. The deer must have been hiding out in our yard because of hunters on the neighboring land. We finally let our dogs out when we thought the deer had departed, but I was worried about them getting out of the yard and hunters mistaking them for deer, so I dressed Cocoa in an orange t-shirt and Nutmeg in a red tank top. The shirts were a bit too large, but the idea worked pretty well, so I will look for some kid's-sized bright orange shirts at Salvation Army this week.

Our bird feeders suffered some mysterious vandalism during the night. One of the shepherd crooks (the one with the feeders containing black oil sunflower seeds and with the squirrel-deterral device my Dad made) was bent all the way down to the ground. I don't think we have bears...could raccoons get up there somehow and do that?

Snowfall

This morning when we woke up the world was turning white with snow - this was the view out the window. Although part of me dreads winter, I always feel giddy excitement with the first snowfall. After breakfast I went out to take some photos. The tree on the left is a burr oak (a native prairie species) which Rog has named "Burr Oak Obama."


Rog's jack o'lantern is still hanging in there. He looks especially crabby about the weather...



but the dogs were overjoyed, racing around the yard and pastures, snuffling and tumbling in the snow.
My concrete head sculpture seemed to appreciate wearing a stylish and cozy hat - actually a willow decoration our friend Judy made us for our patio.

The windmill was gently turning in the light breeze.

One tree is still stubbornly clinging to its leaves. I am so pleased I got my future garden all ready for winter in time (it's in the foreground and right of the fence).
Still have to get these hoses stored away, though.


I'm thinking one of the reasons farmers traditionally paint their outbuildings red must be to have some color to look at in the winter.

While checking out a branch that broke off in last week's winds, I noticed a deerstand in a tree in our back yard. I discover something new here every day!
The path to the woods looks inviting, but the bright green understory gives an indication of our invasive buckthorn problem. Buckthorn stays green into winter, so it's easy to identify this time of year.
Cocoa grazing on some birdseed dropped under the feeders. I worry the dogs consume more birdseed than the birds do.
When I came in, Kittywampuss had found a cozy spot in the kitchen to snooze. Both our cats become lazily dormant in winter.

I'm feeling kind of lazily dormant in this weather, too-but now must get back to work!

I was anticipating the usual freezing drizzle and blustery, blasting wind that begins around Halloween, but it was a gorgeous Indian Summer weekend. The ladybugs and box elder bugs that had finally dispersed with first frost reappeared. Even grasshoppers revived, hopping around the pasture. It was our chance to tackle the deep carpet of leaves that covered our lawn, driveway and pasture.

The lawnmower, lawn sweeper and I worked in partnership all Sunday. I started out thinking I needed to sweep the leaves before mowing, which took forever because the sweeper filled up so fast and then the leaves blew out. Then I figured out it was MUCH more effective to just mow through the layer of leaves and sweep them and the grass clippings up. Plus, this way, the leaves and grass clippings are automatically blended (green + brown) for my garden. I am a bit stiff today from bumping along on the mower for 6 hours and emptying umpteen loads from the sweeper, but it was satisfying. And fun. And now the entire farm looks civilized and ready for winter...

All except for a little unmowed patch by where the Willys truck was parked, where some gasoline spilled while Rog was siphoning out the fuel tank and we didn't want to risk any sparks nearby. Rog worked on the truck all weekend. He cleaned out what seemed to be a clogged fuel line, so maybe that will do the trick - we will find out tonight.

When we bought this place, the little garage was totally lacking garage doors, which we deemed a necessity. Last Monday (a cold, snow-flurry day), the garage doors were installed. It was quite challenge for the installer; nothing was square or level or standard or consistent. But the new doors look great - they have the look of carriage house doors but are economical, overhead doors. One of my weekend accomplishments was to prime and paint the trim. I decided to also paint the adjacent doghouse to match. Now, if I can just convince Nutmeg or Cocoa to use it.

The other key thing on my To Do list was to assemble the Wovel, a crazy shovel on a wheel that is supposed to be three times faster than a regular shovel and save your back. It took about an hour to assemble; afterwards I tested it out in the house on crumpled paper towels. Something about this tool tickles me--I cannot wait to try it in the snow! It was kind of pricey ($169, including the optional attachemnt for using on a gravel driveway) but I intend to write a newspaper review about it so that will cover part of the investment. Rog insists we still need a snowblower, so when we get that, I will challenge him to a contest. I bet when the snowblower won't start or runs out of gas, my wovel will save the day.

Rog taught Sara how to make his sourdough bread and they baked two loaves of yummy whole wheat sourdough in the pizza oven. We also roasted half of a gi-normous hubbard squash in there. It was quite dark, now that daylight savings time ended, but warm enough with the firepit to dine on the patio last night.

Our final accomplishment last week was to get the invisible dog fence hooked up. Rog had an ingenious idea, to hook up the dog fence wires to the existing electric horse fence wire that was strung around half of our property. It worked! We don't have all the wires buried yet but we are already using it with dogs. I hated to resort to these zapping collars, but the dogs had become more and more naughty, going into the woods and not coming when called, and risking encounters with skunks or hunters, or getting onto the road. We tested the collars on ourselves and we found them to be very startling and uncomfortable(but not cruel)--they would certainly deter me! It is hard to see the little warning flags because of all the leaves along the woods, so we are teaching them the word "fence" as a reminder. A couple of times they have suddenly bolted toward the woods, maybe after a deer or other animal, and when we yelled "fence!" they veered away and stayed in the yard. Whew!

The Big Push

We have been pushing to be ready for winter, which we know usually makes an entrance aroud Halloween --just a few days from now! Yesterday we had cold, blasting wind and sideways snow. A taste of things to come.

Here are some of our accomplishments last week:

Rog got the fence, with a gate to the woods, installed across nearly half of the back yard. Now we realize it may be an effort in futility --the dogs, whom we were endeavoring to keep in, have discovered innumerable places inhte other fences where they can weasel their way under to chase squirrels --or worse, skunks.
We purchased a very old but well-maintained lawn sweeper from a retired farmer and I spent two afternoons gathering up leaves and piling them on my gardens. I have mastered many of the subtleties of using the sweeper--setting the height effectively, best speed of driving, quick unloading, and determining whether the leaves are dry enough to be easily swept. At first I felt guilty using a gas-powered machine instead of raking, but there are SO MANY leaves and this invests them in the soil for next year's garden, saves my back,and I don't have to drive them to the County compost facility.
Saturday morning I planted 8o tulips and 100 crocuses. The fancy,deep reddish-purple and apricot tulips are along the east side of the house, with crocuses scattered among them. The bright, traditionally-colored tulips are by the patio and the little birdbath garden in the yard. It always seems so unlikely that they will come up in the spring, when I am planting them in the last cold days of autumn, but they always come through despite my doubts.
Meanwhile, Rog was working on the Willys truck. He changed the oil and the gasoline, filled the radiator, cleaned the filters, and charged the old 6-volt battery. It still wouldn't start, and we determined that the battery was bad, so we purchased a new one. Then we got it to turn over(!), but it isn't getting enough fuel, so we have more work to do. It was pretty exciting to hear the engine sputter to life, however briefly. Who said we aren't mechanical?

Saturday afternoon, Kyle Herring, of Herring Exterior Design, came over and walked the property with us. We want to eradicate the buckthorn in the woods and the burdock in the pastures,and would love to restore the prairie and create a beautiful walking path. This land has never been tilled, and it was so much fun with Kyle pointing out many of the native species to us. I don't know how we are going to afford it, but I hope we can do a burn and begin working on the restoration soon. We also asked about the large dead maple in the back yard and were encouraged to take that out sooner rather than later--or it will likely take out our chicken coop when it goes. So then I worried about the chicken coop all day yesterday in those fierce winds!

Thanks to the cold rain and snow and wind yesterday, we mostly stayed inside. We made significant progress unpacking the basement and we replaced the old thermostat with a programmable one. The we ate supper, curled up and watched a movie. Our wonderful house feels cozy and snug!

Weekend Update

Weekends at Squash Blossom Farm are the best, when Rog and I can both be home and do farm work. But this week we lost one whole workday - I spent all of Saturday at the Think Green Fair and Rog was traveling home from San Francisco. Early Saturday morning, as I loaded my car with the CERTS display for the Fair, it was mysteriously beautiful and foggy.

Sunday we doubled our efforts. Our main goals were to clean out the center room of the barn (the room we envision someday being my studio), gather up the old hay to spread as mulch on the gardens and to figure out a fencing system to keep the dogs out of the woods and away from skunks. We started out gung ho in the barn--but soon realized we would need a pitchfork and a dumpster. It's a much bigger space than it looks, piled much deeper than we anticipated with hay, straw, scraps of building materials -wood, sheetrock, tile, pipes, wires,foam insulation, paint cans - and old broken furniture. Let's just say we made a dent - altho it's pretty hard to tell.

We have become regular readers of Craigslist,the Farm and Garden category. Lately we have been searching for two attachments for our garden tractor - a snowblower and a lawn sweep - and for fencing. Obviously, the snowblower is for impending winter, and the fence is to keep the dogs out of the woods. The lawn sweep is to gather up some of the deep layer of fallen leaves to mulch our gardens, but every time we've found one listed, it's already been sold.

Sunday we scored on the fence,though, finding a listing for 100+ feet of nice chain link fence (including posts and 2 gates) - enough to close off about half of the open stretch across the woods. We hauled our little trailer to Pine Island and picked it up. Then, while Rog laid it out along the woods, I went to town to get a pitchfork, 5/8 drill bit and post cement. At Menard's I began talking to a man and his son who were looking for a scythe--and it turned out they may have exactly the snowblower attachment we need for sale. I love when things like that happen!

It was a beautiful fall evening, so we built a fire and roasted brats on a stick over the fire for supper. It's kind of a wistful time of year, knowing that there won't be many more weekends like this before winter arrives.

Skunked!

When I came home from a quick errand this afternoon the dogs came running up as I opened the gate. I told them to jump into the car-which they did, and that is when I realized that Nutmeg (the older lighter-brown dog) had just had a close encounter with a skunk. PEEEYUUUU!

I made them stay outside while I gathered the fortitude and the tools to deal with it. I found a recipe online for a dog bath concoction to remove skunk odor:
1 quart hydrogen peroxide
1/4 cup baking soda
1 tsp dish soap

So, I went back out to get Nutmeg. She was curled up by the door, looking a bit nauseous (as I was feeling) and even Cocoa was keeping a good distance away from her. Nut hates baths, but she got into the tub with no problem. I only had enough hydrogen peroxide to make half a recipe, but I poured the mix all over her and waited about 10 minutes, as I worked on gettng out some of the burrs she also acquired during this escapade. The website also recommended using a vinegar rinse. All I could find in our cupboard was rice wine vinegar, so I used that.

I can't tell if there is significant improvement or if my sense of smell is just kind of numb now. Luckily for my Global Action group, they came for dinner here last night intead of tonight!

Tonight Nutmeg will NOT be sleeping in my bedroom.

On another note, I let the salamander go today. He seemed pretty happy to be free and skedaddled away pretty quickly , for a salamander, before I changed my mind.