LATE SUMMER UPDATE

Wednesday morning, September 8

 

 We had a nice Labor Day Weekend in town. Sons Milo and Clint worked with Mike to convert an old Gary Fisher mountain bike to an e-bike. It was actually Milo’s project, but Mike has the shop and the tools. After fixing any problems with the bike, they installed a pedal-assist motor on it. The project went well (for a change, you might say), and Milo left Monday with his dream bike. He also bought himself a helmet with turn signals. What will they think of next?

New credenza; old TV

Mike’s part in the bike project was finished by Sunday noon, so Milo helped him carry the flat but heavy box containing our new “you assemble” entertainment credenza into the house. It was good that I didn’t have to be the other half of the lift team. And Mike spent Sunday afternoon assembling it while I mostly looked on.

We did come to the farm last week – just an overnight trip to water the gardens and fruit trees, etc. I picked one nice ripe tomato off the Siletz vine and we had BLTs for lunch. Today I picked three or four more. I find it pays to pick them a little on the green side to keep some garden marauder from nibbling on them. I estimate that the plant has about a dozen more tomatoes of various sizes and shapes – green but beginning to whiten and turn orange. I see no blossoms. I suspect the plant feels the change of seasons.

My garden hod

And the zucchini is just disgusting! Such robust plants and the squash remain immature! Last week I picked half a dozen “mini” zucchini, thinking that this might encourage the plants to produce more. Perhaps that worked. Today there are several larger squashes.

Our overnight lows are a little cooler as we move toward autumn. It takes longer for the day to warm up, and evenings cool more quickly. The long shadows lend enchantment to the evening scene.

The deer still cavort on the far side of the north field. We see plenty of them right now. 

 

 

Bess pointing huns at canyon

We have a couple of coveys of Hungarian partridges in residence, and Mike has seen chukars at the canyon. A hummingbird came by last week looking for the feeder, so I rehung one on the front porch. I needn’t have bothered. He didn’t return.

Our iris beds in town are totally overgrown, so we’ve spent some time digging and separating the rhizomes. We brought a bunch to the farm and I set them out on the bank behind the house. I’d love to have an array of lovely iris, but they’re expensive to buy, and it just isn’t worth it. We’ll just keep planting the leftovers from town.

And it’s DRY! Mike came back from the pond this morning and commented that the old part hardly has any water and the cattails are taking over. Even the weeds are dying from lack of moisture. It’s ironic that the East suffers water devastation while we are parched! It’s also smokey again – really quite smokey. We could smell it in the early morning hours and the buttes are obscured. KW