Happens to me every fall. I just can’t help myself. I have tried. I keep myself busy with harvesting and crafting and food processing – but it just can’t stop it. Those pesky childhood memories come flooding back every fall.
There is so much work that has to be done right now.
- Canning, cooking, freezing, dehydrating.
- Digging up old and prepping for new in the spring.
- Start or end projects for the holidays
- Then there are all the decorations – dig it out, put it up, take it down, pack it away.
- Clean up/out the house for winter ready (basically the same as spring cleaning, but now is more to get the dust out and keep the bugs out.).
- Pack away the spring/summer clothes and get out the fall winter clothes – and don’t forget the boots!
- Finish any critter roofs that need to be tacked down and/or sealed.
- Shear up any walls that got knocked around by winds.
- Mow everything one last time (that takes two days in itself).
- Get the tank water heaters out and make sure they are working (for critters and the fish pond in the front yard.).
- Fix any doors, windows and shutters on all buildings.
- Re-insulate, caulk, or trim any place that may have lost it over the summer.
This is just part of my to-do-list before the first frost hits. One weather forecast said colder than normal; the other said warmer than normal, pretty sure I do not even know what NORMAL is anymore?!
I started to water what is left of the gardens, and heard some kids (very young) laughing as a truck drove by; and that was all it took! I had to come in and write up my last blog (cool dad #2) while it was fresh in my mind. (OH, for those wondering – the memory is great – only lasts about 5 minutes, but it is great! Lol)
Then I realized I left the water running in the strawberry plot – oops! Oh well, been meaning to do that anyway. The temps are still in the mid 80’s here during the day, and only dropping to around 40 at night (actually just before dawn), so they are safe with the flooding.
This weekend is supposed to be a bit cooler. We have “volunteer” trees that have to come down, and some nasty rats that need some bubble gum! I just hope my mind can stick to the task at hand? Fall and Winter are my most favorite seasons simply because of all the delightful memories! How about you? Do you get carried away in the moment too?
(Too many volunteers right on the fence line – both sides!)
(You may not be able to tell from these pics, but each hill from the rats is about a foot tall! They have even invaded our corn patch – jerks!)
HELBERG FARM STORIES 
For the rats… Do you have a cat?
Or… As was suggested over here, for getting rid of moles, put windmills in the ground… The vibration through the ground annoys them and they push off elsewhere. Would that work for rats too?
Never heard of “volunteer” trees before. B-D I just know them as ‘Self-seeds’… I think I like your term better.
Oh… And 2nd pic from the bottom… What am I looking at? O.o
And why do you heat your fish pond? Do your fish not just go to the bottom like mine do and *ahem* ‘sleep’ through the winter?
So many questions!
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1) these rats are underground – they are a type of gopher BUT HUGE (that’s why I call them rats). The cats have caught one or two, but most do not come above ground so hard to get. Vibration thingys don’t work – bubble gum does. They eat it, cant digest it, and die – once dead in a tunnel, others will not go down it = chases them off.
2) The pic is to show the hose nozzle is about 1 foot long – that is, on average, how wide their mounds are. Somewhere under all that dirt is their actual hole, but in the process of building it -they bury everything in a 1-2 foot radius.
We chased most of these buggers off years ago, but the floods of 2013 chased them back up here from down by the river (runs through our property – we have 3 tiers on our land and they used to hang on the lowest – far away from our gardens). Now we have to chase them off again.
3) We have to heat the pond in the winter here – it will freeze solid and we have coy & gold fish in it. It is really cool to see it on a cold snowy day – will try to get a pic of it this winter for you – steam rising, snow falling – so fun!
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