Hibernation Time!

So far this fall we have gotten off lightly. There have only been 2 minor frosts, until today, that is.It was a little different looking out this morning. Brooklyn was leaving tracks on the deck. You might say she is still a tenderfoot,. She wanted back in pretty quick.

 The frost hit our Mayberry tree hard. It looked "normal" yesterday.

 The raspberry canes also got hit. Somewhere under that mass of weeds are 100 onions. They are all good sized, red and white, and are still OK. Guess what I'm doing this afternoon?

 The lower field is pretty white. Boots is not bothered at all by the cold, although he did ask to come in last night for about an hour.

 Scarlet our loaner, on a diet, horse seems to be OK. I did not go across the road to check on our 3, but with the coats they have grown so far, they probably did not even notice it was cold this morning.

 How cold? -5C (21F) enough to put a crust on the horse trough. I guess it's time to start hooking up the tank heater and putting the insulation back on the tank. The ice is only about 1/4 inch thick and Scarlet will have no trouble breaking through that.

 The row and a half of potatoes are all dried and tucked away in the pantry. The yield was good this year with 10 pounds of seed potatoes yielding about 140 pounds of spuds.

Meet our  (temporary) pasture mate, Scarlet. She is our neighbour's horse and is up for sale. We are doing a pasture swap for a few days. I have no grass left, as you can see, and she has a pasture full of it. My horses will eat her field down, and scarlet will lose a little weight.

Great horse!

More Stumping and Scenes

With the cooler weather and the fields eaten down, it was time to start the annual stump removal program. The horses watch to ensure that no grass is being destroyed. After two days, I was able to fill the trailer with stumps.

 There have been no bites for the free firewood, so I guess once the snow flies, I will have three large bonfires of firewood. Pity!

 The mattock makes short order of the stumps, provided that they are rotted up enough.

 Alpine: " No cutting up grass! I like to pick my own salad!"

 The yellow jackets are still swarming. They know their time is near.

 When they are stopped by the camera, it is amazing to see the patterns and colours .

 While cruising around the uncleared area, I did manage to find two choke cherry trees. There was not enough to do anything with this year, but if I open that area up a little and get more light in, then maybe choke cherry jelly is on the program for next year.

I have been feeling listless for the last couple of weeks and yesterday I decided to go back on my Vitamin D pills for the winter. I started with a triple dose and today, I feel better than I have for several months.

Turned Loose

The horses were starting to get a little bored with the containment pasture so I decided to put them in the lower pasture. They can do the least damage down there.They took off so fast that I was kind of caught flat-footed, with the camera not quite at the ready.
 It would appear that anything green is probably an endangered species. Hopefully, the green will grow faster than it can be munched.

Biz was all over the place at a full gallop checking out what was new edible.

 Alpine went her own way, also
checking out the territory.

After about 10 minutes of running around, they settled down.


There is seldom a dull moment on the Acreage!

That's It for This Year!

From this....

 And this...

 to this...

 And this... in only one week!

The snow is almost gone. Yeah!!  The mattock took out the bulldozer humps and buried trees. The quad and harrow leveled off the final rolling bumps and turned the humus into the soil. All that remains to do now once it dries up a bit is to move the free firewood out and toss down some hayseed. Did you get that? FREE firewood...donations accepted declined. I almost forgot. Burn the stumps and roots next winter.

It Feels Like Snow!

Hopefully, it is far, far  away! However, the Sand Hill Cranes, Snow Geese and Canada geese are all heading south. They are up at 5000 feet and going fast.  Usually they are ahead of the professional weather forecasters.

The leaves are pretty much gone, and what are left are drying on the trees. This morning I dug out  my winter toque before heading out to work some more on the land clearing. The wind was bitterly cold and it felt like it was going to rain, or snow.

If you look closely at the above, you can see Biz standing on the hill trying to see if there was any grass yet. She and Alpine are banished to the field farthest from the main road, because they both look similar to a moose when walking through the bush. 

 Brooklyn is quite inquisitive and follows me from spot to spot. She doesn't seem to miss the chickens, nor does Boots. The last of our chickens are now gone, so it will be back to purchasing store bought eggs over the winter. We will have to think on whether we want layers next spring along with the meat birds and turkeys. It was a tough, but necessary decision to put down the layers, but the energy cost this winter made keeping them for eggs a serious money losing proposition.

Tomorrow, I start cleaning out the turkey house and chicken coop. I can use the space to store all the paraphernalia that goes along with keeping foul. I timed the food almost perfectly and only have about 2 scoops left. The oyster shell is also pretty much empty. 

Extended Pasture Completed!

 The last bit of the new horse area has now been cleared, and harrowed and leveled, all ready for spring seeding. I still have one large stump to remove (ughh). The long pole was used to lift the quad when I high pointed it on a stump. Love those long levers! It looks level, but there is quite a grade and a few valleys that don't show up in the photos very well.

 #1 burn pile is ready to go! It also is in a 6 foot ravine.

 This is some of the wood that I snaked out with the quad and trailer. If we had room, I would be tempted to put in a wood burning fireplace. That is a BAD thought. My longer term memory is still reminding me just how much work that is. In the meantime, free fire wood, where is, as is.

 Burn pile #2 is also in a gully. Hopefully, it will dry enough to light off this winter. I need about 6 inches of snow on the ground before any burning is done. That is my personal limit as far as fire spreading goes.

Unfortunately, there are still lots of stumps to cut off and/or dig out. The key thing is to get the sharp points off before the horses get in there. One more day should completely finish the project! I guess the next step is to put the lawn mower away, bring out the snow blower and prepare for winter.