Long nights and Zymurgy

    I am sitting here writing this newest blog and listening to the sound of mixed precipitation falling on the roof. It's been almost three full weeks since I returned to work full time and the shortness of the days has really impeded progress on the farm. Ethan and I managed to string one course of hardware cloth around the bottom of the chicken run and I hope to do another course this weekend. I have managed to turn the top layer of the compost over and the only thing left standing in the garden plots is the spent raspberry canes. The light of day has become a very precious thing and I am trying to squeeze every bit of production out of those short sunlit hours. Last weekend I sacrificed some production on the farm to break a three year hiatus of brewing with my brother. We made three different styles of stout and as we boiled wort run off from grain and added hops I remembered how much I love zymurgy. Zymurgy is the study of the process of fermentation and it can be as  simple or complex as the brewer makes it. I love the whole brewing process, the smell of sugars being washed from freshly milled grains, the aroma of hops as they are poured into the brew kettle and the challenge of the boil as we attempt to arrive at our desired specific gravity. Last weekend was successful on many levels and although we were a bit rusty we quickly knocked off the cobwebs and had a very good brew session. Monks often used the dark and long days of winter to create some of the world's best known beer styles and it felt as if we were once again following in some very old footsteps.
     Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and even though I'm not working the day will be spent with family and friends instead of working on the farm. There is a part of me which feels like I'm squandering the daylight hours but I have reminded myself that this is a day for celebrating what we've been blessed with and giving thanks for and sharing those blessings. There are farm chores that will need to be done but those are easy tasks and won't take much time. I have been leaving lights on over the rabbit hutches to simulate summer daylight so the does will be more inclined to mate with our buck. In an attempt to defy the long nights of the season tomorrow I'll breed the first of the does and the remaining does will be bred this weekend. Hanging hardware cloth and breeding rabbits will be almost all that's done on the farm this week but there will be one more thing to do. Once again zymurgy is involved and I'll have Kathy pick up five gallons of late season cider from Woodstock Orchards; I may be partial to this orchard since I worked there years ago. I'm a true New Englander and in the typical style of our region I won't be making typical hard cider but New England style hard cider. We have to deal with cold winters here in the northeast so we like to have a bit more warmth to our cider. I'll be adding five pounds of brown sugar to the cider which will add, in typical New England style, about four to five percent more alcohol to the cider. There probably won't be much more that I can accomplish this weekend.
     I've spent a great deal of time reading about the lifestyle of farms of yesterday and we have been modeling our farm to match those times. Kathy and I believe that this simpler lifestyle is a more healthy one, both physically and mentally. Today's farms are places of constant, even frantic places of busyness with little consideration for the animals, land or people that live and work on them. The short days and long nights have been supplanted by electric lights, crazy fertilizing practices and round the clock agriculture. Tractors with lights allow for all night harvesting and intensive breeding and growing practices sacrifice quality for quantity. When I look at our twenty-four hour, seven day a week culture and see how quickly appreciation for the slower, smaller things of life are lost I find that I'm happy with some long nights mixed with a bit of zymurgy.

Last Harvests

   Since I last wrote we have lost the hour of  evening daylight that daylight savings time gave to us and the nights start much earlier now. I have gone back to work full time and so the farm chores have been relegated to the weekends. I have found that the loss of that evening hour has affected me more than I thought it would. The pressure to get the outside projects finished has just soared and the limited daylight and much cooler temperatures has just moved those projects to the top of the list. Last weekend I harvested the remaining habenaro peppers and put them in a brining solution. Today I packed the peppers in canning jars filled with olive oil and checked one more thing off the to do list. All the posts have been set and the door has been hung for the chicken run, now all we need to do is install the fencing. Yesterday I prepared the area for planting sun chokes and today the chokes went into the ground. It was warmer than I expected it to be and so the planting was easy and it was a pleasure to once again have garden soil on my hands. I planted the tubers exactly as my friend told me I should and thought about next years harvest of a new addition to the garden. The thought made me smile and I smiled even more as I checked another item off my list. I accomplished most of what I intended to do this weekend and now all the garden plots have been spread with rabbit manure and all the dead stalks and canes have been cut down for composting or removal.
    The full beaver moon has come and gone and we've only had a few really chilly days. The anticipated cold snap has yet to come and so the last of garden crops is hanging on. Kale, that wonderful and healthy green is hardy and I've seen it growing in several inches of snow, is still hanging on in the garden. There have been green worms munching on our last crop and I removed several of them today. The weather men are predicting a touch of the polar vortex will come at the end of the week and I hope it will end the lives of my little green poachers. I had written in my last post that I was ready for the growing season to be over and also to finish the last of my outside projects, this has not changed but I'm still hoping to nibble some of our kale. I have sold almost all the current litter of rabbits and so am really leaning toward a winter breeding of the does. This decision means that Issac will have to sire the next litters and I'll have to gear up for another outside project, mainly keeping the new born kits from freezing during their first few days of life.
    As I write this post I can see the leaves blowing from yard to yard and I can also see that most of the leaves are off the trees. Autumn is more than half done and winter is just six weeks away and although I have been talking about what I've been doing outside I know that those things are coming to an end. I am anticipating the coming change and have picked up two carboys from my brother for fermenting cider. I will order the yeast for inoculating the cider next weekend and the weekend after that have a carboy filled with freshly pressed cider from Woodstock Orchards. We will also begin looking into a cheese making kit in the next week or two which is a very exciting prospect for me as I love cheese. These are all inside activities and I'm really looking forward to starting them  because it's another phase of farming we haven't really tried yet. I don't mind the cold, in fact I love deer hunting or checking traps on the crisp falling mornings, so it's not why I'm ready to move our projects in doors. I'm ready to move inside because I'm looking forward sharing our  new experiences with our friends, so as I look out the window and see the long shadows of a shorter day I'm excited for the changes brought on by the season of  last harvests.
     

Mid Fall

    This time of year has a distinctiveness that you won't find in any other month or season. I really felt it as I made my rounds around the gardens and past the rabbit hutches this morning and I find the more time I spend on our little farm the more I notice it. The winds are gusting and cool this morning and at eleven am  the sun has nearly reached the halfway point in it's daily course. I can see the shadows are longer now than they been since early spring at this time of day and there are other differences as well. The gardens which were once flush with greenery and produce are nearly empty now; only a few kale and habenaro plants remain but these will be gone by the weekend. Many of the once colorful leaves have fallen to the ground and they make that unique rustling sound as the wind gusts blow them from one yard to the next. The air smells and feels different as well. The humidity that persisted even into earlier this month is gone and the air is drier and cooler. The summer smells of hot dogs and hamburgers being cooked on the neighborhood grills has been replaced by the faint smell of decaying leaves and plants mixed in with an occasional whiff of freshly cut silage.

     We have lost four hours and forty minutes since the summer solstice on June 21st and this coming weekend we'll give back the hour we gained from daylight savings time. As the days have become shorter so have my garden inspections, it's been a good season but I'm ready for a change myself. The time change will coincide with the end of our gardens and the beginning of the fur trapping season. Many people will complain that it gets dark way too early but if you fur trap as I do then you appreciate the earlier sunrise. I won't be trapping this year due to my shoulder surgery but I'll be happy to put an end to weeding and start trying to finish up many of the other projects started when the weather was warmer. I need to finish buying the materials for the chicken run and get the whole thing put together. We'll have sunchokes to plant this weekend and a partition still needs to be buried in the front garden to keep the chokes contained to their desired area. All the does have had their litters and I'm debating if I want to chance some cold weather litters, so I'm working on a way to provide warm nest boxes for any kits born in the winter chill. There is still much to be done on the farm.

      The weathermen are predicting a major fall in temperatures at the end of the week and this will likely bring to an end the unseasonably warm days we've been enjoying. I'll be rushing to get all the projects done that I've listed off and fortunately Justin will be able to lend a helping hand. There are still plenty of things I want to do and many of these will be able to be done in the warmth and protection of the house. I want to start a batch or two of hard cider, learn to make cheese and even try my hand at making some raspberry wine. I may try to use some of the pelts from our next batch of rabbits to make fur lined mittens or some other fur lined garment. The seasons have certainly changed as have my chores on the farm and soon the full beaver moon will hang over the frozen ground of the gardens, but right now I'm enjoying the changes of mid fall. 

Last Taste of Summer

   I have written a bit about the impending fall season and finally its arrival. I have observed how the animals are scurrying around gathering the last easily obtainable food and how I sense the impending freeze, which will be here soon. Kathy and I had a chance to get away for a few days this week and as always the trip to Vermont was great. While we were away my thoughts still turned to the farm and I found myself wondering how things were going. I had left instructions with the boys about making sure the floating row cover was still covering the peppers, making sure the rabbits had adequate food and checking on the does for any signs of early kindling. I knew that they would do as I instructed but I still have an obsession for things being done in a particular fashion and I wondered how things were being done. I loved the trip and the few days we had away were spent doing less obsessing and more relaxing. We had a chance to visit some of the places that we always go to and also found some new places to visit. We went to some different brew pubs and ate at a different restaurant than we typically celebrate Kathy's birthday at. The farm was less in the forefront of my mind and more in that place that just makes your thoughts turn there occasionally.
    While we were in Vermont we had quite a hard frost on Sunday night into Monday morning and although the plants where we were showed they had been frosted before I knew that we would have had our first frost on the farm. I heated up the car to defrost the windshield and wondered how the plants and animals back home had fared. The temperature in Vermont never got quite that cold again while we were there and rain moved in on the day we left. I had expected to be driving in lousy weather all day but we drove out of the rain and when we entered Connecticut the sun was shining and the temperature was nearing sixty-five degrees. When we arrived home I inspected the gardens and the rabbits before we unloaded the car and found the does had all burrowed in to the hay in the nest boxes but hadn't kindled yet. I then walked over to the habenaro pepper plants and found that the row cover had blown off the end plant which had been badly frosted. I found myself questioning whether the boys had done as good a job as I hoped they would. I then pulled back the rest of the row cover and found the tops of every pepper plant wilting from the frost's kiss of death. I then knew I couldn't have done any better had I been home and so I thanked the boys for taking care of things while we were away.
     We've been home a few days now and I've settled back in to the routine of the farm. I've been checking the habenaro plants and there are still a number of peppers that were spared the bite of the frost, so I will harvest what ever is left this weekend and pull the remaining plants out. The kale and brussel sprouts are hardy and they did fine with the frost. The rabbits were holding out but when I checked this morning Isis had kindled and we have five or six new kits. The raspberries took a beating from the frost and this latest Nor'easter and there are only a few past ripe berries left clinging to the brambles. I knew the frost would come, so before we left for Vermont I had walked through the gardens doing what might be a final inspection. I had walked by the raspberry plants and found some really plump and ripe berries. I stopped for a moment and carefully picked a hand full and popped them into my mouth, they were wonderfully sweet and juicy. I enjoyed the taste and moved on with my inspection of the gardens. There is still plenty to do on our little farm before hard winter arrives but I'm glad I stopped at the raspberry patch before we left, for even though we have a lot garden produce in the freezer, this was going to be my last taste of summer.
       

Getting Away

   As I sit to write this post the rain has finally starting to slack off a bit. I've been waiting for a rain like this most of the summer and although for many with gardens it comes too late, I'll take it. I have already mentioned that we still have plants growing and this rain will do them good. The kale is growing well and tomorrow I'll cut a bunch to make spicy sausage and kale soup tomorrow. The habenaro peppers are almost ready to pick and I'll probably do that Saturday. There are still a lot of small peppers on the plants and with cold weather on the way I'll have to cover them and hopefully eek out the last bit of fruit they have to offer. The rabbits are gaining weight rapidly now and Justin helped me process seven kits today. That leaves me ten left to butcher, I had planned to do more today but my shoulder didn't want to play along.
    It's been a good year on the farm regardless of the cooler and drier than usual summer. We harvested 32 lbs of onions, 40 lbs of potatoes, 25 lbs of raspberries, 30 lbs of squash, 10 lbs of green beans and numerous uncounted pounds of tomatoes. The rabbits have had a relatively productive year with 34 kits being raised to harvest weight thus far, although there should have been more, I'll take this number since we have had some problems. I can still think of a load of things that need to be done in addition to harvesting kale and habenaro peppers but with gardening slowing down I really feel like I'm ready for a little break. Running a farm, even a small one, is a busy and demanding proposition with little down time. There is always something to do and if Kathy and I are able to get to our goal of having a full time rabbitry and farm there won't be much time for breaks. I do keep this in mind and so I booked a couple of days away in Vermont, where we can celebrate Kathy's birthday and have some much needed down time.
      Getting away is precious and time alone with my wife even more so and I'm determined to put the farm out of my head for a few days. It doesn't happen often but the timing is nearly perfect because the rhythm of the farm is just at the pace we need it to be. I still feel the pressure of the remaining chores and still feel like I'm scurrying like those nut burying squirrels but the chores at hand can wait a few days. The rest of the rabbits need to gain some more weight and the does shouldn't kindle until we return, although they'll have their nest boxes Sunday morning before we leave. The cold weather coming in the next few days isn't really a concern as the does will pull enough fur to keep the new kits warm.  I have several weeks to get the chicken run up and the raspberry canes don't need to be cut to the ground until late November. Kathy and I love to go to Vermont and hope to settle there one day, so when we visit the state we often check out real estate ads for property that might meet our needs for our planned farm and rabbitry. The farm and our goals are never far from our minds and we love what we do, but while we can we also love getting away.

Burying Nuts

   Well the full Hunter's Moon has just passed and with it a cold front has ushered in the cooler weather we often associate with this time of year in New England. We have had some really warm days this month but there have been less of them and the days have become noticeably shorter. The sun doesn't even hit the front and side gardens until eight in the morning and the back gardens barely feel the it's warming rays in the late afternoon. The growing season has continued as our plants haven't yet felt the deadly kiss of frost and so I do my garden rounds daily now, attempting to will the remaining plants to grow faster so I can harvest the last of the garden bounty. I'm sure you can feel the change in the air as much as I can; the days are not only passing more quickly but there seems to be an urgency in the air as well. I may be more attuned to the feeling because I spend a lot of time out doors, not just in the gardens and with the rabbits but also in the woods and fields.
    I am a hunter and a trapper and so I spend a lot of time scouting areas in the fields and woods looking for good spots to deer hunt or set traps for the fur bearers I target. It is this time spent in the woods that often conveys the urgency of the season to me. I walk down trails and hear the animals' increased activity, gone are the long days of summer and plenty and coming are the days of cold and want. That season hasn't yet arrived but the animals and I know it will, so they scurry along the forest floor or the margins of harvested corn fields feasting on the last of the seasons' easily obtained food. While I don't need to put up food stores and fat like they do, I can always go to the store, I still feel the urgency in the air. We've worked hard on the farm this summer and while the ground is still soft and workable there's more to be done. I have to set fence posts and wire for the chicken run and rabbit manure needs to be spread and worked into all the garden plots. I have to watch closely and wait for the last possible moment to pick a plentiful crop of habenaro peppers. The kale and brussel sprouts can stand a good frost but the raspberry canes and fans of asparagus will certainly succumb to the first icy grip of late fall so they'll need to be cut down before the snow flies.
    Though I know there is less to do than there was even a month ago I still walk around the gardens making my mental list. There are many days that I see gray squirrels scurrying through and around the garden with black walnuts in their mouths. They sense the urgency of this season, perhaps even more than I do, and so they bury the food they've gathered with a manic pace. I feel maybe just a little like them, scurrying around and getting ready for the cold season that's not far away. I hate when they bury those nuts in the garden but I understand why they do it and I have to smile just a bit since there are days when I feel like I'm just urgently burying nuts.

Shorter Days, Longer Lists?

     This past weekend was, as predicted, absolutely beautiful with cloudless skies and abundant warmth. We broke the record on Sunday for a high temperature for the date and so I had the opportunity to linger on the patio enjoying what will likely be the last of significantly warm weather this year. Kathy and I were able to enjoy a few glasses of wine and relax on the patio because there is much less to do in the gardens now. That is at least how I justified my inactivity but the shortness of that beautiful weekend reminded me that there is a lot to do. I like to make lists because they help me get my thoughts in order and keep my priorities straight. If you visit my house you will often see a piece of lined note paper with number running down the left margin sitting on the coffee table in the living room. Kathy likes to poke fun at me because " the list" is always if front of me even when I'm trying to relax. My boys might tell you I'm a workaholic but I would rather characterize myself as determined and it is this determination to do well that drives the list.                                                       I have found myself thinking lately that my list should be growing shorter because there should be less to do. The growing season is just about done, but we have yet to have a frost so plants are still growing. That means that if I want the late harvest plants to do well I still need to weed around and water them. These two chores have been at the top of the list all summer and I still can't strike them off the list yet. I walk around the garden and hope for just another week of good weather because then I should be able to harvest snap peas and a whole bunch of habenero peppers. If the weather holds then I'll have to add brining and storing jars of hot peppers to my growing to do list. I had resigned myself to doing little or no hunting and trapping this year due to my recent shoulder surgery but I'm progressing faster than I'd hoped. If my progress continues I might have to add scouting my hunting and trapping areas to the list.                                                                            We have built the chicken coop, the does have been bred once again, I inspected the rabbit hutches which I'd hoped to add to our farm, we made iced cream using some of our freshly picked raspberries, many of the spent plants have been cut to the ground so I can check those things off the list. I have also determined that I want a bigger area for the chickens to free range in so I can now add a larger run with a fence to my list. The hutches weren't what I'd hoped for so now I'll add that search to my list. There is a lot to do before the snow flies and the ground has frozen into an unworkable state and the shorter days just don't help. I was hoping the the shorter days would shrink my to do list but the opposite seems to have happened. Then when I look at the numbers on my list I can see many have been crossed off and less have been added. I know there will always be numbers added to my list because that's the nature of the farm. Paces and gears change on the farm as the days shorten and the list changes too. I look at my list and I have just about the same amount of numbers in the margin that I always have and so I can relax just a little. I recognize this fact and can be happy with what we've done on our little farm this year; it seems the shorter days only seem to make the list longer. Oh there's a lot more to do but at least I can enjoy our accomplishments because I love this little farm project and I won't be a slave to the list.