Harvest Time

We have had a wonderful year for our kale and chard. Our beets and carrots are great too. We have made garden meals with everything coming from our beds.

 Today was harvest day for our onions and garlic. Our garlic is average. I think it may have needed more moisture in our dry climate. It amazes me that it takes so long to grow. In two months I will plant again for next year. The onions are doing their first cure in the sun on the deck before we bring them in for more curing. The garlic is in the garage. We have a piece of rabbit fence set out to dry them on.

This week it will be time to plant for the Fall garden. I am going to plant more lettuce, radishes, mustard greens, turnip greens, and collard greens. You can take the boy out of the South, but you can't take the South out of the boy. 

Update on the potato towers and garden

Finally our potato towers are showing signs of life. I keep seeing new plants pop out on the sides. I didn't know if I had planted the potatoes to far in or from to small of a start. At least now I know that we will have some reward.

Behind our towers we have put plastic down to kill the weeds. This fall I will lay out the lasagna garden beds for our herb/kitchen garden for the back of the house. Meanwhile we still have all of our vegetable garden beside our garage.

The terraces in the back of the garden will hopefully be completed this weekend. That is...when I get up from the computer and get back to work. I am loving that we got out our peas early this year, and they are looking good.

The Two Towers ...of potatoes

This year we have decided to grow potatoes in towers. We followed the design that I had pinned on my Pinterest page from Urban Farmer of Seward. We have four different types of potatoes in the two towers. Once again we a following the North American Biodynamic Sowing and Planting Calendar. We created these straw towers with compost on some nice days. Then we have had a couple weeks of snow.

I am so ready for Spring: however, we do need the moisture because we will be on water restrictions and fires are always a danger. These late Spring storms in the Rockies have been wonderful.

We have put these towers in the future home of our kitchen herb garden. The compost and straw will decompose nicely for next year's structured gardens. The process of our grand scheme is taking some time...but the turtle wins the race.

Phatveggie's cuts of the lamb

Rabbitry Completed

The rabbitry got the big make-over and everything looks much nicer. The floors were painted to protect and provide easier clean-up. We divided the garage space with a theatre back drop that Scott had saved from his theatre days. This not only adds instant art, but provides protection for our storage from any dander or flying fur that inevitably occurs. We have the compressor and table by the garage door. I still have to work on blowing out their coats. The play area got expanded, and we put their names on their cages today. We ran out of letters so PeeWee go a name change to P-Oui (exaggerated French accent).

P.S. Thank you honey for all the beautiful and hard work that you did. The bunnies may not know how good they have it, but I love the new and improved space.

Toas Wool Festival

Even though I am posting this one month after the event, I am still thinking about our wonderful experience at the Toas Wool Festival. The above building is located in a small town on the way down to New Mexico in Southern Colorado (La Jara). It set the tone for the weekend. The Autumn colors were wonderful in the trees and fiber.

They even set up a Ravelry group tent. There was a group of people with their drop spindles. I went for my spindles, but we ended up hanging out with David from High Plains Fiber. We practiced and purchased some of his fleece. He and his partner raise Icelandic and Shetland Sheep.

We met this lovely lady who hangs out in her friend's booth. She brings her Angora rabbits and spinning wheel. She has such a beautiful spirit, and it is obvious that she loves meeting all the people that stop to talk to her. We ran into her at the grocery store later in the afternoon and told her how wonderful we think she is. I wish I had a better picture of her warm smile as she sits with her rabbits.

I love these guys. Their faces are adorable. I wish we had space for them at our little homestead.

This year I did not have the time to take any of the classes at the Festival with the star cast lineup of instructors, but it is on my wish list.

Introducing Eudora the Angora

This is Eudora our new Angora doe. She adores her play time, and she is getting much better at her grooming time. I have been so lucky to have two wonderful ladies that live so very near to me that have Angora rabbits. We got Eudora from our new friend Martha at Midnight Moonsong. She not only has rabbits, but also has Angora goats and Alpaca. You can buy her hand dyed yarn at our LYS - Recylced Lamb.