Summer Recap: August and September

It is more than a month into fall and my mind, while thinking about fall, is also looking forward to winter. Preparing for winter is a big part of our fall work. Still, I am going to look back and give the rest of the summer recap.

August

For me, August was filled with routine tasks: lots of harvesting, packing and delivering, planting fall crops and at least thinking about weeding. I got very far behind on that last task. My niece in Corvallis came up a few times with a few of her friends to help us out. We did get one big harvest in in August: onions. It always feels good to get a big harvest in. Steven, on the other hand, had a little more fun. I let him out of the fields long enough to get started on the mobile chicken coop. We are planning to start a flock or two of laying hens again. We love the eggs, but we also love the fertilizer and pest control they give. Our plan is to move them through fields and orchard after the crops are done to do a little clean up. There is plenty of open pasture space for them, as well, when the fields are in production. Unfortunately, Steven only had a weekend or two to work on the coop before he had to get back out in the fields.

September

Again, Steven had all the fun in September and it was more of the same for me. Steven took two weeks off work with one big project in mind: to disassemble two 30′ x 100′ hoop houses we bought from another farm and cart them back to our place. The first day he went out, a piece of metal fell on his head and he ended up with a few stitches. He had two of my niece’s friends with him that day to help. Reportedly, there was so much blood, one took off his t-shirt to put on Steven’s head to stop the bleeding. I think he will always be one of our favorites among her friends. Despite that beginning, the project ended well. Since I had to hold down the fort and couldn’t go help myself, we were thankful for the friends who could help out. It made the job go much more quickly and pleasantly. There wasn’t time to do any reassembly here, because Steven started right in on sowing fall cover crops. We got information from OSU and other farmers that the best cover crop to use when you have symphylan is spring oats. For now, that is what we will use for our winter cover. The fields Steven sowed in September now have a nice bit a growth going.