Well, our stray tabby cat Sunny has been to the vet and is Officially a HE! His new name is Facer, a reference to the fact his new owners found out about him through my wife’s Facebook posting.
wake me when it's supper time!
They report he is settling in nicely at his new home, using the litter box and generally behaving. If the photo is any indication, I’d say he is one lucky cat!
I never want to wish time to speed up, but frankly I am glad to see the end of summer 2010. So far this year we have had over 75 days with temps in the 90s(F), and our rainfall has been a foot less than normal. I don’t know if fall will be any wetter than summer this year, but it’s already cooler, and that is a welcome relief!
Last week I broke ground on the new Impact garden, though perhaps “broke” is too strong a word to use. The tiller chattered and jumped over the parched brown grass, sending up dust clouds whenever it did manage to penetrate into the soil. I finally got down through most of the dead sod. That’s about the best I can hope to do until we get some rain and the soil softens up a bit. The conditions are similar to when I started our new vegetable garden here in 2007, and I remember how difficult it was to work the soil that fall.
figs wrapped in prosciutto ham
And speaking of the garden here, the star performer this week was the fig. We got over two pounds of them, which was enough to snack on plus some for drying. I cut some of the big Brown Turkey figs in quarters, wrapped them with a piece of prosciutto and a bit of Parmigiano cheese, and grilled them for a couple of minutes. Mmmm good!
figs in dehydrator
I harvested enough small fruited tomatoes (Juliet, Golden Rave, Black Cherry, Sun Gold) to roast some in the oven. These roasted tomatoes are a real favorite of ours. They found their way onto pita pizzas, and into a frittata.
I also harvested some nice Dancer eggplants this week. Those got grilled, and there are some Fairy Tale eggplants that need to be dealt with soon. Thank goodness for the Fairy Tale plants in pots. The rest of the plants have not done well at all this year. The ones in pots are more convenient to water, plus the Fairy Tale variety is very prolific.
It looks like we will have some fall cucumbers next week. I’ve never tried to grow a late crop of cucumbers, but the Manny variety from Territorial Seed (formerly Sharon 59) was bred to do well in the greenhouse during colder months. It’s done great in the spring for us, so I decided to give it a try in the fall. I hope it performs, because it’s taking up a fair amount of space in the greenhouse beds. If we have cucumbers in October it will be worth it!
greenhouse cucumber sizing up
The other big harvest this week was compost. I shoveled and sifted a batch that I started back in early August. I got a whopping 14 bushels from bin#2 alone! At least half of that went on the raised beds where I will plant garlic next month. We hope to get another batch of compost cooking next week. We’ve got plenty of plant material waiting to be shredded, and there should be time to get it finished before cold weather sets in.
empty compost bin, ready to be filled
Our total harvest this week was 7 pounds, and the slower pace of the garden in Fall is really nice. There’s still plenty to be done, but now the freezer and pantry are full of food, and there’s more time to enjoy the autumn weather before winter arrives. I think I see a picnic in our future, and maybe a day trip or two. I hope you’re enjoying the season, wherever you are!
I love stories with happy endings. And I think this one is headed in that direction.
When we got home from vacation last weekend, were greeted by the sound of loud meowing. And no, it wasn’t from our kitties, because they were boarded and we hadn’t picked them up yet. This was coming from outside. It didn’t take long to find the source of the noise.
Hello! Is anyone home?
This beautiful yellow tabby cat was trying to get our attention. Unlike some of the wild, feral cats that hang around Happy Acres, this one was quite tame and approachable. It came right up to us on the deck and started rubbing on us and purring. After a quick exam we saw it was declawed in front, which meant it had been someones house cat. And now it was either lost or dumped. In my experience, most of the cats that show up like this have been abandoned. We gave it some food and water and it started eating like it hadn’t had a meal in a weeks.
Mmmm that's good. Can I have another helping please?
It hung out with us for a few days while we decided what to do. We quickly ruled out keeping it, even though it was a real sweetheart. We had three cats inside already, and that was plenty. And it couldn’t stay outside since it couldn’t defend itself without claws, and we knew there were several feral cats hanging around here that would likely fight with it. I say “it”, because we were not sure about its gender.
At first glance, it appeared to be female. Even though it was quite friendly, I was reluctant to spend TOO much time trying to determine its sex. Upon closer examination, I decided it was a male. Lynda started calling it “Sunny”. And yes, we have “easy” written on both our foreheads!
We found out from our neighbor that it had showed up about a week earlier. Lynda set out to try and determine if it had a home, and if not, to find it a new one. We were unable to find anyone looking for a missing cat, and last night some folks came by to meet it for a possible adoption.
Can I come home with you?
Everyone seemed to get along famously, and now Sunny has a new home with a nice couple who are cat lovers. They lost a beloved kitty last year, and decided it was once again time for the pitter-patter of little paws around the house.
They promised to send us updates. For now, it’s good to know that this story seems to have a happy ending. A year from now, it’s possible Sunny won’t remember much about the whole incident. And even though this wasn’t a fairy tale, hopefully everyone will live happily ever after!
My wife and I have been gone for a week and a half on vacation (more about that in a later post). Before we left, we did our best to put the gardens on autopilot. We watered, mulched, and then watered a bit more. We crossed our fingers and hoped everything would make it while we were away. This has been a very dry year, and plants has been struggling.
When we got back, everything seemed to be doing pretty well. We even had about a half inch of leftover rain in the rain gauge. That’s not a lot, but it’s the first rain we’ve gotten in September. We got less than an inch in August (we average 3 inches per month in both months). At this point our area is in an official drought, and our yearly rainfall is about 11 inches below average. This is really hurting local farmers, since irrigation is not widely used here, or subsidized by the government as it is in many parts of the country.
In early September I planted lettuce in the greenhouse, and mulched it heavily with shredded newspaper. I was happy to find it growing along nicely. I should be able to start harvesting some of the leaves in a couple of weeks.
lettuce growing in greenhouse bed
Daytime temps are still getting pretty hot in the greenhouse, so this won’t be the best lettuce, but it will be good to eat all the same. This New Red Fire doesn’t get real red in the heat of the greenhouse, but it’s a good grower and tasty.
New Red Fire lettuce
I also was surprised to come home and find some ripe figs! I’ve planted several figs on the south wall of our workshop building, and they are thriving there. The variety in the bowl is Brown Turkey. They are so sweet!
Brown Turkey figs
This plant is at least 8 feet tall, and loaded with figs. Here’s one that is almost ready to harvest.
Also waiting to be harvested was some Swiss chard and a few tomatoes. The fall-planted chard is really producing well for us.
We managed to harvest 3.5 pounds of goodies in this short (for us) harvest week, bringing our yearly total to 754 pounds. For more harvests visit Daphne’s Dandelions, host of Harvest Mondays.
