Garlic, Harvesting Potatoes, Cows and Escaped Goats

09/07/2008 Sunday: Cold in morning but sunny and nearly 80 degrees F by about 3 pm.

I spent my time in the cottage garden and in the vegetable garden. I cut down two bushes by the Dexter fence so I could see through the fence to the Dexters. I'm not much worried about trimming back those plants because I know they'll bounce back next year.

I also cut down some hazelnut trees (10-12), in one of a set of two coppices, using a bow saw and loppers. These trees are 20-25 feet high. I really need to use my chain saw. My shoulders hurt a little from the unusual exercise.

I keep remembering that winter is just around the corner. I'm not exactly frantic to get things done but I do hear a very definite time-driven drum beat. It's playing "It's almost too late to finish your projects for this year. It's almost too late to finish your projects for this year.

After lunch I planted the garlic I bought from Cranky Carl's Gourmet Garlic Farm. It arrived yesterday. He has an unusual way of selling his garlic. You can buy 3 heads of one kind or 3 individual heads of different garlics. I asked him to surprise me with the 3 individual heads. Somehow I ended up with 6 mystery garlic and 1 regular trio. The heads were numbered at the top of the neck and the list of garlics was provided on the paper sack. Great idea.

I'd layered the dirt in the stock tank I'm planting the garlic in with llama dodo and with chicken manure to top it off. I had to rough up the surface to get ready to plant. I planted in 7 rows. Most of the heads had from 3-7 bulbs depending on the variety and size of the head. It worked out really well. There is plenty of space between the bulbs so I'm hoping I'll get lots of garlic next year.

I got the following garlic heads from Cranky Carl's Gourmet Garlic Farm (http://crankycarlsgourmetgarlicfarm.com/):
1. Chrysalis Purple
2. Georgian Chrystal
3. German White
4. Zemo
5.Chesnok Red
6. Asian Tempest
7. Metechi (3 heads)

Carl recommends that I plant on October 1 and mulch well. Around this area we plant much earlier. I perhaps jumped the gun by a week or so but I don't think it will do the garlic much harm.

I watered the cottage garden flowers and gave the thirsty garden a good drink. We should be getting corn soon. The collard greens are pretty much ruined from the cabbage butterfly. Now those beasties are attacking the red cabbage. I'll have to find some kind of insecticide that won't end up in our bodies to kill them off.

Before I went in I harvested two different kinds of potatoes. I got enough red potatoes for a later dinner and enough Yukon Gold potatoes for two dinners. I like to boil the red potatoes and either bake or mash the Yukon Golds.

When I went down to do the morning chores I saw that most my goats had escaped through the gate to their pen into the barn proper. I was not happy. They had eaten grain from the covered garbage cans. I'm afraid I was really mean to them. I just gave them hay but no additional grain. I also did not feed them any grain for their dinner. I can be mean when I have to be mean. None of the goats looks sick from overeating. That's a relief.

I did get them all back into their pen. Fortunately I have an exterior gate (made up of stock panel) that I keep latched so they didn't escape into the outside.

We loaned our tractor to a neighbor on Friday and it stopped working at his place for some reason. It worked perfectly fine at our place just a few hours before. Chas is going to see him tomorrow to see if we need to take it to town to get worked on. We're hoping it's something simple like the air filter being fouled but who knows? Bummer. My heart sank. I use that tractor nearly daily. Without the tractor I'll have to roll a bale of hay into the Dexter feeder. I am not looking forward to that.

Myrtle's calf went under the single strand electric fence into the pasture where I had them up to yesterday when I moved them into the last section of the central corridor. He escaped in the middle of the night - naturally. Myrtle bellowed and bugled for me for hours. Around 1:30 am I finally went out and drove the calf back into the paddock with his mother. Blessed silence was achieved.

Susie says she has a Dun that she'll sell me next year if I want it. She suggested I charge $200.00 or more per cow to breed Dexters in someone else's herd since he's red and thus more valuable.

We ate home raised beef and yukon gold potatoes and beets from my garden for dinner tonight. For someone who hasn't raised a garden for over 25 years I seem to have remembered how to do it pretty well. Corn should be coming on pretty soon. I plan to pig out. It's close on being one of my favorite veggies. I think I'll have enough to give away to neighbors and to share with the cows. Fortunately the Dexters are close to the garden and I can toss goodies - like worm-ridden collard greens - over the fence. Cheddar seems to find the goodies before the others. She has a good nose.