Third Week of October

Happy Farm School Monday tomorrow! ◡̈  

A few considerations - 

• Cider press is set up. - We'll want to carefully clean it and press some apples tomorrow. We can pick some from the orchard with the fountain, and I may find out what's available from Marilyn's orchard (cautious of the hive). We'll be careful not to pick all the fujis. Bring containers if you'd like to take cider home. When done, we will wash down the press & the filter bags, and find a good place to store it. Cider is delicious raw, can be spiced, canned, frozen, cultured for apple cider vinegar, or many other things. 
• Chicken tractor was set up today. - There are 3 hens and a rooster on a track outside the greenhouse. We're keeping the pond-side door to the greenhouse closed, but Jenny still manages to get in the field and bark at them. Please feel free to usher her out if you see her doing this. 
• Farm School Sign - (thank you, Jacquelyn) She will bring things to hang it, and I am wondering if we might consider the back porch that we will create as our main entrance. 
• Back porch + entrance room - The house will be vacated tomorrow morning. We can consolidate & move any remaining items and clean for installation of hooks/cubbies (If anyone has a vision, please present it tomorrow at 10 a.m.). We will work room-by-room on approachable work spaces. There may be two new residents, whom you know, moving in for the fall. Visions for work spaces may be presented on paper to Elise.
• Squashes - I've been putting them in crates and they can be stacked (with adequate spacing) 2' up along the sides of the cool room. Refuse can go to the pigs.
• Hazelnuts - picking up and putting them in baskets near the cool room.
• Walnuts - in Irene's garden, 2 walnut trees have dropped walnuts we can still shell to be dried. Next year we'll try to get them a little earlier. Don't worry about the presentation of the outer covering of the shell. They do stain. 
• Pots & Flats Bay - The tables pulled out of the greenhouse may be placed to the Big-House-side of the greenhouse under filberts (once that space is carefully cleared) to be set up for sorting. Similarly, I'd like to find a method for storing tools. 
• Irene's Garden - I spoke with Peggy today about projects in Irene's garden. Walnut leaves can inhibit the growth of plants around them, so they can be raked and removed. We will want to cut the wisteria back hard in 2 places and shore up / build some supports. Child forts sound like a great way to build interactive structures that support plants. The fence on the fountain side wants some shoring up. The grapes will want to be cut back soon by an experienced pruner.  Some plants that sprout up in walkways can be dug up and planted in pots for market. The hoses will be re-plumbed next summer. 
• Pigs - The chanchitos made it almost all the way to the bamboo. Today we cut out a path for them to clean out around the bamboo. I can't believe how much space there was under the blackberries. Now we can see across the pond from the yard. (For safety, the bridge by the bamboo is not available during farm school.) Daily attention: 3-4 gal grain (tossed well inside the pen)  + 1 bucket (already-fallen) apples. 
• Cold Frame - The porch at Eva's house evidently doesn't get much sun. Peggy was thinking it could be out further, and/or we could help to shore up the standing-raised-bed we built for her last year. 
• The flower field is beautiful! It's photo-worthy with the maples changing colors in the background - before the frost hits too hard. We have had more nighttime frost in the valley these weeks than up the hill where we live. 
• 4 Seasons Garden - We planted more leafy greens and bunching onions. We can top-dress with compost (behind vegetable shed), pull weeds, harvest tomatoes, cultivate more space, plant more, and organize our tool spaces. We can always pull weeds along the inner walls (gloves available) and give them to the chickens. We can also create a compost space out by the pond (cautious of the cinder blocks at the end of the greenhouse if overgrown or wobbly). We'll also be careful not to let Jenny in the pen with the chickens if we can. As far as I know, we are still planning to have goats in the adjacent field, then sow cover crop for the winter, and plant the fields with veggies in the spring. 
• There may be some debris left on the carport and in the house tomorrow - thank you for all of your patience. I understand the table will be available, and spaces made more approachable as we work at it. ◡̈  
• español - as we slowly shift to más español, I encourage you to study with DuoLingo, StudySpanish.com, Spanish for Gringos, label items in your house, print and color my learning pages, and practice fearlessly. iSí se puede!

Peace!

​Elise