Wendigo was barking last night. Her furious woofing woke us up in the wee hours, and when I asked Brandon what he thought she was barking at, he just said "who knows" and fell back to sleep! Wendi barks like that sometimes, and if we make the late night journey outside to see what monster she is holding at bay, we can't find any reason for her agitation. I imagine that whatever it is that's out there, it hears her booming barks and keeps it's distance. It's probably nothing. At least that's what I tell myself as I put a pillow over my ears and go back to sleep. This morning as the sun was rising, she was resting peacefully on her lounger, despite the frost. I hope she got some rest today, so she has the energy to bark through the night again. Doh!
We had the first fire of the season in our wood-stove this week. So exciting. And warm!
The arrival of the cold weather inspired Brandon do some caulking on the west and north walls of our house. For the past two winters we have felt a slight breeze from around the windows, doors, and floor boards, and we threatened to caulk all the cracks, but never actually pulled out the furniture and made it happen.
Some of our cracks were so big they sucked up entire tubes of caulk! We think it makes a noticeable difference already, and there's still more caulking fun to be had.
We may be doing winter prep, but inside the greenhouse the tomato plants are blooming!
I can snack on cherry tomatoes when I visit the chicks in the brooder. Nice.
I collected marigold seeds from the still blooming plants in the greenhouse, and zinnia and sunflower seeds from the garden.
Check out this monster sized swiss chard! It loves the greenhouse now that the temperatures are cooler. I'm curious to see how long it will thrive. Next year I need to plant more greens in the greenhouse late in the summer. Remind me, would ya?
I didn't do any food preservation this year. No canning or drying or freezing. I may regret that this winter when we dependent on the grocery, but I was glad to give myself a pass this year. I tried hard to eat as much of the garden's bounty as I could, straight from the garden, although I was happy to have the jars of tomato sauce my brother-in-law shared with me from the family tomato patch. The old pear tree has fewer pears than ever before, but the pears it has are huge and sweet. I make it a habit to collect the freshly dropped pears and share them with the donkeys. They eat their pears fast, and then demand to have my pear core before I'm even finished!
Rufus and Hattie have grown in thick coats of winter fur. They look so adorable with their shaggy foreheads. For some reason the flies love Hattie's eyes, but not Rufus's. Rufus has beautiful eyes.
I think Hattie must have blocked tear ducts, because her eyes are often watery, and the flies like to land on her lower lids and drink her tears. And bite her face. I've dabbed so many ointments and repellents on her fly bites that when I reach toward her face now, she recoils, like I'm going to do something to her. By the time I got a fly mask on her, she had sores on her face with bald patches, and she did not enjoy it when I tied her up and cleaned and treated her sore spots. But now that the flies are gone, and the mask is off, we have a system. As long as she has a pear to chew on, she doesn't mind if I reach from behind her head and rub an ointment on her bald spots. She's mostly healed up now, thank goodness. I'll be ready with the fly mask early next fly season.
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