Still no frost on the pumpkins

"WHEN the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock,
And you hear the kyouck and gobble of the struttin' turkey-cock,
And the clackin' of the guineys, and the cluckin' of the hens,
And the rooster's hallylooyer as he tiptoes on the fence;
O, it's then the time a feller is a-feelin' at his best,
With the risin' sun to greet him from a night of peaceful rest,
As he leaves the house, bareheaded, and goes out to feed the stock,
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock."

James Whitcomb Riley.

Still no hard frost, but the pumpkins are carved and waiting for the Evil Night of dread and terror when the children take the streets in search of candy. 

This is the view from the patio looking toward the rock garden, kind of hard to believe that it's a day away from November and all the flowers are still looking like it's Mid-July.

So we had the first real decent rain storm move through along with the field associated it, there was even a tornado that touched down a few miles away. I think that is the signal to button some stuff away for the winter. The bulbs in quart pots will be put into the greenhouse and the outside beds will get a nice mulch. Then we wait for the spring thaw! That is if we ever get a frost!

Cheers, 

Mark

One door closes and another opens

"Let us not be too particular; it is better to have old secondhand diamonds than none at all."

Mark Twain

Still no frost on the pumpkins, in fact the lowest temperature I have seen this fall season has been 38 degrees. This is of course good as I am ripening some vegetables in the garden still and playing the grasshopper a bit longer till the Ant takes over. I finally got caught up on a lot of the Fall projects I was needing to do. General farm maintenance and such, I re-sided the rotting old tractor shed, which should allow me more room in the wood shop this winter. I started painting the well pump house to match the new siding on the tractor shed and soon discovered it was rotting out as well. I decided not to bother with the fixing that problem this year as I think it can wait for better funding and more time next year. I have heard the saying said so many times "Don't let perfection be the enemy of good", I think I like the way that Mr. Twain said it better.  Honestly, some things are better left to sort themselves out and no sense in worrying over the things that can be dealt with at a later date. 

Just a few pics of some stuff I saw as I walked around the garden last night. I still have the greenhouse bulbs out in the can yard waiting for a decent shot of rain, then I'll weed the pots and tuck them into the greenhouse for the winter. So far it looks like that shot of rain is going to start this weekend. 

I rescued a bunch of Sowbread corms from an old abandoned homestead down by the river this summer. Got quite a few nice leaf forms and flowers ranging from white to deep pink.  

Colchicum psaridis a greecian species doing the fall thing. 

The old illahe homestead viewed from the Rock Garden as we approach the end of October. 

Sometime I need to lay out all the historical stuff I know about my place, the Title deed says it was built in 1934, but the way the foundation was added onto, and the fact that there is a photo of the old sunnyside school taken from my front porch in 1914, leads me to believe it was actually a prune drying shed that was added onto. A while back I interviewed a few of the old timers in the neighborhood and learned some great stories about the little community of Sunnyside. In fact, I'm feeling like that will be a good winter project while the bulbs are waiting for the bloom period. I'll blog the story of the community of Sunnyside.

Rain in the forecast, temps in the 50's, it once again feels like a right proper fall in Oregon.

Cheers,
Mark

Legends of the Fall

“In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousand fold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers, we are not simply protecting their trivial old age, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations.” 

Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956

I'll be honest, I was thinking a lot about this past week and some of the political and social injustices I've witnessed and having had a beloved relative pass this week and having been mistreated by folks who lack compassion and understanding about such things. I was feeling like I should talk a bit about injustice. All one needs to do is google, quotes on injustice, and you realize quickly that all the worlds great authors and orators wrote about the subject. Then you start to realize that this is a subject that has been discussed at length throughout generations and over millenia. Finally one starts to realize that injustice is just a part of society, civilized or otherwise it subsists in our culture, it exists in nature, and perhaps by human nature it's ingrained in us that you must either endure it or impose it on someone else. So speak up about injustice, call out evil, be it the management at your work place, the leaders you see running this country into the ground, or the treatment of an person or a creature. We all have a responsibility to rise up against evil and not let it perpetuate into the future generations. 

Justice is not blind, justice is bought and sold at the highest levels of our courts, it's traded and bartered for favors by lobbyists, to old white men with power and wealth. To quote the seminal metal band Metallica, And Justice for all "Justice is lost, justice is raped, justice is done". 

Crocus kotschyanus 'Reliant' Clumping up nicely in a plunge bed.

Oh ya, flower bulbs, the autumn crocus collection is definitely doing it's thing, this has actually been one of those nice crisp, dry autumns where it doesn't even really feel like Fall has kicked yet because the leaves are holding strong on the trees, but they are starting to get those lovely reds, golds and every shade of orange and brown in between.

Crocus thomasii and C. carthwritianus 'marcel' the lovely false saffrons just do better and better for me every year and despite my attempts at becoming a legitimate saffron farmer, C. sativus doesn't seem to persist for me through a season or two. 

The weather has been remarkably wonderful as we moved into October, Dry and crisp for the most part, highs in the 70's and lows into the 40's for the most part in the evenings.

Cheers,
Mark