Category: Journal

Well it finally froze hard and we had fires in the hearth room and in the bedroom.  I love the look of the fireplace in our bedroom when decorated for fall.

I talked with the Department of Conservation and the USDA and it looks like I should be able to put a pond in somewhere north of the house.  So I got in touch with the Wrights and Frank came over and recommended the spot.  To do it we’ll need to get additional land but that would be good for the trust as it would provide it some income to pay for taxes and insurance.  Too early to know everything for sure but when it’s all done Oak Moon Farm / Trust could look like this.

The pond would be just south and west of the small group of trees to the north.  It will probably be a few months before all is worked out but it’s exciting to imagine how this would look sitting in the porch.

Also started making the first bee hive and pulled in what will likely be the end of the herb harvest.  Finally getting a freeze so while it’s late, fall is certainly on the way.

It was my job to pull the honey frames out of the remaining hive.  I found 14 capped, 3 uncapped and 3 that were never drawn out.  So I froze the uncapped ones for winter food for the hive and spun out the other 14.  First time I used my 2 frame spinner I got from Frank Wright.  It worked great.  Would up with just under 4 gallons of honey after I was done uncapping, spinning and straining.

It took about 2 years but we finally have drapes on the front windows.  Not sure how often we will really need to close them but we can and it gives the living room and dining room a more finished look.

In the garden, the mums are looking great.  Covered in buds.  No flowers yet but by next weekend there should be and that will give us that nice fall look for many weeks to come.  I sprayed the tree nursery and the bee balm with fungicide again.  The Washington Hawthorns are looking better but the bee balm in the back garden looks like it was under attack by powdery mildew so hopefully this will help it recover.

I wanted to get some things done this weekend so I’d have Labor Day weekend pretty much free.  The drapes I ordered for the living and dining rooms came in about 10 days ago but with all the excitement associated with the eclipse going on I didn’t get them put up.  That’s been remedied and they look very nice.

I went to the Sullivan Farmer’s Market on Saturday morning and it’s looking like our source of fresh local tomatoes is about to come to an end.  But, after leaving the market I drove past a stand someone set-up in the parking lot at Orscheln’s where they had some nice tomatoes, seedless concord grapes and mums from an Amish nursery in southern Missouri.  I bought 9 of them.  They cost too much ($10 each) but look fantastic and I think they are the kind of stock that will come back again next year.  I got them all planted which will make the garden pretty nice looking this fall.  I also got all the grass and weeds growing on the driveway sprayed so hopefully by next weekend that will be looking better too.

Not much time to do a lot other than these chores but I did start reading Bram Stoker’s Dracula.  That’s going to be my fun read for the upcoming Halloween season.