Sundog CSA September 26th, 2022

LAST DELIVERY of this season is this week. It is the end of September already – hard to believe that we have changed seasons again and that autumn is here - hard to believe until you look out the window and see the leaves falling and hear them crunch beneath your feet. We are beginning our day before the sun comes on shift and ending after the sun sinks and there are sometimes jackets hanging in the barn as the days gets shorter and chillier. As the garden dies down and we find ourselves with more free time, we are hoping to finish some projects that were started months ago. We still have an east fence line that needs cleaned out. Notice that I said fence line because that boundary is without a fence at the moment. We are hoping to have some type of enclosure up so that the cows can graze that small field and I am sure that they are hoping for that too. My brother-in-law has been working this summer on the west fence line – doing my share as well as his own. Hopefully we will be able to help out on that side also! Some of the trees and brush have been cleared, leaving the possibility for grass. it is a good thing that we did not waste money on grass seed in this year of drought because our chances of a good stand would have been pretty low. The grain bin project is one that Dan worked on this weekend with some rust remover – both manual and liquid! The replacement parts are due to arrive this week which gives us a little time to get it painted and put back together as right now we are still using our feed barrel system.

Garden projects are to do some more repair on the bottom high tunnel and to work on our irrigation system. Our plants really struggled this season with our drip irrigation. We are also looking at a different timeline for planting. The last few seasons show Kansas to be in a slightly different temperature zone which means that plantings need to be sooner. We feel that our poor harvest this year was partly due to some mistakes on our part and partly due to the challenging weather. We were slow to get our crops in the ground which left them vulnerable to the weather extremes of excess rain and early high heat. We missed squash, cucumbers, green beans and chard not being in the bags. We also missed them not being on our table!! 😊 We struggled with bugs in the cucurbits and in the chard. The update on our squash bed is that we harvested two zucchini this week and although they are covered in pretty lemon-yellow cucumber beetles, we think that it is going to produce. We intend to share with our subscribers if that happens! The rainfall this past week helped - gauge totals were .57 plus another .13, so seventy hundredths for the week.

YOUR BAG THIS WEEK -

• Tomatoes
• Sweet Peppers
• Hot Peppers
• Potatoes
• Beets and Carrots
• Eggs

Izzy’s basket of eggs is beautiful with all the egg colors and shapes.

Izzy’s baby frizzles are growing up and getting curlier!

While Izzy cuddles with her chickens, Seth spends part of chore time standing behind me on my milking stool and slathering love on Nickel who tolerates his generous love rubs.

NOT BIRDS – the sky was filled with dragonflies the other night towards sunset. They were beautiful to watch against the sun kissed clouds. The other being that I caught in flight was this bee as it left with its pollen bags full.

As the tomatoes were picked this afternoon, we noticed this beauty doing a little housecleaning on her web and could not resist taking her picture. She seemed to enjoy the attention!

Not a Monarch – a Viceroy Butterfly caught Katy’s attention.

And our newest bug is the American Carrion Beetle – found in the bottom high tunnel today. The description says that he feeds on decaying plants and animals and can be found near or in compost bins or in our case, found eating a tomato that had been chewed through by an army worm.

We want to thank everyone for their continued participation in this crazy “dirt venture” of ours. We appreciate your interest in food raised using organic methods and your patience with our learning curve! THANK YOU!

And as this day ends, I think about how days begin and how you never know what is coming. This day is ending much better for me than how it began. I was late in getting out to the milk barn this morning – the sun beat me out there. Maybe that is what prompted what happened? Everyone was a little off balance but we got feed scooped and carried, hay pitched, water containers filled and even got the milking done and as I got ready to wash my last cow and let her out, I noticed that she was lifting her tail, so I rushed and grabbed the shovel and got it positioned under her and so instead of scooping poop, I was going to be tossing it or at least I thought that was what was going to happen until Tubiggs coughed. Cows are not polite when they cough - nothing delicate about it! I found myself covered with what should have been fertilizer for the garden. After shock came the need for sympathy so I headed out to where Katy was milking goats and after she sort of fell over laughing, I marched off to change clothes and find different shoes only to face Izzy’s look of wonder and then stifled laughter. After changing and washing up, chores were finished and my experience retold to Seth, I forgot about it until evening chores. I understand the possibilities of what can happen now and found myself alert and watching because even though I can’t predict what is coming, I have run through my “escape” plan in my head, hopefully anticipating and preventing. 😊

Blessings from the hill - Teresa, Katy, Dan, Seth, Izzy, Jen and Zach