Well not really boots but like as not I am out in the fields wearing these little slippers, the slip on nature of slippers suits my lazy nature. Though I end up with multiple muddy pig-kisses to scrub off my legs before bed. The long hot days of summer argue with my gumboots. Though I wear them for the sloppier chores.
I am fairly sure that brussel sprouts are not meant to look like this. I will give it another week or so then feed these big plants to the pigs. They will appreciate it.
The swiss chard is growing back, soon we will be eating it again.
I am sure I have told you already but I am very proud of growing the apple trees. This is the first year we have been able to pick apples off them and I am just thrilled to bits.
There is an old saying about this fluffy caterpillar. Something about it being half black and meaning one thing and all orange and meaning another. Something about the winter. Autumn is not here yet but soon we will sense her presence as she slowly appears, being shoved through by that enthusiastic winter in her wake.
My bees are drinking two cups of sugar water a day. When the weather settles again you and I will take the lid off the bee hive and see what is going on. I think they are doing ok. They seem busy and healthy.
Good morning. Last night I was woken by a big howling wind, followed by big hard edgy rain that sounded like hail but was rain. I put on the long slicker my Dad sent me years ago. I think of it as my deep sea fisherman’s coat. The oil skin coat that comes to my ankles. It is stiff and once all the domes are connected it sticks out around me and I move across the landscape like a miniature Bedouin tent. I feel like I am walking inside it as opposed to being dressed in it. I put on my cowboy hat (to keep the rain off my face) and gumboots and the dogs and I go out into the storm to fix the ark.
Every evening, on my last rounds, I prop a huge pink sheet of insulation against the wall of the ark to protect the chickens from the night winds. I also have this rather odd idea that if the coyotes see a big pink polystyrene sheet they won’t be inclined to investigate all the dinners sitting behind it. I prop big cement bricks against it to keep it in place. I knew this would have blown away, as the storm roared through shifting the wind to the other side. Sure enough it was under the trees and the chickens were huddled in the horizontal rain. Struggling inside my coat I retrieved the pink wall, which weighs nothing and with it flying beside me like a sail, we tacked our way back across the field. Once it is arranged on the correct side, the wind actually holds it in place but I gathered the concrete bricks and propped them against it just in case the wind shifted again. Then the dogs and I went back to our respective sleeping places to sleep with one ear on the rain. The chickens watched us go with little bemused peeps.
This morning has that lovely washed clean scent.
That damp warm benevolent heat that presides over Growth.
Have a lovely day.
your friend on the farm, celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
49 responses to “Burrs on my Boots”
“and I move across the landscape like a miniature Bedouin tent” Bwa-ha-ha! You have such a descriptive way with words. I just adore your posts.
Those apples are truly the fruits of your labour, that must be very rewarding. My dad said that you need a frost to “set” brussel sprouts, not sure what that means but I know they dont grow in the frost free environment I now live in.
Oh and the pig kisses, often after I get to work I find a little perfect round circle of dried mud on my lower leg that got missed in the shower and it is really difficult to get off!
Only a fellow pig lady would know about those kisses! Frost free, things must grow like crazy out there.. How did the great separation go? c
Ok, Baby jumped straight on the trailor, when we got there she went in with the boar but right next door was a sow with a litter of piglets about the same age as Baby’s and I felt like a traitor or something. Anyway she said hello to them and their Mum then wandered outside with the boar. The piglets are all ok I think, I checked on them all just after dark and they are all huddled together in one big security blanket. I left the dog out tonight to watch out for them as there are wild dogs around, raising their own young, and although they should not be able to get into the piglets well better safe than sorry.
Kinda sad there are no piggie pictures. I thought of you last night, I made pasta sauce with tomatoes I grew and dried myself!!! And it was really good!
I LOVE me piggy kisses! Yes I do! I also enjoyed the pink sail story, which put me in mind of myself in my youth.
When I grew up we had lots of ranches around us (I grew up on a huge orchard). Every fall the ranchers (they still do it here where I love also) would fill up the silage/ensilage pits then cover them with black plastic and old tires. By the time spring came the black plastic was in tatters and would fly around the ranches and farms in the very strong spring winds. I delighted in finding these huge pieces of plastic (people are much more careful about trash now days). It would tie the ends to my ankles and then lay the plastic up my back and tie the other two ends to my wrists. Then I would turn myself around in the wind and SWOOOOOSHHHHHH I was a kite! A wonderful free flying kite! I had hours of fun.
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
http://deltacountyhistoricalsociety.wordpress.com
How absolutely delightful.. going woosh like a kite! wonderful.. c
Poor chickens! I had thistle burs today, having lunch in a Hackney yard . I tried to pull them off my clothes and they stuck to my skin – I couldn’t get them off my hands 😉
Like Dr Suess’s spot. c
Everything looks so lovely. Your pics transmit so much calm and peace. Have a lovely weekend Miss C 🙂
Love your comments about piggy kisses and the ‘bemused peeps’ of the chickies! Love is in the air day and night 🙂 ! But never thought about coyotes: I only know those from cartoons 😀 ! And the brussels sprouts may not have grown hearts, but you can pick a couple of handfuls of goodness all the same as Vivinfrance says!! . . . sleep well after last night: hope there is not a recurrent weather pattern!
We had the big rain and wind last night also but I didn’t have to go out in it. My “tent” slicker is bright yellow and I always feel like a manikin on wheels when I wear it. Also, I don’t care if burrs gave us velcro, I really really dislike them. My lovely chocolate colored mare with the long flowing flaxen mane comes in fully encrusted. Looks like somebody combed her hair with an egg beater!
She and my sheep, but i cannot comb out a sheep. Your chocolate coloured mare sounds so beautiful.. c
Thought I would have to throw away a pair of pants I went walking in yesterday, such were the prickles all over them. Horrible year for prickles here. Salvaged the pants after thirty minutes of de-prickling! Congrats on the apples!
You must be such a sight when dressed up in your various farmy gear! But that’s a luxury of working along at home and I have my costumes too. Nice to see the silver beet growing back so fast, and your magnificent apples. Every year brings new riches.
I think in your Bedouin tent ensemble you go cope with anything except maybe high winds, so I’m glad you and the pink sheet insulation stayed grounded, I had visions of you taking off like the Flying Nun.
I love the Celi in the tail light pic, although you better suit the spotlight 🙂
Love the fluffy caterpillar or callapitter as my niece used to say when she was little.
I have this ownderful image fo you walking across your land in your big coat and looking like a Dalek!
And the majority of my brussel sprouts have also bolted. What I didn’t know and only recently learned, is how finicky the sprouts are. For me I think it was too hot, not enough water and possibly planted too early. I have 2 of 8 plants that seem to be forming tight little buds. I’m crossing my fingers cause we loved them first steamed, then fried with pork belly.
Oh that sounds delicious, I think mine were also too early and too hot and not enough water.. i am thinking of picking them and pretending they are a light cabbage, tossed in hot butter?
I second that. We could also try fermenting them. I’m fermenting like there is no tomorrow. My gut will be glorious.