If you grow a kitchen’s garden – a garden for your kitchen – you will know that this part of the year is busy. Your garden might be a raised bed in the backyard or a tiny corner out the front or in pot or on a windowsill. Or several gardens like here at The Kitchens Garden. But if you have a garden then you will be harvesting in the late summer.
Yesterday as well as the fencing, raking thistle hay, feeding out, watering everyone, filling all the wallows and cleaning out animal bedrooms and mowing and the pond – oh Lordy that list is long – as well as all that – at this time of year – there is also picking and processing for the winter.
I use the alarms on my phone and jog back and forth from the outside to the inside to stir or check whatever is bubbling away in the kitchen then reset the alarm and jog back to the fields. It is busy but quite doable.
Yesterday I made tomat conserva (I will show you tomorrow) and I began to pull the beets, (beetroot) and onions to store in the basement cool space.
Preparing for winter is a big part of a sustainable life. Knowing where your food comes from and nurturing the source is paramount to self sufficiency. As much as possible my source is this land.
Where is the source of your food?
Are you able to nurture that source?
And I cannot stress enough that we should grow and store what we love to eat. I hate waste – wasted food is wasted time and resources and is not sustainable. Spending a day making jam when I seldom eat jam is silly. Best to buy it from a local jam maker (and save the jars for tomat conserva!).
Sustainable and Self Sufficient and common Good Sense run hand in hand.
In the Fields
Boo and I raked the thistle fields. I was happy to be back on the tractor but it is a bumpy ride in the cows fields. And Boo (who shares my tractor seat) needs a BATH!!
I want to bale today if I can get the help. I am very aware of the thistle seeds beginning to blow. And as you know I intend to stack them a little green. This is definitely an experiment!
This is not a one and done, either. I will lift the thistles off these fields for at least three late summers. No organic solution is easy. And I had to wait until John had given up on mowing. Mowing does not kill thistle. It just spreads the cuttings. But I needed to let him try. There was no telling him. Sometimes you just have to let a person try. Now it is my turn.
Big Jude and WaiWai
Big Jude and FreeBee spent a good part of their days in the wallow. They are thrilled to have it filled again. But when I was passing their backyard in the tractor they both came over and stared through the fence barking loudly at the intruding machine. It was kind of funny though I am very aware that they could take down that fence if they had a mind to.
WaiWai has some sunburn damage on his compromised skin so I brushed him and put on his suntan lotion then draped an old shirt over him for the afternoon. It is not big enough though and he got in a grump about having to wear it!
I would put a hat on him too if I could. The back of his neck is where he gets burnt the worst. Do you remember when I covered him in linen napkins that you sent me. He had a lot of sponsors in those days.
The Walk
Our dusk walk was shorter yesterday evening. I was pretty tired after a day of it.
I don’t mind the tractor work but it is not calming.
Living Lightly
With all the writing I have to do I decided to add an extension screen to my desk set up. The young people do a lot of second hand shopping and John’s son found me an old flat TV screen. This one cost 15 dollars and with a cheap adapter I was able to plug it straight into my laptop.
No need to buy new. It does not have brilliant clarity but is perfectly adequate for my lists.
Good morning. Today I am going to venture into The Mad Kings garden – if I am not out by the morning send in the calvary – it is terribly overgrown in there but I know I will find food – I heard tell of potatoes! Then later today we will begin to bale the thistles. (I will need thick gloves).
Take care and Talk soon
Celi
PS A little walk through: I love making these little shorts.
The Kitchen's Garden 
25 responses to “Raking Thistle Hay”
The pig in the mud is a classic. I love it. made me think of my dad’s pigs and how they loved the mud. You have been busy.
It is busy here. Seldom I can get away with a cruisy day!
We put in raised beds yesterday and the foxes dug one of them up overnight! I need to buy some chicken wire!
Those pigs are so well behaved, Poppy would have been out of that field on a daily basis 😉
Oh Poppy! She did like a good escape.
Fancy the foxes in town digging up beds. I as this in London?
Yes – I imagine they objected or were interested in the smell. No doubt they have added their own odour now! Hopefully they will be less interested in a couple of weeks when we sow winter vegetable seeds.
I hope so too. It seems a bit much having foxes digging in your garden!
They don’t seem very interested in the flowere beds, so I think it’s the new soil. Chicken wire fixed to the wooden sleepers should keep them and the pigeons out…
That’s good.
How do you power through physical pain? You’re physically extremely active, I know, and that probably helps. And I know you are adamant about not taking meds. But you must have pain once in a while. I recall your falling from the barn loft, but can’t recall how you dealt with the pain.
I seldom have any lasting pain. I have been kicked my cows and stood on (by cows) but never fallen from the loft – thankfully. I can still stroll across the beams.
Maybe you remember me hitting the steps trying to outrun a tornado wind?
I find the best thing for muscle pain is a TON of water and lots more movement. I firmly believe you either use it or lose it.
Not that any of that helps. Hydration and 10,000 steps. Plus. And no- you are right – I take no medication for anything – I have not been to a doctor for years and years!
Oh, my poor. darling Wai Wai. I hadn’t realised his skin was still a cause of concern. But after all these years, you know how to deal with the problems..
I am kicking myself for not being home some of his zinc cream. I will do another search on eBay here – but it is hard to find.
I’ve had a quiet evening – after moving house, and I’ve read all of your blogs since July in one sitting from beach to farm. I enjoyed following you across the world. Good luck with the thistle bales. You are so busy! I’m wondering if you had time to see the super blue moon? Here in Aotearoa NZ it was spectacular. Wherever we are in the world, the moon in the same.
I wonder how that was – reading all two months! And yes! The skies were clear and the moon was bright! I have no curtains so I was bathed in moonlight for hours!
I love that we share the moon – it always seems like a surprise when I remember that.
I felt I was whirling through the air on a magical mystery tour!
Fantastic!!
Everyone had expressions of great contentment… I’m enjoying picking up the fallen passionfruit and freezing the pulp in giant icecube trays. I water my red pepper plant by the back steps using the dirty dregs from the chicken waterers, and it thrives. My comfrey is massive, and soon I’ll be harvesting leaves from it to make the absolutely stinkiest fertiliser tea, using rotted down chook poo, comfrey, nettles, sheep manure (when I can get the clean stuff) and compost. It smells deathly, but works a treat.
Wow- that fertilizer tea sounds wonderful –
I make it in a big bin with a lid, but the smell is appalling. Dilute it 1:4 and it makes a great foliar feed too.
You are onto it!!
Just wondering if the Mad King’s Garden is Our John’s Garden that hasn’t been kept a close eye on this summer? A garden can get crazy weedy and out of control very quickly if not attended to! I know he is a great tomato gardener!
Yes! He had taken over my walled garden. Totally overgrown. He loves to plant but does not weed. So it all goes to the dogs fast! But I will get in there today – maybe! His tomatoes did well in the new position out in a field.
Just as I thought! My John, too, loves to plant and I am the weeder! I’ve become pretty good at it! It’s good exercise too! 🙂
I love to weed too. It is my mid summer travel that is the problem!!
Thistle is the WORST! Tortoises can eat it, but who wants to PICK it?