September was a throwback to years past….the wildfire smoke rolled in and shut down the last heat of summer. Which led to early tomato blight. Then heavy rain came and then the sun came back. As September slipped into October, the wildfire smoke returned again. Not a horrible September, but also not the best. I lost about a quarter of the tomatoes this year to the garbage due to blight.
Farm hands…..
As the smoke started to roll in, from both California and Eastern Washington, the next morning the Olympics were not visible.
The end of summer in the berry bed.
Fall raspberries.
Tomatoes every day, canning most days.
A succulent I mostly ignore, deciding to bloom.
The two dwarf hens, the white one, Lady V, has come far from when she was nearly pecked to death by her siblings. This summer we moved her to a new coop and she found a friend in Lady Grey Gray, who is from the same set of eggs, and is also a dwarf. Lady V has healed and gotten in all her feathers. She was being pecked even as young as 3 to 4 weeks of age. She is now past 25 weeks.
We are doing a hybrid education, where I homeschool the boys, but we are under the school district’s umbrella. We attend the school farm once a week in person, and do online work as well. It involves projects with produce as well. I look at it as a bonus to home schooling.
Byrtle waits for no one.
Cosmos in bloom.
Red Faro Quinoa.
The tiny marble sized grapes ripened and we got to eat them.
Collecting seeds was both farm work and part of homeschooling. These are Rockwell Beans, a variety that was preserved on Whidbey Island.
The boys collected seeds that were dry, made up seed packets and labeled them for next year.
Flowers preserved before the heavy rains came, for herbalism projects later on.
Red and Golden Raspberries.
With Fall coming in, we let the older hens in to the beds, to till the soil with their feet. No bugs left!
We let the ducks roam, especially after it rains, and the slug population stays far down.
Not a bad month, even with the smoke. We grew a lot of food, picked a lot of eggs. Even worked in some education for the boys.
Fall crops are growing, and I love working in the cooler days, getting all the chores done for winter.
~Sarah