fall is here..

[majorcatfish]

barn is straightened,sweeped, tools were their suppose to be, that killed 3 hours...did find the new screen for the tow behind sprayer that i have been looking for inside the for the last couple months, that's what you get for looking in the wrong area .
still need to do... { winter hibernation projects}
service the mowers,tiller,cultivator,pressure washer,chainsaw.
organize all the cabinets, nut and bolt storage tray.
steel wool and wax all the wood working metal tops.
change all the lights over to t-8.
replace the stereo.

 

[Smart Red]

Still having that "perfect" fall weather. Blue, cloudless skies and cooler morning temps. It has been a while since we had rain. Waiting for Tuesday or Wednesday and hoping.

I put a white tarp over the greenhouse (until I get some replacement windows) and instantly had a sauna room. Whew! Doesn't take much to get the greenhouse too hot. I might be in the mood for a sauna after we finish burning the wood from the tree (once) growing into and over the shed.

 

[digitS']

We just don't have rain.

At the nearest airport, the WS keeps track of these things ...

July, August, September - I doubt if we will have measurable rain in the final days of this month - we haven't had an inch and a half of rain, total. Never a half inch at a time ... checking the rain gauge after sprinkles hardly counts!

Steve

 

[majorcatfish]

We just don't have rain.
Steve

well heck found your lost rain, it's here come and retrieve it please.

 

[thistlebloom]

well heck found your lost rain, it's here come and retrieve it please.

Please just ship it with my melons.

 

[thistlebloom]

Fall is here and we're ready for winter. Got the stovepipe cleaned today, the good news is that dh said it wasn't too bad and a few passes with the brush was all it needed. There is no bad news.

We have plenty of wood split and stacked, got the little horses hay in for a year, stacked and covered. And I have canned enough salsa to keep us warm even if we ever did run out of wood. That last batch is pretty fiery!

 

[digitS']

Okay, a mild winter here, 2014 -'15. I thought that the leafhoppers/spittle bugs would be making a mess of everything, starting with the acres of alfalfa around the big veggie garden. Nope. Oh, they were around but not like some years.

A month has passed.

I now see leafhoppers on just about everything. They are not massing, just like one bug on each plant, or each stem.

Whereas I saw only the smallest number of their spittle bug larvae in the alfalfa and in my garden back in June, I now wonder what 2016 will bring. They can be nasty pests and it looks like they could be gearing up for a population explosion.

I don't know how much irritated alfalfa is stressed by drought. Maybe very little ... I worry about our trees.

I don't know if I should worry about any single tree pest but the drought has been very hard on many trees. Will they be attacked by pests next year? I think it may be inevitable.

Steve
EDIT: irrigated alfalfa. dang auto-correct!

 

[so lucky]

This fall is proving to be a very dusty one for us. As the leaves thin out and we continue to get no rain, the dust from the new(ish) sand quarry, located about a mile south of us, blows to and through our house. We are having a wind from the south for the next few days. It is bad enough even when we have our normal north west winds.
This quarry just appeared, sort of out of nowhere. We got no notices of intent, or anything. They quarry sand to be used in fracking, and ship it out in big trucks. All day. Past our house. They blast and grind with huge noisy machines all day and night, every day. Oh, I think they quit early on Sunday night. The blasts are like earthquakes, and our house is suffering damage.
That's my fall. Otherwise, the weather is wonderful.

 

[digitS']

They use sand in fracking?

I thought it was just water and chemicals.

I don't like to even drive the pickup on the soil ... I guess there are lots of reasons not to like to drive, at all.

Steve

 

[so lucky]

No, Steve, they use a particular type of sand mixed with the water, I guess. I remember there have been articles about how dirty the water is after a fracking operation. I don't know if that is from the sand, or if the fracking causes the little earth quakes that disrupts the water table that supplies the wells, etc, for the surrounding communities.
All I know is that we are inhaling a lot of dust. I just hope it is not carcinogenic.