Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913
Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913
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Mother Nature gets a huge F for how it's treated us the past two holidays. I think we're all hoping the frost issues and power outages are over for good. I know the linemen (our heroes) hope the same. The continuous accumulation of frost over three days, while pretty, was dangerously destructive. In the spring, once the snow is gone, I'll be busy for quite a while constructing a new pile of broken tree limbs. I'm afraid it will be quite a large pile. I've wanted a small wood chopper for years....
Merry Christmas! Due to the holiday falling on “going to press” day, this column is being written very shortly after last week’s piece. I’m sure next week’s will be due early, as well. Strange thing about New Years always following Christmas by exactly one week, huh? It’s kind of like my very-young-at-the-time niece being amazed that her birthday fell on the same day EVERY year. The Courier is working on curing my strong tendency to procrastinate. It’s for my own good, really, that I have this push. I should officially thank them - but I won’t....
Just yesterday my husband noticed one of my older amaryllis bulbs is sending up a flowerbud. I have seven older ones sitting in their original pots in the south-facing dining room windows. I really should repot a few of those. They're splitting into multiple bulbs and distorting their plastic pots. They also have volunteer mother-of-a-thousand plants joining them. One even has a decent sized jade tree crowding it. My newest amaryllis, purchased this fall, is sitting in the kitchen, a bit...
Another week has come and gone. Another Thanksgiving has come and gone. The weather was not nice at all, so we stayed home, thankful for warmth, a well-stocked freezer, and each other. (We're also thankful for television.) I'd made both a candy apple and a chocolate pecan pie on Wednesday. Our plan had been to attend the community feast at the Outpost Cafe in Opheim, but the howling winds coupled with fresh powder and bad weather warnings changed our minds. I rustled through the freezer and...
Let me offer up apologies for those of you who may have missed a column from me last week. I did write one, but it was all recipes for the holidays. So the Courier rightly put it into the holiday recipe special. I hadn't even really thought about that possibility, so the error (if such it was) is all on my lack of judgment. We've had another 6-8" of heavy, wet snow in the past week. I've been reduced to "indoor gardening" again. I've had a philodendron plant for over eight years. It was a plant...
Editor's Note: This column was written on Nov. 4. Due to space, we had to hold the column over to this week's issue. We've had yet more rain and some snow. Most of the earlier snow has melted away, but flakes were in the air again this morning (Monday). There's a heavy frost, but most of the ground is clearly visible this morning as I write this. My gardening is now limited to trying to keep the plants I brought indoors alive. I can still do a bit of weeding as some are popping up in the...
We managed to knock off another 1,000 acres of wheat, with some help from a neighbor. The remaining 1,000 acres will not get done. It’s all basically feed wheat now anyway. What’s left is mostly on the ground, where it will remain. We have a couple blocks that are accessible by a very poor road, which is in such deplorable condition that we wouldn’t be able to get the truck over it. It’s not feasible to run the grain cart 3.5 miles one way to unload what grain we’d be able to scrape up. There will be a meeting with the crop adjuster early nex...
So when I wrote that harvest had been killed, I was wrong. It had merely been wounded, severely, but not dead. The resurrection has us back in the field, harvesting what's still standing tall enough to get, without risking picking up rocks with the header. We know the quality of the wheat took a huge hit, so the value of the crop isn't much. Prices were abysmal before. Now they'll be worse. But the more we take off the ground now, the less we'll have to deal with next summer. What's on the...
Editor's Note: This column was written on Oct. 7. Due to space, it was held over to this week's issue. We are done with worrying about our wheat crop. The snow and strong winds combined to finish it off. Most of it is broken off or lying on the ground. Now we wait to see if the crop insurers agree with us and how they'll treat us. I do still have tomatoes. Covering the plants with blankets and then with old truck tarps has kept the plants green. I think it helped a lot that the cages and stakes...
Now that this year's formerly promising crop has probably been ruined (the strong winds and heavy snow looked to be crushing it to the ground) we're regrouping and trying to think of a plan B...or plan C. The quality of the wheat is way down. It might be feed wheat, IF we can get it. Even though we knew this horrible weather was probably coming, the garden isn't finished. There were long days trying to combine the wheat, and then it was just wet and miserable outside. I wasn't going to pick...
We might have 25 percent of this year's crop in the bins now. Harvest is going to be a long, drawn-out affair. Dennis was born Sept. 25, 1950, and his mom tells us she and Dad were only half finished with harvest when her time came. We aren't even close to half done yet. Of course, the farm has grown these last 69 years, but so has the machinery, which has advanced such that considerably more can be done in a comparable amount of time. We are being held up by Mother Nature and her gifts of...
Another week had passed without any wheat being harvested. Unfortunately, there’s still more rain in the forecast. Granted, only small amounts are forecast, but it’s just enough to keep things from drying enough to go after our wheat. The humidity is so high there’s a heavy dew even on the dry days. It’s very frustrating to see your year’s work (and income) going bad in the fields and there isn’t anything you can do about it. As a friend who works in the weather service said to me, “Farmers! You all want rain until you don’t.” The g...
I was tempted to use last week’s report again this week. The rain is a bit of deja vu, although we were able to get some of the wheat crop in and binned. I’ve spent a few hours this last week out in the tractor hauling the grain cart between the combine and the semi parked at the end of whatever field we were working. The first afternoon (Wednesday) of combining was done without my help. He was just going to “try” it, and the tractor I use needed some repairs. So he trundled the combine back and forth to the truck while I stayed home. A call...
The weather seems as though it just doesn't want us to harvest our wheat. First the cool month of June delayed the start of the crop. Now the cool, wet August has delayed the ripening of the wheat. Yes, I know it's now September, but that cool, wet August is lingering. I want more summer. I'm not ready for fall. I'm afraid the wheat harvest is going to drag on until it seems like forever. The hours we can actually combine will be short. Last week I did manage to get all my onions and shallots...
Shortly after I wrote last week's column I was perusing the new and used Glasgow sale site via Facebook. I happened to be the first respondent to an offer of free locally-grown apples. Having received about five gallons of smallish green apples and with a week still to go on the Whole Life Challenge, I went searching for sugar-free apple recipes. I'm sharing the two I tried. Now, lest you think I've completely surrendered all sense to the sugar-free life, I will confess I used the majority of...
Our wheat crop is rapidly ripening, and so harvest is looming. I may still have a week to 10 days before I switch gears from gardener to grain cart operator. The days of being able to plan my days around my own "to do" list will soon become days of cramming my gardening chores into a couple early morning hours. The rest of the day will be spent driving a tractor, hauling the grain cart. Once the combine is full, I'll be driving alongside with the cart properly lined up as we unload "on the go"...
Another week has gone by. We've had a bit of over an inch of rain in that time, and it's still drizzling down as I write this. The garden is rapidly becoming a jungle. Thanks to the grass I've mulched with, I can still walk out there without becoming much taller, but my shoes still get muddy. There isn't much walking space between some of the rows, so I have to tread carefully. There are still some raspberries that could be picked. Today would be the day I should go between the rows. Each row...
The raspberry picking continues. That chore easily consumes two hours of each of my days except Sundays. I have plenty of those delectable fruits in my freezer, and so my local family and several friends are reaping the rewards of my excessive harvest. I have had one person stop by to pick her own, with my permission, but she hardly made a dent. I think (and hope) they're starting to slow down. I've also had a lot of green beans coming on. This week I did manage to get several jars of them...
I posted a photo of the volunteer sunflowers in my garden, stating that perhaps I'd left too many of them. A friend commented, "You can never have too many sunflowers!" But sometimes we do find ourselves with too much of a good thing, don't we? I picked the first of my green beans on Saturday. I'd already snipped, snapped, and washed them, along with getting out my big pressure canner and washing seven pint jars, when I discovered I didn't have any lids! I really don't care for frozen green...
This past week I've spent a fair amount of time tidying up in and around the garden. I have installed a new battery in my solar powered electric fence, so I don't need weeds around the perimeter touching the wires and draining the power from that battery. Even though I've installed weed block cloth on three sides, the weeds beyond that cloth will get tall enough for the wind to blow them into the fence. When that happens I can hear the fence zapping whatever's touching it. Most of the ground on...
This past week a gardening club, led by Mary Christianson, came to visit me, to view my yard and garden. They, like me, love to see what others have done to beautify their outdoor space. We're always looking for new ideas and to possibly find new plants to add to our own collections. I don't think we ever get too old to learn. Now, incorporating those new ideas and doing the actual work to implement them is a different proposition. While they were here, I learned that I had been misidentifying...
Last week my column was entitled "Life Giving Rain" by the Courier, which is a very accurate title. Unfortunately, it's brought life not only to my desired plantings, but also to all the myriad of weeds that try to live here. When it's dry, the weeds mostly only grow in the rows, because the drip system keeps the water going to just the rows. But with the rains hitting everywhere, the weeds are coming on like gangbusters everywhere. All of the garden is turning green. There's supposed to be...
We’ve had some measurable rain lately, and so I’m avoiding (ignoring?) the garden for now. It’s still chilly with a damp wind. I know it’s muddy, and I really don’t feel the need to get taller by packing the gumbo onto the bottoms of my shoes. So, wonder of wonders, I’ve done a bit of housework. There’s still clutter, of course, because we live here. Our home will never be a showroom, and while I can be a perfectionist in other areas, I would never want everything in my house perfect at once. I’d find that stifling to my creative juices...
Those cute little bunnies I like watching have discovered my garden. Apparently the new leaves on green beans are delicious. After I discovered several sections of bare stems sticking up, reseeding with a packet of older seeds happened. I’ve covered that row with frost cloth. I had a bunch of flexible hoops (coated fiberglass rods) and a couple long swaths of thin white cloth that I had used over my strawberry row years ago. I repurposed those items to protect the bean crop. I even extended it to cover the newly sprouting lettuces. I’m hol...
Naturally, as soon as our window air conditioners were installed, Mother Nature decided if I wanted to be cooler, she'd oblige. My husband, the weather geek, being an early riser, told me it had dropped to 33.5° at 5 a.m. last Sunday. He hoped everything in the garden survived. I haven't yet gone outside to check up close, but from my living room windows the tomatoes still looked fine. I'd removed the protective walls of water just in time for this blast of cold. The pepper plants similarly...
