Is Anyone Still Out There? October 2021

 Hmmmm?

I've noticed that the number of readers across the blog-o-sphere, across everyone's blogs, have been dropping over the past several months, 18 months to be in the approximate neighborhood.  It seems that something increased the number of views of the Tube of You and numbers there shot up with the influx of stay-at-home-ers, the kids on tablets, and generally bored human beings. I guess it was simply easier and more entertaining to sit and watch than it was to sit in read.  The explosion of video makers covered everything from trends, opinion pieces, animations, the useless, and the ridiculous videos of watching people watch and react to other videos. But I'm still here. We're still here.  

I like to write too much. I like to read too much, even though my eyesight is jumping the shark.  A nice pair of prescription reading glasses takes care of that.  Now I just need to find the time to sit and write, to paint a mental image of the world around our little hill,  So welcome to my MeTube.

October was positively brilliant. It was a true Fall month. It was never soul crushingly hot, nor frigid.  In fact, here we are, November 1st, and we still haven't hit 32 degrees.  Rains came infrequently, but when they did, they came in bucket loads, inches at a time.  The lawns and hay fields are still emerald green and growing. The trees did their majestic fashion show over weeks instead of days, culminating just two days ago when all the aged dull yellow leaves, fell and blew off in a 3 inch rainstorm. Now even the fiery crimsons and oranges have dulled to rusts and burnt sienna.  

The extra days of warmth for the entire month allowed me to stretch out all my normal winterizing chores over 30 days instead of the normal 15.  I don't know if that's a good thing, or a bad thing. On the one hand, it makes Winter seem 2 weeks shorter. Or is Mr Freeze going to seek revenge for having a late Fall?

Doc has been adding 8 gallons of alpaca manure around each of the orchard trees. This not only fertilizes the trees with nitrogen safe fertilizer and smothers the weeds, which have been getting out of control around the trees.

A downy feather from a molting hen. A sure sign
it's about to get COLD. 

I planted 150 daffodil bulbs in the right-of-way ditch we are responsible for maintaining.  I had great and quick plans for that, until I took a good look at the ditch.  It's been three years since we mowed it to the ground and let it go wild, and I planted 300 native plants at each end. I needed those to get established before I could trim them down. Well, standing there, shovel in hand, I decided this was the year it needed a haircut.  The grass didn't look high from a distance, but up close, it was over 18 inches high.  I topped off the giant mower and got to it.  It's steep, and it's creepy. To safely mow it you can only go downhill, then pop up the roadside (less steep) side of the ditch, drive the length of the ditch to where it's level, drive along the top ridge and down you go again, rinse and repeat. It should have been a quick before I break for lunch job. Hahahaaaa, you've been a reader long enough to know that's not how this works. 
The ditch needed triple cut it was so thick. Then there was the bit that is so steep that I bottomed out the engine. The front tires were on the upside hill, the engine was wedged on the downside hill, and the back drive tires were mid-air.  Adding boards for traction didn't work. So Doc acted as spotter as I hooked up the tractor and dragged the mower out of the ditch and up onto the road. Two hours after toting my bulbs to the ditch, I was finally able to plant.

A quick plunge of the transplant spade opened a crescent, an added twist opened up a hole that I simply tossed a bulb into. I then removed the spade and stomped on the cut - times 150. It really didn't take too long, and daffodils look so great as the ditches green up in the Spring. They also spread so well on their own.  They're supposed to be deer proof. We'll see. Our deer don't seem to be able to read packaging.

The old 1960s, wooden screen frames I zipped tied together and used as a giant, long baby (chicken) gate across the workshop high bay door, finally started falling apart. The wood was fine, a testament to the craftsman of yore. It was the metal screening that was finally falling out.  Oh, but I had plans to use these elsewhere on the ranch.  I first replaced them with short metal panels that had a previous life as walls to our first chicken run 8 years ago. 
Of course the most insane of our birds fly up and over the panels, but it keeps the whole flock from playing follow-the-leader into the shop for a pooping party. But what about those 4 foot long wood frames?  Off to the garden with them! I zip tied them to the top of the cattle panel rows that hold beans. Hinged at the top, they look like a white frame roof from the road. In the Spring, I'll add some wire for the beans to climb on.

A hole rotted clean through the roof from one
bad shingle.

On to the big project of the month, the chicken run roof. This was something I could easily do myself. I simply needed a nice day or two to work. October obliged. Of course there was wind to take into consideration, but that's always an issue here. I didn't expect my steel until the very end of October, three or four weeks is what the website estimated when I ordered it. Nope, 5 days. Well ok then! A quick trip to town with the trailer, and I was home in two hours and ripping off the old, rotting asphalt shingles. This was one of those projects that once started, only had two stopping points-midway and DONE.

I dragged our giant trash bin down to the coop and started, carefully removing the old shingles. They were rotten and being held down with roofing tacks. They came up easily, but the trick was not to fling tacks into the lawn. Once they were off, I pounded any remaining tacks down and assessed the hole in the roof from water damage. Luckily, the damage section came off easily and I had replacement lumber in the shop.  The repair made, I was able to take a break for the day. While the run had no official roof, it was closed to predators for the night.

Day 2 was dedicated to putting on the full steel roof. It went on slowly, but easy and when it was done looked fantastic! Over the top for a hen house? Yup. But it's sturdy, and long lasting, and I won't have to chase pieces of it across the lawn anymore. Plus it makes a nice sound in the rain, which no longer comes through a hole in the roof.

That was the BIG project, but October is full of winterizing chores. A whole bunch of little things that eat up hours, which turn into days, that turn into weeks, and POOF the month is gone. Patio furniture needs cleaned and stacked. Garden tools need cleaned and put away, snow shovels dug out. The alpacas need their nails trimmed. I loathe it and they loathe it, so at least it's a mutual dislike. Water buckets need removed and cleaned and replaced with heated water buckets. The chicken run needs the winter panels added and lighting hooked up for the dark months. (They don't get extra light laying hours, but I need the lights to see.) In the midst of all this the siding guys showed up for the house.  So I spent those days cleaning and sorting all the odd nooks and crannies in the house.  (I STILL can't find the blender, which started the great sort and clean.)

Speaking of cleaning, the manure needed moved.  I almost forgot it altogether. The manure bins need emptied and 100 cubic feet of manure needed spread. I've been using it to make soil in areas that are down to bare clay and don't even grow weeds any more.  Those areas are very prone to erosion.  I figured I could spare a morning on the tractor hauling poo down the hill and back up the other side. I gassed up the tractor, and off I went radio headset on. Easy, right? Again that's not how this works.  The hens were out playing in the late October sunshine. The alpacas were tormenting the chickens. I was halfway through the dirty deed when, THUD. I stopped the tractor. WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT?! My back blade dropped.

Hmmm. I turned off the tractor to figure out what was putting a crimp in my day. Did I blow a hydraulic line? Crack and break a brace? Snap the arm on the three point? Nope, I lost a  50 cent ring pin that holds the lift onto the tractor. I reached into the trunk for a spare. Nope, none left. UGH. I had a straight pin and a piece of nine wire. "Quick" and temporary fix managed.  

On the household front - canning and dehydrating still rule the roost. I'm still working on several writing projects. The sewing dummy from bootstrap was a train wreck of a pattern.  I had to redraft it and cut it out all over again.  It is on my 'to do' list for this week. Then I'll move on to a few historic recreation pieces.

And with that I'll leave you with some amazing weather photos. October is great for sunsets, clouds, and for a special treat, the AURORA visited us on October 11th!

An exiting cold front had me admiring the mountain range when I glanced up this morning. (We don't
have a mountain range in Nebraska.) Wild illusion, right?!

It's incredible to see them this far south this time of year, but we sure didn't mind one bit!