A Windy Day - November 1, 2019 @goldenoakfarm

A new view of the middle pasture

My helper friend and I went out in the wind to get the pasture pen down. With my husband’s help we got the coop moved to its winter resting place.

My helper friend had gotten most of the tarp off before we moved it, and my husband and I helped finish. It had started to give up the ghost back in July, leaking badly, and was now only fit for the dumpster.

Next my helper friend and I took down and rolled up the fences. I decided the turnout in front of the barn had the least vegetation, so I would work on them there. The plan had been to work on them all day Friday as it was warm. But by the time we’d moved them to this spot, I’d had more than enough of the biting wind.

Still some damp equipment left

We went into the butchershop and put away all the equipment that had dried after being washed on Thursday. That didn’t take long so, I looked around for another job out of the wind.

Circus tent poles standing in corner behind the brooder panels

My husband had pressure washed the brooder equipment back in August, but it had never been put away. So my helper friend and I got it hung on the storeroom wall.

That was a circus, as all the ladders are at the house in addition to the mounting block. So I made due with 5 gallon buckets. With the peripheral neuropathy, my legs don’t work well. So I’d get one leg up on a bucket, he’d grab the back of my pants at the belt area, and we’d haul me up onto the second bucket. Then I’d hang whatever we’d gotten ready. Coming down was much easier. LOL

Circus tent ropes in the bags, hung up

He was stronger and could push the panels up, while I just had to hook them on the brackets. So it all worked out. When we got half the panels moved, I found more chicken stuff under the last ones. It was time for him to go when we’d hung the last set of panels, so I washed up these last items and put them in the sun in the bay window to dry.

I gave the layers the next to last butternut. They love them now, even in the wind. The wind pushed their feathers every which way, making them sort of look like frizzle chickens.

Even with the wind, they were still going out in their snake fence, even though it needs moved to new grass badly.

With this wind and sun for the next 3 days, I hope to be able to collect lots of bags of dry leaves. This pen still needs at least 15 more bags of leaves and wet are fine for this.

The farm store where we have our Market Share was doing a flash sale on pumpkins, 5 for $7 so we went up and got 10 for the layers. Pumpkin seeds have anti-parasitic properties for intestinal worms. Plus they keep them occupied for long periods of time.

My husband had just gone to the library before supper and come back with a new Archer Mayor book he wanted to read. To keep me from stealing it, he’d gotten me a movie, Yesterday, to watch. I’d just settled into the movie when there was a knocking at the front door.

It was my window washing friend! We’d planned to go to the Smith College Chrysanthemum Show and Lecture, and I’d forgotten all about it. Fortunately, I had cleaned up earlier to go get pumpkins and was still dressed. So off we went.

The lecture was on Space Concepts regarding Japanese gardens and architecture. As I am drawing the map of the yard so I can plan where to put plants and things, I was interested in this.

I had been in such a hurry to leave I forgot my camera so these photos show the diversity of flowers from previous shows. The second greenhouse has the hybrids the students have created and you vote for your favorite one. I am partial to “goldy” colored mums and had found 2 I liked. My friend wanted to vote for 1 of my selections, so I went around again to see if I saw a different colored one I liked. I did, one that had “spoon” shaped petals and was a lovely cream color, #52.

After the greenhouses we went to the exhibit on The Art and Science of Dyeing. I found out something cool! I had gotten a woad plant at the Sturbridge Village Plant Sale in May. The reason I had wanted it was because I had seen Ruth on Victorian Christmas dying ribbons yellow with it.

When I got it home and researched where it would grow best, I discovered it was blue dye, not yellow. Hmmmm….

So at the exhibit I was reading the very interesting posters and got to the last one on the side. It mentions weld, Reseda luteola, also known as dyer's rocket, dyer's weed, weld, woold, and yellow weed. It is yellow!

Between being deaf, not having subtitles, and listening to an English accent, I had gotten the name wrong.

They had a handout and I took one and in it there was a list that had weld as being found locally. Cool! A new herb for the herb garden.

So it was a fun, but very late, night for us. Neither of us took photos, as it was a bit too dark in the greenhouses at night. So we plan to go back before the Show ends and get photos of our favorites.

Source: https://garden.smith.edu/event/fall-chrysanthemum-show
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reseda_luteola
GNU Free Documentation License for weld image