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Sending out an Army of Seedlings

November 6th, 2008

Can anyone guess what kind of seeds these are?

These are on my hosta “Frances Williams”. It’s a beautiful hosta with variegated deeply corrugated leaves, it’s one of my favorites.

This spring I had tiny little hostas sprouting up all over my gardens and I knew one of my plants was sending out it’s army of seeds, but I wasn’t sure which one. This year I’ve been keeping an eye out and I finally spotted which plant it is. I guess I’ll be digging up a few of these seedlings to see if they grow into true specimens of Frances Williams or not.

Anyone else have a plant that sends out an army of seeds each year?

Busy Bees

November 5th, 2008

We’re busy as bees here at Chiot’s Run. I’m trying to take advantage of these nice days to get all the end of the season garden chores finished up, so not much time to blog. Here’s a bee I spotted on the larkspur while working outside yesterday. Looks like he’s trying to get ready for winter as well.

What are we spending the days doing? We’re building a cold frame for our carrots (photos of that coming later). I’ve been watering like crazy, trying to make sure all the plants are well-watered going into the winter. There are bushels and bushels of leaves to rake, raised beds to make, weeding to finish, and mulching to do. Not to mention the cleaning of all the garden tools & pots and moving everything in to the garage for winter storage.

Is everyone else busy taking advantage of this beautiful weather?

Taking Advantage

November 4th, 2008

Mr Chiot’s and I love Election Day, none of this early voting for us, there’s just something about getting up on Election Day and casting your ballot in that little booth, taking advantage of the freedom we have in this great country.

We have a ritual: we get up drink coffee, leash up the Chiots and walk down to the voting place. It’s a nice walk, a little over 2 miles each way. This morning was especially beautiful with the warm sunny fall weather.

We live in a lake community so we vote at the clubhouse which is at the main beach, a beautiful destination.

We tied the Chiots up to a post outside and then in we went to cast our ballots.

After voting we started out leisurely walk home. Unfortunately we didn’t have as nice of a walk home. There was another dog owner not following the leash laws and her dogs ran out and one of them attacked Lucy (unfortunately she had her Halti Head Collar – 3 on so she couldn’t really fight back). So the rest of our morning was spent calling the sheriff and the vet and then running down the vet’s office for Lucy to get some staples to seal up the wounds. So 3 hours later and $50 poorer, we’ve cast our ballots.

WARNING: graphic photo coming up next.



So what did Lucy vote for?* Upholding the leash laws of course.

*Actually Lucy isn’t registered to vote, didn’t vote and no voter fraud took place this morning here at Chiot’s Run.

So did you vote early or do you like the Election Day experience like we do?

One More Reason

November 4th, 2008

I found this article recently. This is yet another reason to buy your meat from a local pastured farm.

Local Turkey Day

November 3rd, 2008

Mr Chiot’s and I are so excited about this Thanksgiving. We ordered a turkey from Robert’s Farm, they’re pastured turkeys. They live in these turkey tractors, each week when I go to the farm they are in a different spot in the field, that way they can eat bugs & grass. When I was out at the farm picking up my milk & eggs I snapped a few photos of the turkeys. I think they have to be some of the ugliest animals (along with opossums). I wonder which one is ours?


We will pick it up the Sunday before Thanksgiving freshly butchered. I have high hopes for the deliciousness of this turkey.

Any of you getting a local turkey for this Thanksgiving?

About

This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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