We had four wonderful days off from our jobs this week. I am so very thankful for our employers, but it is really nice to have a few days to get things done around the homestead. Wednesday was so wonderfully warm that I decided to finish up in the greenhouse. I pulled the last of the late planting of carrots and spinach. We had the spinach for dinner that night and it was so sweet. It is my belief that the late planting of spinach are the sweetest and the best.
As you can see from the picture below, I also cut the last of the herbs and hung them for drying. I was really sad to cut the mint. I have been enjoying a daily cup of fresh mint tea with local honey all summer and fall. I'm really going to miss that fresh taste. There was lots of mint to dry, so I'll still get my cup of tea.
We also grew a nice crop of rosemary (yum on chicken and in baking powder biscuits), some lemon thyme, oregano, parsley, and chives. The chives are drying on the cool rack that Hunky Hubbie devised from an old barbeque rack.
All the weeds have been pulled from the beds and the soil has been worked. Hunky Hubbie planted some cold hardy lettuce, spinach, and radishes. This is a test crop to see how cold hardy they really are. We do, by the way, live in Wyoming at 6700 ft elevation. It gets really cold here, though we have had an exceptionally warm fall. We want to see how long we can sustain crops in the greenhouse without heating it.
I pulled all the seeds from a pot of bachelor buttions that my dear mother in law gave me for my birthday. I want her lovely gift to keep going for many generations. I have always loved her flower garden by her back door.
Friday, we went to the Uinta Mountains and got a load of firewood. We need one more load to complete our winter hoard. While we do use propane as a supplemental heat and hot water source, we are able to use wood as our primary source of warmth. We are able to heat our 1400 square foot log home on less than $500 per year. I must admit, however, that I have to have my propane water heater. That is what makes up the majority of the money spent on propane. We hope to get an on demand water heater that is solar heated someday.
I hope you enjoyed the update on the fall happenings at the Tiny Taylor Ranch homestead. We are heading into winter and Christmas preparations. Winter is a busy time, but is also the time to enjoy the warmth of our little cabin home. Stay tuned for more adventures on the homestead.
