A Glorious October Day!

This afternoon I enjoyed being outdoors in the cool autumn air, under a blue cloudless sky, while doing garden and chicken chores.  Rouse was nearby, building his workshop.  Noah was busy replacing the brake pads on his jeep.  I guess you'd call that parallel play!

I planted half of one raised bed in two types of spinach:  "Red Cardinal", a hybrid smooth leaf, and "Spargo", a hybrid savoyed (crinkled) leaf.  The other half of the bed is already filled with lettuce seedlings that have sprouted since I planted them last Monday, as well as volunteers that seeded themselves from last spring's crop.

I placed row cover over the spinach/lettuce bed and redid the row cover on the bed of cooking greens.  Last week I had run short of insect barrier fabric.  I had just enough to cover the bed of greens close to the soil rather than on a structure that gets it up off the ground.  I bought more row cover fabric from the local feed and seed store, reinstalled the pvc pipe support structure, and got the fabric placed correctly.  Now the baby plants have room to grow.

I watered all the beds that contain my fall garden crops, then picked what's still coming in from the summer garden.  The long beans are about to play out.  I picked a handful of them, then picked the pole beans.  They're coming in as strong as ever!  There are still black beans drying on the plants.  I'll leave the hot pepper plants in the garden until frost kills them.  It's nice to go out to the garden to grab a jalapeño or two as needed.

After taking a lunch break, I returned to the outdoors.  Destination - the chicken coop.  I filled up the automatic waterer and the food dispenser, then cleaned and sanitized the crate we use to isolate sick chickens.  The chores were finished.  I went inside and took a nap!