Homesteading: Fall Cometh

And another rainy day

Image credit - Beats me; someone sent it to Robert via text.

By Jill Glasspool Malone

So, this summer, and now this fall, have been about the wettest that most people can remember in Madison, Virginia. It just doesn’t seem to stop raining. We like to joke that we are growing a great crop of mushrooms, which is actually true, except we generally don’t eat wild mushrooms. We may be risk-takers, but we don’t take on that much risk. The propaganda is embedded too deeply in our brains on that particular topic.

Somehow, summer just slipped by in a flurry of writing, traveling, gardening, farm chores, and breeding horses. And we are in the middle of a media campaign for the Homesteading for Health book.

We are also rebuilding the interior of our main house. Yeah, that’s a story. After a lightning strike hit the ground near that house and blew out the power, we ended up living in the guest house for a month. Since we had already moved out, we decided we might as well replace the disgustingly old carpet. Then came the paint. Then the roof. And finally... the cabinets. So, we will be living in the guest house for a while longer still.

On the horse front, Cara and Tantra, mother and 14-year-old daughter, are both pregnant. Yes! Although we did have that scare with Cara, which ended with her spending three days in the horse hospital. Thankfully, she has completely recovered.

Quieta, our mare by Jade who currently has a filly by her side, has been our problem child when it comes to breeding this year. We are using frozen semen, so the odds of establishing a pregnancy are lower than with fresh semen. The first round didn’t take. The second time, the 14-day ultrasound showed twins, which in horses is bad news. Twin pregnancies frequently end in pregnancy loss, and when both foals survive longer into gestation, the risks include undersized or premature foals and serious complications for the mare.

So, veterinarians generally try to “reduce” one of the twins, commonly called “pinching” one embryo, in hopes that the other will continue normally. Unfortunately, there is always a risk of losing the remaining embryo as well. But it was worth a shot. In Quieta’s case, she ultimately didn’t keep the pregnancy.

Now we are on round three with frozen semen. Each attempt costs about $3,000 all-in once you include the semen dose, shipping, and veterinary costs at both ends of the transaction. Our vet is coming out again tomorrow to see where Quieta is in her heat cycle, and then we start the process all over again.

Meanwhile, the mares and their fillies have finally been moved to the back pasture. Thank goodness. The stallion drama created by having mares in heat in the main part of the farm was getting to be a little much after a while. Peace, or at least the equine version of it, has temporarily returned.

The buckskin filly is Xassandra (Casi), the black filly is Xceleste, and the bay is Xapphire. Casi, Cara’s filly, is my favorite, although Xceleste is a fantastic mover. Her dam is Quieta, the buckskin mare, and the one we are still trying to get pregnant. The black mares are both bred to Jade again.

Our one-year-old Valor and two-year-old Topaz - young stallions at this point- have been moved back down to the main portion of the farm to make way for the mares to move to the back. Here is Robert and our colleague moving the two boys. Topaz, with Robert, will be kept; Valor, on the right, will eventually be sold. I hope to take photos and some video of him soon to make sales ads.

Here Topaz is, making friends with the miniature Jersey cows/

Quartz, our six-year-old stallion, is finally gaining weight after losing probably 100 pounds this summer. He spent much of it running back and forth, calling for “his” girls whenever they wandered over the hill and grazed out of his sight. Now that the mares are completely out of sight and smell, he has settled down and is back to his old self and his old personality. Apparently, not being able to see them at all is much less stressful than seeing them disappear over a hill.

The summer garden is in its last stages, and I have yet to plant my fall greens. Somehow, everything seems a little behind this year.

But we have a good crop of citrus fruit growing on our “trees” in pots. In another month and a half, all those pots will have to be brought inside for the winter. This is officially a job for someone other than me. I just can’t seem to arm-wrestle those enormous pots from the patio to the greenhouse anymore, even with a dolly.

I grew a bunch of micro peppers from seeds and then jarred (pickled) them - using a water bath method, which produced an abundant crop. However, I haven’t been thrilled with the actual taste of these little buggers.

A friend recently gave me some Egyptian walking onions, which I had never grown before. They are one of those wonderfully odd old-fashioned plants that seem perfectly suited to a homestead. Instead of producing flowers at the top of their stalks, they produce clusters of tiny onion bulbils. As those become heavier, the stalk eventually bends to the ground, where the bulbils take root and start another plant a foot or two away. In other words, the onions literally “walk” across the garden. Even better, they are perennial and remarkably cold-hardy, and almost the entire plant is edible. The early green shoots can be used like scallions, the underground bulbs like onions, and the little top-setting bulbils can be eaten or planted. So, I am putting mine in the ground this fall and giving them a permanent spot. Plant something once, eat it for years, and let it propagate itself. That is my kind of gardening.

I am still harvesting tomatoes and peppers and have frozen lots of both using mason jars. This evening, we have a friend passing through, so I am cooking a big pot of Italian food using fresh peppers and tomatoes, along with garlic and basil frozen from the garden. That is one of the great pleasures of growing your own food. By late September, the non-meat portion of the dinner is still largely coming from what was grown a few yards from the kitchen. And that beef? From Dr. Brooke Miller’s cattle, just a few miles away.

The yellow squash finally molded away this week under the relentless rain, but it had a good, long run. At this point, I think the mushrooms have officially won first prize for being the most productive. The drizzle is never-ending.

In other news, somehow we picked up another horse trailer at a local auction for the grand price of $4,000. Robert has now become obsessed with fixing it up. What started as a bargain horse trailer has, predictably, become a project.

The peacocks are doing well. They have shed their magnificent tails, and with that, breeding season is officially over until next spring. Whereas they want almost nothing to do with each other for six months of the year, once the hormones settle down, they rediscover a certain bro-mance. They are back to hanging out together, wandering around the farm as a pair, apparently having forgotten all the indignities, posturing, and competition of breeding season.

Prince Caspian and his son, Reepacheck, always brighten my day. Caspian is going through a heavy molt right now, so isn’t looking his best. He likes to sleep at the peak of the two-story barn, which is always a wonderful sight to look up to in the morning, with the sun rising behind him.

The fact that winter is just around the corner is always a little depressing, particularly on a grey day like today. However, Virginia’s fall is absolutely wonderful, just as soon as the rains stop.

However, when one gets to wake up to this view each morning, one can’t complain too much about the weather..

In the meantime, Robert’s days are filled with lots of podcasts; we write, we talk, we do farm chores - and life is good.

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