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09/09/2007: "Giving Way to Harvest Time"
Summer's giving way to harvest time and our countertop is filled with goodies. In this picture there are melons, pears, tomatoes, peppers, zucchinis, summer squash, shallots, basil, lemon cucumbers, and eggplants, all from the garden. At this time of year, we eat like kings!
Nate's trying something a little different with the garden tilling this year. He's been slowly tilling up the new plot, while spreading the appropriate minerals, and watering to keep the dust erosion down. Later in the week we'll spread an overwinter crop of clover. The clover should return more goodness to the soil, and be easier to till under than sod when it comes time to plant in the spring. Next year, in what is this year's garden, Nate will be growing dryland crops, and this year's dryland crop plot (last year's garden) will be sowed with a pasture mix. 
Another look at the garden. This one will be 150 ft long. 
Aura and Rainbow are wonderful creatures. We've been separating them during the day. Rainbow's been getting a little on the chubby side, and we'd like some of that milk too. So a string of hotwire keeps them apart. The first few days of separation were a little trying, with near constant mooing. But Aura shows her cow-sense and settles right into the new routine of being reunited with her calf and being milked in the evening. Yesterday I took her a leafy green corn stalk that had fallen over in some high winds. She didn't even bother to get up when I presented it to her. Queen Aura indeed! 
And Rainbow's coming around too. Being isolated from her mother has made her quite a sweet little creature. She comes to sniff and lick us, looking for treats and affection. Her rambunctious calf cuteness has also mellowed out a bit, and her wild gallops around the pasture have slowed just a tad. Her horn buds and scabbing over, which she then picks off with her back hooves. But real skin and hair is starting to form around the edges. She'll be beautiful again in no time! The isolation from her mother is also helping her appetite for solid foods. She really enjoyed this piece of corn leaf, sucking it down like a child with a spaghetti noodle!
And what can we say about Piglet? He's awfully sweet. He's tripled in size since we got him, which is encouraging. Nate was initially worried about being able to feed the pig an adequate amount, but things seem to be working out. Pig has started rooting. We'd read that pigs love bindweed, which is a major nuisance plant on the farm. And he does seem to be rooting it up with dedication. We give him a pat on the sides, or a scratch behind the ears whenever we go by, and always keep in mind the relationship we have with him. We give him the best life possible, and when the time comes, he nourishes us. 
Visitors to the farm are often shocked at this wild robust plant in the "house" garden. These are my tobacco plants. I bought seeds of a very fragrant showy variety, just to have as an ornamental. But then I found out that this variety makes a decent cigar too. And a new passion was born. Soon I'll be harvesting these leaves and drying them in the barn. I'm looking for some good authorities on small scale tobacco harvesting and curing, as well as cigar rolling. I'm not sure about "Living Green Cigars" as a cash crop, but they might be a nice bartering item!
Finally, Rebecca took over the farm for the long Labor Day weekend and we headed for the mountains. Nate and Chris Haller (he of the stove moving adventure) had cooked up a crazy scheme to climb Mt Jefferson, the mountain in the background. They came within a few hundred feet of the summit, encountering sustained winds of 50 mph, glaciers, crumbling shale slopes, dropoffs of hundreds of feet, and encroaching darkness. They made it down safely, and I think Nate appreciates the trusted ground of this farm more than ever. 