Gratitude: Our Apple Tree In Autumn

 

Here is our apple tree last spring framed with her gorgeous autumn leaves. 
Deborah Moen of Little Utah Farm

A tree can bring you into your heart and autumn can stir emotions. seasons transition one into the other and we find a very capable Nature changing before our eyes. 

On this day I raked up the leaves from our giant apple tree. It is a special labor of love because I am surrounded by her lovely leaves. Each leaf is different with patterns of brown, gold, yellow, green, and orange. 

 This year they were a bit more rusty brown yet I saw one green leaf with some bright yellow lying on the ground amongst the fallen leaves. It sparked my memories. I began to think back at the excitement that the budding bare branches brought to us in the spring and the pretty pink blossoms that bloomed which brought the humming bees. And then in summer we had such good times  relaxing together in her generous shade. And she stood so strong and resilient under the early autumn snow. 

Now as I am remembering all of this, I witness our Apple Tree preparing her leaves to let go and flutter to the ground. She is getting ready for a long winter's nap as her energy flows underground into her roots. She does this all so easily without complaint. I think it important to share these miraculous moments with you all. I hope you enjoy celebrating this transition in this video. You can watch it here or on YouTube 

 

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Deborah Moen
of Little Utah Farm

The Music in the video:

Evening Fall Harp by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100236

Artist: http://incompetech.com/

Apple Seed Encouraging Message Lumbar Pillow
by LittleUtahFarm

Winter Layers For My Garden

Compost right over the soil.

I discovered a natural way to nourish our garden soil and keeps the weeds down. In this post, I will share how I did it.

 Our soil is hard clay and for 5 years we have mixed in llama manure and rototilled it in. I came across this method of putting layers of materials over the top of the soil like you would a compost pile. This process will invite beneficial microbes, bacteria and earthworms. It will also keep most of the weeds from growing. 

Autumn is now in full force. The nights are in the 20's. The orb weaver cat spiders, which came to visit us this year, transitioned in the cold leaving their beautiful webs behind. The grasses in the pasture have begun to brown, and the leaves that fell from Grandmother Apple Tree were mulched and placed in a pile by the corn field to use later in the garden. 

The garden was dismantled, cleared, and ready for a nourishing mask of green manure, kitchen scraps, hay, and fallen leaves. Husband went out and collected cardboard boxes for the project. You can also use newspaper ( no colored ink or shiny surfaces) discarded toilet paper rolls, shredded junk mail ( no colored inks or shiny surfaces) We had everything else we needed like kitchen scraps, tea bags, hay, llama manure, dead leaves, and hay or straw.

Here is how we laid the layers in the garden.

      1. Removed any tape from the boxes and cut them to lie flat. 

       2. Water the soil first then lay down the cardboard. I let them overlap about 6" so the weeds cannot come through.

      3. Water over the cardboard.

      4. Put down green manure on the cardboard. We used fresh llama manure and kitchen scraps. 

       5. Water over the manure.

      6. Scatter dead leaves and hay or straw over the manure. 

      7.Water over the leaves

You can repeat these layers if you want to. Water each layer.  

The snows will come and in the spring the ice will melt into this nourishing mask and it will be ready for planting and seeding. 
The cardboard will be easy to penetrate for planting or roots to grow through. If the cardboard is still firm, then I cut a hole or x’s in the cardboard to plant.

I thoroughly enjoyed this project. I felt close to Mother Nature. I am also doing the layer technique in our garden boxes. I will lay down what is left from the plants in the boxes and begin to layer over that. 

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Until next time, 

Garden as though you will live forever.

                                                         ~ William Kent

DeborahMoonMoen
Little Utah Farm

Duck Teeth

Do ducks have teeth? Lolli at Little Utah Farm

Do ducks have teeth? I set out to find the answer. I Googled duck teeth. In this post I will tell you my findings and show you a good illustration of the duck bill. 

I went out back with my camera to get a good photo for this post.

trying different places and techniques to capture an image of these "duck teeth".

Winona is the most energetic of the flock.
Little Utah Farm.

I bent down on one knee on the lawn. This made the ducks very curious so that they hung around wondering what I was doing. Winona, our hen ( we call her Red for short) kept looking into my camera lens.

Ducky hears something. Little Utah Farm

At one point the ducks heard a peculiar noise out by the barn.  Ducky stepped forward and stretched way up high to see what she could see. I was surprised to see how tall she was. Daisey, Ducky, and Lolli usually swing their necks low to the ground to gain momentum as they waddle from one place to the other.

I realized my camera was too high to get under their bills for a good look. I bent down lower and tilted my camera up.  

Just then a plane went overhead. The ducks tilted their heads with one eye looking up to the sky. Voila! Click* I got the perfect photograph of the "duck teeth". 

They are not exactly teeth but serrated fringe on the edge of the beak. This makes it easy to sieve the water on out and keep the tasty stuff inside. The only things that compares, they say, is how a Blue Whale feeds in the ocean. It is quite an advanced filtering system. 

Check out these chompers. 

 Look at those serrated sieving edges on these Buff Orpington females on Little Utah Farm.

This morning it was 22 degrees. I put warm water over their feed and had a big bucket of fresh water nearby. They love water.  The sieving process is very splashy and noisy. Listen to these 3 girls sieve. Watch the video below and turn up the volume. It is 52 seconds.

Deborah Moon Moen of Litte Utah Farm

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Until next time, please check out our Facebook Page and our store on Zazzle. 

And remember..

Shower the people you love with love, show them the way that you feel. Things are gonna be just fine if you only will.
~James Taylor. 

How I Made My First Corn Shocks



My First Corn Shock Little Utah Farm 2012

shock 2   (shk) n. 1. A number of sheaves of grain stacked upright in a field for drying. 2. A thick heavy mass: a shock of white hair. tr.v. shocked, shock·ing, shocks To gather (grain) into shocks. [Middle English shok.]

I had never heard this word, shock. I thought the shocks were called corn stacks. And I was pleasantly surprised when I read about the original use of the corn shocks. Further investigation gave me old stories about gathering the bundles of corn and tying them into bundles to dry. Farmers fed the shocks to the cattle as fodder for the winter and sometimes the shocks provided bedding against the cold wet or snowy earth. Farmers waste no thing. Every part of the rural life has a purpose and comes full circle. This is a part of living off the land. The part that drew me to this kind of life.

How to plant the corn  1-2-3

1. I planted the little kernels of corn so carefully.  I poked the holes with a heavy iron spike. Just read the package. Some say to bury the seed ½ “and some 2”.  It depends on what variety you have. I set the seeds 8” apart.
2.  I dropped the dried kernels, into their holes and filled the earth in over them. We had rented a rototiller and the clay was soft as cake flour so my rows were easier to form this year. 
3. I made my rows about 12-15 “ apart (just enough to step into) and 30 feet long. There were 5 rows.

Corn needs love:

You must plant corn when the earth has warmed to at least 60 degrees. The soil must have nutrients in it. Give your corn plenty of water as they sprout and grow. Baby them, tell them they are beautiful, whisper sweet nothings into their ears. Last year I got over a hundred cobs piled high in the wheel barrel. I had a jolly time parboiling and wrapping them up for the freezer. I shared some with my neighbors. Oh those Peaches and Cream kernels were so sweet and delicious.

Here is my crop from this year 2015 in a greeting card. Perfect for Thanksgiving greetings. I loved this corn patch too. Every year has its own personality.

Our mild winter tricked me into planting in April. We had some deep freezes and the ground really didn't warm until the end of June. My crop looked small and uncared for. Much of it did not reach 3 1/2 feet high. But something wonderful did emerge in my corn patch this year. I found some big fat worms at the end of the cobs to feed the hens and had enough good cobs for the hens to enjoy. Most of all I loved making my first corn shocks.

How To Make Corn Shocks:

The stalks are usually sliced off near the ground with a scythe. I pulled my stalks from the ground and left on the root ball for weight to keep them from blowing away. These shocks will be decoration for our hay wagon in the Heritage and Livestock Parade in October.

You will need:

• cornstalks (wait till the leaves on the bottom have turned brown and the tops are still green)
• cord to tie with and scissors
• a tomato cage
• some decorations are nice like pretty autumn leaves, flowers ribbon or dried corn

Instructions:

1. Set the tomato cage on the ground upside down so the big part is on the bottom.
2. Begin placing the stalks one by one balancing them against the cage till it is all covered  (the ends of the stalks will flare outward on the ground)
3. Tie the shock in the upper third of the bundle with a cord ( I used orange baling string )
4. I left my tomato cage inside to assure a good structure as my stalks were a bit flimsy. But if your stalks are strong you can slip the whole shock off the cage and set it down.
5. Now come more fun, Decorate!
   
   
   

70 years ago here's how it was done:

Often the shocks sat out in the fields all year long, and the farmer would use an ax to chop out the stocks he needed. That changed in the late 1920′s when a picking machine was made and technology began to really change things.

Farm Collector shares this story written by 70 year old Frances Steel in 1970. “My father and I would take eight rows at a time. I cut four rows and he cut four. He used a regular corn cutter and I used a sickle, which I liked better. We used a wooden horse to lean the corn together between the fourth and fifth row. The horse was a pole about three inches in diameter at the big end and 12 feet long. It was about two inches at the small end. It had two broomsticks for legs at the big end and the small end rested on the ground. And one and a half foot from the large end a hole the size of a broomstick or handle was drilled and a broomstick inserted. This is what the corn was leaned on to start the shock. And when we had cut a space eight rows square, my father would tie the shock. With either rye straw for a band, or binder twine, and as soon as it was tied, I would pull out the broom stick and pull the horse ahead and we would start a new shock. We mostly hauled the shocks in (onto) the barn floor and husked on rainy days or in the evening by lantern light. Major, my dog, would always be around. He loved to eat corn, and there would be mice in the field under the shocks when we hauled them in. And I saw him have a front foot on a mouse holding it down while he killed another one, but (he) never ate one. One man is supposed to cut 100 shocks a day. We never cut that many, and we did not lose any time.”*

Little Utah Farm 2012 Corn Shocks

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Deborah Moen
of Little Utah Farm

Autumn Bliss

The Rolling Hills Off Lund Hwy

How does it get any better than this? Our dream of living off the land continues to come true as we go out to cut our own wood in the wild for our stove.

Team work.

We made an efficient family team as we cut, sorted and stacked the wood in the truck.

Me Tossing The Wood Into The Truck

My Grandson is a great help. A  job well done.

This is the land where the antelope play and wild horses run.

The graded road to Lund is long and the perspective is amazing. Out here is where the cowboys still ride their horses into the sunset after a long days on the range. For miles as far as the eyes can see is the land as it was in the 1800's pure wild and free.

"I looked around me and felt the ranges, the land, and the sky embrace us and I knew then I was truly close to the earth and living the life I/we have dreamed off."

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freshly picked Oak Leaves

 I gathered the last of the Oak leaves while on a hike in the gullies and canyons of The Three Peaks. It seems like yesterday that the Oaks leaves were bursting out of the bare winter branches. I have lot's of ideas for these beauties. I will use 2 methods of preserving. One will be to soak in a solution of glycerin and water and the other I will iron between waxed paper. I have an online store that displays these creative projects on T-shirts, mugs, and greeting cards. I hope you all visit often to see what I have made. I have oodles of ideas, landscapes, flora and fauna and art to fill my store as time goes by.

End of Autumn Chores

I looked outside my kitchen door and heard the roar of our tractor plowing and tilling the land. After such a grand harvest of corn we move into the rhythm of the earth and prepare for the winter and an easy spring planting.

Our Fur and Feather Family Play

What a blessing that we all get along and respect each other's process and space. Our dogs and chickens commune beautifully together. They sing and play and run together in the yards. I will take my hens for a walk in the front gardens today before the snow comes later tonight. I will make a trail of bread to the gates and toss the rest into the grass. They will love scratchin' and digging in the dirt and clay.

Autumn Bliss: A walk in the high country promises exquisite color
and crisp cool weather. The meadows and trees are a delight as we walk on the trails.

Soon we will be riding our ATV's with our new club called the Trail Blazers and receiving visitors for the the holiday season. Life is so good. How does it get any better than this? Autumn Bliss !

Harley McFarley's First Snow

Harley our cat, followed us home one day in late March after a weeks worth of howling winds. My husband and I had been out for a walk when this cute little kitten came running from an abandoned house. He meowed and meowed as his little paws trotted, ran and leaped along side of us.  He selected us, I suppose, as his human family.

Harley McFarley

He entered our hearts with his little squirrel like body and his friendly cuddly nature. And what an appetite! Harley eats fresh liver, crock pot chicken and an occasional can of tuna. The other dear fur members of our home had quite an adjustment to make. It appears every time we bring in a new family member, fur, feather or otherwise, it creates a whole  different pecking order in the home. But after a few rumbles, squawks an growls it all simmered down. Now Harley walks about the house like he owns it. He has a regular routine of mousing outdoors and visits the other cats in the neighborhood. He is usually home at night and if he isn't he rushes in at 4:30 am when I open the door.

First Snowfall In Autumn 2011

The first snows come here around Halloween, so it was right on schedule. We awoke to the most beautiful site this morning. It was still dark but we could see the white of snow. It is real dark out in the country except for moonlight and few dim solar lights behind the barn. Imagine our surprise as we saw snow falling in the flash of the camera. Oh so beautiful!




When the sun rose over the land
We gazed into an Autumnal Wonderland
The air was fresh and chilled like a romantic glass of champagne
And every breath was an elixir of exhilarating bliss.

Our Autumnal Wonderland. Starbuck our llama is  in the shelter.

The garden trees drooped under the heavy white clumps of snow. So I took my 3 ft long dandelion plucker as my wand and gently tapped the limbs and branches. UP they went and the clumps and flakes fell down over my hair and coat. It was a chilly bath of delight. So fun the first snow!

Harley McFarley's First Snow!

Harley McFarley made his way outdoors and felt the cold. He backed inside the door from the chill and decided to take a short nap. He took his maiden voyage upon the snow at 11am. I called him into through the garden gate and off he pounced onto and into the frosty white stuff.  Weee! He loved it!

Harley finds hidden treasure.

Every turn he saw the magical crisp white land of snow. He peers inside this bucket, for Harley a hidden cave with treasures to discover!

Harley looks out over the snow.

Harley looked out over his new Autumnal Wonderland. Not one flick of an icy paws nor shiver from cold did Harley make. He bounced and stalked with appreciation of having yet another wondrous adventure. Harley must think the world of us now as we do of him. We are glad of his coming to live in our home. We are happy with Harley... The End.