Frank's Mill Farm: August 2008

Monday, August 25, 2008

Frank's Mill Creek

She is running on empty after a summer of little rain.

My old bike

It stills serves as a pretty cool plant hangar

Signs of Fall

Fireside apples are delicious - only Aug 26 and leaves are turning

Sunday, August 24, 2008

With the gas prices so high and having to pull the Scamp with a truck that only gets 15 mpg, we decided to create our own campground. Welcome to Frank's Mill Campground. This summer only our camper and our friends camper were down in the meadow by the river, but that's okay. It is a most beautiful spot and is a great place to view the eagles, birds, and butterfiles. The fishing isn't even so bad.

New Hatch

These butterflies were hatched at Maggie's daycare. We found the caterpillar's on the dill in our garden. The kids had a great time watching the cacoon's form and change as the butterflies developed. They were let go into the backyard. Now Grandpa and Grandma are looking for more caterpillars.

Friday, August 22, 2008

boys and their toys

What is it with the male gender when it comes to toys? You've heard the one - the bigger the boy, the more expensive the toys? I do think it is a guy thing. I remember a Volkswagen commercial on TV a short while ago. It showed this guy with a normal size head, then getting progressively larger as he thought about a new Volkswagen. That is the way it is. Once we get something in our head - it seldom, if ever goes away.
This is a long way around our new (for us) car. A sparkling white 1997 Cadillac. Isn't it a beaut! Trouble is our old car (a 1999 Dodge Intrepid) was still working fine. There is a huge difference, however in ride and comfort. We live at least two and a half miles to pavement. If you have an air leak you know it. Cath has trouble with allergies and dust bothers her. The dodge was a sieve, not matter what you did, it smelled like a dust storm. So that's my excuse for buying a different car - and I'm sticking to it. Another guy thing - rationalizing into making the buy as the right decisison.
Now let me see. How am I going to justify that shiney red scooter I bought. Pretty hard to use the economy things now after we bought the cadillac.
Buttered corn day in Sleepy Eye today. We are meeting Scott, Maggie and Kendal. Will be good to see them

Greg

Grape Wine

We finally have started our first wine of the 2008 season.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Harvest Time

Harvest time has begun in ernest at the farm. The Green Beans have been exceptional producers this year and we will have extra for our family. There are jars and jars of preserves in the cellar, Black Raspberry, Apricot, Mulberry and Strawberry. We had our first apple pie last week and this week some early eating apples. YUM! Everything looks good in the garden this year. The tomatoes have started producing in ernest and the vines are full. Summer squash and zuchini have been the base for stir fry, with anything else that is ready. This past weekend we went to Jim's farm (Scheman). He had a huge crop of wild grapes growing on his corncrib. We harvested two 5 gallon pales full. We added our domestic grape crop (small this year). Monday we stomped the grapes and started 2 carboys of wine. We had extremely good luck with our grape wine last year (it's gone) and hope for the same this year. We have Oscar and Ollie and three rent a cows, (Watusi and Brama cross) in our pasture this summer. It's a barter type deal. We provide grass and the owners provide vacation chore service. We have four small fields and one large one. This year the cattle have been rotated in the four small pastures and we made hay in the large one. It will soon be time to move them to the large field. If we don't get any rain, we could be done before the end of September. Then you have to feed them and remove the end product. Sure hope it rains!
Till we meet again - adios
Greg