Fall At Last

September 23 marked the first day of Fall, but as that day came and went, it sure didn't feel like Fall.  It didn't feel like Fall two weeks after that date.  But on October 7th, we woke up to a north breeze blowing.  You can see the little garden flag by the live oak tree whipping in the wind. This morning, we had a low temperature of 58 and as far out as I can see in the forecast, I see no more 90 degree weather.  Hallelujah!

The heat was stifling this summer, but more than that, the drought really took its toll on us and the animals as well.  This drought decimated the grass in the yard.  It is starting to come back now after the 1 1/4 inch rainfall we were beneficiaries of last week.  I fear, though, that we lost two azaleas, two magnolia trees, and most of the monkey grass in the landscaping.  The lack of rainfall also meant that there's no grass in the pasture.  We've had to resort to feeding hay WAYYYY earlier than we normally do.  The condition of the cows and goats is poor going into the winter compared to other years. 

But Fall is here.  We can rejoice in that.  The live oak trees have produced a bumper crop of acorns and they are falling all over the ground.

This afternoon I watched two fox squirrels jump from tree to tree, with their bushy tails flashing in the wind.  They're no-doubt fat on this diet of acorns.  Squirrel season opened Oct 7th and runs through Feb 29th.  There's a daily bag limit of 8.  I think I could sit in the front yard with my 12 gauge and thin out the population.  I'll put some in the freezer for sure.

Because the grass is non-existent in the pasture, I've been stringing up the temporary electric fencing powered by the solar charger and rotating the cows through the yard again.  The crazy thing is, I only mowed the yard (by machine) two times this year!  That's good on the gas bill, but I'll need to crank it and run it.  Pretty soon the pecan trees will drop their leaves and it will be time to pick up pecans.

Now that it has rained, I've been working hard to get the Fall garden planted.  I'll show the progress in a future posting.  October 1 marks the date that you can plant garlic in our zone.  I ordered some and it came in the mail.

I opened the bag.  We're hoping to have a good crop.  I had given up on garlic as the past several times we planted it, we had large harvests, but it was hot and humid and the garlic wouldn't cure.  It all got soft and rotted - even though we had it on racks drying by a fan.  This year I decided we'd give it another shot.

I broke the cloves up into individual pieces.

In the garden, I pulled back the wood chip mulch away, exposing the soil and then gently worked the soil with a garden hoe.  It worked up nicely.  I used a planting knife to dig 2" holes and planted the garlic (root side down) in the hole.  I spaced them 4-6 inches apart and watered them in.  When they sprout, I'll mulch around them.

Fall is nice time of year.  The mosquitoes are still pretty bad, but the mosquito plane was flying tonight.  Hopefully, that will diminish the population.  Looking forward to cooler temps!