Come Wind, Come Rain

Ah yes November. It's getting colder here. We've had many frosts by now. The coming months will be interesting to see what does well over wintering. The winter here is mild but it does get down into the 20s on average. I just can't get enough of these crisp, cool blustery autumn days. I love the kaleidoscope of colors and the angle of the light this time of year. Things do slow down a little bit around here. It does get dark at 5 PM now. But I do farm all year round, so there's always busy.

This morning I bush hogged all morning. Yeah that's right get your mind out of the gutter. Bush hogging is using the tractor and attaching a brush mower aka bush hog and cutting brush with it. That means briars, privet, kudzu, small saplings. Pretty much scrub and anything you can run over SAFELY. It can be dangerous depending on the area you are cutting. It can get quite wooly bully at times. The area that I bush hogged is an area we call Bennett's Folly. We have names for different parts of the farm. This area in inside the fence along the gasline that goes back towards the hollow along a ridge. The area used to be pasture, but has grown up with honeysuckle, briars, kudzu, privet, and assorted trees. Well it's almost all cut back now. Some stuff was to big to run over. But it looks a whole lot better. Now I just have to keep it cut.

Then this afternoon I went foraging for wild ginger. I have a order for 15- 20 roots to fill. Wild ginger is all around the place. From what I've observed is that it likes the sides of the ridges along the hollow. Sassafras seems to be a companion to it as it is usually in the same area. When I set out this afternoon I had a location already picked out. I don't like to go to the same area every week. I dig up the whole plant using a digging fork. It took about 2 hours to find and dig 20 plants. The ginger is coming to an end for this season. It goes dormant when it starts getting cold consistently. Which will be the end of November.

Tomorrow will be busy busy. Harvesting all morning then delivering then hanging with my lady love. It will be a grand glorious day.