September Blossoms!

I'm not sure of the cause, but I have some trees that are confused.  We have three ornamental pear trees that line our drive.  One of them is in full bloom!

I also noticed some blossoms on one of my apple trees.  We have had a bit of a cool snap with maybe one light frost, but I simply don't know what would cause these trees to bloom on the last day of September!

Apple blossoms on 30 September!

The Big Fall Sale

In an earlier post, I mentioned that the big Fall Sale at Dinky's was coming up.  Well, it's here and I took in some of it yesterday and today.  It has been raining buckets, but as dry as it's been during the past summer, no one is complaining a bit.  We've gotten three or four inches in the last 36 hours, I'd guess, but it's not keeping folks away from the sale.

Not everything went as high as this skillet.  It reportedly sold for $1350.00 !!

A #13 Griswold skillet reportedly sold for a whopping $1350.00 !!  In a nutshell, the Griswold company made many different sizes of skillets.  The #13, being it used the unlucky number 13, was the most UN-popular.  As a result, few are around today and are eagerly sought by collectors.

The inside stuff sold yesterday, and the sale moved outside to the tools and implements today.  Carts, buggies, and wagons were being sold inside.  In all, there were five outside rings, one in the main building, and a harness sale going on in the north barn...all at the same time.  Here is a link to an account of the sale in the local newspaper:  Washington Times Herald

There were many crocks, churns, and jugs to bid on.

To the left of the stoneware in this photo is a second auction ring.  Some buyers were watching both and bidding on two items at the same time!

Here is a nice assortment of lamps.

The 'latest' in wringer washing machines!  All will go at the auction.

A nice bunch of grinding stones.

Some  'water purifiers' sold as well.

I'd never seen one of these...an ice plow or ice saw.  It is pulled behind a horse on an ice-covered lake.  It scores the ice and helps to make it easier to cut.

An nice old sharpener.

Here is a nice old corn sheller, ready to use.

Lard presses.

There were a couple of these nest boxes.  The perches fold down in front of each row of nest openings.

An old cider mill.

A newer version of cider mill.

A variety of butchering kettles.

If you look closely, there are three separate auctions going here.  Each truck has an auctioneer doing his job.

A variety of horse drawn farm implements.

Got a big dog or very active child that you need to put to work?  You can hook this treadmill to a lot of different machines!

More horse drawn implements.

A big old thresher.

I liked this forge and the big swaging block.

Tonight will be the big auction of Standardbred driving horses, and the horse pull will be moved inside due to the torrential rains we've had yesterday and today.  Tomorrow will be more driving horses, then Friday will be the draft horse sale.  Big doings for the area. 

Working In the Late Garden

I worked in the garden some this afternoon.  I pulled up some of the tomato and pepper plants that were about finished and stored the cages that I put around them.  In a couple of the shots below, you can see some seed that I saved from some peppers.  Once the seeds are dried, I'll put them in envelopes, then into the freezer.

A view of some of the turnips sown back in August.

The sweet bell peppers were all very small, due to the prolonged and extreme heat.  They were very prolific, however, and still taste good!

Red Hot Chili Peppers, well...Jalapenos actually.

I saved some seed from four varieties of peppers.  The top ones are jalapenos.  The rest are different colored varieties of bell peppers.

 My neighbor has some long slender chili peppers in his garden.  I will trade him some jalapenos for some of them to dry and save some seed from.


I also prepared a couple of spots where I planted some late lettuce and spinach.  The coming cooler weather should be good for growing some late salads.  The short row of turnips is also coming along.  None of these plots and plantings would ever grace a magazine cover, but they sure produce good vegetables!

After scratching the straw mulch back, I planted two short rows of spinach.

Soon, I'll remove the most of the remaining tomato plants and keep only a couple to eat off of (until the frost finally gets them).

After removing all the plants, I'll scatter a good load of horse manure over the whole plot.  Then I'll till the garden up and turn all the straw mulch and manure into the soil.  It will continue to decompose over the winter and should make the soil much looser and richer, come spring. 

A few weeks ago, Patti and I went up to the Bloomington Farmers Market.  It was a really good market with a tremendous variety of produce, baked goods, and much more available.  I came across a lady who sells peppers...just peppers...all kinds of peppers!  It happens that I really like the little fiery red Thai peppers, but haven't had any for a few years.  This vendor had several varieties, so Patti and I picked out a couple that we liked the looks of and bought them.  I'll put in a plug for her business here:  The Chile Woman


I have the plants sitting in a south facing window right now and will overwinter them there.  Next spring, I will move each plant into a hanging basket.  In addition, I'll be saving seed from some of the fruits and start more plants from them.

Don't let their diminutive size fool you...these rascals will hurt you!

These interesting Ordono peppers are from Mexico and range from orange, red to purple.

Recent Events

It seems that busy-ness has been getting in the way of posting here, so here is an attempt to catch up somewhat.

First, I'm happy to report that we have been getting some sorely needed rain.  After Hurricane Isaac became Tropical Storm Isaac, then moved inland and up the Mississippi Valley to become big, bad storm Isaac, we got the first significant rainfall in months.  In a few days, we got nearly three inches of rain.  Then, just over the past day or so, we got another two inches!  That is more rainfall than we've had all summer!!  Behind this last front came some really nice weather, so we've been enjoying blue skies and clouds and temps in the 70-degree range...outstanding!

I recently visited the weekly Friday night sale at Dinky's, over north of Cannelburg.  I took some friends over for the evening and we saw all kinds of stuff selling in the six auction rings going at one time.  I usually just go for the social event that it is, but I couldn't pass up bidding on the items in the picture below.  I scored the like-new Coleman campstove for $7.50 and the big canner for $3.00!  I was tickled with the buys.

On Saturday morning, Patti and I headed to the White River Valley Antique Association's 28th Annual Show, in Elnora.  I didn't take a lot of photos there, but the place was packed.  Hundreds of vintage tractors of every make, along with the old village and demonstrations of sorghum pressing and cooking, steam threshing and other old time activities were seen.  Below are just a couple of shots of the flea market area.

This lady had all kinds of old jugs and crocks for sale.

In the center of this photo, you can see a long line of butter churns for sale.

Below is a video of some folks cooking down apple butter.  I actually shot this at last year's show, but they were back and doing their thing again on Saturday.  The kettle is about two and a half feet across.  The stirring paddle is powered by a small engine in back.