The Leaves are Off - November 3, 2024 @goldenoakfarm

White oak - leaves off crop Nov 2024.jpg

On Sunday morning I was up at 4:15AM and the time change gave me another hour to work. I started on the bills/budget first then moved onto filling out the forms for health insurance and fuel assistance. I had a bunch of stuff to go to the post office on Monday morning.

New East - before crop Nov 2024.jpg

My #2 intern arrived just before 10AM and I got ready to go outside. The main job was to get leaves out of gardens and also the clean them up off the grass. She started raking in the back yard and I started pulling leaves (and some weeds) out of the east gardens. They were pretty much of a mess.

New East - after crop Nov 2024.jpg

I got this far before I got cold from being in the shade, so she finished this garden. I had done the Back Porch garden first though. I started raking the perimeters of the gardens pulling the leaves out so I could mow them up.

Phoebe cleaning up leaves crop Nov 2024.jpg

She cleaned out the cold frames and I went up to get the mowers. She pushed the push mower around while I zoomed around on the rider.

Pam mowing leaves1 crop Nov 2024.jpg

Once she finished with the push mower, she went into the part of the yard with the trees and raked the stuff out of the gardens there. Then she went to the gardens behind the house.

Trees leaves gone crop Nov 2024.jpg

She did a great job cleaning up 3 more gardens while I mowed.

East Shed - leaves out crop Nov 2024.jpg

East Shed garden leaves out

Old North - leaves out crop Nov 2024.jpg

Old North garden leaves out

North Corner - leaves out crop Nov 2024.jpg

North Corner garden leaves out

Pam mowing leaves2 crop Nov 2024.jpg

The next big job, early this year, is to get the tarps up, washed and hung to dry so they can be put away. Some years I have to wait until the first week of December before I can do it.

She left at 1PM and I finished mowing up all the leaves in the yard by 2PM. She came over to tell me the battery in my car was dead. I had taken her car to the barn to get the mower and she was going to swap them.

My brother and I had been discussing prepping vehicles for winter, and one thing that hadn’t happened for 3 years was fixing the gasket for the driver side window. I had gone out to show him what needed to be done and turned the car on to move the windows and forgotten to turn it off.

So I got to walk back from the barn with the battery charger when I finished mowing. Fortunately it charged up pretty quickly as I need the car for the post office trip on Monday.

White pumpkin going by crop Nov 2024.jpg

White pumpkin didn’t make it to Thanksgiving

I was pretty wiped out and sat down instead of getting a shower. Tom arrived after 3PM and we talked for a couple hours. Then I had to light both stoves as it was to drop into the 20’s Sunday night.

I watched a movie but didn’t get to bed until 9PM. Time change has me all messed up.

On Monday is laundry as usual, the post office trip, and I hope to finish the bills/budget. It’s to be cold and cloudy, so I will have the wood stove to tend. The masonry heater should heat through the day on what’s in the thermal mass.

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The falling of the leaves from the tree, signifies the beginning of fall.
So sorry that the pumpkin didn't make it to Thanksgiving.

You did a lot of work today please do take a rest.

Cleaning from all leaves is quite a pain, long and annoying to do, you end up with lot of green garbage

The disease attacked the sweet pumpkin, the medicine had to be sprayed earlier. After cleaning the leaves it looks very nice

Your day was productive and you did a good job cleaning up gardens. It's also good you had someone, the intern to help out. And you took care of yourself after all the work. I hope your car battery is up and running again. Have a great week.

You have a good helper! She did a great job cleaning up all the leaves. Oops on the car, lol. At least it charged back up for you.

It's so unfortunate that a once vibrant tree is stripped of all its beauty, what a pity!

Happens every autumn…

That’s a lot of work. The leaves of ‘Pradouk’ trees have started falling so we’ll have more work in the garden. These forest trees shed their leaves in winter months.