Well, it is definitely autumn! The horse mushrooms are in full effect and they are huge this year. I am attributing this to the drought. Every time we get a little rain they fruit and the biggest one I have picked this year was almost 10 inches. It literally filled the skillet. I have been studying for four years before eating and finally checked with a specialist/enthusiast at OSU/OARDC through my wife to be sure they were safe. They are great, but they are best when they are younger. By the time they get huge they are not as tasty but still great when used in a dish as they have lots of volume!
Sunday we all slept in a little and after eating I asked my wife what she wanted to do since it was a lazy Sunday and nothing was really planned ahead. She suggested a nature walk. So after we cleaned everything up and got dressed we all headed out for a nature walk. We headed across the road and up the hill in the hay field. After a little fighting between the kids and some refereeing we headed into the woods. We checked out all the trees and seedlings and did a little education for tree types and identifications. I try to relocate the corner marker at least once a year so it doesn't get lost. We have an original stone section marker on a corner of our property. This was how the country was divided up as settlers moved west hundreds of years ago and is a part of history that is slowly being lost. Dad has one on his place as well. They are commonly called cornerstones or marker stones.
The stone was normally quite large with only a small portion above the surface. They were large, from what I have been told, to allow them to be buried deep enough not to be moved with frost or normal activities. As you can see this stone marked a two line. I highlighted with a stick the markings. It is a T. This designated the section line from top to bottom of photo, or east and west in real orientation, and the line to the right was the southern quarter section line.
Sunday was a beautiful day and ended with cooking some ground beef and stuffed peppers on the wood fire with hickory for flavoring. Desert was double marshmallow s'mores. Never sure how many nice days you have left to enjoy before the cold sets in so you have to make the most of it when you do have them!
Today was a great day. I got to pick my baby (truck) up from the body repair shop. If you go back a few posts you can catch up on what happened to her but she is all fixed now ... well sort of.
When I bought the truck it was two colors, as you can see by looking at the bed. I plan on getting an aluminum flatbed for the truck soon and actually planned on getting it before repainting the cab. The accident changed those plans however and I had to repair the cab first.
Now, knowing that I am going to have an aluminum flatbed in the near future I knew that two tone paint would look very weird on the front. So I asked Rodney, the owner at Touch of Class in Minerva Ohio, to paint the front all blue and I would pay the balance after insurance repairs to finish the job. The results are beautiful. I also had him touch up all the door jams and miscellaneous bad spots on the rest of the cab. What I didn't expect was how bad the bed would look after the front was fully repaired and looking good. I have a price to fix the bed that is on it but it is almost the cost of a new aluminum flat bed installed on the truck. Furthermore, I will not have to repaint and repair a good aluminum bed every five years like I would a metal bed. So, I am now greatly motivated to get my bed sooner than I expected.
My bosses advice was to put a sign on the bed saying donations for a flatbed being accepted and put a bucket in the back for them!! HAHAHA. We will see!
Lastly for today, after feeding all the animals I wanted to get a current count on the round bales I have to feed after what I sold off during the weekend. Shortly after counting I noticed this Praying Mantis sitting on the bales catching flies and other bugs!. It was quite large, maybe five or more inches long and looked quite well fed. I love watching them and we see them a lot. They are great friends to have around the farm as they eat a lot of bugs!! Hopefully she has lots of eggs stashed somewhere close by, I will gladly feed them all!
Well, hope everyone has a great evening and lets hope for a late onset of first killing frost ... daddy needs more hay! I am trying to help out several new customers and a strong 4th/5th cutting will secure my being able to do this. I am cutting it close hoping the final cut for the year will be enough to get me through. I am currently going to be 4/5 weeks short for what I need to feed cows thought the winter which is approximately 15-20 bales. I should be able to get that from my final cutting with no problems but we will see!
Kenny
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