Garden Notes: October 2025

It must be autumn if Sam has moved his nap spot to indoors.

Rainfall

• 5th: 0.03"
• 6th: 0.01"
• 8th: 0.07"
• 19th: 0.2"
• 21st: 0.01"
• 26th: 0.1"
• 27th: 2.59"
• 28th: 0.39"
• 29th: 1.01"
• Total: 4.5 inches

 Temperature

• range of nighttime lows: 38 to 67°F (3.3 to 19.4°C)
• range of daytime highs: 49 to 85°F (9.4 to 29.4°C)

Weather Notes

• The colors of the sunrise have changed with the cooler temperatures
• In summer the sunrise was peach and gold behind the green leafy trees
• In early autumn the sky is silver and gray behind the leafy green
• By the middle of the 3rd week the seasonal shift was firmly entrenched, which meant it was time to change our routines.
• Switching most of the cooking from the summer kitchen to indoors.
• Switching garden work to the afternoon and doing indoor projects in the morning
• Migrating Canada geese and hawks. The geese are no problem but we've had at least one hawk keen on trying to catch our chickens.
• Flannel sheets on the bed!
• An extra blanket on the bed.
• Soup season has begun.
• And of course, the first wood fire of the season.

Planted

• lettuce both garden and greenhouse
• turnips
• wheat
• edible pod peas (greenhouse)
• collards (greenhouse)

Harvested

• green beans
• yam berries
• green beans
• cherry tomatoes
• slicing tomatoes
• bell peppers
• parsley
• basil
• oregano
• okra
• lettuce
• winter squash
• pecans
• kale
• collards
• Swiss chard
• daikons (leaves and roots)
• red raspberries

Preserved

• green beans & yam berries, canned
• green beans (plain), canned
• parsley, dried
• basil, dried

Photos

Getting close to the last of the summer produce as frost could be at any time now.

Greens galore: kale, Swiss chard, and collards

We've been picking up pecans here and there, but after this week's 
wind and rain, pecans have be easy picking by the bucketful.

Our sweet potato winter squash have been somewhat disappointing.
They were late to develop and haven't gotten very big. We only got 8.

This one wasn't completely matured so it was selected for eating
earlier than the cured ones. We all get some: goats, chickens, and us.

That's about it for me. First frost any day now! How about you? 

Garden Notes: October 2025 © October 2025

by Leigh at https://www.5acresandadream.com

Front Room Closet: Painting & New Closet Floor

This is where we left off last time.

And this is what it looks like at present.

So, you can see two changes, the walls painted and a new closet floor.

The paint was leftover from another project and I wasn't sure I'd have enough, but I managed to get two coats on both walls and ceiling. It's a very pale yellow. After Dan re-installs the quarter-round trim in the corners, I'll use the last of the can for touch up. It could probably use a third coat but being a closet, it's doubtful anyone will pay much attention to the walls.

Next, Dan wanted to do something about the floor. The quickest, cheapest option was unfinished shiplap boards. They need trim, stain, and a poly finish. 

Next, is closet doors. 

Front Room Closet: Painting & New Closet Floor 

© 2025 by Leigh at https://www.5acresandadream.com

Front Room Closet Remodel: Assessing & Planning

Dan's fall and winter project is to finish the front room. Originally a bedroom, I set up my big floor room in it and am now using it as a weaving room. Or at least I will be when all the remodeling is done! There are several things that need finishing in this room: the walls where he replaced the original windows, the back of the masonry stove, and the closet. He starting with the closet.

The first step was to tear out the remaining closet wall.

What's immediately curious is that paint job. Why would they only paint it green part way up? Probably because that was a high as they could reach.

Our ceilings are high at 8'10." The original closest door measured 72" in height (standard door height is 80"). The closet shelf was at installed at 64." Include the door molding and this configuration only allowed 7 inches between the shelf and the top of the door for shelf access.

You can see more photos including the original room layout here.

That meant that the 32-cubic-feet above the shelf were pretty much inaccessible for storage. I definitely want to remedy that.

The other problem with this closest is that the original interior depth was only 17.5 inches. That's barely wide enough for a clothes hanger! By tearing out the wall, we gained 4 extra inches in depth. You can see the difference in this next photo looking up into the closet ceiling.

The original closet interior is painted white. The unpainted part is where the wall used to be. The 2x6 is where the new closet exterior will be. 

The next step was to cover the exposed bricks on the lefthand wall.

I missed getting a photo, but before he put up the plywood, Dan added a thick piece of ceramic fiber blanket to insulate the wall, the same stuff that he used to insulate the masonry stove core. Because it's just the inside of the closet, he used plywood instead of trying to match the tongue-and-groove.

The plan is to install standard hollow core bypass doors, with a shelf over top to give me access to the additional storage space, similar to what Dan did in our bedroom. 

In the bedroom closet, Dan built shelves. He asked me to figure out what I want to do with this closet, so I've had to think about how the space will be used. What I really need is storage space for my totes and boxes, not a clothes closet. Considering that the room could still be used as a bedroom, however, I don't know that it would be wise to put the whole closet in shelves. At the moment, I'm considering some stand-alone wire shelf units, something like these. One on either end of the closet.  

So those are our tentative plans. Next step is paint those walls. 

Front Room Closet Remodel: Assessing & Planning 

© 2025 by Leigh at https://www.5acresandadream.com

2nd Test Fire & Masonry Stove Improvement #4

The Structo-lite plastering (stuccoing?) is complete and I don't mind telling you I don't know what to think. I really really liked the bricks, but with the small and annoying smoke leaks in the mortar, this was the option Dan went with. The second test fire confirmed it was a good choice because thanks to better sealing of the thermal mass, the smoke by-pass, and improvement #4, the stove worked beautifully!

Improvement #4 was to enlarge the built-in damper in the firebox door. It just wasn't large enough for a good air flow to get the fire started. 

Our firebox door. Photo from Masonry Heater Project

The slots on the bottom are the damper, with the cute knob to adjust the air intake. For our particular type of stove, this air intake needs an area of 2 & 3/8 square inches. The original door damper was less than 2 square inches and so the fire had trouble catching. Dan enlarged the air slots to the required specs and that made a big difference. 

The photo's a little dark but hopefully you can see the difference.

For our 2nd test fire, better initial air flow made it easier to get the fire going. 

My challenge now is the aesthetics of the thing. The plaster is off-white, which looks brighter compared to my pale gold walls. Off-white is a nice neutral color, but in my mind it needs to coordinate with it's color environment to its best advantage. I'm seriously re-thinking my living room color scheme! That's one thing I'm contemplating. The other is the solidness of the color. The subtle color variations in the brick gave the stove visual texture which is gone now. So that's the other thing I'm thinking about. The thing is, aesthetics is highly subjective. So there is no right or wrong, it's just a matter of what one likes.

The most important thing is that the problems we had have now been addressed and the stove is functioning as it should. It burns more efficiently with very little ash left in the firebox afterward, and the thermal mass retains and radiates the heat beautifully.

While I decide how to address the visuals in the living room, Dan is in the planning stage for finishing the back of the stove and rebuilding the closet in the front bedroom.

Finishing the wall and remodeling the closet will be two separate projects.

We have our indoor winter projects cut out for us.

2nd Test Fire & Masonry Stove Improvement #4 

 © 2025 by Leigh at https://www.5acresandadream.com

Permaculture Adventure Bundle

 I just wanted to share a limited opportunity to purchase over $600 worth of homestead and permaculture resources for $45. This bundle was originally offered last year, and is a "back by popular request" sort of promotion. It's available for the next 48 hours.

Here's what's in it:

-Roundhouse Studio Plans Package & Earthbag Building Guide eBook by Owen Geiger - value $150
-Finding the Perfect Homestead Property Course (2 Lessons) by Curtis Stone - value $59
-PawPaw Quick Start Guide (Video and eBook) by Michael Judd - value $15
-Boosting your Garden Yields by Growing Algae Presentation by Matt Huber - value $7
-Wooden Door with Mycelium Insulation & Proenneke Hinge Guide plus plans by Andres Bernal - value $12.99
-Permaculture Guilds Training Session by Permaculture Gardens - value $29
-Hugelkultur: The Ultimate Raised Bed Gardening eBook (draft) by Paul Wheaton - value $10
-Easy Homemade Body Products eBook by Merissa A. Alink - value $5.96
-Composting Toilet Design Plan PDF by Rancho Mastatal - value $15
-The Design & Build of the Giant Solar Food Dehydrator movie by Paul Wheaton - value $9.95
-Save our Bees: Your Guide to Creating a Bee Friendly Environment eBook by Jason Johns - value $3.99
-DIY Specialty Soaps eBook by The Nerdy Farm Wife - value $9
-Building a Cob Style Rocket Mass Heater movie by Paul Wheaton - value $10
-Earthen Walls Webinar by Natalie Bogwalker/Wild Abundance - value $59
-Podcast Review of Botany in a Day by Thomas Elpel with Paul Wheaton - value $3
-Wildcrafting Weeds eBook by Colleen Codekas and Joel Schwartz - value $9.97
-Building a Better World in your Backyard eBook by Paul Wheaton - value $7.99
-45 Low Tech Things Webinar by Paul Wheaton - value $10
-Issues 110 & 118 of Permaculture Design Magazine - value $9.90
-Practical Mending eBook by Kate Downham - value $5
-Cooking with a Rocket Oven movie by Paul Wheaton - value $3.50
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-Podcast Gob 281-320 by Paul Wheaton - value $4
-6 Issues of Tiny House Magazine - value $42
-Backyard Food Forest Webinar by Helen Atthowe - value $10
-Water Biofilters & Composting Toilet Systems Presentation with Tim Barker - value $10
-Why Chickens are the Enablers and Heroes of Permaculture Design (Workshop) by Patricia Foreman - value $15
-Issue 6 of Living Woods Magazine - value $3.50
-Core Site Layout: Zone 1 Planning Online Workshop by Ben Falk - value $20
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-Celery Wine: The Story of a Country Commune eBook by Elaine Sundancer - value $8
-The Beginning Gardener's Toolbox eBook by The Little Green Shoot - value $37
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-Northern Great Basin Restoration Agriculture Biome Models Presentation by Neil Bertrando - value $4.50

Sale runs through Sunday morning.

Here's the link - Permaculture Adventure Bundle.

Orphan Baby

 

Summer

This week I lost Sky, my favorite doe. 

Sky and her baby Summer. Photo from July 2025

At 8½ years of age Sky was my oldest doe and my best tempered. I really had no clue anything was wrong other than she had been quite picky about her feed for the past several weeks. That in itself isn't all that unusual, but then she developed severe scours and stopped eating altogether. I had recently wormed my goats so I added a coccidiosis treatment, vitamin B and iron shots, and Nutri-Drench. Two days later she was gone. 

That in itself is incredibly hard, but worse, she left behind her 9-week-old doeling, Summer.

Baby Summer is able to eat well on her own, but I really, really like for them to be on their mother's milk for at least 12 weeks or longer. They seem to grow so much better that way. Plus, things born or hatched of a mother need a mother. It's the way things are. Summer is now an orphan.

One concern for lone kids is that they get picked on by the other goats. Fortunately, Sky was very firm that no one was allowed to mess with her baby, so they've accepted her. She gets butted around some, but mostly the others don't bother her. 

Only once has Summer cried for her mother and gone to look for her. I let her see and smell the body before we took it away. Somehow, animals have an understanding and acceptance of death. That doesn't mean she doesn't miss her mother, but she's doing pretty well anyway. Being a single with no other kids her age around, she doesn't have a playmate or companion. So she's mostly by herself. She follows the other goats but stays out of their way. 

I haven't tried to give her a bottle because once kids are used to the teat they refuse it. I'm making sure she gets feed with extra protein and calcium. 

I'm going to be sad about this for a long time. 

Orphan Baby © October 2025 by Leigh

at https://www.5acresandadream.com