Feels Like Fall
September 2025
All of a sudden cooler weather whipped into the St. Croix Valley. We’ve had nights in the 40s and days in the 50s; one tree on our drive into town has even decided to go full orange already. We’re not quite ready to give up on summer yet, but it’s getting us ready for our favorite season here in Minnesota!
What’s been happening?
The shorter days have finally slowed the grass and weeds down, so the peonies are looking better kept. We’d like to explore a more aggressive mulching strategy for next season, but it was good to experiment and see that we could keep on top of weeds just through manual control.
The chickens have been released to forage. No eggs quite yet, but they’re approaching full grown and loving exploring the farm for grasshoppers and seeds and whatever else they can find.
The goats and the sheep continue their work on buckthorn control. We have one more section to move them onto before the winter, and are quite pleased with how this strategy has opened up the understory around our oak trees. New oaks have been sprouting up everywhere. One of our fall tasks is to select a few that are growing in good spots and put tubes over them to protect them from rabbits and deer during the winter. There’s a troublesome lack of young oak trees on the farm, so nurturing the next generation is a high priority task.
Much to my surprise, my tractor repairs went as planned. The new radiator and new valve cover gasket have solved the steam/smoke/power issues and now I’m trying to make up for lost time with the fall mowing.
A year to the day after we started our kitchen renovation, I installed the final countertop. There’s still a few outlets to wire, trim and a tile backsplash, but it’s a good feeling to have all the cabinets done.
I’ve been out harvesting plums and elderberries from the road ditches to turn into sauces and syrups for the winter days ahead.
The late summer flowers are blooming in the prairie restoration: goldenrod, black eyed susans, compass plants and primrose lend it a distinct yellow accent. That field is next up on my mow list. I’ll mow it back to the ground so that we can overseed with native grasses in the spring.
What’s Ahead?
The short days mean that we don’t have as much time to work after Herbert goes to sleep, which in some ways is a welcome slowing down for us. We’ll continue to weed and mow the peonies until it’s time to cut them down later in the fall.
The apples and crabapples are starting to ripen and should be ready to pick next week! Our friend Chris Niskanen is going to give cider making a try with our apples and we’re excited to see what he comes up with.
We’re contemplating trying a winter rye cover crop this fall. If we do that, it’ll need to go in near the end of this month.
We’re watching the new batch of chickens to see how many roosters we ended up with. Once we have a clear idea of whose a rooster, we’ll be sending those birds to freezer camp.
The cooler weather has us turning our attention to some indoor projects. Number one on the list is swapping our bedroom arrangement upstairs to give Herbert his own room and free up the nursery before baby #2 arrives in November.
What’s on our minds?
I’ve referenced it a few times already, but it never ceases to amaze me how quickly the days shorten up here in the north country. On the summer solstice (June 21), it started getting light at 4:47 am and didn’t get dark until 9:39 pm. We had almost 16 hours of sunlight. Now on September 7th, it started getting light at 6:06 am and gets dark at 8:08 pm, for only a 13 hour day. The early evenings and later mornings are a wakeup call for me to try and get projects done before the long darkness of the winter sets in. There’s always so much on the to-do list (and so much that didn’t get done during the summer!), but I find the cooler temps and the winter prep projects invigorating. I hope that the same is true for all of you as the fall approaches.
Your contrary farmers,
Kristofer, Julie and Herbert (and Willmar the Labrador, too)