Ramsey County

September 18, 2006

Howdy!!!
I think fall is in the air.  What a difference from a couple of days ago, but if we look at the average frost date it should be acting like this.  I can remember many fall fairs, which of course was a little later in the year, when we would be washing off the steers and lambs and thinking the water was freezing on the animal.  Mentioning that brings back many fond memories of the yester year.  The Bill Jerome would be full of animals and the smell of fall was definitely in the air along with waterfowl hunting.  This past weekend was another fun weekend for our family as everyone was over except the youngest, who was visiting a friend from Sutton.  Our future son-in-law had a friend over helping him move some furniture from Lakota to Devils Lake in preparation of the wedding in November.  I can remember having Al and Dan out ice fishing last winter wondering if they were going to fall in, even though we had really good ice.  Talking about the fall season leads me into another topic of discussion.  Should we be cutting back our perennials for the winter season?  Everybody has a good answer for this but in general we should be cutting those perennials back that have run their course.  A little mulch around them can also help reduce the risk of winter injury.  One good way to help protect those less hardy perennials is to place your leaves in a big garbage bag and place around and over the plants.  This does two things: first off it will help protect your loves perennials and will also make cleanup next spring much easier, as the leaves will already be bagged up.  Another reminder for you apple growers, if the weather man says it will freeze hard Wednesday morning you had better be picking your apples.  Remember a light frost is good, as it will sweeten the apple, a killing frost is not good for apple as it will likely turn mushy.  Another reminder of carrots, carrots unlike many other veggies can with stand many hard frosts, due to the fact they are still in the ground and will get sweeter with age.  I have also noticed the leaves are starting their journey into most lawns and clean up will soon be upon us.  With that note made me think of getting my gutters cleaned from all the acorns that fell this fall, but I going to wait until cleaning the acorns until most of leaves have fallen.  I am not much on heights so one time over can only be a good thing.  Remember too, as you are on the roof, if you have a fireplace this would also be a good time to clean you chimney.

   Calendar!!

            September 25-29                     Bill, out of office
            November 16                           Farmer’s night out
            November 30                           Rancher’s night out
            November 30                           Cattle feedout entries delivered to L.R. Livestock  

524 4th Ave NE #5, 2nd Floor Ramsey County Courthouse
Devils Lake  ND  58301
701-662-7027
email - ramsey@ndsuext.nodak.edu

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