Wednesday we had our first frost. It was light, but still, did a number on the last of the pole beans and the tomatoes. And the sunflowers are all done, their big heads dipping down and breaking some of the stalks. They were just starting to look pretty sad, so we decided it was time to cut them all down, and save all the heads. We’re definitely going to save some of the seeds for planting, and the most of them are going for the birds this winter.

We had one of the Russian Mammoths that changed… it had a huge head on the top but it also had side flowers and branches off to the side that ended up with the black oil seed heads! Most unusual! The top head had the normal large striped seeds characteristic of the Russian Mammoth. We saved seeds from both flowers.

One of the heads measured 18 inches across!!! It was huge!!! It took us quite a while to cut all the heads and lay them out for drying, and then to pull all the stalks! Some of them were super tough and we had to just cut them off! The hammock makes for a perfect drying rack! It’s hard for the squirrels and birds to get to them… it rocks and they freak out and take off. I know it won’t take them too long to figure out that it’s just wobbley and safe enough. We had a long all night rain Thursday night, so I hope that they will dry out in the next few days! We’re supposed to get rain for a day or two… but then a few warm crisp fall days.