Friday Favorite: Fun with Family
In case you’ve noticed, I haven’t been posting this week. That’s because my sister made the trip up to Maine with the nieces & nephew. We’ve been visiting lighthouses, seeing the sights, and eating all the good things Maine has to offer.
What fun things have you been doing this fall?
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Babies, Babies, Everywhere
Each summer I try to only let one variety of fowl hatch out little ones. This year, I had a turkey mama that hid a nest in the woods until it was too late to break her off. Luckily she wasn’t sitting on very many eggs. She hatched out 6 turkey cutlets, there are four that have survived (two were nabbed by a raccoon one night).
Earlier in the summer we let two different muscovies sit on a few eggs each. We ended up with eight ducklings in two different clutches, they’re almost adults now and the same size as the adult ducks in the flock. Since the turkeys and ducks more than doubled the amount of birds we had in the coop, it seems like there are birds everywhere.
Add to these the 25 chicks that are now miniature chickens and we have quick the flock living in the one of the coops. All these birds are very entertaining and provide fertilizer for the garden, eggs for our table, and entertainment for us.
What new life are you enjoying this summer/fall?
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Friday Favorite: The Old Sugar Maple
We have an old sugar maple across the driveway, no doubt it was tapped for syrup by the original homesteaders back in the late 1890’s. It’s huge, it provides us with lots of maple syrup, and it’s a stunner in the fall. The other day, we had a storm roll through right at sunset. As it moved through and the skies cleared, the golden sun was highlighting the tree.
It was a fleeting moment, it was only highlighted for a few moments before it was gone. I’m glad I got a photo of the wonderful moment.
What are you enjoying this season?
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All Grown Up (well, mostly)
The tiny little chickies that I got from Murray McMurray back at the end of August are pretty much all grown up. Typically I let one of my broody hens hatch out little ones, but I’ve been wanting to add a wide variety of colorful eggs to my egg cartons. The folks that buy the eggs get all excited about the colorful batches. For a while I had a nice selection of olive and blue eggs, but those chickens have all gotten too old to lay or have been nabbed by predators.
Since chickens don’t start laying eggs until they’re 3-4 months old, I decided to get chicks in the fall so they can start laying straight away next spring. Most chickens don’t lay very well during the winter months when light levels fall below 12 hours of daylight.
These little nuggets hatched on August 26th, they’re just over 6 weeks old, still months away from laying, but they should be just maturing to kick off late winter laying in style.
For my selection, I ordered: Whiting True Blue (blue eggs), Whiting True Green (green eggs), Black Star (brown eggs), Single Comb Brown Leghorns (white eggs), and Black Andalusians (white eggs). I will still add a few red production hens to the mix next year, they are great layers of brown eggs and lay better through the winter than many of these other breeds. It’s always a challenge to try to have hens producing eggs throughout the year in the quantities needed for the egg customers and for our household.
Do you purchase eggs from a local source? Any colored ones in the batches?
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Fall Beauties
The New England asters are really putting on a show this year and the pollinators are loving them. I’m not a huge fan of these flowers in a border, but in native areas around the gardens I find them quite attractive. For me, they’re a bit floppy and weedy looking in the border.
I like that they come in varying shades of purple, lavender, and pink. This time of year they provide a burst of much needed color right before the landscape becomes dominated by brown.
What are loving in the fall garden?
