Wow, has it really been six weeks since I updated the blog? Gee, time sure does fly when you have hens layin’ and a garden bubbling over! I can’t believe we’re already heading into the Halloween season. Didn’t I just post about spring gardening stuff??
Let’s start with some quick updates…
The garage-turned-barn project – It’s going to take more than we thought to convert the garage over completely. Starting with the front wall – it’s nowhere near hoofproof. The normally-would-be-fine 2×4 stud wall just would never hold up to a few good kicks from a bored draft pony or an irritated don’t-you-have-a-clue-what-you’re-doing milk cow. So until Spring, the chickens have taken over the barn. We have nesting boxes mounted on the wall, but the girls seem to all favor just one or two nests. They have run of the yard during the day, but get closed into the garage-turned-henhouse-til-Spring in the evenings.
The Great Chicken Adventure – We lost a hen last week to a overzealous puppy. Chasing is soooo much fun to a young dog, but what do you do when you finally catch one of those birds? Well, you try to play with it and when it stops playing, there’s always eating it to fall back on. *shudder* Not a fun morning. As for our final head count, turns out we have four roosters in our midst…can you say bar-b-que? 
The remaining five hens have all started laying, although one or two of them aren’t consistent yet. Last week, we were averaging three eggs a day. This week we’re up to four. I haven’t bought eggs in a month & have sent a few over to my inlaws. I’m lovin’ having farm fresh stuffs…it’s so damn cool.
The garden – Our early summer cucumbers are producing more now, even with wilting vines and browning leaves, than they did during the summer. The new fall vines are working their way up the fenceline. The sugar snap peas have barely reached halfway up the little climbing fence we made for them (less than 3 feet tall) but they’re poppin’ out hulls all over the place. The limas are eeking out a little here and there. I had planned on pulling up the watermelon vines to make way for lettuces and such, until I went outside a week ago to find a half dozen watermelons slowly plumping up. Guess we’ll leave those a little longer. The fall corn is about 3 feet high and sprouting those little brown cat tail-ish tops.
Funny thing with the garden? I haven’t been able to bring in the first pea, cucumber, bean…or anything else for that matter in weeks. Josh keeps walking by me, mumbling something about having the munchies, and next thing you know? Everything in the garden is picked clean! He stands in the middle of the garden munching out on anything even close to being ripe. He does it every morning. I may not have anything to cook or can, but at least I know my boy’s eatin’ good, even if he doesn’t save anything for the rest of us.
We have a variety of other little projects moving along…working on the wiring for my office, fixing little odds and ends that bust before I can get to this project or that, and testing out ideas for other projects. Josh and Mike are itching to get started on wood splitting chores for the winter. Josh fired up the bench grinder and sharpened everything with a hint of an edge on it. He’s wanting to chop stuff, just so he can have something else to sharpen. Who woulda thought a Porter Cable bench grinder would be the perfect Christmas gift for a 16 year old? But Mom & Dad sure hit the mark with that one last year!
I leave for the first leg of my New York trip in just a few days. Going to see the oldest for a week, then back again in a few weeks after the grandbaby’s born. After three granddaughters in three years, I’m ready to buy some cute little baby boy stuff. Korbyn William Alan Conger is due the middle of October…and all us grandmas and great grandmas are getting excited!!
With chicken chores, attempting to beat a teenager to the garden so I can actually harvest something, trips to New York, and everything else going on in the next few weeks, I don’t expect to have much time for the farm blog. However, I’ll post as soon as I get out from under, well, a few things…something…anything. I’d really like to finish SOMETHING this month.
If we don’t see you before then, enjoy your Halloween or Fall Festival – whichever suits your fancy!