I’m honestly not sure where August and September when. One minute, I’m helping Little Dude with his 4-H projects and the next minute, school is starting, then both my children had their sport seasons start AND the garden started booming.
These pictures are from last week. The green beans are still flowering and still producing. The carrots are doing well, too. I’ve been slowly harvesting them, cutting into cubes and freezing for soups and stuff over the winter.
The cabbages did well. I harvested, and discovered that if I left the plant in the ground rather than did the roots up, they will start growing a new head. I don’t think any of them will be big enough to harvest before frost, but the chickens might enjoy them?
I had decent luck with the broccoli, too. I need to check them again, but I suspect they will slow down eventually.
I’m waiting to harvest the potatoes and sweet potato. Also, the brussel sprouts, which I’m not sure what to do with. I’ll probably Youtube “how to harvest brussells sprouts” soon.
Over all, I’m very proud of my experimental garden. I’m already planning for next year.
Dad’s tomatoes, though… those things were the best. So far, we’ve done over 30 quarts of whole tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, home made ketchup (first time ever), salsa, chili and home made tomato soup (also a first time ever). The soup and ketchup were my idea and I can just say — yum!!!
And, of course, since this is my ‘chicken blog’ I have to talk about the chickens. 🙂
I have a lot of videos and kooky pics up on my Instagram.
The older ladies and Dots are all in various stages of molting. Some of them look rougher than others. Some of them (Abby, for example) barely looking like they’ve lost any feathers at all. But the over abundance of feathers everywhere is a testament that they are molting.
When does this end? Winter is fast approaching and I’m looking at my semi-balding birds and thinking “they will freeze!” And “I can’t knit so so no chicken sweaters!” Especially not for 30+ birds.
Actually, I am NOT an advocate of chicken sweaters. They are bad for our birds. Cute, but bad. Just say no. Okay?
All the babies are getting bigger.
Dani and Eugenie.
Pavel or… Pavelle … or who, I have been assured by someone on Instagram is, in fact, a pretty little girl. 🙂 She’s sweet and intelligent and loves to ride on my shoulder and ‘talk’ to me.
“Esther” who is NOT a girl, but a handsome little cockerel. I’m torn between renaming him Eddie or simply shortening Esther to Es.
I’m in the process of negotiating with my DH to let me keep him, along with Dots and Pip. We have enough hens to justify three roosters and Esther is the low boy on the totem pole. He might fit in just fine. Plus,I read somewhere that an Easter Egger + a brown-egg layer will produce Olive egg layers. IF Es were to mate and I were to hatch those babies, I could potential have olive green eggs some day?
DH is thinking about it. He wants Easter Eggers. Es is our only survivor. It could happen.
The Sulmtaler Brothers. I call them Sumi and Taller. I shouldn’t name them. If I can’t sell them, they are off to Freezer Camp by the end of November. But they’re so cute. And Sumi crows better than Dani does!
The chocolate orps (whom I have no pictures of because they won’t hold still for me) are boy & girl. The little roo, I call Snickers. He’s cocky and I think he’s been trying to establish dominance over Sumi. They’ve been squabbling. He also tried to mate with an Australorp yesterday. I wish I’d gotten a video of that because she went off on him, claws up and everything. All the rest of my hens are pretty docile so I’ve never seen that happen before.
The hen is Hershey. She is sweet, but standoff-ish. She likes her privacy.
As the instagram caption says, Stacey as has been acting weird. She paces the coop ALL DAY. Always. It looks like she’s looking for a nest box, but she never gets in one. I don’t know what’s actually going on and Google is not my friend.
This is Ashley. Aka Ashe… some of you may remember Ashe was the little Australorp who kept the injured Baby company when they were chicks. She is going to be a momma in about 2 1/2 weeks. 🙂 It will probably be my last Broody of the year, as winter is approaching.
There a Chick 
Your chickens are looking great! I need to go check out your instragram. 🙂 You should definitely keep your Es rooster, he’s very handsome! And you are correct: A brown layer (or boy) with a easter egger rooster (or hen – supposedly you can breed them either way) will produce an olive egger. And they will love mini cabbages. 😀
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Welcome back! I’ve been wondering where all the updates have been! I can’t believe they are all grown up now. I’m impressed with all your canning and tomato making produce! I got lazy this summer and ended up freezing all my Roma tomatoes whole and will use them this winter for soups and chili. We have tons of brussel sprouts and are waiting for a first frost to harvest them. In theory they are better tasting if you let them go through a frost before harvesting. My husband loves harvesting them, he cuts the stalk at the base and brings them to the porch and pulls those little suckers of into buckets. Most of them I blanch and freeze for the winter!
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I was wondering how to do the Brussels, so thanks!! We haven’t had the first frost yet so I will keep waiting! 🙂
It’s just been busy here. I don’t think I’ve too many days where I could sit and type a whole post. I did notice this morning that I can send individual pictures to my WordPress via my phone, as a draft. So I could do that, too. I always have my phone.
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Poor Stacey. She looks like my husband when he can’t find his car keys! Pavelle is pretty. what breed is she?
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I wish I knew what Stacey’s issue was. She paces all day long, only goes outside for a few minutes and goes right back to pacing. It’s very perplexing. I feel like it could cause her health to diminish if she isn’t eating or getting sunlight and fresh air.
Pavelle is a Pavlovskaya. She’s my favorite chick out of Abby’s hatch. I think she’s precious. 🙂
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Yay, you’re back! I was wondering how everything was going. The chickens are all looking great in their own individual ways, but that Pavel is just the cutest thing! She reminds me of a wee Sesame Street character. 🙂 I hope you can keep Es too. The next generation depends on him! 😉 After reading your latest post I do wonder if Stacey is your egg eater. She is definitely looking for something…
It’s great having your own veges to eat and process, isn’t it? You have been busy!
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I think Stacey is the egg eater, too. It’s the only answer that makes sense out of what she’s doing. Pacing, searching almost. Or else waiting for girls to leave the nest after laying an egg.
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I hope I can keep Es, too. He did say that if they weren’t big enough to send to Freezer Camp by the time snow flies, we’d have to winter over, and if Es makes it through the winter without disrupting The balance between Dots and Pip, then I think it could work.
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