The Almost Monthly Egg Report

"The year's in the wane;
There is nothing adoring;
The night has no eve,
And the day has no morning;
Cold winter gives warning! "
- Hood


"O, it sets my heart a clickin'
like the tickin' of a clock,
When the frost is on the punkin
And the fodder's in the shock."
-Riley

Where did the last four and a half months go? They were a flash and a blur. When I close my eyes, it is like time-lapse photography seeing the garden go from bare brown beds, to fresh, delicate baby shoots and seedlings, to lush midsummer rampant growth to wilting, withered, drooping leaves back to bare brown beds once again. The baby Buff Orpingtons are all grown up, big and beautifully golden and laying lovely eggs. Of the original roving flock of two turkeys, one goose and seven ducks, we have three Survivors: one turkey, one goose and one duck. They are quite a crew, and the goose now seems to think that she is the mayor of the farmyard, loudly honking at anyone who passes by. Two batches of meat chickens were raised in the chicken tractor. In late July a second batch of turkey chicks arrived - Narragansetts. They moved into the chicken tractor after the meat birds met their maker. All was going delightfully well until.....yet another predator strike in which a raccoon decimated nine of them. Oh, weh. Had fun selling vegetables and our naturally dyed wool fleece at the Falmouth and Cumberland Farmers' Markets. Learned large amounts of what NOT to do next year and plenty of what TO do. The sheep are still out on the pasture - probably for another two to three weeks at the most. The garlic has been planted and most of the beds composted and spaded.
All is well in the autumn of this year.