How about a look at how things are today? Remember those little chicks that Edwina hatched out? Here they are... well, most of them. Some of these are from another little hen that hatched out chicks at about the same time. I ended up selling Edwina and four of her chicks, as well as another one of my young laying hens, to a gal that works at our vet's office. She had an "incident" at her place, and was looking to replace her flock. She was quite happy with her new ladies and babies. The biggest brown chick in the middle of the bunch is actually one of the chicks that was hatched down at the barn by John's Chicken -- she's the one as a newly hatched chick that spent the night in the house for a little TLC before she rejoined John's Chicken and her siblings. Something slowly picked off John's Chicken and BBC's chicks while they ran around the farm with their parents (sad), and now there are only 5 left. Four little roosters, and this little brown pullet. I didn't want the pullet to disappear, so I nabbed her one night from their roost and introduced her to the little flock of chicks in the chicken coop. She fit right in. Her four little rooster brothers still free range 100% of the time with Buddy Boy, Admiral, John's Chicken, and BBC.
You can see that some of the chicks are frizzles -- I LOVE LOVE LOVE their crazy feathers!!! I have 10 chicks in the coop that are much younger than these birds, and they're ALL frizzled! Every single one!! Very exciting! *grin*
This is Rowdy, another one of the chicks. I think his mother is Cottonelle, though she didn't hatch him (another hen incubated a nest of eggs from several hens), and his father seems to have been Uncle Sam. He has wild markings on his feathers like Uncle Sam has.
He's a feisty little thing, but every day he tells me he needs to be held and have his chin rubbed. He loves to sit on my knee while I sit and watch the other chicks enjoy their snacks.
Normally I take photos around the farm in the evening, but today I took photos just after 8:00am. This bed of beans, cucumbers, gourds, butternut squash and a couple of mammoth sunflowers is really filling in! Some of the bean plants have started to put on little purple blooms, the butternut squash plant has several squash already about 3" long, and I even have a couple of gourds on a vine! All very exciting! The tomato plants there on the right have just about had it ... not too much longer and I will be pulling them from their containers and finding something else to plant in their place.
The squash pit has completely overgrown the raised bed they're planted in. That stake you see above is one of the corners on the bed... you can see just how much they've taken to leaning out of the bed.
There is a container that one of the cantaloupe plants is planted in where I am watering at the corner of the raised bed. The shade provided by the other squash plants really seems to suite the cantaloupe just fine. It's looking healthier than ever, and there are several melons forming on each vine.
This morning while I was watering, I found THIS! This is an exciting little find -- this is one of the plants that Alan wanted me to grow. The squash of this plant look a bit like a UFO, and he thought that would be a fun addition to the garden, and our dinner plate. I agree! You can see a second one a bit farther back in the photo, too! These are going to be dee-lish!
I have a pickling cucumber plant NEAR the chicken yard. It sent out a long branch, grabbed onto a sunflower, then reached even farther and reached through the chicken yard fence (too high for the chickens to reach it). It is flowering, and even producing pickles -- all inside the chicken yard! Crazy plant ... I have redirected the end of the branch back through the fence so it continues to grow on the "right" side of the chicken yard. I can just see those silly hens, stacking themselves up one on top of the other, just to get high enough to reach the delicious pickle. Too late, ladies ... I picked it this morning, and it will be a jar of pickles before day's end.
The crookneck and yellow zucchini plants are LOADED with blooms and squash. We had a squash from this plant for dinner earlier this week, and it was deeee-lish!
This plant is producing flowers in over-drive, I think! It's keeping the bumble bees busy, that's for sure.
The corn (behind the squash pit) has grown so much in the past week. It's well above the corner posts on the raised beds, and many of the stalks are putting tassels up. We'll see if we actually get any ears of corn, or if I'm just growing perfect Autumn/Halloween decor for the front of the house! Hopefully, both!
The grasshoppers are out of control this year... I've never seen so many! They're doing a fair amount of damage to the plants, so I hand pick them off of the plants when I can. It's kind of creepy grabbing them bare handed, so I wear a glove and then it doesn't bother me at all. This guy got away from me though.... better luck next time. He'll make a fine snack for one lucky hen!
The potted zinnia is looking a little better. I thought it was just going to up and die on me. Seemed no matter where I put it, or how much care I gave it, in the evenings it was just a wilted up mess. Now it's putting on new blooms, and looks like it might actually keep blooming for a while. The lavender plant is filling in nicely, too.
On the other side of the farm, Callio-Pea begged for treats. I think Bad
Boxcar Betty knew I didn't have any, because she didn't even bother to
come say hi.
"Do you have treats in your pockets? Can I have one? Can I have some?"
"Please please please, I won't tell Betty!"
"PLEEEAAASSSEEEEE, can I have a snack?"
"You really don't have any snacks in your pockets... I'm a sad goat..."
"Fine... I'll just eat your flowers."
