Enjoying Fall and Preparing for Winter

September 30, 2018

I have spent the last week enjoying "Fall". It is chilly in the morning but afternoons are nice.
I have bottles 10 quarts of assorted Crab Apple Juices. It is kind of fun, they are Pink.
I started what I hope will be two large bottles of Apple Cider Vinegar. I have long read about making your own and now have apples to spare to try it.
I have a large box of Apples to use, waiting for me in the Shop, and more crab apples on the trees.
My super wonderful brother fixed my dehydrator yesterday so I hope to dry some apples in the coming weeks.

Yesterday we spent the day Preparing for winter.
My Sweetheart chopped more wood and put the last piece of tin on the Main coop.
In the past week my super talented brother made me a brooding coop, for the hoped for brooding chicken to raise babies in the spring.
My younger children and I cleaned up fallen apples. (I am hoping in future years to have a winter pig to feed the fallen apples too. Would that make Apple bacon? Just kidding:)
It just felt like a super productive day, finishing off little things left over from summer and preparing for cooler weather to come.

As I watch potato harvest in full swing, I am hoping we can find a farmer around who will let us glean a few potatoes from their field after they are done harvesting.

Today at church I got to be part of a lesson. My part was on the Sabbath. I related the Sabbath to Celebrating Christmas and suggested that maybe we could "Celebrate the Sabbath".
Things like on Christmas we have special foods, on the Sabbath we partake of the Sacrament, but might also choose to have special meals...
On Christmas we might have special PJ's or Sweaters, on the Sabbath we might have "Sunday Best" clothes. In Sacrament meeting today one of the young men who spoke talked about maybe wearing our Sunday clothes all day to help remind us of the day.
We prepare well in advance for Christmas, maybe we should prepare ahead for the Sabbath, at least on Saturday, and maybe starting Monday Morning, or even Sunday afternoon for the next Sabbath.
We have special traditions and things we do for Christmas, perhaps we should develop special Sunday traditions.
We Celebrate Christmas to show love for our Savior and our family, shouldn't we Celebrate the Sabbath for the same reasons?
On Christmas we exchange gifts. There are gifts of the Sabbath, ones we can give to our Lord and ones He offers us.
It was really good for me to have time these past weeks to think about these things. Now I need to figure out how to apply them in my home, family and my personal life...

Easter Egg hunting

September 18, 2018

When we got our first chickens we had a few issues with getting some to lay in the nesting boxes. The Buff Orphington especially liked to lay hers in the field. We thought that was solved but a couple days ago I caught her trying to make a nest in our hay shed. Today the Rooster crowed right by the shed then the same chicken came out of the shed, on a hunch I checked, yep, she laid her egg there. Silly chicken!
We might have to keep them locked in their area until noonish to see if that helps make sure she lays in the coop.

5 Seasons

September 16, 2018

We all know there are 4 Seasons: Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall

At times Idaho seems to have 3 seasons: Winter, Spring, Fall. 

Some years Summer seems to be missed.

It seems that our small town might have 5 seasons: 

Winter, Spring, Summer, Dust, Fall

The farmer who owns the field behind us said he burns his field about every third year. 

 He kindly warned us the day he was going to burn the field,

 so we could close the windows to keep the smoke out.

We did not expect that a week or so later,

 the wind picked up all that ash and deposited a bunch on our property. 

Sadly I did not expect that, and a fair amount came in,

 before I got the windows shut. 

Even with the windows shut, 

every time the door opened, 

 we got another layer on the kitchen counter.

I spent the week cleaning up the ash.

Saturday thought I had finally gotten most of it cleaned up...

Saturday afternoon had wind advisories, and we got another layer of dust, 

thankfully, mostly minus most the ash that was deposited the previous week. 

Also a little wiser we shut the windows quickly,

 and minimized the dirt coming in.

I think this year more than most, 

I will be looking forward to snow, to hold down that dirt :)

Good bugs

September 14, 2018
Our youngest child has long loved Ladybugs and often tells people as they leave not to step on any ladybugs or rolly-pollies. We have an abundance of lady bugs, much to her delight.
Our chickens love to eat grasshoppers and crickets. We have plenty of them too, one of our sons and our youngest child like to catch them to feed the chickens.
Lately we have seen several Praying Mantis, both green ones and brown ones.

In other adventure

Our youngest has a grand time catching chickens. 

She loves collecting eggs and checks several times a day for them.

She keeps as apprised as to who the Rooster has mated with. 

(I did not think about the fact that having animals would be teaching this to her:)

Yesterday she was super excited when she got a very shy chicken to eat from her hand.

Our children were upset when I mentioned that the one that is still lacking a significant number of feather is in danger of freezing come winter and it might be a good idea to have her butchered. 

She is the ugliest, yet favored chicken because of her personality.

Two of our daughters decided she just needs a sweater for the winter with a neck scarf...

(It is really a thing, look it up online)

They tried taking a sock and cutting the end off to cover her neck.

It did not go well. They got it on alright but it is not tight enough to stay up.

I am interested to see what they try next.

The chicken have been allowed to free range some.

The Rooster and the youngest chicken (Malibu), 

(My sweetheart says she has a teenage crush on him) 

were adventuring together and tried to check out the shop. 

They were not happy when I shewed them out.

It did feel a little like chaperoning a dance, 

and having to find those sneaking off by themselves.

My poor sweetheart was not happy when Crazy Malibu,

 somehow got herself lost on the far side of the fence,

 and was running herself into the fence trying to get back in. 

He had to go around through thistles to try to chase her back to the gate.

Sadly he was wearing flip-flops at the time 

and did not think to come back to swap shoes until it was too late.

I was not thrilled when the chickens discovered my little garden,

 and helped themselves to some tomatoes. 

Thankfully, I have enough for us to eat and to share,

 and don't expect enough to can this year.

We have a series of compost piles we have been running this summer

 to kill off weeks under

 and to build up some good soil to go in raised beds for next year.

The chickens decided to help us turn them 

and dug in them so much,

they flattened them all out.

We were kind of confused at first as to how the piles got so flat, 

until we let the chickens out 

and they headed over and started digging there again.

It is fun to see what they get into and see their personalities.