Goodbye Summer.

This is it, the first frost comes tonight. Bummer. I was really hoping to get some tomatoes this year, no such luck. Last year, I did the blanket dance, covering the beds every night. It wasn`t worth it, I didnt get any more produce, not a thing. I think perhaps I`ll just dig up the tomatoes and take them into the barn, see if they`ll ripen in there. I read that it works. After that, I`m just going to dig it all up, dump some poo on it and not think about it until February when the seed catalogs come. By then, I`ll be over my disappointment and ready to giver another go.

The goat fence needs to be built, the swing set finished and the chicken coop winterized. Lots to do.

Much anticipated hatch produces dismal results X2

The 'bator fiasco of ought-9, I'm calling it.

The June hatch resulted in three (!!!) live chicks. All of which are from Mona, my black tailless
Araucana. Great for her little fecund self, but I had paid cash money for breeders eggs as well, none of which lived. The blame for this disappointment is placed on our ridiculous weather, mucho mucho rainage. High humidity does not bode well for hatching chicks. My three little survivors are now 6 weeks old, 1 (!!!) girl, 2 boys.

As I type, I have a peeping 'bator. Despite many operational flubs and lack of commitment to the project (the necessary manual turning of eggs was at an all time low), we managed to get living chick (s?) So far, no ducks. In fact, out of 12 duck eggs, only 2 remain at this stage. All the rest were removed for lack of progress or scary black sludgeness.

I think a silky hen will be acquired this coming Spring.
(Silkies are renown for their egg hatching prowess)