Pollito

Call me crazy (CRAZY!!!), but we decided to try raising chickens this year. Actually, we decided to pay for some chicks, contribute to the feed, share the chores, and raise some chickens at our friends' house 30 minutes south of us. They have a coop and offered the space. I thought that it was a good way to try out chickens--see what their actual cost was, how much effort was involved (like I really know), and see if there was a real difference. We purchased 8 Cornish X Rocks (the mutant meat birds) and 4 Delawares (an heirloom dual purpose bird).

They arrived smaller than this, but quickly grew--especially the X Rocks. When we headed out to see them, S thought they were great. All 12 chickens were quickly named: "Peter Pan" and "Robin Hood." (Yep. Even the girls.)

They were cute, but this is what I've learned so far.

1. I don't like Cornish X Rocks. They are a mutant bird. They grow too quickly and their bodies can't really keep up with it. I know they make for a lot of meat quickly, but a bird that can't forage for itself is not a bird that I want to raise. If we do this again, I won't get these.

2. I can't really judge this experiment accurately because I am not really doing any of the work. I mean, yes, I helped prep the coop and stuff, and I'm contributing on the food and figuring out about processing, but with the birds 30 minutes away, it is really hard to feel like they are here and mine.

3. Birds die. I knew this going in to the experiment, but I figured that it would happen later on. I actually think my friend didn't really anticipate having an extra 26 birds (two friends' families with at least 12 birds each). As the birds were younger, the birds outgrew their space too quickly, leading to some possibly avoidable deaths. One of our Delawares died (drowning?), and a number of the X Rocks just died (smothered or their bodies gave out--remember they aren't natural). I feel like this is out of my control, so I can't say anything.

4. 30 minutes is farther than I think. Especially when I don't want to just show up at someone's home and hope it is okay to play with the chickens. If it were at a more neutral place, we might make it down more often, but as it is. We haven't made it down much at all.

This said, I need to contact my friend to make sure the boys and I can make a visit down to see the chickens. She has said that the male chickens--pre-pubescent roosters--have started strutting around as if they were the be all and end all.

It's Autumn-time, It's Autumn-time . . .

. . . the leaves are falling down.

It's Autumn-time, It's Autumn-time,

It's all around the town.

Well, autumn has finally arrived here, and with it come the joys of putting up what we have grown this year. I've been wicked busy freezing beans and tomatoes, canning tomatoes and apples, and prepping the yard for the winter and coming spring. My compost pile abounds with tomato skins and pulp, apple skins and cores, and the ends of beans. (And I still have tomatoes and beans on the vines.)

To celebrate, we went apple picking as a family. This time, since my dear husband was with us, we were more adventurous and strayed over huge portions of the orchard. We climbed the Empire tree to pick some apples, tasted Matsu for the first time, and filled two bags. With the three bags of Romes my mom brought from Utah, I've been busy.

Climbing trees

Me too

Searching for our apples

F-- picks

R-- and A-- pick

S-- picks

As we checked out the boys found a hay wagon to play on.

Moo-ve Over

We visited a dairy farm the other day. I've been wanting to go for about 6 months, but kept putting it off until finally we made it there. It was a great trip. The farm is family run, and they started bottling their own milk about a year ago. Since it is family run, they were so excited to have the children there and to let them be children. The children got to spray the hoses in the milking parlor, go out to meet the cows as they came in, get their shoes sprayed with milk, feed the goats, pet the calves, etc. Carmen, who led our tour, also let them go at their own pace, moving the ice cream cones to the middle of the tour, and pausing at the swing set for a while as well. She loved that S--was so curious of everything.



F-- got terrified by a tractor near the beginning (I don't think he'd realized how loud tractors could be), and anytime we were outside near the milking parlor, he would cry, "I scared, Mama," and climb into my arms. It was a little hard because I was carrying A-- as well.

The greatest thing was we paid $2.50 for fresh milk, picked up some fresh ice cream, thought about getting some fresh meat, and planned a return trip for a Farmer's Breakfast. All in all, it was great fun!