Fall is Coming

Black Gold!  I live in a place where there is no dirt.  If you live in southern Minnesota or anywhere in Iowa you can't imagine a place where there is no dirt.  Well,  northeastern Minnesota is a place with no black dirt.  If we want dirt here we have to haul it in, pay dearly for someone else to haul it in, or make our own.  This is the manure from last winter plus water plus tilling and plus a little time to compost into fertile black earth.  With this we grow veggie, herb and flower gardens, apple trees and berries. 

 We are about to make salsa with our ripe cherry tomatoes.  This one is in a pot just outside the front door. Up here, seeing red, ripe tomatoes is like seeing stars!

In just a few years we'll be able to harvest a few more of our own apples.  This spring we put in a Haralred, a Honeycrisp and a Prairie Magic.  The Haralson we planted in 1991 needed some company.

This was the off year for the Haralson and total harvest won't be much more than these.

The pumpkin is orange!

Those meat birds are growing but their number has been reduced by one.  After a night of rain the "tractor" wood was heavy and the tarp roof had enough standing water to make lifting the thing a bit more than I could manage.  And yes I was in a bit of a hurry as I was on my way to work.  After setting, well, dropping the tractor down and pushing the water off, I saw the poor bird under the frame.  Her back was broken but she wasn't dead.  I can't really describe how distraught I felt.  These are chickens raised to be our winter food, but I weep at some point every time we butcher.  I called Dave in tears, I just couldn't figure out what to do.  Yes, the right thing to do was ring her neck and put her out of her misery.  Oh, aw, a tough way to begin the day.

 

The layer flock is getting to that teenage stage.  The roosters are crowing early in the morning and throughout the day.  The pecking order is interesting to observe but since they look so similar I can't really tell who's at the top or the bottom.  One hen has an odd comb and may have to be culled and I'm not sure I'll keep all three roosters. I have dreams of managing my own breeding flock and I have tried off and on for years with very little success, but maybe this time.

We did not waste the lovely chicken I killed that morning.  Dave made excellent stir fry and we saved the legs for winter soup