First Egg and Odds and Ends

Wednesday, October 5 and I finally have the nesting box mounted on the wall of the coop.  I know the chickens should start laying soon since they hatched on May 6th.  I've been thinking for weeks that I'd better get that box back on the wall!  Hoping to have the day to hike tomorrow, I hustled after work and got the box dusted off and hand screwed back on to the wall.  Dave sold the driver just a few days ago but a hand held screwdriver actually worked fine!  Some clean straw, three golf balls and one painted rock later and the box is ready.  I've had trouble in the past with chickens eating their eggs, such a bummer.  Fruitless, fake egg pecking seems to convince chickens that those oval objects in the box are not worth their attention. Hopefully I've gotten the box up and the deception planted in time.  I was done with my work in the coop by 6:30  but when I went to check on the brood and close the door at dark there wasn't one single chicken in the coop. WHAT?  OK Don't panic!  Where can they be? A couple hens had tried roosting in the nearby cedar tree a few times. They really do have personalities and go through rebellious stages... Sure enough all fifteen were comfortably roosting the cedar tree, ten feet from the coop but invisible as you walk by. I must have disrupted the roosting timing and tradition!  Actually, this is perfect!  I had also prepped the old coop for the the roosters as I had planned to separate them from the hens tonight.  One by one I gently "grabbed" them out of the cedar tree and either headed to the new or old coop.  They were extremely cooperative with just a little squawking as they were disrupted from the tree perch.  Now I feel ready!

The very next morning I found the first egg!  There has been one every day since.  Quite small but beautiful, perfect, brown eggs will now gather in bowls on my counter and fill cartons in the fridge as they wait their turn to be used for breakfast, lunch, dinner and treats.

My plan is to let each rooster spend a week with the hens.  They play favorites believe it or not!

The onions and potatoes sit in the garage on pallets while they dry.  As soon as the temperature drops to a reasonable fall degree and we have the time, we'll move them to the root cellar.  I just hope the onions dry enough so they will keep well throughout the winter.  The potato harvest was rather limited this year.  Is it the seed potatoes we used, the placement in the garden, the weather?  What?  They were weeded and hilled!  What should I do next year?  This gardening, harvesting and storage feels complicated when things don't go according to plan.  What should we do differently?

Winter squash, green tomatoes and a few red tomatoes await their storage or use.  The cider apples are closest to the garage door as we keep adding to their numbers with every chance we get.  Our next pressing will be on the 22nd.  But then there is another baby coming.  Will I be home on the 22nd!  This new
grand-baby could arrive any time now.  Time will tell!




My carrot harvest.  Well, carrots ideally should be slender and tapered, easy to dig, clean and store.  These are a few of my favorite carrots although they do not meet any of the above requirements.  I was able to "sand pack" a few boxes of carrots but not near enough to make it through the winter so my carrot harvest is a bit of a disappointment. Even so, it is a wonderful feeling to have all the carrots dug and dealt with, whether they are packed in sand, cleaned and in the fridge, cleaned and cut for horse treats or composted!  I've dug carrots in the cold with gloves on and in the cold rain with wet muddy gloves and a hat on and this was much better with the sun warm on my back and the calm, bug free, autumn  breeze. Aren't they cute?