I’m Too Sexy For My Feathers

I’ve become like a crazy cat lady, except for I’m a crazy turkey lady. I stand in the poultry pen and talk to Charlie, and tell him to show me what he’s got. And he does. So fun.

And every night, we find him perched on this post in the poultry yard, and tuck him under our arm like a football and put him in the hen house. That’s going to get harder to do when he weighs 20 or 30 lbs.

The rooster meat is in the freezer. Came to about 22 lbs all together. And yesterday, after getting 6 or 7 eggs a day from 14 layers for about a week, I got 11 eggs. I think the hens appreciate that the poultry yard is less insane with run amuck roosters.

These are the two roosters that were spared the freezer. No names yet. I’m open to suggestions. Got to say, they are pretty darned happy too (30 hens, two roosters – you do the math).

The summer garden is coming on strong. I’m growing a few things this year that I’ve never been able to grow before, due to a short growing season. So I have Moon and Stars Watermelon and Hannah’s Choice Muskmellon.

The rainbow Swiss Chard is still hanging in there. Not wildly popular at the farmers market but I sell a few bunches every week.
Cherry tomatoes are starting to come on strong. I grew Sungold for the first time this year, and they are indeed the sweetest cherry tomato I’ve ever had. These are Sweet Million.

Scarlet runner beans have reached the top of the old ladder trellis, and are reaching for the sky. Not a lot of actual beans on these, which is weird, as usually they set a ton.
This is an ornamental amaranth called “love-lies-bleeding”. I got the wild idea to trial a bunch of flowers that would look good dried this year. This one reminds me of dreadlocks.
The sunflowers are really coming on. Happy bees now. Happy birds later.
This was taken about 200 yards from my house.
The chokecherries along the creek behind our place (we know the owner – who’s put in a bunch of wildlife and conservation plants along the creek) are just getting ripe. It’s been a few years since I’ve been able to make chokecherry syrup or jam, so I’ll be out picking tonight.
Mill Creek, in more of its wild state. Its been forced into a cement channel for flood control through town. We were walking along the channel the other day, and I actually called out “oh, Mill Creek, we’re so so sorry”.
Miles Away Farm Blog © 2012, where we’re grateful for a long hot summer, so that we can really appreciate the fall. It’s been a long time since I felt like a summer was long enough.