Halloween is by far my favorite time of year. Even though the kids have grown, and there is not yet a grandchild in sight, I still get to dress up every year.
This year we volunteered to help out at the childrens party at the library. Also, we brought our cider press to the PTO event at the school.
At the library party, I was dressed as a 1980’s rocker. Leopard print pants and all. One girl kept looking at me. I asked her why she was staring at me. In a puzzled look she said, ” I don’t know what you are suppose to be”. I had to laugh. I at first told her Pat Benetar, but that didn’t mean anything to her. I then told her a 1980’s rock star, and she said ” oh, I get it now,”. Her mother and I both chuckled. Her mother was about 10 years younger than I, so while I was having my night club adventures, she was having her high school adventures.
At the PTO event, I dressed as a ghostly witch. While most loved it, I actually scared many a little child in Effingham.
This morning, we drove to the Somersworth area to pick up some raspberry bushes. We found them listed on craigslist, and we had been wanting to add some fruit trees to our farm. Thanks to Jerry, we now have a few raspberry bushes. These will be a nice addition to our life of self sufficiency. We can make pies, jams, jellies, and syrups. Plus, we can freeze some to have all next winter. There were some berries still on the bush, and they are delicous. Oh, how wonderful they will taste next summer.
Yes, George is a lucky rooster. He now has two hens to himself. We want to mate him with a white leghorn. When you mate an Araucana with a White Leghorn, their chicks produce pink eggs. So George and Henrietta’s children will produce pink eggs. Hopefully, this will happen in time for Easter. By then, we will have brown eggs, white eggs, and green eggs. The pink eggs will be a nice edition just in time for the Easter holiday. With Mother Nature working with us, we will have chicks as well.
Today, we acquired a beautiful Araucana rooster from a family that couldn’t keep him any longer. His name is George.
After letting George roam the pen by himself for a bit and get use to the place, we introduced him to Penelope. He fell in love instantly. He chased her around the coop, and he danced around her like a teenager in love. The next thing you know they were married, and planning a family together. It was actually kind of funny to watch them, and listen to them talk to each other. They cackled for hours.
Today, we expect to receive our new flock of baby chicks. We ordered 25 NH Reds from Murray McMurray hatchery a couple months ago. Plus, we get a “free rare exotic chick”. We can’t wait to see what that one is. It seems like we have been waiting forever for them to arrive. This will give us one rooster and 49 hens. By March, we should get around 50 eggs a day. By then, we will also have out goat, and possibly a pig or two. In spring, we will add to our flock to have a fresh supply of free range organic eggs, as well as the meat. We will not only sell the eggs, but the organic chicken by the pound.
I know it sounds silly to most, but we were so excited when I went into the coop and discovered this beautiful white egg. I had been looking daily for so long, I had wondered if it was a fake.
I know it is only an egg, but we are proud to be “grandparents”.
Tonight is the first night that we are expecting a frost. We knew it was coming, but we were hoping to get at least another week out of the season.
We now have 60 pounds of green tomatoes! So, I guess I know what I will be doing tomorrow. Yes, green tomato chutney, green tomato relish, green tomato cake, green tomato jam, and any other recipe I can come up with. Plus, I have about 20 pounds or more of red tomatoes that I will be making into tomato sauce.
We also picked the sweet potatoes as well. This was our first year with sweet potatoes. We didn’t get as much as we were expecting. We are not sure if it is the variety that we planted, or the soil we planted in. This will be one of the winter projects we learn about.
The gardens are starting to wind down. I am glad in a way, but sad in others. It will give me a chance to get some other projects done. It gives me time to get all my canning done before we have to start getting the yard and gardens ready for winter.
Today, I will be making and canning tomato sauce. I think tomorrow, we will work on gathering apples from the neighbors and cidering them for juice for the winter. We froze the juice last year, but this year, I am going to can in quart jars. It will save room in the freezer for other things we need to stock up on. We plan on stocking up and hunkering down for the winter. Since the grocery store is about 40 minutes away, we want to make sure we have all that we need to get us through most of the cold winter months.
Stacking wood will be next!
I found out today that I will have to do the kitchen all over again. It would be the best way to stop the paint from chipping off now, and in the future. I won’t have to do the wainscotting I uncovered which I am thankful for. I will have to strip and sand the trim and anything else that had been painted blue. I am not looking forward to that.
I am looking forward to doing the Celebrate Effinhgam Chili Cook Off again. I can’t believe it is next weekend. It came up on me so quickly. I have ordered my special spices, and I will have to shop for the meat next week. We have put up the signs at various locations, and we hope to get atleast a couple more participants before the deadline.
On Saturday, September 20 Celebrate Effingham will be holding their 2nd Annual Chili Cook Off. I am the chair of the committee again this year, and have been busy getting everything ready. There is much to do to make the event a success again this year. We have several participants who are defending their titles from last year, and we have a few new people on board. This year we have a few vendors as well.
