A Week On The Farm

    What a beautiful week! Every morning that I wake up and the water hoses are not frozen is a good excellent day! Hauling icy water in buckets to each chicken house is not a fun way to start a day, so please let there be about 100 more days JUST LIKE TODAY! Chilly in the morning, peeling off the sweater by lunch, almost "hot" in the afternoon. Perfect!!

     Peyton and I took a little time to have an afternoon of fun (she did not realize that we were actually working) and I have never heard squeals like that before! It sounded like I was trying to catch a baby pig! It is still hard to believe that 25 years ago we planted these trees and this is the FIRST year that they produced enough leaves that we had to rake them. In retrospect, I guess that the hail brought the leaves down for the last few years and we raked them - but this year we were hail free! It made for enough leaves to have a good, old-fashioned afternoon of play.

     The gardens are just about bare - everything is in storage, or in glittering jars, the last of the potatoes are dug, just a few more rows (about six) of beets - I am about 500% over making pickled beets! One day this week, I went over to "the farm" and helped Dad dig their potatoes and carrots. I went, determined NOT to take any of their veggies, in protest of the ridiculous garden that my parents made Darla and I plant for them. We planted it, Dad weeded it, then they GAVE PAWNED it all off on anyone that came to the farm! I think I have personally canned every single beet that grew in that garden, I think everyone in Pincher Creek has been loaded up with carrots. It was the epitome of a plentiful harvest! As Dad and I were chatting and digging, wedges of geese flew, honking overhead and I could hear the leaves falling off the poplar trees. There could not have been a more idyllic autumn day. Guess what? I ended up with two, five gallon pails of carrots and a 5 gallon pail of beets, in the back of my truck! So much for my resolve!
   As if I do not have enough animals to look after this winter, I also am incubating a new covey of quail for the spring... Mike just shakes his head! It takes 18 quail eggs to make an omelette - ONE OMELETTE! Other than being super cute, they truly are pretty useless birds - he just can not understand, for the life of him, why I feel the need to make more of them. Personally, I just want to try - so that I can move on to bigger and better incubating adventures! (Insert evil laugh).
   This week, the grizzlies that have been romping around our farm have concerned me a little. I am (or was not ) afraid of walking up to the barns after dark, to close doors and shut off lights. I don't think I could outrun a grizzly, while sporting fuzzy slippers and a nightgown, but I sure in the hell would try! The three yearlings that have been living on our farm need to move on - no tasty duck or chicken entrees here! (Please eat the quail, if you are going to eat anything!) I think even a hungry griz would find my dozen quail useless. Extremely grateful for the heavy duty doors that Mike built for me on the DUCK BARN!
    The very best thing about this week is that when it is over - CRESTON HERE WE COME!