Checks and Balances

The door to our deep freeze didn't get completely shut the other night. Food was ruined, some saved, some cooked up for the chickens and cats, some went to the compost, some fed to the dog.


Two chickens recently died, a rooster (Sad Rooster) who was being picked on and one that had a hurt foot.


I made the best strawberry sweet rolls ever this week. They were in the freezer in a container that got filled up with water during the great melt, so no rolls to sell at the market this weekend.


I harvested all my garlic, it did well. I'm excited to plant more this fall.


Every night the white guinea perches on the coop door and makes his guinea noises (if you've never heard a guinea it isn't a soothing noise) for a good hour, serenading me while I work in the garden.


I cleaned ALL of the nests the broody hens and ducks were sitting on, enough was enough. I did end up throwing some of the eggs in the incubator because I didn't want it to be a waste, most were at least half developed. There are now four ducklings in there waiting to be moved somewhere.


Our turkey hen, Sasha, was due to hatch her large clutch of eggs tomorrow. I looked in this morning and her nest was destroyed. No eggs left.


It rained! All it took was me washing our mud room floor.


Thanks to the neighbors, the kids and I made sour cherry jam, sour cherry kombucha, and cherry almond fermented soda. Good stuff.


My clothes line has been getting a lot of use this summer (before the rain came), the kids want to help but it is too tall for them. I think a short line is just what we need.


Best way to use all the sticks and branches laying around the acreage? Cooking over the fire. The kids were never so excited for a meal.


One of our first time mom cats gave birth to a hairless kitten on the deck and abandoned it. I moved it into a box in the shed and fed the cats hoping mom would reclaim the kitten. Another soon-to-be first time mom cat ate it.