Hello, Winter

Yesterday I dug up the gladiolas; the wind was chilly, but everything was still green.

Now they are hanging out in the basement with the plants I brought in before the first frost.

And today we have:

The footprints are from my venturing onto the deck to measure the snow depth on the table...11"!

The chickens haven't gone outside at all today. I can't really blame them; I had to change into dry pants every time I did.

Boarders

These are the hens I hatched out in my incubator last spring and that have been living on my parents' farm all summer. This week all nine of them moved into my big coop with my flock for the winter. So far they are keeping to themselves, but I expect them to integrate with the others eventually. At least there is plenty of space in my pen.

The cat stayed behind. :)

Mid-life Crisis?

It was a beautiful weekend which gave me a chance to enjoy my new toy before winter shuts it down.

Fueling up

Ready to roll

Zoom!

 It's a 2016 Zero SR + Power Tank. It goes like the wind and is silent! I am loving every minute on it, even with the bug splatter on my helmet.

Thriving

My lovelies.

I wrote a book!

So, I spent a year writing this in my spare time. The really painful part was cleaning it up and into the right format to publish, but it's done and out there. I'll be honest; I wrote it for fun and did not hire an editor. My son describes it as 'prepper romance' which is about right. Even in my family the feedback is mixed, but it's good enough for me to begin on the sequel.

My thanks to Marek Larwood (one of my favorite comedians) for being the first person in the UK to buy a copy. Check out his videos here: vlog.

Something Begins is available as an ebook for Kindle and Nook. It can also be ordered in paperback on Amazon (the ebook is definitely less expensive). If you do read it, I'd love to hear your opinion.

August

Hooray! Rain! Such a delight to see the rain barrels full again and all the plants happy.

This morning I've been picking chokeberries. These will be frozen and used by my parents for smoothies all winter.

The young cochins are growing well.

And, while the garden won't be epic due to the late start, it's filling in nicely.

Gardening 2016

Made a major change in the garden arrangement this year. The process set back my planting drastically, but hopefully will be worth it in future years. I built raised garden beds to alleviate back pain.

I'm leaving the corner posts tall in case I want to go higher in the future, but already...what a difference! So much easier to tend.

Lovely rain this morning. Even makes the ensuing humidity worth it.