It has been raining today. Hooray! This is the first real rain we have had in over a month again. We got less than 3/4 inch but I'm not complaining. Especially since I was at work all day- my 6th day straight. Ugh. And I've only got tomorrow off before I head back on Monday. But I have a 4 day weekend to look forward to next weekend. I've got Friday as my comp day for working today and next Monday is my usual day off. I love it when they string together! But I'm tired! 6 days of work is rough, especially when you throw in our late night on Thursday. The movie/concert was fabulous! And it was the opening performance of the celebration series for the Englert Theater's 100th anniversary celebration.
But, even with work at my paying job, I've been working around here as well. Things are slowing down a bit but I'm still reporting on my progress on the Independence Days Challenge so here goes:
Plant something- Garlic, that's about it and that is later than I would have liked. But at least it's in the ground!
Harvest something- hmm, eggs, a few herbs, radishes, nothing much more out there. But I'm still slowly using up the ripening tomatoes and the last of the peppers. And my lettuce in the greenhouse will soon be ready.
Preserve something- Made a huge batch of broccoli/carrot soup and froze it in little containers for me to take for lunch to work. Not much else.
Waste not- using up last of the veggies before they go bad.
Want not- Got rice but really haven't done much shopping other than dairy and apples. THAT feels good!
Eat the food- I've got some sauce cooking down (counter tomatoes and peppers) for enchiladas tonight. I ate one of my little frozen eggplant casseroles for lunch today and I've been having lots of yummy soup from the freezer for lunches during the week (not only the broccoli- I made some roasted tomato a while ago as well).
Build Community- Took eggs to Jim and have an egg order for next week. I've been 'liking' several local organizations on Facebook (although I'm trying to not let it turn into a time-suck!) not that it means much.
Skill up- um.... I got nothing.
Other updates...
Our transplanted/potted pepper plants are doing well. I cut them back pretty severely and they are happily shooting out new leaves and branches.
A few of the hens are looking rather bedraggled due to a combination of an overly zealous Magnus and moulting) I caught several of the girls ganging up on River yesterday afternoon and picking at her back so I'll be making some chicken saddles tonight- both River and Zoe need them badly. I think I've got 4 or 5 hens moulting right now as well as Magnus. Poor rooster has lost almost all of his beautiful iridescent tail feathers. With moulting hens egg production is down but we've still got plenty.
Tomorrow will be a day of laundry and trying to catch up on all my usual weekend stuff in only one day. Wish me luck.
I hope you are able to enjoy that day off!
ReplyDeleteIt will definitely be busy!
DeleteAbout half of our chickens are molting and boy, are they U.G.L.Y.!!!
ReplyDeleteDo you bring in your pepper plants for the winter?
We had a potted jalapeno for about 7 years. It finally died last winter so we planted a new pepper in the pot. Then V decided he wanted to dig up a few more (after then had been mostly killed by frost) so we scrounged up a few pots and brought some in. Since we put in new windows in the library it is a great room for plants with a 4x6 foot west window (shaded by a tree in the summer!) It's great if you've got the room. We usually got a couple of peppers during the winter but not many. The advantage is that you get really early peppers off them then next spring.
DeleteWasn't the rain just awesome today.. We got an inch here N.E. of Cedar Rapids.. It was just wonderful to see my garden perk up and take in the most needed rain..even thou we are at the end of the season we need the moisture so bad..
ReplyDeleteHave a great day..ta ta for now from Iowa:)
We got more rain overnight. A total of a little less than 1.75 inches and it looks like more is headed this way. Hooray!!
DeleteWe finally had a little rain this morning, hopefully more Monday/Tuesday...
ReplyDeleteHere's hoping for a lovely 3 day rain for all of us!
DeleteOur hens are moulting (molting?), too, and our egg production is down which makes me very nervous. I use a lot of eggs in our diet and we also use them for bartering, but (dang and drat) we haven't had enough for that lately. We got our chicks so late (early summer) that they won't start laying until after the first of the year.
ReplyDeleteNo appreciable rain (just dribbles) for us yet but we sure could use a good steady rain for about three days! Going into the frigid winter with the ground so bone-dry is not good. Our leaves are almost all gone so it's starting to look like that drab season between fall colors and snow.
I'm never sure if it's moulting or molting. I guess I should look it up. It's most likely one of those words where you can use the British spelling or not. But I do hear you on the decreased egg production. I got ONE egg yesterday. sigh... of course, the day before I got 5 so at least a few girls are still laying. My girls will be 2 next spring, I should probably look into adding a few new layers into the flock next year.
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