A great year for peppers!

There was a hint of cool in the air yesterday, and the threat of cold temperatures overnight. Although the predicted low was only in the lower 40's, down here in the valley it gets colder quicker. Therefore, we decided to pick most of the garden that was close to being done including most of the peppers. You might not be able to discern the size of the container they are in, but we picked over half bushel of jalapeno peppers from our plants yesterday alone which makes nearly a bushel of peppers this year. Yes, that translates into a LOT of hot pepper jam and jalapeno peanut brittle. I sure hope those are popular items for people to give as Christmas gifts this year!

Good bye King Kong

Sadly, King Kong was killed on the highway today. He was a terrific hunter which no doubt led to his demise. I will miss him. We apparently have also lost EmmaPatches and Krazy Kat to predators as they have been missing in action for a couple of weeks now. I'm really regretting the fact that Evelyne had Juliet spayed and we gave away all of her kittens. Maybe Mark and John will let them have just one litter and I can get a kitten back. On the other hand, since Earl abandoned Buster here Rascal has been gaining a little weight and her coat looks much better. Buster is also gaining weight (more than Rascal) but his coat doesn't seem to be improving. Someone made the comment this morning that they didn't know I was running a geriatric home for cats.

Peg Leg gets a new owner

Peg Leg has been moved to a new home. He has gone to live with James--the son of the lady with whom we went "mud bogging" instead of apple picking. James fell in love with Peg Leg when he first saw him. He has taken him apples and gone to play with him whenever he had the chance. We told him he could have him if he would fix a safe place to keep him. Since they had goats when they lived in Virginia we are sure Peg Leg will have a great home there. Undoubtedly he will end up getting fat and spoiled. Pegleg has been very "bucky" lately, and Cream will most likely be giving birth the end of February. (Why is it those girls always time it so the kids are born the coldest time of the year?) I'm not sure if he had his way with any of the other girls, but we shall see as time goes on. We are glad James wanted to take him away as a pet.

Moving Chickens

Last week, under cover of darkness, we moved all the tractor chickens to the big chicken house. We discovered that if you wait until they are sound asleep they can be caught and moved with little difficulty. Apparently that is something predators have know for centuries. Bad goose, Lady luck and her drake wandered into the pen vacated by the Mom hen with the 3 little turkeys (we gave the trio and their Mom to a friend where they will have a great home and be well taken care of...there are still 8 turkeys here and that is enough for now). We closed the gate on BG and his two buddies, so they are now on the east side of the grounds as well. That will make feeding and watering them much easier this winter. Turk and his troupe sleep inside still, but it often takes a bit of persuasion to make that happen.

Missed the turtle races

We missed the turtle races at Beecher Island. Evelyne had to go to a funeral in Fort Collins on Saturday and I was still delivering mail. So we released Mr. Turtle from his comfortable tub back into the wild of the yard.

Our latest addition to the menagerie

Beecher Island days are coming up next weekend. One of the big events there is a turtle race. Our turtle shows up on occasion and then disappears again. It was totally uncertain if he would make an appearance when we needed him, so a back-up plan has been put in place.

I had to deliver mail today (and six days next week, so actually I will miss the turtle races). This guy was in the middle of the road begging to be squashed by a grain truck.

I thought he might be less suicidal at Prairie House. He is now in training for the race. If Evelyne and Rick don't take him to Beecher Island for the races, he will still have a better home than on the road. (Assuming Evelyne doesn't grind him up in the rototiller because he chooses an unfortunate place to bury himself which is what happened to #1.)

Turk's "friends" are back...he's not happy.

The wild turkeys have returned to the farm. There are 25-30 of them of various ages and both genders. Some of them are very large, and the flock as a whole is quite noisy. Turk stands in the yard and gobbles at them..."just keep going. This is my territory!" He struts in all his glory to stress the point. Humorously, the juveniles he has taken custody of were trying their best to strut too. It will take a bit of practice for them to get it right. They have relieved the Momma hen of her duties and only the turkeys are together now. They are apparently at the teenager stage now, as they do not want to go to their room to go to bed at night and it takes a great deal of persuasion to get them there. They have been a delightful addition to Prairie House.

Busy Busy Busy

I'm not sure where the days have gone but here we are nearly at the middle of September. I guess the were eaten up by all the time we have spent processing fruit for jelly making this winter. So far this year we have gone through 75 pounds of peaches, 50 pounds of nectarines, 3 or 4 bushels of apples of various kinds, plums, and tomatoes. The grapes are just now turning ripe and we still have 50 pounds of peaches and a multitude of apples waiting for the paring knife. My sink is currently full of jalapeno peppers ready to be processed, and yes, I have the rubber gloves handy. We dried a couple of batches of garlic for the famous garlic powder we produce. With all this in the freezer or in jars, we should eat well this winter as we have chicken, rabbit, beef and goat in there as well. The chickens are slacking off on egg laying, but we still get enough to meet our sales and have some for ourselves. We have a few hens we are laying JUMBO eggs now and we keep those to eat. One egg will make a "3-egg" omelet. We actually outsmarted the squash bugs long enough this year to get a pretty good crop of yellow and acorn squash as well. Apparently they don't care for basil much. The basil got out of control since we didn't prune it often or soon enough. So when we did prune it, it had stems the size of small trees. We piled it on and around the squash plants. I must remember to plant plenty of basil next year! We have been eating tomatoes since April. Some of the folks in town are STILL waiting for their first ripe tomato from their vines. Needless to say, we have sold a lot of tomatoes this year. A bacon and fresh tomato sandwich still tastes good, even after the dozens or so I've already eaten this year.