I didn’t mean to disappear for almost a week! It’s been busy around here. First we were out of town for the long weekend – more on that later tonight – and then I was off meeting dinner yesterday. So here’s what we’ve been up to!
Hens on Parade:
Agnes, Penny, Maisie and I will be at the Seattle Tilth Harvest Festival this Saturday from 10am to 4pm talking to the public about keeping chickens in the city. Join us there to celebrate local food systems and kick off Tilth’s 30th anniversary!  Meet mini goats, enjoy the liveliest organic Farmers’ Marketplace, fantastic music lineup, & family activities, learn about bees, chickens, rainwater harvesting, winter gardening, and more!   The event is in Wallingford and details can be found here.
Molting and Egg Production:
The first molt here at the hennery has been kicked off by Penny who is currently in the process of losing a lot of feathers every day. We’ve got feathers in the water, in the food, floating across the yard… It’s a feather extravaganza! In order to accomplish all of this, she has stopped laying completely. Oh well, I bet she’ll be even prettier once she’s done. Pru has also completely stopped laying, not sure why, but oh well. She’s never been a very good layer and now she’s apparently just “yard art”. Good thing she’s pretty and funny! Maybe she’ll start laying again in the spring.
Meeting Our Dinner Face-to-Face:
Since the chickens we got from Akyla Farms are on the skinny side we’ve decided to add some others to our freezer as well. It’s a hard time of year to decide that – too late to get on any one’s pre-order list and also too late to get the leftovers. But, I lucked out and Clair out at Tall Tree Exotics has 30 broilers she’s getting ready to “harvest” this weekend. So, last night I wandered out to check out her operation and meet our winter dinners. She’s got a pretty little spread with laying hens, heritage turkeys, sheep, an enthusiastic donkey and eating turkeys, geese and broilers. We’ll be getting 15 fat Rock Cornish for our freezer on Sunday afternoon. Fresh off the pasture so to speak – and boy did those guys look ready to be done.
 Eat Local Challenge:
In keeping with the September Eat Local Challenge, we’re continuing to focus on putting by provisions for winter. In addition to all the local pastured meats in our freezer, and the canning from last week, we’ll be trying to put up frozen corn and green beans along with dill and bread-n-butter pickles this week and weekend. This is a crazy busy month for us, so I haven’t formally joined on the Eat Local site, but maybe I should. We’re also continuing our commitment to local eating by eating in season produce from the farmer’s markets and searching out sources for provisions we’ll want this winter – baking supplies, frozen/canned veggies, pastas, fall/winter fruits and veggies, etc. I’ll try to get a post up soon with all of the great sources we’ve found so far and the ones we’re continuing to look for.
New Toy:
Last week I finally stepped up and bought a digital SLR camera. I’ve been hemming and hawing about it for nigh on three years now. But now I’ve admitted that I love digital much more than film (evidenced by the dust on my 35mm SLRs) and sucked it up. This was my gift to myself in anticipation of Mike leaving for 11 days of hunting later this month and taking my current digital point and shoot with him. More on the new toy later, but for now I’ll just say that I LOVE IT!
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