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| New kitten (with recovering Tailwagger on window sill) |
Leaves are turning yellow and orange and are already falling off the trees! The temperatures went from highs near 100 in mid September to lows in the 50's by late September. I was hoping for a month or two of not having to open and close the windows every blessed day - instead, I got two weeks of open window weather 24/7. Now we're having to close the windows at night - brrr! It is wonderful outside during the day, however.
Mom and I have canned and frozen many (many) apples and pears. My deep freezer is officially full. I'm trying to convince Jason that we need a second freezer. Also, we froze all of our plum and grape juice from earlier in the season and next week we're planning on canning jelly - lots of jelly! I feel that I have exercised my gathering skills to the fullest this year.
Next year, as an experiment, we are planning on raising all of our own meat. We get our milk and eggs from our own animals and we have processed my dad's calves in the past. I never buy any meat from grocery stores (except chicken and turkey) and our ground round comes from a local butcher (from local cows). With only 7 acres, I'm not sure that we have the grass for a calf, but I'm planning on starting with a couple of piggies in the spring. Also, if I can find someone to process them for me, I'd love to raise some turkeys. I think I've decided not to use any more grocery store chicken. The industrial factory farming of animals in this country has just become increasingly ridiculous. And I don't want Liam growing up eating that stuff they call meat. During the summer, we got away with eating almost no meat, but the winter is coming and I'm not ready to go vegetarian completely!
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| First spaghetti squash! |
We harvested our first spaghetti squash yesterday and I made chicken spaghetti (with neither chicken, nor spaghetti - go figure). It was quite tasty and Liam ate some of it - it had a little too many obvious veggies in it for him! I hope the rest of the squash become ripe before freezing weather comes.
Animal news:
Liam's cat, Sassy, has disappeared. Interestingly, he took off after we brought home a scraggly kitten that exceeded our (my) cat quota of five. The kitten is currently unnamed - I'm thinking about something cold and Scandinavian since he is white with blue eyes and makes me think of winter. And I hope it is a 'he'. We just took Wyatt and Tailwagger to the vet on Wednesday to be neutered and spayed. No unauthorized kittens!
Also, Ellie Mae 'weaned' her chicks. After a near miss with a neighbor's (Mom's chicken killer) dachshund, she apparently decided that they were old enough to be on their own. She refuses to sleep with them or stay with them. Kicked out into the cold world at two months of age! They are doing well, though. And I swear I think they are all girls! One particularly large one may be a rooster yet - we'll see.
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| The chickies on their own |
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