Suddenly Not Summer

All of a sudden it's gotten cold. This morning as I did chicken, duck and rabbit chores I could see my breathe and my hands were cold. When I looked at the thermometer it read only 45 degrees. I think autumn is here even if it's a couple weeks away by the calendar. Changes all around as the days get shorter and the nights get colder. 

The gourds are ripening.

Tomato plants are dying off. 

Leeks are looking just about ready to harvest.

The corn is starting to be ready too.

 KitKat explores the changing fall landscape.

A Hubbard Squash grows bigger and bigger.

Many of the older chickens and ducks 1 year old plus are molting and slowing down their laying as they work on growing new feathers.

Nothing to see here, not a predator but the molting process!

Feathers everywhere this time of year.

Some are molting more than others, this 2 year old  Carolina Blue hen must be going for a full feather re-do!

The spring chicks are laying, taking up the slack for the older girls who are molting. The youngest of this year's chicks, a summer hatch, are getting big and exploring everywhere.

Mama Hen Snow White still keeps watch over her great big 8 week old chicks.

Some things haven't changed as much.

I'm still fighting with the electric poultry netting that I put up at night as an additional line of defense. 

And the silkies are ever broody!

A Nice Hot Summer and Tomatoes For All!

It's been a hot summer and I do enjoy the hot weather. Not something we get enough of in NH. The bearded dragons have loved getting outdoors more than usual. The heat is just right for them. Some garden crops have thrived with the hot weather including the tomatoes and corn. I'm sure we've had more tomatoes this summer than ever before and they've all been ripening all of a sudden. I've frozen, some, set out some for fresh eating and given some to friends. The chickens and ducks get any with bites out of them (tomato hornworms invaded for awhile) or bad spots.

Tomatoes for all, even the birds get some!

Sun Bathing Beardies

Best ever corn crop!

In addition to the hot weather, which resulted in a drought for the first part of summer, we've also had heavy rains and high humidity. The rain hasn't been sprinkles or showers but a deluge of water will suddenly pour down for an hour here and there. This has created tough conditions for some crops including some of our fruit trees. We won't be getting a lot of apples this year it seems. Some of the trees, even very old- been here longer than we have trees look a bit sad and not much production. Broccoli and cauliflower have done very poorly this year too.

In between have been the squashes, beans and a few other crops which have done okay, not great but not terrible. Not sure if it's weather related, predator related or something I have done wrong or haven't done that I should have.

I'm going to make some changes for next year, try some new things and maybe focus more closely on less types of crops. I know I want to have success with melons, both cantaloupe and watermelon. This won't be easy in our climate but I'll try. I also want to have a crop of popcorn, I think I planted that too late this year and too little of it, plus one particular chick would walk through the fence when he was small enough and peck at the little popcorn plants until I blocked that area off better.

This little urchin was eating my young popcorn plants until I blocked them from him with cages. He eventually outgrew the ability to slip through the garden fence and grew into a handsome silkie rooster.

I thought that when summer started and we had a good looking set of vegetable and fruit plants and trees that this would be a great year but it turned out to be great for some plants and not good at all for others. Onward to next year and to trying some new ideas. 

Helping the walking onions to walk into a different garden, asparagus too

We have two separate vegetable garden areas. One, the upper garden, is right next to the chickens and ducks fenced yard while the other, the lower garden, is much further away and kept top secret from the birds! It's a good thing that the birds have no idea that the second garden exists or we would have very few vegetables to harvest for ourselves. Not all of the birds can jump or fly over the fences between their yard and the upper garden but a certain group can do just that. Mainly the salmon faverolles, cream legbars and a few random birds plus Mo the rooster. These particular birds are all lighter weight or flighty breeds. Then there's the ducks, they have such long necks that that reach through the fences to bite at whatever has grown close to the fences.

They look so innocent but there are garden thieves among them!

These issues have led to us playing musical gardens over the last couple years. Now crops are broken down into two groups: those the chickens and ducks like (most) and those the birds don't like (a few). The upper garden is smaller and is now for things birds don't like or bother. We thought tomatoes fell into this category but we have found that the birds do like the tomatoes themselves just not the plants. It seems that the best things for the upper garden are leeks, asparagus, onions, garlic.

New Asparagus Bed in Upper Garden

The asparagus bed and the walking onions were previously in the lower garden. Both of those crops were being overtaken by strawberries so they needed to move anyway. Last spring I moved the asparagus bed and added some new rootstock. As I find more asparagus plants I'll add them to the new bed. The walking onions I'm just starting to move. I have to wait until the tomato plants currently in that spot die off and as they do I'm planting both topset bulbs and original "parent plant" onions into the upper garden.

A few of the walking onion plants for transplanting.

I planted leeks there this spring and they have done very well, the birds bothered the young plants when they were first planted (because they wanted to scratch around in the newly dug dirt) but haven't touched them as the season has gone on.

Walking onion top sets for transplanting.

I know that transplanting the asparagus bed has set it back a bit but I think it will thrive in the new location and so far the birds haven't shown any interest. The walking onions will take right off again in the new spot next year. Everything else will be designated for the lower (secret) garden and we will hope the chickens never find that garden! So far so good we're into our third year and they haven't found it yet. Wild animals have but you can't have everything!

Chicken fence next to garden fence, making it work by changing around the gardens for next year.

Lower garden- They can never find out!

Final note, the chickens and ducks are given masses are lovely garden produce they're just greedy but I love them anyway :-).

There's a bear out there!

Late in the day yesterday I was picking some blackberries for the chickens, they love them so much. I was outside of their fence to the west side where we have an abundance of berry bushes. Usually the birds run right up to the fence waiting for me to toss the berries through. I looked up from my berry picking and was confused. The chickens and ducks were nowhere to be seen by the fence. I looked further and noticed that they had all gone into the coop, into the run or or under shelters. Very quick thoughts were; it is getting close to bedtime maybe they're going in early, I do think I hear thunder in the distance even though the sky is fair, there are a bunch of wild birds causing a ruckus. In a split second while thinking those thoughts it clicked, something wild is around. I looked around and at the north side of the fence there was a great big black bear! The bear was trying to scale the outer fence. I shouted for help from the family, grabbed a metal shovel and metal feed dish and started clanging. Others came to help with noise and the bear very quickly ran off into the woods. That was a good sign, a wild bear should want to avoid the humans and the noise. Although the bear seemed to leave awhile later he was back in the same spot scoping out the fence. Back to noise making and letting the dogs out to bark in their yard. Again the bear ran off. We set up extra security for the night, electric fence on and hoped for the best. As if this morning there is no sign that the bear returned. The fences are not bent or damaged in any way. All animals are safe and sound. This is part of living here on our woodland homestead. I have no issues with the wildlife, they've as much right to be here as me. I will just keep reinforcing my fences and security measures and keep the animals as safe as I can. Oh and that thunder in the distance sound was the bear, it kept making a low rumbling noise at least with this bear we will have early warning, if you hear thunder check for Thunder the bear!

All is well in the farmyard the day after a bear visit.