Fall Colors and More

Our fall colors have gotten to the gold/bronze/ maroon stage now. Still pretty, just more subdued. This picture is from 2007, looking out the front door. Glad we didn't get that early snow over the weekend. Heck, this place gets paralyzed when it snows in JANUARY! Snow before Halloween would have put them over the edge.

The six new pullets have integrated pretty well into the rest of the flock. I think they're over trying to fit four or five into a nest box to sleep. Tonight I found two boxes with a pair in each, one with one of our more docile older hens, and one by herself on a roost. I'm only getting one or two eggs per day right now, and sometimes none at all, due to molt and shorter daylight. I could put a light in the coop on a timer, but it would involve 3 extension cords, so I'd rather just put up with less eggs.

Mosheim School's Heritage Days is coming up at the beginning of Thanksgiving week. I'll be doing a spinning demo again for them. They have the various classes rotate through the demonstrations for 30 min. each. Last year, most of the younger kids (3rd grade was the youngest, I think) seemed interested in the spinning, but the 7th and 8th graders practically yawned in my face. I've requested that the 7th and 8th graders be replaced with K thru 2, so I'm not wasting my time being there. Hopefully they'll have time to rearrange the schedule.

One of my sisters was here last week, so we went through the family pictures that I have and she picked out which ones she wants me to send her. DD joined us for part of the time, so we had lots of laughs trying to figure out mystery people (unlabeled photos), trying to see details with a magnifying glass and a jeweler's loupe, and just seeing some of the stupid things in the pictures. For instance, my mother had a skunk coat when she was in her 20s. It was a knee-length, black fur coat that just happened to be made of skunk fur. Nope, no smell. Here's my mother wearing the coat and my father in something a little more sensible. Then when the kids came along, that coat went out for Halloween more than once. Ha ha! Just add a gorilla or monster mask and we were SET!

Musings and Popcorn

Pet peeve: People who makes words plural by adding an apostrophe before they tack on that last s. So how do they make possessives?

Regional vernacular: One of the favorite sayings here in TN, and I'm sure in other parts of the South as well, is "Bless your heart." This is often, but not always, said by a woman (rarely a man), sometimes condescendingly, to an old person who doesn't get around too well or needs a scooter, or to a younger person helping an older person get around, such as with a wheelchair or pushing a shopping cart for the older person, especially if said older person forgets what they need in the store. (Ask me how I know.) Or it might be said to anyone who is obviously not in the best of health (leg in a cast, maybe?). Or to someone going through a hard time with just about anything in their life. We've come to the conclusion that "Bless your heart" is a euphemism for "Sucks to be you!" But heaven forbid a proper Southern lady would stoop to such vulgarity. LOL

Chickens: We got 6 new pullets a little over a week ago, since we've gradually lost some of the older girls for one reason or another. Our pen is divided in half, with a gate, so for the first two days the old and new girls were separated. The new girls had their own little coop made out of a doghouse. But then we were supposed to get an all-day rain and the tarp we had wasn't big enough to cover much of the pen for the new girls (which the old girls already had on their end), so the day before the rain, we opened the dividing gate and let the two flocks mingle. OK, so far, so good. No huge fights or pecking, and everyone was able to keep dry if they wanted to. But the new ones were still returning to their little coop at night while the old girls went into their coop as usual. We let them continue to do that until yesterday. With temps forecast in the 30s for last night, we decided to force the new girls into the big coop, where it would be warmer. So DH closed the door on the small coop after he let the 6 out in the morning. Then last night, when the main flock was heading in for bed, he herded the others in too. There was some squabbling and I think three of the new girls slept on the floor (not for lack of roost space).

The new girls are Partridge Rocks, one of the color variations of the Plymouth Rock. They appear black from a distance, but are actually mottled black and brown.

Garlic: Our garlic is about ready to be planted. The bed is all tilled and the one variety that we had to order has arrived. We'll be planting Inchelium Red, Duganski, Purple Glazer, and Susanville. Last year's Inchelium, grown from bulbs saved from the 2009 crop, didn't do too well, so we decided to start with fresh stock. The Purple Glazers did very well when replanted last year, so we'll continue with our own cloves. This will be the first replant for Duganski and Susanville. We've eliminated Music this year - it was popular, but the cloves are much too big. There aren't enough in one bulb to get too many new bulbs out of it. There will also be less hardnecks this year. Garlic scapes just didn't sell well enough to warrant planting that many again. The scape is the flower stalk that grows on a hardneck garlic. They should be broken or cut off right at the top leaf while still soft. That puts more of the plant's energy into the bulb. Scapes are edible and can be saute'ed, stir-fried, made into pesto, or chopped and added to any dish where a little garlic flavor is needed.

Popcorn: Next Saturday's program at Howell Farm is Corn and Popcorn Harvest, which is kind of self-explanatory. Some people don't realize that popcorn is a different type of corn than sweet, Indian, or field corn. The hard shell acts like a pressure cooker when the corn is heated. The moisture in the kernel heats up and suddenly explodes the shell (the "pop" sound), and the kernel turns itself inside-out.

On the evening of Friday, the 21st, there will be a presentation, "Pleasant Valley in the Revolution," with reenactment programs on Saturday and Sunday.

Lettuce, threshing and chickens

Observation: Yesterday I looked across a parking lot at a row of dogwood trees. They reminded me of bunches of giant red leaf lettuce, with frilly leaves that are green at the base and red at the tips.

We visited Howell Farm over this past weekend. It was Fall Festival weekend and it certainly felt like fall, with temps in the 60s. They harvest their wheat and spelt in July and store it until the first
weekend in October, when it is threshed. Threshing separates the grain from the straw and most of the husk that is around the individual wheat or spelt seeds. Spelt is an old-time grain, sort of a cousin to wheat. The farm grows spelt for animal feed and wheat for grinding into flour. There was also some plowing being finished up in the Hunter Rd. field, which will presumably be planted in either wheat or spelt in the coming weeks, after the field is harrowed to smooth it out. Farmer Ian did the plowing with Belgian team Chester and Jack. Sorry, I don't have a picture of them, but I DO have a picture of another team the farm used to have, Buster and Duke.
Actually, a farmer with this size farm (130 A.) in 1900 New Jersey probably wouldn't have owned a thresher. There would have been a crew that traveled the countryside, going from farm to farm. The neighbors would have brought their wagonloads of wheat, spelt, rye, barley, etc., to have them threshed, and they would all share the cost. Since crews like that haven't been around in quite some time, the farm owns a full-sized thresher that has to be run outdoors, and a barn thresher, a scaled-down version that could be used in an empty bay in the barn. Either type is powered by a long, flat belt from a tractor or engine. The farm recently bought a steam tractor to power the big thresher, which is more authentic than using a McCormick H. Some pictures of tractor and thresher next time.

We got some new pullets this evening. They're Partridge Rocks, the mottled brown color-variation of the Plymouth Rock. A friend is raising them, so we bought 6 from her. She was able to catch 5 tonight, with one more coming tomorrow. (Chickens are easiest to catch in the evening when they go in to roost. They don't see in the dark very well.) We already have Barred Rocks and a couple of White Rocks, plus some Buff Orpingtons and Ameraucanas, but have lost a few over the past two years. The young girls are about 4 1/2 to 5 months old, so they should be starting to lay very soon, if they haven't already.

Birds of a Feather

Why do chickens molt when the colder weather starts? I have one that started last week, which isn't bad. By the time it freezes, she'll be refeathered. But there are always a few who are still rather threadbare when we're getting some frosts, or even downright freezes, at night. I knew before getting chickens that they molt each year, but the first year it happened I thought one of them had exploded! LOL There are a LOT of feathers on those girls. I haven't actually seen any of them losing any (our house is about 100 ft. from their pen), but it looks like they shake and fluff their feathers and lose a bunch in that spot. Then later, when they're in a different spot, they shake again and lose more. Some of them get really pathetic looking and with others, you'd never know they were molting except when they spread their wings and some flight feathers are missing. Here are some of the girls.