Beginning

 I've started work on my new garden!

This will be a raspberry bed.  I'm digging down a bit, adding some small logs/sticks, dirt, and covering with mulch.  

The entire garden area will be approximately 39' x 17'.  There will be mulched paths, and 7 annual garden beds, and one perennial raspberry bed.  I've been plotting it out on paper, and I'm very excited.  I will have room to grow all the stuff!

This is the new garden area, from fence to sunroom wall.

Also, my inlaws picked up some persimmons from their friends yesterday, and gave us 5 bags full. Nathaniel was nice enough to puree them for me:

So now I have plenty of persimmon pulp to play with.  I plan to make a persimmon pudding this week.  I did that once, and it was so good.  I will probably also make jam, since my father-in-law absolutely loves persimmon jam.  The end of this week is our camping trip, though, so the persimmon may end up frozen to deal with later.

September Harvest Totals

 We processed most of the meat birds this month, with 16 birds already done.  We will do the remaining 4 this weekend.  

Chicken - 86.7 lbs total from 16 birds; plus 16 chicken hearts, to the delight of my children!

Cucumbers - 6

Eggs - 5

Peppers, Bulgarian - 7

Peppers, Jalapeno - 1

Tomatillos - 4.4 oz

Tomatoes - 9 (Black Krim and 2 San Marzano)

Zucchini - 1

An Egg a Day

Some friends from our homeschool group have chickens, but their HOA doesn't allow it.  One of the hens was loud, so they asked if we'd take her.  Naturally, we did, so now, thanks to this 6 month old pullet, we can get up to an egg a day!

She's doing very well, and she has laid an egg a day so far, which is a big improvement over nothing!

I also let the chicks have the watermelon rinds today.

They were huge fans!

And check out the turken.  She's odd looking, but she's supposed to be.

 

Sports

 

Over the weekend, the younger boys, Nathaniel, and I got to see my nephew play soccer.  He was in a tournament near us, so we got to see his team win two games.  

Emry is pumped about his own sports.  He made the basketball team at the middle school, and he can't wait to play.  It will be a while before games, though, as the boys' season doesn't start until December.

Growing

 The chicks are growing.  As you can see, the meat birds are significantly fatter than the other birds.

The regular birds are particularly happy when I dump a load of grasses into the yard.  The meat birds used to eat them, too, but now they are generally too lazy.  They prefer to eat by just hanging their heads into the chick feed.

We did butcher the largest 4 meat birds this weekend.  The rest will wait until the next two weekends.  They are not quite as big as those first four.  I made chicken pot pie yesterday, which is a crowd pleaser here.

 

Buddy Bean

Our yard is still mostly dirt, specifically clay, from the septic work.  Buddy Bean still likes to do his walkabout, though.  He's quite a character.  He hops and runs and does the "binky hops" that supposedly only young rabbits do.  We've had him for at least 5 years, I think, which puts him at a pretty old age for a rabbit, but you'd never know it by his activity.  He loves to move his tunnels around on the deck.  He re-arranges and runs through them daily.  He jumps into the rocker and sits there in the morning.  He likes to hide under his little water table.  He's a lot of fun to watch, and he will beg to be petted like a dog.  He learned that after we got the dogs, and he has imitated many of their actions.

 

Family Camp

 

 

Every September, we get to go to Family Camp!  This beautiful Catholic camp is in the Nashville, Indiana area.  This year, they had re-done the rockwall, and Lydia and Emry both flew to the top.  After the first try, anyway, for Emry.  He was nervous the first attempt, but after that, he had no issues!  By day two, he was racing a friend to the top while being timed.

We tie-dyed shirts, kayaked, hiked, and did archery.  The kids were excited to ride the horses there for the first time:

The weather was perfect, just right for camping/outdoor activities.  Gyunay spent a great deal of time at archery.  On Saturday, he used the adaptive bow, but on Sunday, he figured out how to use a regular bow with his little arm.  And he made a bull's eye!