Tuesday, September 06, 2022

All Things Chicken

 The girls were THRILLED with all the extra greens and stalks being thrown their way in the wake of the moose visit. 


Melon vines....sigh.

This gal thinks the best place to lay eggs is the top of the rabbit hutch. I'm quite sure Dash isn't happy about this scenario. 

Every morning is an Egg hunt! I love it. I found 9 this morning. The eggs are still tiny, but they eat well and taste great. I'm amazed such tiny shells can have double yolks. 

Some have asked about the chick. She's doing well. It's difficult to grab photos as Mama is protective and she's usually sits on her when I get out the camera. ::grin:: I have to be FAST to grab a shot...and the phone isn't very fast. LOL 

The chickens were a bright spot in the day. We like them better than the moose this time of year. The moose are fun to watch when we don't have a garden planted. LOL 


When the Moose Play

 I looked out the window, as I tend to do in the early morning, and noted the garden looked different. I turned back. The leaves were missing. Oh NO. I knew. Moose.  

I can't tell you how sick it made me feel. I knew the harvest would be less this year due to all the rain and things like beans not doing much. I knew my squash was struggling. BUT the cool weather crops were doing great. All the hard work. The battle with weeds. In one night - destroyed. 

Yes, it felt like the death of a dream. Yesterday was a busy day but I took 45 minutes to start cleaning up the mess.  First I confirmed it was moose...check the hoof marks...the way things are eating from the top down...often the middle is eaten and the outer leaves left. 

I noted they marched straight through the shorter beds and destroyed anything in their path. They tended to eat around the taller beds but didn't get into them. They could have. 

Kale gone. They seem to like the Russian kale better than the  Dinosaur kale. There were two plants left of the dinosaur kale. 


They thinned out the beet tops, but there are still lots.  I will harvest AFTER this busy week. 

While they liked the tops, they did not like the beets. This is a win for us. LOL 

Cauliflower (they don't like onions). The broccoli looked like this as well. 

They left the flowers - which is good as I plan to cut flowers for our Fall Ministry Launch. 

Red Brussel Sprouts are completely devastated. 

Will the sprouts they left continue to grow? We may get one meal from our 18 plants. 

Alas, I had to admit watermelon defeat too. It simply didn't stay warm enough to grow melons. They bloomed, grew little melons but didn't set. I pulled all the vines. 

I think the gardening year is coming to an end. I still have beets to harvest. I still have carrots and cucumbers to harvest. I have the bit of kale and more onion tops than I can deal with.  It did feel like accepting the death of a dream today.....but THEN...I continued to build the lasagna compost bed in teh garden...adding a layer of green from all the destroyed plants and a layer of brown - straw.  That's looking forward to next year. 

I also transplanted the small kale to the greenhouse. We'll see if it takes root. If not, we'll eat the leaves in the next day or two. I'm thinking of doing some baby greens in the greenhouse now that I pulled the melon vines. BABY greens - I think there's still time. 

How did this happen?  The first year we dealt with moose. Michael put up an electric fence and we've been VERY careful to keep the grass trimmed, the fence plugged in.... We have avoided this due to the electric fence. Our last night around the campfire the top wire of the fence was let down.  We didn't put it back up, we also didn't plug it back in. We unwittingly set an open gate before the moose, and they took advantage. I don't think they even fought the temptation. A moment of carelessness on our part and a season of work is devastated. That'll preach.  It's odd there was a moose in our yard. We got a bit lax as they NEVER are down here during hunting season. They show up the minute hunting season is over. Maybe hunting season is over? 

We are talking about covering the massive areas of weeds with black plastic and leaving it next summer. Planting only the beds and greenhouses...working on other projects...coming back to it the year after. We'll see. 

SCONE MESS OF A DAY

 I was up at 0500. It's now 10:26 pm (2226).  I thought it would be a great idea to get as much done as possible today for tomorrow night's Women's Ministry launch. 

Before I began any of the local projects, I did take time to check in with Bible Babes as we've begun a new study. 

I began baking scones. My oven is downstairs as the upstairs oven is still not here (a very long story).  The tasted good but they all listed to the side. I did NOT turn the cutter - straight down and up. Someone told me to place them on the pan so they touch - like cinnamon rolls - this was to make them rise up - instead of over...and it did...but they aren't as flakey. The texture is different. I may make more scones tomorrow and I'll have a zillion ugly (ok -  only 3 batches), listing, imperfect scones to eat here through the winter. I double wrap and freeze them. 

The blueberry muffins turned out well. 

I also got GG breakfast, spent an hour in the garden, and did a mountain of laundry. 

When I took Allie to work, I went ahead to the church to "do all I can do today...." I set up tables, decorated a bit...couldn't make the copies I needed to make....but made a good list of what I still needed to buy or bring from home....

I walked in the door, and it smelled wonderful! Stacia made chicken divan and a salad for dinner. I love having young adults. 

After dinner - not realizing I didn't like the texture of the first batch of close together scones, I made two more batches....pumpkin spice and plain...and placed them close together so they wouldn't list to the side. Y'all I follow all the tips...grate the butter, massage in the butter, round cutters...but this close together thing - I'm just not sure. I may just let them list. ANYWAY, while I waited for them to come out of the oven, I shared with Michael I thought I'd go do shopping for tomorrow night and Thursday night's event at 11:30 p.m. He asked to please go to Fred Myers. I had an hour - ran to the store, rushed through the store and got done before they closed.  His concern was things are a bit sketch around Carrs at midnight. 

The thing is I waited and pulled the scones out of the oven, and I ran off to the store. They were too hot to handle, and I didn't give it a thought. Um...it appears they should have been separated when they were hot. They cooled and I have a lovely pan of pull-apart scones.  I'm thinking more baking in the a.m. and I'll either,  ::shudder:: cut them into triangles like Americans DO...or I'll let them list delightfully to the side. Because they are SO flakey and yummy when I don't smash them together. I'm fairly certain the listing thing is why American's cut them in triangles....my triangles don't list...but they seem to be more evenly cooked in a round. I think I'm crazy. 

That will be tomorrow's project. 

No, not a single picture. I've been too busy today. I did take garden photos. I'll do that next and then hop into bed and start over tomorrow.