YES!

Yesterday was a big test day.  I brought a frozen chicken into the kitchen to let it thaw.  This is is the first cooked chicken from the second flock.  After it had thawed I split it and covered it with some spices.  Then baked it in the oven.  The smell was wonderful and the taste is awesome. YES! YES! I am validated!  Some of the things I tried as I raised these birds came through in the taste.  The green oats/peas as an suppliment food, the sunshine hours they spent outside the coop, the buckets of fresh water.  When these bird went for processing they were strong, active and fit. So I hoped they would be good.  I just never thought I could do this on my own.  So this winter we will all eat like kings and queens.  Now I know it is worth all the hours of work and observation to keep them fed and sheltered.  So the meat from this bird will go on to be the main course in two more meals.  Then the bits will go into a baked dish. The rest will become soup stock for a few lunches.  Funny! Until last year I had never tasted a Real chicken.  Now I am proud to be raising my own and feeding other people. 

Last week we had two nights of deep freezes. Now there are beets, carrots, squash, and sun chokes left growing in the garden. I have bags and bags of carrots but I dont know how to store them.  In the store they come bagged and chilled. I'll try to keep them in the shop but they might freeze.  Anyway they will be my snack food this month. It has been raining and misting so I'll try to stay out of the garden.  I'll need different breads this week for the dinners and soups. So Baking is on my list for today.  It is Saturday and electricity is cheap today.

Last Wed we got up on the hill and cut firewood.  We have enough for Oct and Nov now.  We are cutting near a trail so I can get the wagon in.  This part of the woods has mature aspen trees dying off as maples, basswood, ash and balsam are growing up to replace them.  So we cut the little trees that didnt make it and the aspen that died out. I am not so good at aiming the big trees as they fall, so I am taking the little ones first.

It is getting nicer outside. I'll start the bread and do some chores before I go up the hill. 

Ending the garden for now...Harvesting

Harvest is starting here.  I am pulling out the onions and storing them in bags. The carrots are going into plastic buckets. The blessing of the drought is that the cold weather is holding off for another week or so.  So this week I'll be pulling things in and tilling the ground and finishing up areas where the plants are done.  I decided that I am going to put up a small hoop house.  It may give me some choices on an earlier spring and a little more weather control for next year.  Anyway I need to get it up now in order to have the structure ready for Spring. The little apple trees [two years] are having a few apples.  Good eating!  Just not enough yet.  So I will spend some afternoons in the orchard, cleaning up around each tree and setting in braces and wire cages to keep them mouse and rabbit proof over the winter.   I am pretty happy to be a gardener.  These projects feel good and it is nice to see things fixed up.  Of course the trees are turning yellow and orange so I know the seasons are moving along. And I can do my fussing now when it is nice or do it later when it is 40 degrees, wet and windy.  It is so good to have choices.

Speaking of choices.... This year I have a torn rotor in my shoulder, two sprained thumbs and a torn thigh muscle.  All of these are slow healing and painful.  I could quit doing this work.  But I believe in it.  I am setting the framework/schedule to heal and strengthen myself during the gardening 'off season.'  I have to do it before I can write about it.  But I have made my decision.