Many Hands make Light Work

Pam, Merry and Sunni cleaning and wrapping the birds

Pam and I planned on butchering our remaining 26 broiler chickens last Saturday along with three old layers.  Some friends of our wanted to bring four birds to our place to also have butchered that day.  We ended up doing 32 birds and completed the job by 3 pm.  Bruce and I dispatched the birds, removed their feet and feathers while Pam, Merry and Sunni clean, wrapped and weighed them in preparation for the freezer.  A good day for us; not so for the birds.  Oh well, life here is short but sweet.

The newest mother warming her ducklings

The older mother with her nine ducklings after being moved to the bird area

We had another Muscovy hatch some ducklings (7), her second batch this summer - she had 14 her last hatching.  When the ducks come out of the nettle forest with new ducklings I catch them all (including the mother) and put them in a separate pen with their own house, with a small water container and free choice grain. When the duckling start to get their feathers (about four weeks) I move them all back into the bird yard with everyone else.  This time she had less ducklings because I found her nest while she was still in the duckling yard of 12 eggs - no drake in this yard so the eggs were not fertilized.

Runner Beans with the summer fog rolling in

The garden is way behind this year due to a cold spring, a very cool summer, and my busy schedule.  Between working on the new chicken coop and real estate being very busy I didn't do a very good job of starting our spring vegetables this year.  I'm not very hopeful about the corn but the runner pole beans might still ripen their crop.  Cool season crops have done very well.  We had great garlic, broccoli and cauliflower crops, potatoes are yet to be dug (another couple of weeks but before the rains return), but I planted the onions late so they are way behind.

Our typical summer day this year has been fog or a low marine cloud layer every morning with afternoon sun.  The sun has been warm once it burns off the clouds with highs in the low 70's.  Yesterday was a treat with the temperature in the 80's most of  the day.

I have the third part of my beekeeping class this afternoon and several questions for the instructor.  How do I prevent swarming?  How do I combine two hives?  What are good flowers to plant for the bees?  I want to combine two of the swarms I captured late in July and I want to build a bee garden near our house.

Pooh Bear with his best friend, Surely

We are milking two of our goats and have been getting about two gallons of milk each day, 3/4 of a gallon from Alure and 1.25 gallons from Nettle.  The boys are doing well, Surely is bred (due in the beginning of January), and Pooh Bear is living with his best friends, the goats.

Our Compost entry in the Island County Fair won first prize

We entered 16 items in the Island County Fair last week and won 14 blue ribbons.  Our compost and mint won best of the show in their groups.  I watched as the judge for compost used ours as an example of how she judge compost.  We have great compost, with our garden debris, goat and chicken bedding (with manure), leaves and the debris from my landscaping business.  We have three piles, never turn them - just let them rot.