The end of the Harvest, signs are everywhere...

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. Ours was very nice, Tim and I had some time off from our jobs, my dad was visiting and we just had some time to catch up. The farm yard was gifted with the left over pumpkins... 

"Cyrus" seems to be asking "Winchester" what he might think is in the trough?!

 The plants were moved out of the greenhouse and into the house. The patchouli plant was getting wilty and was happy to get inside. The counters are cleaned, everything put away until Spring...        

The bee hive was closed up for the winter and the equipment put into the bin for winter storage. This year I am trying an inverted candy board that Tim had made to seal the base. I am keeping my fingers crossed that this will help sustain them throughout the cold weather...

and with the leftover pumpkins that I grew, Pumpkin Jam is on the stove. This recipe is a three day process so I hope it's good! I also made pumpkin pie as well as Jalapeno Jelly from my garden harvest for Yule gifts for some deserving folks! So as we gear up for the next holiday, I am pleased with my harvest and look to the next one as the wheel of our year turns...

Meet "Mo"!

Today Tim and I got up at 5:30 a.m. and traveled to upstate New York to adopt this wonderful tempered ram. His previous owner recently passed and her husband is overwhelmed with the many sheep they have. His dad said his goodbyes which was sad...

 We loaded him up into our Jeep Wrangler which was totally unexpected because the brakes went on our truck yesterday and is now in the shop being repaired. Our journey was quite interesting and from time to time he would come up front and say hi!

He never once laid down and it was a 3 hour drive. He looked out the window, moved around but was very calm like he had done this before, hhhmmm...

When finally arrived, it was now time to get him out. Jeeps are not the easiest thing to unload a ram or get one into for that matter, but a little persuasion and he jumped right out. He is leash trained so it was rather uneventful, but will I ever get that smell out the Jeep??!!

So after stretching his legs, he had a good meal, some water, a worming, a hoof trim and he was ready to go.
His name is "Mocha Expresso Swirl" but we'll call him "Mo".
We decided to give him a day to get grounded before he begins to make a legacy for our farm...

Chickens molting, oh my!

Chickens molting is such a sad thing to witness and I really do believe that they are very uncomfortable when it happens. They go off their food, they hide and I really do believe there is some true discomfort there. 
The owls that we care for at the Nature Center where I work are the same way. I asked a friend who has a raptor center and she agreed with me, all birds experience some level of discomfort during molting. 
Just look at the girl in the top picture, she was one of the worse and she has been hiding and not eating well. All my girls are taking dust baths just trying to get some relief. Just think when the new feathers come in it has to be somewhat painful.
My whole flock of 15 Rhode Island reds are just a balding mess!
We are hoping for some big news this weekend and will announce it on the blog, till then appreciate those eggs, these girls really work hard for them!

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We made it through...

After a long full week with no power, no water, freezing cold temps we are back! On October 29th the State of Connecticut was hit with a historic nor'easter snow storm that knocked out power to close to 80 percent of the people of our state. The destruction was unprecedented, down power lines, trees snapped in half by a heavy snow and the weight of the trees. In the picture above, a huge sycamore leaf with debris as a tiny example...

This was one of the branches that hung from our power lines across from our animal fencing. We had snapped trees that politely missed our newly installed fencing. Not having power after what we went through in August for 5 days after Hurricane Irene was thought to be a nightmare that was long behind us. We were skilled by that storm however, so a carting water we did for the animals, fired up the wood burning stove, spent lots of time at the various family members who allowed us to shower and fed us meals. So it's back to the regular routine but we will never forget how we were challenged and how we persevered always thinking that it could be worse. However, as I type this I think of my friends who are still in the dark and are waiting for their power to be restored and my heart is heavy for them...