an abundance of green tomatoes

 

With the early frosts we've had, my tomato plants got hit hard, leaving me with an abundance of unripened tomatoes.  As in, a full garden wagon and two 5-gallon buckets full of unripened tomatoes.   

 

While I would have loved for all of these heirloom beauties to have ripened and blessed me with tomato sauce, juice, and salsa, I wasn't about to let the green ones go to waste.

 

After much chopping and mixing and cooking and canning, I managed to put several quarts of green-tomato goodies in the pantry this weekend.

 

I pickled the cherry tomatoes, made pie filling from the mortgage lifters, relish from the genovese, and jam from whatever was left over.  I still have a good 20 pounds to use up, as well as a shelf-full of some that look like they might turn red for me.

 

Though I hated to spend such a gorgeous weekend inside chopping tomatoes, I am happy to have this bounty tucked away for colder days.

How was your weekend?  Hope your week gets off to a good start.

and then there were... 8?

 

My little Goose-man has found his place in the flock.  Happily, he joined the group with less stress than I imagined.   The other ducks were extremely welcoming and once he got over his initial fear, things went... well, swimmingly.  He still comes to me and begs to be picked up and cuddled though, which I am more than happy to do.  

Since that went so easily I thought, "hey, why not add another dynamic to the homestead?  We're short on chaos at the moment."

 

Enter the darkwing duck trio.  These are Cayuga ducks and were in need of a home where they could swim and do duck-like things so I brought them home with me.  I've wanted Cayugas so it seemed meant to be.

 

Can you see that iridescent shine?  Pretty, aren't they?

 

As I had hoped, they started swimming and doing duck-like things immediately.

 

The regular crew shuffled in to see who these interlopers were in their pond and I was ready to intervene if needed.  I thought for a moment I heard them snapping their fingertips as they approached, but no.

 

Much to my relief, there wasn't any conflict at all.  The Cayugas just filed out as the Pekins and Runner filed in, and went over to the other pond.

  

I'm sure they'll figure it all out and form a lovely little salt and pepper flock soon.  That ebony and ivory song is in my head... "live together in perfect harmony..."

Have a harmonious Wednesday, all.

on chickens

I introduced a new roo to the flock yesterday.  Our old rooster, Big Boy, had been attacked by a stray dog a few weeks ago and has never been able to recover.  He seemed to be on the mend at first, the feathers were growing back in, his comb scarred over, and he limped less but he recently took a turn for the worse.  He was no longer able to walk without obvious pain and spent his day standing, tail and head tucked down, near the coop door.  He no longer foraged or serviced his ladies.  For a rooster, this is no way to live life and I could no longer allow him to suffer.

Carlos, the new roo, was introduced to the flock slowly.  A freebie from craigslist, he came from a home where dogs and ducks ran free, which worked out perfectly for us.  Still, I wanted to be cautious about how I added him to the flock.  The first night he spent in a cage near the flock so they could get used to him.  The second morning I sprinkled seed in his cage and around his cage so they could eat communally.  When they all seemed calm, I opened the cage and let him out.  As predicted, Red, who is our HCIC (head chick in charge) let him know who exactly was running this flock.

She's a sassy little redhead, this one.  What she lacks in body size, she makes up for in attitude.  If I don't deliver the feed fast enough in the morning, it's Red giving me a peck on the back of the leg to hurry me along.

The fight needed to happen but I was ready to step in should it get out of hand.  They needed to determine the (literal) pecking order, and I hoped it would be Carlos.  He asserted himself during the brief tussle but from an outsider's view, Red won that fight.  Carlos shook himself off and after a little bit of sulking, rejoined the flock, hanging at the outer edges.  He became more comfortable as the day went on, and I was pleased to see him protect the flock by growling a warning as a raven flew over head, sending the girls running for cover.  By night he was up on the roost surrounded by his ladies and life in the flock was as it should be.

Big Boy was sent to the big sleep on the same day that the eggs in the incubator were set to hatch.  Sadly, not a one has pipped and I fear the whole batch is a loss.  Given Big Boy's iffy "abilities" and an incubator that was giving me fits, we didn't start out with the greatest odds.  If Carlos manages to convince the rest of the girls that he's the man, we'll try again in a few weeks.

As romantic as it can seem, these lovely birds wandering about, scratching and pecking bugs, the reality of keeping chickens isn't always so.  They come with responsibility, and illness, and injury, and death, and lots of poop, but for me it's worth the work and occasional heartbreak. 

I guess it was a good thing I was feeling like superman yesterday, and I should really try to feel invincible every day, because you never know what life is going to throw at you.

fluffy

I have decided that today will be a great day, so I am starting it with fluffiness.

The upside of being in charge of the feeding and cleaning duties for our new friends is that I get to hold them for a second while I'm doing it.  Yes, they kept me up with their peep-peep-peeping last night but c'mon, look how cute they are. 

I hope your day is fluffy too.

Have a great weekend.

wordless wednesday

it's officially love

It must be, we've dug them a pond.

Our new feathered friends were given a new pen this weekend, complete with swimming facilities.

We enlarged their run, hanging hawk netting over the top to help keep them safe from unwanted flying visitors.

Husband dug a pond and layed a liner down.  While functional, it isn't exactly pretty, but I'm working on it.

I surrounded their coop with cement blocks to help keep digging visitors out.  The blocks are filled with dirt and will be planted with lettuce soon, for the ducks nibbling pleasure.

I've only gotten one small corner of the pond landscaped with rocks, but it's a start.  I planted some snakegrass at the water's edge for a little pond-like atmosphere.  Over the next few weeks I'll finish the rocks, and I also plan to bring in a log and some more water plants.  I don't think the ducks care one lick, but it makes me happy to have a pretty pond for them to swim in.

When we filled up the pond and let the ducks go, they headed right to it, cautiously stepping in, then erupting in happy quacks.  They dove, and splashed, and frolicked.  Seriously, these guys were frolicking!  It's the first time they've ever swum and they took to it like... well, you know the saying.  We all laughed at their antics and I got a little welled up at how happy they were.  We laughed even harder when we let some minnows go in the pond.  Henry, Loretta, and Barbara were butt-up trying to catch them.  Carl supervised.

They seem to spend at least half of their day in the water.  Remember that the Pekins were this dingy white on Friday?

Just check out Henry now.  Sparkling white.

I hope they're as happy here as we are to have them.

duck!

That's right.  Duck.  Or, ducks, to be exact.

We expanded our little homestead by four yesterday.  We had planned to get some ducklings this year but when we heard the sad news that our little local hatchery was going out of business and selling off their breeding stock, we changed our plans a little.

I stopped over and picked up three Pekin ducks, a boy and two girls that we hope will breed and produce eggs.  I also brought home a runner duck just because I've always wanted one and I couldn't resist.  He's the shy splotchy one in the first photo.  He runs, rather than waddles, and walks more upright than other ducks.  He sort of looks like a bowling pin.  I'm sure there will be lots of photos once he gets a little more comfortable around us.

I wasn't planning on having new members of the family so soon, so I made a makeshift run in the unfinished coop that we planned to use for new chicks.  They didn't seem to mind, but you could see their bills watering when they got an eyeful of the green sprouts popping up in the lawn just outside their fence  Soon I'll finish the chicken tractor so they can forage safely in the yard.  (ducks are hawk-magnets here so they can't wander unattended just yet)

Though they are not tame like our chickens, they weren't aggressive when we picked them up, or when my youngest invaded their living quarters.  Given that she is always carrying the chickens around, the ducks should probably get used to the idea now.

The skinnier chickens have already figured out that they can squeeze under the coop and get into the ducks' pen, a flaw that will be corrected today, and helped themselves to the ducks' food.  Greedy little things.  After a food and water re-fill the ducks were contentedly nibbling away, and life was peaceful.

I'm looking forward to getting to know these little guys.  I've already fallen a little in love.