Ready for fall?

Have you started cleaning up beds yet? there is still plenty of time for another round of carrots, kale, arugula, lettuce,turnips,peas, brussel sprouts, cabbage and even potatoes.And if you spread them in mixed beds, it won;t even take a lot of room. the rest of the beds can be cleaned up, perhaps putting in a living mulch of turnips or oats or peas or whatever... or cleaned up to get ready for a layer of leaves or straw.

It turns out my mistakenly planted runner beans did a great job of covering the beds during the horrific heat. on the other hand the derecho storm managed to tear a large hole in the greenhouse, I'm going to cover the hole with greenhouse material...and use it for storing the live herbs etc- and not use it until it begins to warm up perhaps March or so.  if the winter is again mild we;ll have greens growing outside by then anyway,and put off buying a new greenhouse until next year.

the garlic bed must remain empty until we are ready to plant, but that doesn;t mean the guineas in their chicken tractor can;t work on it- eating bugs and weed seed... or that layers of compost and well aged manure, lime and minerals, cannot be spread.

The chickens are in their new home, made from a dog run( and laid on a bed of chain link, tied tightly with plastic ties) and top covered with chicken wire ..garden fence- tough, different mesh size than chain link, so makes a lovely outer skin, easier to put in than a round of hardwire along the inside, our other idea).necessary with the number of foxes coyotes dogs hawks owls and yes even possums and weasels we have here.), until we get more chicken tractors built.( that's Geena playing with them..we use lots of mulch materials...it's quite clean.later they will get up to 18 inches of leaves!) I have not enclosed the pen entirely' only a corner , the top and the back. I can drop in more tarps if it gets bitter cold, but they do so much better with fresh air, even in the cold.Point is, you don;t have to be a carpenter to make sound housing for a few chicken

And I hope the faverolles at least will keep on laying into winter. the americanas and guineas will quit at some point..I don;t wish to use lights.

Perhaps allowing the rest for the winter is for the best, the price of feed is set to absolutely soar this winter.After they molt, perhaps they won;t need as much protein or feed. I already have alternatives in mind.

right now, I can give them earthworms several times a week, once a week I boil up extra eggs and feed them crushed. shell and all. I can get dried mealworms at any bird seed store; we may consider that. other sources of protein- oatmeal or the like,boiled potatoes.. of course cool it off a bit. Bird seed mixed in with chicken feed...the millet and sunflower seeds are favorites..whole pumpkins, feeding the seeds raw and the meat and skins ( we like to use pumpkin so it may just be excess- but i can cook whole ones too) I'm gathering the green acorns into mesh onion bags- the goats get the main harvest raked off the yard, but  acorns, once dried to that lovely brown color and crushed, are excellent food.Just a handful at a time ( people are scared of overfeeding- think it is poison. I've never had a problem)

Every handful of weeds goes to the chickens, and once I begin buying alfalfa hay for the goats, they;ll get some of that too.If I make cheese, the whey will go to the chickens instead of the dogs.all veggie chicken scraps can go to the chickens ( I'm still too grossed out to feed them animal protein). It;s time to put Harvey Ussery;s excellent ideas into practice ( check out Amazon or Old Mother Earth News for his chicken book).he;s right- the world of politics weather and biosecurity are so changeable- grow your own seems like a fine practice.

Which is why I mentioned the fall garden you can grow a lot of fresh food for your family, in a limited space. Dry those herbs- or freeze them ( I pull out all stems....only freeze leaves) take the rest of your fruits, make jam or freeze or can. put up those excess tomatoes in some fashion, and if you have zucchini- freeze it, it can feed the chickens too if you don;t like it!Okra slices can be frozen for your soups or gumbos. all of these things, tiny though they seem, can help and be better for you!Or buy some good vinegar and use your lovely herbs to make gifts for friends!