Characters of the Week: Meet Fred and Ginger

Sometimes, who can resist a "Free Kittens" sign along the road?

We had traveled to Olean on the day before Heather's birthday and on the way I saw the "Free Kittens" sign. For some reason Fitz and I had traveled up separately - Fitz with the kids and me alone. We talked secretly about getting a kitten as a surprise and decided I would pick it up on the way home.

When I got there, the kittens lived in squalor and I couldn't resist taking a brother and sister pair. I didn't know that they were half wild until after I got them home!

Fitz was working out in the garden, and as I walked out with the two kittens in my arms I decided to hide them behind my back. Just as I whisked them around, Fitz looked up and said, "oh no, I didn't see TWO tails!" I laughed and introduced him to Fred and Ginger.

These two little kittens did not want to be touched or seen. They hid out in our garage until one day Ginger decided she adored us and she is the sweetest little kitten you every did see - Ginger, the lover. Fred has not completely warmed up, though we still hold out hope. He is our wild, playful, and mischievousness, kitty - Fred, the hunter.



Fred - Sassy!




Ginger - Sweet!


That pesky hawk seems to have found new hunting grounds, Whew!

5 eggs

Landscaping Challenge

I have a pesky hawk that keeps pestering my chickens!

Believe it or not, in this busy life, I sometimes get behind on things : ) . I haven't been able to even look at my front garden in months and boy was it overgrown. Saturdays are the day I try to work on landscaping or house maintenance rather than garden work.

Today I decided to tackle the area in front of my house. It was so overgrown with weeds I was embarrassed! So after a full day of work:

Before:
(Those white flowers are a weed!)












And I have a few more hours to finish with mulching and clean up tomorrow, but here's the after:

Blueberry Hill

A skunk came by for a visit last night. I was watching a late night movie when I suddenly realized the skunk smell in the house was strong enough to make my eyes water. The dogs started barking their heads off and running around like they thought I was crazy enough to let them go outside!

John was away at a friend's house all day and Heather and I decided to check our bees over at the blueberry patch and pick some blueberries.





The bees were going in and out of the hive nicely, but sadly, it's not a very good season for blueberries. I don't know if the caterpillars or the frost got them, but there weren't too many left and we gleaned more than we picked this year. We finished with 8.8 pounds of blueberries for the freezer.

Coming along

I'm hoping to have enough vegetables to be able to go to the Farmer's Market next Saturday, August 14th. I had to put in my garden late this year because I had to wait for the high tunnel to be finished. I couldn't even plant outside because the outside garden is right next to the high tunnel and would have been trampled in the process of putting on the plastic. But finally, finally I'm starting to see some results!

I've pulled radishes and lots of basil. The parsley is coming along well. I've found that watermelons LOVE high tunnels and may plant more next year. Beans have gone crazy. They're loaded with flowers and I hope to start picking beans very soon. Cucumbers are loaded. There's a lot more and it's all coming along great!

My tomatoes are loaded with green tomatoes and I'm doing a bunch of pruning to encourage them to turn red. I'm just crossing my fingers that the late blight doesn't get them. I swear I'll be sick! I'll take most of the cherry, Beefsteak and Brandywine tomatoes to the Farmer's Market, but the Romas are all mine and will be made into loads of lovely tomato sauce, tomato paste, ketchup, barbecue sauce (do you know I found only one barbecue sauce that didn't list high fructose corn syrup as the first ingredient? It tasted horrible!) and other tomato-ey products.



I got a butcher date of October 25th for the piggies today. Now I have to feed, feed, feed them!

4 eggs

Fair Days

Because today was my birthday - I won't tell you what year - I took the day off and the kids and I went to the County Fair. There's just something about a small country fair you gotta love.

Maybe it's the animals?













Or the food?







The rides are a lot of fun...





And I really do enjoy all of the displays...













But best of all...










I love.....









Watching my kids have fun!





6 eggs