Spoiled Chickens — Bok's Cocks

Life gets pretty busy on the homestead, especially as a new school year gets cranking. The overlap between school winding up and the garden winding down can be a bit insane.

We have pickles. Lots of pickles. The last of the garden-variety (non-pickling) cucumbers have been plucked from the vine and pickled, and all three varieties of cucumber vines have been cleared out of the beds. About half of the boxes are now empty.

The corn is done. Unfortunately, we missed the peak and the corn had begun to dry on the stalk. Once the official dog decided that those cobs looked like toys, it was time to take action. Corn was rescued for another use and the stalks are cleaned out and drying in the brush pile for the next bonfire.

The sunflowers that son #2 selected and planted have bloomed, faded and begun to be picked clean by the birds. While I enjoy watching birds as much as the next person, I have bird-related plans of another sort for those sunflowers.

The fall-bearing raspberries that have been giving us meager fruit all summer long are beginning to bear fruit in earnest. We did not expect many berries this year, but I have been picking, rinsing and freezing those raspberries a (small) cupful at a time, and I anticipate that I will soon have enough to make the raspberry jam that Andy has been pining for all summer (he’s just not into that cherry jam I canned earlier this summer).

I enjoyed a spectacular tomato canning fail. I managed to turn twelve pounds of tomatoes into one single pint of tomato juice. I was attempting to make tomato sauce. Live, learn and buy a food mill. And maybe a pressure cooker. I’m watching the current batch of still-green tomatoes on the vines with anticipation….

Not one to waste things from the garden, I have been drying and freezing those overripe corn and sunflower seeds. I have approximately 15 cups of dried corn kernels and sunflower seeds in the freezer, waiting for the dreariest of winter days to treat the chickens. Those girls are so spoiled. But at least the corn isn’t.

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