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No, I hadn’t forgotten about y’all. Every day I have been composing wee stories in my head for you as I busy myself around the chickens, the run, and the garden but LIFE! kinda gets in the way of sitting down and passing them along to you.
David has started Big School which requires him getting up extremely early. That doesn’t affect us much until the tiredness at the other end of the day catches up with him and he becomes the most horrible child ever while trying to finish off homework. I think I have done more homeworks with him in the past month than I ever did in my own High School career. Between getting home, doing homeworks, trying to get to bed at a decent time every night, and doing LIFE! etc – time flies and yea, ok, I forgot about you. Sorry.
In chicken news, we hardly see the girls now. I spend the usual 15-30 minutes with them in the mornings but now the darker nights are here, they have put themselves to bed by the time we get home. They sit blinking at me when I open the doors to count them before shutting the pop-hole and I have to admit, on more than one occasion I have thrown corn for them in the hope they will come out and play with me for a few minutes. I can’t keep doing that as the nights get earlier but I do feel that we are losing touch with each other ever so slightly.Will they even remember who I am?
About 3 weeks ago they were up to 4 eggs a day. Then suddenly they went down to 1 egg with just Sydney laying. Then for the past week there have been NO eggs at all. I have 2 sitting in my Egg Skelter which I am almost afraid to use as they may be the LAST EVER! Am hoping it doesn’t continue like this all through the winter – I was expecting 2 a day with the two hybrids producing, knowing the pure breeds would stop but NONE?! Hummpph.
The grass seed we put down is now good long grass but the *lawn* area is so wet we can’t get it cut. It isn’t very thick yet and would be easily scratched up. There is no way we could let the girls out on it yet – so they haven’t had any free ranging for ages – I have had to give them extra grit to make up for it.
In apple news, I continue to make the most gorgeous apple crumbles from the windfalls. The small tree has more or less finished but there is still plenty of fruit on the larger tree. Sooner or later I am going to have to get on the ladders and pick these but I don’t think they will store too well so there may be loads frozen or given away.Or we may have to eat nothing but apple for a week.
I am so pleased with the amount the trees have produced that I would seriously consider putting another tree in the garden. I have a nectarine tree which is massive but produces nothing. It could very quickly be removed to make way for another apple tree.
Oh oh oh – so far I have made two bottles of Apple Schnapps after following this recipe. It is incredibly easy to make but takes 3 months to finish so I don’t know a. if I have done it right yet or b. if anyone will like it! I could make loads more but we don’t have copious amounts of vodka lying around. Any more.
Looking back at the photos the other chap took, I think I may have crammed far too much apple in to mine!