A farm report

Well, not really a "farm" report, but a little update on the goings on around here. 

Walter is loving kindergarten. He runs out to me after school with a big smile on his face and tells me he's "exhausted." And then continues to skip to the car and jabber on about this and that, filling me in on his day. I love picking him up from school. I love his energy. 

He's got soccer and swimming keeping him busy two nights a week, and those activities have given me a little extra knitting time. Knitting during chilly soccer nights is a great way to keep my lap warm. I've been working on a sweater and it's been slow going, but I finally feel like I'm getting somewhere. Just a couple of sleeves and a waistband to go!

The honey has been harvested and the bees have been put away for the winter. The harvest was smaller this year, only about 7.5 gallons, compared to last year's 10 gallons. Ramona was weak all summer long so we didn't take any honey from her. Both hives have plenty of honey left to keep them going through the winter. We'll see if they are strong enough to make it. Time will tell.

Molly is the same old Molly. Her hair has grown back from her summer cut and she's dropping tumbleweeds of fur all over the house again. 

The chickens are doing well. Black Licorice is finally off the nest – done being broody for now. We've got some molting and our egg production has been down a bit, but we hear that is all normal fall chicken activity. Susan, the owner of Cluck, the chicken store down the road, has been a great resource to us. We often go to her with our chicken questions and concerns. And she's taken a liking to Walter. She even let him name the new chicks she's been keeping at the store. "Friendly" and "Dorothy Vader" are pictured below. If you're in the area, visit Cluck! It's a really cute store selling all sorts of chicken supplies and chicken art, including some fun metal pieces made by the Billmeyer artists, Jim and Nate. 

We've already done a little pumpkin picking and carving, and since this pumpkin is already covered in mold, we plan to do some more this weekend too. Did you know that chickens love pumpkin guts? 

In the home improvement category, we can finally check the driveway off the list. Brand new asphalt makes for a fabulous biking surface. Nate's on the hunt for a new basketball hoop now that we have space and a flat surface.

And, I saved the most exciting news for last – Nate has qualified to run the Boston Marathon! Whoop! Whoop! Nate ran the St. George Marathon in Utah on Oct. 5 and finished with a time of 3:07:14. (To qualify for Boston he needed to finish in under 3:10.) He's been training hard for the last, um… well, a really long time, and managed to take 20 (TWENTY!) minutes off his previous marathon time. That's a LOT of hard work. We're excited to head to Boston in 2015. 

(Thanks for the photo, Jim!)

That's the news from our homestead. How's the fall been treating you?