A Choosing Time

Wow this came so fast.  I am calling this time on our tiny homestead A Choosing Time. I am guessing there will be more than one.

Choosing Chickens: 

We have had to choose our chickens.  5 Cockerels/Roosters went back to our wonderful breeder including the ever-fun foster chick I *rescued* at Recreation Park.   He was clearly a rooster from the beginning but we enjoyed him a great deal while he was here.  We may have one more that will have to be returned and one that may come back as time tells us more clearly who is hen and who is cockerel.  For now, we are down to 4 chickens and our coop and pen are much much quieter.  The hens are deciding on the new roosting options now that they have more room.  They were scared the first couple days, opting to stay in the coop tempted by their favorite treat, sour clover.


Choosing for New Crops and Next Year:

I have learned a great deal in just this few months about what has been successful in our gardens.  Good news: not many looser crops so far.  Bad News: I want more of everything and thus need more gardening space.  We are loving our large cache of Kale.  Love it.  I want to specialize in Dinosaur Kale but I will see how it goes over the winter.  Swiss Chard...lovely!  It is a big hit with us.  As a plant, it is a heavy feeder but I think we can handle that.

Along adding to the volume of the things I like, I want to try a bunch of new crops: Patty Pan Squash, Pumpkins, Potatoes and I want to try mushrooms. 


The next project will be to close the ends of our gardens in with more gardens to get the space I want. 



And Some Good News:

Obie was allowed to keep his tail for now.  The cyst/abscess nasty thing began to heal nicely in the time between the diagnosis and the scheduled surgery date.  Given the choice, I  opted not to hack it off.  That said, if it gets infected again, we're back to that question.  He did have two large cysts removed and did get the world's worst haircut but he has done surprisingly well. He does insist on walking our block clockwise so his naked patches don't show to the street. He is now back to being our 87lb rabbit eating sunflower leaves, lettuce and strawberries when he gets the chance.