Muddy

The last couple of autumns/winters here have been relatively dry.  A bit of rain, but enough clear spells to keep the ground fairly dry for the most part.  So far this has been a wet month, more like what I've been used to.  There has been some bad flooding near us, but we are thankfully on the side of a hill and not very close to any rivers.

But the lawn is very sad right now, having been scalped by our numerous fowl it looks like small individual blades of (short) grass in a sea of mud.  I'm not letting those birds back on it for the foreseeable future.  People are not allowed to walk on it either:  we put down some boards from the patio to one of the chicken yard gates (the other gate has stepping stones already).

And the chicken yard is also sad now, with about a third of it just a mud bath--and let's be honest, most of that mud isn't actual mud:  we all know what it really is.  Three weeks ago we put down 3/4 of a straw bale which kept their feet clean-ish for two weeks.  They had to go an extra week on the not-mud while we searched for a new bale (our old feed shop has closed down), but we've got one and they have enjoyed tearing the it apart and spreading it around.  One chicken in particular needs straw as mud forms clumps on her feathery toes.

The husband went to do some more sheet mulching at the allotment and says he was just sinking in.  I definitely want soft soil there, but I don't want him bringing it all home on his boots!  Our plot is on a slight downward slope, but the ones across from us are lower and face a slope going back up, which means they're prone to standing water;  at least we're not that muddy (luckily they're not either right now). 

Chicken tonight

Well, at the weekend we killed two of our young cockerels;  both are plucked,  dressed and in the fridge.  We'll do the other three this coming weekend.

It's kind of a big job for us still, though we're getting better at it.  I guess part of it is the anticipation (or is it dread)--it's an emotional job.  But it also requires at least a full hour from start to finish;  the kill generally takes less than a minute but plucking takes ages.

Regardless, I've been saying for weeks that I'm looking forward to fried chicken.  I think we all are.  We'll eat one this week and freeze the other, and probably freeze the coming three until after the Thanksgiving* leftovers are gone.

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*Chicken for Thanksgiving?  It was suggested but rejected.  Last year's Australorp/Orpington cockerels could have passed for small turkeys;  these guys are much smaller.  We'll still make them into celebratory meals though, and will use every last bit (we buried their heads and intestines, but everything else will be cooked, including feet in the stockpot).

The Official End of the Vegetable Challenge

As I wrote previously, I broke the Vegetable Challenge a month early this year, only achieving six months total without buying any vegetables (the goal was seven).  Thankfully, the national state of affairs has proved my precautions as yet unneeded, although we may very well be panic buying vegetables again in January, when Brexit is now postponed to.  Still, I doubt I'll be starting next year's Challenge that early, so I won't be breaking my own rules in doing so.

That said, even though I broke the letter of the Challenge, I still followed the spirit and we did not eat any of the bought vegetables until the official end date last week:  we dried them, froze them, stashed them in the cupboard but did not eat them.  We could have followed letter of the Challenge to the official end very painlessly, and even beyond.  There are still fresh greens in the garden, and we have plenty of stored and preserved garden veg, fruit and nuts, which should in all honesty last us till the end of the month, if not the year.

I don't regret breaking the Challenge in this way, despite proving unnecessary.  I will be buying and storing extra food for the time being, as well as trying to grow and store as much as my own as possible.

Food totals, October 2019

Vegetables:

33 oz cherry tomatoes
29.5 oz chard
20.5 oz runner beans
89 oz potatoes (incomplete)
7.5 oz zuccini
4.5 oz celery
15.5. oz cabbage
10 oz achocha

Total: 209.5 oz, or 13 lb 1.5 oz
Note:  I weigh all my vegetables after preparation:  peeling, trimming, etc.  Does not include some fresh herbs which were too small a quantity to weigh, i.e. less than 0.5 oz.

Fruit:

175 almonds
17 yellow raspberries

Eggs:

Total: 74 eggs from 12 hens and 2 ducks
Total feed bought: 2 bags layers pellets (40 kg), 2 bags mixed corn (40 kg)

Preserves:

10 medium jars dehydrated apples (wild harvested)
2 medium jars dehydrated carrots (bought carrots)
2 medium jars dehydrated parsnips (bought parsnips)

Homebrew:

10 L apple cider vinegar begun (from wild harvested apples)
1 L apple cider vinegar still fermenting