sweet hazel

The evening of our halloween party, we noticed Hazel making her way slowly to the coop, long after the crowd had piled in. Dante went to her and she didn't run away -- first sign of trouble. He said she didn't seem right, and brought her to me. I tucked her inside my coat for a little bit to warm her up as it was a brisk night, and she fell asleep. Second sign of trouble. Normally she would have been struggling to get away. Having guests to feed and entertain, we put hazel in the coop and I figured I'd keep an eye on her the next day. Sadly, when Dante went out to the coop the next morning, he found poor little Hazel's cold body on the floor of the coop. We buried her out in the back near the compost heap, a particularly popular area of the yard. Dante and Lucia made a lovely gravestone and decorated it with fall flowers and berries. Goodbye Hazel :o(

Since all of the chickens we've lost have been "Dante's" Lucia decided to share Little Tink (the last chick born from our incubator -- Hazel was one of the first two incubator babies out) with him. Feeling low from Hazel's demise, Dante brought Little Tink in to snuggle for a while. She enjoyed the cornbread crumbles still under the chair from our little friend Ben's meal at the party the night before. But she was too distracted by the strange state of being back inside the house, so after a little while, we released her back into the wild. I love her puffy auracana cheek muffs...

molty chickens

These pics are from just before Halloween, but I thought you'd enjoy shots of our poor hens losing all their feathers and replacing them with a gorgeous new set in a span of a few weeks. Tomorrow, if they brave the snow, I'll shoot some finshed product shots so you can see. But for now, rags before riches.

Izzy

Clover

And Bandit

autumn apples

What's that, you wonder, that they're doing to that branch? Why, putting the recently-dead shrew that they've discovered in the grass on it for easier observation. Need I add that said shrew journeyed home with us and is now buried out in the backyard? Next year, Dante will harvest more than carrots -- he'll also dig up the skeletons of a wide assortment of animals. This shrew has a mouse, several birds, a toad, and a squirrel to keep him company. Not to mention the pheasant I spotted on the side of the road across from the pheasant farm on our way home from the Coventry Craft Fair... that poor bird gets buried tomorrow if the promised warm weather thaws the soil enough. Anyway, close up below -- see his cute little tail?

soap, salve and salad

We'd been trying to get everything out of the garden before the real frost hit, and Dante scrounged up the last of the carrots for the salad he was making. In fact, he made dinner entirely that night -- whoo hoo!


We made up a batch of basic soap, and Dante did most of the measuring, but the soap was already cured too much for him to make much headway with the knife.

Again, in the race to harvest before winter, he found the last, hardy plantains from our yard to make a salve. Plantain, while regarded as a pretty pernicious weed, is actually a miracle plant. If you get stung, chew up some leaves, spit the mash out and put it on the sting and it will take care of it. You can make a wash of it for poison ivy, and the salve he made (with olive oil and beeswax) will help cuts heal quickly.

shroom hike

We went to our friends' house for a walk in the wet woods to see what shrooms we could find. These were among the most interesting of the pictures that came out. And this winter, I need to learn how the macro feature of my camera works...

lulu's first!

Prowling about the yard, turning over rocks and logs, Lucia found her first red backed salamander. She came in, so proud that she had no help at all in finding this treasure. She demanded a photo shoot and posed him on the pumpkin. Can you tell from the short sleeves that I'm finally cycling through some photos from this fall? I'm hoping to get back on the posting wagon... sorry, Maria, for the delay.

soccermania

I finally remembered to bring the camera to Dante's last soccer game, and caught him in and out of goal:

evidently both he and I were a little late to get the ball...

Luke's parents made it up for the weekend, and came to the game.