Spiders have a life on the farm. They are in the barn, in the window sills, in the corner, in the chicken coop, you name it and they have staked their claims. I love spiders. They help keep down the fly population in summer. Anything that keeps flys down is good in my book. This one was in the bathroom window. The key thing to keep in mind is that she was on the outside. That's a good thing too. The weather is getting cooler and the leaves have already lost their color and fell to the ground. Fall is here and on its way out. Winter is reminding us that it's not far away. The folks in "The County" (an area north of us near the Canadian border) have already had 6 inches of snow last week. In Maine you are either born here or are "from away". When you don't understand something and ask a Mainer about it, they get a twinkle in their eye and a slight mile on their face and say "Oh, that's ok, you don't know, you're from away". I'm from away. I love Maine and Mainers too. I was sitting here looking at pictures from this summer and thought I would try and post them on Blogspot. It taint easy folks. I have to put the pictures on first in reverse order then type. Isn't there an easier way? Anyhow, here are some highlights of our summer. I hope you enjoy.

My daughter, Sue, and I went to Frelsi Farm to put a deposit on the sheep that we will be getting next year. They were so sweet. This ram was bottle fed and very loving. We spent the day traveling back roads and enjoying each others company. We stopped for lunch at "The Yankee Smoakhouse" barbecue. It was so yummy.

Alex, T and I went strawberry picking. Greed is a bad thing. We picked 19 quarts and they were divided between preserves and berries in the freezer for later this winter. We did give 2 quarts to the neighbors.

Maine has a wild life. No, not the one of clubs, bright lights and dancing. This beautiful girl came up one afternoon while we were working on the back of the house. She was curious about what we were up to. She kept easing closer and closer. By late afternoon she was laying in the grass about 200 ft away. People were stopping and taking pictures. A real traffic jam. In Maine two cars are a traffic jam. Anyhow, we went to work that evening and the next morning when we got home we had moose tracks by the back door. She had came all the way up to the house. I bet the cats had a spazz.

This summer we decided to let the chickens out of the coop. So far so good. Samson our main Roo looks out for our hens. He is such a handsome devil. Makes the hens swoon.

Most places have guard dogs, we have a guard cats. This is Oreo watching this hen very closely. He never bothers her. The cats think that the chickens are more powerful than they let on.

The girls are now free range during the day. We have 45 Barred Rock Hens. We are getting about 32-36 eggs a day. You may ask what we do with all those eggs. Well, we try to sell what we can at work. We give neighbors and family eggs. Actually we push eggs on everyone in shouting distance. They are all locking their doors when we stop by. Hmm. We have all the makings to build and paint a sign, EGGS FOR SALE, and Alex is a wonderful artist too. However, time is not on our side. When the masterpiece gets done I will take a picture of it and post. We take the left over eggs to the homeless shelter in Bangor. These wonderful people provide 3 meals a day and have no food budget. Everything is donated. The white roo in this pic is named "The Captain". He is for entertainment only. He doesn't lay any eggs, picks on all humans except T. He decided to make friends with T and then T wouldn't let us send him to the butcher with the rest of his brethren. He is the size of a turkey now and pushy as all get out. I keep threatening him with the roasting pot but I think he knows better.

At night the girls and Samson (the mostest handsome roo) go back in the coop for safety and warmth. It is getting chilly in Maine now. I hope you have enjoyed this update. We have been working a lot at the hospital and hence work on the house has slowed a bit. We will try to post more often. I will definitely work on posting pictures. I feel there has to be an easier way. Take care and everyone have a peaceful night and remember to Vote. We need everyone to be there.

Kelly

Small Accomplisments

Well, here we are in June. The kitchen cabinets are finally done and we have just confirmed that,as suspected, the outside kitchen wall has NO insulation. Not a good thing in Maine. So our next project (as if we needed a new one) is to tear down the crappy hardboard over old wallboard (like30's or 40's judging by the wallpaper) and put in insulation bats. Understand these will not fit. Our studs vary from 32 to 46 inches apart and are made of trees. Then we can put up new wall board that will be custom fit because the floors are not square to the walls. Actually, nothing on this farm is square.
This afternoons accomplishments included setting up for the roosters to go to butchering in two weeks. A good thing because they are starting to crow and get all roostery, pushy and pecky. Time to go to the freezer! The heat followed by days of rain has seen all our tomato and pepper plants done in. The corn has not even come up. I may try some more tomatoes but it is getting late in the season to start and the whole garden thing is pretty discouraging. Maybe next year when we get a chance to do something with the soil in the garden it will be better. We are in Maine so we mostly raise rocks. Then we surround them with clay that is either dust or sticky muck and has no organic content . Hired someone to roto-till and find it goes only 3 inches down after 3 days of work. Add seeds and get what? More rocks in neater rows. I need to find manure and not the kind I get at work.
Ted spent the last two days trying to fix our neighbors lawn tractor which we borrow. But it still eats belts at $37 a pop. And the lawn is now 1/2 the height of the hay. Maybe we'll just hay the lawn.
Confirmed the 3 ewes for this winter. They will be AI bred before they arrive and Elaine at Frelsi Farm has promised to help us with the selection of ramAI stuff as we know from nothing. Less than nothing. Still in the "Oh how cute that lamb is "stage. How will we know if our lambs are good when we think all lambs are great.
Kelly's granddaughter Jasmine, 5 has taken to naming the bugs as they get in the back door. We have these huge iridescent beetles. She has called one Jimmy as in "Jimmy is in my bedroom and now I can't go in. Come help me" She told me a couple of nights ago that Jimmy's cousin Timmy Turner was trying to get in the kitchen window, pounding on the screen. Beetles have last names?
OK The new predator wasps are on the compost pile, the flowers are planted in the front yard with the new stone wall under slow construction, the lilacs are all just about done, tulips gone lilies not yet budded. We are still just at the beginning of summer here. But the days are long now this far north. Sun up well before 4 and still light at 830. Not that we always see it. Very few windows in the ICU and we work nights. This Post written by Alex.