Just got back from a week long moose hunting trip up past Hearst Ontario. While I learned a lot, met some pretty good guys, and had a good time we unfortunately came back empty handed.

I'm glad to see that, although she is exhausted, Karen was able to keep up on all the farm chores and with Lily on her own the whole time. I know she's superwoman but it gives me some hope that I'll be able to keep up by myself should I ever have to...and I'm super pumped about how well the ISA Browns have inserted themselves into the flock and helped bring up our dropping egg production.

We still have a lot to do before winter hits. I'll be making a post on how we update and winterize the coup. How we turn over the gardens and prepare for the first raised beds next year. We've got to figure out how to prune our fruit and nut trees (and look into relocating a couple of them). I think Karen will be taking care of the berry patches and getting them ready for winter. I'm also planning on starting an asparagus bed, so if anyone knows of a good source for some started asparagus please let me know.

Thanks again for checking in and please feel free to stop by Lil Acre Farm to visit us and the Ladies.

Isa browns and their big brown eggs!

While not exactly our chicken, here is an isa brown and a photo of the BIG brown eggs they lay...I'd say like an EXTRA LARGE egg!

winter protection for raspberry plants

Looking for some insight into care of our raspberry canes for the winter.  Read a few articles which talked about bending over the canes and covering the tips in dirt...for some reason this sounds difficult to me and I worry about breaking the canes.  Any thoughts?  I read other articles that say prune them before winter and others that say prune in April....
Although they grow wild all the time and they still produce tasty fruit, so maybe I'm just over thinking it all.

eggs galore!

The new chickens are definitely doing there job, getting 12 - 20 eggs per day!  They're definitely also encouraging the original ladies to step up their game!
Found some lettuce sprouting with the warm weather we had this weekend and passed it onto the ladies yesterday, they were pretty pumped about it!
Currently in process of doing some research regarding setting up the coop for winter...any suggestions are appreciated!

6 new chickens!

We picked up 6 new hens last night from a local farmer near Harrow, ON.  We think that they're Isa Browns, but don't know for sure as the farmer described them as "brown chickens that lay brown eggs"....hahaha.  I am amazed at how people friendly they are, letting us pet them and carry them.  Also great layers, so far have gotten 4 LARGE brown eggs from them this morning.  Noticing they're tending to stick to the inside coup, but perhaps that will change, as they are coming from an inside environment.  Pictures to follow!
Also to note, I am amused by what the chickens are enjoying eating...so far loving bananas!!

Lots of work!

Spent most of the weekend out and about in the yard.  Spent Saturday working on the coup, added a bunch more straw after all of the wet weather we had.  Also moved a bunch of the branches around in the coup to allow the ladies to perch a little bit higher and enjoy the view!  Realized the old home owner was a bit of a pack rat and spent a lot of time cleaning in the coup storage and workshop area....so many egg cartons...so many buckets...
Also spent most of Sunday in the yard.  Lots to clean up as we move towards the warmer weather.  Finding the clearing out of the gardens to be a looonnnngggg task, especially clearing all the tomato plants.  Definitely have a lot to do...
Also after doing some reading online I've discovered that marigolds assist with a nice yellow yolk in the eggs, so since we have hundreds of marigolds planted around the gardens have started feeding the ladies some flowers with their veggies.  Also read online about dehydrating the flowers and adding them to the food in the winter...so, something else I have to find the time to do.  Anyone free on a weekend and want to help???  haha
Finally, have been looking into some winter care of our fruit bushes/plants, strawberries and raspberries.  So far have decided to cover the strawberries plants in about 6 inches of straw.  Struggling with finding suggestions to winter the raspberry bushes...any suggestions?

Giant Sunflowers!

Thanks to Our Farm Organics in Cottam and our farm share with them we picked up 25 GIANT sunflower heads for the ladies.  We are currently drying them and hope the ladies will enjoy them on the cold winter days.  It is amazing the organization of the sunflower...not sure if you can see it in the pics but the seeds are shockingly jammed in there....:)