It has been the weather of July lately, but some decidedly October weather is on its way.
Here is a little autumn chicken picture for you.
I spent a good part of yesterday clearing out my vegetable garden. The girls enjoyed some rutabaga greens.
As well, they received the last dregs of the tomatoes.
They will happily convert all of this into eggs for us. (Except for that brown chicken, she hasn't laid an egg in about three years!)
This is what I salvaged and I'm done, completely done. I don't care if I don't see another tomato for months. The mystery vine turned out to be spaghetti squash (from some that I threw in the compost months earlier).
I'm not even sure what those squash are like on the inside, hopefully o.k.
Today we have a technician to come and finalize wiring and set up a proper working internet system in our old house. We recently had an excruciating ten rounds with two providers as we were not happy with losing services and the amount we were paying, only to find out the other provider couldn't even get us internet here. Reliable internet in rural Ontario is still not a given for everyone. We have a choice between two providers. That's it. And neither one is inexpensive or perfect. In order to save some money, we finally dropped our land line. I know, most people who have crawled out of the dinosaur ages have already dropped their land lines ages ago, but change is hard for some (cough husband cough!!). Our problem is due to the physical nature of our home with an addition built on with double brick old walls and a big expanse of metal roof over a car port in between. Our son is in the addition, and in order for him to have a strong enough, fast enough signal, hard wiring has to be put in, and boosters, and other such stuff that I'm not sure I fully understand. Husband and son pulled through some wiring last weekend in order to prepare.
So how are the other gardeners on here? All done for the season? Anyone else done battle with Bell in rural Canada?
I love your chicken photos.
ReplyDeleteOur garden is pretty much winding down, but I'm hopeful we'll have a little bit of a fall garden if we can just get some rain.
Ironically it just started to rain here (pour actually). I was just feeding the burn barrel!
DeleteIs it normal for chickens to stop laying as they get older?
ReplyDeleteOh yes. Commercial layer hens are replaced frequently ( not sure but I think every year to two years - somebody may correct me on that). But every chicken just gets to live out her life here, laying or not.
DeleteDon't even mention Bell in my husband's hearing! We have gone Star Link and are happy with it and VOP phone. Hate to encourage Musk to put up more satellites, obscuring the night sky, but Bell is the only other choice here.
ReplyDeleteYanking out stuff in the garden, except the bloomers, as there are still active insects. The end is in sight, and I will be SO glad for it!
We can have Bell or Eastlink. I reminded husband that there was a reason we left Bell about 20 years ago!
DeleteNo experience with Bell. We have two choices too, SaskTel or Access and the latter doesn't offer services outside the city. I know my brother went with StarLink recently as SaskTel's offerings were slow and pricey.
ReplyDeleteJust some annuals left to be pulled here, and I'll do that for certain this weekend. It's blustery and cool here today, with frost likely tonight. Definitely October weather.
I emptied my pots of annuals just a couple of days ago. I might treat myself to a brightly coloured mum for the porch. Rainy and cooler here now.
DeleteRural internet is always an issue -- same here in Alberta, from what I understand, although apparently the provincial government is committed to fixing that. They get an AWFUL LOT OF VOTES from rural areas.
ReplyDeleteAhhh pre election promises…
DeleteHaving a good Internet connection is essential. Hard wiring your house should make things work well. My home is wired too. I'm still cutting back and clearing the beds. 2 smaller areas are done and 2 larger areas are still waiting.
ReplyDeleteYes, it is all done now and our son says it’s very fast! I still have many perennial beds to cut back but it’s not a big deal if I don’t get to all of those. They can wait until spring, too.
DeleteI never really cared for spaghetti squash until I had it prepared here by a chef. The squash was sliced in half, long way, baked in the oven and then lightly sautéed with a little bacon until a tiny bit brown. Soooooo good.
ReplyDeleteOh, wait. When fork tender, it was stripped from the shell, then sautéed. Probably some spices I never asked about.
DeleteI gave a start on the home garden before I came to the lake -- it's an overgrown mess and once the black-eyed Susans and sweet peas died off, has nothing pretty to redeem it! No veggies, alas. You've had quite a good haul this year! I love seeing the chicken pix!
ReplyDeleteWe still have peppers and lots of flowers and some herbs. Love the chickens mine won't eat anything not even fresh strawberries or watermelon. The only thing they like is corn bread and bananas.
ReplyDeleteI battle with Bell very often in fact we lost internet for 3 days last week. I use my phone as a modem for my laptop a lot of the time, which is funny because it's Bell Mobility. Mobility seems to be more reliable than the high speed! Nice chicken photos! ☺
ReplyDeleteThe only thing left in my garden is Swiss chard. I’m going to plant garlic today and then sit back and wait for snow.
ReplyDeleteLet's hope we have a bit of a reprieve before that happens!
DeleteI feel your pain re internet service. We pay 150 a month for internet alone, and can't really stream anything. One of the joys of rural living.
ReplyDeleteWe are still harvesting a few things, like summer squash, zucchini, cherry tomatoes, peppers, a few cucumbers, greens, etc. This is the latest garden i have ever had. I love it.
Your girls do look happy and they will miss your garden this winter. 😳
ReplyDeleteBummer about your internet---one of the things most of us take for granted. Best of luck!
I think that rural interenet problem is world wide. We finally got hooked up to fiber and it is amazingly fast and no problems so far. But we had 20 years of very very slow internet before. We culled what was left of our garden also...mostly peppers.
ReplyDelete