It's September! YEA!!!!!

I love the fact that fall is coming!  It is so nice and cool and breezy here, finally, although we still need rain SO bad.  We were hoping to get at least a little from Irene, but not a drop... but VERY windy!  This is the brownest I've ever seen the farm.  The grass is so dry and crunchy.  The last time I mowed was before July 4th!  We were going to get pigs but can't right now because the pasture is in terrible shape.... so we're going to work on liming and fertilizing the fields to get them ready for the spring.  We want to get a dairy cow and calf, and a couple of pigs.

The boys are doing great with the homeschooling.... so far it's really fun and we get to start Classical Conversations class next week so the boys will be with other kids in a classroom environment.

The chickens are growing like crazy and we should start seeing eggs around Halloween, I believe.  We haven't lost a one, although our neighbor has been losing several to coyotes (but hers are free to roam, whereas ours roam, but behind an electric fence and they go into their coop at night.  It's so funny to see them all go in, one at a time, in a line up their ramp at almost the same time every night!  And you should see the silly things they do:  they get their little heads down really low, run across the yard to each other, stand straight up, do a little flying leap and chest butt each other and then walk away calmly.  It's crazy and so funny!)  We all walk around their perimeter every evening and stir up the grasshoppers to go jumping into their area, and it's a free-for all!  We think these may all end up just being layers, at least for the first couple of years, til they become stew....  It's hard to imagine eating what you've raised from fuzzy chicks (until they peck at your feet and then you start calling them chicken parmesan).

I miss work because I really liked what I did, and I really did work with a great bunch of people.. .I miss seeing them and being silly with them, and I think about them frequently.  But I also love the freedom up here of homeschooling, raising chickens, doing farm work and the quiet life.  The boys really love it and seem really happy and Eric loves workin' the farm!  I'm getting into my groove of homeschooling, baking, cooking, farming and keeping one eyeball on all the spiders!  (we have Fisher spiders here... look them up... they are like smaller tarantulas!)

Here are some pics of around the farm:

Good night, ladies!

The deer are getting pretty brave and eating our apples while we're messing around right near them...

A pumpkin that just grew out our compost pile...

The cutest of the Future Farmers of America... (my niece, G)

Eric's sunflowers....aren't they cool?

The crazy ladies eating dried oatmeal...

They never stay still long enough to get their portraits taken.

I also have a pic on my camera of a momma bear with her three cubs.  I need to get it off there and put it on here... it looked like a nature show... the momma came up to the top of the hill, and two of the cubs stood up on their hind legs, looked around, then all four sauntered off down the hill to ATG.  Eric took off on the four-wheeler to follow them, but couldn't find them.  It was really neat (as long as they keep that distance.)  I'll get the pic up, although I don't have a zoom so they probably look like little black blobs.

Ya'll have a great Labor Day weekend, keep safe, and love to my family and friends.