• Ridgetop Farm and Garden

Weather

October’s weather started out nice enough, but has now turned to crap. Rain. Fog. Wind. Typical for this time of year.

Spider Webs

The spiders have been busy lately. Lots of web making going on. And, in the right light they look super cool.

Power Outage

This weekend was stormy.

I had to take the long way home due to a tree being across the road. Then we came home to the power being out. Our phone was out for awhile, as well. When it was working, though, I frequently called the power company to report our outage and the line was busy every single time I called. I wonder if there phone wasn’t working either? I never did get through, but thankfully around 4:00 the next day the crew came to fix the line.

I can handle not having tv, or computer, or microwave. But, I hate being without light. And, at this time of year it’s getting dark fairly early. Darn it! However, it did give us a nice excuse to go to bed early. I snuggled with my 2 kids that were home, read them Halloween stories & they were asleep easily by 8:00, maybe earlier. I stayed up a little later and read Wildwood. It is a middle-grade fantasy based in the urban forest area outside of Portland.

I think I have mentioned it before, but it’s worth mentioning again.
Most of the year, I am not a fan of our propane stove. It is very hard to adjust the temperature. There are even special burners that are supposed to help with this problem. One is meant to boil water quickly, which is a larger burner. There is also a small burner & 2 medium sized burners. There is virtually no difference between any of them. We’ve had the stove since we moved in 6 years ago. The stove & I still fight.

On days the power is out, though, I love, love, love that we have a stove that runs on propane. It means on the cold evenings we still get warm food.

Ducks

The ducks, of course, don’t seem to mind the crummy weather. It can be pouring outside and they’ll be splashing away in the pond.

Chicken Keeping

In the Spring we hatched lots of chicks. We sold some at the Spring Swap and later sold nearly laying pullets at the Fall Swap. We didn’t purchase birds for meat purposes this year. Instead, from the chicks we hatched, the majority of the cockerels will fill our freezer next month.

Jack-o-Lantern and Chick

Our chickens are happy to eat the pumpkin guts.

I was a little nervous bringing home hatching eggs from the swap. But, we put them in the incubator and all 4 of them started developing. I was pleased! However, they did not survive the power outage. 🙁

Goats

Our oldest son wanted to build the goats a play place. So, Farmer John helped him build this. Unfortunately, the goats don’t like it. They won’t climb it. When I set them up on the top, they just jump off. I think with a few changes, though, the goats will enjoy it.

Pigs

Pig raising seems to be going well. Thankfully, Farm Kid1 is pretty good about taking care of them and they are growing. I don’t know if I can call them super cute, but I do love their personalities.