Contemplating fall

I just looked out my window... 40 degrees at 8:30 am, and barely a green leaf to be seen anywhere.  What this means is, I better find some time to wander out into the big backyard in search of lowbush cranberries and crowberries.  The time is here.

We're deep into hunting season now.  Ben is gone most all of the time, flying and dealing with our guides and hunters.  They've taken some nice Dall sheep and moose this fall.  Only 11 more days for our season in the interior, and then we have 6 days to wrap things up and switch gears and relocate the operation to the coast of Prince William Sound for late bear and mountain goat season.

Yesterday we moved the meatchick pen onto fresh pasture for the last time this year.  Soon they will be released into freedom with all their compatriots, and that chapter will be coming to a close.  Yay, I love free birds!  

Speaking of chicks, we picked up our fair chicks... 79 were viable out of 13 dozen.  Not a bad hatch rate, not at all.  So all those little guys are living in a snowmachine sled in our dining room until they have enough feathers to go out into the brooder.  It's pretty late for babies, but ya get what ya get.

All the sheep and goats know it's breeding season, it's been a real zoo trying to keep everyone on a kidding/lambing schedule.  Those boys, and a few of the girls, will do just about anything to get the job done and foil my carefully laid plans.  I'm sure there will be a few surprises in February.

Ah February... you will be here before we know it.  No more meatbirds to contend with, already started into the early kidding season, onion and pepper seedlings on the windowsills.  Deep in snow... quiet.  But first I have another 165 birds to harvest, bucklings to sell, and shelters to build.  Better get to work!