October Thus Far

We are well into October now and thus far I’ve received a lot of gifts for my birthday month and had a lot of fun. I’m thankful to God for gifts throughout the year, of course, but in October I see everything as a gift more intensely. When everything is a gift…uh…then everything is a gift.

Here are some of my October gifts:

I enjoyed a week of drinking our homemade apple cider. Cider is my absolutely favorite autumn drink but we haven’t bought much in recent years because it’s gotten so expensive. But it didn’t cost us anything to make our own from apples we grew and spices we already had so I got to enjoy an abundance of cider. I wanted our son JJ to enjoy some, but his and EJ’s schedules are different (EJ works Friday through Monday, JJ works Monday through Friday) so it’s difficult to get together. Instead, I sent some to work with EJ and JJ picked it up during his Dad’s lunch break. EJ and I had made three different batches with a slightly different combination of spices so I labeled jars “1,” “2,” “3” and asked JJ to tell me which he liked best. That was fun. He thought they were delicious but his favorite was 2 and 3. EJ liked 1 and 3. I couldn’t make up my mind. I liked them all.

EJ had to work so I spent the actual day of my birthday mowing the lawn–probably for the last time this year. Mowing the lawn might not seem like much of a gift, but I was outside in the autumn sunshine, surrounded by beautiful trees, and the lawn looked really nice when I finished.

I had fun during my birthday afternoon setting up a bird-feeding station in front of my wildlife camera. It’s quite difficult getting my camera located to take in everything I want it to capture. I don’t want to point the camera at the house, of course. Neither can I locate it where it gets direct sunlight. If I set it up so it captures birds eating at the feeders, it misses the critters that come into the orchard–and vice versa. So I came up with the idea of placing a post with a tray on top in front of the camera. I positioned it so the tray was in the bottom corner of the camera so I could see visiting birds but it didn’t block anything coming into the orchard. Of course, it’s also low enough that the turkeys and possums eat from it as well. That’s fine with me.

Blue Jays at the new feeder

Wild Turkeys at the new feeder

Possum at the new feeder

Oh, and one day we saw a big buck! We have started to give the bucks royal titles. We have Earl, Duke, but this one is Prince.

Big Buck: Prince

On his way home from work Sunday (or was it Monday), EJ stopped at the store and bought brisket, which was on sale. I was going to make butter on Tuesday, but instead EJ took over the kitchen, cutting the brisket into strips and putting it in the fridge. He turned it into ground beef the next day. I know this might seem weird, but for several years when we’ve cook store bought ground beef, the grease left in the skillet is a pukey yellow-green, which is not normal. Who knows what is being put in the ground meat? When we grind the meat ourselves, the grease is the normal color. So EJ grinds the meat himself.

Because I couldn’t use the kitchen, I went out and set up several more bird-feeding stations so that I can easily move my wildlife camera from place to place and capture both birds and critters. I always have my camera looking into the orchard, but I sometimes like to move it around for a slightly different perspective. I still want to set up a couple more locations. Once winter arrives, the ground will be too frozen to do anything.

Early on Wednesday EJ ground the brisket and when he was out of the way, I made my butter. When the butter was finished, we measured the ground brisket into half pound sizes, put them in bags, and put them in the freezer.

We have pretty much finished harvesting so Thursday we gave the chickens access to the garden to eat any leftovers. I enjoy looking out the window and seeing them in the garden. It’s always a surprise when I open the garage door into the garden because the chickens hear me come through the garage and they rush for the door.

We went to the farm store one of EJ’s days off. I contemplated buying a couple chicks and sneaking them under the broody hen, but I don’t know if she’d accept them and I don’t want to care for little chicks over the winter. I put food and water near the hen’s nest so she has access to them, so if she wants to sit on her nest…well, ok. One day I poured water into her empty bowl and she came out to drink. Another hen was nearby and they got into a serious conflict. It looked like feathered sumo wrestlers fighting. FYI: Broody hens act like they have PMS.

I’d prefer to get Chantecler roosters next Spring, but they wouldn’t get mature until months later. So on Wednesday I decided to check social media to see if anyone was giving/selling mature roosters. That way our hen wouldn’t be disappointed two years in a row if she decided to get broody next year. I checked Craigslist but the only person I contacted didn’t have any left. I also checked FB but couldn’t find any roosters. I don’t think they allow selling live animals. However, I did find someone selling a really nice couch for only $10. We contacted the seller and then had a colorful autumn drive through the beautiful countryside to pick it up.

We were met at the house by a very nice realtor. She said she was handling things for a 90-year-old couple who just moved into assisted living. Once we got the couch into the truck, she asked us if there was anything else we wanted. She said she’d already had a garage sale to get rid of most of the possessions the couple couldn’t take with them, and whatever was left she was going to donate. She’d point at something and ask, “Do you want that?” Like a lamp, a low bookcase, a couple plant stands, several boots in EJ’s size, a seed spreader…Some things she sold us for a very low price–which was good because we hadn’t brought a lot of cash with us, expecting only to need $10. Most of the things she said, “Oh, you can just have that.” It was a lot of fun. In addition, the realtor had her dog with her and we were able to give it a lot of lovings. It was the first Portuguese Water Dog we’d ever met.

We discussed how to get rid of our “old” couch which is not in horrible shape. We figured we could try to give it away on FB, but first EJ contacted Habitat for Humanity to see if they would take it. We were hoping they would pick it up because the couch is heavy and EJ has a bad back. Our expectations weren’t high, but amazingly they said they would come get it sometime next week. Yay!

EJ was back to work yesterday and I spent the day reorganizing the house. I rearranged the guest bedroom so I could move EJ’s back thing into it. The back thing looks like an ironing board (or torture device). EJ can stretch out on it and tilt himself down so his back gets stretched into place. It has been in the library, but it took up space and I had to sometimes move it to access a section of bookshelves. I figured we rarely use the guest bedroom so we might as well keep it in there. I had to move the furniture a little but the back thingy takes up less room than it did in the library. When I finished getting that out of the way, I reorganized the library. Re-organizing the house is a gift, although it might not sound like it. I felt like clucking like a happy hen. One that’s not broody.

When everything is a gift then everything is a gift.