My garden is finally starting to look a little bit better. Everything is starting to slowly recover with the fence up. I still only have one pepper, but it's starting to pull the plant down it's so heavy. The two romas are getting closer to harvest every day, though two tomatoes won't do much. I still have a ton of tomatoes that are starting and still dozens of blossoms, so I think I might actually get to can something from the tomato plants! I also checked my broccoli today. I haven't really done much with it since I planted it, but it's starting to get heads! I'm really excited, because I was beginning to think that they'd never turn into heads! The new laying hens have either started to slow on production from the stress of moving, or they've found a new nesting site. All of the eggs I've found today were in their room nesting spot, but there weren't many. None at all in the nest in the bushes. I'll have to wait and see if I find them hanging out in a new area. The cornish cross are at five weeks. They're starting to look more and more like dinner! It'll be nice to butcher them out and save on the feed. The 200lbs I bought a week and a half ago is getting low. Looks like it's about 100lbs per week right now. I'm sure that'll only increase with them growing bigger and bigger, but I only have three more weeks! I still haven't found any grain though, which really sucks. Hopefully the ladies start picking up with laying soon and some never stop. I'm debating on hatching some eggs out, but I just don't think I'd have much luck with selling at this time of the year. Everything just drops off with sales until spring. I think my game plan for now is to just hang onto eggs and sell them for eating purposes, then start putting them into the incubator in time for spring hatches. The first few weeks of sales are usually pretty good with chicks, then it drops. Over winter, with artificial lighting, I should have plenty of eggs to eat to hold me over while I hatch out the fresh eggs. Then when the sales of live chicks start to drop, I'll be able to start collecting fresh eggs for breakfast again. The cornish cross hens should start laying in Jan or Feb, if all goes well. I'll eat the first pullet eggs, then start hatching their eggs out for a new batch of meaties... hopefully.
I've also found out that the birds were a huge PITA to get inside because I was trying to get them in earlier than they wanted to go to bed. Last night, I was being too lazy to take the boys to the grocery store, so I waited until George came home and went alone. I didn't get the birds in before I left and by the time I came back, it was dark. I pulled in to an empty yard, thinking that I was going to have a hell of a time finding everyone. I went to open the door and George was in there, with all the birds! He said they all were waiting to be let in (the door had gotten closed somehow) and all he had to do was open the door and fill the feeders and waterers! So, that's what I'll be doing from now on... Just forget about getting them to bed until they're ready to go to bed. Now I just need to get the nipple drinkers and two five gallon buckets to make new waterers that the ducks won't slop in and I think I'll be able to fully enjoy all of my birds again!
There's a sale at Giant for pig butts at $1.99/lb. They didn't have any when I went yesterday, so I'm going to wait and go again tomorrow and hopefully get a few pounds. I'm HOPING to get about 20lbs, but I'm not sure if I can fit it into the budget. I figure if I can a bunch up, it'll make some nice and easy dinners... And pulled pork sammiches sound like heaven right about now! It's hard to find any meat (besides chicken) below $3/lb, so I want to get as much of the pork as I can afford. I hope another red meat sale comes up so that I can stock up on that as well. Hopefully enough time passes from this sale until a red meat sale comes along so I can save up enough to get a decent amount. Hunting season cannot come soon enough! It's a shame the boys cannot get tags, because having more than two deer would really help. Two deer will help though, so hopefully I at least tag out. Too bad George doesn't hunt!! That'd be two tags there! We haven't been out fishing much lately, but I would love to get some more fish. As of right now, there's only enough fish for one kid to munch on. I won't eat it, but it's healthy meat and the kids will eat it, so I'd like to get some of that laid in. For $35, the entertainment and food is worth it. It's not as much of a gamble as hunting is, though I think this year I'll actually have better luck with hunting, especially without the silly camp rules of no does. My brother doesn't give a crap what sex we harvest on his plot. He's also talking about getting goats. I told him he'd be better off getting sheep. He wants them basically to munch away at the 14 acres of dandelions and weeds. I figure that the sheep will do a better job on the kind of stuff he has, plus they're more useful in his circumstances... He would really only need to attend them a few times a year, unlike a goat, which you'd have to milk twice a day. The sheep, just let them breed, sheer the wool and sell or butcher out the lambs once a year. Plus, the males aren't worthless like goat bucks are. Around here, you can get a goat buck for dirt cheap. Usually like $5-$20 at the auction. They aren't much use for our area, as nobody around here eats goat meat (and neither one of us has any interest in trying it). The only thing you can really do with a buck is breed it and you really only need one for that. Sheep, on the other hand, the males can be eaten or even raised for the wool, and they sell for about as much as the little lady lambs do.
to Tripp. What a brave boy he was!!
Nobody cared either; the stupid thing was constantly chasing us kids 
