There is a new voice at the Garden Spot. As I was feeding the other night, Sundance, odd kid that he is, did something weird: he left his stall to go outside and have a look around. I wondered what he was up to. He stood by the fence looking toward the hen house. As I wondered about doing chores, I heard what he must have heard: a croaky EEERRRRER. I thought, sounds like the neighbors had finally gotten some chickens. Then I heard it again EEERRRRER. Much too close.
Meet Chanticleer and Peretelote
I have named him Chanteleer and her name, obviously, is Peretilote, inspired by the rooster and his hen in the "Nun's Priest's Tale" in Chaucer's Cantebury Tales They remaining 4 baby chicks that the HG purchased in the spring. While the chicks are all supposed to be females, occasionally one will be male. He will be a grand rooster. You can see the difference in the coloring between him and the hen. They are silver laced red wyandottes. I don't know how long he will here because he will mess up our egg production, not that we are getting that many eggs now, anyway and the city ordinance for chickens excludes roosters. When the HG presented his proposal to allow chickens in the city limits, even though we are zone agricultural, roosters were excluded. Our poultry plan did not include a rooster either because they can be very aggressive not only with the hens, but they will attack children and adults, too. The HG has made friends with him, so we will see how aggressive a bird he is.
Our growing season may not necessarily be over. Since we had our first freeze last week, we are now officially in Indian Summer. We still have an abundance of green tomatoes in the garden, so I am hoping that the weather will stay warm enough so that the ones left will ripen. The frost was a light frost, nipping the top layer of plants. I am glad that I took these last photos of the few flowers out by the garden: an handful of zinnias and the wild sunflower.
We just did not spent the amount of time in the garden that we should have this year, so it was really weedy and messy. We will do better next year. It is still amazing just how much plants desire to live. Here is our harvest:
Two Carrots. (The seeds didn't germinate and the HG cultivated them out--by accident)
A handful of red beets.
A few Black Crim tomatoes. I love the basket. I can wash the vegetables in it before taking them in the house.
An EZ-Go full of butternut squash and spaghetti squash along with the rest of the garden harvest: a handful of potatoes, the last of the strawberries, lots of jalapeño peppers. Lots of tomatoes and a lot Anaheim and jalapeño peppers.We didn't get our potatoes in early enough and what we did plant probably didn't get enough water.
Apples
We don't know what sort of apples these are, but for as badly as they look (bird pecked and wormy) they are tasty. I will make apple sauce this week.
Sundance isn't picky. He loves apples, wormy or not.
The little girls were here yesterday and left their mark: apples on the fence posts. Love it.
Today's Gardening Tip: Paper Grocery Bags do not--I repeat-- do not make very good containers for hauling garden produce fresh from the garden.
I will be linking with Judith at Lavender Cottage for Mosaic Monday. Joins us
Have a fabulous week. I appreciate that you have taken the time visit.
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Great post, the rooster is pretty, love his colors..Zinnias are one of my favorite summer flowers.. I love the shot of Sundance. Wonderful series, enjoy your new week!
ReplyDeleteAs a pocket village in the country we are allowed a certain number of chickens but no roosters either. Something got one of the chickens down the street because a neighbour found remnants of it in his yard. It looks like a decent harvest for you Ann, wormy apples and all which are perfect horse treats.
ReplyDeleteSorry, but I had to laugh at the produce all over the deck from the broken paper bag - that's something I'd do too. :-)
Thank you for linking to Mosaic Monday.
Oh no tomato jam on your deck! You need more of those cool baskets! I love this post...your colorful fall flowers and the veggies yummm. And the roosters look happy and who wouldn't be in your beautiful yard! Loved the tour.
ReplyDeleteChantecleer and Peretilote, great names for these lovely Wyandottes. And the picture of Sundance with the apple on the post, magnificent. So pretty your grandchildren decorated all the posts with an apple.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed the serie of pictures together with your words.
Very impressive harvest. I'm waiting for the last of the tomatoes to turn even faintly pink, but they seem to prefer to remain green.
ReplyDeleteChanticleer is very handsome! You are busy...harvesting, making jelly and salsa. I really enjoyed your post and reading about your garden. Happy Mosaic Monday!
ReplyDeleteCock-a-doodle-doo! He's pretty!
ReplyDeleteI love your horse photos and the apples are looking good (and bitten!) Time for pies and crisps!
I won't use grocery bags Ann :-)! The names you gave to the rooster and the hen made me smile. They are beautiful names which suit them well. Hope they won't be too much of a nuisance for you.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed seeing your crop! Beetroot is one of my favourites and your tomatoes do look good too!
Have a lovely week,
Madelief x
Oh dear, that last photo certainly tells a cautionary tale. Your rooster is handsome in spite of his illegal status. Gardens have minds of their own, I think. Some years some things do well and others don't. Enjoy the salsa making.
ReplyDeleteYou guys have been busy, Lynn! Your Zinnias are so pretty; they're one of my favorite flowers. They come in such a wonderful array of colors, don't you think? I love the picture of Sundance and the apple. :-D I also love the apple mosaic -- Boone is looking quite handsome!
ReplyDeleteOh, I'm sorry the bottom fell out of your grocery bag -- not fun. What will you do with Mr. Rooster now? Thanks for your visit and have a great week!
Hugs,
Denise
What a greta harvest...those tomatoes look yummy and I love the basket too.
ReplyDeleteLooks like you've had some good harvests - baskets or crates are better for carrying fruit & veg. Can't believe you have had frost. We're having an Indian summer and probably will be October before frost, which means I've lots more harvesting to do (yeah).
ReplyDeleteWell he is a gift. What eill become of him? I am going to become an advocate for his life.
ReplyDeleteNot a bad haul considering all the bad luck you had with the crops -shame you had a frost the Zinnia were so pretty mine were rubbish this year.
ReplyDeleteHi Ann, we have the same problem in our neighborhood. We can have hens but not roosters. We don't have either but we do have three neighbors that have chickens and now and then you will hear a rooster, but not for long. I guess someone complains and then they get rid of him.
ReplyDeleteI love zinnias, I like that they look like a flower within a flower at least the singles do. Your Black Krim tomatoes are much larger than the ones I grew this year, but then all the tomatoes I grew were so small compared to years past. The drought I guess.
I have plans to make peach jalapeno jelly, but have put it off because of the heat wave. Hopefully I will get to it next week because the peppers I picked are now red. I guess my jalapeno jelly will be red instead of green.
It's hard to imagine that you've already had your first frost! I always loved making salsa at the end of the summer when I had a garden. Your chickens are very photogenic my friend! Enjoy your week! Sweet hugs, Diane
ReplyDeleteSounds like you have been hit by the same frost wand that got us here...although we managed to evade it except for the roofs.
ReplyDeleteDoes your sidebar vibrate when you read your blog? It does terribly for me...very hard to read the post.
I wonder what causes that.
Jen
Ann what a fabulous harvest!!! and your hen and rooster are amazing ... hoping the rooster keeps quiet and is able to stay on... your sunflowers are brilliant!!! beautiful post. hugs, Celia M. (HHL)
ReplyDelete