The Farmer Girl

Our beautiful Rhode Island Reds

It was the end of a very long day when my husband remembered that we hadn’t closed the gate to the coop yet. We both work jobs during the week that sometimes take us late into the evening a few nights a week. During the winter that means opening the coop gate and closing the coop gate before sunrise and after sunset. We had put a lot of thought into the design of our coop making the opening only big enough for the chickens to get in and out and we figured that we were closing it close enough to sun up and down before most raccoons come out, so we were safe.

Checking out their new coop.

During the daylight hours the chickens roam freely around a fenced in area built for them, where they happily peck at greens and roll around in the dirt around what we like to call their bunker. The bunker is located in the farthest part of the pen away from their coop. As soon as we open the door to their coop and another gate that opens into a larger gated area for them they run over to the bunker and start digging and clucking. It was in the bunker the my husband discovered the last chicken, half eaten from what we soon discovered was our neighbors dog.

In the next days sun we discovered a portion of the fence where the dog had dug under and enjoyed his plunder. It was during this time that we found the same animal back in the area where the previous days massacre had happened. Not wanting to make a fuss but feeling like they should know we called our neighbors and let them know that we were sure that their dog had killed all of our chickens the day before.

We’re sad but looking forward to chance to start again, this time with a better fence and a bigger coop. In telling our story to a family friend we discovered that she had an egg incubator and she said that she would help us hatch our own. So we will be doing so in the early spring.

Spring can’t come soon enough.

Learn more about Lattin's Country Cider Mill at www.lattinscider.com.

This past weekend my husband and I took a trip Lattin’s Country Cider Mill in Olympia, Washington. They have a number of animals including cows, goats, sheep, turkeys and chickens. All the animals are available for guests to view and learn more about. It isn’t a petting zoo but all the animals are accessible to the public. It is a small farm and doesn’t have a large number of any animal. I even got to see a Muscovy Duck which is just like any other duck except for it has claws on its feet. There were more adults touring the farm than children.

After looking around the farm we headed into the store at the mill to look at the little country market. They had apples that looked like real apple that you would get off a tree in the neighborhood. They weren’t prefect and had small little blemishes on them but they looked delicious. Small onions were available picked from the garden on the farm and they had a whole freezer case of pies that were made there on the grounds.

In the store there were a number of different ciders beyond the plain apple cider for tasting. They even opened up another cider that we were interested in tasting–cherry apple cider. We ended up walking away with a half gallon each of their regular apple cider and the raspberry apple cider as well as a couple of their different freezer jams that they made there on site as well.

Finally, we had heard from everyone that we needed to try one of their apple fritters. I had no idea what an apple fritter was and my husband wasn’t too excited about having an apple fritter. They were $1.75 per fritter so we ordered one for each of us. We devoured them in a matter of minutes. They look like a glazed donut with apple chunks in it and basically that is what they taste like. They were warm and the dough was fresh and the chunks of apple dissolved into a sauce when you chewed it. It is one of those foods that you know are going to be great but you are going to regret later.

A Muscovy Duck.

A great big turkey. Those feathers were beautiful.

These were the cutest animals on the farm. This one kept on making noise at some kids in the distance.

This wasn't a working water wheel but there was a small pond and it was a great spot to eat a fritter by.

It wasn't a large market but the apples looked wonderful.

Blue Moon picture from Yahoo

“Blue moon, you saw me standing alone…”

Happy New Years!