Weekending in the Garden

The end of summer may be near, but the garden is still producing a good quantity of wonderful things to eat.  This morning, I am on a mission to deal with some of the beets that are plumping up:

Just look at that pile o' beets!  There are a whole heck of a lot more in the bed, but they need about another week to be good and plump and ready to eat, or make into my favorite pickled beets.  Mmmmm, pickled beets...droooooling.  I don't know what it is, but man oh man am I ever craving beets these days!  Some kind of vitamin deficiency, maybe?  Or I could just be obsessed.

It's probably an obsession.

It is dry around here, so watering all the remaining beds is going to be on the docket for this weekend, as is a little bit of weeding.  The chickens will be so delighted.  They love to eat those weeds (aside from the Creeping Charlie that they spit out with looks of abject disgust).  And then there's the usual chores of cleaning out the coops and wiping down the rabbit cages, as well as poopa scooping the back yard.  The dogs find this last activity very amusing, and tend to roll around where their poop once was, which is just gross no matter how you look at it.  Generally, this adds washing the dogs to the list of weekend chores.  Oh, and I need to break out my machete and head into the hoop house to see how many tomatillos are plumped up in there.  I've been peeking at them, and it looks like there are bunches ready, finally!  My friend Kim and her crew will be so excited to come and share the bounty.  Yippee!  That's what I love about gardening, getting to share the goodness and have plenty to pack into the freezer and onto the pantry shelves (and under any piece of furniture tall enough) to enjoy when the snow flies.

The girls are laying 10 eggs or so per day.  Somedays are less, but the last two I've found eleven eggs amongst all the nest boxes.  There's been a rash of eggs laid in strange places in the Big Coop, so I think all the little ladies are now officially HENS.  They are so proud of those eggs, silly things.  In the Little Coop, I still have a broody hen and a moulting-recovery victim, so I'm lucky to get three or four eggs from those girls.  All the chickens seem very happy with the resumption of "normal" late summer/early fall temperatures, and I hope that they get back into their groove with egg laying soon.  Of course, that means that I am awash in eggs which is both nice (I do love eggs!) and daunting (wow, that's a lot of eggs...).  My neighbors are happy to get them, and I will hang out my Eggs For Sale sign on the mailbox again to advertise to the general populace that they are available for all and sundry. 

I just have to find that sign first....

Happy Weekend to All!