Canadian Acres
Farming in the North
Farm Happenings and Catch Up
Hello all,
Sorry for the recent absence, I was off in Alaska land enjoying time with friends and the beauty that is the North. I thought I’d share a catch up post as we have been very busy on the farm.
Before I left for Alaska, my parents came for a visit. They genuinely worked their butts off and for that I am grateful. I also feel kind of bad because I don’t want people to think they have to work on their vacations on the farm, but alas, there is an unending amount of things to do. One of the most helpful acts was when my father taught Clay and I how to butcher a chicken. Many of you have read my compelling post about our rooster invasion, and it was definitely time to send five of them packing… to my freezer.
An animal lover at heart, I struggled with this idea, but as a homesteader I knew that I needed to be apart of my foods journey to my stomach. When I was little, I remember butchering time at my grandparents farm and found it to be great fun. My job was to sit on the box the headless chickens ran about in to make sure they didn’t run into the woods… every now and then one would “accidentally” get out and I had to chase it. In retrospect this was a weird game for a little girl to enjoy, but hey, it made me who I am today.
We had five roosters lined up for the slaughter. I carefully caught each one and spent a minute with each thanking them for their service. I didn’t stay for the actual slaughter part (I’m a wuss) but got down and dirty with the plucking and the packaging. And the wine drinking.
So five fresh chickens made it into our freezer!
When I returned from Alaska, I found fall had arrived at Canadian Acres.
All five of my laying hens have started to lay, and I have an over abundance of eggs. How lucky are we.
I am amazed by how much I truly enjoy keeping chickens and love them. The dogs have been wonderful during free range time and the littles are growing up so fast!
But then it happened… SNOW. Wait, what?! Snow? On September 7th? Oh god… I am not ready for this.
On Clay and I’s 2nd wedding anniversary it snowed. Ugh.
No one at our house was impressed. I hurried to save my two ginormous tomato plants and my three pumpkins. Not sure if I got them inside in time, but I strung up the tomato’s to encourage them to ripen and am curing my pumpkins with hope. The weather is supposed to turn nice again on Saturday and we should have a few more weeks of fall before it begins. Winter is most definitely coming.
At least it doesn’t look like it will stay. Happy fall everyone!
~Katy
Canadian Acres 
Hey, glad you had a good trip to Alaska, and glad your back home been waiting for your articles about you & your families interesting life, keep up the great work Kate ..Love Aunt Judy
Leaves are still green, so you should be good. 😀
This is so fascinating! Do you have to keep an eye on Wyatt with the chickens, or does he just get to roam free with them, and you can trust him?
I went through a training process with both the dogs so now they can both be out unsupervised with them. They take their jobs as “chicken guard dogs” very seriously 🙂