Hello again.

It is getting to be near Thanksgiving. We are having some remarkably good weather. I’m sure that won’t last, but it has been a benefit to me as I get things cleaned up and put away for the winter.

This season the chicken marketing was very good. We suffered  some losses to a weasel early in the season, but since then things have gone very well. We experienced a few birds failing  to survive  a two week period of steady rain, but again the losses were few and recovery was quick.I have to say that the chickens we raised this year look to be the best overall quality  we’ve raised so far. I’m very pleased!

I was able to keep selling through the season at the East End Farmer’s Market in Cortland and at the Back to Basics Store in Dryden. In addition sales at the farm continued to be slow but steady. The four lambs we raised were in first rate condition when we took them to the butcher and the product is quite good. Sales of lamb have not met expectations though. I guess I’ll have to do some advertising. We retired all of our laying hens. We gave a few to a friend and the rest ended up as stewing chickens. Alas! We will not have eggs until next season.

Speaking of selling; we have set up a regular “Chicken Store” at the farm with the addition of a 10×12 foot shed. I am just now finishing the installation of electricity and lighting. All of our products are now located in a clean secure  building that allows us to show our wares and conduct business more easily in a more congenial setting. We will be “open” as long as there is something to sell. Please feel free to call and come up to the farm to get whatever you need. Remember. we offer two types of chicken, lamb cuts, local honey, eggs and hand made soaps and my growing selection of carved walking sticks. A friend in Virginia has been getting me some serpentine sticks that are native to that area. They make interesting walking sticks and broom handles. Of course I also have some of my colonial style brooms for sale too. We have  added for this year Home Made De Luxe Garlic Granules ! Organic Garlic dried to perfection and hand ground to  granule size instead of dust like you  get in the store bought stuff. Very robust.  It is  100% pure Garlic, no drying or anti caking agents. A three ounce bottle is $6.50 plus three dollars shipping.You can order some by contacting me via email.

Our honey season was looking very promising with an outstanding flow of goldenrod nectar, but just before we went to collect the honey a local bear beat us to it and in the process destroyed two hives of bees as well as eating all the honey. We were still able to collect some 80 pounds of goldenrod honey to bottle and sell.

I have planted next year’s garlic, and the garden beds have been layered with mulch to be blended in come spring time. We always make big plans for next years garden, but then in the spring the reality of the hard work makes us cut back on what we planned.  I’m happy to say that we have been eating home grown potatoes, onions and garlic for some time now.

We are grateful for the  people who have become regular customers and continue to purchase several chickens each time they come up to the farm. We would like it if we could entice a few more people to continue buying chickens from us through the winter. Why don’t you become one of them?

In other news; I was able to get a small part in a movie being shot in Virginia. I was on the set for two days . The film will be released next year. It is called “Alone, Yet Not Alone.” It is a true story of a young girl captured by the Indians at the outset of the French and Indian War, who escapes and makes a dramatic trek through hundreds of miles of wilderness pursued by her captors. I appear as a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly, and as the head of a family awaiting the arrival of the escaped girl.

So dear readers,that’s all for today.

I hope you had a fine summer and I hope to see many of you before too long.

Be well my friends,

Cheers,

Tom