Fall is falling; in the woods around us, in the field, in our selves. The chicks are thriving. So are we, I think.

This week was quite effective at reminding us all that life is indeed beautiful. I love that. Although it doesn’t really lend itself to words words words.

But: I love fatherhood and partnership, land and family and the sky and the constantly changing flow of life and leaves. Food is good. Sunshine, the unknowable, being alive!

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Ahem.

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Inside Box 17

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You may remember a post a couple of weeks back about a hen named “Rabbi Gargoyle,” who was missing and presumed consumed for several days – before showing back up unharmed one fine day.

Well, she’s back in the news again.

Last Tuesday night, we heard her being murdered in the woods. A horrific chicken cacophony, crashing sounds through the brush down the hill toward the coop – where all the other birds were locked up safe – but where the Gargoyle had been sleeping on her eggs, unprotected in the woods.

I threw on a robe as I ran down the hill screaming “ANIMAL! GET OFF!” or something similarly ridiculous. But by the time I got there, her squawking had gone silent, and the nest still held eggs, but no Gargoyle.

A few feathers were all I could find when I searched the surrounding woods, clucking and calling to no response. Sadly, I gathered up the remaining eggs – I knew the blue ones were her own, so I placed them under other broody hens in the coop, and told Kristin and Marty that the Gargoyle was dead.

But! In the morning she showed up for breakfast, clucking and clearly upset that her nest had been emptied. My best guess is that a deer came through and almost stepped on her, or perhaps a possum came nosing around – and the crazy racket had been her on the attack, chasing something away through the dark undergrowth. So I put her eggs back, showed them to her, and left her to settle down.

The next day I went to check on her – and found two fluffy baby chicks peeping and stumbling around her! Figuring there would be more hatching still, I left her in peace for one last night in the woods, before I’d move the brood down into the truck topper nursery coop.

Or so I thought. When I went to check on them the next day, I was horrified to discover an empty nest. Even the eggs were gone … some eggshells, and one dead chick flattened in the nest. No sign of the Gargoyle, or any chicks. I searched the surrounding woods, the chicken yard, all over. Nothing.

So I brought the bad news back to the crew – it was heartbreaking to lose the whole group, after the scare we’d just had, knowing that I could have moved them to safety sooner, that I had cost a family of our birds their lives by waiting for one more night and believing that “what will be will be” would be a happy ending.

Late in the afternoon, I had a sudden urge to go down and check on the flock, feeling edgy about the presumed predator lurking nearby.

In the chicken yard, inside the fencing we use to segregate the babies from the adults, waiting outside the door to the nursery coop, sat Rabbi Gargoyle, surrounded by six peeping fluffballs.

For the third time, she had shown up happy and healthy after having been written off as certainly dead. And thus the hen with two names gained another, becoming Rabbi Gargoyle Phoenix – the bird who rises up from death’s ashes.

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Otherwise, it was a busy, pleasant week. My Dad and his wife visited, we harvested lots of things, salvaging from yet another frost.

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Oh! And our two most recent WWOOFers left – and provided us a lovely array of farm photos from their visit, taken by Charlie the Photojournalist Student. I think they really capture what life here has been for us lately, so you might want to check them out here.

Inside Box 16

• Salad Mix – green ruffled lettuce, red & green tatsoi, arugula, and mizuna
• Brussels Sprouts
• Bok Choi
• Beets
• Onions
• Acorn Squash – Jester & Thelma Sanders varieties
• Microgreens – radish, kale, or kohlrabi
• Herbs – Mexican tarragon & Thyme

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Our friend Steffan has been regularly helping us with farmwork for several years now, and we were honored that he asked us to hold his wedding on the farm. Of course, we had no idea Covid was coming, but it worked out well anyway, as it had always been the plan to hold it outdoors, in the social-distance-friendly, unplanted west side of our field. So vows were once again exchanged on our land – but this time with three times as many people, and out in the field instead of the woods.

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The whole thing went off incredibly – including some tasty farm food that Groom Steffan catered himself! We even surprised the newlyweds by transforming the new semi trailer into a honeymoon suite, using the huge pallets it came filled with as wall partitions, window blinds, and of course, the bed platform.

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In other news, we’re back deep into acorn bombing season, with a nearly-constant bombardment raining down upon every available acoustically-active surface … steel roofs, 55 gallon drums, cars, and buckets. It’s funny how used to it one gets, and how quickly – even though the sudden cracks and bangs are utterly unpredictable.

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If this and the changing leaves were not clear enough signs of imending autumn, Ma Nature made things very clear with two frosty nights early in the week – and more forecasted for next week …

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Inside Box 15

Potato leek soup with parsley or dill on the agenda.

• Potatoes
• Leeks – the bottoms are the best part, but tender green tops can be sliced thin and used similarly to green onions.

• Dill
• Parsley

• Green Tomatoes – yes, Fried Green Tomatoes are the classic way to use these lovely emerald orbs , which we decided to salvage before the next round of frosty doom descended upon the farm. But there are plenty of other options too – perhaps try one of these!?
• Cherry Tomatoes
• Spaghetti Squash
• Swiss Chard

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Today was a happy day – first, after a month of chasing the gophers that are murdering our carrot patch, I finally managed to catch one of the little monsters! This clan has super deep tunnels, and they backfill their exposed entrances with an impressive tenacity.

But now I’ve got their number – and this morning I got my arms caked in dirt past the elbows to set three more traps, for the presumed survivors still roaming beneath the carrots.

In other farm news – a missing hen named Gargoyle was spotted today, days after we wrote her off as a predator loss … she was hiding in the woods on a big pile of eggs. … it’s kind of late for new chicks, but it’s hard to just take them away … we’ll see what happens.

She’s our only blue-egg layer, and she’s really odd-looking (Neighbor Marcia calls her The Rabbi, we dubbed her Gargoyle) – so it would be nifty to add some of her genetics to our flock’s future.

And, of course – it’s gone from simmering heat and humidity to lows in the 40s and 30s and even a threat of frost tomorrow night! Ack. I know it’ll warm up again, but this cold snap is going to leave a mark on the remnants of the hot-weather crops. We will be deploying row covers and making strange sacrifices to the old green gods of gardening, and limbering up the ol’ “que sera, sera” muscles.

Inside Box 14

You could make a mean bowl of Pho this week. And it’s perfect weather for it! Lots of summer crops are making their final appearances this week, cherish them in this fleeting moment.

• Garlic -a fellow SCF market vendor had way too many small garlic heads so they gifted these to us – and since the vole’s destructive tunneling made us opt out of planting our own this year, we figured we should share the bounty with y’all.
• Bok Choi – would be pretty dang good chopped up and sauteed with your garlic. Or in a soup? It’s soup season.

• Beets – Borscht? SOUP SEASON.
• Zucchini – the final zukes of the season!

• Cucumbers – and the last of the cukes of 2020!
• Onions
• Sweet Peppers – another Final Installment for the year
• Shishito Peppers – these aren’t usually spicy, but for whatever reason, most of these are. Sear ’til blistered and eat as usual, if you like spicy. If not, use them as a component in another dish to spread that spice around.
• Tomatoes – the last of the season! Aaaaaagh too soon

• Cherry Tomatoes – oh my it might even be the final cherry tomatoes. What a week of transition!
• Thai Basil – salvaged before the murderous cold descends.
• Micro-Greens (Radish, Kale, Red Cabbage, or Amaranth)

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