September, so far

How about a quick recap on what's been going on around here so far this month?

Ok...if you insist...

On September 2nd, Roxy, my farm pup:

...got a haircut. Poor thing had to suffer with an orange and white polka-dotted ear bow until I took pity on her and took it out:

My sweet chicken, Skippy, is running with her flock again:

It makes me happy to hear her chatty little voice telling me "all about it" when I walk by her:

Her tail is perky and her comb a beautiful red:

On September 3rd, Skippy laid her first egg since she became sick 2 weeks ago. She laid it in the chicken run. In the straw. Underneath the roost. For all I know, she just dropped it from about 3 feet while sitting on the roost and it fell to the ground. It's filthy:

None of her eggs will be eaten for the next 30 days (to allow the antibiotics she was given during her illness to get out of her system), so as far as I'm concerned, she can lay them anywhere she wants. I'm just happy she's feeling well enough to lay again.

As I entertain thoughts of putting my garden to bed for the year, I am also already anticipating next year's garden. My heirloom sweet peas were so gorgeous in June:

and July:

That, also on September 3rd, I started saving the seeds from the largest sweet pea seed pods for next year:

I am also saving seeds from our beloved "Maestro" shelling peas:

and some wild Lupine that grows well around here:

On September 5th, I cuddled a chicken named Honey on my lap:

On September 6th, the poisonous plant patrol (the P.P.P.) continued its thankless, never-ending job. No matter how much I pull, there is always more. The nasty ones in my pasture? Ragwort, Foxglove, and St. John's Wort: banes of my existence:

Despite my early-season worrying, I've had a great raspberry crop this year:

In spring and early summer this year, the plants were small, and the leaves were tiny and yellowed - but they really rallied and I've gotten pounds and pounds of fruit in the last 6 weeks:

I love the late season raspberries - they are the ones that grow at the very ends of the canes and are huge:

They are the cream of the crop, so to speak:

September 8th was the day I made two big batches of low-sugar/no-pectin raspberry jam:

And now there's a whole buncha raspberry jam in my pantry:

The Kentucky Wonder beans I'm growing for the first time this year:

...showed me on September 9th what all the fuss is about. Wow! They're huge! They're quite tasty, too:

I'm probably the only person in the world who doesn't have much success growing zucchini. Seriously. Every year I plant them and every year I get, maybe, two or three. Zucchini #2 this year made its presence known to me also on September 9th:

Pretty little fellow, wouldn't you say?

On September 10th, I got stung by a yellow jacket. No picture and it hurt like crazy, but I totally pretended nothing happened because I was talking with the sprinkler repair guy at the time.
Fortunately, that didn't ruin the entire day, because I also found my first ripe jalapeno pepper:

Who wouldn't feel happy at this amazingly beautiful site - look at that color!

Also on September 10th, I noticed that the sun is now setting in the trees inside our donkey woods, instead of over the middle pasture with the coast range visible in the distance. This is an absolute sign of impending fall:

The Music garlic that was hanging in my barn:

...is - since September 11th - in a basket on my dining table awaiting trimming and storage:

And today, September 12th, I observed my llama, Kai's, infinite patience with her goat charges:

After tipping the hay bucket and spreading most of its contents across the ground:

Pete and Reggie, then decided to head butt so violently that Kai lost her footing and slipped on the hay multiple times:

...but she just righted the bucket and kept on eating:

And that's pretty much September in a nutshell. Now we're all caught up.
Care for an apple?: