Autumn At Jack's Henhouse...

The fall colors in the yard are very pretty this year. Got a few pics the other day as the sun was going down, hitting the back yard plants so they were just glowing...

The Contorted Redbud changing colors...

The crape myrtle showing off its fruit.

The Service Berry with spent fruit still hanging on...

And I discovered a volunteer Rabbit Brush. Pretty flowers, but IT MUST DIE.

 The Butterfly Bush hanging on to a few last blooms. The Hummingbird Moths LOVE them.

In the chicken yard, the pear tree still has a few fruit to go...

Imminent Disaster discovering that when your sister Dubious Intentions dustbathes, she churns up goodies.

One of the Cockspur Hawthorne trees displaying its fall colors, cool bark and drupes...

Bobbie the buff Brahma rooster molted a lovely feather...

At the very back of our property, the neighbor's some-sort-of-grape plant crowding through the fence. Not producing that I noticed this year.

 Sadly, one of the Curly Willows I grew from starts brought north from the old house when we moved got infested with some kind of tiny black bugs, they got under the bark and killed it.

I have another one planted elsewhere and it's doing well, and will replant this one in the chicken yard from cuttings from it--so all is not lost.

But dang, I wish I could move this dead one to the front yard, it's totally Halloween-creepy. And the curly branches are so photogentic! I plan on setting out the branches when we take it down, offering them to crafters in our area to come and get.

It made great shade and cover for the chickens, and they loved eating the leaves.

Speaking of chickens...

Left to right: Bobbie the buff Brahma roo, Chonk the light Brahma hen in back. In front, Henry the bantam golden-laced Wyandotte, Tater Tot the Belgian d'Uccle/bantam/Cochin mix, Sesame the Smokey Pearl, Slick Charlie the partridge Rock behind her, and Kana the Bantam Cochin mix next to her.

Eating is the main talent they all seem to have.

Chonk in particular. Here she is shooting me some quality Stink Eye for interrupting Food Time.

When Chonk is in your lap you know you're holding some serious chicken meat.

And nobody delivers 'Day of Judgement' scowls like Chonk does.

 

Meanwhile, Mjolnir is caught mid-wattle-fling like a paused-action 'starring' shot from a 1970's crime drama TV show:

Eggroll has settled on being a rooster, though no crowing or interest in hens as yet. His crossbeak has worsened a bit, but we're keeping it trimmed. Tell-tale sickle-shaped saddle feathers coming in on either side of his as yet still non-existent tail (God I love hyphens, don't I?). He's also working up fantastic dinosaur frill feathers above his eyes.

But nothing competes with eating for him right now.

Peanut continues to impersonate a Hoopoe bird with her Rooster Handle.

Pardon the food she's wearing above her eye.

In the front yard, our struggling MacIntosh apple is making lil' fruits, but is producing every year now.

It's total yield, they're the size of racquet balls:

 Also out front a few lingering flowers...

Most everyone is molting in prep for winter, there are drifts of feathers everywhere and nightmare-fodder pincushion chickens...pictures later if I can get them!

No. 22 In The Series, 'Things You Do NOT Want To Touch'

Apparantly, 'Fall' to our chickens sounds a klaxon that screams, MOLT NOW! MOLT NOW! MOLT NOW!

The chicken yard is awash in feathers, and while most of the birds are --eh, kinda molting--while others refuse to...

Some take things way too far.

Tonight I went out to pass out some goodies and nearly screamed at Cluckadorkle--normally a fairly fluffy girl.

Yeah, right now she's a beige pincushion.

Then there's Pele, who molts heavily every single year.

She's working on her usual: molting out white feathers and growing in lavender ones.

When she realized I was taking pictures she ran and hid behind Milton.

Then there's nearly 10 year old Beauty, whom I swear has NEVER molted. Her feathers wouldn't dare fall out.

Although she looks pretty irritated to have everyone's molted feathers stuck to her feet like the rest of the chickens do...

New Models!

Spent the last week working on some new origami models; a tom turkey and a dove made out of a round paper doily. I folded these, plus some spirals, to donate to my mom's Red Hat's craft booth this weekend at the local pumpkin patch. Unfortunately she decided at the last minute not to go, so I'm undecided what I'll do with these--either incorporate them into my 'Found Origami' project or I'll use the doves & spirals as package toppers at Christmas.

The turkeys are pretty cute, I used papers in fall colors.

I didn't make any real changes to these, just made sure to round out the tail a bit to make them more three dimensional.

Some spirals, large and small...

Lastly the doves, which I really like. The only doillies I could find were some cheap ones that weren't very lacey, but I like these so much I'll for sure be looking for better doillies to make more. The only change I made here was to flare outward & fluff the wings & tails so the doves looked a little more 'in flight' and realistic.

These are standing on their tails for the photo but are strung and ready to hang, I think they'd look nice on a Christmas tree!

Pumpkin Patch Time!

Last weekend we went out to the local pumpkin patch. Back when I was in high school, we used to buy hay for our horses from this place, but then it was simply a residence and not the operation it is today. We spent hours there and had a great time, they had all kinds of fun stuff and everyone was very relaxed and friendly.

Not only tons of varieties of pumpkins, but weird & wonderful gourds, too. The kid's eyes popped and she kept wading into the vines and emerging with more strange gourds.

We got a ride on the horse-drawn carraige, pulled by a 32 year old fella named Chance.

Chance was a chill dude.

We told his handler that hands down, she had the best job on the farm.

The secret to making the pigs run that fast is out--Oreos!

They had a little train for the kids...

...which strangely, had a pig's face with, um...steer horns. YES, it was creepy.  I swear this thing watched me all day.

Milkweed plants were growing near the irrigation ditch and sending out seeds like mad.

On the way out we stopped at the shed that held all kinds of stuff. We came away with some kick-ass pumpkin butter and a jar of pomegranate-cranberry jelly. I offered to get J. some of the one on the right, but surprisingly he declined. We were amused by how similar they looked, and briefly toyed with the evil idea of switching labels.

OK, cue juvenile giggle:

Our haul for the day...

The photo doesn't do the biggest one justice, it's a monster. We may go back with grandma this weekend, her lady's group is going to have a craft booth there, I made some origami turkeys and spirals to donate.