A Thief in the Night

This morning I went out to feed the chickens at around 6:30 am. It was still pitch black out, and there was almost no moon to see by. As I approached the coop, I heard the sound of claws on chicken wire. Through the dark, I could barely make out the silhouette of a small animal. My initial reaction was that we'd inadvertently left a chicken out over night, and it had decided to roost on the fence for the night. I was about to grab it and toss it back inside, but something stopped me. I fed the chickens that were inside the coop, and ran back to the house to get a flashlight. Not finding one, I asked Katey to get the camera, and I went out and zoomed in on the silhouette. When I snapped the shot, this is what we saw:

We've heard that possums are pretty harmless, at least compared to the other types of nocturnal critters that we could have. They're less likely to have rabies than raccoons; they're less ferocious than coyotes; they smell better than skunks. This one was obviously interested in the chickens, but as long as the door is closed, the possum shouldn't be an issue.
We hope...

Yes, We Can

Today marked a return to efforts too long forgotten. We made our first foray into canning. Six quarts of green beans and six quarts of peaches now reside in our pantry, waiting for the Days of Grace.

Our garden this year is too meager to provide much real sustenance. We're hoping that a few tomatoes will beat the frost, and that basil will be available from our freezer instead of the $6 plastic package that we can sporadically find at the local supermarket.

The past year has brought significant change along with it. We moved, leaving behind our lovely garden and beloved chicken coop. Our old house was purchased by an industrial agricultural company, and the house, orchards, and everything else will soon join the old barn as nothing more than a memory.

It hasn't been all bad. We like our new house. The views are unparallelled. The garden, while small, provides the promise that we'll soon be raising more of our own food again. And that won't happen a moment too soon. This fall, we're expecting our first child. We hope that we'll be able to make most of her baby food.

I hope to chronicle more of our adventures (which promise to be many) in the coming year. I've undertaken the task of teaching writing to 8th grade students this year, and I intend to share my own writing with them as often as possible.