Hey everyone! Long time! I've been busy with trying to feel better. Had a little bit of a sickness hit me and some depression. However, I knew you guys were waiting for an update!

Things have been chugging along slowly around here, we're trying to get the house sealed up because we're dealing with mice in the house! And, suddenly, fall has come. With highs around the mid 50s for the next week! I've already busted out my winter coat for visits to the coop. Can you believe it? Even though I am dealing with it, I can't believe it.

So, yesterday I went around the Farmstead and took a bunch of pics for ya! Spent some time with all the birds, and checked in with them. Things seem well around here!

---

The Gucks

The geese and ducks (gucks) are doing real well! They'll be 20 weeks old the first week of October. I don't know if I will get eggs this year or not sigh. But I hope I do! If not, it is what it is. The geese are so funny. They come running to me when I go toward or in their paddock. If I didn't know them, it'd be pretty frightening, I think. Haha.

Warning... If you have any sort of fear of geese, this might be a trigger! ;) Haha.

So this is how it goes.
I go in their paddock, squat down to their level, then they start yelling and running!! Here's a play by play. If you lean in toward your device, it might feel like you're me. :D Check it out, lemme know.

The ducks are doing well too, but they're not as friendly as the geese. They walk toward me, and quack at me. If I even think about making eye contact, they regret their decision and run away. Haha.

---

The Chickens

Man, the chickens have been slacking lately with their rent. I am getting MAYBE 1-3 eggs a day. Yesterday I did get 4 eggs, but that was quite the surprise. I think the smoke really affected their sun intake. Now, we're getting less than 14 hours of light a day, and 14 hours is how much they're supposed to get in order to lay reliably. So I am at the conundrum of "to light or not to light the coop". I am leaning toward lighting the coop because I spend a lot of money on their feed. I, stubbornly, choose to feed organic, corn-free, and soy-free feed that is ... costing an arm and a leg. I really do not want to compromise on the quality of feed. So here I am... Gotta figure out how to light the coop!

But I do have other chicken news!

I have decided that I want to breed chickens to sell as chicks or hatching eggs. I am still in the research phase of this venture! I still am researching on where/who I want to purchase a really nice duo or trio breeding set, how to get NPIP certified, and I still must build a separate coop and pen for the breeding birds. I am kind of excited about this but overwhelmed! There will be a pretty decent sized start up cost for a good breeding set of chickens. Oye. haha. But, I am saving up for it! Hopefully with the help from Steemit! :D

The breed I want to focus on are Blue Langshans, they're a dual purpose large heritage breed and are under the "Watch list" for endangerment from The Livestock Conservancy. Here's a great pic I got of one of my three Langshans yesterday. I love their fluffy feets.

The other breed I am interested are the Faverolles. Although they're dumb (and maybe a little suicidal...), I just love them. They're also a dual purpose heritage breed and are considered "endangered" by The Livestock Conservancy. I've now really grown to love them when I sit out with the chickens and all four of them come running and hang out with me.

The Broody Chicken Sitting on Eggs

She's still sitting! I should get babies this weekend! I need to start working on my "nursery ward" to separate the broody and her babies so I can make sure they get the feed that they need and that they don't get beat up or killed by the bigger chickens. I really didn't want to separate, but at this point, I can't see another feasible way. But that's okay, I've got an extra large wire dog kennel that I think will work for now, at least for the first couple weeks, I hope!

When I went to get that pic, I actually opened the nesting box doors to find one of my australorps hanging out on the nest! Whooooaaa noooo, I thought! I am not having another broody... She made a VERY scary noise, and then continued to glare at me. Eeek. Good for me though, I shoo'd her off the nest! I do NOT have any more room in the coop! Haha. Do you see that glare? She has got it DOWN PAT.

---

Other Things

Now that it's butt cold outside, the flowers have stopped blooming, nothing new is coming out of the ground... I did happen to FINALLY get a pic of one of my Mexican Sunflowers before it got gobbled up by a critter! Ah they are my favorite kind of sunflowers. :D They really did not do well here at all. I will have to amend soil badly for anything to grow nicely.

BUT, the smoke has gone away! We've had a couple rainy wet and windy days here and I think that's put some of the smoke out of the sky! I can SEE my scenery again! And more importantly, we can BREATHE and not feel like complete crap!

It's so good that it rained. There are so many fires in Oregon, and really, all over the Pacific Northwest. I hope that this rain has helped all the wildfires. There's ALSO SNOW in the mountains. Been snowing up there for the last two days! I feel like it's way too early.

---

Please Consider Supporting:

• @rhondak, she runs a much needed and severely underfunded Dog Rescue in the Appalachian Mountains. She uses the funds she makes on Steemit to save lives.

---

As always @farmstead here blogging from FarmsteadSmith!

Photos by me using my iPhone 6s, unless stated otherwise!

---

Badges by @daddykirbs and @allforthegood!