This Week: A Cold Snap, Outdoor Chickens, and Persimmons

Chicory, one of my favorite fall flowers

Summer has finally left! After weeks of unseasonably warm weather, we’ve been blessed with yellowing leaves, bright cold evenings, and freezing wind that makes my face turn to goosebumps when I run outside to take care of the chickens. ...Yes, St. Louis really does only have two seasons, summer and winter. Oh well!

Speaking of chickens, ours have been growing like crazy— they’re fully feathered now and collectively wolfing down a quart of feed a day. We finished the run enough to let them outside, and they’ve been managing beautifully, despite the cold snap. They love to dust bathe, chase crickets and flies, run around like crazy for no reason, and try to intimidate each other by facing off and extending their necks with ruffed feathers. There’s no clear pecking order yet, but I’m sure one will emerge soon.

Artemis, Isbushka, Bobbie, and Fluffy Buffy

Also, all five of them have names, since I can reliably tell them apart now, both by appearance and by personality. Pirate Buffy is the friendliest and doesn’t mind being held. Fluffy Buffy is the most adamant dust-bather and bug-hunter. Artemis Mayfeather is named after the goddess of the hunt because of her cricket-catching abilities (she even ate a full-sized grasshopper the other day). Isbushka Mayfeather is always trying to sneak out of the run when I open the door. And Bobbie Dylan is still scared of everything, sounding a desperate warning cry every time a plane flies over, and always the last chicken to snatch any treats I feed them (she will also, however, find bugs and call to the other chicks so they come running— a rooster-like trait that I hope doesn’t mean she’s male).

The run has been safe from predators so far, although the neighborhood hawk checked them out and nearly terrified them to death. But so far, so good.

Pirate Buffy and Isbushka

Other activities last week included a glorious hike at Pere Marquette State Park with Zach and my brother Christian who just returned from his summer at Yellowstone. Christian convinced me to sample some fallen persimmons, and I tentatively licked the fruit, expecting the face-sucking sourness that they’re known for. Instead, I tasted a jammy, tropical-flavored fruit without a trace of sourness. Persimmons are amazing! We ate so many that I got a stomachache, and brought some of the seeds back in hopes of planting them.

The view from McAdams Peak

Last weekend, and now this weekend, are taken up with the St. Charles Halloween Festival, Legends and Lanterns. If you’re in the St. Louis area and like Halloween, you should definitely come check it out! I hear that the most famous witch of Slavic folklore, Baba Yaga, is awesome.

...although a bit cranky.

That’s all for this week! What have you been up to?

Lisa

This Week (Housemates, Carrots, Potlucks, and a Festival)

Check it out: It's gonna be chilling!

It’s been a busy week! Besides me hiding in the air conditioning cursing the St. Louis weather, here’s what’s been going on this week...

Each of us expressing how we feel about Francis.

The big news is that Zach’s brother Francis came to live with us! Originally we were going to fix up a room in our garage for him, but the deeper we got in the planning stages of the project, the more we realized that it was going to be a ton of effort (and money) to get things the way we wanted. So we decided to declutter the spare room instead, and in he moved. In Francis’s words, “Why do you guys need a baby? You can just adopt an 18-year-old instead!” Just what I wanted...

I also got to see everyone in my immediate family this weekend: Mary, in from California, and Eric and Sarah and Jackson, visiting from Tennessee. It’s nice that, even though my family members are scattered across the country, we can see each other every once in a while. 

Also, I have finally managed, on my fifth try, to grow a crop of carrots! Encouraged by the (not-long-enough) bursts of cooler weather, they have not died of heat stroke. When I ate the first one, I was transported back to the farmer’s market in Bellingham, Washington, when I ate an organically-grown carrot for the first time: they are sweet, crisp but tender on the teeth, with a deep carroty flavor that made me sigh in happiness. It took me long enough, but I finally grew some successful root vegetables! 

Most excitingly to me, Sunday was the neighborhood potluck that I organized, hosted at the Frenchtown Museum. I wasn’t sure how many people would show up, but by the time it was in full swing, we had at least 20-30 people crowded into the museum, eating, laughing, and talking while children ran around underfoot. It turned out better than I could’ve hoped, the kind of potluck that you read about in a “Community Building Ideas” blog post. Everyone was very encouraging and supportive of the idea of making the potluck a semi-regular event in the future. I’m excited to see how I can continue to be part of the growing neighborhood community!

Last but not least, the Halloween festival I’m part of, Legends and Lanterns, is going to be starting up this weekend! If you want to visit a fun and spooky festival in historic St. Charles, be sure to drop by during the day on Saturday or Sunday to visit characters from Halloween history, including Edgar Allen Poe, Stingy Jack, Lizzie Borden, Igor, Guy Fawkes, a mob of musical angry villagers, and, of course, everyone’s favorite Slavic witch, Baba Yaga. 

Back to work now. Have a great week, everyone!

~Lisa