The Pumpkin Party!

One of my favorite October events is dinner in a pumpkin. Last Sunday we had a family party and invited everybody to bring a pumpkin to decorate or carve. Nobody took us up on that, even our daughter who suggested it. I had to laugh when she and her children arrived with no pumpkins. Our son's family had a late sports event with their second grader and arrived shortly before dinner, so they anticipated no time for pumpkin carving. And our other daughter's family had already decorated their pumpkins. So other activities, mostly catching up on everyone's news, took precedence.

The dinner was a success: chili in the pumpkin with rice, muffins, coleslaw, and broccoli salad. Dessert was pumpkin cheese cake, rice krispy treats colored and shaped as orange pumpkins, and a big box of European chocolate coated cookies from Costco. A good time was had by all! And hopefully this is one more memory from Camp Kreitzer to treasure in the future and maybe repeat in the next generation and others to come. It's still not too late to host a pumpkin party at your house. And if you want extra fun, watch the hilarious Steven Spielberg short, The Mummy.

Thinking about Prepping the Chickies for Winter! And the Bees as well.

This time of year is busy at Camp Kreitzer. We've been working on closing up the pool and getting our bees and chickies ready for the winter. The mouseguards are on the hives and we've reduced the hive entrances.  We've also been feeding a heavy sugar syrup to make sure they have enough stores to survive til Spring. Those preparations and the help of the beekeeping patrons give us confidence that all will be well. Hopefully we will come out of the winter with both hives surviving. They are strong now; we pray they will stay that way. And the reward for our efforts is the yummy honey. I've been making a honey egg custard that looks and tastes like flan -- delicious, light, and gluten free.

Bonnie Bluebeard is a Plymouth Blue.

The chickens are thriving and still giving a full complement of eggs every day -- except for our welfare chicken, Whopper, who is an Americauna and will lay blue eggs if she ever starts. Our five ISA Browns, one Orpington, and one Plymouth Blue are all laying big brown eggs which usually measure jumbo on my chicken scale. And despite the days getting shorter, they are still almost all laying every day. So we generally get seven eggs and six on a day when one of the girls decides to take a break. I love going out to collect the eggs every day! And we enjoy sharing them with our children. 

If you are in the neighborhood, stop and meet our girls. We will introduce you to the chickens by name, but the bees are nameless. We just say, "Hi girls!" when we go out to work the hives. Maybe that's why they are testy some days which is why Larry is holding the smoker. It's a lifesaver on days when the girls are not happy.