been a long time

It has been awhile, but so much goes on it is hard to keep up and yet I feel I don't want to continue without all details, at least the ones I thought you should know. So, inspired by my sister in laws amazing blog, I will try to be more regular about posting.
Good news is no sign of melting honey or wax in our walls from the bees. So it looks like we lucked out there, of course next year will tell if more bees find the hive and move in.
We had another bear encounter, though this one was not seen. We love the birds and enjoy feeding them, despite advise not to because it attracts bears. Please that is silly. I went out one morning to let the chickens out and saw that our hummingbird feeder (yes the bottle of 'sugar water') had been knocked down and chewed up a bit. Raccoons I figured, we never see them but we know they are there. On my way back from the chicken house I saw our wrought iron Shepard's hook that holds 2 feeders bent all the way to the ground, still stuck in the earth, but bent flat to meet it. The feeders were toast. Bryan still denies that it was a bear and tries to convince me that it was a raccoon, a really big and or angry raccoon. Now there will be no feeding the birds till winter and no going out in the yard at night. We were told by the farmer who cuts our field that we evidently live on the bear highway. Good to know, perhaps that should have been in the Century 21 write up of the house.
Mid July we welcomed our first eggs, I couldn't wait for our chickens any longer so I purchased some laying hens, Ameracaunas that lay light blue/green eggs. Within the last 2 weeks our chickens have started laying eggs. Eggs, eggs everywhere! With the help of my nephew, I finished the butchering of our many roosters, we are now down to 3, well maybe 4. Mom has 2 chochins, they are identical so we call them Betty/Betsy. Well it appears that Betty/Betsy could really be Betty/Betsy/Bill. Because they look so much alike the only time we can tell them apart is when Bill attempts to crow, which is not often or he attempts some alone time with the ladies. We think he has waited to share with us the evidence of his gender due to the overwhelming dominance of Jubal, our alpha roo.
I have started cheese making with goats milk I get from a couple of different farmers. It is a lot of fun and wish I was set up to make more varieties. I will begin making goats milk soap soon also.