School begins on Monday, August 23, 2021. I have been away from the farm since Aug 12th, Mrs. Boswell has kept the charge of the farm for the past two weeks.
This summer we grew zucchini, pumpkins, tomatoes, grapes, cucumbers, blackberries, and pumpkins. We tried green beans but the chickens would eat the leaves before they could grow. We have harvested over 20 zucchini and cucumbers up to this point. The blackberries ripened near the end of school in early June. Many of the office staff collected blackberries after all of the students were off into summer.
When I left for vacation on Aug 12 we had no pumpkins growing. Upon arrival home, on Aug 22 we had four pumpkins, one of which weighs at least 20 pounds. It is getting very hard to walk in the garden.
We had two hatches of chickens this summer. One in early June, the last week of the last school year. A total of eight. We then had eight chicks hatch in late July. We lost five of the eight due to something, not large able to get into the coop and dig under the interior wall to a cage that the chicks were in.
Over the summer I gave 2 young hens from the Valencia Chicks to a school employee in June. In early August I gave four hens to our custodian to give to a friend. These four hens constantly would go out in front of the school. Mrs. Boswell took Henrietta and a chick to her home in early August.
We lost one hen to an injury in August.
