Fruit, Chicken Feet and a New Sock Pattern

Summer has finally arrived here in the California mountains.  The warm sunny days and cool evenings are absolutely wonderful.  For those of you who are new to our blog, we are a family that lives totally off the electric grid.  We make our own power through wind, battery and generators and have our own well for water. 

Our small 2 1/2 acre hobby farm has been quite an adventure!  Last weekend we planted two Colorado Blue Spruce trees in our "forest" area.  We also have a section that we call our "park" and one that is our "orchard."

This year's pear crop looks extremely promising - as long as we can keep the squirrels and birds away.

The apple trees are filled and I can already smell the many pies that will be baked in my oven. I'm still tying plastic grocery bags at the base of each tree and throughout the tops.  With all the wind that we have, they inflate and seem to scare off all the critters.

We've also added 5 Buff Orpingtons to our farm and are enjoying them immensely.  Their feet absolutely intrique me!  Here Lucy is posing for a photo op!  I keep telling her that they're getting a bit scaly and that she really needs some lotion!

Lucy is always curious when I bring the camera into their pen and she loves to have her picture taken.  Now, I must tell you that each of our girls have a name, but since I can't tell them apart, I always say "Lucy" to whomever I'm talking to.  My husband calls them all "Gertie".

And when I'm not attending to all that needs to be done up here, or watching our 5 grandkids 3 days a week, I'm doing my best to get my sock patterns up and running or making socks for our Etsy and Ravelry stores.  This is our next pattern called, "The Nogales Sock."  I had hoped to have it done by tomorrow, but that's not going to happen, so stayed tuned and maybe it will be ready next week.

Then we'll have a small giveaway for a free copy.