Well, it’s December 4th, and we’re finally, officially going to have our first ‘hard’ freeze around here.  Goodbye Brandywine tomatoes.  Goodbye my Romas and Sweet Cherry 100s who are still producing.  Bye, bye big, lush basil.  Ugh. 

I was going to name this post “Check out my Hooters”, but I haven’t gotten pictures of them yet.  Stay tuned for the madness and mayhem.  Just kidding.  Well, about the madness and mayhem, anyway.

In farmhouse news, I’m ripping apart the interior of ye olde farmhouse and re-arranging things more to my liking.  Now that we’ve been here over a year, I know what I’ll use and where it serves me best.  So, I’ve been “Martha”-ing it up all day today and I only got to 3 rooms.  Oh well.  Feels good to get rid of clutter.  Sorry I don’t have current pics, but my camera is dead today.  I re-re-arranged the pantry, making a ‘maid’s’ corner (yes, that is me).  I love it!  Will get photos soon.

In farm news, today I lost my last female duck. I let her out this morning, and by midday, she was gone.  Just disappeared.  I am almost certain it was a hawk, and well….I’m pretty pissed about it.  I LOVE duck eggs to bake with.  Sigh.  But, here’s some pretty happy news…I took 2 of her eggs and put them underneath a setting hen, and both are developing!  Funny thing: I just was researching this phenomenon (chickens hatching duck eggs) and I found this quote:  ” One good breed of chicken to consider to hatch your ducks is called the Silkie.”  Well, that’s exactly what I’m doing!  I have my fingers crossed that they’ll hatch into two beautiful little females.  I will keep you updated on that.  At any rate, this spring, I will be adding some more female ducks to the farm as well as female geese.  Did you know that ducks are actually as efficient, if not more so, at laying eggs than chickens?  The eggs are also much richer.  Because my ducks do not eat funky stuff in a pond, their eggs do not have any weird, off flavors.  Anyway, I’m down to 2 geese and Mr. Duck. 

Well, time to go sit in front of my fireplace, finish my coffee and work on some crafts!  Hooters coming soon!

Afterthought:  I want to add some pics I snapped of the Christmas tree in our kitchen!  Enjoy!