Open Contest Memories of Summer—2025

[Gill-b]

Living in the Southern hemisphere, we get to have (tongue-in-cheek) TWO summers each calendar year. Our summer months being December, January and February.

[For the South African public-school going children, their longest school holiday happens in this time, normally for about 35 days, starting around 10 December and ending around 15 January when the new school year starts. They have three more school holidays over the course of the year; of about 10 days in March to April; about 25 days in wintry June to July; and about another 10 days in October month.]

So, for my first summer of 2025... ...I will report that I made grape jam for the first time, and from grapes which I harvested from my own grapevine in my garden. I am very happy with the way the jam turned out, which is sweet yet tart in flavour, and I enjoy it spread on hot buttered toast with a bit of cinnamon sprinkled on top, Mmmm.

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Pic above taken in second summer of 2024.

My second summer time for 2025 is now two-and-a-half months away. Spring has definitely sprung, and my grapevine started to shoot new vines over this past weekend. It is amazing how quickly the new growth happens. On Saturday there was only one single new shoot on the entire vine, and then on Sunday shooting leaves, new and green, appeared all over the vine.

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Photograph taken this morning of some of the new growth on the vine which happened over the weekend.

 

[peafowl_Lover]

My favourite memory of the summer was hatching eggs under a broody hen for the first time. Only one hatched and of course he's a cockerell. That one egg cost me over €1,000 but once Sesame is happy I'm happy. I got him 8 new ladies but sadly 3 died from an unknown illness but they are better now. I hope the silkies aren't always broody but I guess that means Sesame could have kids and maybe grandkids! I'm making a covered run for them so they'll be nice and cosy in the winter. The coop is built but not furnished yet. I'm hoping to get them out in it this Saturday. But we'll see!

 

[DuckLady]

Living in the Southern hemisphere, we get to have (tongue-in-cheek) TWO summers each calendar year. Our summer months being December, January and February.

[For the South African public-school going children, their longest school holiday happens in this time, normally for about 35 days, starting around 10 December and ending around 15 January when the new school year starts. They have three more school holidays over the course of the year; of about 10 days in March to April; about 25 days in wintry June to July; and about another 10 days in October month.]

So, for my first summer of 2025... ...I will report that I made grape jam for the first time, and from grapes which I harvested from my own grapevine in my garden. I am very happy with the way the jam turned out, which is sweet yet tart in flavour, and I enjoy it spread on hot buttered toast with a bit of cinnamon sprinkled on top, Mmmm.

View media item 7973337
Pic above taken in second summer of 2024.

My second summer time for 2025 is now two-and-a-half months away. Spring has definitely sprung, and my grapevine started to shoot new vines over this past weekend. It is amazing how quickly the new growth happens. On Saturday there was only one single new shoot on the entire vine, and then on Sunday shooting leaves, new and green, appeared all over the vine.

View media item 7973338
Photograph taken this morning of some of the new growth on the vine which happened over the weekend.

Oh, nothing is better than homemade jam! Except maybe multiple summers. Watching new growth is inspiring!

My favourite memory of the summer was hatching eggs under a broody hen for the first time. Only one hatched and of course he's a cockerell. That one egg cost me over €1,000 but once Sesame is happy I'm happy. I got him 8 new ladies but sadly 3 died from an unknown illness but they are better now. I hope the silkies aren't always broody but I guess that means Sesame could have kids and maybe grandkids! I'm making a covered run for them so they'll be nice and cosy in the winter. The coop is built but not furnished yet. I'm hoping to get them out in it this Saturday. But we'll see!

Those first eggs do cost a bundle, don't they? But just wait, each successive one halves the cost. But the memories of getting there are priceless!

 

[Valley of Drakes]

My farm has had a BANNER of a year! I'm in my 2nd full season of egg production from Ducks, Geese, Turkeys, and Chickens, (mostly for egg-setting which you'll see below.) It isn't a large farm, but it was paying us a little each month through the winter and into the summer. (Now they are on lay-cation for the season.)

I was able to have chickens hatch-out ducklings and a turkey, then surprise chicks, and a duck hatched-out NINE ducklings and took on 6 more and 4 geese as the Mother of FIFTEEN ducklings and 4 goslings! Another duck hatched a SURPRISE chick and one expected duckling, and NOW I have a hen on 8 more duck eggs! PHEW!!! My little farm is growing organically this way, and those birds will lay eggs to keep everyone fed through the winter.

In addition I purchased my first group of ten Slate Turkeys which will become my new breeding program and my first meat birds.

BUT
THE MOST EXCITING and UNFORGETTABLE PART of this summer was being awarded TWO grants for my growing farm! One from FACT : Fund-A-Farmer to build a new brooder and enclosure (which I am getting good use out of!) that allows the baby birds to have access to forage on the ground when they are still really little, and the other is a New Producer Grant through AgWest worth $15,000 !!!!! which will allow me to buy equipment to make my farm independently operational from the larger farm under which I have been incubating.

I'm super blessed and excited to see where this journey takes me!
My planned projects (fun stuff for this winter!) include building sanitary egg washing and meat processing stations, all stainless steel, with a plunger and plucker; purchasing a trailer and crates for transportation and in case of an evacuation, making a 100 gallon+ pond for the geese to enjoy, improving my fertigation system and perhaps starting an herb market garden, fencing, and a new 25-50 egg incubator... so many great things to help my business thrive.

 

[talkinboutchickens]

Last week, my mom, my sister and I went camping in the "thumb" of Michigan with our tiny Layton trailer named Sunny. Our camping spot was right off the beach so we would often go down to the beach and look for rocks and shells. At around 7:45 every night was the sunset. We would bring our lawn chairs down on the sand and watch the blazing orange sun cast its rays on the calm Lake Huron water as it slowly went below the horizon. In my opinion, you will find no other place to view as beautiful a sunset as over the Great Lakes in Michigan.

Every day, we had a different itinerary planned by my sister and I. A few things that are the most memorable for me are shopping at thrift stores, cute little shops, and the Port Austin farmer's market, playing putt-putt golf and having pumpkin pie flavored ice cream afterwards, watching the night sky (we could see the Milky Way!) and meeting my aunt in a small town called Kinde which was supposed to have a Polka festival but it was a big letdown. So we went to The Pasta House instead and I had cheese tortellini In the restaurant on the TV I saw the Lions get the first touchdown of the Lions and Bears game- our team won which is a huge comeback from our first game with the Packers

We also stopped by the Port Austin History Center, not expecting much at all- but since it was apparently "Girl's Weekend" the few days we were up there, they were letting us try on old-timey dresses and hats that was fashion from like the 1800's. And they even let us walk outside with it all on. The most delicious meal I had there was in Caseville at The Thumb Brewery. I had a reuben sandwich with chips. I tried sauerkraut and thousand island dressing for the first time. I still don't know what I think about either of them.

The drive up to our campground was very scenic. Just tons of fields of corn and what we assumed to be potatoes, because we saw ginormous piles of potatoes at the end of two fields. (Fun fact: Michigan grows the most potatoes specifically for potato chips!) There were tons of huge white windmills everywhere- it reminded me of our drive to Columbus, Ohio a few years back.

A not so good memory was my mom hitting a stupid squirrel...But hey it wasn't her fault

 

[DuckLady]

My farm has had a BANNER of a year! I'm in my 2nd full season of egg production from Ducks, Geese, Turkeys, and Chickens, (mostly for egg-setting which you'll see below.) It isn't a large farm, but it was paying us a little each month through the winter and into the summer. (Now they are on lay-cation for the season.)

I was able to have chickens hatch-out ducklings and a turkey, then surprise chicks, and a duck hatched-out NINE ducklings and took on 6 more and 4 geese as the Mother of FIFTEEN ducklings and 4 goslings! Another duck hatched a SURPRISE chick and one expected duckling, and NOW I have a hen on 8 more duck eggs! PHEW!!! My little farm is growing organically this way, and those birds will lay eggs to keep everyone fed through the winter.

In addition I purchased my first group of ten Slate Turkeys which will become my new breeding program and my first meat birds.

BUT
THE MOST EXCITING and UNFORGETTABLE PART of this summer was being awarded TWO grants for my growing farm! One from FACT : Fund-A-Farmer to build a new brooder and enclosure (which I am getting good use out of!) that allows the baby birds to have access to forage on the ground when they are still really little, and the other is a New Producer Grant through AgWest worth $15,000 !!!!! which will allow me to buy equipment to make my farm independently operational from the larger farm under which I have been incubating.
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I'm super blessed and excited to see where this journey takes me!
My planned projects (fun stuff for this winter!) include building sanitary egg washing and meat processing stations, all stainless steel, with a plunger and plucker; purchasing a trailer and crates for transportation and in case of an evacuation, making a 100 gallon+ pond for the geese to enjoy, improving my fertigation system and perhaps starting an herb market garden, fencing, and a new 25-50 egg incubator... so many great things to help my business thrive.
View attachment 4217815

Sounds like you are well on your way to a successful farm! Congrats! Oregon is such a lovely state and your turkeys are adorable!

Last week, my mom, my sister and I went camping in the "thumb" of Michigan with our tiny Layton trailer named Sunny. Our camping spot was right off the beach so we would often go down to the beach and look for rocks and shells. At around 7:45 every night was the sunset. We would bring our lawn chairs down on the sand and watch the blazing orange sun cast its rays on the calm Lake Huron water as it slowly went below the horizon. In my opinion, you will find no other place to view as beautiful a sunset as over the Great Lakes in Michigan.
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Every day, we had a different itinerary planned by my sister and I. A few things that are the most memorable for me are shopping at thrift stores, cute little shops, and the Port Austin farmer's market, playing putt-putt golf and having pumpkin pie flavored ice cream afterwards, watching the night sky (we could see the Milky Way!) and meeting my aunt in a small town called Kinde which was supposed to have a Polka festival but it was a big letdown. So we went to The Pasta House instead and I had cheese tortellini In the restaurant on the TV I saw the Lions get the first touchdown of the Lions and Bears game- our team won which is a huge comeback from our first game with the Packers

View attachment 4217861
We also stopped by the Port Austin History Center, not expecting much at all- but since it was apparently "Girl's Weekend" the few days we were up there, they were letting us try on old-timey dresses and hats that was fashion from like the 1800's. And they even let us walk outside with it all on. The most delicious meal I had there was in Caseville at The Thumb Brewery. I had a reuben sandwich with chips. I tried sauerkraut and thousand island dressing for the first time. I still don't know what I think about either of them.
View attachment 4217862
The drive up to our campground was very scenic. Just tons of fields of corn and what we assumed to be potatoes, because we saw ginormous piles of potatoes at the end of two fields. (Fun fact: Michigan grows the most potatoes specifically for potato chips!) There were tons of huge white windmills everywhere- it reminded me of our drive to Columbus, Ohio a few years back.
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A not so good memory was my mom hitting a stupid squirrel...But hey it wasn't her fault

Beautiful sunset pictures! What an amazing trip! I'm with you on the thousand island dressing. I just like plain ol mustard on my Reubens. Love the kraut, though. Squirrels. Sigh. They are so industrious, but they never learned to look both ways before crossing the highway.

 

[talkinboutchickens]

Squirrels. Sigh. They are so industrious, but they never learned to look both ways before crossing the highway.

I know right! The lane next to ours was completely empty and the stupid squirrel ran in front of the truck and was pacing back and forth instead of running back into the empty lane, and also it could have stayed in between my mom's tires but it chose to run into the tire instead. Oh well I guess.