Hi folks. This will be another brief update so I can get back to work.

AROUND THE FARM
Thankfully the rain seems like it will finally relent this week. As those of you who follow the updates know, there has been considerable damage done around the farm by the near constant rain and wet over the past three-plus weeks.

I’ll be working over the next couple of weeks to add more covered growing space. In addition to helping offset adverse effects of bad weather, the spaces should help me expand out the season by at least a short time.

The skunk that was lurking around for a time seems to have moved on. I’m not going to say for sure it’s gone yet, but there have been no sightings or signs of it in the past week.

IN THE FIELD
The fallout from the rain continues. I’ll try to give a better update on what it will mean as we move into the fall next week.

FROM THE COOP
The chickens are generally doing well. There has been a slight uptick in fighting, which I attribute to being stuck so close together due to the rain.

Additionally, the long exposure to wetter ground in the pen and now-fenced outside area where they play has led to some foot problems for them, with one chicken being treated for a condition known as Bumblefoot (a type of staph infection in the foot pad). The chicken, named Little Red (one of the little chickens I make sure gets extra food), has to have her foot cleaned and bandaged twice per day. It is getting better, and with the dry should heal up soon.

OTHER GENERAL INFO
It was recently brought to my attention that there might be some problems when it comes to contacting me by email. I can assure you all that when I receive email with a question or comment that requires addressing that I respond to it. There may be a delay, given the time of year, but I do respond to mail I get. If you have tried to contact me and for some reason I have not responded, it is either because I never got the incoming message, or my response was put in your SPAM folder. There was also a strange issue for a time with people who have AOL addresses, with the email first being returned as undeliverable, but resending the same mail to the same address and it went right through.

Also, there is one other item in this regard concerning voicemail. If you leave me a voicemail, please be sure to include a contact number in your message. If I happen to be in an area with no service, my phone does not usually log the number of the person who called, and I wind up with a voicemail from “unknown caller”, no listed missed incoming call in the log, and no way to reply.

That’s it for now. Hope to see you all at the farm soon. Have a great week.