Everyone Loves a Treat!

There's an incredible amount of excitement around the compost pile.

A new shipment of kitchen waste arrived yesterday,

and the chickens are just ecstatic!

Every week or two, I bring home five gallon pails full of kitchen scraps

from our favorite local restaurant.

(For those of you who are local...

Espresso Yourself in Newport is just the best little breakfast or lunch spot

you could hope for.)

They prepare wonderful meals from local and organic produce

and we are the lucky recipient of their scraps.

The hens will spend the next day picking through all of the scraps for anything tasty.

We compost all of our own kitchen scraps

(that is, what we don't feed to the hens).

I keep a copper bucket with lid on our kitchen counter, keeping scraps there until the bucket is full.

We line the bucket with these biodegradable "BioBags" that are made from corn.

These bags feel very much like a plastic bag, but do not last a bazillion years like plastic does.

They break down within a matter of weeks.

This company makes trash bags, sandwich bags, and food storage bags also...

from corn.... a responsible alternative to plastic.

We've also started to use these plates when we entertain outdoors.

They are made from tapioca starch and grasses, are ultra thick and durable,

and can be composted in our compost pile.

We are still harvesting apples on a daily basis.

Of course that means that Ginger and MaryAnn are getting their daily apple snack.

They stand at the fence snorting and grunting...

pushing each other out of the way...

in anticipation of that first juicy bite.

Then they each grab an apple in their mouths and head to opposite sides of their yard

to eat them.

They are always so worried that the other one will try to steal their treat.

Chomp, chomp, slurp, slurp... with the biggest open-mouthed display of

chewing and pure gastronomical pleasure.

I am sure they would eat apples until they explode

if I let them!

One of the best things about this time of year is the melding

of summer color with autumn color.

All of the summer flowers are still blooming,

as the green trees slowly turn yellow and orange.

Fall flowers, like purple asters, add to the showy display of the season.

This colorful show is all too tenuous, though...

as it will be snuffed out by the first frost.

Hopefully frost stays away for several more weeks.

We have, though, had one night in the high 30's this week.

It's Friday already...

and Hubbs and I have an adventure planned for today.

I'll have photos to show you on Monday.

Have a wonderful Autumn weekend!

Do you have any adventures planned?