Here is one of our newest chicks, hatched this week. Our current resident rooster is a Black Brahma, so we get a lot of black chicks with cute-looking feathered legs. Unfortunately, we don’t have a Black Brahma hen (I’d love to get one, so we can have pure-bred chicks), but in the meantime I’m hoping to get good birds from crossing the Black Brahma with our best hen, a mixed New Hampshire (I think). She’s a nice big brown hen and gives us plenty of big brown eggs. So hopefully I can get some pullets who will be beautiful, good-sized, and good layers.
Black Brahma cross chick held by Shira (7 years old)
Above you can see a mixed tray of cherry tomato, pepper and melon seedlings. I realize it’s rather late in the season to have seedlings indoors, but I’m counting on the long, warm days we usually have well into October and even November. Either way, I have nothing to lose, right? The tomatoes, peppers and herbs we already have planted outside seem to be doing nicely. We’ll see how they fare and whether we get any produce by the end of the season. I can hardly wait.
In my spare time (ha ha) I’m catching up on a bit of useful reading. My current read is The Backyard Homestead, and I must say I’m greatly enjoying it. It has everything outlined in such a clear, straightforward way – gardening, raising small livestock, useful landscaping – and it really showed me that, rather than wish we had more land (which of course would be nice), we should instead work towards making the best of what we do have – and I know that, being creative, we can do much, much more.
Domestic Felicity 
Here in Chicago, we extend our growing season considerably by using a simple hoop house (also called high tunnel): polyethylene plastic sheeting stretched over arched PVC ribs. We’re still harvesting tomatoes into November and sometimes December with day time temps only 3-5*C. On sunny days, it’s 30*C inside there. Maybe that could get yours right thru the winter?
–Tim
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Tim, that’s an excellent idea. I hadn’t really thought of season extenders as the climate is so warm here, but we might have to try it if our tomatoes and peppers are late. I’m also hoping to plant a fall garden of greens, garlic, brassicas, etc.
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