The Fox Says....

There was chicken drama this week at The Acre. Birds started coming up missing at the evening head count, and we figured the hawk was back. One morning while Cupcake was getting ready for work, she heard chicken drama in the front yard. When she looked out she found a red fox with a mouth full of one of our birds. In broad daylight, in the front yard. Big Man grabbed the nearest handgun, which was his 1911, and put three .45 ACP rounds down range at a running target. No blood found, but he was pretty sure Foxy Fox escaped, only to get his mind right (and I do mean, right). Until more birds came up missing two days later. Updates to follow, this aggression will not stand, man. We also lost one of our lavender birds this week, so it's been a rough week for our feathered friends.
 We hit the jackpot with cucumbers. We made a garden check Monday afternoon, and got half a basket full of green ones.

We sliced them up and gave them a bath in the crock with lime. It's how we make pickles

After 24 hours, Big Man whipped up a case of bread and butter pickles while Cupcake was in the salt mines.

The last picking of green beans was made from Pop's garden this week. We pulled up the vines as we went this time, so unless our garden comes in, the beans we have in the basement will have to hold us this winter.

And speaking of our garden, we got a weird ear of corn this week. We have never seen an ear of corn quite like this one....

Instead of closing to a point at the top of the ear, it opened up flat. We are sure it's Obama's fault, we just aint figured out how yet.
And one last garden item on the docket this week. Kimmie Crack. Our tomatoes started coming in, and Cupcake started picking them green. We will never see a ripe tomato this season.

But you wont hear us complaining.
Big Man did his Thor's Day rib smoke, which is becoming a thing around The Acre, plus he added a brisket tip to the mix. This one he rubbed down a little longer before smoking, and you can see what a difference it made with the smoke ring.

We are keeping this one around for collards and bean seasoning. We also had it in Sunday eggs. It's good to have smoked brisket on hand, we have learned.
We leave this post with pictures of our sunflowers that have started blooming, and of course, chicken wing Sunday.

K&K