Greetings from Dancing Hen Farm!  Welcome to autumn, Welcome October and Welcome new farm member Dilly Bean!

Welcome to Week 15 of our CSA.  After this week's delivery there are 3 weeks remaining in our CSA.  Week 15 is an egg week.  This week is also a Chicken Delivery week, so please remember to pick up your chicken at your drop site.

We are finally getting a bit of rain here on farm.  Saturday's rain was a bit of a surprise. Farmer Don was at the Back Mountain Market and did not expect and therefore was not prepared for rain,  but he is not complaining.  Rain is a welcome sight this year! The forecast is for possible significant rain today and tonight.  This rain is too late for our summer crops and too late for our neighbors' corn and soybean crops.  However any rain will help with replenishing our water table. 

Can you believe we are welcoming October this week?  And have you noticed the trees are starting to change.  Almost overnight there are bursts of red and gold!  Farmer Don and I like to observe the local microclimates this time of year.  For instance the trees in Bloomsburg and Berwick are not nearly as far along as those up here in Northern Columbia and I am sure further north the colors are really getting brilliant!  We are hoping to maybe take a little drive this week and do some leaf peeping.  However, our new farm member, may keep us closer to home!

So never, ever did I think this soon after losing both our girls would I be writing about bringing a new puppy into our family.  But, that is exactly what I am doing!

We were not certain we were ready for another dog, but then Silly Dilly Bean stole our heart.  She was an owner surrender to a veterinary hospital.  Dilly is a 3 month old small mixed breed, we are still trying to determine the mix?  One thing for certain, she is all puppy!  We have not had a puppy on farm for quite some time and that puppy was Rosie.  Being a Border Collie, Rosie had her own unique way of being a puppy.  But, Dilly is very much a typical puppy.  Full of energy and sass.  Dilly is slowly learning her name and to potty outside.  She still does not understand why she can't chew up the afghan on the couch or our shoes.   Dilly loves to steal things and run around trying to get us to chase her.  We try not to play her game, but sometimes we do not have a choice.  Today, she stole a bottle of cooking oil off a shelf in the kitchen and came running through the living room with it.  I envisioned a large oil spill on the rug and then a squirmy puppy getting saturated with oil and running throughout the house!  Luckily Farmer Don was able to wrestle the bottle from her before she put a hole in the bottle with her razor sharp puppy teeth and before the lid popped off!  Dilly will definitely be keeping us busy and I am sure I will have many more Dilly stories to share with everyone!  I want to thank Ashley and all the staff at the Sunbury Animal Hospital for taking such good care of Dilly.  The care, love and training she received at this facility is very evident. 

The slower pace of fall and winter is starting to take over the farm.  Soon, all of our fields will be empty of crops.  Animal chores will, of course, continue.  We have one more batch of meat birds finishing now and we still have our pigs in the orchard.  With the pigs need for a daily walk around the neighborhood, they have not gained weight as quickly as we had hoped.  Therefore we don't anticipate them going to market until sometime in November.  If you are interested in freezer pork meat, please contact us at the farm for details.  

I want to take a moment to thank everyone for your support over the deaths of Shady and Rosie.  The cards and messages we received made us realize we and the farm, have built a good community of people.  As Farmer Don always says the CSA (and the farm in general) is about community.

With that I will end for this week.  Please, be well, be safe and enjoy those veggies!