I went to the coop for a photo shoot. I haven't been spending enough time with the hens and they let me know it. Squawking, pecking and staring at me mournfully, as if to say, “We thought you had forgotten us.”

We got about 20 quarts from our blueberry bushes and they are done for the season. Then these disgusting worms arrived. Carl picked off, heroic fellow that he is. And this is our fourth hen to go broody this summer: Princess Bitchess. She used to be such a sweetheart. As you will see, not so much right now.

Here are a few pictures of our garden. For all the rain we have gotten, it has been dry. For all the heat, it has been cool. Is anyone else wigged out by the weather these days?

As the dawn dawns, I take a photo of six deer grazing. They have on their heavy winter coats. The next time I look up from my writing desk, I note the skies have lightened the clouds to steel blue grays… and a bobcat is trotting away.

Meet the chickens of Darwin’s View, including Apricot, the Pullets, Bernadette-Go-Bernie, Snowball, Fogbank, and more. The older hens are disheveled and pale, having all gone through a heavy molt this fall. But the Pullets—defined as under-one-year-old girls—have matured to the point they will consider laying their first eggs. After a month of no eggs, we are now getting 3-4 a day. From nineteen hens…