After a half week in Northern Virginia babysitting, this afternoon is the best of this season. Azure skies, wispy white clouds. Mild mid 50f temperatures. Knowing that the season is moving on toward winter, threats of snow showers to accumulated snow in our forecast for mid week, I decided it was my opportunity to plant the garlic for next year and put the rest of the garden and orchard to bed for winter.
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The last of the broccoli was harvested, the cabbages still hiding under a row cover. The garlic was planted in two square beds, about 85 cloves, a combination of three different red hardneck varieties. They were heavily mulched with straw then covered with row covers, not to protect it from the weather, but rather to protect it from the chickens.
While mulching, the grape, berry and other vegetable beds were given heavy layers of straw as well, mulch placed around the now dormant fruit trees. While I was working on this, the chickens were free ranging and trying to undo my work as fast as I was working to put the mulch down. The tomato cages and garden stakes were put to use to hold down the straw in the beds. The fruit trees may get rings of fencing if tomorrow as mild as predicted.
The chickens were given a bed of mulch in their pen to give them something to scratch in for entertainment to try to keep them out of my work. In spite of the nights that are consistently freezing the top surface of their water tub, they are still providing me with 5 to 8 eggs each day, except for the one who lays green eggs, she seems to be on strike, not having produced an egg all week.
Cabin Crafted 
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