A Chicken and Her Girl

Today I sent the little Scratchers off to school.  One to fourth grade, and one to second. 

I took a million pictures of them. 

This one is my favorite, though, even though it has nothing to do with school.

Beautiful

Tree Monkeys

After a large tree fell in the storm, another tree became more accessible.  The kids like to climb it (much to my and my husband's chagrin).

The first day, they were pretty brave and went up pretty high.

The next day, they were much braver (and made me much more nervous).

Yeah.  I'll be holding my breath from now on.

But Can She Cook?

So Hurricane Irene has come and gone and we are just about done picking up the pieces.  Though we were not in her path, we got plenty of rain and wind on Sunday.  We lost a couple of trees, which we cleaned up Tuesday, and the power was out from Saturday night/early Sunday morning to Monday night, so really it was not too bad overall, and could have been a lot worse.  I think the worst things were the fact that we had no running water (yeay, wells!) and that because of lack of refrigeration, we lost 5 and 1/2 dozen eggs--chicken and duck.  That hurt.  Oh, and the County Fair was cancelled.  Argh!  No livestock for me.  That really stunk.  I am thankful, however, that my parents, who live down the mountain a little way, have a generator and we were able to shower there.  That was a beautiful luxury. 

The best things about it?  For one, I learned how to use a chainsaw, which is scary.  I can use circular saws and saber saws and chop saws and jig saws but chainsaws, never.  I just assumed to watch.  However, we were cutting up the fallen trees and I figured that it was good a time as ever to learn.  I still am a little nervous about it, but I feel I can handle it.  I took down a number of smaller trees and chopped up one.  Was I ever tired on Wednesday!  That thing is heavy.  I did it, though, and I'm proud.

The second thing was that Sunday night, which was spent without electricity, I got the best night of sleep I have EVER gotten.  It was a deep, restful, peaceful sleep, and I awoke Monday with lots of energy.  There is something about sitting in the lamplight, getting tired before bed and then going to bed in the dark that seems to be more natural.  Think I can convince the chillins and husband to have a lamplit evening once a week?  I think I'm going to have to try. 

The third thing was that we got re-landscaped!  Good old Mother Nature herself came and did us the favor.  We are the keepers of 3 natural streams on this piece of land.  They are beautiful and a wonderful gift.  They were SO helpful when the well wasn't running.  I could keep the animals watered and get water for washing, etc. 

Sunday, which was the day of the rain and wind here, the stream nearest the house (behind it) was running FAST--scary fast.  The stream runs in the rains and during the winter thaw and in the spring and fall, but during the summer it generally dries up completely or to a slow drip.  It is a fairly thin stream, rocky, but not too, in a fairly straight line towards the back of the property.  That day, it rose to within 6 inches of it's banks and widened.  This is what it looked like that day. 

....Oh, and I should warn you that my husband shot the footage.  He babbled the ENTIRE time, too, so I apologize in advance. 

...........Sorry ladies, he's taken. 

After that was over,  the stream was different.  A few rocks became more rocks.  PILES of rocks.  It was twistier and turnier and there were waterfalls.  Lots of little ones.  It's even prettier than before.

So the Lady certainly can landscape.  But can she cook?

Random

In the "lookeewhatIfound" category today we have this:

A big, fat, strawberry!  I have some ever-bearers in the garden, most of which have done nothing but look very healthy and happy and green, but didn't put out a single berry.  (Which is not surprising, since I only planted them in the spring.)  However, last week I saw some green ones and today!  Viola! 

It was delicious.

And more pink things.  Get a look at this baby!

This is a Pink Brandywine.  If you've never grown a Brandywine tomato (they're the ones with the potato leaves), do it!  They are huge and all meat with a very small seed cavity. 

This is the second big girl I've pulled from this plant.  Its beautiful tomatoes have made me want to save tomato seeds for the first time, so I will.  How could you not want more of this luciousness growing?  Oh baby!

Other random things: today I got all the animals fed in the morning as usual, and in the goose house was an egg.  .....yeah....I don't know.  No one is fessing up to it.  I have no idea whose it could be.  My best guess is that it's one of Arthur's girls, the Africans.  Unfortunately, it was SO dirty that lengthy scrubbing and soaking in the organic enzyme cleaner I use couldn't make a dent in it, so we won't be eating it.  When the eggs are that dirty, I'm pretty sure some of the stuff has gone into the pores and eew.  No good.  That's sad, but I guess I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for this weirdness from now on.  Maybe I can rescue a few. 

On the goose front, last week saw the departure of these two:

Caroline and Oliver were sold to a local homesteader who has a nice piece of land and a large pond.  Yep, it's re-evaluation time.  I think once the bustle of the first year is done (which it is for us), you look around and say "What's working and what's not?"  Well, the chickens are working, the ducks are working, the rabbits don't do enough to be noticed, and the geese are not only noticed, they are loud and there are too many.  We had 9.  Now we have 7.  I think 7 is still too many.  They are great at predator protection, and good at weed control, and great at watchdogging, but they poo everywhere and yell alot.  So, time to rethink the numbers. 

Believe it or not, this is tough for me.  I like the geese.  They are intelligent in a way that I can't explain, and it makes their stubborness sort of endearing, instead of annoying--most of the time.  Sometimes, they are just annoying.   But surprisingly, the hardest thing about shrinking the goose population is my son.  I was unprepared for his reaction to the departure of the two above.  He cried and cried and cried.   So any further reductions will be done slowly.  I don't want to break the boy's heart. 

But still, I guess he has to learn, just like we all do.  Sigh.  This is a toughie.

Off that topic, we're going to the fair tomorrow!!  Yeay!  Chickens!  Pigs!  Sheep! Goats!  Cows!  I LOVE the fair.  Happy days!

Oh, and we are expecting blowback from hurricane Irene on Sunday.  Whoopie!  (that's sarcasm, if you can't tell)  I have to get things nailed down outside today.  In some places, literally.

I've got a busy day ahead, so off I go.  Enjoy your weekends!!

So It CAN Produce Food!

Who knew?  After the potato failure, and the lack of zucchini and beans (which are two things that never fail to produce) this year, I figured the garden was a total failure and I'd lost my touch.  But today I went into the garden and look!

Food!  Actual food!  Who knew?

This entire time, I've been pulling out one or two green beans, maybe a small tomato here and there, I think I got four zucchinis in total, and today it was like payday.

Then I looked around and saw that the tomato plants are loaded, the eggplants are huge (which I NEVER get), the beans are flowering like it's going out of style and finally starting to take over their teepee, and there are pumpkins all over the place.  Oh, and the raspberry plants are laden with berries.

Maybe I haven't quite lost my touch.  This year is in no way turning out the way I'd hoped, but maybe it'll still be salvagable (watch; we all get a killing frost next week.  Wouldn't that teach me a lesson!).

So You Think You Can Crow?

Here at Chicken Scratch we have (currently) 4 roosters-- a Welsummer named Copernicus, a  Black Copper Maran named Peter, and two Silkies named Albert and Henry.  Some are gifted singers, some are not.  Want to take a listen?

(Keep in mind, in these clips, you can't see any of them.  Every time I get close enough to film them, they stop crowing, so I try to be discreet)

Let's start with the prettiest crow, shall we?  This one is from Peter, who sounds like what I think a rooster "should" sound like, if there is such a thing as what a rooster should sound like.  He's got a beautiful voice.

Next up is Copernicus.  He's got a nice voice as well, though lower than Peter's.  His crow is short and to the point.  He was the first to crow here and sang all the time.  Now everyone's gotten into his act, and he's a little more subdued.

And that brings us to the ugly crowers--the Silkies.  We have two, both of whom we thought were girls because it took them SO LONG to crow, and seriously, how can you tell with Silkies anyway?  They look like little mops to me.  Then one day Henry (formerly Henrietta) stood in his coop and made an interesting sound.  I knew it wasn't Peter, and I knew it wasn't Perni, so I looked, and it was Henry.  What a strange noise he made--halfway though a crow and strangulation.  Unfortunately, he hasn't gotten much better, but he has gotten more generous.  He sings whenever the other boys sing.  No one likes to be left out, after all.

Sadly, Albert, who only started crowing last week (and was formerly called Susan), has a worse crow.  He didn't oblige me today, though. 

How about a quick side by side comparison?  Best to worst?  Here goes:

He tries, poor boy.  He really does.

(Oh, and it was just a fluke I got all these voices today, and totally unplanned.  It's about to rain here, and when the weather changes like that, all the boys have a lot to say to their girls by way of warning.  It was just lucky they all wanted to talk at the same time.)