Its so spring its scary

It’s a beautiful St. Patrick’s Day in Michigan; we may actually get to 80 degrees and we have already broken the record of 72 at 76 degrees at 2 pm.  All week the weather has been very warm. We had some serious storms a few nights ago, with a tornado touch down or two just south and west of us.   But for the most part it has just been beautiful.  We opened the big pasture up to the horses and they have been trying to find those itsy green blades which are sprouting up.  The chickens are out scratching and they must be finding something because their feed consumption has gone way down.

 The frogs are singing like crazy, robins, red wing blackbirds and turkey vultures are back.  Mosquitoes and bees are out.  The crocus are in full bloom and some things are leafing out.  The buddleia, the honeysuckle, the roses by the back door, all are getting leaves, it’s just amazing.   In 2009 and 2010 we had an early spring but not this early.  Our windows are open and I have the ceiling fan on here in my office.  I worked outside cleaning a flower bed this morning and got so warm I quit.

 The warm weather is forecast to go all through the next week, with storms here and there.  It is nice but also scary because the fruit trees will bud and then probably we will lose the crop to a frost or freeze.  That’s what the fruit experts are predicting.  Maple syrup season has been a bust.   There may be considerable damage to perennials and trees that leaf out early too.  But there is nothing we can do about it.

We had another batch of sizzle chicks hatch yesterday.  I think just 3 lived though it looked like a couple more hatched.  There was a huge cache of eggs under the hen and I think the other hen was continuing to lay there so who knows what will happen.  I will probably wait until tomorrow and then clean the whole nest out.  The bigger chicks are still in there and don’t seem to bother the little ones except by stepping on them, which the tiny ones are fast learning to avoid.

 The guineas, which we call the terrorists, have taken to roaming the yard.  They are so noisy that I am seriously thinking about getting rid of them.  They are mean to the other birds too, they even chase the turkeys.  Steve said I should clip their wings like I did the turkeys and ducks so they can’t get in the yard.  But I decided t wait until I get ready to put the garden in, maybe in their wandering a few will just disappear.  And when they are out of the chicken pasture the other birds have some relief from them.

 

My stupid dogs which could be outside in the nice weather seem to want to stay inside.  Even when we were both outside this morning, working where they could have seen us from the yard they stayed inside.  Maybe its too warm for them, there isn’t much shade in the yard right now.  And unlike us, they don’t feel like they have to get out and enjoy it because it might not last.

 Hopefully I will get to my woods this weekend and look for surfaced bottles and other junk.  There is an old farm dump out there and I like to look through it in the spring when there is no undergrowth or bugs.  I have found some interesting bottles and things.   I used to look for old things as a kid around some old farm buildings I could walk to.  I wish I still had some of the stuff I found there.  There’s money in that old junk.

Yes the weather is nice but it's a bit scary.  It's like waiting for the other shoe to drop or acepting a trade off- we get warm weather but a bunch of tornadoes.  Or we get warm weather now and winter in April.  But there's nothing we can do.

Lifes little problems

On Saturday I had a garden event to host and Steve was left to care for the farm.    On the way home all I was looking forward to was handing him the salad and lasagna I was bringing home from lunch for him to have for dinner and getting into my chair where I could put up my swollen, aching feet.

Instead I walked into a minor disaster.  When Steve went out to do the evening feeding he heard one of our old dogs, Bugsy throwing a fit inside the box that protects our doggie dog from the direct outside air.  It looks like a giant doghouse, the doggie door opens into it from the house, and then the dogs go through the box to the outside.

 Bugsy is having difficulty walking in his old age and Steve realized he had probably fallen in some way where he couldn’t get up inside the box.  That meant that Steve in his wheelchair would have to go around through the yard to get to the outside of the box.   He tried looking from inside the house and couldn’t see why Bugsy seemed caught and couldn’t get him to come close enough to grab and pull him through the door.

 
When he went back out to go around the house and into the yard to save Bugsy he was in a hurry and didn’t check to see who was at his wheels and Ginger got out of the house and ran right for the barn.  So Steve had to hurry there because Ginger is our worse chicken killer. 

 The barn door was closed but as Steve chased Ginger around in his wheel chair trying to catch her she kept circling back and trying to get through the door and she finally squeezed through the bottom and got inside.  Steve heard the noise - she was going after Frizzle and the black hen I had turned loose in the front of the barn because she was being picked on. 

 When he got the door open and started inside Ginger ran by carrying Frizzle by the neck.  He chased after her, she let Frizzle go once but Steve’s wheelchair got stuck in the slush and he couldn’t get there before she grabbed him again.  She had him on the ground pulling out clumps of feathers when Steve managed to grab her.   He thought Frizzle was dead but when he came back around the house after putting Ginger away Frizzle was gone.

 Bugsy was still howling and crying all this time so poor Steve had to hurry around the house, through the yard to get to him.  He had to get out of his chair and lay on the wet ground to reach Bugsy inside the box.  He had caught a toenail on a metal grate on the ground inside the box and had twisted his leg trying to get loose.  He was hurt and scared and bit at Steve several times as he freed him.    Poor Steve. 

 When I got home Steve had just got back inside and could barely talk because he was out of breath.  Bugsy was inside and seemed fine.  Steve was more upset than him.  He told me he had looked in the barn for Frizzle but he wasn’t there and thought he might still be alive outside somewhere.  Steve was in tears from his exertion and the pain it caused and went off to lay down.

 So even though my legs were ready to fall off I got my boots on and went out to look for Frizzle before it got dark.   We had about 3 inches of snow the night before so I was looking for tracks but the yard was a mess from Steve’s wheelchair.  I was about to give up when I saw Frizzles head sticking up out of the snow and weeds way down by the roadside ditch.  

 Frizzle managed to hop away from me until he was up by our front porch where I managed to catch him, screaming his head off.  I saw he had lots of feathers missing, but strangely enough I didn’t see any blood or holes.  He was limping pretty badly though, hopping on one leg. 

 I carried him back to the barn and settled him on his favorite perch -  high on the hay stack.  He settled down right away.  I looked around for the black hen but couldn’t see her anywhere.  Steve had said he didn’t see Ginger get her but didn’t know where she went.

 The next morning I almost expected to see Frizzle dead but there he was still high on the hay.  I helped him off and he ate and drank even though he was hopping around still.  This is the third time he survived a dog attack.  He sleeps with the cats; maybe some of their nine lives have transferred to him. 

 I found the black hen hiding under the steps to the loft later in the day.  She seemed fine when I shooed her out and when Frizzle saw her he felt good enough to jump her so I guess the old bird is going to make it.   He managed to make his own way back up on the hay last night and down off it this morning, although he is limping badly.

 Life is just too exciting around here sometimes

Back to winter

We had snow over the weekend, about 4 inches, and some very cold temperatures.  It’s hard to get used to winter again.    Today is a bit warmer and sunny and it’s looking better the next few days.  Hopefully winter will go away again.

I had to take one of my 2 year old hens out of the coop and turn her loose in the barn with Frizzle, the barn rooster.    She kept loosing feathers and was looking quite bare and pathetic.  I finally found out why- the guinea hens were picking off her feathers! I watched them picking at her.  She tried to fight back but they followed her around pulling feathers.  They seem to be quite fixated on this behavior- they have picked all the bottom plastic off the greenhouse annex in the coop.  I had to replace it with fiberboard.

Black hen was turned loose in the outer part of the barn where she is making Frizzle the rooster quite happy as he hasn’t had a mate in a while.  For a few days she spent most of her time just sitting on the feed table, now she is exploring the floor and hay stack.    At first I had to watch that she didn’t run back inside the coop when I fed, it was still home to her.  Now she seems to understand she actually has a good thing. 

 I am worried that the bugger birds have turned to picking at a buff orpington hen. Her feathers seem a little thin on her back.  I don’t know whether these Guineas are worth the hassle, what with the noise and the bullying behavior.    I really have no good way to separate them from the rest of the birds.  I’m trying to find some squash or a pumpkin to throw in the coop that they can eat and destroy. Hopefully warmer weather will show up again soon and they can go back outside. 

 Birds have returned to my feeder in some number.  Maybe it’s because the cold weather keeps the cat away.  I still am not seeing a lot of larger birds like doves, rose breasted grosbeaks, blue jays and the like.   I see a few cardinals now.  Lots of chick a dees,  titmice, goldfinches and downy woodpeckers.  No bigger woodpeckers or the starlings I used to get either.  My suet lasts a long time.  Used to be it hardly lasted 2 days.

 I read  there are a lot of bald eagles over wintering in the thumb this winter too as well as the snowy owls.  If they are eating the birds I can handle that.   I am thinking about driving to Bay City where the eagles are said to be hanging out around the marina.

 My wedding anniversary is tomorrow but I have to work and it’s supposed to snow a bit.  Maybe Wednesday would be a good day for a little anniversary jaunt to see Lake Huron and the eagles in the winter if Steve agrees.  Hope I can get pictures.

Fall chicks

Part of me welcomes the rainy days of fall in Michigan.  The pond fills up a bit before winter, the trees get well watered, there’s one more flush of good grass in the pasture and if the weather is poor I don’t feel guilty sitting inside writing or reading.   And wet weather makes you appreciate all those nice days in fall where the air is crisp and the sun feels good.   Those are the days when you feel you must be outside because there won’t be many nice days left before winter sets in.

 I have a turkey hen sitting in back of the barn in a bower of weeds, which as fall progresses has given her less and less of a cover from rain or sun.  I found a large foam board sign that farmers use to advertise a variety of grain that they planted and set it like a tent over her.  It gives her a measure of cover and so far it hasn’t blown away.   She should hatch those eggs in a week or so- and then I worry about the chicks running through wet grass- but hey- she choose the time to sit. 

The batch of chicks that the other hen turkey hatched around 6 weeks ago are doing well.  The ones I put in the brooder are now in the pasture in back of the barn.  They were continually getting out of the pen they were in so I turned them loose and they seem much happier.  The four that were left with mom are doing as well or better than them.   They are very tame and when they see or hear me come out of the house they come running, begging me to throw them bread. 

 
I don’t like it that their mom frequently leads them into the road.  I think they are picking up walnuts and acorns that have been crushed by cars.  But the brown babies look like the road and I am so afraid they’ll get hit.  Plus they look almost exactly like wild turkeys and I am also afraid someone will kill mom.   But there is no penning them now and this was an experiment that I need to see through.  She seems to be doing a pretty good job raising them.    

 At night the family roosts high in a pine tree.  And they run under trees or into deep grass if they see a large bird overhead.  I wish mom would take them into the barn when it rains; instead they stand under the catalpa tree with its big leaves.  Mom will spread her wings and the babies crowd under but she gets pretty wet sometimes.  There are several better places where they could take cover also.

 The six I took away from her are fascinated by the family on the other side of the fence and occasionally they fly over the fence.  But they don’t mingle - at least not yet and there seems to be no real recognition of the relationship.   These babies seem to still be learning the ropes of outside life.  They could go back inside the barn to their old pen at any time but they don’t.  I am still trying to find out where they are roosting at night.

 Mama muscovy duck hatched her brood of ten ducklings at the beginning of September.  For the first 3 weeks we kept them in a large pen in the back of the barn with mom.  They had a large doghouse in there and mom faithfully rounded them up each night and went inside.  The babies were getting out all the time so once again we opened the gate and let them into the pasture.  I was afraid mom would take them to the pond and they would get lost but so far so good.  They do get nailed occasionally by a bigger duck or chicken but they quickly learned to be nimble and quick.  They are so much fun to watch as they cheerfully run around under the feet of the bigger birds, chasing bugs, snatching bread crumbs or playing in puddles.   Momma duck brings them inside the chicken coop each night, back to where she hatched them under the chicken nests.  She also herds them inside if it rains.  Maybe ducks are smarter than turkeys.

 The bigger ducks are so pretty right now.  We did butcher two males as we have so many.  We had never tasted muscovy duck before.  I roasted it and it was very good actually.  Like most people say, it did taste a lot like beef and it wasn’t greasy.  It was a bit tough and hard to slice off the bone.  Our birds do a lot of walking, flying and swimming.  I would like to sell a few more but if nothing else we can eat them. 

 My group of frizzle roosters has been fighting terribly.  We had to remove one.  It’s a shame they all turned out to be roosters- except maybe one- they are so pretty but I can’t keep all of them if they are going to fight. 

 The only surviving Ameraucana cross hen from the raccoon massacre has turned out to be a small, light golden laced bird I named Goldie.  She is very feral and her eggs are brown and small.  She is hiding them beneath an old piece of wood in our junk area.  She never comes in the barn that I know of, and doesn’t associate much with the other chickens.  The young rooster hangs with her a bit.

 The garden is pretty well gone now.  We did get some tomatoes this week but the cold weather that we expect in a few days should be the end of them.  It wasn’t a bad tomato year- I only sprayed fungicide once- but I wasn’t real happy with it either.  The corn was a big disappointment.  I hope the weather will allow me to get some horse manure on the gardens this fall.

 Momma turkey and brown chicks.

 Young Muscovy ducks.

Frizzle roosters.

Bird watching country style

Bird watching at my house is as much sitting outside behind my barn watching my flock of assorted domestic birds as it is watching the birds that come to our feeders, woods and fields.  I get a lot of pleasure just sitting there after I feed and watching the antics in the barnyard.  Right now our flock consists of about 70 assorted birds so there is plenty to watch.

 The baby muscovy ducks are now out in the small pasture behind the barn with the guinea hens, the turkeys and our laying hens.   It’s been interesting watching them grow and feather out.  From our black and white parent ducks we got some barred black and barred chocolate, as well as a chocolate pied and more black pied.   They are fairly calm  ducks and they climb very well.  There was an old van bench behind the barn for sitting on but they have taken it over, climbing up and laying on it like puppies on a couch and fighting over who gets to sit on it.

 Two of the released mallard ducks, looks like 2 hens, come back regularly to eat too.  We see them flying down the road in both directions to visit the ponds of neighbors.

The guinea hens are a real hoot to watch.  They are not as smart as turkeys and that’s saying something.  There are seven of them.  I have been trying to sex them without much luck.  You sex them by listening to their calls but they all look alike so from day to day it’s hard to keep things straight.  

 The guineas go out the gate to the pond to explore under the trees out there.  The gate is on the far northwest end of the pasture.  However when they wanted to come back they usually went up the fence line on the pond side to the closest point to the barn and tried to go through the fence.  For a while I herded them back down to the gate twice a day, I thought they would learn but it didn’t happen.  I ended up cutting a hole in the fence so they could come back through.  They are also perfectly capable of flying up and over the fence but it doesn’t seem to occur to them.

 There are four barred rock roosters that were raised with the guineas and turkeys out there.  They will be butchered soon but for now they kind of hang on the fringes of things.  For a while they were the bullies, keeping the little ducks and guineas from eating but suddenly the guineas have turned the tables on them and chase them whenever they can.  Since the guineas don’t bother the ducks its better for them.

 The bronze turkeys are big enough to butcher and I need to get it done before I get too attached to them.  When I go out to sit in the pasture they come up and try to sit on my feet, pick at my clothes and try to take my wedding ring off my hand.   One is a tom and he gobbles back if I gobble to him then spreads his tail and struts.

 Our big red tom proved his worth.  He was so scruffy and half bare when we brought him home but he’s growing feathers and proved his worth.  Our darker turkey hen was sitting on eggs in my sweet corn patch and despite all odds hatched 10 babies.  I took 6 lighter colored ones away from her and put them in a brooder and left her to raise 4 darker ones.  I thought they would soon disappear but so far she has managed to keep all 4 alive, it’s been 10 days. 

 She hangs out with them in the garden and yard, well away from the other birds.  But she won’t come in the barn with them even though I left the front door open for her where she could get in without the other birds, even though it has rained several times.  I leave food and a flat water pan out for her down by the corn.   The babies seem to be growing well.   Her new night roosting spot is in the middle of my potato patch, which I’m not thrilled about. 

 
Last night I was watching the other birds, trying to interest the baby ducks in the wading pool we put out for them.  I could see mama turkey on the other side of the fence in the potatoes craning her neck to see what was going on.  Little turkey chicks appeared from under her and climbed on her back so they could see better.  And I didn’t have a camera!

 The bourbon red turkey hen is starting a new nest deep in one of my flower beds.  Now that we have a fertile tom she may finally hatch some babies herself.  These turkeys have been sitting on and off since January and have hatched chickens twice for us but they just won’t quit.

 I’ll talk about introducing the young hens to the old next time.

wish it would rain

The sun is trying to break through low clouds here- I wish it wouldn’t.  I was hoping for some rain last night, it’s been about 2 weeks now since we had any.  Just before we turned over to the 11 pm news last night a tornado warning flashed across the screen.  A small cell had popped up just to our north and west.  It was unusual that late at night with no watchs posted and it got the weatherman all excited.  A waterspout had formed over a lake and moved on to land making it a weak tornado but it quickly fizzled out before it got here.

 They had said there might be hail over our area from the storm and I went out in the dark to check things out. Although we had been leaving the light on in the back of the barn to attract the guinea hens and turkeys inside for the night they insist on sleeping outside.  The baby ducks which usually do come inside were outside also.  So I was glad there was no hail but rain would have been nice.

 Guinea fowl are strange creatures.  They are very noisy also.  I’ve learned that females make a two syllable call and males a one syllable call.  Otherwise they look pretty much alike.   Any little thing sets them off and they sound like a flock of strange geese or hoarse dogs yakking away. 

 Our young turkeys, destined to be holiday meals, have become very tame.  They follow me around the bird pasture and if I sit to watch the birds they come up and stand on my shoes and peck at me.  Big Tom the old turkey male pretty much ignores them.   Both of his adult hen friends are again setting on eggs, one in my corn patch and the other in a flower garden.  I have had to water those gardens but nothing makes them move.  I hope for their sakes they finally hatch some turkey chicks.  They have both hatched chickens for us but we took them away of course.

 We have sold off all of the excess hens, the frizzle babies are in their permanent home and the replacement hens are in the back horse stall with a screened opening on both sides for the old hens to get acquainted with them.  The coop wall shares a wall with the one horse stall.  The bottom half is solid but the top is covered with wire.  Last night when I was checking before the storm I saw that one young hen had gotten over the wire and was perched on a roost next to the older hens.  Instant integration!  But she was back home this morning with the other youngsters.

 We opened up part of the area around the pond to the horses since their pasture was dried out and not re-growing because it’s been hot and dry.  We put some hot wire up across the section leading to the apple trees and the gate to the pond because we wanted to let the ducks come and go and keep the horses out of the green apples.  Those buggers walked all away around the top edge of the pond which is a narrow, steep and brushy strip to get around to the apples.  We put hot wire on the other side of the trees so when they walk around they are stopped.  This morning Lily must have waded around the hot wire in the pond (which we extended 4 foot into the pond), because there she was on the other side. 

 The bank she climbed up was steep and she seemed reluctant to go back down so I ended up leading her through the chicken pasture all through the yard and around to her old pasture.  The brat better not be back there tonight.  The old saying that grass is always greener on the other side of the fence must have pertained to horses.

 I’ve been watering the garden but rain is always better.  Our corn is making ears and I can’t wait for some fresh sweet corn.  Baby potatoes are ready too.  I can’t keep up with the weeding because all my time is devoted to watering, water makes the weeds grow- it’s a vicious circle.  All the flowers are blooming early because of the heat - nothing will be left soon.

 Summer just goes by so fast.  

hot times

Well after stating that I intended to blog more often, I haven’t.  I could use problems with internet dial up services as an excuse but I’ll just say I didn’t follow through.  I did enter a 24 hour short story contest this week, and while I completed the story in no time, I had to sweat out whether my phone would come back on in time to send it.  It did and that is now behind me.

 It’s easier to stay inside and write now that the weather is hot and muggy and today- peppered with thunderstorms.  I need to move some chickens and ducks around in the barn but I don’t want to stress them and me in this heat.  We had all the meat chickens butchered a few days ago which leaves us with a little room to spread out the rest of the birds.  Some of those birds- at 49 days- were the size of small turkeys and I am not exaggerating.   It’s amazing how selective breeding has transformed these broiler birds. 

 When we first started raising meat birds it took about ten weeks - sometimes longer- to produce a nice bird from broiler stock.  Now about 18 years later it takes about 6 weeks- at least we could have butchered last week and had decent sized birds.  I saw a number of broilers at the butchering facility that were from the new “Red Ranger” meat stock.  They sort of looked like red barred rocks, or maybe New Hampshire’s a little.   I saw one butchered out and the carcass looked pretty good but I had a feeling the birds were a few weeks older than the broilers we brought in.  They are supposed to do well on pasture.

 I don’t think you save money raising your own chickens but they were every bit as tasty as store bought birds and they were fed a good natural feed with no antibiotics.  Plus the meat wasn’t pumped full of salty water before we cooked it.  Our 10 pound  roasters were all real meat, no additives.

 Well the barn swallows have left their nest and I turned the baby mallards loose to find their way back to the wild.  For a few days they never left the pond.  Now they are back up in the chicken pasture hanging out with Mr. Muscovy duck.  They seem less nervous and scared than they were in their pen.  The baby muscovy ducks have not been allowed outside yet, they are growing like crazy - but I gave them a big rubber horse pan to swim in.  Soon I am moving them outside to a pen.

 The guineas are starting to make their weird little guinea noises.  They too need to be turned loose soon.  The red turkey disappeared for most of the days last week and I had to hunt down her new nest.  It was right beside the road, under a small bush, a very unsuitable place.  I tried to move her and the eggs but that turned into a disaster of cracked eggs.  The dark turkey hen is sitting on a nest in the middle of the corn patch- a small bit more acceptable.  After a few days the red hen is sneaking off again.  We saw her coming out of one of the bushy garden beds I have so I suppose that’s the new nest spot.  She can stay there.

 I don’t know if the tom we got is doing his job or not, although I have seen them mating.  He is still a scruffy thing, with most of his belly bare.  Hopefully a few more weeks of good food and care will see an improvement in him.  The hens are egg laying machines though- as good as the chickens almost.

What is quite interesting is the baby silky-frizzle crosses which I understand are called sizzles.  They are turning out quite pretty although I can’t sex them yet.    They probably won’t lay well but I think I’ll keep a few.

Finally - a new post

I spent much of yesterday morning moving the young chickens into their new home, which was actually the old chicken coop area, which we had cleaned up and added some more nest boxes. There were 3 groups, 6 almost ready to lay pullets, and 2 groups of younger birds totaling 20. Each of those groups had an Ameruacana rooster in it, one of which I wanted to sell. They are several breeds, Ameruacana, Leghorn, Issa Brown, Buff Orpington, and Shaver Black. There were a few hens I had wanted to sell too, but I was tired of maintaining 3 separate groups.

There were some bantams in two of those groups and they were getting a little bullied as the other birds got larger so they were all combined into a separate group. So I still have 2 groups to feed and water- 3 if you count the turkeys and the frizzle rooster that are out roaming the pasture.

I was most worried about the two young roosters getting together. They had both started crowing. And they did indeed square off at each other for an hour or so. Then things seemed to settle down. They separated one at each end of the pen with the group of hens they had been housed with. It seemed like everything was going smoothly later in the day.

When I went out this morning to feed I found all of the younger birds hiding under the nest boxes, which are off the floor about 18 inches. The 6 nearly adult hens were strutting around and every time a younger bird ventured out they chased it back under the nest boxes. Great fun. I had to move the water near their hiding place and add a second feed tray close to them. I threw some weeds off to the other end of the coop to occupy the 6 bullies and the little ones could eat and drink. I am hoping this situation resolves itself soon. We are going to add another 4 feet of space at the end of the coop- probably tomorrow and maybe that will help.

The little banties seemed to integrate pretty well. There are 6 of them, only 1 rooster. There had been a pair of Gold Sebrights but the little rooster was already very aggressive and I decided to give them to my dog groomer as a tip. She loved them. She raises all kinds of birds.

Left behind are a pair of buff cochins and 4 little hens who seem to be Old English Game. Three of them appear to be red pyle - although I am not real familiar with OEG colors. They are white with fine goldish red lacing around the neck. The other is a tiny dark thing with some gold lacing around the neck and who is very aggressive with all the others. I don’t know what color she would be called. She may become a tip somewhere herself.

The turkeys and the frizzle rooster that was left behind when the old hens were given away are unhappy that they can’t come into the coop anymore. They can get inside the horse stall in the back - where the turkeys already spend a lot of time- but they did like to come in the coop at night. I closed off the door to the outside run and put heavy wire on the window- which the turkeys can fly up to and enter. I don’t want them around the new hens because they eat eggs- and teach the hens to do it.

And I do want to start getting those farm fresh eggs again! The oldest of the new birds are just about ready to lay. I expect eggs in a week or so. I am changing them over to layer rations this week.

I was happy to see the big animal that I had glimpsed a few times out behind the barn is a woodchuck. Woodchucks don’t eat meat, the chickens are safe. I was worried it was a coon and I had talked to several people last week who had coons kill some of their chickens. He was stretched out on some old pallets and junk about 3 foot off the ground and I got a good look at him. It’s a healthy large specimen. As long as he puts his holes where Lily can’t step in them he can stay.

I found baby fish in the pond, several sizes. The bluegills that my friend gave me this spring must have survived long enough to breed anyway. I haven’t seen the big fish lately- but then there were only 7 and the pond is large. The pond is shrinking rapidly this year and is full of weeds. Saw deer tracks down there too and there is a night heron nesting somewhere close who screams at me whenever I go down there.

Our garden is doing great. I picked the first ripe tomato today - in June! I bought one plant very early and set it out in a black tub. It’s an Early Girl and the tomato is not much bigger than a cherry tomato but hey -June!

county fair

Well I am recovering from a week at the county fair- The Eastern Michigan fair to be exact. When I was a girl in 4-H I loved being at the fair- we got to go for a few hours every day to care for our animals but we seldom got to stay the day, because we lived close to the fairgrounds.

I still like the fair but a week of it at my age is a little much. The Master Gardeners in our county have a whole 100 by 60 foot building to develop into an exhibit, which I am in charge of. This year we had some wonderful exhibits, including a moon garden that you had to walk through a darkened corner to see under black lights and a scary poisonous plants garden plus other wonderful gardens. It takes over three days to set all this up so we start early. Then I have to be there each day to open the building and I stay until evening volunteers come in to watch the exhibit until closing. I stay the last day from 10 am to 10 pm. Then we clean up on a Sunday- clean up takes only a few hours thankfully- it’s amazing how fast it comes down.

I had lots of fair food, tastes good going down but keeps you awake later. I also had lots of noise, heat and walking on cement floors. This year we also had an elderly lady run her car into our building, luckily no one was hurt, a hail storm, try listening to that under a metal pole barn roof, and a young girl have a seizure in our building just after I opened one morning. The first few days were almost unbearably hot and humid but the weather cooled down a bit later in the week. Last Sunday when we were packing up it was chilly and a cold rain that looked almost like snow was falling.

The worst thing about all this fair time is I seem to lose all sense of what is happening at home. My routine is gone and it always seems like the animals and the weeds grow like crazy while I’m away. I came home with a new yellow tree rose and a couple new herb plants- and I need to plant out some of the plants I grew in pots for the fair.

While I was gone our new hens started laying and we don’t have nest boxes up yet. I picked up 6 nice brown eggs today of various colors and sizes. No more store bought eggs I guess. The heritage turkeys are flying out of the pen and they ate the back half of each head of cabbage in the garden. They fly right back into the pen if you start toward them. Steve enlarged the inside pen and we are going to get those nest boxes up. Once the hens are laying reliably inside I think I will allow them some free range time outside their pen.

My sweet corn is ripening! It is so good. The bad news is that my tomatoes are succumbing to the disease that is sweeping our area. It blackens the vines and kills them after a few days. I was of the opinion that it was late blight, but our ag agent for vegetables thinks its something else. We sent some samples in to the lab.

I gave the puppies we have here their shots and wormed them today. Three are going to be sold on Sunday to members of the same family. Then we have an ad coming out for the rest. After this litter is gone we are going to gut and remodel that room and get a door to the back yard put in. Three of my female dogs are in heat but we are not going to have any litters for a while. This is the first time Gus, the Jack Russell stud, hasn’t broken out of his kennel when females are in heat. I guess the new kennels, or maybe the neutering- worked!

Late October

It’s a beautiful but chilly fall day here in Michigan. I have lost Henny Penny, my pet hen. She was here Wednesday evening, I put her on the shelf in the barn because she couldn’t get to it because we had moved a table she normally used. Steve said she was there in the morning following him around. But Thursday evening she was no where to be seen. No feathers no carcass in the road, I looked everywhere. I wonder if someone stole her, if so, I hope it was to keep her for eggs. I miss her. I guess eventually I will get some more hens, I had Steve re-building the little pen in the barn a few days ago, I thought I would get her a few friends.
I also lost the male black and white half grown kitten that I called Skunk. He followed me into a dog kennel one night when I was feeding and I didn’t notice. Next thing I knew I heard him crying. I ran back in and rescued him but it was too late, he died the next day. That’s why I say cats are just stupid. He knew these dogs don’t like cats. He was well aware there was a dog in there. They don’t go in the kennels any other time. I guess they think if they are with me they are protected. I feel bad that I didn’t notice him. He could have climbed the gate to get out of Bubbas way, he probably tried to stand Bubba down. Just stupid.
My car is missing too. It’s been at the shop all week. They promise it will be fixed tomorrow. Last Saturday after my big Education Seminar I had it all loaded up with left over food and supplies and it wouldn’t start. Luckily, just a few days before a guy down the road fixed Steve’s car. He was very nice and fixed it for $25.00. Steve was able to come and pick me up and we went back the next day to try and start it with no luck. It had some sort of electrical problem and it took the mechanics a long time to find it, then they had to order a part - for a 22 year old car. Hopefully we will soon be able to afford a slightly younger clunker. Steve’s van is all caved in the front from a deer collision, the lights don’t focus in the right direction , there is only one wiper blade, seatbelt doesn’t work and if you press too hard on the accelerator it sticks wide open- very scary. So its just for emergencies in the daylight. A deer owes us a car.
Last night we had quite a heavy frost, there was ice on water outside the barn. Maybe the tomatoes will finally die. I never dreamed I would be tired of picking tomatoes, here it is the end of October and just a few days ago I picked some from 5 different vines. The petunias and marigolds are still blooming too. At work we have had daylilies start blooming again. The Farmers Almanac predicts a mild dry winter. We will see if their predictions are better than last year. I don’t mind mild but I wish we could get more moisture. Our pond has never been this low, it is only a fraction of its normal size. We had about an inch of rain yesterday but it barely dents the soil deficit and none seems to make it to the pond. I want to find some way to channel water from the roof or even the washing machine down to the pond. I am sure glad we never got around to re-stocking it with fish this year.
We had to pen the sheep up in the west pasture. They had started getting out of the north pasture by the woods and then coming up to graze in the yard. There are lots of hunters around already and its safer if they aren’t in the woods. The grass is green but it isn’t growing much and we will have to feed hay now. The two ewes I think are pregnant are huge, if they aren’t pg then they are extremely fat and won’t need much hay. I have had Barbados lambs in October before but October is almost over. We peeled a whole bunch of apples last night to make pies and I took the peels out to them this morning thinking I was bringing them a big treat. They acted like I was trying to poison them. Yet they will break a fence down to reach some Bittersweet berries.
I sent Steve out to sit in the sun. He needs to go out each day and not sit around watching football or talk shows. The sun helps heal depression and keeps your body clock working right. It is very hard for me to be inside on nice sunny days. I know I get depressed when the days are dark and rainy but I have a book deadline to meet and it’s much easier to be inside writing if the weather is nasty. So let it rain- or snow- as long as it isn’t too deep.

Chickens and Herbs

Ever heard the saying about country folk who sit around watching chickens peck the dirt? Well I admit I sometimes like to sit and watch my chickens. Henny Penny always follows me when I carry the grain to the sheep and when I come out of the pasture I sit down on a bench under the tree to watch the sheep for a few minutes. This lets me see that everyone is accounted for and healthy. Henny Penny clucks at me and I give her a little grain from the bucket. She then hangs around for a while, sometimes she hops up on the bench next to me, other times she just scratches around at my feet. Yesterday the rooster came with her and they were fascinating me because they were eating dandelion fluff. You know, the white fluffy material the dandelion produces to let it’s seed float off into the air. They would inspect the dandelions, pick one where the fluff was showing but not loose yet, and eat it. There are tiny seeds in that fluff, but still it just amazed me that they found them and ate them. Henny Penny's favorite food, though, is chicken bones. Yes, she is a little cannibal. They say birds can't smell but when I arrive in the barn with a bowl of chicken bones to give the barn cats, Henny comes running from wherever she is and elbows the cats out of the way to get first dibs.

Speaking of white fluff, the white barn cat I call Fluffy, about the only tame one we have, had her kittens in Henny Penny’s nest box, the place she lays her eggs. This is an improvement in Fluffy’s choice of places to have kittens. She usually has them under a bush somewhere close to the house and they invariably get soaked and sick. Every time I tried to move them somewhere better she would return them to her chosen spot. I don’t think she has ever raised a kitten beyond the time that they start to walk around. This time a nest box in the barn is a big improvement. One of the black cats has decided that she would like to help raise these, and the two of them have squeezed into the box with the five kittens. Since it has been quite cold here at night the last few days this is probably a good thing for those babies. I don’t know if the other cat has milk, she didn’t look pg to me before this, maybe she had one kitten or something. Anyway Henny Penny laid an egg in there the first day- how I don’t know, but since then she has not and I have to find where she has been laying them.
I have turned my husbands old van into a greenhouse temporarily. I got in 8 plug flats of herbs for an herb class I am teaching this Saturday and since we have had frost or freezing weather every night since I brought them home I have left them in the van with the hatch door up in the daytime. I have a few tomato plants in there too, waiting for warmer weather. That old van has never smelled so good.
If you would like to read what I have written about herbs so far, you can go to these pages on my website- Garden and Hearth Plant Guides.
parsley http://www.gardenandhearth.com/Plant-Guides/Parsley.htm
Cilantro- http://www.gardenandhearth.com/Plant-Guides/Cilantro-and-Coriander.htm
Basil- http://www.gardenandhearth.com/Plant-Guides/Basil.htm
Rosemary- http://www.gardenandhearth.com/Plant-Guides/Rosemary.htm

There will be more articles about herbs posted there soon. There are some wonderful articles by other people on the Garden and Hearth site also.
Well writing and planting are keeping me busy so I’ll catch up with everyone another time.

Granny's Guide to Everything

I have always been an opinionated person. Just ask my husband. I have an idea about how to fix everything. It may not always work and I'm quick to admit that. I also have no problem requesting ideas from others. It's solving the problem that's important. If you don't find the right answer the first time, try again, that's my motto. I can be persuaded to change my mind about something if your reasoning is sound so don't be afraid to comment, suggest solutions, and ask questions of me on this blog. I basically started a blog so that those who read my writing on other sites have a place to go to get to know me better. I intend to post personal ramblings and opinions as well as tips and advice and little tidbits of information I have learned.

Some personal background. I was born and raised in a midsized grungy factory town in Michigan. I was the oldest of six children. My grandparents lived on either side of me and they were a big influence on my life. My childhood was fairly happy, I was never a child who longed to grow up- instead I had a rather Peter Pan view of life, I knew childhood was going to be one of my fondest memories to say the least. I was a tom boy, roaming the woods and fields near our suburban neighborhood with my brother and his friends. I learned to read before kindergarten and devoured books of all kinds. I was good in school, rarely a behavior problem, a kind of shy, average looking girl with glasses. At home I was a bit more of an instigator and leader, always coming up with some new scheme and talking my brother and sisters, and neighbor kids into it.
My greatest wish was to live on a farm and own a horse and I lobbied my parents endlessly to move to a farm. It didn't happen, they are still in the house they built, between the houses my grandparents built and where they grew up.

Fast forward to college years. A counselor talked me into going to a local Christian college on a scholarship and student loan. I was taking pre-med courses. Maybe because it was a safe environment to explore "limits", I became a little bit of a rebel. In a big college I would have seemed like a fairly average college student, here I was part of the "wild" crowd. I got a boyfriend who was not a college student and after my second year of college he persuaded me to take a year off. That has always been one of my biggest regrets.

Next chapter of my life. Always one to care for strays I picked up a boyfriend fresh out of 2 tours of duty in Viet Nam. He was an alcoholic and had a host of other mental problems. Like a lot of optimistic women I thought I could help him. Then I got pregnant. He wanted to marry me but something in me said no and I didn't, despite the tears and pleading of my mother. I had already dealt with too much drama and despair. I knew that I couldn't raise a child in that situation. I decided that I would devote the next 18 years to being the best mother I could be, making my childs welfare the top concern. I had a job in one of the major box store chains and I worked hard to get promotions and support myself and my child. I managed to buy a small house in the same grungy factory town and my son attended the same schools I went to. I rarely dated, although I had friends of both sexes and a quiet social life. I had a big garden, several pets, and I read back to the land magazines with a passion. I still wanted a farm.

Next chapter. My son was in high school. He was talking about getting married to his girl friend already. I realized that he wouldn't be around forever and I was lonely. When he left on a summer vacation to visit my sister in Alaska, I decided to put some serious effort into dating.
At age 40 I found my soul mate and married him. The woman everyone thought would never marry, did. I also acquired two teenage step children, the oldest, a girl, got married a few months after her father and I married. There were some rough spots with my son and stepson but it all worked out in the end.

Three years after my husband and I married, company he worked for went bankrupt. He found a new job, but it wasn't in the same field. It did leave him with a little more time and flexibility. We had been talking about moving "beyond the sidewalk". It was time to do it. We didn't have a lot of money so we searched long and hard until we found the perfect small farm for us, even though it meant a long commute. We jumped into the back to the land thing with both feet, chickens, beef steers, milk goats, pigs, giant garden, fruit trees. I got my horse, and a pony for the grandkids. A lot of work and a lot of fun. Our kids, all now married and presenting us with grandkids, stayed in the city. [ Although my stepdaughter did move to a city in Minnesota.] At this writing we have seven grandchildren and are expecting another.

A few years after the big move, there were more changes. My company offered a buy out and I took it. I went back to school and got a degree, educational counseling, and got a job working in the AmeriCorps program. My husband also lost his job, due to another business closing, and got a job a bit closer to home. We had shorter commutes but a lot less money. Then there was my husbands illness. He has a congenital disease of the spine and had to have surgery on his spine. He was in terrible pain and losing the use of his legs. After the surgery he had complications, including a terrible staph infection in the wound. He was able to go back to his job in a limited way for a few years but is now unable to work and is in a wheelchair.

So the big farm animals are gone, I also have physical limitations with severe arthritis and diabetes. But we carry on. We still have a few chickens, a small flock of Painted Desert sheep, and we raise Jack Russell Terriers and Cocker Spaniels. There is a garden, smaller than before, but perfect for us. We love our country home and hope we never have to leave it. It's quiet here at night, crime is very low, I can sit on my porch and listen to the birds while looking at pastures full of pretty horses and fields of corn that belong to neighbors. No boom boxes or sirens wailing. I can hear the rain coming across the fields before it gets to us. Our house is small and old, needs lots of repairs and both cars we own are over 20 years old. But we still think we are living the good life.

I now work for the local Extension office, it's a part time job and doesn't pay very well but I do love it. I teach gardening classes and answer homeowner questions about their gardens and lawns. I also do some freelance writing.

We are waiting for my husband to receive Social Security Disability. He was turned down the first time, although we were told to expect that as he has a back problem, which almost always means a delay. He's 59 years old, confined to a wheelchair, on strong narcotics to control pain and has a host of other medical issues yet he was told he could still work. We have a legal advocate working with us and he and our doctor both say we should be successful at the next hearing. Trouble is, it's been over 6 months since he applied and we are told to expect another 6 months. Things are a little tight, you might say, as we wait for a decision. I am told there are ways to speed up the process. If anyone knows of such a way, please comment in this blog and let me know.
I do some freelance writing to try and make ends meet, you can read my online work at Garden and Hearth [ I'll post the url soon to my new page there], or at the links listed below. I write about gardening, animals, political opinions, you name it. I get a tiny bit of money each time someone reads my work on one of these sites so please take a look. Every little bit helps- thank you. read about Taking Care of Gift Plants here
or read about the cruelty of piercing a babies ear here
or read about how to pass your passion for gardening on here
read about how to plant a tree here
You can read my article about zoonotic disease here
or about breeding mixed breed puppies here