We may get plums this year! We will have to keep the chickens out of the tree if we want to eat any of them. Just before the plums are ripe the chickens make a plan. They all gather under the tree and a selected few jump up in the tree to knock the plums down. The others are ready to eat as they fall. Last year we didn't get a single ripe plum.
Planting Time
It seems a bit early, but today is apparently the day according to the farm saying, "plant corn when the oak leaves are as big as squirrels' ears."
Will it be "knee high by the fourth of July?"
Chicken Girl
One of the boys chores is tending to the chickens. They alternate days and fill the water container, make sure they have food, bring in the eggs, and close them in at night. When D. and M. get home from school, I often ask, "whose chicken day is it?" so that I can ask that person to take care of the special items for the day, like putting fresh straw in the nests, or dumping the compost. P. has started answering this question, "Mine, it's MY chicken day."
Every day is P's chicken day.
We go over to the barn together and she tends to them in the morning. She loves to give them their chicken scratch which consists of cracked corn and other grains. Even when the container is almost empty she enjoys this job. You will notice that her feet are not touching the ground. She is doing a big, important job.
We keep the big door latched and the hens go in an out of a small door on the side (it is pictured in the photos above). When we are out in the yard playing or working in the garden P goes to check on them. She has discovered how she can get in to feed them corn.
Yep. That is the other side of the wall shown in the top photo.
I hope that as she gets older, she will continue to think that helping around the "farm" is fun.
A Place to Play
My sisters and I used to play for hours at a time under the hemlock tree in our back yard. We had a pretend town under it. We played with sticks, nuts, and other found objects. We felt like we were very far away all on our own but we were really just a few feet from the house.
When my husband and I moved here 20 years ago I tried to imagine where our children would play. It was all open - just barns and fields. We did have two lilacs right by the house, one purple and the other white. Our first spring here we dug some of the small plants growing at the base of the established lilacs and planted them other places in the yard. In one area we planted them in a ring with an opening away from the road. I thought this would be a fun place for children to play when the lilacs grew and filled in the ring.
The lilacs grew slower than the boys so they never played in there. It has become a chicken hang out. P likes to visit with them there.
Her favorite.
I think P will like it over there even more when all the leaves are out and the flowers are in bloom.
Three Ring Circus
Springtime here is often like a three ring circus. It becomes difficult to keep up with it all. I am still trying to work on some needlework projects like this quilt I am finishing up.
My grandmother embroidered the blocks and I am finishing the quilt for my aunt.
The weather is warm so we are also trying to get the garden planted in the bits of time after school and work before it gets dark.
B is laying out the irrigation hose and D is tilling.
M spreads mulch for potatoes.
P wants to be a part of everything, even if that means she doesn't have dinner until we all come in after 8:00 p.m.
There is always an adjustment for us at this time of year. The longer days are very welcome and we want to stay out and enjoy it.
More flowers are blooming every day. There is, however, still the usual indoor list of things to do too, house keeping and homework.
This and That
Here are a few scenes from our weekend.
We have crocus blooming in the yard now. P has found a piece of bark.
And glory-of-the-snow. (Chionodoxa)
Compost for the garden.
We found this dead ring-necked pheasant beside the barn. We think he flew into the barn and broke his neck. I am familiar with this behavior in song birds and glass windows, but the side of the barn?
! A county employee says that pheasants are not very smart and this behavior is not uncommon. Who knew.
The feathers were beautiful with different colors of iridescence. Each feather had just a bit but the effect of them all together was amazing. Pink iridescence on the chest, deep blue and green. Even the back feathers had a little of that look on the tips.
It Finally Came
Spring finally came. Yesterday was our first real outdoor day since fall. We slept in and had a late breakfast. It was sunny and in the low forties and we thought we should take advantage of the nice weather as the rest of the week is predicted to be wet and cloudy. We even found some rhubarb coming up in the garden.
We got out and shoveled a truckload of manure out of the chicken barn and spread it on the garden. We fixed the wire on the chicken barn windows and replaced a missing pane on the milk house where some of the hens had been getting in to lay eggs. We also scythed down last year's raspberry canes.
P skipped her nap so that she could join in on the outdoor fun. She loves to visit the "girlers" in the chicken barn and feed them corn.
P had her bath and then we had dinner. We were all chatting and then noticed that P was very quiet.
The boys went out in shorts to play badminton after dinner - with a little snow still on the ground!
Spring Chickens
In addition to providing us with fresh eggs and meat, our chickens provide entertainment. Yesterday they ventured out of the barn to get some fresh air and scratch around the yard. When it started to snow, they took refuge under the back porch. Every day at dusk, they come back to the barn to roost. Yesterday, they knew it was time to go to the barn for the night but they did NOT want to go out in the snow. They tried to fly from the house to the barn but, alas, chickens are not good fliers. Plop, they would land in the middle of the yard in the snow and would not want to move. These two made it as far as the old water trough.
Brrrr.
A few tried roosting in the trees. The boys went out and chased them into the barn. Oh, it was fun to watch. Chickens do not like to have their feet in the snow.
I looked out the back door last night before I went to bed and noticed that one of the hens had not made it back to the barn. She was roosting on a brush pile up by the house. This morning, when I got up, she was still there. A little later, I noticed that she was out in the middle of the driveway. There were no tracks around her. She had flown from up by the house and was stuck in the snow.
I went out and shooed her into the barn. She left interesting tracks in the snow as she used her wings like ski poles.
We are hoping for more spring like weather soon.
Spring Eggs
Our chickens like to get outside in the spring. It doesn't seem as if there is much for them to eat yet as they scratch around the yard and garden areas, but we have noticed that they are eating less purchased feed.
The biggest change is in the taste of the eggs! The egg yolks have much more color and taste when the chickens can get out and forage for food. Yum. Now, THIS is why we raise our own chickens.
And the bonus for Easter is that we don't have to fuss with dyeing eggs.
I hope that they enjoyed their jaunts in the yard this past week, as it is snowing today. We have several inches already, and a total of 6-10 inches of snow is predicted to fall by morning.
Collecting Eggs
I made this basket over 20 years ago, when I was in college.
We use it to collect eggs and bring up potatoes and onions from our basement storage area.
My basket is made in the same design as this one, which was made by my great grandfather. I only use this basket for display now, as I am afraid it will break. It is old and brittle.
Both baskets were used at our wedding reception. I lined each with a cloth napkin and put birdseed in them. Before we left the reception a couple of children walked around with these baskets and offered birdseed to the guests who wanted to toss some on us when we went to our car.
I have been thinking about family heirlooms and how they get to be "heirlooms." My great grandfather probably made more than one basket to be used on the farm. This one happened to last long enough for my mother to save it after it fell out of regular use. I doubt is was more special than the others he made except for the fact that this one lasted. I am using the baskets I made years ago. In fact, we used one so much that the reed weaving on it has broken and fallen out. That one is no longer usable and I have it in the basement with the idea that someday I will reweave it.
This makes me wonder about what things will be passed down in my family. Which things that I have made will reach future generations? Will it be the "ugly" quilts that don't get used that end up surviving or the things that are very special and only seldom used? The family favorites will be very worn, maybe even "worn out" and thrown away. I am sure there is a bit of luck involved too. What is it that we learn about our ancestors from the items they pass down? I would like to know about the much loved heirlooms that didn't last. What stories could they tell? What treasured family memories are lost with the items that helped make them special?
Money Doesn't Grow on Trees
Yesterday we enjoyed a little sunshine and took a stroll around the fields. P wanted to find some birds. We saw one hawk and lots of animal tracks.
We also checked on our Christmas trees.
This area was a corn field when we bought our property. We started planting a variety of trees here but nothing we planted the first year lived as there was too much herbicide still in the ground. You can see that we do have some tallish trees now.
We had grand plans when we started planting the Christmas trees. We put in 50 each year and thought we would be harvesting them about the time the boys started college. We planted Christmas trees under the power lines because we knew we would cut them down before they got tall enough to be in the way. We have had experience with the way the power companies trim trees and would like to avoid that in the future. We also planted Christmas trees along the edge of one of the garden spaces.
Our plan was for the boys to plant them, tend them, and then sell them to bring in money for college --or maybe just college books. Due to the deer, rabbits, and the occasional tractor incident, they are not growing as fast as we had hoped. Perhaps they will add to P's education fund.
This area covered in snow is where we grew our pumpkins last year.
Garden Plan
Now, as it is snowing outside, is the time to make our garden plan.
We are thinking of warm rows of soil and what will go in those rows. We usually grow lots of root crops like potatoes and onions because the deer and rabbits like to visit our garden and eat the tops of plants.
purple potatoes
Last year, we fenced part of the garden and were finally able to harvest enough peas to put some in the freezer.
peas
Now, we think we will add some new foods to our garden plan- some tomatoes, more peas, and after trying Amy's pumpkin muffins I know we will be planting more pumpkins to freeze.
We also have our perennial plants like rhubarb and raspberries.
raspberry
Those are the ones I like best, the ones that rest underground under a blanket of snow all winter and then burst through the soil after being warmed by the sun.
That's what we think about when we look out the window on our cold world of white.
Homegrown dinner
During dinner last night, D. made the observation that except for the dairy products our dinner was all home grown!
Green peas, potatoes, onions, chicken, and applesauce.
We had a little taste of summer on a snow day and I didn't have to go to the store!
There is not much better than that.
Chickens
Our High School Orchestra program held their annual Harvest Hoe Down fund raising event this past weekend. The orchestra students planned, and ran the whole event. They are good at coming up with activities that the other kids will enjoy. They had a two story cardboard maze, musical chairs, find the candy in the hay pile, pumpkin painting, donut on a string, tug of war, bobbing for apples, pumpkin toss and of course, music. We donated our left over pumpkins to the event and came home with a truck load of straw and a truck load of smashed pumpkins! Our chickens were very happy.
We let them out in the yard to eat bugs and plants but in cooler weather they eat more feed from the store. We were glad to have fresh food for them.
By keeping our own chickens we are provided with artistic inspiration, hours of amusement, and great fresh eggs.
Halloween
Happy Halloween.
We carved our pumpkins last night. Below is the best of the bunch.
P. drew the face and I cut it for her.
Fall
This fall we have had a few extra weeks of warm weather.
We have been enjoying the warmth while we finished our garden harvest and prepared the lawn and garden for winter.
Today is twenty degrees cooler than yesterday. Now it is time to change our focus to indoor activities like home repair and renovation and fun fiber projects out of this beautiful hand painted yarn from my friend Chris of Briar Rose Fibers.
Last winter I was making myself a hat...
which will be an adult version of the hat in this set that I made last winter for P.
I also made this for my niece a couple of years ago. She has outgrown it and given it to P!
Can you tell I really like to use Chris' gorgeous yarn??????????????????
(note: She put her own shoes on. It appears they are on the wrong feet.)
Little Red Hen Bread
Like the little red hen in the children's story, we like to do things from scratch around here. When we make cornbread we start by planting heirloom corn.
We pick the corn, shuck the corn, shell the corn, and grind the corn. Then we follow the recipe below.
Little Red Hen Bread: makes one eight-inch square
1 cup flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup cornmeal
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
4 tablespoons melted butter
3 tablespoons honey
Have all ingredients at room temperature.
Sift together dry ingredients.
Beat together eggs, buttermilk, butter, and honey until well blended. Stir in dry ingredients just until moistened. Spoon into a well buttered 8 inch square baking pan.
Bake in oven preheated to 450 degrees 20 minutes or until cake tester inserted in center comes out clean and bread has pulled away from the sides of the pan.
Muffins cook 10-12 minutes. Serve hot with butter.
It is a lot of work but the results are worth the effort. The cornbread has great color, texture, and taste.
