A View from the Green Barn

Ten Dollar Bathroom Sink

2010-04-10T19:36:00.007-04:00

Ten Dollars can go a long way. My daughter Lesley and I were "barn saling" and we stumbled on a great sale where someone had literally cleaned out an old barn and wanted to get rid of a lot of stuff. I bought this black drop-leaf table for $10.00. Later, I got the sink from a nice family in East Lansing through the local Freecycle Yahoo Group. If you don't know about Freecycle, then you need to go and learn. The sink (circa 1920) came with a really cool pedestal, but our plumbing was so ridiculous that I decided I was in no mood to re-plumb everything. Ruth had the idea of cutting out the inside of the table and inserting the sink into it. Voila! We think it is really cool and will look perfect in our 100+ year old farmhouse. (are we delirious?)

The above photo was taken in the barn and NOT the bathroom!

The photo below is of one of the original faucets on the sink. It is probably original and we plan on re-building the insides and using it. Since the sink pre-dates modern bathroom plumbing fixtures, we will use the mix and match faucets that came on the sink, but try to find the ceramic handles like the one pictured below.

Duckies Update!

Don't they look cuddly?! They are really bonded and are never more than three inches apart. When one of them eats, they all eat. When one of them drinks, they all drink. When one of them... you get the idea. They are growing so fast.

You can see one of the chicks I hatched in my classroom about 6 weeks ago keeping watch over the flock of duckies by night. The eight little chickens I hatched think they are so tough and try to boss the duckies around. They usually succeed. I have a feeling a week or two will see some "changing of the guard" as the duckies gain a little confidence.

Hot Chicks

I bought 35 chicks the other day to replenish my layers and to fill some meat bird orders, and saw these bantam chicks and I just could not resist! I don't know what breeds they are, but I do know that they are pretty danged cute!! I am going to do some research and see if I can figure out what I have. Ruth took some photos for me.

Enjoy the pics!

I want geese!

Things Are Just Ducky

2010-03-28T09:59:00.005-04:00

I have resisted getting ducks until now. I am not sure why I didn't get any before, maybe I didn't have the mental energy or something. I have a little woodland pond that I am sure they will discover and enjoy until it dries up in late August. I bought nine little ducklings, three each of Rouens, White Pekins and Indian Runners. My plans for them are mostly farmyard ambiance.

Now that is quite a face right there!

I have a one gallon waterer for them and they go through that twice a day. I think I am going to have to give them the five gallon container! It is amusing to sit and watch them in the brooder box go from thrusting their heads all the way under water and then waddle over to get a mouthful of food and then head back to the water.

This is the little "crate" in which they came home to the farm. They didn't want to stay in that for one minute longer than necessary. They spent their first two days in a 20 gallon aquarium in my third grade classroom and created quite a stir. We had lots of visits from other classrooms, and most of the younger kids at my school got a chance to hold one of the ducklings. After getting a chance to hold and cuddle with one of the ducklings, I had a little six year old tell me, "This baby needs a mommy and that mommy needs to be me!" I didn't point out to him the obvious, but that was a nice moment. My school is in a suburb, and most of the kids only have contact with dogs and cats, so a few moments watching chicks hatch, of holding and naming a duckling can be a good connection back to our roots; back to days when we had gardens and animals because we needed them in order to survive.

Sitting and watching these ducks is so fun! They have such little antics. I am going to let each of the students name a duckling. This will be interesting as some ducklings will have multiple names. However, I want to help them make a connection with a little life that is different from anything they have experienced. Maybe we will write in our Reflection Journals about how it feels to name a creature that will live forever in our memories.

"Take a good look," I told my class as they were leaving for the weekend. "These ducklings will be all feathered out and look very different the next time you see them."

After school on Friday, as I was getting the ducklings ready to go home, three 15 year-olds, whom I had in class 6 years ago, came into my classroom for a visit. I realized that the words I had told my class earlier takes place with people too.

Maple Syrup

2010-03-06T16:23:00.007-05:00

Saturday was a beautiful day to be outside and boil sap. The temperature was in the mid-forties (F) and the sky was as blue as it could be. I put together a little outdoor sugar shack and boiled the ten gallons of sap I had collected last week.

First, I collected a good supply of firewood. Next, I took my bonfire ring and put it on the gravel driveway and set up some concrete blocks to make an outdoor stove. I have several sturdy grill tops that I set across the fire pit and put my trays of sap on them so the fire could get to work boiling away the sap.

And the sap cook looked upon what he had wrought and said, "it is good enough."

Now all I had to do was tend the fire, keep adding sap, and wait.

And wait...
And wait...

And wait...

(March is "Reading Month" and I got in several hours of reading Sherlock Holmes)

Ahhhh, but this is definitely worth the wait. I ended up with about 7 cups of pure maple syrup. I expected it to be a little darker, but I do like the nice light amber color. Depending on the sap flow, I will be out there for the next two Saturday mornings boiling and reading.

Come on over, and let's have a little book club while we watch the sap boil.

Sugar Sugar

2010-02-27T15:44:00.005-05:00

It is nice to have rather inexpensive resources like these bottles with lids to make my maple syrup look pretty cute.

Now, THAT is what I'm talking about!

The maple sap run has bogged down here in Michigan due to cold weather. I had a few gallons of sap collected and boiled it down Friday night. I was able to fill a few bottles with some very nice, light-colored syrup. The temperature is in the upper thirties (F) today, and the sap has started running again. I am hoping for a few weeks of weather like this so I can collect 30-40 gallons of sap. I am going to construct a temporary outdoor stove so I can boil five to ten gallons at a time in large, flat pans. I have a nice pile of firewood to use a heat source.

My next post will have photos of my outdoor Sugar Shack.

The Sap is Running!

2010-02-21T16:52:00.009-05:00

OK, I am not running in the photo below!

The sap in the maple trees is running and I spent some time today tapping my trees. Maple sap has been used for hundreds of years by Native Americans, and they taught the colonists how to do it. I find it incredible to read about how the Native Americans tapped trees, and found ways to use the slightly sweet liquid. I brought a small jar of sap in and passed around small samples. We toasted Mother Nature and swigged the clear liquid down. Hmmm, I'm not sure I would call the sap exactly sweet, but as Peter, (my son), just said, "There was a suggestion of sweetness."

Tapping a Maple

You want to make sure you are actually tapping a maple tree! I'm not sure what oak syrup tastes like, but it isn't exactly a popular item. I selected four large maples and drilled a 3/8" hole two inches deep, about four feet from the ground in each of them. Three of them immediately started dripping sap. The fourth one didn't drip at all, so I plugged the hole with a stick, and tapped a different tree, which began flowing immediately. I have seven large maple trees, and feel fortunate that someone had foresight over fifty years ago to plant them.

After drilling the hole, I gently tapped in a spile so it is nice and snug. Don't hit it in too far, or you will split the tree and cause a large opening that will lose a lot of sap and perhaps allow insects inside.

The sap immediately began to flow and drip into the bucket. I have lids for the buckets to keep out precipitation and other stuff. The drips were falling at approximately one per second. One of the trees was dripping at twice that rate.

Ruth captured all of these photos. I especially like the one below showing the sap in mid-flight. The sap is slightly sweetened water, chock full of minerals.

Watch the sap falling into the bucket! Each tap will produce about 10 gallons of sap. It takes between 30 and 40 gallons of sap to boil down into pure maple syrup.

I love the way this bucket looks on my maple tree. I am only putting out four taps, hoping to end up with about a gallon of syrup. I may add more, but I don't want to get overwhelmed!

Get to Work!

I politely asked the maple trees to share their sap with me. I will have to come up with a way to reward them for their gift.

Son of Khan

2010-01-24T19:40:00.007-05:00

Changing of the Guard

This is Squanto. He is the son of Khan, my original rooster. Khan was a Cuckoo Maran who was the king of my barnyard for about two years. He overstayed his welcome by getting mean and aggressive. I have lots of kids roaming the farm from time to time and didn't want to worry about a ten pound rooster attacking little kids! I had to end his reign and did so in a dignified and painless way. Khan was buried in the woods. I named him Khan because of my deep interest in Central Asia and all the powerful leaders who controlled vast areas of Asia.

Ruth named Squanto today, after snapping this picture. His coloring reminded her of Native Americans and she wanted a solid name for him. Squanto was the Native American who helped the Pilgrims during their first few years in the New World. I'm sure we owe Squanto and his People much more than the naming of a rooster, but it is an honor to call him Squanto.

Squanto's mother is a Partridge Cochin, maybe Broody, the hen who hatched him! I want to believe that, so I will say that is true.

Thinning the Herd

I sold 19 hens and a rooster on Saturday. That leaves me with 23 hens and Squanto. I tend to dislike roosters, but I am taking a different tack with Squanto. I pick him up several times per week and walk around with him. He doesn't like that at all, but I want to see if he'll end up being less aggressive than his poppa.

I had 43 hens. That felt like too many to me. Each spring I hatch out a batch of chicks in my classroom and wanted to have the room for the newbies. A friend of mine let me know of a family that lost their whole flock recently and wanted to buy mature and productive hens, so I took the plunge and sold 19 hens and one rooster. It was really fun to watch the young boys race around the barn trying to catch chickens. If you have never tried to catch a chicken, you have got to put that on your life's to-do list.

Should I hatch out Green Barn chicks?, or should I order some interesting eggs from a hatchery?

The Seven Month Itch

2010-01-10T10:49:00.005-05:00

I'm not sure if the number seven is the right one, but it sounded close. I am ready to get the garden going right now! I have plans to add additional beds and improve the existing ones. I have a ton of nicely composted chicken coop litter that I mixed with some grass clippings and maple leaves. I plan to mix that into the beds as soon as the ground will let me. I put some "raw" chicken litter on the beds last fall and hopefully that will mix in nicely and not be too "hot."

Are you feeling the same as I am? I know many of you have kids still living at home and they can really keep your mind occupied with all of their busy-ness. However, for me, I have a 28-ish year old daughter living in New York City, and a 27-ish year old son performing on a Princess cruise ship bouncing around the Hawaiian Islands. That leaves my wife Ruth and me probably a little more time to goof off than those with children responsibilities.

Ruth bought me a Gardening magazine the other day and there are some nice articles on pairing plants together, bed rotation plans, ideas on what to grow and how to keep the garden relatively pest free without dousing it with Dow Chemical products.

I spent a few productive hours perusing the Johnny's seed catalogue and made a list which will require another farm! I will probably add and subtract from this list as the next few weeks go by. I want to grow a lot of vegetables this summer, especially green beans, cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes. There are about twenty other vegetables, herbs, etc. on my list, but I don't want to bore you.

The Kitchen Garden in Winter

There are eight nice beds in this garden, which is between our house and the barn. I plan on extending all of them by four feet or more, and maybe adding two other 4' x 8' beds in-between some of the beds. This garden is surrounded by a circular driveway and a "still-not-completed" fence. I plan on covering the fence with climbing vegetables like beans, cukes and peas. It may end up looking a bit untidy, but hopefully it will yield lots of meals!

Like me, the garden needs a little bit of a slumber to get re-energized for another year of productivity. I am going to test the pH this year and see what exactly is going on out there.

Three Sisters Garden

Since I live in Michigan, and the "Three Fires" Native Americans lived in this vicinity, I am thrilled to use their way of gardening on land they once roamed. We have a little woodland, spring-fed pond and I want to believe that it was used by the Potawatomi and the Ojibwa. Ruth, Peter and I picked a lot sweet corn last summer and I am going to plant way more of it this year! The squash and beans did not do very well in here, but I plan on making a few changes this year to try to help them a little more. (2009 was a poor year in Michigan for all squashes!). I left most of the corn stalks in the ground. I couldn't bear to lose them last fall and they looked rather decorative for all of the Fall holidays.

When will you begin your garden planning? Maybe most of you are way ahead of me!!

Well, I'm off to find all the stuff I'll need to start seedlings in March and April. Hmmm, lighted Plant Cart, seeds, good starter mix, watering can. It was 2 degrees F (-17 C) last night and we have 7 inches of snow on the ground.

I may be just a tad early? Maybe you need to just come in for some hot coffee, or perhaps a spot o' tea?

A Winter's Tale

2009-12-12T16:22:00.003-05:00

Even though we are nine days away from the official start of Old Man Winter, he has let us know that he is not to be confined by any old date. He will not be controlled.

My flock of chickens has prepared for his coming by moulting in October to replace the feathers Khan (former rooster, now organically merged with the forest), removed during his lustful moments. I now have a total of 41 hens, and two roosters. They are learning to fluff up their built-in down jackets as they roost for the night. The Cochins have become popular roost partners as they are very fluffy. Last night as I went in to turn off their light and do a head count, one of the Aracaunas actually had her head buried in the poofy feathers of Broody, (Partridge Cochin). It wasn't even that cold! (13 degrees F)

We now have about 5 inches of snow on the ground. It is nice to walk around the fields and woods and see the different sets of tracks in the snow. I am amazed at how busy one squirrel can be!

A flock of sparrows, (English, I believe), has discovered that the Green Barn is a great place to get out of the weather. Bishop the Barn Cat has taken a great interest in hanging out in the barn as well. Hmm, I sense a connection here.

I forgot to bring in the last three pumpkins of the season and they have frozen in the barn. I wonder if I can still salvage some golden puree from them? You know I'm gonna try!

I managed to seal up 27 bottles of home-made vanilla today. Ruth and I will decide to whom we will give a little Holiday cheer. I know, I am going to randomly draw a name from all who comment here and send you a bottle of my vanilla. If you read this boring post, you deserve a chance at something of interest. I will draw a name next Saturday.

As I sit here typing, I am losing the fading light of today and will not get photos if I don't get out there. OK, I just decided that I am going to post a no-photo update today.

Thanks for reading today. I hope you are having a great day.

Pumpkin Puree

2009-11-08T15:01:00.006-05:00

With the Holidays fast approaching, I wanted to get a little head-start on "pie time."

These are called sugar pumpkins. They are small and easy to work with. Apparently they are one of the best pumpkins to use for baking. I harvested some French pumpkins and will give them a few more weeks before I see how they look inside.

Step 1: wash your pumpkins.

Step 2: cut the pumpkins into smaller pieces for cleaning and cooking. Keep the seeds for baking and also for planting some of the seeds next spring. To preserve for next spring, wash the seeds and let them dry. Place into paper envelopes and store in a canning jar in a cool dark place.

Step 3: Scrape out all the stringy gook. My chickens didn't like the gook.

Step 4: Cook the pumpkin. You can microwave it, steam it, or bake it. I baked it for an hour in Le Creuset pans with lids on. Put 2 cups of water in the pans. Bake at 350F (200C).

Step 5: After washing the seeds, dry them thoroughly. Spread them on a baking sheet, add 3 T melted butter, garlic to taste, 2 T Worcestershire sauce, salt to taste, stir into the seeds. Bake at 275F until golden brown. (about 15 minutes, check and stir often!)

Step 6: After the pumpkin has baked and is cooked, place into a colander and allow to cool so you can peel it.
Step 7: After peeling, puree it by whatever method you prefer. I used a hand mixer and finished it off in the blender. Place the puree into freezer bags. I measured out 1 1/2 cups per bag, as that is how much Ruth needs for her pies.

Harvest

2009-09-20T10:51:00.003-04:00

Harvesting my own crops is so fulfilling. I love picking things for dinner. We had many meals this year where everything on the table was something from the farm. Grilled chicken, corn on the cob, fried green tomatoes, raw zuchinni, green beans, ripe tomato slices, green onions, pickled beets, chicken and noodles, (store bought flour, homemade noodles), eggs, etc.

I am rather new to gardening and have a much better idea for what I will do this fall and next spring. I ordered garlic and am going to plant it in about two weeks in the pepper bed. I also have loads of composting coop bedding and some "fresh" coop bedding which I will cover all the harvested beds, and till it in a little. This will provide my beds with lots of good organic material and also some good chicken poo. Letting it sit over the winter will allow the "hot" poo to break down into usable fertilizer.

Here are some of the things I am harvesting this year!

Sweet Corn

Wow! This is the "Three Sisters Garden" and I will definitely do this again next year. I need to be more diligent with fertilizer so the cobs will get a little larger. However, the corn was superb. I also harvested many meals of green beans from this bed and there are 6 pumpkins scattered throughout this bed.

Tomatoes

I love vine-ripened tomatoes. This is a Pink Brandywine ready to come in for a visit. The tomatoes grew so huge that I had to use fencing instead of stakes or wire cones to keep them upright. This didn't help too well as many branches bent over and pinched themselves to death. (all the brown leaves)

Pumpkins

I have two types of pumpkins: Jack O' Lanterns and Cinderella. This is a litlle dude hanging from some corn. I have a feeling it doesn't have enough time to be succcessful.

The interesting markings on this pumpkin were made by free-ranging chickens! The little boogars!

Banana Peppers

I don't know what I was thinking when I planted eight of these plants. We hardly eat them and there are probably over fifty of these waiting for chili or something. What do you recommend?

Basil

Boy do we love basil. Ruth makes the best pesto and we faint with the taste of freshly made basil pesto. I have three different kinds and they are flourishing. I took a bouquet of them and surprised my principal with them and the whole school office was rich with the aroma of basil.

Black Peppers

This is a pepper, (not the kind you put in a grinder), which I intended to grow for my daughter's wedding bouquet. However, the Michigan weather didn't cooperate and it is just now (6 weeks late) coming into its own. The leaves are black and the peppers will turn a cherry red. I think they are beautiful, but probably won't grow them again. They need lots of hot weather.

Popcorn

I am trying this out because I thought it sounded like something cool to do. The cobs are all a really nice size, and now I just have to wait for the husks to turn brown. I plan on giving some of this as Xmas gifts.

Zuchinni

I planted one zuchinni this year and it just keeps on producing! I must have picked 20 already and there are another 10 getting ready. This is one crop that can make you feel like a successful farmer.

I am thinking about next year and what the garden will produce. If you have something you grew this year and want to recommend, please let me know. I may name the raised bed after you!

I can't catch you up!

2009-09-13T10:32:00.004-04:00

Well, I decided to just post some words today.

I have been busy this summer getting my daughter married off on the farm. Then I jumped back into my routine of spending a lot of time in August getting ready for the new school year. Add to that a new computer and a more complex waay of getting Ruth's photos, and I have fallen off the blog cliff.

I miss all of my blog pals!

Green Barn Update

I have 44 hens busily laying eggs and eating grass. You can see from my sidebar the different breed I have. I have opinions about breeds and which ones I would recommend, but you don't want to hear that now.
I don't have any roosters now. I am not sure if I will ever have one again, but never say never.
I have seven turkeys. I had to butcher one that got injured. After spending two hours doing that job, I am definitely happy to pay the local butcher $7.00 to do that. I have an appointment on November 25 to have the remaining seven "processed."
My garden has done a great job! We have been eating lots of sweetcorn, tomatoes, green beans, peppers, zucchini, yellow squash, fried green tomatoes and various herbs.
I just received my order of garlic bulbs to plant soon. If you live in a cold climate, order your garlic NOW and get it planted around the time of your first frost.
My pumpkin production is way down! I have about a dozen pumpkins in various stages and none of them look all that great. Did anyone have good luck with pumpkins this year?
I have several piles of chicken coop bedding composting away right now. I am planning on giving them a few more turns and then I will cover all my beds with about six inches of it and till it in for the winter. I would be happy to give you a bushel or two of coop bedding! C'mon out and get it. BYOBB (bring your own bushel baskets)
If anyone is planning on a Hawaii cruise between now and next summer, my son is playing his guitar on the Princess cruise! Let me know and I can hook you (or your cute daughter) up with him! ;)
I have vanilla still brewing in the cupboard. I ordered cute little amber bottles to put it in. Nice gifts!!
Another Green Barn gift (hopefully) will be popcorn. I have about 100 popcorn stalks out there and it looks like a bumper crop! I hope to fill pint jars with it. Stay tuned.
Maybe I need to have a November drawing and give some vanilla and popcorn away.
I love beets! I grew one row and they went absolutely nuts. I cooked them and canned them and wish I had five rows. No, I won't give this away.

I need to go blog visiting. I hope to see you soon on your blog!

A Green Barn Wedding

2009-08-09T12:13:00.002-04:00

I am sorry to have left blog world for a few weeks, but I think I am on my way back.

We had a wedding last Saturday. Our daughter married a wonderful young man from Texas. If you have been involved with weddings, you know there are a gazillion details that need to be dealt with and another fifty that you will miss. However, the wedding was beautiful, fun and full of love, family and friends. Despite the rain, ( it started ten minutes before the ceremony and ended about fifteen minutes after the ceremony), we had a grand time.

We wandered around the farm, playing with the chickens and turkeys, sitting around cute tables supported by straw bales, sipping glacier water, home-brewed beer, two buck chuck, and I think there was a clandestine bottle or two of Highland Park going around. Before dinner, we had hors d'oeuvres to nibble on while we chatted and watched the bridal party get all the photos snapped.

We had a lot of help getting ready. You need to go see my wife's blog Synchronizing, to get a better overview.

Bride with papa

I planted a lot of sunflowers around the farm to give it a good old country feeling. These were planted to be the backdrop for the wedding ceremony

The green barn makes a nice backdrop for our family and friends who came to celebrate and witness Lesley's and Brian's vows. People travelled from Idaho, Georgia, Florida, Texas, Illinois, Alaska, New York, Ohio, and of course, Michigan.

The best man at our wedding, (right) back in 1978 smokes a cigar with me at midnight. The bride and groom have been taken away by a pumpkin. It was a grand evening.

Vanilla Extract

2009-06-24T22:06:00.006-04:00

I like making stuff. During the winter holidays, we do some baking and always go through lots of vanilla, so after seeing several bloggers make their own, I decided to join the fun.

Vanilla beans come from an orchid. It is originally, like pumpkins, corn and turkeys, a "New World" food. It can be grown in most tropical regions, and is now grown throughout the world. Madagascar has in recent years taken over as the world's production leader.I'm afraid that vanilla bean production is a labor intensive job. It takes many steps to get it to market, including needing nine months on the orchid plant!

I bought 25 Madagascar Bourbon vanilla beans. They were soft and pliable.

I carefully split them and then took a butter knife and scraped out as much of the caviar (goo) as I could. I then put the goo and the chopped up pods into one quart canning jars. The next step is to fill the jars with either vodka or rum. I chose vodka. The alcohol extracts the vanilla flavor, and mostly cooks off when you bake.

After pouring in the vodka, I needed to find a nice, dark cupboard in which to store these jars for at least six weeks. I take them out three or four times each day and give them a good shaking. I found a web site that sells four ounce amber jars. Sometime in August, I'll strain the vanilla extract and pour it into the small jars. I luckily have a live-in artist who might be cajoled into coming up with a label for the jars. In the meantime, I will start making my gift list. Hmmmm, who has been naughty this year?

Where Have I Been?

2009-06-16T20:59:00.002-04:00

I have been very neglectful of the blog world! I have been a little overwhelmed with the ending of school and all that I have to do for that, as well as the stuff around the farm that has been keeping me hopping.

I am planning on getting back into gear. I need to get caught up with all of my great blogger pals.

I just took 28 chickens to my (my?) Amish butcher up near Gladwin, MI. His wife and children do all of the work with the butchering. I wish I had taken some pics, but I think they wouldn't have liked it so much. The Amish farm has some modern additions, like a big diesel engine that runs a de-feathering device, but for the most part, the Weavers live pretty true to their convictions. They charged me $1.50 per bird to do the complete butchering process. They also cut them up, as many of the birds were too large for the gallon freezer bags.

I have another thirty broilers going to the butcher on June 26. Looks like we'll be making lots of chicken and noodles and chicken salad sandwiches!

I hope they are tender! The six month old roosters I butchered last fall were very tough!

Broody is back at it. Tomorrow is hatch day. I can hear peeping coming from the eggs, so I think we (she) will have some success. I made the mistake of leaving her nest in the coop, and she has gone from the original 8 eggs, to an astounding 38 eggs. I am sure they won't all hatch, but to help Broody with the hatching, another partridge cochin has been sitting alongside her for the past week to make sure the eggs all get good coverage. I don't know what will happen when the eggs hatch. Who will get to be the mom?

I am rambling away here.

My veg garden is starting to look like a garden. Practically everything is up and growing! Some of the seeds I planted didn't germinate, so I will have to make do without some things, mostly squash and chives.

The blackberries are going absolute bonkers. I can't believe how many canes I have and they are all loaded with flowers.

OK, I have to go out and do some chores, but I am going to post this boring thing anyway.

Thanks for reading this far!

Five Weeks Old

2009-05-17T12:10:00.004-04:00

New Meat Locker

That sounds really crass! I predator-proofed the middle section of my barn this past week and moved 45 chickens and 7 turkeys in, (all of them about five weeks old). They were a little overwhelmed with all of the space at first, but are now happily nosing around in all of the new corners.

The white birds in the photo below are the cornish X breed. These guys are twice as large as the red broilers I am experimenting with. I have heard that the red broilers are tastier, even though they don't grow as quickly as the cornish chicks. I bought the red broilers from Ideal Poultry, and they are growing well. I am going to try to give them a little outside time and see how they like that. Last fall, I butchered out some extra, (annoying) six month old roosters, and they were as tough as shoe leather. I think the free-ranging gave them a little too much body-building time.

In the photo below, you can see three white turkeys and a bronze at the far right. They are very curious and like to follow me around. I am glad I found a butcher, because I am not enjoying the "processing" part of raising chickens.

The two very dark chickens in the photo are barnevelder hens. They will lay very dark brown eggs, beginning sometime in late August.

This turkey hung around Ruth while she snapped photos.

Don't look closely at the chicken wire! I discovered that I am really bad at getting it straight. After I made that discovery, I started to not care too! So, the coop is secure, but certainly not a mona lisa. (This is a short-term coop anyway!) There, that makes me feel better.

To make the coop look even better, I only had four foot chicken wire, and overlapped it. Then I ran out of chicken wire altogether and didn't feel like buying more, so I cut a section of hardware cloth to fill in the last little opening. I connected them with nylon zip ties. Wow! I'm thinking "coop of the year!"

Poopy eggs

The nice man who gave me the blue slate turkey eggs pictured below reminded me that washing them would be bad for the developing embryos, so I didn't. Aren't they just lovely? That is a nice mixture of mud and poo. I hope THAT isn't bad for the developing embryos too!!

Hatch day is Wednesday, May 20!

Turkeys

2009-05-05T23:03:00.005-04:00

Turkeys are a "New World" creature. All of the domesticated turkeys were developed from the original wild North American strain. I find it interesting that most of the domestic turkeys were developed in Europe or Asia and then introduced back to North America as imports. In my research about turkeys, I read that most of the domesticated turkeys are unable to breed on their own. I then saw a "Dirty Jobs" TV episode that showed Mike Rowe artificially inseminating white giant turkeys.

So, imagine my surprise when I found a Craig's List posting with Blue Slate turkey eggs for sale. I contacted the owner and he ended up giving them to me as I am using them with my students. I now have seven turkey chicks in the coop, and 16 Blue Slate Turkey eggs in the incubator. Hatch date is May 20.

If I get a decent hatch rate from these turkey eggs, I will have more turkeys than I planned on having! They will probably not have too much difficulty in finding a Thanksgiving dinner invitation.

I candled several of the eggs last night and they looked like they were doing ok. So, I guess there are some domesticated turkeys that can still do the hokey pokey.

Let's Get This Garden Growing!

2009-04-19T17:02:00.005-04:00

I really enjoy thinking about things I want to do. I like it even better when I start doing them. I inherited a plant growing cart, complete with lights and trays. As you can see below, I have it fully stocked with some of the plants/seeds I want to grow this summer. Being rather new to the gardening obsession, I probably am off to a later start than the seasoned pros. I was leery of having the plants get too leggy.

I planted tomatoes, lettuce, pole beans, pumpkins and loads of coleus, ranunculus and sunflowers. I am going to get some other things started in the next week and move things in and out of some cold frames I have in my brain.

Plant Growing Cart

Brandywine Tomatoes

I did a little research on this tomato and discovered that it is one of the tastiest, but also one of the most mysterious. Apparently an Ohio man inherited some seeds from a lady whose family had grown them for almost 80 years, and he is credited as the one who preserved this variety. But there are many varieties of tomatoes that call themselves "Brandywines" and some are excellent and some are not. I hope I have the excellent ones! (duh)

I am looking forward to (my) still-warm-from-the sun, garden-fresh, sliced tomatoes with hot, buttered sweet corn. I might toss in a Wisconsin bratwurst to make it a complete summerfest.

Brandywine Tomato Seedling

A Rose is a Rose

Julie King and Ruth both had the same idea for a name, and I felt like the name Rose was a great fit for this Black Minorcan hen. Julie, if you read this, I am planning on sending you some sort of prize, (if you are interested in receiving some sort of prize, email me with your address!!).

Rose

To List or Not to List

2009-04-12T06:15:00.010-04:00

Where does all the time gone?

I am not one who usually makes to-do lists. When I do make them, I often misplace them, or forget that I made them, and then find them a year later and wonder why I took the time to make that list. (Ruth is great at making lists and then actually getting everything accomplished. If you ask her, she'll make you a complete itinerary for two weeks in Paris, complete with walking tours!) However, with that being said, I must get on with making a to-do list for this spring and summer.

First, I need to explain why I feel the need to create a to-do list. Our daughter is getting married on our little farm on August 1st! That is a pretty good reason to get after things in an orderly manner. Secondly, I have some vegetable gardening goals. Third, I have over 100 chickens and turkeys who all need to be cared and planned for.

Hmmm, I am starting to feel a little overwhelmed!

This is where the wedding ceremony will take place. I am planting several hundred sunflowers as an additional backdrop. The Yucca is moving. Any takers?

Wedding to-do list: (not in order of priority, Ruth will do that in a minute)

1) painting: studio roof, corn crib roof, deck rails, trim three outbuildings, stairway in the house

2) plant 2000 sunflowers

3) plant black pepper plants, coleus and other various flowers for decorations and bouquets

4) plant 20 pounds of wildflower seeds

5) lay new linoleum floor in downstairs bathroom

6) talk to neighbors on both sides about parking

7) finalize plans for the specially brewed beer for the reception

8) finish patio between the shed and the studio

9) tidy all the buildings

10) power wash the house

11) refinish the deck

12) scrape and paint the front porch floor and rails

Vegetable Garden List:

1) remove existing grass from proposed veg patch

2) till the ground thoroughly

3) build 6 raised beds

4) fill beds with nice garden soil and compost

5) start seedlings indoors

6) plan and install watering system

7) build fence and three gates

8) remove perennial bed from the "Three Sisters" circle

9) plant seeds

10)construct cold frames

11) plant seedlings at appropriate times

12) etc.

Poultry List:

1) build another brooder

2) prepare the middle barn room as another coop (build 3 doors, three walls, install chicken wire, move two lights, etc.)
3) other things I can't think of right now

What am I doing with over 100 birds?

Original Flock: 25 Hens

1 Rooster (Khan)

Broody's Babies: 7 (hatched on January 13, gendering still incomplete at this time)

Science Project 22 (hatched on February 13, gendering still incomplete)

Red Broilers 30 (freezer date: early June)

White Broilers 15 (ten for nephew, 5 for donation to food bank)

New Pullets 7 (2 aracaunas, 5 welsummers)

Turkeys 7 (3 bronze giants, 4 white giants, Thanksgiving for various families)

Science Fair hatchlings. The white ones are Light Brahmas, Rhode Island Reds and a Black Sex Link, from Eagle Nest Poultry.

Three or four of the as-of-yet non-gendered roosters are destined for new homes, (people have asked me for a rooster or two). All other rooster will head to the Amish butcher sometime in June. So, by mid-June, I will be down to 7 turkeys, 1 rooster, and between 40 and fifty layers.

If you are still reading this, thank you, but I am sorry for the tediousness.

This list will be much more difficult to lose!

My niece holding and adoring Jinx, a red broiler. (no. I didn't tell her!)

In Their Footsteps

2009-03-31T22:26:00.009-04:00

I posted this today at a blog that is written by a co-operative of writers. I discovered this Simple, Green, Frugal site while reading my friend Rhonda's blog. "We all have our own personal blogs but we have joined together with the hope of providing a helpful reference point for those living simply and sustainably."

My wife claims I was a farmer's wife in a previous life. I make artisan breads, I can or freeze everything I grow, I preserve four kinds of jams and jellies, I raise up baby chicks . . . and I love every minute of it.

It might be as mystical as a past life, or it may be as simple as following a trail.

My grandpa (Guy) was born in 1898 on a farm in Pennsylvania, USA. He was one of twelve boys. He decided early on that he wanted to build things, so he did. He worked on some pretty cool buildings in his day, from the tank plant in Warren, Michigan, during WW2 to Cobo Hall in downtown Detroit. During the hardest days of the Great Depression, Guy never forgot his family, and never forgot his farming roots. He would take my 8-year-old father with him, drive out to a local pig farm, buy ten feeder pigs, load them into the trunk of his car, and drive all over Michigan dropping the pigs off at his brothers' farms. In exchange for Guy buying the piglets and grain, he would return later in the year and receive part of the harvest: corn for feeding his city flock of chickens, wheat for grinding into bread, and best of all, several hundred pounds of home grown pork. My father has lots of childhood memories of not only helping out with the butchering, but holding half a hog in the back seat of his dad's Buick all the way home.

My father (Lawrence) carried on the traditions of his father, except for the pigs. He also became a builder. He built department stores, shopping centers and factories all over the American Midwest. As he built stores, at home he built gardens. He was a master gardener and preserver. I have years of memories of my dad peeling and chopping, canning and freezing. Everything from tomatoes to green beans. If he picked it, he canned it. He even had a small flock of chickens, which he skillfully butchered himself. He would share his eggs, meat and vegetables with needy folks at church or in the neighborhood. At the age of 80, Lawrence is still tending a garden in northern Michigan, and among other good deeds, he gives ten bushels of apples each fall to a large family, who wouldn't get fruit otherwise.

The trail I follow is well-marked.

Even though I was mostly raised in cities, I have a strong and undeniable urge to grow my food and preserve it for winter months. Even though I am not a builder of structures, I am a builder of a different sort. (I help build kids in my third grade classroom.) My goals for this year on our small farm include: raising at least sixty meat birds (chickens and turkeys), maintaining a flock of thirty-five layers, and growing a large variety of fruits and vegetables on my five acres. But I hope to do more.

One of my nephews has four children and they have a standing order for ten meat birds whenever I get a batch of chicks. I hope to expand that to other family members. I also have over thirty customers for my farm-fresh eggs, (and I can't keep up with them presently). I am planning on raising twelve turkeys this year. I want to keep a cool-looking pair around to give the farm a "farmy" feeling, but will butcher out the rest to give to family members and friends for their Thanksgiving feast. I also want to give a few turkeys and chickens to some local families. We have a local food cupboard that allows folks in the area to come in and receive food and clothing at no charge, and I plan on furnishing it with as much as I can spare.

I am just getting started on the farm and welcome any ideas you all may have on how to not just provide for my family, but also give to people who can use a little sharing in my local area.

What part do you play?

Variations in Green

2009-03-28T16:58:00.004-04:00

Usually Ruth takes all of my photos, but today, I grabbed her camera and started snapping. I am grateful for her help in processing the photos and getting them ready for posting.

Name Me!

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The above photo is of my Black Minorcan hen. She doesn't have a name. If you have a suggestion, please let me know and I will select it from all the entries I receive this week. If I have difficulty deciding, I will let you vote on it next week. This is a really nice hen. She is friendly, let's me pick her up, and best of all, lays a big white egg just about every day. She also has a man-sized comb and red hangy things! (commonly known as wattles, OK, that's not all that common of a word.)

This Week's Theme

I have been challenged to be a much better caretaker of everything around me, from my lovely wife and children, to the things I am accumulating, and to this great planet we live on.

One way I am working on taking care of my share is to produce food right here on our little farm. We have a vegetable garden in the works, and I plan on growing a nice variety of things to eat. If I can keep the wattles out of the raised beds, we should have some measure of success.

Another way is through the raising of hens for eggs, and meat birds for... meat. Earlier in the year I posted about Broody, my Partridge Cochin, and how she hatched out seven chicks in the dead of winter. A few weeks after that, I hatched out 22 "store bought" chicks for a science project at my school. This hatching out of chicks has got me thinking about how I can perpetuate a solid flock that can keep me and my friends in eggs, as well as produce enough meat so I don't ever buy chicken from the store. I wonder if it is possible to manage a flock that will hatch out enough quality chicks to keep the eggs and meat going, without ordering chicks from a hatchery? I am assuming that I will occasionally need to add a rooster to the mix who has good genetic stock to keep my layers of choice "happy." I like the idea that my hens can hatch out their own heirs, and that my flock can take on a life of its own.
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These are the chicks Broody hatched out.

I still can't quite tell the hens from the roos.

"Hey Beverly, can you believe this spa? It's so filthy!"

"I know, sweetie, how can all this dirt make me feel so squeaky clean?"

This is a photo of Khan, the father of Broody's brood.

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Our lights are going out in a few hours. I hope you all had, or will have, a chance to participate in Earth Hour. The only light I will leave on is the heat lamp for the chicks.

If you are growing vegetables, what are you looking forward to the most? I think I am looking forward to the whole process of gardening. The idea of starting my own seeds, using grow lights, building cold frames, raised beds and mini polytunnels, having a Three Sisters garden and eating veggies that are still warm from the sun are all contributing to me looking forward to spring more than I ever have.

Go Green!

Growing Up

2009-03-22T20:02:00.006-04:00

On January 13, 2009, Broody, my Partridge Cochin hen, hatched out 7 chicks. Well, here they are at about ten weeks, getting all grown up. They moved in with the main flock and are merging quite well. They get a quick nip on the back if they hog the goodies, but generally they stick together and sleep in various places. One of them actually snuggles up with the mighty Khan each night.

Another group that I am watching grow up is my third grade class. I have included some of their poems, written after studying "Purple Cow" by Gelett Burgess.

"I never saw a purple cow

I never hope to see one

But I can tell you anyhow

I'd rather see than be one"

Chickens and children are poetry in real life.

Hybrid Seeds or Heirloom Seeds?

2009-03-15T12:25:00.016-04:00

There is a huge debate out there in the gardening world that swirls around seeds and their origins. As you can imagine, there are large groups of supporters on both sides of this argument, and I doubt if there is a clear winner. This is by no means a complete definition of either side of the seed argument, and I'm sure there are tons of details that can be added. Please add some!!

Hybrid Seeds

Hybrid seeds got their start in the 1920's by a man named Henry Wallace, a professor at the University of Iowa, who founded a seed company called The Hi-Bred Corn Company. This company later became Pioneer Hi-Bred Seed Company, a subsidiary of DuPont Chemical Company. Wallace wanted to help out with the food supply and had the idea to create a corn that would grow prolifically and provide an abundance of food for America and the world. It is interesting to note that Wallace later became the Secretary of Agriculture under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Wallace became Vice President under Roosevelt from 1940-1944. Friends in high places? I digress...

Hybrid seeds are created by finding parent plants that have the desired traits for the hybrid seeds and then, they are matched to produce the seeds. Farmers were convinced to buy these seeds in order to produce higher yields, and they did. Before this new "technology" farmers would save enough seeds from their crops to replant their fields the next year. The new hybrids began a cycle forcing farmers to purchase new seeds each year, as they could no longer keep seeds due to the nature of the hybrids.

Not only were farmers buying hybrid seeds, but the nation's gardeners began doing likewise. These varieties were selected for their productivity, their ability to withstand mechanical picking and cross-country shipping, and their tolerance to drought, frost, or pesticides. One of the traits of hybrid seeds is they are "high response" seeds. They require a lot of fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides and a great deal of water to achieve their high yields. This is how the chemical companies got involved in the farmyard. If you'll recall, Wallace's seed company is now owned by DuPont Chemical. Another well-known chemical giant, Monsanto, the world's largest hybrid seed company, also is the creator and producer of Roundup, and is the leader in bovine growth hormones.

Heirloom Seeds

People who have a great interest in Heirloom seeds and their plants are attracted to them for many reasons. Some are interested in growing the same plants that were grown for hundreds of years. Some are attracted by the idea of being connected with their forefathers. While others believe that the Heirloom plants are simply natural and lend themselves to organic gardening much better than hybrids. Most of us believe they just taste better!!

Heirloom seeds are also known as "open pollinated" seeds. Unlike hybrids, which are pollinated mechanically and under tightly controlled conditions, heirloom plants produce seeds that mimic the parent plants. Gardeners save seeds from their best plants and store them for the next planting season. Heirloom plants tend to have much more flavor than hybrids, but often have irregular shapes, or don't transport as well. Producers of hybrids have discovered that it is far easier to breed plants for size and shape. Flavor is a mysterious thing! Another aspect of heirloom seeds is that they are dynamic. This means that the plants are able to adapt to their local environment, whereas hybrids are pretty much static.

I was recently reading a magazine called Heirloom Farm and came across an article about William Woys Weaver, author and seed collector. Weaver, an avid gardener, discovered a collection of seeds in baby food jars in his recently deceased grandfather's freezer. He learned that his grandfather collected seeds from his gardens and replanted them into next year's garden. Weaver donated some of these to the collection at Monticello, as well as several collection sites in Europe. Weaver has written a book called Heirloom Vegetable Gardening, and it is on my list of must-get books.

I am planning to grow mostly heirlooms this year and will change over completely next year. I have a gazillion sunflowers to plant, and they are all hybrids. I am going to try to plant some of their seeds and will let you know what develops!!

Farm Update:

Garden Site

This is a photo of the inner circle of the driveway, where I am planting the veg patch. It will be fenced to keep out critters, and I plan on building a series of raised beds. The soil is gravelly and sandy, and the raised beds will allow me to create nice soil on a much smaller and more controlled scale.

Chickens on a Sunny Day!

The Buff Cochin, (Bev), is leading the charge to find some good stuff to scratch around in.

The Great Escape

Steve McQueen would have been proud to see the chickens sprinting past the unsuspecting Bishop, (the barn cat). I kinda have the feeling that not much gets past her, including a group of loud and boisterous chickens heading to a dust bath!

I hope you are having a nice day!

It is somtimes easy to focus on negative things.

Ruth and I are focusing on positive thoughts.

(The photos in this post were taken by Ruth.)

The Chick's First Adventure

2009-03-08T19:38:00.011-04:00

One of the students at my school took some of the chicks (from last week's post) home for the weekend and had a little fun. The results of that fun is the slide show below. This was actually a Powerpoint with lots of cool colors, but Powerpoint doesn't like Blogger very much.

The music is a song by my son Peter's band: Listen to Your Breaking Heart.

The Stars Are Out

2009-03-01T08:31:00.005-05:00

Five Days Old

Black Sex-Link Rooster

It is difficult for non-professional breeders of chickens to figure out the gender of chicks. I have heard of several ways to determine this, but unless you have been trained and do hundreds or thousands of "sexings" your success rate isn't going to be that great. One way that I was told to try is to take a chick that is 2-4 days old and hold it by the scruff of the neck (like a baby kitten) and let the bird dangle. Roosters supposedly spaz out with their feet and raise them up to try to push off your hand, while the hens just dangle there looking helpless. I tried this on the chicks I am going to describe below and it worked every time!

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I chose three breeds and hatched them out at school. We had a four hour power outage at school one evening and I thought I would lose them all. However, I ended up with 22 chicks hatching out of 36 eggs. (8 Black Sex-Links, 7 Light Brahmas and 7 Rhode Island Reds)

Black Sex-Link Hen

The Black Sex-Links (BSL) are a cross-breed between a red rooster, usually a Rhode island Red or a New Hampshire, and a Barred Rock hen. The chicks hatch out black, but the males have a white spot on their heads. The hens will have a black head. (When I tried the procedure described above to determine their gender, the BSL roos spazzed and the hens dangled!) The BSL chicks are very active and when the hens are about four months old, they will begin laying nice, big brown eggs. The roosters are good meat birds. I ended up with 2 BSL hens and 6 BSL roosters.

Other names I have come across for the BSL breed include: Rock Reds and Black Stars.

Rhode Island Red and Light Brahma (five days old)

By the way, the chicks were the hit of the Science Fair at school last week! No big surprise. The bubble gum testing was pretty good too.

Farmer MacGregor must have really been somethin'

2009-02-21T15:04:00.003-05:00

Vegetable Garden Plans

Between our house and the green barn, we have a circle drive and in the middle of the circle drive I am going to develop a vegetable garden. The drawing below basically shows the curve of the driveway as it comes from the road to the right of the drawing and then bears to the left. The drive is actually an oval as it circles the drawing below. To the left of the proposed garden, we have a sixty foot Norway Spruce that takes up about a twenty foot diameter. Otherwise I would use the entire oval for the garden. Is that as clear as mud?

As you can see, I am being fairly basic this year and not stepping too far out of the ordinary. Each of the burgundy rectangles will be an 8' x 4' raised bed. We have such sandy soil that I am going to have to import some decent, loamy dirt to fill all of these beds. Later, I will add my own composted materials, which the chickens are at this very moment helping to create! I took 6 wheelbarrows of really good straw/manure out to the compost heap. I will focus a little more energy on creating a better compost system this spring/summer.

We want to freeze a lot of things this year so we can enjoy the garden well into next winter. We will have lots of green beans, and I saw a lady freezing tomatoes, instead of canning them. That looked easy and time-saving. We have a prolific pear tree and we are determined to can ALL of the pears this year. The grape arbor is a steady producer of three types of grape that I cook down and make juice. I then can this juice and as needed, I make up a batch of grape jelly. Another nice feature of the farm is an old crab apple tree that gave me 2 bushels of beautiful red apples last year. I still have several jars of that jelly down in the cellar. We also have our wild blackberries and raspberries that will be made into jams and syrup.

Three Sisters

Please note the green circle that says "3 Sisters." Native Americans planted these circular patches all around their villages and planted corn, climbing beans and squash together. The corn would go in first and as it started to get tall, the pole beans would go in. As the beans grew, they would climb up the cornstalks. The beans not only provide good food, but they put nitrogen into the soil. A week after the beans have started to grow, squash is planted around the edge of the circle and the runners are encouraged to grow into the circle. The squash, as it matures, has large leaves that keep weeds from taking over the garden. So, these Native Americans had some excellent thinking going on here! I am going to have three different squash plants growing in my circle: cinderella pumpkins, acorn squash and butternut squash. I have sweetcorn and several varieties of popcorn that I am going to try. The circle will be approximately 15' in diameter. (The drawing is not to scale)

Sunflowers Galore

Our daughter, Lesley, is getting married in our orchard this summer! As you can imagine, we are very excited!!

One of the projects she has requested is that we have lots of sunflowers on hand to help celebrate this great day. So, I have ordered 2,500 sunflower seeds, and I am going to plant every last one of them! This will take some planning, and some plowing. I am going to start about 200 of them in the basement under the grow lights, so we get an early start on the ones that will be planted as a backdrop to the ceremony.

I also have orders to grow some black pearl peppers, (which have black leaves and little black peppers that turn scarlet when ripe.), as well as a lot of coleus. I will plant these things everywhere and when the time comes for decorating and making things for the wedding, Lesley and Ruth (and no doubt moi) can get out the scissors and cut away to her/their/our/my heart's content!

Six Weeks Old

This is a Cochin/Maran combo. I have a feeling it is a rooster, as there are little nubs on the insides of the legs, which probably will be spurs. This little guy is so cute! He was docile and content to sit on my hand and look around at all the wonders that are outside of the brooder box.

Monday is hatch day at school where I have an incubator containing 37 eggs. Our school had a power outage one night for three hours, so I am not hopeful for a great hatch. I expect about 50% of the eggs to hatch, but you never know! I candled the eggs and every one seemed to be doing well. So, either this is a miracle batch, or I am really bad at candling. One of my students and I made a candler out of a powerful flashlight, but we found that the computer presenter's light was way better! I hope to gain a good number of brown egg layers from this batch. If not, then I will try again. $5.00 per dozen for the eggs, plus a small shipping fee! The eggs are Rhode Island Reds, Light Brahmas, and Black Sex Links, (or Black Stars).

I'll let you know!!

Mysteries at the Green Barn

2009-02-15T16:43:00.002-05:00

Snowcanoes (like volcanoes)

I spotted these weird looking features as I was taking wheelbarrow loads of chicken s#%* to the compost heap. They looked so odd, that I ran into the house, grabbed Ruth's camera and spent a few minutes pretending to be a photographer. I even lay down in the snow to capture this image. The next photo reveals the origin of these strange snow structures.

Bishop the Barn Cat walked across the snow here when the snow was about 5" deep. As the snow packed down to about 3" in the warm sun, the snow left little protrusions around each track.

The Shroud of Dansville

What in the world!? I baked another loaf of rustic bread and when I pulled the bread off the parchment paper, I saw this! What do you see in the paper? I would like you to study it and let me know what you see.

Garden Plans Coming Soon!

My next post will be about my garden plans. I received my first batch of seeds in the mail already and am planning a garden with raised beds, bean trellises, chicken-proofing, and other things to make it look inviting. I would love to hear about your garden plans.

Shells, Chicks and Rustic Bread

2009-02-08T20:00:00.011-05:00

Carl's Shells

My Blogger Friend Carl, (who won my Lucky Horseshoe Giveaway), was very kind and made a special trip out to an island near his home and played Beachcomber. He gathered enough shells for all of my third graders (and Ruth and me) to create a cool project. Stay tuned for the project!

(Carl also sent some other very cool items, and I am saving those for another post.)

Sauteed Scallops anyone?

Chicks Update

Broody has done a remarkable job of keeping her brood alive and kicking. They will be four weeks old this week. The white chick started sprouting some head tassels. She must be half Polish Crested!

Italian Rustic Bread

I have never made a loaf of bread from scratch before, except when we used to have a breadmaker and I would toss in a mix. Well, yesterday I bought some yeast and some bread flour and scrounged around for an interesting recipe. This one used a "Biga" that I made the day before. This bread did taste so good, it made us want to make some every weekend! I am no bread expert, and maybe some of the bubbles are a bit too big, but I think I have just found a new hobby.

Fresh Bread and Fresh Eggs

These are the good old days!

Ruth and I were talking about bread today and we wondered how did we Americans get so far away from great bread. Growing up in the 1960's we would buy ten loaves of white bread for a dollar, and toss eight of them in the freezer. They would all be gone by the next shopping day. Yummy!, white bread with oleo. A side note on the oleo: We lived in Wisconsin back in the 60's and oleo was white and it came with the yellow food coloring if you wanted to make it look like butter.

In 1928 the automatic bread slicer was invented by Otto Frederick Rohwedder, in Iowa. This invention, coupled with the need for speed, allowed housewives extra time each morning as they juggled making toast and making sandwiches for growing families on the go. Believe it or not, in 1943 there was a short-lived ban on selling sliced bread! Apparently the need for heavier wrapping and the extra cost for labor made it a target for cost-cutting measures during World War 2.

White bread has been considered a sign of luxury since the Middle Ages. The color of your bread was directly related to your social standing. The lighter your bread, the richer you were! Today, it is the opposite. We are willing to pay premium prices for whole grain breads.

If you Google French bread, or Italian bread, you will undoubtedly find loads of great-looking breads. If you Google American bread, I think you'll see the difference.

We used to live in Istanbul, Turkey (1985-1988) and our door man delivered two loaves of piping hot bread, directly from the bakery one building away for a whopping ten cents per loaf. Each morning, we would have the butter and honey, as well as the Turkish Olives ready for a delicious breakfast.

I think the winds of change are a-blowing across America in more ways than one. I think we are discovering good bread, and perhaps we will start to expect that our bread is not just filling, but also that is delicious!

Winter in Michigan December 21 - March 21

2009-01-31T23:24:00.006-05:00

Two Little Snowflakes
Way up high in the winter sky,
2 little snowflakes caught my eye.
Down to the ground they fell without a sound.
And before very long,

It was snowing all around.

Anonymous

We had 15 hours in the entire month of January above 32 degrees Fahrenheit.

10 Days Old

2009-01-24T14:11:00.006-05:00

I have never had a hen hatch out chicks before, so this is a lot of fun for me. Broody (who is only 10 months old) is doing such a great job of keeping these little puff balls alive and well during these terribly cold, winter nights. They are in the barn, in a 5' x 5' box with two heat lamps on 24/7. Often when I go out to visit, the chicks are running around looking for little treats that I drop in when they are not looking. The thermometer on the floor of the brooder box reads 50 degrees F, and there they are, skittering around as if it was in the 90's F!

I believe Khan (Cuckoo Maran) is the proud papa of all of them.

I placed the eggs of two cuckoo maran hens, three cochins, (buff and/or partridge), two ameracaunas, and one large white egg. I believe the white egg was from the black minorca hen.
So, in effect, I know I will have 2 maran purebreds, and I can already see the feathered feet of three cochin/maran mixes. One of the ameracaunas didn't hatch, and I believe the yellow chick is an ameracauna/maran and then one of the chicks is probably a minorca/maran. I wonder if they will turn out looking like mutts?

These two enjoyed posing.

Click on the images to see more details.

Can you see the feathers on the feet of the larger chick? Click on the picture to see better.

I am hoping I get a lot of hens from this batch.

The white one is far ahead of his/her siblings with feather development.

I think it may be an ameracauna. I have a white ameracauna hen in my flock.

I think I can see feathers on this one's legs too.

The Great Escape!

She can run, but she cannot hide.

She pooed on the floor too.

I leave you with this photo.

Sometimes you can see three chicks up on this perch.

Thank you for visiting.

Too Cold for a Picnic

2009-01-19T08:30:00.006-05:00

As I wrote in an earlier post, I am building two children-sized picnic tables for my school's fundraiser, which occurs in February. Out in the Green Barn, I have a nice workroom, complete with all of my tools. However, right now I have a brooder taking up 50% of the floor space, and it is really cold out there! So, I got out my little portable propane heater and lugged everything I needed into the garage. It wasn't much warmer in there!

I cut all of the pieces with my chop saw and then took the first pieces to assemble into the family room so I could figure out how to assemble the table in a warm place. Who writes instructions? It seems as if the person writing the directions for most of the things I have had to assemble has never put one of the things together, or doesn't speak English as a first language. No offense intended to anyone out there.

Here are a few shots of the project:

My favorite construction pencil. I stepped on it.

(you could tell that already, couldn't you)

Great inventions. I love my blaze orange square. It's hard to misplace.
I have seven tape measures. I guess you could call that a collection.

The table taking shape. I don't know what I needed the flashlight for.
Maybe I was looking for a pencil.

Hey, that looks like a picnic table! I don't know how it will look when finished.

The moms of the third grade are planning on decorating it somehow. Maybe they'll paint it, or just stain it. The battery in my portable drill died before I could tighten all the screws, so if you look closely on the table top, you can see a few of the screws needing attention.

I am getting a yen for some warmer weather. Anyone want to join me for a little picnic?

seven!

2009-01-14T19:51:00.006-05:00

No words can describe this...

Happy Birthday!

2009-01-13T21:16:00.004-05:00

This morning, at 6:30, I went to the barn for the usual routine of turning on the lights, doling out some scratch and then going in to chat with Broody. Someone else, besides Broody was talking up a storm! I could hear a little peeper coming from underneath Broody's mass of poofiness.

I picked Broody up to meet the birthday chick and this is what I saw. This little chick was lying there, head and neck sticking out, looking around.

After work, Ruth and I went straight to the barn and I picked up Broody to see what we would see. This looks like a little Cuckoo Maran, with a little brown on the wings.

I think you would agree with me that this is a pretty cute little chick. I think I already have a name for "her." I'm thinking Gladys. I'll explain more of that in a second.

These three eggs are pipping (red arrows). The chicks have a little egg tooth on their beak which is designed to crack the shell and allow the chick to breathe better. After the pipping begins the chick could be out in an hour or in a day.

Broody looking at her fine work. And probably wondering what the heck is that fuzzy thing doing in with my eggs!

Happy Birthday Gladys. I hope you're a pullet.

News

2009-01-10T16:24:00.010-05:00

With the help of our school district's foundation, I was able to purchase this incubator. It is the Hovabator Genesis 1588. I also purchased the automatic egg turner. Now I have both natural and mechanical egg hatchers!

This is what the automatic egg turner looks like:

(Both photos courtesy of Home and Barn Basics Web Site)

I'm so excited about having this incubator as now I can hatch out my own chicks at a considerable savings. Two fifth graders in my school approached me about hatching chicks for their science fair project. Normally, Michigan State University is a great source for fertilized eggs, but they are in the process of changing their available breeds and they would only have white leghorns available. However, Angelo, who is the manager of the poultry farms at MSU referred me to his boss' parents, who happen to own and operate the Eagle Nest Hatchery in Ohio. I immediately called them and spoke directly with owner Kay Karcher, who walked me through all of her available breeds. With Kay's help, I decided to order fertilized eggs of 12 Rhode Island Reds, 12 Black Sex Links, and 12 Light Brahmas. All three of these breeds will lay nice, big brown eggs and the roosters (which I am expecting at least 18) will grow into 4-6 pound fryers in a short time. The fifth graders are especially goofy about the name Black Sex Link. The reason they are named that is they can be gendered at the time of hatching because the hens are all black and the roosters have some white or gray on their heads. These chickens are also known as Black Stars, but the fifth graders are leaving the original name. (The things that make us giggle!!)

The fifth graders will oversee the entire process and they will be in charge of the incubator, which with their teacher's permission, will be located in a quiet place in their classroom (is there a quiet place in a fifth grade classroom?). They are planning on setting up a twenty gallon aquarium with a heat lamp to display 5-10 of the newly hatched chicks throughout the duration of the science fair.

My insanely jealous third graders are only appeased by my promise that they will be able to name a chick, hold them and cuddle with them before they head to their home in the green barn.

More School News

Each year, my school holds a Family Fun Night. This is a fun-filled evening of free games and food and also an auction, which is our PTO's main fund-raiser. Every year, the teachers each donate a special item, like lunch with your teacher, or in my case, Gym Night for 20 kids. We eat pizza, brownies, Skittles and then play fun games in the gym and/or outdoors, if the weather cooperates.

This year, I am also offering a "Farm Basket" of goodies from our farm. I'm not sure at this point what I will put in there, but it will include eggs, blackberry jam and syrup, Crab apple jelly, grape jelly, tomato sauce, apple butter, apple sauce, and anything else I can coax out of the ground. I want to make soap like Kim over at Achorn Farm, and would love to paint like Laura over at Laura's Watercolors, or make fabulous jewelry, like Gwen over at Desideratum, but I think I'll stick to more basic things.

I did, however, find the plans for a fun looking children's picnic table and am planning on building two of them to auction off. I was thinking about painting them white and then decorating half of the table with MSU (Michigan State University) colors and the other half with UM (University of Michigan) colors.

Drawings courtesy of move.com.

I may have to build some more of these to have around the farm!

If Broody is successful with her first hatch attempt, I will have chicks this Wednesday or Thursday. I will let you know next week how that goes.

Broody

2009-01-02T09:51:00.002-05:00

Meet Broody. She spent the entire month of December trying to hatch everybody's eggs. At first I thought she was injured or sick, but then I realized that she might be getting broody. Broody hens are not all that common as that instinct has been bred out of most of the breeds of poultry. Many breeds of chickens will think about brooding, but then give up after half an hour, or two days, and go back to scratching around and trying to eat whatever the other hens seem to be eating. Every day I had to move her off of the favorite laying nest and make sure she got some food and water. She would then walk around squawking and making a lot of noise, which would inevitably start the choir. If you have never heard twenty five hens yelling at the same time, you ought to add that lovely experience to your "Life To-Do List"!

Broody is a partridge cochin. This breed is one of the broodiest. If you want to have a couple of broody hens around your place to hatch out and raise chicks, then you should add a few cochins to your collection. Besides, they have a lovely temperament and are beautiful as well! I have a buff cochin who waits each night at her perch, just before I turn off the light, for a hand-delivered night supper of grain.

Here she is hogging the favorite nesting box. The other hens would just climb in here with her and lay their eggs and she would gladly cover them with her poofiness.

So, I moved her upstairs into the brooder, favorite nest and all. Before I did that, I collected eight of the largest eggs to see if she could actually pull this off. I know that hatching chicks in January is nearly insane, but she wouldn't give up and I am willing to give it a go. I put a heat lamp over her to warm things up and also to keep her water from freezing. She seems very content. I have never seen her off the eggs, but her water keeps going down and her food needs replenishing. Her due date is either January 14 or 15. I'll let you know!

Broody doing her thing!

Uh Oh! Minky (Ameracauna) has been acting broody as well! This is her "Touch these eggs and I'm gonna kick your butt!" posture. She also has a nice little roar to go with that. When she roars, that prompts the choir to kick in again and they sound so lovely.

Having hens wandering around the farm with little chicks in tow sounds so perfect to me. I have a feeling that round one of the brooder instinct will go to Father Winter,

but you just never know!

And the Winner is...

2008-12-28T19:47:00.003-05:00

This week I offered my Lucky Horseshoe I have hanging over the door to my chicken coop. I found it on a shelf in the barn basement and hung it up to keep all the luck for my chickens and my barn. In the spirit of the season, I wanted to pass this along.

I had a "random selector" narrow the 31 entrants down to 3 and the winner is...

Carl Humphreys Sr.!

Congratulations on your amazing, world-class prize!

I want to thank all of you who come and visit me. It always makes my day to interact with you.

Thank you...

Happy New Year to each of you!

The Season For Giving

2008-12-20T17:15:00.005-05:00

Let It Snow!

School teachers and children both love snow days. Friday (Dec. 19) was our first snow day of the school year. When there is a chance for a snow day, the students at my school wear their pj's inside out and backwards and eat their dessert first at dinner the night before the wished for event. Success all-around!

10 inches of snow

A View of the Corn Crib

Deer Tracks Across The Path

Peter's Car Stuck in the Driveway.

Welcome to the Farm.

Peter has been working in the Caribbean

since August, and is heading back in January.

GREEN BARN GIVEAWAY!

If you have read this far, you deserve a chance to win this wonderful prize. Can you see the Horseshoe hanging over the door to the chicken coop? Well, everyone who leaves a comment this week will get put into the drawing to win this real horseshoe, which I found in the Green Barn.

Whoo-Hooo!

Doesn't this sound like a great prize? I can tell you are excited.

The Prize.

Good Luck!

Keeping Busy in the Cold Barn

2008-12-13T14:24:00.013-05:00

(I gave Ruth the week off from photos, and stole her camera. She edited them.)

As you can see from the thermometer in my coop, it is about 30° F. In spite of the cold weather, my hens have been laying more eggs than ever! On Wednesday, they laid 17 and the next day laid 19! I already have 14 today and it's only around noon. Up until this barrage, the girls have been averaging 10-12 eggs per day for the past couple of months. I think it must be a combination of the light I am leaving on from 6:30AM until 8:00PM and the maturing of the Polish Crested hens. I am getting a lot of white eggs now since white layers are the majority of the flock.

How did the thermometer get dirty? The same way as the light bulb, I guess.

Free Ranging in the barn basement

Since they can't/won't go outside due to the 8 inches of snow on the ground, I have been letting the chickens out of the coop and into the rest of the barn. The basement is my next project. It has a lot of dirt piled up in it. Why it's in there, I don't know, but it has got to go. For the time being, however, the chickens have been loving their dustbaths.

Look at the two white crested polish hens standing tail to tail. They both just finished wallowing in the dirt.

What do you think of her really bad haircut?

What are you looking at?

Go away, I'm taking a bath.

Nesting Boxes

There are over 20 nice nesting boxes on the walls of the coop, full of clean, dry, cozy straw. However, half of the hens prefer unconventional housing for their eggs. "Monkey see, monkey do" seems to be their mantra. If one of them lays an egg somewhere interesting, others follow suit.

Corner lot, nice views available.

While I was taking the photo, the black crested polish hen, (who follows me around all the time), came over to investigate and began setting on the eggs.

Well, nosey Floozey saw that and came over to see what all the excitement was about and proceeded to kick the black one out.

Now that she was alone with the eggs, she began to adjust them so she could do her mothering thing. She stayed there for about two minutes and then was off to see what I was going to do next. Floozey is the nosiest hen in the coop.

Next, I went to the the overturned feed bucket and there was Floozey, checking out the eggs. She actually stayed there for the rest of the time I was in the coop.

Floozey is a Buttercup hen. Doesn't she have the most interesting comb? It will get twice this size as she matures. She was hatched on April 4, 2008. (my birthday!)

Now here is a fancy place to lay some eggs. Notice that round one? it's a Dunlop.

Newly Named

I leave you this week with the Little Dudes. Gomer and Goober, squaring off.

I'm for the birds

2008-12-06T15:00:00.008-05:00

This majestic elm has marked the gateway to the path for a long time. You can tell it's been in this stage of life for quite a while. It may be my favorite tree.

Our friend Heather told her father how much we loved bluebirds, so he built this one for Ruth, and I just had to put it on this tree. The birdhouse overlooks a large field where there are many tasty morsels for a bluebird. They love to perch on the remaining branch and then swoop down on the unsuspecting bug, and then back up to the branch. The only variation on this theme is when they fly straight to the birdhouse and feed the little bluebirds growing inside.

On the last day of school, we have an assembly to say our tearful good-byes. The fifth graders have a tradition of "willing" parting gifts to teachers, other students, etc. One of my former students gave this birdhouse to me and I have had bluebirds in it every year. That student has kept in touch with me and she is now a junior in high school and thinking about her future. We have had many back and forth emails and I have a lot of fun giving her advice.

I built this one out of scrap pieces and it houses another bluebird family. You can tell it's well-insulated, the snow isn't melting on the roof... ;)

We cleaned out my parents' garage last summer and my mom was going to toss this, so I tossed it right into my truck. A House Wren built a nest in this one. They are non-stop warblers!

The same wren built a nest in this one and raised a brood in here. Baby wrens are too cute!

I am a trash picker from way back. I found these on trash day about a mile up the road from us. One is a bluebird house, the other is some sort of feeder which I will convert into a birdhouse of some kind. They are made out of cedar, so they will last a long time.

This is a birdhouse gourd and has different species each year. Right now the remnant of a Song Sparrow is peeking out.

I never get tired of birds.

We have some with the loudest call, and of course, they do it in the summer starting at daybreak. I just scared off (not on purpose) twelve mourning doves who were feeding on the ground under the bird feeder. Sometimes we have over thirty goldfinches queuing up at the thistle feeders.

The biggest "prize" bird I spotted this past summer was a pileated woodpecker. I surprised him near our woodland pond and he took off and glided across the water, about a foot from the surface, landed on the side of a tree, squawked at me and took off. That was the only time I saw him.

Among my favorite birds is the Indigo Bunting. We saw one on Thanksgiving day in 2003, and I saw another one a couple of years ago, but they are rare indeed!

My goal right now is to see a Scarlet Tanager.

Which bird do you think is the coolest? I like the name Merganser, but for now, I'll stick with the Scarlet Tanager.

The Green Barn

2008-11-29T13:36:00.011-05:00

The green barn was built in 1901. It may have been a Sears Bank Barn kit that cost $600.00 at the time. The write-up in the catalogue states: "it will cost you more for labor than the price of this barn." The sears barns were shipped via railroad and customers had to pick them up at the station. I can imagine a few farmers gathering together with their wagons to help out. The nearest rail station was probably in Jackson, or maybe Lansing.

We have a photo taken 50+ years ago that shows the green barn painted white. I can also see traces of red as well.

The green barn used to have a silo. You can see its old concrete foundation in the photo below. Over the years, it fell down, or was torn down. In this photo, you can see where the right side of the concrete chute, which allowed the farmer to send grain into the barn basement, has broken free, and slid through the rock wall. Someone started to rebuild the wall, and I continued it. Next summer, I plan on having this completely closed in and patched up. I will also have to put gutters on the eaves to keep the water from pouring onto the foundation. (I want to capture that water into a cistern system, but that's another post!).

Barn Photos

Pitchfork looking for work

Big fella 14" pillar and 12" beam

Every barn has dirty light bulbs (how did it get dirty?)

Nice curves

Gate looking for work

Gate chewed artistically by horses

Ladder to nowhere (except up)

Chicken Photos

Khan, glowing in the midday sun

Honey following Bishop the Barncat

This Thanksgiving weekend has made me realize how thankful I am for all the good things in my life. I know that is a cliché, but it rings true for me today.

Life is good

Planning Ahead

2008-11-22T14:11:00.007-05:00

This is my first winter with chickens here at the Green Barn. With each passing and progressively colder day and night, I am more and more impressed with the builder of this barn. I am glad I followed in the footsteps of a previous poultry farmer in using the barn chicken coop. (There are two other possible coops).

First off, it is in the basement of the barn. As you can see in the photo below, the entire western wall of the coop is underground and made of stone. My flock won't have any cold wind blowing through the coop, or blowing on a wall. The only exposed wall is the southern wall, and if the wind is from the south, it is usually warmer. This will keep the coop warmer! I can't help but think the designer did this on purpose to help keep his livestock warmer during the cold months. The window is sealed shut, waiting for spring.

This is the southern exposure of the coop. There are two windows on this wall that allows some nice sunshine in. Note that there is only about three feet of wall exposed to the elements and it is a foot and a half thick.

The other two walls are inside the barn. I insulated the northern wall with one inch foam insulation, and the eastern wall is insulated by a four foot hallway. I have the ceiling of the coop covered with a tarp to keep the heat in and water out, (the barn roof leaks).

I hung a red heat lamp over the roosting area to keep the edge off the cold and use it only at night. It was in the teens last night and this morning, it was 36 degrees F in the coop when I turned their lights on.

Four of my hens are really getting torn up by the roosters, so today I did the deed: three fat roosters are in the deep freeze. I watched all three of them raping and pillaging today and decided that it was time. Khan, the Cuckoo Maran pictured below, is a gentle giant, so he lives on. He does a great job of looking out for the flock and is always the last one in at night.

I love this picture Ruth took of our bottom porch step.

Snow Birds

2008-11-16T17:58:00.004-05:00

You may know what I am talking about when I mention snow birds. Snow birds are people who are fortunate enough to have the option of spending the warmer months in Michigan and the colder months someplace warm. They either have second homes in Florida or the Carolinas, or they have an RV and they drive until they can take off their jackets.

Mother Nature gave all of the local deer hunters a big present today: 2" of nice, packy, perfect-for-making-a-snowman, snow. My chickens came flooding outside today, like they usually do, only to discover that the ground was covered with a mysterious white substance that wasn't all that tasty. Today, they weren't much in the mood to play in the snow. I think they were talking about joining the snow birds.

Cuckoo Maran keeping her toes dry.

Cool and the gang hanging out, reminiscing about the good old days of foraging. (Yes, the gold one in front is one of my Buff Orpington roosters)

Japanese Bantams: A study in white

This was a challenge for Ruth to get a clear photo with so much white to get washed out. She tried several different settings and settled on this one, which shut down the aperture and allowed the camera to decide on the shutter speed. If you can click on the photo below, check out the amazing feathers on these chickens. They are less than half the size of my regular chickens! I think I need to find them a girlfriend. Maybe someone will trade me a bantam hen for one of these roosters?

You can see the electric poultry mesh behind the bantams. I have grown extremely fond of this method of keeping the chickens in and keeping predators out. I haven't lost a single chicken to a predator. It delivers a nice jolt, and keeps working away 24/7. I am thinking about dismantling it soon for the winter and making the chickens stay indoors except for the times when I am home.

So far, they seem to be plenty warm! I am planning to apply vaseline to all of their combs next weekend. Vaseline helps insulate their combs from the cold. Want to join me for that???!

The Path

2008-11-08T17:07:00.006-05:00

Which way shall we go? The path wanders around through our five acres and gives us a view of several different ecosystems.

If we go straight, we go into the woods. It is lovely, dark and deep.

If we go to the right, we walk through the field.

All paths lead to the bench. A nice place to watch bluebirds feed their babies, or catch praying mantises snatching unwary insects amid the goldenrod and queen anne's lace.

Buck Rub

This is a 3' high rub on a sapling where white-tailed bucks have rubbed the velvet off their antlers and also serve notice to other bucks in the neighborhood. The bucks also make "scrapes" which are bare spots where they and does deposit scents to let each other know of intimate intentions.
The rut is in full swing in Michigan. Does will give birth to twins (usually) in the spring.

Egg Side Note

I like the variety of eggs I get from my flock. Today, I made a little breakfast of poached eggs on toast.

The wood stove acting like a stove.

I like this. A lot. C'mon over and I'll make one for you.

Woodland Pond

2008-11-02T17:53:00.007-05:00

One of these days, I'm going to do something with this cute little pond. Right now, I mosey around it, looking at the tracks in the mud, startling hundreds of frogs, stepping over the poison ivy and in the spring, I search for (and find!!!) morel mushrooms.

When it gets dry in August, it is the only water I know of around here and the loads of wildlife take their turns drinking. Right now, they can do that in secret, because the pond is completely surrounded by brush and little trees. Maybe it should just stay our secret.

I have had thoughts that range from clearing most of the small trees and brush from around it, to building a little summer screened house (more like a deck with a roof and screening) so we can sit/eat/sleep out here without a gazillion mosquitoes constantly fighting over drilling rights.

I also have had thoughts of cutting a path that winds around the pond and allows us a nice little walk through this woods. This means a "to the death" battle with poison ivy. I actually have a little patch of poison ivy on my foot right now!

This is prime morel territory. By spring, the leaves will be packed down and more deteriorated, and the morels will push their way through this clutter so we can see them! MMMMMMM, yum!

If you look closely in the middle of this path, you can see a deer trail heading to the water. I basically followed their path to the pond and I mow this regularly.

Speaking of poison ivy, take a look at this thick vine growing up a large poplar. It is a poison ivy vine. It is over an inch across and you can tell by the hairy look that it is poison ivy. It goes up the tree about thirty feet and has its own branches sticking out. I'll probably take my saw and cut through this sometime this winter.

Do you have any poison ivy stories?

My dad tells a story about one of his employees, who was a botanist by training. Apparently, my dad and this botanist, let's call him Tim, were walking through a potential building site and my dad pointed at a vine and said, "Watch it, that's poison ivy!" Tim, said, "Nah," "poison ivy doesn't have berries. I think it is a winterberry." My dad, who knows just about everything, stood his ground and said, "I know poison ivy when I see it and that is poison ivy!" Tim said "bah" and picked a berry and popped it into his mouth and began chewing. He immediately spit it out and said "It isn't winterberry." About ten minutes later, Tim began complaining about his throat and after a few more minutes, my dad was rushing him to a hospital for treatment of a severe case of poison ivy that almost closed his entire throat down!

Hide and Seek

2008-10-26T19:16:00.003-04:00

"Who Me?"

Oro (Ameraucana hen, lays green eggs)

"What are you talking about?" "I was just walking in the woods."

Two weeks ago, I found several hens walking around in the other part of the barn. This was unusual in that there isn't any easy way to get over there. Well, that is what I thought. As I watched the hens, they both walked behind a barrel and disappeared. I walked around to where they went, and there they both were, sitting on a perfect little nest, which contained seven eggs! I carefully picked the eggs up and discovered that two of the eggs were still warm, so I knew those two were just laid. I kept those, the rest went into the compost pile. I went through the entire barn and found about ten places where a hen could easily get in and sealed them up.

The eggs stopped appearing in that secret nest.

This morning, I let the chickens out into their enclosure and they were happily sifting through the scratch I had tossed out. Oro, one of the Ameraucanas, (who was also one of the culprits in the case of the secret nest), walked up to the fence, looked around and flew off into the yard. I just stood there watching her as she looked like she was on a mission. She walked into the woods, and went behind a tree, and sat down. I gave her a minute and then walked over and as I crouched down next to her she just sat there looking at me. I think her little cheeks were getting red with embarrassment. I picked her up and there was a pile of fourteen eggs! Mostly green ones! (Oro is an Easter Egger). One of them was nice and clean and very warm, so I knew that one was good. The other ones, well, they could be two weeks old, so I decided to dispose of them into the compost.

I have read that if hens start laying outside, or in secret places that they need to be "cooped up" for at least a week. Since it looks messy and rainy for the next few days, I think I will put the chickens on coop duty for three days. I may kick the two roosters out during the day and allow the hens some freedom.

I'll let you know how that goes and how egg production is affected.

Natural Setting

Stinkers! They are just protecting their babies

Roosters

2008-10-20T19:50:00.004-04:00

I have wanted a flock of hens here at the farm since we arrived in 2003. I had raised a flock of Rhode Island Reds and Barred Rocks back in the 90's and had such a great experience with them that I knew I would like to do that again.This year, I finally got busy and made preparations and did some research and ordered the Ornamental Layer Collection from McMurray Hatchery. The biggest reason I wanted this group was for the unique specimens I would have running around for me and my family to enjoy. I also wanted my own eggs.

Roosters are not exactly what I had in mind when I ordered chicks. In fact, I did not intentionally order a single rooster. McMurray sent a free "Rare" chick which I believe was either the Crèvecœur rooster or an Ameracauna rooster. They also sent me 9 white leghorn roosters to "keep the other chicks warm." Before the shipping date, I called and asked for some Cuckoo Maran hens, but was told that I could only order a straight run of them. So, I asked for five Marans. Hmmm, three of those were roosters! Let me see, that makes a total of fourteen roosters. That's not all! I was at the feed store and saw that they had Ameracauna chicks for sale, ("all pullets" the sign read). So I bought the Three Amigas. One of the amigas turned out to be Stiggy, an AmigO. That brings my rooster total to fifteen.

Now for someone who didn't want any roosters to have fifteen seems a little ridiculous. I was not a happy chicken farmer. That was not the end of it! My friends at the Potter Park Zoo in Lansing, MI knew I was into chickens and offered me some of their chicks. I received two White Japanese Bantams and three Buff Orpingtons. Both Bantams are crowing, but I understand that a Japanese Bantam hen may crow. One of them definitely has smaller features than the other. Two of the three Buff Orps are probably roos. So, my total for roosters stands at eighteen (or nineteen, bantam).

I managed to give the nine leghorns, two cuckoo marans and an ameracauna away on Freecycle. The other roosters are occupying a great deal of my coop strateegerizing. Right now, I don't really want ANY roosters. I think they are disruptive to the hens, and Bob started to have a go at Ruth on Sunday. She gave him a swift kick, missed, and her clog went flying and scared everybody.

I don't think I have it in me to butcher any of them for the soup pot. This leaves me in a quandary. If someone on Freecycle will take them, I think I am ready to part ways with them. I have a warm place in my heart for Khan, Stiggy and Bob, but I think their actions are getting to be too detrimental for the flock as a whole, (including the number one hen, Ruth).

I am planning on adding perhaps a dozen more good layers next spring, but I think I am finished with roosters.

If you have any ideas, I am sure open to suggestions.

Does anyone want some beautiful roosters?

Dabbling in the Arts

2008-10-13T19:20:00.004-04:00

Bob and Cronies

I nabbed Ruth's camera and snapped this photo of Bob with the "Little Dudes." Bob is a Crèvecœur Rooster. He reminds me of a shiny, black "Beep-Beep the Roadrunner" as he makes mad dashes around the farm with Khan and Stiggy making sure he remains a subordinate. Bob does manage to get his share of the hen action.

Whenever I go into the coop during the day, I find Bob perched on a roost with the two Japanese Bantams, just hanging out. I discovered last Saturday evening that both of the Japanese Bantams are roosters, complete with the cutest little crows. Rats! I wanted a hen to raise little bantams. Oh well! They are so cute!

I startled the Minorca hen in her favorite nesting box and couldn't resist trying to capture the colors around her face. Her comb is so large compared to the other hens in the flock. She lays nice white eggs and follows me around. I haven't named her yet and welcome any suggestions!

Grapevine Wreath

We have a lot of wild grapes growing around the farm and I usually just clip them off and let them die. This year, I decided to try my hand at making a wreath. Ruth took these pictures of the finished product. I think it would be difficult to earn a living making these. I spent an hour weaving this around 8 screws I put into one of the barn doors. It is about 24" in diameter. I like doing things that can be messy.

The little tendrils are not as delicate as they look!

Pigs?

I am thinking about following Kim's lead over at the Achorn Farm and raise some pigs in the near future. I like the idea of having some free-range pigs roaming and rooting through my little patches of woods. I understand that they can get up to 200+ pounds in a reasonable amount of time and can forage for a lot of their food. I have an acre of woods with tall, lush grass growing in it that would be a perfect spot. The idea of producing meat that is healthy and drug-free is very appealing. I think I just talked myself into doing this...

First Frost and Chickens Run Free

2008-10-04T10:41:00.011-04:00

Frost

We had some beautiful Zinnias this year. I planted seeds in a metal tub and also out in the field behind the barn. They really came into their own in August and September and were a colorful addition to our life. The next few photos show the beauty of their demise. Mr. J. Frost came calling last night and Ruth snapped these photos.

Chickens Run

My blogger friend Amy, over at Twelve acres suggested that I let my chickens out of their 60' x 60' run occasionally. So, I have been letting them run free when I get home from work and also all day on Saturdays and Sundays. They seem to be in chicken heaven as they work through the underbrush and all around the buildings and garden. They love to go through the grape arbor where I'm sure they are finding lots of grapes. I have seen several red tailed hawks floating around and taking a look, but no attacks (yet).

Here they are on a chicken parade. I am going to put barn siding over the new door area so it will match the rest of the barn. I did it this way because I was in a hurry and this was cheap.

Bearded Hen

A Face a Papa can love

Bob trying to impress the girls

This is my Crevecoeur rooster named Bob. He was named by my niece Mackenzie as she thought it was funny to name such an unusual chicken "Bob." The black hen Bob is flirting with is a Black Minorca. Apparently, the Minorcas are descended from Castillian chickens, which are the breed that Columbus had on his ships. Also, T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) kept hens and guess what! He kept Black Minorcas.

Stiggy Update

This is my Ameraucana rooster named after my blogger friend Stiggy from the UK. He is really maturing into a beauty! (Stiggy the Blogger is also a Beaut) Don't you just love his comb-over?

My niece Kaeley gathering eggs

Happenings Around the Barn

2008-09-21T15:45:00.004-04:00

Praying Mantis

In late summer and early autumn, I usually see quite a few of these "honeys" as I am mowing. Saturday, I spotted this one flying across the yard and followed it. I called Ruth to come with her camera and she snapped this photo after it landed on the Scotch Pine. While she was looking at the photo, Ruth noticed that the praying mantis was missing most of its left arm. While googling for some info on this interesting insect, I found a National Geographic article with a photo. Check out the left arm of the photo at the link! (it appears to be missing its left "hand.")

Field Trip

I took the Japanese Bantams to school on Friday. We had them in our classroom and learned a little about the life cycle of chickens. Later in the day, we shared them with our Kindergarten Book Buddies. The kids really enjoyed having them in the school. I had a steady stream of students, parents and teachers parading in to check them out. I gave them an 'A' for good behavior! I'm planning on hatching a dozen Light Brahmas in my classroom in the Spring.

Bantams waiting to enter school in the morning.

Looking a little tired after a long day at school

A good day's work

Here is a typical collection of eggs from my flock. I have heard about a plum colored egg layer and am going to try to find some next spring.

Eggsellence!

Can you see the difference below between my eggs and the store-bought egg? I have read many studies that talk about the nutritional differences between free-range eggs and battery eggs. I linked some web sites for you in case you are interested. I highly encourage you to buy eggs at a farmers' market, or directly from a farmer.

Harvest Time?

2008-09-14T20:10:00.005-04:00

When It Rains, It Pours...
I don't know about you, but we have had some odd weather patterns this year. We had a very wet spring, (not like Iowa, but wet nonetheless), and then no rain at all since Farm Day, August 9, until this past week. I haven't mowed our grass since the second week of August.

Green Barn Crop Report:

Grapes are abundant! We have a very good crop of green and purple grapes. I haven't done any research on them to know what they are. The purple ones don't seem to be dark enough to be Concords, but they taste a lot like them. The green ones are aromatic and bursting with flavor. Ruth and I were going to can grape juice this weekend, but the rain and head colds took our motivation away. We made a date to get it done on Tuesday evening. Hopefully the racoons will be distracted by some other neighborhood treat and leave my grapes alone this year.

Maybe the grapes on the right side below are Concords?

Harvest Mooned

I did not spray the apples this year, so my trees were very successful in growing rotten apples. As you can see, the tree did its part, and was heavily laden this year. I don't remember now why I didn't spray them. I must have had a good reason. We did manage to find enough for Ruth to make an apple pie for my dad's 80th birthday. The deer are eating them as fast as they fall. They are noisy eaters! I wish there were viable options to spraying apples, but it seems to be fruitless. If you have information about other means, please share!

Pears

This picture tells it all. What does it tell you?

This one tells something too. I added some cognac to the syrup. I think I'm going to like that.

I did manage to get lots of green beans, three egg plants, twenty bell peppers, and oodles of mini carrots. I have aspirations for gardening, but no expertise.

Next year I am going to get dirtier.

I'm glad I don't earn my living by the way I garden. If so, we would be in dire straits!

Green Eggs and Ham?

2008-09-07T19:38:00.006-04:00

Hodgepodge

I am getting between three and five eggs per day! The Ameracaunas are definitely ahead of the curve as they are laying two eggs per day for the last three days! The green eggs are theirs. Floozey (Buttercup) is laying the white egg, a Cuckoo Maran is laying the darker brown one, and I don't have a clue who is laying the lighter brown ones! We have a growing list of regular customers who are waiting for me to start selling them for $2.00 per dozen. I am planning on putting an assortment in each carton. If someone wants a special order, I may have to jack up the price. (Gouge 'em real good!!!)

The Corncrib

This smaller building (Appx 15' x 25') is an old-fashioned corncrib. It has three storage areas. If you look closely at the front, you can see a set of double doors in the center and a door on either side. The double doors open wide and allow storage for larger things, like tractors, or other farm implements. The two side doors open into long rooms that are about 6' wide and run the length of the building. These side "rooms" have open ceilings and slatted sides to allow for good air flow to keep the corn dry throughout the year. These days, farmers who wish to keep corn year-round for feeding livestock generally keep dried corn in weather (and mouse) proof silos.

In the photo below, Ruth and I keep our firewood on this left side of the corncrib. It works really well for drying the wood and also keeping it dry. We have a little blue sled that we keep in there and during the winter months, we load it up and drag it across the snow into the garage. This works pretty well for us and this room can store all the wood we need for the winter! The wood stove has cut our heating bill so much that we had to pay a penalty for not using nearly enough propane. Hmmmm, something wrong with that picture...

The other side of the building is the tool room, where we store all of our yard tools.

This picture shows the room behind the double doors where I store my Farmall B tractor. This tractor deserves a post or three of its own! It was built in 1941 and I am the second owner. I found the sign nailed upside down on the floor of tool room.

I love my tractor.

Changing of the Guard

2008-09-01T19:05:00.003-04:00

Quail Update

As many of you may recall, I hatched some Coturnix Quail in my third grade classroom last March. After a week-long stay with my students, I took them home to the farm where they have been living contentedly and laying 9 eggs per day, almost without fail. Well, I was thinking about winter coming and making plans for survival. I came to the conclusion that I needed to do a little down-sizing. I put the 9 quail hens in a Freecycle ad and immediately received five or six responses. I contacted them to see what kind of situation they each had and I chose a family with five young children who live on a little farm in the next town over from us. This family came over and the children were all googly-eyed over these little feathered bundles. They each caught one and gently held it and placed it into the carrier. The little girls were already coming up with names; "mistletoe," "twinkie," and "featherball." The boys looked at me and said, "That ain't what we're namin' 'em." That made me laugh, because the boys had been talking up a storm and none of them talked like that!! (poor grammar, I mean).

I will do another "hatching" in my classroom again next spring, but this time I will hatch chicken chicks. Here is a link to the types of eggs Michigan State University offers at their Poultry Farm. They provided me with an incubator and the eggs hatched exactly on the day I requested! Any ideas as to what kinds I should get? Maybe Angelo (Farm Manager)would give me a mix! I'm leaning towards the Light Brahma breed right now.

I gathered the last batch of quail eggs and dedicated a little breakfast to them. I made a little omelet with cheddar cheese and some salsa. The heirloom tomato was still warm from the morning sun. Coffee with cream on the side!!

Out with the old and in with the new!

The hens started laying this past week and the eggs are mighty good!! The yolks have a strong orange color and are full of flavor. They are a little on the small size right now, but they'll get bigger as the hens mature. The brown one is from a Cuckoo Maran and the white one is from Floozie, the Buttercup. The quail eggs are on the left side!!!

School starts tomorrow

Oh yeah! I have a job. Tomorrow marks the beginning of my 10th year as an elementary teacher. I started a little late, and have been trying to catch up ever since! I have 26 students with names like Naomi, Max, Caleb, Cruz and Varun. It's always exciting to start fresh, but I'm starting to feel a little jittery!! What's up with that?!

A Hen in Wolf's Clothing

2008-08-26T21:03:00.003-04:00

Wolf Bears Fruit!

I introduced Wolf the pullet to you all yesterday and today I want to introduce you to Wolf the Hen! She layed an egg sometime today. Yea Wolf!

This is what I saw when I checked the nesting boxes this evening.

Later, Ruth put the egg into one of her Grandmother's Buttercup eggcups. Softboiled?

An hour later, I went out to lock the henhouse and turn off the lights and just couldn't resist another look into Wolf's nest. Egg number 2!! This one, however, didn't have a shell. This apparently is common for early eggs. Tomorrow I'll make sure the crushed oyster shell is readily available.
Amy, at Twelve Acres, has chickens the same age as mine. She got an egg yesterday! Way to go Amy!! (actually Amy's hen) ;)

"Egg" citement

2008-08-25T22:15:00.007-04:00

The Pullet who cried "Hey! What am I supposed to do in here!"

I have finally named this Cuckoo Maran pullet; her name is Wolf. (After the Aesop story about the boy who cried, "wolf.")

I walked around to the chicken yard and Khan was nowhere to be seen. Khan is the head rooster and is very protective of his girls. He stares down any hawk that floats by, he crows whenever an airplane goes over or when a motorcycle roars past, and he is always outside snooping around to make sure all is well in his world. I immediately worried that a hawk decided that a rooster would make a nice dinner.

I opened the door to the coop and went inside to see what was going on. That was when I spotted "Wolf" sitting in a nestbox, and about a dozen other pullets milling around looking at her. I took a step toward Wolf and was startled by a sudden movement to my right. Khan was also sitting in a nesting box, apparently keeping guard over his favorite girl, and he jumped out and flapped to the floor with a loud squawk. I was relieved that Khan still lived, but I was more interested in what I was hoping Wolf was up to in the nesting box. Her beak was open and she seemed to be laboring a little, so I decided to leave her alone and come back later to see what she was up to.

I had my suspicions, and it was really hard to go away!

I did some obscure chores to pass some time and then went back to the coop to see what had happened. I had my cell phone poised to call Ruth to bring the camera and went into the coop. The coop was completely empty, (except for the two little Japanese Bantams). Holding my breath, (Really!!), I peered into the nesting box which held Wolf. Nada, nil, nuttin', no egg, not even a feather! Of course, I checked every box and every corner, just in case she changed her mind and did the deed somewhere else. Nothing, no eggs.

I went to the window that looks out at the chicken run and spotted Wolf picking at some scratch I had tossed out a little earlier, oblivious to all the excitement she had caused. Also oblivious to the HUGE letdown she gave me!! She spotted me and came running over to the window to do her little song and dance for treats. (she really has one). Well, I had a grape tomato in my pocket and was tempted to toss it to Floozey, but I relented and dropped it secretly so only she could get it.

OK, I actually had a lot of fun with all of the expectations, but enough already!

GIVE ME OGGS!! (Amy of Twelve Acres seconded the motion set forth by Ruth on her blog to call them "OGGS.")

Here is Khan, the protector of all things pullet.

The OGG watch continues...

Happy Birthday Ruth!

2008-08-21T21:12:00.011-04:00

Ruth's Birthday is Friday, August 22

Classic third grade joke: How many birthdays does the average woman in America have?

Give up?

One. I know that's really bad, but I still like it.

I want to celebrate with you all the birthday of my sweetie, Ruth. I won't tell you how old she is, but she is younger than I.

Happy Birthday Ruth!

(Click on the above link to visit her blog and wish her a Happy Birthday!)

Freecycle

2008-08-15T19:13:00.005-04:00

Yahoo has created a unique way to give things away and also receive things free. Freecycle has been around for a while now and it has hundreds of local "groups." I belong to the Mid Michigan Freecycle Network and I have been able to give many things away and also acquire some good stuff, all for free!

Things I gave away:

Nice telescope
1950's portable kitchen table and 2 chairs
A lot of perennials
Older pots and pans
Reese hitch
3 Roosters (2 Cuckoo Marans and an Ameracauna)
Quail Eggs (I gave these to a nice lady who loved my chickens)
Laundry sink
2 Lazy Boy style chairs

Things I have received:

Ice cream maker
Wood stove for Ruth's studio
Nice telescope (same one I received! I wasn't using it)

I highly recommend this as a way to recycle your stuff that is collecting dust, and also as a way you can get some stuff you need/want.

You can post either a want ad or an offer ad. Everything is free. The people I have run across have all been "salt of the earth" kinds of people.

I encourage you to click on the link and take a look. You are able to check right away if there is a local group for you to join. You may need to open a Yahoo account (free). You can then go and look at the messages that have been posted and find out if someone has something you'd like, or maybe someone is looking for something you would like to get rid of.

I like the idea of this, and I support it!

Exotic Creatures in the Boonies

2008-08-03T18:04:00.010-04:00

Cover Story

Floozey really is the star! Actually I made this cover at a web site I heard about from Amy and from Paula. It's fun and challenging at the same time. Here is the link to create your own cover.

Thanks Paula and Amy!

Not Quite Normal

I wanted to give Ruth a lot of interesting "objects" for her photography, and I think I can safely say, "Mission Acomplished." I'm not sure if I have any "normal" chickens. By normal I mean chickens most people would be familiar with like Rhode Island Reds, Leghorns, etc. My breeds are Polish Cresteds, Ameraucanas, Araucanas, Buttercups, Cuckoo Marans, Buff Orpingtons, Black Minorcas, Cochins, Crevecouers and Japanese Bantams. (Did I forget anyone?)

White Japanese Bantams (5 weeks old)

These two are tied at the hip! If I catch one, it is like holding onto water while he (she) tries to get back together with the other one. If I catch them both simultaneously, they sit in my hand like little Webkinz. Someone told me that they are the ultimate "Lap Chicken." I can see that already as they are quite cozy when I have both of them.

It is hard to tell their size in these photos, but they can both easily sit in one of my hands. At the Ingham County Fair, I saw full grown Japanese Bantams and a lady had a rooster in her right hand and was allowing everyone to pet it. Apparently it likes that. She said when he sees her, he runs back and forth in his cage until she picks him up and pets him.

Sleepy Heads

While walking around in the yard pecking at everything, these two did something very interesting. As soon as they walked into full sunlight, they both immediately squatted and began to fall asleep. I am talking about a matter of seconds!

Dahlia (Silver Polish Hen)

Dahlia needed a haircut today, so I brought her out and Ruth snapped photos and then held her while I snipped away. It was fun to watch her go back into the pen and actually look around and see. This photo is the before. We forgot to take an after shot. Oh well, she has a mohawkish "do" now. I may show her at the fair next summer. (No haircuts after her moult)

Not your typical chicken

Found Objects

2008-07-28T11:24:00.008-04:00

Over the years we have acquired things that we have found. I'm sure you all have stuff that you have found. I would love to see yours! Or at least hear about them.

Hand Pump

I found this in the milkhouse of a former little farm we owned, and I just couldn't leave it behind. It was not hooked up to anything, it was just standing in a corner behind some old boards. I would love to get it working. Does anyone have a working hand pump? How difficult is it to get this thing operational. I know I can call the local well company and they would gladly drill a new well for several thousand dollars, but is there an easier (cheaper) way?

Log Jack

I found this simple, yet useful tool out in the meadow here at our farm. It was near a pile of wood someone had cut many years ago. Maybe it started raining, or the woodsman (woman) was called in for lunch and got distracted. Who knows, but I feel fortunate to have found it and use it whenever I cut logs with my chainsaw. It would make a great gift for that special woodcutter!

The Cutter

This old wind vane is an action figure. When the wind blows, he saws the log. It needs a little TLC, but it still works! I found this in an old corn crib underneath a fence at the same previous farm. The stick he is attached to is a hand-made handle from one of Ruth's father's rakes. I have the rake part hanging in the tool shed. Gwen could make these. (She probably already has!)

What's he looking at?

Wheelbarrow

This old wheelbarrow was next to the green barn underneath a tangle of blackberries, (it also had three old, metal wagon rims lying around it). Ruth has put it to good use with flowers.

Look at the way the wheelbarrow was assembled. It makes me think it was homemade. I think the tire needs some air or something.

Watering Trough

This was in the basement of the green barn. I used it as a brooder for the quail this spring and it did a great job. I would like to find a use for it. Anyone have any ideas? The bottom is not in great shape and has a large rusted hole in it. It is 2' x 4' and about 17" deep.

I have other found stuff: old doors, windows, wooden sled, etc.

What have you found that you treasure?

Chicken Update

2008-07-19T19:14:00.010-04:00

I asked Ruth to take photos today of all the different breeds of chickens we have around here.

All of the chickens, except for the three buff orpingtons were hatched around April 1, making them about 16 weeks old. Hens generally start laying between 20 and 26 weeks. They are healthy and happy, except for some pecking of the white crested polish hens, (they kind of look like friars with the ring of hair and the bald top). I need to do something for them. I don't have a good way to separate them, but I need to figure that out.

Anyway, here are photos of all the different breeds of hens I have right now.

Buff Orpingtons (3)
(about 6 weeks old) I call them "The Little Dudes." Do you see three?

Ameracauna hen (4)
(Aracaunas have no tail) Her name is Minky because of her coloring. Her tail feathers are blue in the sunlight.

Silver Polish and a Black Polish hens (4 and 2)
Hanging out in a barn door.

Cuckoo Maran Cockerel (3)

He and I are bonded.

Ameracauna Cockerel with a White Crested Polish Hen (4)

Stiggy

Black Sumatra Hen (1)

Bearded White Polish Hen (2)

Partridge Cochin Hen (4)

White Ameracauna

This is Jolie.

Buff Laced Polish Hen (1)

Honey is her name.

Buff Cochin Hen (2)

Crevecoeur Cockerel (1 roo 1 hen)

Very unusual crow.

Ameracauna

Green or blue egg layer.

Cuckoo Maran hen (2)
Chocolate brown egg layer.

Aracauna Cockerel

Nesting boxes are ready!

I leave you with Floozie. (2)

She is a Golden Pencilled Hamburg. Best buddy.

Tag I'm it!

2008-07-18T17:16:00.003-04:00

I’ve been tagged! Ali at Henbogle tagged me to share six random things about me, and then tag six others.

I actually enjoy reading what people say about themselves.

So Here are my six random things:

1. I was "Baby of the Week" on the Soupy Sales television show in the 1950's.

2. I like (no, love) to eat potato chips after 9:00 pm.

3. I went to seven different elementary schools as a child. Springfield Elementary, Pleasant View,(twice) Burbank, Edison, Marycrest, Plymouth and Huntley. Not a military brat, a Kmart brat. My dad built most of them in the midwest and we followed the stores.

4. We have lived at our farm longer than any home since we married, (5 years). We've been married for thirty years! (I think this is our 13th place)

5. I don't like clothes. Ruth and I will go clothes shopping for me and I will hold something up and ask, "Do I like this?" She inevitably shakes her head.

6. I graduated with honors from Michigan State University. However, the first time I went to college, which was right out of high school, (Univ Wis at Oshkosh), I had a 1.26 GPA after two semesters. I LOVED TO STUDY!

I’m tagging:

chickengirl at chickengirl This is a creative and energetic young lady who has a great outlook on life. She also has lots of great stories. She raises White Silkies.

Stiggy at One Man and His Chickens Stiggy is transforming his property and himself and allows us an inside view of his life in England.

Tammie at The Unusually Unusal Farmchick Tammie is a young Hippie. She is a Homesteader and is having a great life. She lets us in on all the ups and downs of life on her farm. Lots of creative and ingenious ways to make things and have fun.

Sandy at Through a Dusty Lens Sandy is a California girl with lots of artistic ability and good insight into the world around her.

Paula at The Fraker Farm Paula has a great life and is so good at sharing her stories with us on her blog. She has hens that you won't believe!

Loring from Icono-Curmudgeon-Clast - Loring Wirbel's Rants Loring is one of the most knowledgeable people on the internet. If you read his blog, you will become smarter and better informed. He also has a great sense of humor and a lot of wit.

I could pick on many more of you. If you feel left out, believe me, you will get tagged very soon. My apologies if any of you have already been tagged for this meme.

Tag Rules:
Link to the person who tagged you.
Post the rules on the blog.
Write six random things about yourself.
Tag six people at the end of your post.
Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Random

2008-07-17T21:39:00.004-04:00

I was inspired to be random by Sharon. It's her fault.

1. What's your favorite pizza? Everything Pizza at Pizza Hut
2. If you were a car, what would you be and why? " 64 Chevy Belair. It's the year I started to wake up.
3. If you were an animal, what would you be and why? Great Horned Owl. I like to see without being seen.
4. Tell something about the shoes you're wearing. My barn shoes. 10 year old Nikes with the soles worn off.
5. When you were little, who was your favorite super hero and why? Spiderman, he was not huge, but could get the job done.
6. If they made a movie of your life, who would you want to play you? Johnny Depp, but let's be real, probably more like Ernest Borgnine.
7. If you were at Baskin Robbins what flavor ice cream would you order? Butter Pecan
8. What’s your favorite cartoon and why? The classic Bugs Bunny Cartoons. (Rabbit of Seville)
9. What’s your favorite thing to do in the summer? Be free to do whatever I want
10. What is one item in your house that you should really throw out but probably never will? The shorts I am wearing.
11. How many brothers and sisters do you have? 2 brothers, 3 sisters.
12. If you could visit any place in the world where would you go and why? Istanbul, I want to go back.
13. What’s one job you might like when you grow up? artist
14. What would be challenging about being an artist for you? I have no artistic ability, none, zip, nil
15. Who is your favorite teacher and why? Miss Fruit, 1st grade. my first love

Genetic Mapping

2008-07-13T11:31:00.005-04:00

Farm Roots
Ruth often says that I was a farmer's wife in a previous life. That may be true. I enjoy living on this farm, planting things and watching them grow, raising chicks, gathering eggs, picking fruit, making jams and jellies, canning stuff, chasing raccoons and groundhogs off my land and other things I can't think of right now. I watched my dad do all of the above as I was growing up. He grew up with many uncles (11 of them on his father's side and 7 of them on his mother's side) who were farmers. So, along with being a farmer's wife in a former life, I also was the son of a farmer wannabe. My dad spent his professional career building malls and shopping centers, but I think he longed for the serenity and the lifestyle of the family farm. He spent many free weekends as an adult at the farms of his relatives and would often spend his summers as a teen living with one of his uncles as a farmhand. This innate love of the soil, barns, tractors and chickens has been passed on to me, his fourth child, (of 6). I don't think any of my siblings have this bent.

Lesley and I scratched out a mini garden and planted several rows of carrots and radishes, (seeds) and also some green beans, eggplant and bell peppers. The radishes are going crazy! I didn't thin them, and I'm sure that will impact their size, but the ones in the picture below didn't seem to have any problems. Ruth and I aren't sure that we even like radishes!

Berrylicious
Once again, Mother Nature has given us a nice crop of black raspberries. I have been able to make 8 pints of freezer jam and will probably be able to make another 8 if I so choose. I prefer the freezer jam, because I think it tastes fresh. (it's also way easier!) Last night we had guests and Ruth served Maxi (German exchange student, visiting Ruth's great friend Inge), and herself a bowl of ice cream with some of these berries sprinkled on top. The rest of us were stuffed from all the food Ruth made.

Don't you just want to grab a handful!?

Winter Doldrums

Two of the pints of freshly made Black Raspberry jam, getting ready to hibernate until the depths of winter when we need a reminder of the sweet days of hot, humid July.

Uh Oh, Amiga becomes Amigo!

This is one of the "Tres Amigas" I bought to make sure I have "Easter Eggers" in my flock. Well, in the last week, Stiggy's little sister began looking a little brotherish. (S)He hasn't crowed in my presence yet, but I am fairly certain that she is a he! I love the white tail feather that is sprouting. What do you think? Amy, is this a boy or what?

Green is as Green does

Thank you to all who participated in the previous post on Being Green. I plan to do a follow-up after I apply some of the things you have taught me and aslo after I find other ways I can do a better job. Please add more!

New Farm Friends

2008-07-06T21:09:00.003-04:00

White Japanese Bantams

I cannot resist chicks. These two are especially irresistible. I received them from the gracious folks at the local zoo and I am hoping to merge them with the gang already inhabiting the coop. I understand that sometimes chickens aren't too understanding when it comes to newbies, but I'll try to teach the older ones some good manners. They are about a week old in this photo, and are still petite. I am hoping that I have a rooster and a hen.

Susan, (the zoo poultry manager), told me she will make sure I get a pair, so we'll see if I need to expand my new bantam flock in the near future.

A Brighter Planet http://350.brighterplanet.com/

I was scrounging around the internet and saw this web site and wonder if anyone has information or experiences you can share about this group. I am in the Green Revolution in my mind and in the beginning stages at our farm and would like to know how to best get moving.

What do you do to to deal with your "carbon footprint?"
What do you do to be green?

We do the following:

recycle paper, glass, tin
raise meat chickens
raise egg chickens
have a small herb garden
raise vegetables; tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, radishes, pumpkins, zucchini, green beans, eggplant, (mostly enough for summer consumption)
carpool to work in the fall (Ruth gets 38 MPG, I get 20) OK, it's my farm truck!
Home AC only when it is unbearable, and then the thermostat is at 76 F
Whole house attic fan at night to instantly cool home to outside temperature and create breezes
Slowed down our driving at least 5 mph
can jellies, jams and syrups last year I did 120 jars total (all have been given away or consumed).
burn wood in high efficiency wood stove every night during cold weather
have a 90 percent efficient gas furnace
well insulated home with new windows

OK, I hope we do more than this.

I want to hear what you do.

I want to be better at this!

Nesting

2008-06-29T17:18:00.006-04:00

ZOO News

Our city zoo is awesome. I have been involved with the Potter Park Zoo for several years now and love how they reach out to children and give them a deep love for wildlife. I recently received an email from one of the docents there and she wants to give me some chicks! I have too many already, but who can resist? They are giving me three Buff Orpington pullets and a matched pair of White Japanese Bantams. Ooooh baby! Of course, you will stay tuned for Ruth's pictures when they arrive? The Orps are four weeks old and the Bantams hatched June 28.

Nest Boxes

The green barn in which these nestboxes reside is over 100 years old. I am not sure how old they are, but they have been here for a long time. I have been tossing ideas around in my head and am coming to a conclusion. I have been studying nestboxes and looking at many different kinds, including Amy's at Twelve Acres. I love hers and if I didn't have these, I would copy hers. However, since I have these in place, and there are about 25 individual nests, I am going to make do with what is here. Besides, I love them. Should I paint them? (whitewash ala Tom Sawyer?)

Hen Pecked

As you can tell by looking at them, the hen would be pretty much out of sight, and who wants to stick a hand into these dark, mysterious nests to gather eggs every day and meet some very crabby broody hen!? Check out the video Farmchick Paula has of one of her broody hens.

Open Sesame!
My plan is to remove the top half of the face boards so that the hens will have privacy, but they can still be seen from the front. So, if I get hen-pecked, I'll at least see it coming!

Chickens and Roosts (An original Aesop's Fable)

The Bee and Jupiter

A bee from Mount Hymettus, the queen of the hive, ascended to Olympus to present Jupiter some honey fresh from her combs. Jupiter, delighted with the offering of honey, promised to give whatever she should ask. She therefore besought him, saying,"Give me, I pray thee, a sting, that if any mortal shall approach to take my honey, I may kill him." Jupiter was much displeased, for he loved the race of man, but could not refuse the request because of his promise. He thus answered the Bee: "You shall have your request, but it will be at the peril of your own life. For if you use your sting, it shall remain in the wound you make, and then you will die from the loss of it."

Moral: Evil wishes, like chickens, come home to roost.

Tribute to Stiggy

That heading sounds like he kicked the bucket, but no, he is alive and well. I named Stiggy after an Englishman who has a great flock of his own as well as a great flock of well-loved children. Stiggy is a Buttercup rooster and is still the top roo. He has some future competition in the form of a Cuckoo Maran, who is twice his size, but is at the moment quite docile.

Stiggy was strutting around yesterday, picking up sticks and rocks and clucking up a storm. This must be a tough guy thing to do, because another smaller rooster started doing it too and Stiggy proceeded to chase that rooster all over the run. This went on for a few minutes! They were both running, open-beaked, and obviously getting tired! I wish I had it on video. Finally the pursued rooster ran into the coop with Stiggy hard on his tail. I expected to hear lots of squawking and noise, but it remained quiet. After about ten seconds they both came out the little door and acted as if nothing happened. They bellied up to the outdoor waterer, (chicken bar), got carded and bought each other a drink, and then went off to scratch around in the grass.

Life is Great

Summertime is Here!

2008-06-21T20:55:00.013-04:00

Cutting With Some Teeth!

I bought a new chain for my chainsaw and wow! what a difference. My 18" Poulan zips right through this fallen maple. I cut and Ruth loaded the chunks into the truck. Later, we tossed the wood into the corn crib where we will stack it and let it dry all summer. We'll be toasty around the wood stove this winter. But I do miss my bee tree. The bees have flown the coop!

(P.S. Several of my good friends have commented on my lack of safety gear and they are absolutely correct to point that out! I have the gear, but I am sometimes lazy and don't wear it. Thank you for showing your concern!)

Beaver Teeth Leave Their Mark

My dad found this log floating in his lake and knew I would want it for my classroom. I like this a lot! Notice how the beaver scraped long lines in the wood. The sides of the log are full of little tooth marks where the beaver stripped the bark off for dinner.

Olive Tomatoes!

I didn't even know they were this far along until Ruth showed me this photo. I'm ready for some garden fresh tomatoes.

Jungle Gym
Our ancient apple tree blew over this past winter and I cut this chunk off to put in with the chickens.

When I put it in the enclosure, they all beat it into the coop. One by one they came out and with a little scratch for motivation, they began to feel more comfortable. Now they are climbing around like little chicken monkeys.

Here are a couple of the girls pretending to be princesses and lording it over everyone else. Nobody paid any attention to them, except Ruth.

Bad Hen is showing everyone how brave and tough she is. She got to the top and slid down like a little moon walk and then promptly fell off. She made an odd sound and left in a huff. Cackles all around!
Pilates anyone?
Floozey and Honey aren't too sure of the new contraption. They think somebody is going to get hurt.

Somebody getting ready to get hurt.

"Nobody will play with me!" Kuifje just figured out how to get up on it and everyone went in.

Chicken Quiz

2008-06-15T17:48:00.007-04:00

Help! I don't know what these are!
This is my free rare rooster from McMurray Hatchery. I thought he was a Golden Penciled Hamburg, but now I think he may be an Aracauna or a Buttercup. What do you think? He is a good crower and is the dominant rooster for now. I think one of the Cuckoo Maran roosters is going to take over. I'm open for names for these two chickens! Maybe I'll send you a prize.

Aracauna too?
I thought she was a Splash Andalusian, but now I think she is an Araucana. I'm definitely OK with that as she'll lay the pretty green or blue eggs. Her name is Daryl, (named for the movie Splash, but now she may need a name change!)

Wild Bees are down, but not out!

We had a powerful wind last week that tore our bee tree in half, exposing the poor hive to the elements. I don't know what I'm going to do yet, I sent an email to Professor Huang at Michigan State University who deals with bees to see if he has any ideas. Do you have any ideas? I should be like The Unusually Unusual Farmchick and try to capture the bees and start making my own mead.

Firewood

I need to sharpen my chain saw for this!

Honeycomb

There's probably a lot of honey in there! Don't you want to just reach in there and scoop some of that honeycomb out?! Me neither!! (Well, I sort of do...)

With the plight of honeybees right now, I feel like this hive can teach us something. They have survived for at least five years, all by themselves. No help from farmer Don! Maybe Professor Huang will be able to give me some ideas before something gets into the cavity and cleans house, I mean hive!

Green Barn Happenings

2008-06-07T22:58:00.013-04:00

Quick Chick Update

If you look closely, you'll be able to make out the white fence posts that show where the electric poultry mesh runs to create an enclosure for the chickens. This has worked very well as it has repelled Bishop and other predators. It has been interesting to watch the chickens respond to wildlife. A wild turkey walked up to the fence and all the chickens ran inside. Floozy kept a lookout at the door and when the turkey drifted into the woods, she came out and resumed scrounging. A rooster pheasant has been hanging around the perimeter of the fence. I think he's in love.

Ameraucana

I think she can kick my &#%. Look at those feathers!

Dahlia

I'm sorry, but I just can't get enough of this. Look at the white outlines of her crest feathers.

Group hug

Only one of these has a name. Lesley (my daughter) asked if she could change this Daryl to Jolie, which is French for beautiful. This hen is the whitest white imaginable.

Bat house

The Brownies Troop at my school gave me this bat house. I hung it on our corncrib and it has 4 or 5 bats sleeping in it during the day. There is also a colony of bats sleeping inside the barn at the peak. Sometimes Peter and I stand in there and look for them. We usually can spot some of them as they move around. I love the idea of bats living at our farm. We watch them zipping and diving and know that they are eating hundreds of mosquitoes each night. We have a small woodland pond and it was full of mosquito larvae. Now they have become mature young ladies, hungry for blood so they can create the next generation of mini vampires. (Can you see the little bat insignia on the bathouse?)

Guano

I'm not sure if you call bat poo "guano." But I like the way it sounds, so on the green barn farm, we have bat guano. It burns!

Real Crab Apples

I make tasty jelly with the apples from this tree. It turns out to be the prettiest pink color. This looks like a bumper crop!

Black Raspberries

I love making jam with these berries. I assume the bug Ruth captured is some sort of beetle. I usually get most of the bugs out when I make jam. ;)

Sunflowers

These Sunflowers survived the frost and are doing well! They are children of last year's sunflowers. Grow tall and straight! I just found more sunflowers growing in the gravel of the driveway. I'm letting them grow!

Frost Warning

Almost all the plants I covered died from the frost. These tomatoes weren't covered, but survived. All the brighter green leaves are post-frost growth. I think I have 7 tomato plants growing!

Puny Garden

I wanted to put in a garden this year, but haven't had a lot of time. So, I scratched out a four foot by fifteen foot patch, added some good humus and sphagum moss and stirred it up. I planted 8 green bean plants and six died from Mr. Frost. I resorted to planting green bean seeds directly into the soil and they are just now popping up. I also have three surviving peppers, and two eggplants. Lesley and I scratched out some long rows and planted carrot seeds and radishes. Here are the radishes. You can see some carrots mixed in with the radishes. OOPS! Oh well, hopefully this will give the kids something fun and edible to pick during Farm Day in August.

Hen and Chicks

These are my first successful brooding hens! I have these growing in an old bullet-ridden tub. I also plant Zinnias in the tub and they are a blast of color. Unfortunately I like the spot at the bottom of the deck steps for this tub and it is in the line of fire for when we play four square and basketball. It becomes very entertaining when someone dives and sacrifices his/her body to save my Zinnias.

The Graduates

2008-05-31T20:55:00.003-04:00

The Class of 2008

My first class of fourth graders in 1999-2000

In the fall of 1991, I started my third or fourth and final career (?) by going back to Michigan State University as a non-traditional student at the age of 36. I, at long last, went back to what I started in 1973 at the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh: becoming a teacher. I had the good fortune to do my student teaching in 1998-99 at a wonderful school which actually hired me for the following year. Another good fortune that year was getting the incredible group of students pictured above. We had a little too much fun that year!

The boy standing directly in front of me was the class leader. He still is a great leader. When he was in my class he injured his ear and had stitches. This required a large, globby, white bandage to be placed on his ear, and by the end of the week half of the boys had some sort of bandage on their ears!

Now I am going to their graduation parties. Seeing young faces turning into adults. Remembering names, moms, dads, siblings, stories. What fun! What a nice re-connection. I feel refreshed this evening. Filled up by the past which has come to the present.

At the second graduation party, Megan, the graduate, mentioned that one of my present students lives directly behind her and that he wants to come to the party when I arrive. He came and the three of us stood together talking about school and comparing 1999 to 2008. Oh the things we remember! Megan remembered that she told me on the first day that she hated math and that I told her it would be her favorite subject by the end of the year. She is attending the University of Michigan this fall and will major in engineering. I think it's in her genes, as her two brothers are both at U of M, one becoming a medical doctor and the other getting a PhD in mechanical engineering.

What a nice look back today was.

First Day in the Chicken Run

2008-05-25T07:43:00.006-04:00

Fat Boys Move-In Day

No, Peter and Lesley are not the "Fat Boys!" I have 26 three week old "broilers" and today we created a place in the coop for them to stretch their legs. Lesley and Peter are working on installing a new post and fence to keep the fatties separate from the hens. The hens are quite taken with these chubby dudes.

Round Up Time

Lesley and Peter helped with the setup of the portable electric poultry mesh. It is designed to generally keep the chickens in, but more importantly to keep most predators out. I'll let you know how it goes.

Freedom!

At first the chickens wanted no part of going outside. We literally had to capture each one and carry it outside. They huddled together for a while and then started acting like chickens in tall grass. As we were putting them back in the coop, several escaped through the mesh and had to be tracked down. I wish I had some pics of Ruth chasing Floozey into the woods with Bishop the Barn Cat chasing Ruth!

Peter, Chick Magnet

Lesley and Honey

Lesley and Peter gave Honey a haircut today as she literally could not see due to the length of her "hair."

She Crowed

Aha! As I walked into the coop this morning, this one crowed, revealing her true identity! How do I decide which roosters to keep? I don't think I can put Cuckoo Marans into the soup pot. Does anyone want a couple of Cuckoo Roosters?

Gotta Dig the 'Do'

Meet Dahlia.

Summer is on the Horizon!

2008-05-18T11:22:00.003-04:00

HUKILAU
We have the privilege of sharing a cottage with our extended family. It is called Hukilau after a name the previous owners found in Hawaii. I know summer is just around the corner when we have our spring workday. This year we had a great turnout and worked, played and most importantly, got re-connected with each other after a long, cold winter.

Phlox Rocks!
Each year we chip away at doing things to improve the place. Wilma is a great flower child, she sticks these little surprises around.

Lydia, the Dutch Cleanser
Even the walls get some TLC! The cottage was built sometime in the 1920's.

Quail Keep Producing
I am getting five or six per day on average. Sometimes I get nine! Sometimes I get three.:(
Ruth successfully bartered some quail eggs for Jerusalem Artichokes, which were very nice in our salad, (along with some very cute and tasty boiled quail eggs). I like having something with which to barter. What will you trade for these?

Growing Up

Buff Cochin
Here is a photo update on three of my chicks. This one is a Buff Cochin, whose origins go back to China. She is one of two Buff Cochins in the flock.

Cuckoo Maran
This is one of the three boys. I understand that the boys are lighter in color, so I assume this is the lighter version as there are three much blacker birds. The hens will lay chocolate brown eggs!

Splash Andalusian
I am 85% sure that this is a Splash Andalusian. I can't find any other light colored chicken with greenish blue feet. The other one is almost pure white, with no other colors. What do you think?

On Deck (Baseball term for the next hitter, for non-Americans)
My next project is the vegetable garden. I have plans for the usual suspects: green beans, zucchini, tomatoes, yellow, red, green and chocolate bell peppers, cinderella pumpkins, regular pumpkins, white pumpkins, various gourds, carrots, and other as of yet unknown edibles. If you have suggestions, I will plant them and think about you, my friends, as they grow!

For the Birds

2008-05-10T14:05:00.006-04:00

"'Mr. M' will know what to do with it!"

I teach at an elementary school, and last week some students burst into my room during recess with a big dilemma; they had rescued a blue egg from a dangerous predator, a first grader. They then proceeded to let me know that everyone on the playground had decided that I would know what to do. Hmmm. If you recall, I have a photo of a robin's nest with four blue eggs in it and told them that I would take the egg home and place it in the nest with the four other blue eggs. I assured them that if the egg hatches, the robin will treat the chick as if it were her own. Hopefully, the baby will like worms!

I realized when I went to put the egg into the nest that it was both larger and a different shade of blue than the robin eggs. I put it in anyway. I then googled for other birds that lay blue eggs, and the only possibility I could find is a starling. Are there other birds that may lay an egg like this?

Friday, I checked on the nest and the four robins had hatched and Ruth snapped this picture. You can see the egg I put in there peaking out from under the babies. I'll keep checking!

Bishop meets chick

My dad has chickens in his blood. He has countless stories from his childhood about chickens. He also introduced us to chickens back in the early 1960's. When he found out I was getting layers, he suggested that I get some fryers and he would butcher them out with me. Well, after the layers were out of the brooder, I went to the farm store and bought 26 Vantress X Arbor (AA70) Cross chicks. These are supposed to be ready in 6-8 weeks.

I think Bishop would like to have a play date with this youngster! She was quite calm and gentle. I don't know if that attitude would last if left to their own devices!

Samuel Beckett Reincarnated?

Deceased Irish writer spotted being pensive in the Green Barn. (White Crested Polish)

Chapel Opens in Basement of Cathedral

2008-05-04T19:08:00.005-04:00

The 34 chicks made their big move today from the brooder to the 15' x 26' coop. I want to sit in there and watch them run around. They have been confined to a 5' x 5' brooder and now they can flex their wings and legs a little.

A white crested, black Polish and Floozy the Golden Pencil Hamburg, getting a sneak preview of their new digs.

The straw man cometh.

Ruth thinks, (and I agree) that the stone wall in the background looks like something from Europe. I'm OK with that.

The chicks are in this thing together. Most of them have been spending their time in a herd exploring the new environment. Some of them break away and run like a spaz and then come running back to the group.

They look (and are) so tiny! I built the roosts today, using an old and very long sawhorse. You can see it on the left side. I'm planning on doing something different with the old nest boxes. I like how they look, but I don't relish the thought of reaching a hand into those boxes and being greeted by an ornery hen!

I found two quail eggs Saturday, and two more today! Five weeks and three days after hatching, the quail are laying.

Busy

2008-04-27T16:23:00.011-04:00

Chicks Update

They're starting to look like chickens.

OK, I know I am obsessed, but I'm giving an update anyway. Here are some photos taken at three weeks and one day old.

White Polish Crested Chick.

She is so calm. She'll just sit in my hand, or wherever. She is having trouble eating out of the little red feeders I have. Her head and "hair" won't fit into the holes! She looks a little yellowish. Is there a yellow or golden Polish? I'm getting a Big Girl Feeder tomorrow.

Gold Pencil Hamburg and a Silver Polish Crested (I think)

I haven't named any of the chicks yet, (except for the two Splash Andalusians, whom we named "Daryl, and her sister Daryl." (from the movie "Splash")

White Crested Black Polish and the Silver Polish

That is some head of hair!

Ameraucana

She is a very pale taupe color, and gets along with everybody. (Hmm, that sounds like a comment on a report card)

Cuckoo Maran

This one is the top of the pecking order right now. She doesn't go around and beat up anyone, but she stands up to all those who try to dominate her. I think she is a hen, due to her dark coloring.

Kid Friendly Place

I grew up with an Uncle Sam who owned a farm up near Loomis, MI. My parents would drop me off for weeks at a time in the summer and I would do everything from ride the calves to pick blueberries for breakfast. It seems like farms lend themselves to childhood joy!

Eli (my nephew's son), returned to the farm this weekend and couldn't get enough of the quail. He carried this one around for quite a long time. It crowed the whole time too! These quail are so gentle and don't seem to mind being lugged around. Eli was very careful.

Aden and Lydia weren't as sure as Eli, but after watching him hold the bird and not die, they decided they could try petting it.

More Quail

Here is grandpa quail with a little cutie (the bird).

Spring

I love spring and all the life that comes around with it. Look at Eli in the background. Who needs a jungle gym when you have a good stump?

Balancing Ballerina

Lydia showing her brothers what all of her training and experience are for.

Fallen Apple

Nice spot to get away from it all.

Guitar Hero

My son, Peter, playing his guitar in Ruth's studio. Today the band Meridian, had a photo shoot at the farm for their new CD release. They spent a lot of time in ten different locations around the farm shooting hundreds of pics. Ruth stole this shot of Peter through a window.

Meridian at the Green Barn

Peter's Band

Coop Update

Here I am contemplating the final pieces of the floor/ceiling. I decided to use as much salvaged lumber as I could and then fill in with new. In a few years it'll all look like it's been around. I should be able to put the chicks in the coop next weekend. It was too cold this weekend and I am not quite ready.

My Cathedral

Spring

Now THAT is robin's egg blue.