Month: June 2014

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What Summer Looks-Tastes Like

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This is what summer looks and tastes like at A Man and His Hoe®. The cherries are ripening early this year. Often, the birds finish off the cherries before we get a chance to enjoy them. This year, the birds are leaving them alone. Hurrah!

The raspberries are inside the hoop house, safe from the birds. They are most delicious picked in the afternoon when they are warm. Only a few make it into the house to be served.

It’s wonderful being able to eat these fruits directly off the vines and the trees. With most people living in dense urban settings, it’s a privilege to be able to walk out the door and enjoy them without having to go to a store to get them.

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Summer Musings

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Every evening, many of the chickens end the day grazing on the grass next to the chicken yard. This time of year when the sun sets after 9 p.m. and dusk lingers until past 10 p.m., the chickens take their time getting to bed, especially the younger ones.

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Morning colors this time of year are so soft yet brilliant. Getting up early is the thing to do this time of year.

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The two hens sharing the two chicks continue their shared co-parenting. At times, each one takes one of the chicks for some “quality time”. At other times they are side by side. It’s interesting observing them. Will this unusual child rearing make a difference for the chicks? Probably not, but time will tell.

See also:

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More on the Interracial Lesbian Moms

The black and white hens which are raising the two chicks seem to be OK with the situation. The two chicks go back and forth between the two mothers. The two mothers haven’t gotten into any big fights. Sometimes if two mother hens get too close, they can get quite testy with each other. Mother hens can be fierce protectors of their chicks. I once had to rescue a chick which got trapped and the mother hen, thinking I was after the chick, attacked me ferociously. She came flying with her claws in front of her. I managed to rescue the chick without getting beaten to death by its mother, but barely.

In the pictures below, you can see one of the chicks go from the black mother to the white one. So far, they haven’t ventured too far from their sleeping spot. They’ve taken the chicks to a sequoia tree close to the chicken yard. It will be interesting to see what happens when they start taking the chicks a long ways from the chicken yard.

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Since the two hens bed down side by side at night, they must be used to each other. Chickens mellow out in the evening. Roosters who fight each other during the day, will often roost next to each other at night. It’s as if all is forgiven once the sun goes down.

See also Interracial Lesbian Mothers and Two Mother Hens.

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The Return of Sweet Annie

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While weeding the garlic patch with BB, who was along for moral support, I spotted Sweet Annie (Artemisia annua) coming up between the garlic stems. If you are going to encourage any weeds, this is a weed to welcome. It will grow tall, six feet or more so be forewarned. The great thing about Sweet Annie is that the intricate leaves are as fragrant as the tiny flowers which appear toward the end of summer.

Let it go to seed in the fall, and next year, you will be guaranteed to have beds of tiny Sweet Annie seedlings. This is not an issue. It’s a delicate plant and you can easily weed it. The great thing is that while you are weeding the extra seedlings, you will be bathed in the most wonderfully scent imaginable. Just brushing against the plant will fill the air with sweet perfume.

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Saria Stevens who co-founded Chuckanut Transition in 2009, first introduced me to Sweet Annie. That was three years ago. Every year I look forward to spotting the first seedlings in my vegetable beds.

In late summer, early fall, I cut whole branches of the lacy leaves and hang them inside. Their fragrance lasts for months. It’s perfect to hang a dried branch in a closet.

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The Importance of Digging

Niji-hime 虹姫 is showing her chicks the importance of digging. Her seven chicks watch her every move. They dart in and out between her leggs, snatching any worms or bugs she digs out of the ground. Chicks are born knowing how to scratch. They’ll do it even if they don’t have a mother to show them. But with a mother showing them and protecting them, they are much calmer and more confident.

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Kneading Bread Dough? Use a Bowl

I’ve been baking bread for half a century. One of my household chores as a small child was helping my mother bake bread. Even though I make bread without kneading, at times I just need to get my hands on a lump of dough and spend a good ten minutes kneading it. It is a very satisfying experience.

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Growing up we kneaded bread on a board sprinkled with flour. I’ve found that what works much better is kneading bread in a bowl. The dough doesn’t stick to the bowl like it does to a wood board, so you don’t need to use any extra flour. In a bowl, the dough stays in one place, and a bowl is much easier to clean than a large wooden board.

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Solstice Evening Near the Center of the Universe

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It’s the summer solstice. The two mother hens aren’t staying up to watch the sun set on this longest day of the year. They have gone to bed early. I wonder where the two chicks they share are sleeping. During the night do the chicks sneak from one mother to the other?

On this longest day, the dogwood is in full bloom.

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From the top of the roof, I watch the last of the sun rays climb to the top of the trees and disappear. There is still the heat of summer to come, but we all feel a little sadness as the days start to shorten.

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This far north, the solstice must be celebrated. In Seattle, in Fremont, the center of the universe, the Solstice Festivities are in full swing. From their website about the parade:

The Fremont Solstice Parade welcomes the Solstice Cyclists to ride in our parade. Please be advised that riders will not be wearing clothes and full nudity is to be expected. All cyclists are required to be painted and costumed for the ride. Most are. The Parade is not a nudist event, it is an Art event that recognizes the human body as a canvas and the joy of riding as a part of our community’s creative expression.

The Fremont Solstice Parade is a special event that makes Seattle special. If you’ve never been, mark next year’s calendar for the summer solstice and plan a trip to Seattle. And if you don’t believe Fremont is the center of the universe, there is a guidepost in Fremont, marking the exact spot. The Metropolitan King County Council officially proclaimed Fremont as the Center of the Universe on July 25, 1994.

Now, therefore, be it proclaimed by the Council of King County;
The Artistic Republic of Fremont is hereby declared, decreed, and determined to be an Independent ImagiNation and a Mecca for those of independent minds and spirits, and is forever and fervently empowered with all the rights and privileges thereto accruing. Further, the Metropolitan King County Council plainly postulates and proclaims Fremont to be Center of the Universe, indeed, and hereby supports Fremont in its gallant endeavors to apply to the United Nations for sovereign status under international law.

A Man and His Hoe is about an hour and a half away from The Center of the Universe, but when you consider how many trillions of light years across the universe is, being just an hour and a half away from the center is like practically being right there.

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Interracial Lesbian Mothers

What is happening with the two mother hens sharing a brood? They are still getting along. At night, they sleep side by side in the doghouse where they hatched their two chicks. It’s impossible to know where the chicks are sleeping. Are they under one hen? Is there a chick under each hen?

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We’re calling them the interracial lesbian mothers. The chicks move freely between the two hens. The two hens aren’t exactly close. During the day they keep a few feet from each other, and it’s clear that each would rather have the chicks all to herself.

In the four years I’ve been watching hens hatch and raise chicks, there have been a number of unusual situations: hens which have given up incubating midway and replaced by hens which finish the job, hens switching clutches, and hens taking care of another hen’s chicks when the chicks were orphaned.

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Solstice Eve

It’s the eve of the summer solstice. I’m not ready for the days to start getting shorter. The summer solstice comes too early. Days should keep getting longer until mid or late August. Many Iris are in bloom, and the apples are growing past their baby stage.

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Driving home from picking up a truckload of supplies, two ducks forced me to stop. They were in no rush to cross the road. Such is life around here. This is no place to live if you are in a hurry.

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Fields for Someone

Bicycling home after delivering eggs, garlic scapes, and greens to Tweets Café this afternoon, I had to stop and enjoy the roadside grasses and flowers. All the grass seeds and flowers are meals for many. The blackberries are in full bloom everywhere. Their white flowers provide meals for thousands of bees and insects. When the berries ripen in a few months, they will provide meals for countless birds and people who stop to pick them.

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Roadside grasses and plants provide needed habitat for so many creatures. Which is why it’s important that they not be sprayed with pesticides and herbicides.