every chick deservers a mother
Love is not human, love is universal. I spend many hours a day with other animals, and their lives are as dependent on love as ours. Baby chicks are bathed in love from the moment they are hatched until their mother decides they are old enough to be on their own. Without such constant love, they would have gone extinct eons ago.
Our cats, Woody and Rusty, are best friends, and often spend cozy afternoons snuggling together. Loving and being loved is as important to them as it is to us.
It’s another fiery autumn day. A perfect day to put some eggs under MiAsa 美朝, a feisty hen who has been sitting on some wooden eggs for a few days. I’ve written 9s on the eggs as they should hatch November 9 if all goes well. And in case any other hens lay eggs on her nest while MiAsa is incubating, I will be able to tell which ones they are, so I can remove them.
Here she is. When she fluffs her neck feathers, she looks like a lion. In the clip below, watch how she pecks at my hand when I place eggs underneath her, and see how she shifts the eggs into position underneath her.
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On the way out of the chicken yard, I laugh at a clever hen who has discovered that the biggest pile of feed is inside the feeder.
This is why Washington is called the Evergreen state. Green and blue are the predominate colors here. “Shades of Green” would make a fitting title for a novel which takes place here.
Though this time of year, especially when there is a setting sun, gold fills the forest. Nature goes crazy with its paint brushes this time of year. In dying, the leaves remind us that they are spun out of spring and summer sunlight. Many of these beautiful, golden leaves, will end up in the vegetable fields and become the vegetables we enjoy. The leaves will also feed a host of bugs and worms the chickens crave.
Eggs don’t always come as ovals. Sometimes they can be quite pointed. The most interesting ones stay here. That’s the privilege of having your own eggs. The “boring” ones go off to market. Though, none of the chickens at a man and his hoe® lay boring eggs.
I don’t need to travel all the way to Nanzen-ji to view a beautiful garden. I found an exquisite moss garden much closer to home. The moss is soft and plump from the cool autumn rains. This time of year, the Skagit River Valley turns into mossland.
And where was this exquisite moss garden? I discovered it alongside the road on the way home from the post office. Maybe there are beautiful gardens alongside the roads you travel. Sometimes, all it takes is for you to stop to see them.
It’s summer again … for one fantastic day. Resting and sleeping in the warm sunshine is pure bliss for my chickens.
Often, the only view you have of a chicken is their butt. Much of the day, they have their head buried in thick grass, hunting for bugs, mice, frogs, and other good things to eat.
The dogs are having fun too. They are after a chipmunk hiding in a woodpile. BB and Echo have demolished woodpiles before, looking for chipmunks. Fortunately, they gave up today before damaging this woodpile.
When you’re picking beans or leafy greens or fruit from a tree, it’s easy to forget the importance of dirt. You can’t escape dirt when you’re digging up potatoes. Digging up potatoes on a wet, windy day can be downright dirty. You have to overcome your fear and disdain of touching dirt and mud.
Potatoes clean up easily. I recommend washing off all the dirt and mud outside. It also gives you a chance to give bits and pieces, you don’t want to bother with, to your chickens. Freshly dug potatoes are full of starch and you can make some great, chewy dishes with them. Let the potatoes sit too long, and the starch turns to sugars, changing the texture and flavor of your potatoes.
Not too long ago I watched a show on some interesting dishes you can make with new potatoes. Sorry, but the show was in Japanese 新ジャガ！感動５連発 常識破り調理で新食感. One dish they showed, and you must use new potatoes, was a mochi. Usually, mochi is made by pounding steamed sticky rice until it becomes a sticky, gluey mass. You then shape it into balls and eat it while it is still warm and soft, or let it dry out, and later cut it up and add it to soups or broil it. You can make something similar with new potatoes. You first peel and quarter them. Wash them and boil them for 30 to 40 minutes. Then you let them cool until they are room temperature. This is a critical step. Once they are cool, drain them, and pound them. It can take a fair amount of muscle as the potatoes get very gluey as you pound them. You will end up with a gluey mass which you can then shape into balls.
One thing I learned from the show was that no country eats more potatoes per person than Belarus: over 400 pounds per person each year (185 kilos). In the USA, even with all the French fries consumed, the amount is a paltry 119 pounds (54.2 kilos). There are more than 300 potato dishes in the cuisine of Belarus. Here is one for Belarussian Potato Babka.
Svenda, a Swedish Flower Chicken hen, is over a year old now. He brother, Sven, is king of the flock. The two are such a wild mix of colors. Sven’s been a busy rooster this year, and many of the upcoming chicks definitely have Swedish Flower Chicken in them.
Svenda has changed a lot since she hatched. As a mostly dark chick, there was no indication of the sophisticated coat she would wear as she matured. As soon as her feathers started appearing, her colors started to show.
Take a close look at her feathers now, and then intensify the hue of their colors. You end up with a dazzling kaleidoscope of brilliant colors. Maybe that is how she would look if she went dancing in a disco.
It’s time to plant garlic. Breaking apart the garlic bulbs to separate the cloves, leaves behind a mountain of paper-like garlic skins. They are beautiful on their own. These are destined for the compost pile, but if you do some searching, you’ll find people doing a variety of things with garlic skins.
By mid summer, these garlic cloves will have turned into fat, juicy garlic bulbs. As I stick these cloves into the moist soil, I see the wonderful scapes and bulbs these cloves will be next summer.
On the way back from planting the garlic, I bring in some gleanings from the field. Looking at the healthy roots on these turnips and radishes, it’s easy to see how much we owe dirt for all our food.
It’s impossible to walk even a short distance in the woods without seeing something remarkable. I’m guessing these are clustered woodlovers (Hypholoma fasciculare), also known as sulpher tuft.
As cute as they are, they aren’t edible. Evidently they are bitter and will cause vomiting, diarrhea and convulsions. The chickens somehow know this. Many of them walk by these adorable mushrooms every day, but they don’t peck at them.
