a man and his hoe

every day is a good day

Month: July 2015

I Knew They Were Good

I knew my eggs were good, and today I received proof. Back in June, Mother Earth News organized nutrient testing for eggs so I sent in a dozen eggs to be tested. I received the results today, and the eggs my hens lay have more than three times the omega-3 fat that regular eggs have. A regular egg has 74 milligrams of omega-3 fat per 100 grams. My hens lay eggs with 250 milligrams of omega-3 fat per 100 grams, 338% more! The complete details are below.

I attribute the high omega-3 fat content of my eggs due to all the fresh greens and bugs and other things my hens find to eat as they roam through the woods and brush and grasses. I also believe the amount of sunshine and exercise they get plays a part. Chickens can’t live without sunshine. They can’t live without dustbaths. They can’t live without room to run to their heart’s content. They can’t, they can’t, they can’t.

July 28, 2015
Which Is More Beautiful?

Which is more beautiful? Is it this flower? That flower? This plant? That plant? Maybe that one over there. It’s a good thing there’s no test. They can be all the most beautiful. You don’t have to settle for one.

July 27, 2015
First Blush

The green plums are starting to blush. Every day I check to see if the deer have found them yet. Yesterday, instead of being greeted with plump green plums, I saw tinges of rose and purple. The first blush of ripening plums.

July 27, 2015
Hazel Becomes a Mother

You’ve got a reason to pop that champagne bottle open, the one you’ve been saving all these years, waiting for that special occasion. Hazel’s a mother. Her chicks started hatching yesterday. She’s two and a half years old and this is her first clutch. She’s a sweetheart. A chicken Dr. Seuss would draw. One of her chicks has a bare neck too. Cheers!

July 25, 2015
Melon Dew – Beauty Strikes

When you garden, be prepared for beauty to strike at any moment. Being struck by bolts of beauty is a hazard of vegetable gardening. Maybe humans aren’t designed to handle so much beauty. It might be why they flee the countryside and flock to the cities, to get away from being overwhelmed by nature’s beauty. Nature is unrelenting when it comes to stimulating the senses with beauty. It might be safer for the psyche to live in a high-rise, far from nature, with only other high-rises to look at out your window.

This morning I went into one of the hoop houses to tend melon plants, and was awed by the melon leaves. During the night, the melons had shed excess water through the fringes of their leaves. The leaves were fringed with wet diamonds. You don’t see such beauty at Tifanys or Cartier. You can’t buy this beauty. It’s in the garden waiting for you, for free. You just have to have the fortitude to handle such unexpected beauty at any time when you grow vegetables. Perhaps I should wear dark shades when I garden so I don’t succumb to overstimulation. How much rapture can an individual tolerate? There must be a limit. If these posts suddenly cease, you’ll know I have succumbed and am lying lifeless between vegetable beds, a victim of nature’s beauty.

July 24, 2015