a man and his hoe

every day is a good day

Month: June 2019

  • Babies Galore


    There are four hens raising nearly 50 chicks. Three of the hens are raising chicks I purchased from a hatchery. A broody hen is a chance to rear a new variety of hen to increase the variety of eggs. I order the chicks so they ship on a Monday, which means I can be at our local Post Office at six Wednesday morning, to get the chicks home as soon as they get unloaded off the truck.

    In the past, I’ve waited for the post master’s early morning call before leaving to get them. This Wednesday, I knew from the texts I was getting from the US Postal Service, that the chicks were on their way to the Bow Post Office before I woke up Wednesday morning. I got to the Post Office before the truck pulled in to deliver Wednesday’s mail. When the post master called to let me know my chicks were in, I was knocking on her door in less than minute.



    So how does it work putting hatchery chicks under a broody hen? Pretty well, provided you have more than one hen to use, in case a hen doesn’t take to the chicks. The first day can be pandemonium. Two day old chicks can walk a long way, and it works best if the broody hens are in an enclosure so the chicks can’t go too far. I find I may have to show the chicks a few times that there is a warm, secure place underneath their new mother.


    I had four broody hens to try, and two of them took to the chicks I received Wednesday morning.



    When the sun sets and gets cool, the chicks gravitate under their new mother’s warm feathers, and after one peaceful night resting underneath her warmth, the bond between the chicks and their new mother is set, and the following day, it’s as if the chicks were hatched by her. I kept the two hens and their chicks in enclosures until Friday afternoon, when they were bonded enough to let them out.


    Having mother hens to raise chicks sure makes it easy. No heat lamps to fuss with. No checking on the chicks every hour to make sure they are OK. And a mother hen will carefully take the chicks outdoors so they can learn how to dig for earthworms, catch bugs, and enjoy the sunshine.

    A downside to mother hen reared chicks is that they are on the wild side. She raises them to be chickens and not pets. “Watch out for that one,” she tells them if I get too close. But hearing their happy chirps at having a mother is worth it.

    This year I’ve added Welsummer, Columbian Wyandoote, Cuckoo Maran, and Speckled Sussex chicks to the flock.

  • One More Day?


    Happy and his consorts are always happy to devour any leftover tofu or okara when I am in the cabin making tofu.


    One more day? The cherry trees are full of cherries this year. The birds are leaving them alone this year. Often they don’t get to ripen this far before they are picked clean. Will they taste better tomorrow? With this many cherries, and just two of us to eat them, we can try some today, leave some for tomorrow, and have more the day after.



    Let radishes go to bloom and this is what you get, delightful, butterfly-like flowers dancing in the breeze. There are so many vegetables that send out charming flowers if you don’t eat them. Carrots, onions, kale, lettuce, all are worth growing just for their blooms.

  • Weeds Are Useful


    There are plenty of places in the gardens where the weeds and brush grow profusely. I don’t mind them because they are a haven for many good insects and spiders to live. They come out and quickly dispatch any invading bugs with joy. And the weeds and grasses are a steady source of nourishing mulch for the vegetables, and make great hilling matter for hilling the potatoes.



    I’m getting around to weeding the arugula patches. In a way, self-seeking arugula is a kind of weed. Once it is established, you can’t get rid of it, but then why would you want to?


    A book I am enjoying reading this summer is a collection of 120 thoughts by the actress, Kiki Kirin 樹木希林, who passed away in September 2018 at the age of 75 after living with cancer for five years. She played in numerous movies and television shows. One of my favorite of hers is Sweet Bean – あん, made in 2015, where she plays an elderly woman who shows up at a small shop and teaches the shop owner how to make the most delicious sweet bean filled pastries.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJnLW_tTgAE&w=560&h=315]

    After her death, a number of books have been published about her thoughts on life. In the book I’m reading she writes, “It doesn’t matter if there is one person, two people, or ten people around, if you’re a lonely person, you’ll be lonely.” She also says that now that she is old, she is often requested to come and talk about being old and death. When interviewers ask her what she thinks about death, she says, ”I‘ve never died so I don’t have a clue about death.”

    Even though she was often asked to make speeches, she was surprised that there are those who claim to have been saved by listening to her speeches. “That’s dependency disease you know. You need to think for yourself,” she writes.


  • When Potatoes Bloom


    It’s a special time when pototoes bloom. I look forward to their gentle flowers every year. With flowers this lovely, it would be easy to deceive those who have no ideas potatoes develop in the ground, that potatoes are the fruits of these delicate blossoms.


    The cherries are maybe a few weeks away from ripening. Mine never make it to market. We and the birds end up eating them all.


    The five young Barred Rocks are not far from laying their first eggs. All siblings, these five hang out together all the time.


    It’s also the special time of the year when garlic scapes can be eaten for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. What do they taste like? They are a lot like string beans with a hint of garlic.

  • Why Didn’t I Think of That? First In, First Out Done Easy


    The drakes are lost. Both of the hens, Snow and Emma, are spending most of their time on their nests, incubating their eggs. Without their mates, the drakes meander, not sure what to do, or so it seems. Duck world is so different than chicken world. Drakes and roosters have different world views. With roosters it is, ”I am the king, and how many hens can I bang?” With drakes, it is much more complicated. Drakes and duck hens converse, quarrel, make alliances, and play.


    Solcion has come out with an innovative canister. It has lids at both ends. The idea is that you add things from one end, and use them from the other, so that you are always using the older product first.

    The lids are different colors so you know which end to use when adding products, and which end to use when pouring out products.


    Take coffee beans. When you come home with fresh coffee beans, but still have some coffee beans left over in the canister, you add the new coffee beans from one end of the canister, flip it over, and so when you pour out coffee beans for your next morning brew, you’re using the older beans first, and the newer beans stay under the older beans. It’s the first-in, first-out principal of accounting in practice in the kitchen. Just don’t shake the canister when you add new things.