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.

A Fresh Morning, Hissing Ducks


It’s a cool, damp morning. Gentle rains through the night have made the air sweet. Each year has its own feel. By now the poppies should be setting buds. They are a long way from that. But the apples are forming, their little babies getting their first blush of red.



In the hoop house, Snow and Emma are on their nests much of the day, hissing and scolding whenever I approach. Would they scare off a fox? I have my doubts. If all their eggs hatch, that will be some thirty ducklings. Now I see why there are thousands upon thousands of wild ducks on the fields and marshes. At that rate of reproduction, it doesn’t take many generations to end up with millions of offspring, or keep many a fox, hawk, eagle, and coyote well fed.

Essence of Summer


Grass flowers are underrated. Are they even rated at all? Waving in the summer breeze, they are the essence of summer.


The Japanese name for Lupine is Nobori-Fuji 昇り藤 which means climbing wisteria. The word to climb, noboru, is an interesting word because it can be written three different ways, 上る or 登る or 昇る. All have the meaning of climbing, but with subtle differences.

上る is used when referring to climbing stairs, climbing up a slope, climbing onto a train, and putting things onto a higher place, such as a table.

登る is used when you are climbing onto something with purpose or with a lot of effort, such as climbing a mountain, or getting up onto a rostrum to give a speech, or a platform to give a performance.

昇る is used for things rising high into the sky, such as the sun or smoke, and in the case of the lupine, wisteria climbing into the sky.

One word, three different ways of writing it, and there are many such words in Japanese, which give it a richness when it comes to expressing yourself in writing.




Ema and Snow have gotten serious about incubating their eggs. Ema’s nest is a huge mound. My first experience with brooding ducks, it’s interesting seeing the difference between them and chickens. Chickens don’t build such elaborate nests. They don’t cover their eggs when they leave their nests. They don’t hiss the way ducks do when you approach their nests. Chickens stay quiet, until your hands get too close, and then they draw blood.