When you take one of Skunky’s eggs, it doesn’t matter which one, they are all perfect, and separate the yolk to make mayonnaise, you are on the right path to make Skunky-aise.

Add mustard, salt, pepper, lemon juice, and whip it with salad oil and there it is, Skunky-aise, a superb mayonnaise made from the egg yolk of the most phenomenal chicken ever, Skunky. To make this mayonnaise worthy of her, I added wasabi, paprika, and dill weed. When you’re using one of Skunky’s eggs, you can’t make dull mayonnaise. She deserves better.

In the shade, the frost is growing every day. It’s covering everything in a coat of white fur. Now I can see where the chickens walk. It would be a good time to study the footprints they leave behind. Knowing a chicken by the footprints it leaves could come in handy … some day. I’ll ponder a bit to see if that is knowledge worth acquiring. “Yes, that is Skunky’s footprint and it’s not more than 15 minutes old.” I could probably get to the point that I could tell by the depth of the impression if it is the footprint of a hen who left an egg on a nest within the last thirty minutes. That would either impress someone or make them think I’ve lost my mind. Sometimes you can know too much, and if you do, keep your mouth shut.

The pond is starting to freeze over. The fish are safe from the blue herons and king fishers now. The shortest day of the year is just three weeks away. A wreath of fir, cedar, sequoia, pine, and holly will see us through this darkest time of the year.

Steady rains don’t deter Tangerine’s chicks from roaming the woods. She is no longer caring for her chicks, but the siblings stick together. Sibling relations are one of the pillars of chicken society, but you would never know it from searching the web. Search the web for “chicken siblings” or “the importance of siblings to chickens” and you won’t find anything. You’ll find articles about chicken pox and human siblings, articles about human siblings, but nothing about the importance of siblings to chicken development. I suppose it’s understandable as chicken society is tossed out the window in modern poultry farming. Still, I find it remarkable that there are no scholarly articles about chicken sibling relations as they are such an integral part of chicken life.

The budding artichokes and morning sun make it look like spring. Artichokes are monumental plants. If you want your garden to make a bold statement, plant artichokes. How does something so magnificent sprout from such tiny seeds?

The wheelbarrows of leaves I’m gathering say it is fall. Tangerine and her chicks come out to investigate what I’m doing. We weren’t so sure she was going to make it as a mother. She was not one to stay home and bake cookies for her babies. If something caught her eye, she’d go after it, and not worry if her baby chicks could follow her or not. It was up to the chicks to find her if they wanted a mother. There were numerous times when we helped the peeping chicks find their mother. A peeping chick in search of it’s mother can peep so loud, its cry pops your eardrums. In the end, the chicks learned to cope with their eccentric mother. She shows them off with pride now. “See, tough love works,” she seems to crow. When the chicks are older and sharing their life stories with Hazel’s chicks, I can hear Hazel’s aghast chicks say, “Your mother did what!”