a man and his hoe

every day is a good day

Category: Reflections

  • All the Good There Is


    Watching tofu cooling in clear, cold water is so soothing. It’s an opportunity to reflect on all the good there is.


    The marjoram has gone to bloom, dainty pink flowers decorate the path out to the tofu cabin. The chickens walk past these flowers all day long. What do they think of them?


    The latest chicks arrived Wednesday morning, Bielefelder cockerels and Cuckoo Maran pullets. The chicks took to my broody hen right away, and Thursday morning, she had them out exploring the world.

    There are no Bielefelder pullets so I got some cockerels instead. The other roosters don’t know it, but I have sinister plans for them as these Bielefelder grow up, that is if the Bielefelder turn into the grand roosters they are reported to be.

    A mother hen’s devotion to her chicks is evidence that given sufficient billions of years, star dust will turn into kindness.


  • Luxury of a Cool Summer


    Some of the hens have decided to lay eggs in luxurious alpaca fur nests. I’ll have to note on the eggs how special they are. Of the tens of millions of eggs laid every day, how many get laid in nests lined with alpaca fur?


    Emma’s ducklings are as nearly as large as she is. The ducklings are still whistling, though on occasion I hear an almost quack coming from them.


    The nights and mornings these days are tinged with fall’s coolness. This summer we’ve been spared the smokey skies of the last few years caused by forests burning in the Cascades and Canada. With summer coming to an end, plants are busy blooming and setting seed.

    Compared to many places, summers are cool here. There’s no need to venture up to a mountain retreat to escape summer heat here. You can enjoy the luxury of a comfortable summer just by stepping outside.


  • Home Sweet Home


    Snow and her two brothers are settling into their new home on the pond. We moved them there last week so they wouldn’t harass Emma and her ducklings in the garden.


    They surprised me two nights ago by appearing in the chicken yard in the evening. I guess they feel more protected sleeping in the protected chicken yard with the chickens than out by the pond. They were inside with the chickens last evening too when I went to close the chicken yard.


    It’s nice having them in the pond, and it takes them but seconds it seems to swim from one side to the other. When snow goes back to laying eggs, finding her nest may take some doing.

  • We Will Not Be Moved


    The wasps which built a nest at the base of a bird feeder under a pear tree were becoming a problem. Walk too close to the pear tree, and they’d sting. The one time I got stung, it felt like I’d walked against stinging nettles, and realized it was those wasps.


    At night, I covered the nest with a bag and carried it off and hung it under a cedar far away from places well traveled.


    The next morning, the wasps were back under the pear tree, buzzing furiously, and determined to rebuild where their nest used to be. I don’t mind as they eat a huge number of insects. I just need to warn anyone who visits to stay clear of the pear tree.

  • 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.