a man and his hoe

every day is a good day

  • Sharing or Being Selfish?

    SharingOrA

    Are these hens sharing or being selfish? There are three empty nests around them, yet Yuki-hime, the white hen, insists on sitting on Lucky when she wants to lay an egg. The conversation the two had before they settled in on top of each other didn’t sound like a harmonious, “Oh, yes, please, come join me in this cozy nest. Pretty please.” It sounded more like a bar room brawl, with Yuki-hime shrieking at the top of her lungs into Lucky’s ear. Then again, maybe that is what passes as friendly conversation in chicken land.

    SharongOrB

  • Maximizing Happiness

    20150503A

    Maximizing happiness, it’s one of the maxims here at a man and his hoe®. What will make the chickens happier? What will make the plants grow better? What will make the dogs jump for joy? For little chicks, their mothers know how to maximize their happiness.

    20150503B
    20150503C
    20150503D

    Finding the eggs of Cognac (the darkest egg), Lucky (the lighter brown egg), and Jacqueline (the white egg) in the nest this afternoon, that maximizes happiness. These three hens have taken to using the same nest. Lucky is always the first, laying her egg early in the morning. Later, Cognac and Jacqueline want to us the nest, and Cognac can cackle up a storm if Jacqueline is in the nest when she wants to use it, even though there are empty nests on either side.

    20150503E

    In the garden there is the first pound of many ShiroHana-Mame (White Flower Beans) to plant. Some of the stray beans which fell to the ground from last year’s harvest are sprouting, so I know these will do well. Watching beans grow maximizes happiness.

    20150503F
    20150503G

    The chickens are going nuts over the duck weed I hauled out of the pond. It is full of water bugs and tadpoles and other pond bugs. They like the duck weed too. Duck weed maximizes chicken happiness.

    20150503H

    Bringing in a basket of eggs and asparagus for supper maximizes happiness. A basket taken out to the garden never comes back inside empty.

    20150503I

  • Independent Chicks

    SkunkyAndSiblingsA

    Skunky and its siblings are just over a month old now … and see, no mother. They’ve found a soft spot on a garden path and are enjoying the afternoon sun, not worried that their mother is off foraging on her own. They are old enough now to be on their own. A month is on the short side of chick rearing. More of the hens raise their chicks closer to two months than just one, but a month is not unusual. I’ll see if their mother is still spending the night with them. Chicks are completely independent when they no longer spend the nights with their mother.

    SkunkyAndSiblingsB
    SkunkyAndSiblingsC

  • It’s a Dog Eat Dog World

    TurkeyFeathers

    Actually, it’s more like a dog eat anything world. I woke up to find Echo happily chewing away in the middle of some definitely not chicken feathers. After some careful inspection and research at the informative US Fish and Wildlife Service’s Feather Atlas, I determined that they were wild turkey feathers. Our neighbor had mentioned shooting a turkey on a recent hunting expedition. It turned out that he had hung the wings on the side of his garage to dry. He thought coyotes had gotten the wings during the night. Instead, it turned out to be our dogs.

    Sprouts

    It’s an everything eats everything world. At this very moment, tiny microbes are munching away at our skin, nibbling in our hair, digesting the food we ate. It’s a never ending cycle of nutrients flowing from one being to another to another to another.

    The shallots and peas are shooting out of the ground. I like the way shallots sprout. They look like fingers from a hand buried in the ground. “Help me! Help me! I’m buried alive!” I hear them scream. Of all the onion family plants I’ve grown, shallots are the most delightful looking.

  • When the Dogs Bark

    BeSurprisedA

    I wasn’t expecting any of this today. While putzing around the place, I stumbled upon a pink rhododendron in full bloom. It wasn’t that many days when I said, “This is going to bloom soon.” Wow! And now it is.

    Deep in the, woods while going to check on what the dogs were so ferociously barking at, I came face to face with a pink trillium. A little further on, white trilliums. I may not have ever seen that pink trillium were it not for whatever invading creature set the dogs off. They say, “Learn something new every day.” I say, “Be surprised every day.” When the dogs bark, go on an adventure.

    BeSurprisedB
    BeSurprisedC