a man and his hoe

every day is a good day

  • Svenda Sandstone

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    B’dazzled blue, cedar chest, Egyptian blue, Harvard crimson, metallic sunburst – the names of colors is endless. Here’s one more: Svenda Sandstone, the color of Svenda’s eggs. She lays eggs that not only have a sandstone color, they even feel like sandstone when you rub them. One was laid February 24 and the other today, February 26.

    Each egg a hen lays is slightly different from the one before it, and different enough from the other hens, that it is often easy to tell whose egg it is. Svenda will never lay a white egg. She’ll never lay a dark egg. She only lays sandstone colored eggs.

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  • Things a Hen Like

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    Hens like quiet, sheltered nests. They are modest and like to lay eggs without being exposed to prying eyes. This is 雲月 (Ungestu – Moon Cloud). I have several of these very refined, gray-black hens.

    I read about some farms which produce a million eggs a day, which means they have more than a million hens crammed in very noisy, crowded warehouses. Not one of those hens gets to lay an egg in a quiet nest. What they have are more than a million very frustrated, crazed hens. I would need 50,000 acres, a farm about nine miles by miles, or nearly twice the size of San Francisco, to house that many hens. Chickens need lots and lots of space.

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    Hens also like to peck at daffodils. Not a single hen on those farms with more than a million hens ever gets to peck at a daffodil. They live their entire lives without ever seeing a single flower bloom.

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  • Out of the Garden Today – February 24, 2015

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    Arugula and Ruby Streaks overwintered in the hoop house and with all the recent sunshine, they are exploding. Which means plenty of fresh salads. Happiness is picking greens moments before you eat them. The best food doesn’t come from the store, it comes out of your own garden.

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  • Nakedness Becomes You

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    It’s always fun to get naked. Whether alder logs find it as exciting to strip down as we do, maybe not. Alder logs do have a sense of shame. When they get naked, they turn crimson with embarrassment. Either that, or they tan easily. See how red the log at the top is, and it’s only partially naked.

    Which looks nicer? The clothed or naked alder logs? I used a blade knife from Lumber Jack Tools to peel the bark off a future log post.

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    The bark curls make great mulch and path beds. Cover a path with them, and they sop up the moisture, and make a fresh fragrant path.

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  • Monsters Stirring Out of the Ground

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    Yesterday it was nettles popping out of the earth. Today it is rhubarb pushing out of the soil. Rhubarb unfolds like a monster rising from a deep sleep. At this early stage, it looks like an alien fungus threatening to take over the world. The leaves don’t look like leaves. They look like deformed, wrinkled green stones. But once they shake the soil out of their folds, they will quickly rise and become bold, fragrant, massive leaves.

    Few things are as satisfying as sauce made from just-cut rhubarb stocks. It’s a staple here from spring into early summer. You can put it on most any dish from rice to roasted potatoes to meats to vegetables to ice cream. During hot summer days, the chickens seek shade under their tall, spreading leaves.