a man and his hoe

every day is a good day

  • A Mother Hen Never Rests

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    A mother hen is on the go all day long. Lucky has her wings full. Her chicks will be a month old on Monday. There’s no time to look at colorful fall leaves and meditate. The only time she rests is when her chicks want a nap, and by the time they get to be a month old, they don’t want to nap as much as they did when they were little babies.

    Month old chicks like to venture out on their own, and keeping up with her brood is a daunting task. Some hens are done raising chicks by the time they are a month old. Others stay on duty for a full two months or more. Lucky has been an exceptional mother. It will be interesting how long she will raise her chicks.

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  • Blue Chicken

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    The Swedish Flower rooster and hen have introduced a variety of colors into the flock. I noticed that this young rooster has some blue feathers, not many, but a few. Maybe next year there will be a chicken with even more blue feathers, the year after more still, and eventually a truly blue chicken.

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  • Surprises in the Forest

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    Making a trail in the woods using the bark of a tree wasn’t something I planned to do today. I was out in the woods chopping firewood. It was time to cut up a Maple log we had felled some time ago and left to dry. But as I was chopping it up, the bark peeled off in nice pieces, and they worked very well to line a trail.

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    Finding a delightful group of mushrooms was another forest surprise.

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  • Out of the Garden Today – October 7, 2014

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    A magnificent head of Tatsoi, apples, and nashi. The Tatsoi not only looks remarkable whole, cutting the leaves creates a starburst of green stems.

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  • Soon?

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    I’ve bicycled past this sign near the post office all summer. Now it’s fall. What I’ve heard is that it will be a beer and pizza joint. The building has a long history, having been a diner, a grocery store, a pizza place, and a restaurant. What will it be next?

    While we wait, it’s fall, a season of brilliant colors. What if we would all die like autumn leaves, going to our graves in brilliant color, getting more flamboyant the older we get?

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