a man and his hoe

every day is a good day

  • Butterball Mothers

    Mother hens fluff their feathers when they sense danger. They can appear to be twice their normal size. When they fan out their tail feathers, they look like turkeys. This behavior begins before the chicks are hatched. A sure sign a hen is sitting on eggs to hatch, is when she goes around fluffing her feathers.

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    The whole brood takes a break when mother takes a dust bath. A chick’s day is punctuated with frequent breaks: dust baths with mom, warm naps in her feathers, lazy time in the sun.

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  • Fetching Lunch

    Eggs laid within the hour, sweet tomatoes, fresh chard, all the makings for a summer lunch.

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    On the way back inside, I spot what I thought was some paper by an apple tree, and it turned out to be a very late blooming iris. Iris and apples, not two things you usually think of together.

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    The apples are a long way from being ripe, but the summer sun is turning them red.

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  • Morning Flowers

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    Early morning is the time to make my rounds through the fields, checking on how things are growing. The many flowers make it a wonderful time. Potato flowers tend to close at night. They pop open at first light.

    Every day now there are more and more white flower beans in bloom. Their soft, white petals dance gently in the morning breeze. The joy of growing food, is that you get to enjoy the blossoms many fruit and vegetable plants have. Every bean you eat at one time was a beautiful flower. Eat a handful of beans and you’re enjoying the results of a huge bouquet of white, orange, pink, purple, and red flowers. Bean flowers come in so many colors.

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  • Attentive Mother

    With their wide field of vision, mother hens can see most anything that might threaten their chicks. The chicks are very aware they have someone looking out for them. As long as their mother is nearby, they are relaxed and run about freely. If they can’t see or hear her, they panic and chirp frantically until she shows up.

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  • Green Surprise

    This afternoon, I discovered a kale growing at the edge of a porch. I was about to go to the garden to get some greens. I was drying kale seed pods on the porch last summer. Some of seeds must have fallen onto the ground.

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    The great thing about kale is that you can snip plenty of leaves and leave the main stem alone. Every week or every other week, the plant will be ready to cut again.