a man and his hoe

every day is a good day

  • Building the Great Chicken Wall of 2014

    It’s time to build the Great Chicken Wall of 2014. There’s nothing like a dog to help with the digging. No one licks the sweat off your brow better than a dog.

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    The first fence post is in. Six more to go. I could use the power auger to dig the holes, but it’s more relaxing to dig the holes by hand with a shovel, and much quieter. There is so much beauty to see when you work outdoors. The foxgloves (dead man’s bells/witch’s gloves) are blooming. Amazing that something so beautiful is so poisonous.

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    The fence posts are in. These are the posts (see Posts – Nature’s Gift) I made back in April from young alder trees. Tomorrow I’ll put up the wire. The purpose of the Great Chicken Wall of 2014 isn’t to keep the chickens in, it’s to keep the chickens out. I need more vegetable beds to grow greens and vegetables for my customers.

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    Foxglove ~ Botanical.com
    Plants Poisonous to Livestock ~ Cornell University
    Foxglove Plants ~ About.com Landscaping
    Foxglove ~ The National Gardening Association
    Foxglove Poisoning ~ National Library of Medicine

  • 27 Days and Getting Big

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    The eight chicks which hatched on April 28 are now 27 days old. They are too big now to all fit under their mother at once. They are probably halfway on their way to being independent. Their mother is a Buff Orpington, and generally they raise their chicks for two months. We will see as each mother is different.

    When raising chicks in open pasture, a mother is imperative. Just like human children, chicks are quite oblivious to danger. They are so caught up in their own little worlds that they don’t see the hawk flying high above. Their mother and other grown chickens will, and she will scurry them off to safety, just like a human mother will grab a child who wanders off the sidewalk into the street.

    Just like a group of human children, these eight chicks jabber nonstop all day long. I wonder if it drives their mother crazy. Or does she just tune it out like human mothers do?

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    Buff Orpington, our favorite backyard chicken ~ The Tangled Nest
    Orpington Chicken ~ the Livestock Conservancy
    Buff Orpington ~ Pinterest
    Breeding Exhibition Tips ~ United Orpington Club
    Buff Orpington ~ City Girl Chickens
    Orpington Chickens ~ Poultry Keeper

  • On the Board Today – May 24, 2014

    It’s lunch time and on the board today are onion scapes, asparagus and garlic stalks, fresh kale, lettuce and mustard leaves. All refuse from an hour of weeding and thinning. The nice thing about cleaning out vegetable beds is that nothing gets thrown away. The weeds and stems you don’t want to eat, the bugs and bacteria in the compost pile are always ready to accept. The pretty stuff ends up on the lunch table in fresh salads and sautéed dishes.

    How many restaurants can you go to where you get to taste greens that are just minutes out of the garden? People pay an arm and a leg for such exquisite fare. Here at a man and his hoe® it’s what’s for lunch every day.

    Onion Scapes
    chopped asparagus and Garlic
    Fresh Kale
    Lettuce and Mustard

    The Trellis Restaurant in Kirkland, Washington, serves fruit and vegetables harvested daily at Executive Chef Brian Scheehser’s 10-acre farm in Woodinville. This is what they say on their website:

    Experience Seattle’s most pure “farm-to- table” restaurant dining experience at Trellis. Executive Chef Brian Scheehser practices sustainable farming on his 10-acre farm in Woodinville. He grows and harvests fresh vegetables, fruits and herbs featured on the Trellis menu, including his signature “Two Hour Salad” with ingredients harvested within two hours of being served. Enjoy a down-to-earth wine country cuisine, lovingly planted and artfully prepared with our hands.

    Eating greens picked within two hours isn’t bad. It’s not quite up to my standards, but it’s acceptable. The next time you are eating out, ask how long ago the greens were picked. Find out where they came from. It would be interesting to know.

    On the Board Today – May 18, 2014
    On the Board Today – May 10, 2014
    On the Board Today – May 9, 2014

  • Cancer Strikes and Now I Miss the Cows

    Nearly every day, I bicycle past this farm and enjoy looking at the peaceful Simmental cattle foraging on the idyllic pasture. Every year there are new calves and I get to watch their mothers raise them. I’ve been enjoying them for nine years. A few months ago the cattle disappeared and I wondered what happened to them. Today I learned that the owner of the farm has cancer and is no longer able to care for the cattle. They are at his brother’s farm not too far away.

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    A farmer I don’t even know gets cancer and suddenly, the beautiful cattle I enjoyed watching nearly every day are gone. Everything changes.

    So many people have appreciated the beauty of this man’s farm. Besides the cattle, I enjoy looking at the stacks of firewood the farmer makes each year. Some years as he stacks the firewood along the side of the barn he makes patterns with the firewood. One year he “drew” a tree on it’s side using different shades and sizes of firewood. A single person can bring so much happiness to others without even realizing it.

  • Beauty in the Grass

    Biking home from the post office yesterday, I was climbing up Bow Hill, when I noticed some bright purple vines snaking through the grassy hillside.

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    The color of the purple vines was so intense, I had to stop and admire them.

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    They were new berry vines. I never would have noticed them if I had been in the car. Four years ago I made a decision to stop driving when I made my daily errands. I mostly did this to work exercise into my daily routine so I could lose weight. That I managed to do, but bicycling forty five minutes to an hour each day as I went about my errands, also opened my eyes to seeing things along the roadside I missed when I sped by in the car.

    When you are on a bicycle, it is much easier to stop and enjoy beautiful things than it is when you are driving a car. For those of you enjoying breakfast or lunch at Tweets Café this weekend, there is a good chance that the eggs you are eating and possibly the salad you are enjoying were delivered by bicycle from just up the hill. And that the person who pedaled those eggs and salad greens to Tweets, stopped to enjoy the beauty of purple berry vines on their way home.