Category: Farm

New beginnings

The giant rolling storage crate was pulled from the root cellar and filled with pine shavings, two heat tables, a feeder, and water in preparation for the chicks. But the nasty weather last week slowed things down and chicks didn’t arrive at Tractor Supply (either of them within 30 minutes of home) on Monday. On Tuesday, one got 3 breeds, not ones I want. A call to Rural King on Monday put me on hold for more than 5 minutes, answered again by the front end desk and again transferred and another hold until I hung up. We drove over there and they had bunnies, no chicks. But Rural King was supposed to get several hundred chicks in this morning, and they are supposed to be getting what I want. If the CDC is correct, I should be close to 90% protected with my first vaccine given two weeks ago, so I will mask up and go get babies. (Turns out the info I was given was incorrect and they don’t come in until tomorrow, so I guess it will happen tomorrow instead.) When I start a new flock, I always begin with a dozen, though I know that they won’t all survive the native predators and neighborhood domestics (though that hasn’t happened in a few years). The chicks will start in the basement for a couple of weeks. As the winter fades and the chicks begin to feather out, they will be moved to the garage until they are old enough to move outdoors. The 8 old hens will move in a few weeks from the coop to “The Chicken Palace” a huge A frame structure and they will be allowed more free range time as the replacements move to the coop to learn where they live and while they gain enough size to run around outdoors.

The chicken palace with some of our deer visitors and the ever present stinkbug photo bombing. This is an older shot, we don’t have green grass right now.
I’m ready for them if anyone every gets any in stock.

And tomorrow morning, bright and early, I get my second vaccine. I’m prepared for the sore arm, the possible flu like symptoms for a day or so in hopes that it will make me feel safer when I do have to or want to go out in the world for more than a woods walk, drive thru sandwich, or curbside pickup of supplies.

My breed blanket project continues. There are 6 eight inch blocks completed and enough of some of the already spun yarns to knit a couple more before the next breed comes up next month. Today, a sampler box of fiber arrived, it has 12 breeds, some of which are natural undyed duplicates of some I have dyed and one I have already knit, but they will be used as well to add more squares to make the blanket large enough to be a real wool blanket.

I am finishing up the last of the official February fiber and a sample I got with my March fiber that because it is blended with silk can’t be part of the blanket. Now to decide which one will go in the blanket next.

Soup

In the winter, I could live entirely on soup. When I got up this morning it was 14f. The sun did finally come out yesterday and began the ice melt. Though the trees are still glistening and glowing, they aren’t totally coated and sagging, but this weekend is cold, bone numbing cold.

Son 1 sent me a photo a while back, to show off them using the rice bowls we gave them for Christmas, but it was what was in them that caught my eye. He had made an Asian inspired broth and filled it with fancy noodles, vegetables, and a boiled egg. We exchanged messages for me to get the gist of what he had produced. Many nights a week, I prepare Texas born DH the Texas staple foods of red meat and starch, but I don’t care for that, so I started experimenting with Son 1’s soup. Now I make potato soup, lentil soup, and vegetable soup that I can eat on Texas nights, but the broth soup full of healthy goodies really held an appeal and I started playing with it a few times a week. A good chicken or vegetable broth with sauteed onion, garlic, ginger, and a little crushed Szechuan pepper simmered for 10 or 15 minutes to meld the flavors, then the fun begins. I have a bag of super green mix (baby chard, baby spinach, baby kale, and mizuna), various noodles, quinoa, and left over cooked brown rice. A tub of red Miso, a quart jar of Daikon radish kimchee, and the hydroponic garden of fresh herbs all ready for my use. If I use quinoa, I put it in while the broth is simmering so it cooks. Noodles cook in under 5 minutes, and left over brown rice just needs to be warmed. Only one of those is added per batch, but a large handful of the super greens and another of fresh herb clippings are added just long enough to wilt them. A bit of the hot broth is pulled off and mixed with the Miso and added back at the last moment. Sometimes the boiled egg is added to the bowl if I have some made (I generally steam half a dozen or so at a time to add to the pup’s breakfast, so there are often some available for me too). To this can be added some Turmeric, with the ginger and garlic, fighting inflammation. Some kimchee at the last minute so it holds its fermented benefits with the fermented benefits of the Miso and two cups of quick delicious healthy soup is made in only about 15-20 minutes. Sliced mushrooms can be added during the saute phase too.

And who says soup is only for lunch or dinner. This morning to warm my chilly body, a couple of cups were made, full of antioxidants, anti-inflammatories, and a good warming broth were enjoyed for breakfast.

The prettiest, nastiest kind of storm

Sometime during the night, the winter storm arrived and not with snow as predicted, or if it did snow, it was minimal. I got up at first light to hear the sleet hitting the metal roof. The dogs were not amused, they ran out and right back as quickly as they could relieve themselves.

As the day dawned lighter, I could see the layer of ice on everything. The deciduous trees glistening like they were lit up, the evergreens sagging under the weight of the ice. Icicles hung from the eaves, the rails, the bird feeders.

The resident deer family coming close to the house in search of grass or green that wasn’t frozen.

The sleet stopped around 10 this morning and there is a lull in the storm until late afternoon, but when I got up, the power was flickering so I started fires in the wood stove in the basement and the fireplace in the living room in case it failed. So far it has stayed on, but the temperature isn’t rising enough to melt off the morning ice before the afternoon and overnight ice is due.

A couple of years ago, daughter brought home a little slip of a pine tree from Arbor Day at work and I planted it in the yard near the larger pines and marked it so it wouldn’t get mowed down. By last summer, it was as tall as I am but thin with all the needles at the top. When I looked out this morning, it was bent to the ground and I feared it would break so I went out to stake it. The first stake wasn’t long enough to protect it.

I went to the garden and dug one of the 7 foot long fake bamboo poles out of the ice and got it imbedded beside the pine and tied the pine to the pole with some tie loops that are stretchy tshirt material. I hope I have saved it from this storm.

The walk to the mailbox was slippery so no vehicle will be moved today, but the walk allowed an afternoon photo of one of the larger pines weighted down by the ice.

I expect if we get more ice added to the coat that is there, we will see broken branches. The creek is roaring, but I didn’t want to risk the slope to look down on it to see how full it is.

I would rather have snow, but actually, I’m ready for warmer weather and some sunshine.