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Broody Girl

On July 3, Brown Dog, belonging to our neighbor feasted on two of my United Nations flock of cull chickens, after causing significant damage to the chicken tractor in which they were housed. On July 4, eldest son and I killed the remainder of them and frozen them for stewing chickens plus 1 rooster, the Buff Orpington, the King of the Domain. He had gotten too aggressive toward the hens and toward us. Neither of the then 14 month old hens was showing any signs of broodiness though I really had wanted a self sustaining flock and hen set chicks. The next day, Brown Dog managed to scare the teenagers enough that one flew out of the pen the dog couldn’t get in and he trotted home with a young Buff Orpington pullet in his mouth. Brown Dog hasn’t been seen since then, and the Buffs are maturing to a point where I expect the 3 that are 22 weeks old to start laying very soon and the 20 week olds to begin within a couple more weeks. Since July 4, we have averaged only 1 egg a day from the two adults.

Beginning night before last, when I went to check for eggs and lock up the girls, I found one of the mature hens sitting in the nesting box that they both use. I chased her out, took the egg and closed them up for the night. The next morning, she didn’t come out to eat with the rest of the girls and sure enough, she was on the box again and puffed herself all up at me. I chased her out again and found her there again last night, this morning and this afternoon. This evening, though there are no eggs to collect, I put an upside down bucket in that nesting box. She is quite indignant with me, puffing up and trying to peck my hand when I shoo her away. She probably won’t be too amused to find the bucket in her space, but now that Cogburn is in freezer camp, it is pointless to let her continue to be broody as there are no fertilized eggs for her to sit. Silly chicken.

I have 15 Rainbow Ranger chicks due here the end of the first week of August to raise in the second pen and chicken tractor and I don’t need Buff Orpington chicks in the coop that won’t mature enough to put in the freezer this fall. Perhaps next spring I will replace Cogburn with a new young rooster and let one or more of the hens go broody and see if we get chicks in the coop. For now, I just need to break Buttercup’s heart and her broodiness.

July 24, 2014
Curmudgeon

I was fortunate to have my paternal grandfather in my life until I was in my early 30’s. When I was a teen and my great grandmother was in a geriatric ward for a couple of years, he would tell me tales of his young life. He grew up in a railroad family and was known to “ride the rails.” As a young man, he injured and lost one of his eyes with a pocket knife accident and had a glass eye. Though he had an interesting young life and was probably a bit of a bad boy, he was a gentle, hardworking man that owned his own business and raised two sons that both far exceeded his 8th grade education, both getting University degrees in engineering. As an older man, he was a bit of a curmudgeon.

I was the first grandchild and always felt a special bond with him. As a young adult, I would go to the farmers’ market then take baskets of peas or butter beans to my grandparents home and my grandmom and I would shell them for dinner and for the freezer. More than once, Pop as all of us grandkids called him would sit on the porch with us and would pick up a handful of beans and start shelling. My grandmom would comment that she had never seen him do that before.

I had a young kitten and once asked them if they would keep it for a week while I flew to Hawaii to met my husband on R & R. They had no pets as Pop wasn’t fond of them, but indeed they did keep my kitten. One of the things he disliked was having the cat rub around his legs as cats are prone to do. It is strange that as I am aging, I don’t like a cat to rub on me and though we have two outdoor cats and two dogs, I don’t like them to lick me.

Once I asked him if he had seen a comic in the paper and though he was reading the paper, he told me he didn’t read the comics. I couldn’t believe that anyone didn’t read them, but other than the occasional one that my husband points out to me, I no longer read them, none of the good ones are in print anymore.

When my first husband and I started having marital problems, it was obviously distressing to him. After I divorced and met my current husband, the love of my life, my grandfather took him aside and informed Jim that if he ever hurt me, that he would have to answer to him. As it turned out, when Pop had a heart attack at home and my grandmother called me to come to her, I was a city away at work. Jim was close by and he hurried to their home to help my grandmom while the medics were there and until I could get there.

Recently, I have thought of him many times, when an impatient driver behind us honked his horn at Jim, I was reminded of how Pop would continue to sit, roll down his window and point over the top of his car; as I fuss at the cat for rubbing against my legs on the porch or as one of the dogs tries to “kiss” me; when Jim points out a comic in the paper that he thought I would appreciate. Perhaps, I too am becoming a curmudgeon.

July 23, 2014
It’s Finally Done

Last night as the sun went down and the evening cooled, the edge of the garden, the empty chicken pen, and between the T posts that son and I set two and a half weeks ago were mowed in preparation for finally finishing the job that he and I started, I worked on and quit.

We had a couple of places that we couldn’t pound a T post in but they were going to only hold polybraided electric fence wire. I did get the fencing up on the second chicken pen, the one that will be used for meat birds and culls, surrounding the chicken tractor which is too heavy for me to move daily and will serve as the coop for those birds. I still haven’t reinforced the hardware cloth that the dog tore free from the frame, but I won’t have chicks until mid August and even then, they will be in the brooder for 5 to 6 weeks, so I still have time. A week or so ago, I started putting the insulators on the T posts outside the welded wire fence and realized that I needed longer ones for the posts that also had fencing on them and stopped. Grandson and I bought the longer insulators, but they have just been sitting on the workbench taunting me each time I walked by. Brown Dog hasn’t been back, so I wasn’t in too big a hurry.

During the time that we were setting posts, our haying neighbor came down with a half bale of hay that was in the baler and he was done haying for the season, so he dropped it outside my garden for me to use as mulch. Grandson attacked it with a fiberglass stake and spread it over a rather wide section of back lawn. This morning before it got too hot, I decided that I better put it in the garden where it would smother weeds instead of all over the yard where it was smothering grass. That proved to be a hefty task, pulling it back into a usable stack with the pitchfork and hauling fork after fork into the garden. I also finally installed the longer insulators and realized that the corners were going to be a problem as the insulators only fit in one direction on the posts.

A few step-in posts solved the problem, setting the electric off the corner post by a couple of inches and placing a less sturdy post where we couldn’t pound in the T posts. Wire is strung, charge is set. Our dogs were wary of the electric when it surrounded the entire orchard and garden, but have gotten used to going over to “check on” the chickens since it has been down. They are in for a shock, literally though mild, when they venture over now. Hopefully, it will keep Brown Dog out as well, should he decide to revisit us.

July 21, 2014
Sunshine on a Cloudy Day

Sunflowers to brighten another cloudy day. A tiny hummingbird was zipping from flower to flower.

Silly success with math practice.

My space to read and blog, or eat. Wish I could weave like this, or throw pottery mugs.

Best buddies. This will be one sad dog at summer’s end when L returns home.

July 20, 2014
Olio July 17, 2014

Olio: a miscellaneous collection of things.

Rainbow at sunset.

An overflowing 8 quart bucket of garlic now curing in the root cellar.

Peppers and sunflowers, newly planted bush beans.

Pumpkins, winter squash, sweet potatoes taking over half of the compost bins.

Chard and sunflowers.

Haircuts for grandson and granddad.

It has been a busy week with bike riding learning sessions for grandson and he can now ride around the bus loop, in and out of grass, stop with the brakes if he is going slow enough, ride up and down an incline, start without help and says, “This is easy!” Why oh why did he make such a fuss just a few short days ago.

We have had several trips to the library, have done the daily writing and math practice and he is doing his chores with minimal complaint.

On a less positive note, I just got a call from my father and my sis who had Rotator Cuff surgery today, instead of going home has been put in ICU on a ventilator because of breathing problems. Thoughts and prayers sent on the way to Kansas are welcome.

July 17, 2014
Olio – July 13, 2014

Olio: A miscellaneous collection of things

Grandson’s play with the big guy backfired. He is under there somewhere.

First pint of pickled jalapenos from the garden. It will take dozens more to get Jim through the year, especially if Todd wants some too.

First summer squash and bell pepper. The little pepper is a cayenne that broke off before ripening. There are small cucumbers, still lots of greens, the first of the bush beans and the last of the peas. The garden is full on providing most of what we want in veggies now. The winter squash and pumpkins are taking over the compost bins, the sweet potato vines are thriving.

Yesterday, grandson was afraid of his bike, by the end of a session he would coast down a short hill.

Today it was a longer hill and then as I was running beside him holding his seat, I let go and he rode the length of the school parking lot, over and over. He still needs an assist to get going, but once he is moving, he is off. I took a video, but can’t figure out how to upload it here.

July 13, 2014
Easy Rider

Many, many years ago, I could be seen running madly down the street hanging on to the seat of one of our children’s bicycles until they achieved the balance and confidence to ride away on their own. I am clearly not that young any more. Eldest grandson, living in an apartment on a hilly parking lot in a busy city has been reluctant to learn to ride. He rides with his Dad on the tandem bike, in fact they go many miles to Kung Fu each Saturday, rain or shine and often a couple of miles to guitar lessons on Friday evening with the guitar strapped to his Dad’s back.

Since he is with us for a good portion of this summer and since we are taking him with us to visit his 7 year old cousin in Florida, we brought his bike to the mountains for some lessons on riding before the Florida trip. He has been here a week now and today, since hubby is off on his motorcycle, I decided it was a good day for a bicycle lesson. L was quite reluctant. The school counselor in me acknowledged that he was afraid, but insisted that together we could overcome that fear. Off to the local elementary school we went, as they have a nice flat road and parking area and several gently sloping grassy hills down to water retention depressions. When we got there, he was very oppositional about even trying, but I was as stubborn that he was going to give it a go, a bit of bribery thrown in for good measure. I ran behind him, helping to keep him balanced until I couldn’t catch my breath and decided that the gentle grassy slopes might provide a good place to practice balance.

This gave me a chance to breath as well. He would coast down the hill and walk the bike back up. Once his balance was better, we resumed the running behind a few more times, but by then I didn’t have to hold the seat and handlebars, just the seat. He is definitely getting it. A couple more times of this and he will ride away from me on his own, a new skill learned. I could see the confidence in his face after today’s session and I doubt that we will have anymore reluctance to try.

July 12, 2014
Let the Outings Begin

One week ago, right about now, we left Vienna, VA, grandson, son, daughter in law, and me. We have had grandson solo since Sunday afternoon. His daily routine here requires guitar practice, Kung Fu practice as he is missing those lessons this summer, a writing assignment and a math assignment as practice for weak skills and reinforcement for those skills that he does well. I supervise those practices first thing each morning right after breakfast unless the writing requires a library visit.

We told him that he would have some basic chores to do here at the house each day and for that, we would give him an allowance so that he has some spending money. He can earn extra money by going above and beyond his required chores. He is only 9, so nothing is too onerous or too difficult. We also told him that while he was here, we would do a series of outings and that with cooperation with his practices and chores, he could earn extra outings. Some of the outings planned can be repeated such as the county pool, batting cage, movie date with granddad. Others are ones that will only be done once, such as the one we did today. We drove to Roanoke, the nearest city, about an hour from home, leaving to be there at lunch time. The market square hosts a farmers market many days each week and we caught quite a number of farmers there today. On the market square, there is a hot dog counter and we though it doesn’t stand up to our favorite one from Virginia Beach, it was a delicious unhealthy lunch, followed with healthy purchases of fresh corn, tomatoes, potatoes and a watermelon. One stand had baked goods and we purchased a whole grain breakfast bread full of fruit, nuts, seeds and not too much real cane sugar.

After our lunch and the market we drove a few short blocks to the Virginia Transportation Museum. This was a fun adventure, bringing back many memories for me as I used to ride a Norfolk and Western train from Norfolk to Farmville to and from college. On display are locomotives, passenger cars, cabooses, old wagons, handpump firetrucks, and a trolley car. Inside the museum is a huge O gauge train set up, displays on bus transportation, train history, and air travel. It was a fun couple of hours spent with our grandson.

Back home, the last of the peas were harvested and the vines pulled for the chooks. The peas were shelled and cooked with the corn and some left over kabob beef and pork tenderloin for dinner. Once the clean up was done, some garden weeding and harvest of 76 heads of garlic, now drying for a day or two outside before the stems are clipped and they are moved to the wire shelves of the root cellar to finish drying.

That part of the bed will be cleaned up and planted with a second planting of bush beans within a day or two.

I love when the garden is producing and the local markets have produce that either we don’t grow or don’t have in ready in our garden yet.

I’m loving life on our mountain farm.

July 10, 2014
Pens, Dogs, and Chooks

Yesterday the sky grayed and the wind picked up, cooling the afternoon enough to tackle the outdoor chores. We had purchased a 50 foot roll of welded wire fencing on our way home from errands. One of our only town businesses is a hardware store. When we moved here, it was really aimed at farmers and was more a farm store. The owner sold it to return to farming and the new owner changed the focus to a more traditional hardware store, I guess to compete with Lowes and Home Depot two towns over in Genericia (our eldest son’s name for it). Unfortunately, he couldn’t complete and as he no longer drew the farmers, they went to Tractor Supply or Southern States two smaller towns over the opposite direction, he is going out of business. We got the fencing for a discount.

Once the day cooled, I pounded in the remainder of the T posts, strung the welded wire fence, securing the meat/cull chick pen. The chicken tractor still needs repair. I started installing the T post insulators to string the electric fence, but realized that the welded wire fencing wasn’t tight enough and the 2″ insulators were not long enough to hold the electric wire away from the welded wire fence. This morning, we bought a bag of 5″ insulators but as soon as we got home, the rains started so the installation will have to wait for another day. The rain was very necessary, so I can’t complain. We have had a high percentage chance of rain for weeks, but have gotten almost no rain.

Hopefully these measures will make the chooks secure from the 4 legged predator that got the 3 birds last week. With the freezer camp event on Friday, our egg production is way down, getting only one or two eggs a day until the new girls start laying.

A pen beside a pen and real gates. “Got treats?”

July 9, 2014
The Dentist

Not too many folks are fond of dental visits, unless you are the Bill Murray character in Little Shop of Horrors. My dentist isn’t like Orin Scrivello, actually he is a pleasant young man, but I still don’t like the visits.

My first day in Northern Virginia last week, I broke my left maxillary cuspid. The back of the tooth and the old metal filling stayed in place, the entire front of the tooth broke off. I wasn’t even eating something hard. I called my dentist and since I wasn’t getting home until very late Thursday night and since it was a holiday weekend, I couldn’t get an appointment until this morning. I called my son’s dentist in Vienna, but they suggested that if the tooth wasn’t bothering me, that it would be best for me to wait to see my own dentist as I would have to follow up with him anyway and that would incur double cost. I waited. Bright and early this morning I had my visit, left with a numb top lip, a hefty bill, a tooth that has had the metal filling removed, a tooth colored filling applied and built up to approximate a tooth and an appointment in August to have a crown, my 6th.

I was not blessed with hard tooth genes and unfortunately have passed the soft enamel on to all three of my children. Hubby on the other hand has granite teeth, but none of the our children got his tooth gene.

Since I didn’t eat breakfast due to morning farm chores and the early hour of the appointment, I could eat the couch right now, but I’m afraid I will have to wait a bit more time for the numbing to wear off so I don’t bite myself. I’m not a cannibal afterall.

On a more positive note, our first full day with grandson was full and rewarding. We got him a library card, signed him up for the summer reading club (he is a voracious reader at a level well above his 9 years, going in 4th grade level), we did his summer writing and math practice assignments, he practiced his guitar and kung fu without a fuss. His granddad let him watch part of a movie, they played baseball in the front yard, and they shot off some of the fireworks that were purchased prior to the 4th.

Today’s practices have been completed and we are going to go do some errands. We need a basketball for him to play with, a book in the Seven Wonders series is not in the local library chain so we will buy it for him and the pups need some supplies.

At some point soon, the fencing for the meat chicken run needs to be completed, the chicken tractor repaired from the dog damage and the electric fence extended around all of that. Today it is going up to 90ºf, too hot for outdoor labor. I will tackle some of it after it cools off this evening and work on it some in the morning before it gets too hot. Brown Dog hasn’t been back for more free chicken in a few days, or hasn’t been seen. Either they have him secured or our reinforcements, gates, and taller fence have discouraged him.

July 8, 2014