Tennyson and Chaucer.
Pretty as doves.
Drusus, Tennyson and Chaucer with the girls.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Chicken run, Milkweed and guacamole
Steve finished our chicken run! It is wonderful. We put them all out in it the other day and kept them up long enough for them to get settled. I have also been putting Sparrow in there with them for a few hours at a time. Phoebe, our beautiful, little, bunny-tailed cat struts around on the beams supporting the wire on the roof thinkin' she is 'all that'! I felt they had been cooped up long enough, so I carried them out one-by-one to let them run in our yard for the day despite the rain, so once again, I have chickie-poo on my front porch!
I think I need to get some climbing roses, scarlet runner beans, and clematis to plant all around the coop to climb up the wire. How lovely would that be?
My veggie garden is growing nicely. We have a new squash and several tomatoes we have never grown before from Tasteful Garden, an internet garden shop. We got peppers, watermelon, strawberries, carrots, and cucumbers from the local co-op. I have flowers in my favorite colors growing all around it. I have lots of geraniums on my porch this year. And in the blueberry garden I have coreopsis, catnip and liatris. I have been trying to move the established peonies out from under the pecan trees, it has gotten way too shady for them over the years.
I puppy-sat Milkweed, a tiny Chihuahua, for a week while his folks travelled to Colorado and back. He is so dear. Although I am a big dog person by nature, I can see how people get hooked on the tiny ones. I was practically in tears when Miguel came over to take him home.
Miguel stayed to have dinner with us. We had Burritos. Steve fixed a steak and onion filling. Steve and Miguel made a very delicious (but very hot) salsa verde. We chopped tomatoes, lettuce and jalapeño peppers to put on them and set out sour cream to add to them. I made guacamole. It was quite the complement when Miguel loved my guacamole because he is an excellent cook and is from Mexico!
Here is my guacamole recipe:
3 ripe avocados (black skin, firm texture)
1/2 lemon (squeeze for juice)
1/2 lime (squeeze for juice)
1/2 cup of your favorite chunky salsa (my favorite is Pace, mild)
1/2 a tomatilla (chopped)
Miguel says that if you put an avocado seed into the guacamole once it is make it will keep it from discoloring. I have never done this, but I am anxious to try it next time. I am also going to scrape the inside of the lemon and the lime next time for little bits of tart 'bite' - I love tart.
Mix it all together, chill.
Enjoy!
I think I need to get some climbing roses, scarlet runner beans, and clematis to plant all around the coop to climb up the wire. How lovely would that be?
My veggie garden is growing nicely. We have a new squash and several tomatoes we have never grown before from Tasteful Garden, an internet garden shop. We got peppers, watermelon, strawberries, carrots, and cucumbers from the local co-op. I have flowers in my favorite colors growing all around it. I have lots of geraniums on my porch this year. And in the blueberry garden I have coreopsis, catnip and liatris. I have been trying to move the established peonies out from under the pecan trees, it has gotten way too shady for them over the years.
I puppy-sat Milkweed, a tiny Chihuahua, for a week while his folks travelled to Colorado and back. He is so dear. Although I am a big dog person by nature, I can see how people get hooked on the tiny ones. I was practically in tears when Miguel came over to take him home.
Miguel stayed to have dinner with us. We had Burritos. Steve fixed a steak and onion filling. Steve and Miguel made a very delicious (but very hot) salsa verde. We chopped tomatoes, lettuce and jalapeño peppers to put on them and set out sour cream to add to them. I made guacamole. It was quite the complement when Miguel loved my guacamole because he is an excellent cook and is from Mexico!
Here is my guacamole recipe:
3 ripe avocados (black skin, firm texture)
1/2 lemon (squeeze for juice)
1/2 lime (squeeze for juice)
1/2 cup of your favorite chunky salsa (my favorite is Pace, mild)
1/2 a tomatilla (chopped)
Miguel says that if you put an avocado seed into the guacamole once it is make it will keep it from discoloring. I have never done this, but I am anxious to try it next time. I am also going to scrape the inside of the lemon and the lime next time for little bits of tart 'bite' - I love tart.
Mix it all together, chill.
Enjoy!
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Pepper
Yesterday, we sold sweet Pepper, our black Morgan/Quarter Horse mare. We needed to sell her since Steve wouldn't ride her. She went to a therapy riding, summer camp program out in Somerville near Shari's place. I am very glad for her. I believe, with her personality, she will enjoy it there, she will love the attention.
Her dark color compimented the lighter colored Fjords perfectly agaisnt the verdant pasture. I will miss her terribly, she was always a joy. /em wipes a tear away.
Her dark color compimented the lighter colored Fjords perfectly agaisnt the verdant pasture. I will miss her terribly, she was always a joy. /em wipes a tear away.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Spring chickens
My chicks are big enough to be called cockerels and pullets now. They are growing fast and they are beautiful. I still have all eleven chicks. Right now, the girls are at that age where they are much like little doves. They are perching on my hand like a pet cage bird and listening to my every word. So sweet. If you look down into the little pullets tail feathers you can see big rounded, black marked adult feathers coming out already. The boys are running about looking for someone to bump chests with and boss around.
I had a worrisome couple of days when I witnessed a long thread going down the gullet of one of my prettiest little pullets I saw her wrestling with it, trying to get it out with her claws. I picked her up and tried to pull it out, it came out a few inches then it tightened up and I dared not pull any further. I let go of the string and carried her around to try to find my garden scissors, and when I found them and moved to snip and shorten the length of thread, the tippy end of the thread was disappearing into her mouth! She moped around for a couple of days, I felt I would loose her for sure, then one morning she was all well. She lucked out there because I saw around 15 inches of thread go down, it could have done horrible damage.
Sparrow, my once lone little EE hen, is enjoying their company immensely. She spends her days lounging with them under the forsythia and digging through the leaves and old daffodil plants along the fence in the front yard with them. They are still a little wary of her and they don't follow her. They are starting to warm up to her though. I saw one running to her for comfort once after all her buddies had slipped around the corner of the house while the little chick was busy scratching for bugs in the garden.
Their run is finished! It is gorgeous. As soon as the nights warm up a bit, we are going to move their hutch into the pen to give them a nice familiar place to sleep at night in the new run until they get a little bigger. Now I have to figure out a way to get them from the run back to the yard during the day. Maybe we can work out a routine where I feed them in the run at night and in the yard in the morning.
One of little 'girls' is most definitely a little boy. He didn't start to color out until after we had him a few days. He is colored much more subtly than his brother who was well colored when we brought them home.
Two of my girls have yellow legs. That is just as well, because hopefully I can sell them with one of the boys which might make it easier to find him a home. I will be loath to give up any of them, even the ones who loose breed type.
I am very happy with my chicks. They are going to be lovely eye candy when they get grown up. They are so sweet and tame. They are flying up onto my shoulder, sometimes so many at once that they jostle for position. The most flighty ones are very tame in comparison to most chickens I have had. One day, when a little pullet was startled by a barking dog, she literally jumped right up into my arms! They are so dear.
Two things have the power to transport me into happiness ... the sound of horses peacefully munching hay and the sweet chip-chip song chickens make as they scratch in the garden for bugs.
I had a worrisome couple of days when I witnessed a long thread going down the gullet of one of my prettiest little pullets I saw her wrestling with it, trying to get it out with her claws. I picked her up and tried to pull it out, it came out a few inches then it tightened up and I dared not pull any further. I let go of the string and carried her around to try to find my garden scissors, and when I found them and moved to snip and shorten the length of thread, the tippy end of the thread was disappearing into her mouth! She moped around for a couple of days, I felt I would loose her for sure, then one morning she was all well. She lucked out there because I saw around 15 inches of thread go down, it could have done horrible damage.
Sparrow, my once lone little EE hen, is enjoying their company immensely. She spends her days lounging with them under the forsythia and digging through the leaves and old daffodil plants along the fence in the front yard with them. They are still a little wary of her and they don't follow her. They are starting to warm up to her though. I saw one running to her for comfort once after all her buddies had slipped around the corner of the house while the little chick was busy scratching for bugs in the garden.
Their run is finished! It is gorgeous. As soon as the nights warm up a bit, we are going to move their hutch into the pen to give them a nice familiar place to sleep at night in the new run until they get a little bigger. Now I have to figure out a way to get them from the run back to the yard during the day. Maybe we can work out a routine where I feed them in the run at night and in the yard in the morning.
One of little 'girls' is most definitely a little boy. He didn't start to color out until after we had him a few days. He is colored much more subtly than his brother who was well colored when we brought them home.
Two of my girls have yellow legs. That is just as well, because hopefully I can sell them with one of the boys which might make it easier to find him a home. I will be loath to give up any of them, even the ones who loose breed type.
I am very happy with my chicks. They are going to be lovely eye candy when they get grown up. They are so sweet and tame. They are flying up onto my shoulder, sometimes so many at once that they jostle for position. The most flighty ones are very tame in comparison to most chickens I have had. One day, when a little pullet was startled by a barking dog, she literally jumped right up into my arms! They are so dear.
Two things have the power to transport me into happiness ... the sound of horses peacefully munching hay and the sweet chip-chip song chickens make as they scratch in the garden for bugs.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
New baby chicks!
I found some nice well-bred Ameraucana chicks! I called a gentleman, who had the same lovely bloodlines I had before and lost in the drought, whose name is listed in the Ameraucana breeders list. He and his brother breed wheaten, blue wheaten, splash, black, and blue Ameraucanas. They have French Marans also. I didn't know if I would have the heart to try again with such beautiful birds, but once I got the ball rolling with some phone calls and emails I was thrilled! We drove to Chickamauga GA, through Chattanooga, and the battlefield, and the town both Steve's and my parents got married in (because it was like the Gretna Green of the Southern US after WWII), and through some of the loveliest countryside in the nation to pick them up.
Here is the breed's website: http://www.ameraucana.org/
We drove home with eleven little chicks peeping in a box. One is definately a wheaten cockerel, one other may be. One is a blue wheaten and I think it's a pullet. All the rest are beautiful wheaten pullets. Since I have one shot at a nice roo, maybe two shots, I am hoping he will be a nice one with clear golden, red and black colors, full beard and muffs, a nice shape and size and a nice typey comb.
I have them set up in a raised pen on my front porch where I spend a lot of time anyways reading, drinking coffee, cleaning saddles, and potting plants in nice weather. So today I planted ivy-leaved geraniums, lobelia and euphorbia in hanging baskets while little chicks peeped and pecked and explored the porch near me.
I was so excited to have brought home some buddies for lonely Sparrow, my one hen. Maybe with the new chicks she will stop trying to get into the house! I had all the little chicks loose under the forsythia bush They were having a blast peeping, pecking, flitting and bumping breasts. They learned how to dust their wings and hop up onto low branches. It was, perhaps, the first time they had ever run loose like that. Sparrow noticed them and started walking towards them seemingly fascinated. She stopped under the forsythia and talked a sweet chicken song. The little chicks gathered a few feet away from her, equally interested but a little unsure. Then one little chick responded to Sparrows coos and clucks and bravely walked up to her. They touched beaks ... awww. Then Sparrows beak darted out like a snake, pecking the tiny baby and making her squawk in fright and pain, and she ran back behind her little buddies. That will be a lesson remembered, I am sure! Maybe someday soon Sparrow will accept them and run with them.
Here is the breed's website: http://www.ameraucana.org/
We drove home with eleven little chicks peeping in a box. One is definately a wheaten cockerel, one other may be. One is a blue wheaten and I think it's a pullet. All the rest are beautiful wheaten pullets. Since I have one shot at a nice roo, maybe two shots, I am hoping he will be a nice one with clear golden, red and black colors, full beard and muffs, a nice shape and size and a nice typey comb.
I have them set up in a raised pen on my front porch where I spend a lot of time anyways reading, drinking coffee, cleaning saddles, and potting plants in nice weather. So today I planted ivy-leaved geraniums, lobelia and euphorbia in hanging baskets while little chicks peeped and pecked and explored the porch near me.
I was so excited to have brought home some buddies for lonely Sparrow, my one hen. Maybe with the new chicks she will stop trying to get into the house! I had all the little chicks loose under the forsythia bush They were having a blast peeping, pecking, flitting and bumping breasts. They learned how to dust their wings and hop up onto low branches. It was, perhaps, the first time they had ever run loose like that. Sparrow noticed them and started walking towards them seemingly fascinated. She stopped under the forsythia and talked a sweet chicken song. The little chicks gathered a few feet away from her, equally interested but a little unsure. Then one little chick responded to Sparrows coos and clucks and bravely walked up to her. They touched beaks ... awww. Then Sparrows beak darted out like a snake, pecking the tiny baby and making her squawk in fright and pain, and she ran back behind her little buddies. That will be a lesson remembered, I am sure! Maybe someday soon Sparrow will accept them and run with them.
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