Leaving On a Jet Plane

Even though I have posted like three times in the last three days, there will not be a return to regular blogging around here as I know you have all hoped. Nope, but I have a good excuse. We leave today for hotter, muggier, sandier, beachier places. Flying down to Florida to spend the week at the beach with C's family. I'll try not to have too much fun while you all wait patiently for my return, on our nation's birthday celebration. That would not be fair, after all. If I do, accidentally, inadvertently, mistakenly, have a great time, I'll console you with great pictures and fun stories when I get back. Yes, I left you last year and promised pictures and stories when I got back and I never got them to you. I'm terribly sorry and I did not want to have to admit this, but it was not because I had no fun. Oh no, much fun was had, I am ashamed to admit. It was really rather shameless, except for the shame, of course. Anyhoo, see you next week and try not to cry too hard when there are no posts tomorrow and the next day and the next day... Chin up! I shall return.

Oh! Chicken update: nobody got past my super duper reinforcements last night! Yahooo! Let's hope my brother does not have to find any less than four chickens in the tractor while I am gone. That would be a real shame.

ARRRRRRRRRRRGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!

That is the sound I make this morning as I look out the kitchen door towards the garden and the chicken tractor as I do each morning to count chicken heads but today I see no chickens out and the door bent inward just enough to allow some beasty to get in to my babies so I rush out to them and find four still there all clucking to me as if they had quite a tale to tell of the night and the taking away of one of their sisters. This is the second one to be stolen from me by what I suspect was a raccoon based on the numerous footprints on the roof and all over the door that I find each morning but the first was taken through an opening in the roost for ventilation that I failed to secure to prevent just such an event as occurred. Imagine sleeping peacefully on your roost and all of a sudden a nasty little hand reaches in to your safe or so you thought little home and snatches you away to become dinner, I don't want to think about it and besides I am mad as all get out about some raccoon eating MY egg making babies and that raccoon getting the meat I was going to serve my family some day in a few years as a nice pot of chicken noodle soup so he did not just take one, now two, chickens from me he took oodles of yummy eggs and at least two lovely dinners some cold winter nights with my family and yes I see the irony as eventually I would be snatching that same chicken off her roost and slitting her throat but at least she would go fast and I would be gentle and it is just not fair.

Ok, I feel better now. Farming sucks sometimes.

Tour by A

This is a video shot by A. I think she was wanting to send it to her friends in Vegas to show them around the new place, but I thought it was too cute to not share with all of you. Please excuse the dizzy-making camera skills. Oh, and the mess in my entry!

First of the Season

What do you have for dinner after a day of picking gorgeous organic strawberries at the farm?

Why, Strawberry Shortcake, of course! Made with cream and butter from a local dairy, flour we ground ourselves, and those lovely berries we picked.

Yum! Tee hee, this is what three girls do when Daddy is out of town...

Although, now that I think about it, he would probably want Strawberry Shortcake for dinner sometime, too. Good thing we got lots of strawberries!

It's Good to Have Friends

You know how I was so impatient for all my plans to come to fruition a while back? Well, things are progressing along, but one area has jumped ahead and I can say with lots of confidence that I have this in my life now: good friends. Yes, I still have all my old friends from childhood and Las Vegas and all our other adventures and I plan to keep 'em. But now I can say I have a group of great friends here in Ithaca (and the surrounding areas, including PA)! And the girls can say the same. If we never met another person the whole rest of our time here (forever!), I would feel full of friendship. That, however, seems impossible. I just keep meeting new people who I want to keep! The tide has turned, it seems. I imagine it will just keep getting better and better. Yay!

Home to Roost!

Yes, I have been MIA for a few weeks around this here blog, but I have been busy. Busy building a home for my babies. Who are not really babies anymore. They still have some growing to do, but all feathered out they look like grown up chickens now. And now that they get to live outside and scratch and peck in the grass all day they are some happy girls. And one boy, who so far is a nice boy and we plan to keep him, especially if he plays nice and helps a hen go broody to make more chickens. If I want eggs and meat it would be great to have a self perpetuating system of new chicken production. And nobody raises baby chicks better than mama hen.

Ok, on to the tractor. Here is the whole thing, set up next to the garden:

Above the open grass area is a roosting box on the left and a nesting box with two nests for laying eggs on the right. You can see the two openings for the nests, which are blocked off right now since nobody is old enough to lay any eggs yet.

This view shows the door to the roost. They get up there just by flying up to the bars I put there for them. They also like to hang out up there sometimes.
This is the access door for the food and water containers. The rocks are holding some mesh in place to discourage digging predators. The other three sides have it in place already but I have not added it to this side because the door construction didn't allow for me to extend the mesh down. I will staple some in place soon because moving it around could get annoying and it won't be as effective until it is attached. I plan to leave the tractor here next to the garden for a while and let the chickens dig it up as much as they like since this spot will be a future flower/herb/medicinal plant bed outside the fence for the veggie garden. Otherwise, the tractor will be moved to fresh grass every other day or so. This will keep the grass from being over-fertilized and over-scratched, and provide fresh bugs and grass for the chickens to dine on.

This is a view of the sliding door to the nesting boxes. It is all set to go for when the girls are ready to lay. Which is what this whole adventure is really about - farm fresh eggs!

I had fun piecing this tractor together from what wood I had on hand, pretty much. It was a challenge to do the design not from pie in the sky materials but what I had in front of me. I like it better that way. In some ways it is harder, but I actually find it easier in ways. Easier to limit the possibilities and just go with what works, here and now. Of course, it ended up looking like I pieced it together from what I had on hand! But I like it. And so do the chickens.

Funny story. I now know why no one ever says "smart as a chicken". The first night came and none of the chickens had figured out how to get up to the roost. Being the mother hen that I am, I gently picked them all up and placed them one by one on to the roost inside the box (the roof comes off to make that task easy, not to mention cleaning out the box). I figured if they woke up in the morning light and could not figure out how to get down and out of the box, there was no help for them! So, first night went well. C even woke up to pee in the middle of the night and snuck out to check on them! Next night, the dusk was falling fast and little rooster starts up a distress type call, trying to do his job of protecting the flock. He knew it was time to find shelter for the night, but that is where his help ended. I went over and tried to show them the way back to the roost to no avail. Each one I put up there would go right back out again. C told me to let them alone and see what they would do. Eventually they all made it in, but not without a lot of worrying from this mama hen. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they will figure it out tonight!

UPDATE: All six chickens made it into the roost tonight without my help! It only took 'em four nights!

A Little Perspective

Honestly! Can somebody stop this train wreck? I want off!

I Am NOT a Morning Person

But when I wake up before dawn and cannot go back to sleep, no matter how much I want to, I might as well get up. So, out with the camera I went to capture the morning, or try to anyway.

I am not a morning person, but on mornings like this, I can enjoy one like I am. Don't I live in a beautiful place?