Congratulations! It's a girl, a girl, a girl and another girl...we hope!

What could be in this box?

Surprise! 

We got four pullets today. They are 8 weeks old and we got them at Empire Farm in Poland (ain't Craig's List great?). There is a Rhode Island Red, a Leghorn, a Golden Comet, and a Black Sex link.  The Black Sex link is already named Little Jane after HE's aunt, but we are open to suggestions for the other three.  They seem very sweet and curious.  And so is Abby.  It's like she has totally forgotten she grew up with chickens.  She is VERY interested in these girls.

Here are some photos of their digs.

If all goes well, they should start laying eggs by August.

This will definitely be on my updated resume.

Homogeny is genocide; diversity is the stuff and the staff of life. 


This is a line from the book Bringing Food Home; the Maine Example by Merry Stetson Hall, 2009.

It pertains to the mutual benefits enjoyed by apprentices and seasoned farmers, but I feel like it sums up how I have approached my work-life and quest for "right livelihood".  I always feel compromised by financial need and self doubt and constrained by my conformist, nuclear family values driven left brain while my creative, rogue, dirt under my nails, fuck the  (oftentimes a broken and spiritually diminishing) system, right brained self is rattling a tin cup against the bars calling for the guard.

Hence, my long, illustrative list of resume filler: kennel assistant, summer camp counselor (specializing in tennis, land sports, and arts and crafts), cross country ski shop assistant, knitting machine operator, recreation assistant, administrative assistant, human services worker, homemaker's assistant,  brain injury residential specialist, home health scheduler, psychiatric technician, licensed therapist, Honda car sales, vending machine owner, community corrections case manager, telemarketing, advertising account exec. (radio and print), closet systems designer, time share sales, CNA( again) for home health and assisted living, HHA for hospice, bereavement coordinator.
Volunteer for animal welfare society, hospice, Habitat for Humanity.  Classes in graphic design, architecture, copywriting, creative writing, permaculture, organic farming...

Truly, diversity is the stuff of my life and may it ever continue to be so, I just hope my next benefactor (read employer) will see the value of experience, no matter how wide ranging.  Or perhaps I will land on a rarefied patch of this green earth and co-create a community of like-minded benefactors and fugitives from "the norm".

Let's hope.

Who knew gardening was so exhausting?

Some Interesting Chicken Facts

I went to a "poultry class" tonight at Farmer's Paris Union. I won a door prize of a chicken waterer!  I also learned that a chicken's closest relation is a T-Rex, a yolk is a follicle, hens are born with a set number of eggs (just like human females), an unrefrigerated egg is good for 6 days, the color of a hens earlobes indicate what color eggs she lays, and the shade can be determined by the leg color.

Fascinating!

Some of the Many Faces of Miss Maisie

Chicken Coop News

We got our permit for our coop and our chickens today!  I feel downright giddy.

Anniversary

My father died four years ago today.  He went quietly and hopefully, peacefully, in his sleep. I learned a lot of things from him-just wish I'd seen the value when he was still here, but that seems to be part of our human nature, doesn't it.

There is not a day goes by that I don't invoke him somehow...in prayer, a figure of speech, a retelling of a bad joke. And I wonder what he would have thought of Maisie, our wedding, our house, my desire for a more agrarian livelihood...


Make the most of the time you have with the people you have.  Other things can wait.

Donald Richard Thompson, 1932-2006

This photo Mayfield, New York circa 1963

Hawk!

We had another visit from a feasting bird of prey today.  He was on the front lawn having a tartare of Mourning Dove.  He stayed within 20 feet of me and then took the dove across the street to complete the deed in the shelter of an evergreen tree.  I believe it was either a Cooper's or a Sharp Shinned Hawk.

COOPER'S HAWK

SHARP -SHINNED HAWK

Our chickens will be mostly under cover, but I had entertained the idea of using a small chicken tractor for garden gleaning and pest control, but am re-thinking the security options of this set up. Maybe these aren't so over the top after all.

Urban Grange Range and More

The 2010 garden is coming together nicely. We received a load of super soil from Benson's Farm as a wedding gift, we have a rototiller guy coming Friday to expand the garden and do some additional beds, we are moving ahead with chickens and have a coop design and builder ready to go after we get the permits and seedlings galore (basil, tomato, broccoli, peppers, zinnia, and morning glories).

D-O-G has L-Y-M-E

Found out last week during a routine yearly blood test that Abby has Lyme disease and Anaplasma, another tick-born disease. She has been acting unusual (even for her) and having a variety of minor and seemingly unrelated symptoms...now we know. She is on an round of doxycycline.

An Adult Night Out

In celebration of our Easter and our birthdays we went here to see The Jay Unger and Molly Mason Family Band.  It was the first night we have been out together alone past 9 p.m. in over two years! Yee-Ha!!!

Mike Meranda, Molly Mason, Jay Unger and Ruthy Unger Meranda

During this song you could have heard a pin drop.

An Easter Miracle

Does the Easter Bunny's shadow trump Puxatawney Phil's?  I think so as we have had warm, balmy weather and thunder storms. Tonight, I walked the dog in shirt sleeves.