More Lettuce, Please?

It's OK, Curly, you can have the lettuce. Curly the Cochin is so cute. I think she thought I was going to throw some more lettuce out on the porch. No. That's it. There's more over there and tomatoes to the right out of sight. One of the Light Brahmas came in the house to get a piece of lettuce I dropped. Brave hen. I love having chickens on the porch. I wonder if I put nest boxes on the porch by the slider if they would lay their eggs up here. Something to try next year.

These two hens (a Light Brahma and an Australorp) were talking to me quietly and following me on my walk. I know they want more lettuce. They weren't excited though because I didn't have any plastic bags with me. If I had plastic they would be jumping up and pecking at the bag and making a lot of noise. They make the softest cooing clucking sounds. So soothing.

To help winterize the chicken coop I finally covered the screen door with an old plastic corrugated panel. This year I was smart and remembered I had put the screws back in the holes when I took it off in the Spring, so when I went to put the plastic up I didn't have to go hunting for screws. Sounds like a small thing, but I was happy. The panel had fallen over and was covered with leaves and dirt. I knocked off the worst and put it on the door. At least the plastic will keep the wind from whistling through the coop. Morgan was happy I was outside spending time with her and doing stuff.

While walking around I thought I would take a photo of the heavy acorn fall that has been happening the last couple of weeks. The ground everywhere under the oak trees is covered like in the photo. Since people around here seem to think that all these acorns mean there is going to be an extra cold winter I went searching online for some confirmation and came up with this Wilderness Way site and this Farmers Almanac page. Acorns are on the list. We'll see.

Kitchen update: The end of the counter is 80% finished! Hope to finish it up tomorrow and start on the rest of the finish work ...sanding and painting. Yea!

[3 eggs today]

I just came back in from the chicken coop feed shuffle.

A very slight light rain has started and stopped

so I put the chicken feed inside the coop.

I hope it really rains!

It is supposed to snow tonight up at 7000 feet.

Smiles

~:>

Girls Day Out

Kristine and I went shopping today for books. She ended up with two books about Japanese Kan'ji, although all she originally wanted was a Kan'ji dictionary. It wasn't me who talked her into buying an extra book that showed how the character sounds relate to shapes we know. I wouldn't do that. ;)

I am so happy to finally have the last book of The Sharing Knife, Horizon, here, by Lois McMaster Bujold, and I also got an audio book, The Graveyard Book, here, by Neil Gaiman. 

Then we went to Best Buy and got printer ink and Movies! Well, I got the ink and she got the movies, but I get them next! I like to watch them on my Mac. The picture is great and with my headphones on there are no distractions. 

After shopping we were tired and hungry,

so...

Kristine treated me to lunch at

this Chinese restaurant.

The price was very reasonable, and there was lots of very good food.

You don't go away hungry from this place!

And no MSG!

They were so nice they even sold me a box of their house tea.

I'm drinking a cup even as I post this.

Soothing tea.

Yesterday, I said I was going to tell you about a rock.

I will.

But first, we have to have some acorns for props.

I cracked one so you could see the lovely nut inside, and I found

some of the tops and stuck them back on so you could see how they look in the trees.

OK...

You peeked!

And of course you know what this is, but I'll tell you anyway.

My brother and his wife built our house (we bought the place when they retired) and one of the neat things my brother did was build a water feature. He got a bunch of rocks and piled them up into a mound at one end of the area for the water to flow over and down, and also made a small dry stream. One day I was moving the rocks around and I found the big rock first and then the small one. Surprise! 

I was a docent at a museum, and one of the things we demonstrated for the school children was how the local indians made acorn flour using rock mortars and pestles. This site, here, will give you a general idea of how the indians used rock areas for pounding until they deepened them into actual holes.

In the museum we had individual rocks like mine that can be moved even though they are heavy. At Castle Rock State Park I remember seeing a largely flat area that was really the top of a huge outcrop of rock. It was covered with what are called bedrock mortars. Holes in the rock made by the indians pounding acorns to make flour. The women (and children too,) would sit in large groups and make flour. Here is a site that tells how to make acorn flour.

I can't prove that these rocks were a "pair," but they fit together so well, the shape of the pestle fits your hand so comfortably, and the end is rounded from what looks like pounding.

I think they are a match!

I'm very glad to have them.

Since it was late when we got back

I thought I would check out the chickens sleeping arrangements.

Looks like two of the girls have opted for a wood shavings mattress,

 while the other 16 ladies roost.

That one hen doesn't seem to mind the wire I put up at all.

I guess these four rate a separate bedroom.

Or they are outcasts?

There is room for them on the other side.

Smiles