Day Off

Today I had no energy and felt exhausted. (Kristine did too) So I took the day off. Kristine says we are just now feeling the after effects of the fox attack. I suppose so.

I didn't see it, but Kristine said when the fox attacked the chickens came running to the house and up on the porch. Pretty smart chickens!

The two that the fox almost caught ran away and hid for awhile.

The chickens are still locked up, the wounded Buff Orpington is healing, and the sprouts must be close to finished? I must say that they don't look very appetizing.

It may rain so even the chicken feed is inside. Poor chickens. They really are not happy having to stay in their pen, but the fox is still around. Morgan ran him out of the yard again today.

It is hard to tell but the oaks are getting ready to celebrate Spring with some new green leaves.

We may have some winter weather before Spring comes to stay.

I have been watching Lord Peter Wimsey (I like Edward Petherbridge as LPW) shows on YouTube. I would like to get them on DVD.

Peek at the Past

(March 24, 2009)

Australia?

[5 eggs today]

~:>

Smiles

First Day of Spring and I'm Sifting Dirt!

Happy First Day of Spring! 

I got myself outside today and started the dirt sifting process. I think this is going to take longer than it did to put together the Hugelkultur bed.

The shoveling, bending and pushing on the dirt is harder than working on making the bed. Who knew?

The screen door is coming in handy again. I shoveled some of the leaf compost on the screen and then pushed the dirt around and about half of the scoop goes through the screen.

The dirt that goes through the screen feels like flour! I really don't know what the dirt should be like. Maybe I should put some of the small stuff back in the "flour?"

The rest is sticks, stones, acorns, and odd bits. I was hoping to be able to dig the leaf compost and use it as is, but there is too much "stuff" in it still.

The chickens and Morgan come by every now and then to check on me. They probably wonder what I'm doing playing in the dirt.

I just went to check on the lentils, pulled up the towel, and wonder of wonders there are tiny little sprouts! I was going to toss them tomorrow and really didn't hold out any hope for the lentils ever sprouting.

I'll let them grow some and then feed them to the chickens. I guess these lentils like to grow on a moist towel rather than in the jar of water.

Peek at the Past

(March 20, 2009)

(6 eggs today)

~:>

Smiles

Sprouts Day Two And A Night

It was sunny today! Soon those oaks will have tiny green leaves. We are going to be having warm days for at least a week.

Kristine brought home the latest Foreigner book by C. J. Cherryh, so I'm going to post this and then go to bed and read for a while and then hopefully go to sleep early so I can get up early and work outside tomorrow.

Kristine is searching the internet for information about grants or fellowships for undergraduates. Not an easy job at all to find the information you want. There are lots of sites that will take your money  to find grants. I think I will be spending a lot of time doing my own searching for grants.

Sometimes chickens hang out together. The Buff Orpington and Dark Brahma are friends.

They looked like they were dancing the chicken dance in the first photo.



They ate the lettuce I gave them and then they came over to the slider and spent some time watching us! 

I guess that is only fair since we spend time watching them.

The sprouts still look the same and today is not really day three because I started the sprouts in the evening,  so this is really more of a day two. I did cover the jar with a kitchen towel because I read that the sprouts do better in a dark environment.

I was afraid to hide the jar away in a cupboard because I might forget about it and bad moldy things would happen.

I made breakfast (bacon and blueberry pancakes) for for dinner again. 

Peek at the Past

(March 15, 2009)

I don't keep food lists anymore.

[8 eggs today]

~:>

Smiles

Sprouts Day Two

Morgan napping on the porch today taking a break.

She has been doing a lot of barking today and yesterday.

Guess she is tired out from all the excitement.

Second day of the lentil sprouting experiment. I put a paper napkin on top because the lid doesn't close all the way.

I rinsed the lentils twice today with the filtered water. The water does get mirky in between rinsing. I did a little more reading and evidently the rinsing is important to keep the sprouts from molding.

Duh... I could have figured that out when I saw the mold. So, I need to rinse for a good reason, not just to keep the water looking clear and sparkly. OK

Little Messy Missy asked for a close up photo of my egg basket. So, here is a link to a picture (My egg basket when the chickens were young and laying lots of eggs.) Those were the days!

It is going to be in the 60's tomorrow! I can see myself actually getting something done outside. I'm very glad there will be some warm weather.

Peek at the Past

(March 14, 2009)

Country Mouse

I suppose we have mice around here,

but this is the only time I have seen one or any evidence.

Maybe we have sneaky mice?

I still have and use the Photo Drop widget. I found it originally at Apple dashboard widgets but I don't see it there anymore. I suppose if you really wanted it you could find it on the internet somewhere. I'm afraid to download stuff from sites I don't know. 

(4 eggs today)

~:>

Smiles

Sprouts

The sun is out today and the chickens are happy.  I collected two eggs this morning and had them for breakfast.

These six were waiting for me this afternoon.

The coop is wet and muddy and yet these eggs are in fairly clean condition.

I decided to try out sprouting the lentils I had in the cupboard. I sorted out the damaged lentils, didn't find any rocks, and rinsed the lentils with tap water.

Then I put them in a jar with water from the refrigerator that has been through the filter.

Lately the tap water has had a very strong chlorine smell so I have been using the filtered water from the refrigerator.

My thinking behind using the tap water for the first rinse was to use it to clean off any buggy type things with the scary water.

We are the last house on the road. I have heard that that can cause the water to have a concentrated smell of chlorine. I know I should call and find out what kind of chlorine they use for treating the water.

The old type of chlorine would dissipate if left to sit out a day or two, but I have read that the new form of chlorine in use in some places will not.  

It is kind of hard for me to believe that these lentils are actually going to sprout. I mean, they look so dead and dried out and they have been in that package for who knows how long.

The plan is that I change the water twice a day until I have sprouts to eat and share with the chickens. It will be so neat if they actually do something!

I have a lot of blogs that I follow and I try to read them at least once a week or more often. I was very surprised today to read that Lee at Central Coast Gardening (gardeningwithchickens) mentioned me in her blog. She is working on setting up another blog just about chickens. I enjoy reading her blog about gardening (I used to live on the central coast of California) and her chickens. I got the idea for my chicken ladder roost from her blog!

When I write this blog I try to write just as if I was talking to my daughter and friends sharing my thoughts with them and putting down thoughts as if I was writing a journal for my grandkids to read someday. They may not be interested in my blog, but maybe their kids will want to read it?

I sure wish I had something like this that my Great Grandmother Callie Clarinda Meeks wrote that I could read. I know that all the everyday things that she did would make fascinating reading for me.

Peek at the Past

(March 13, 2009)

Google Maps!

[8 eggs today]

I ate two!

~:>

Smiles