Clouds

I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers,

From the seas and the streams;

I bear light shade for the leaves when laid

In their noonday dreams.

From my wings are shaken the dews that waken

The sweet buds everyone, ...

~ The Cloud - Percy Bysshe Shelley

I'm thankful for clouds.

One day when Kristine was very small she came into the kitchen and took me by the hand and pulled at me to get me to follow her out onto the deck. She couldn't talk yet, but she pointed up at the beautiful clouds that filled the sky. She had discovered clouds.

Kristine spent yesterday cleaning her room and moving furniture. I'm almost back together. Still no rain. The chickens are fine. Morgan stepped in something stinky and she scratched and got it on her neck. Ick. Kristine was going to get pizza, but that didn't happen. I've been doing laundry all day and trying to stay awake. Early to bed.

[4 eggs today]

Smiles

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My Black Hen

My Black Hen

Hickety, pickety, my black hen,

She lays eggs, for gentlemen;

Gentlemen come every day,

To see what my black hen does lay,

Sometimes nine and sometimes ten,

Hickety, pickety, my black hen.

I'm thankful we have our chickens!

I love old nursery rhyme and fairy tale books. I used to always ask for fairy tale books for my birthdays and I especially loved the ones with beautiful illustrations by Parrish or Rackham.

I haven't seen nine or ten eggs for quite a while. Last year the hens adjusted to the weather and light change and did quite well laying through the winter. Don't know how they are going to do this year.

My brother and Sandy had chickens when we moved here. Kristine is the one who wanted to get chicks and she researched and found the heritage chickens she thought would be best for this local. She recently found another breed (Delaware) she and I like that would do well here. I like that they are prolific egg layers and are docile and calm. They are also supposed to be rare, so I don't know how hard it will be to find some chicks. We don't need anymore chickens now, but when the time is right we will be getting some Delaware hens. At least we will try to find them.

This silly Light Brahma is in a dither because all the other hens have left the coop and she has had a lapse of memory and can't figure out how to get out. Perhaps it's a visual thing? She watched all the hens run past out the door and she tried to get through the chicken wire to follow them. She finally calmed down and flew down and went around and out the coop door. Maybe molting has made her a little ditzy.

[no eggs today]

Smiles

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Wild Lake

So lovely was the loneliness

Of a wild lake, with black rock bound,

And the tall pines that tower'd around.

~ Edgar Allan Poe - The Lake

I am grateful for the lake.

For water, oceans, lakes and puddles.

I haven't been to visit this lake for a few years.

Another chickens in the woods photo.

There was a bit of rain last night which made everything nice and damp. Not enough rain to make puddles, but some rain is a lot better than no rain. I'm still getting rid of the migraine after effects.

[2 eggs today]

Smiles

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Thank You

Democracy is two wolves and a lamb

voting on what to have for lunch.

Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!

~ Benjamin Franklin

To all Veterans

Thank you!

Tall Trees

"My leaves are turning crimson," the giant oak tree said,

"It's almost time these children should seek their winter's bed,

But how they still cling to me and gleam with crimson hue,

They truly are more lovely than cirrus clouds of blue.

Winifred Sackville Stoner, Jr. - A Song of the Woods

I love and am grateful for the seasons.

I can't get all of these trees into one photo

without backing far away and then they just look like regular trees.

I thought I would try two photos to try and give an idea of their height. The bottom photo also shows the greenhouse and the woodshed. The top of the pine tree is not able to be seen from this angle.

This is a photo I took on Sunday.

I'm using old photos because I slept the day away because of a migraine. Phooey. All my painting plans are put off until tomorrow. I hope that will work out ok. We had leftovers tonight. I just heated up whatever I could find in the fridge. Think I'm going to go back to bed.

[3 eggs today]

Rain tomorrow. 80% chance.

Smiles

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Apple Picking

An apple a day

Sends the doctor away

Apple in the morning

Doctor's warning

Roast apple at night

Starves the doctor outright

Eat an apple going to bed

Knock the doctor on the head

Three each day, seven days a week

Ruddy apple, ruddy cheek

~ Nursery Rhyme

I'm grateful for apples.

Well, really I'm grateful for all the good things we have available to eat.

Yesterday I went out to check on the apple tree and found there were still a few apples.

Most of the apples had fallen and been eaten.

I knocked a few more off trying to get to some apples on high branches.

This was the best apple I found. The others looked alright until I turned them over and found they had been worm eaten or badly bird damaged. I don't know what type of apple tree this is but the apple tasted like a Granny Smith or Pippin. It had some sweetness to it and was crunchy. If I could get to the apples before the animals I bet they would make a great pie.

I got the storage/in between space ready for painting. There is still the old refrigerator taking up room. I wish it was out of there. It is a neat side by side, but it costs way more to run than the new one we have. I pushed it towards the middle of the room so I can get to the wall. I still need to get the spider webs down that are on the tall ceiling. I'll have to get the big ladder in there.

Painting is OK out there because I can shut the area off from the rest of the house so the paint fumes won't bother Kristine. At least I hope they won't. I was thinking that maybe I could paint in the kitchen if I just painted small areas at a time. Maybe?

[no eggs today]

Tom got the chickens another pumpkin today.

The chickens aren't eating much of their feed.

I guess they have found some good things to eat in the woods.

Smiles

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Happy Hens

Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul.

And sings the tune

Without the words,

and never stops at all.

~ Emily Dickinson, 1830-1886

I'm thankful for Hope.

The hens are stuffed with melon. Some of them came up on the porch and ate melon pieces and then left for better pickings in the woods. This poor molting Light Brahma came back to this cantaloupe and had it all to herself. She looks bad but she is growing in a lot of pin feathers. Now all three of the Light Brahmas are molting. The plastic is covering up firewood for the wood stove.

The chickens went to this sunny spot in the woods.

I walked around back there under the trees and it is warm and peaceful.

I almost stepped on this Wyandotte. It wasn't as light as it looks in the photo and the sun was shining in my eyes. The photo shows how fast the dirt dries out after two light rains. This hen was nice and warm and didn't get up when I got closer to take the photo. I watched the hens dust bathe and found that some of them peck in the dirt and find things to eat as they lay in the depression and kick and dig and fluff their feathers in the dust. I didn't realize they ate and dusted at the same time. Smart little hens.

This photo is here just for fun and laughs. I made buttermilk pancakes for Kristine this morning and for some reason the last pancake was thicker on one side and didn't cook through. So this was my solution. It was just uncooked on the end. When the girls were little I used to have a lot of fun making animal shape pancakes. I got this no side iron skillet a few years ago and it makes flipping pancakes so much easier than using the sided skillets. Sometimes I use it for tortillas or as a lid for the dutch oven or other skillets.

It was very nice talking to Kathleen tonight!

[no eggs today]

Smiles

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Living In The Sticks

Got no check books, got no banks.

Still I'd like to express my thanks -

I got the sun in the morning and the moon at night.

~ Irving Berlin - from Annie Get Your Gun

I'm thankful for being retired up here in the mountains.

Iphoto is being weird today and hiding the photos I took today in yesterdays group and leaving today's date group blank. By the time I found out what happened I had already loaded some other photos from days gone by. I think the date thing got messed up when I charged the battery. This is another lookout view. I'd like to see some snow on those mountain tops in the distance soon.

I like gate pictures. There is something about gate, path or road photos that capture my imagination and bring back memories. I've made up a few stories about them. Sometimes I think that bloggers are writers at heart and blogging is a way to soothe the need to create.

I took this photo this morning after another light rain. I was trying to capture how the rain had caused the leaves to reflect their true colors instead of the dusty brown I usually see. Lots of pine show up in this photo, but the oaks are there. They are just way taller than the pines. I cut out most of the underbrush and still need to carry away fallen branches. I'll do that when they stop falling out of the trees.

Kristine brought home a big bag of organic chicken feed that will hopefully provide better nutrition for the molting hens and help them grow their feathers back. The organic feed is over twice the cost of the regular lay we usually buy. The feed store must have just started carrying the organic feed because we have asked for it before. Hope the chickens like the new feed. The instructions recommend feeding only the organic feed. So, we'll try that and see how it works.

[4 eggs today]

Their pumpkin is in small pieces.

Smiles

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Loafing

It is impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly

unless one has plenty of work to do.

~ Jerome K. Jerome

I'm grateful for rest, time-off, relaxing, fun, me-time.

It rained a little bit last night, but not enough to get the deck wet under the trees and it didn't even get the chicken feed damp. It was a cold, damp day and stuff was still falling out of the trees. So, with that as an excuse I took the day off and stayed inside, played on the computer and made stew. And I have to add that knowing I have lots of stuff to do and not doing any of it did add to the loafing experience.

Later in the day I heard a bunch of thud type noises I thought were either more stuff hitting the roof or the stew was doing something strange on the stove. When I went to check, I found a chicken pecking away at bits of carrot ends I had tossed on the porch with the peelings. Noisy little hen. Morgan was interested too. Don't know if she actually ate any carrots. Maybe?

I took my camera with me when I went to unlock the gate for Kristine and was happy to see that some of the trees actually had some color. We haven't had a frost yet so this is a surprise. There is a new layer of leaves covering everything. I don't think even half the leaves have fallen.

Today when I made stew I added lentils to all the regular ingredients. I used one cup and cooked them before I added the lentils along with the water I cooked them in to the stew. Kristine loves lentils and I have to say that they made the stew thicker and I like the lentil flavor. Next time I would like to add the uncooked lentils to the stew and see how that works. I know I will have to check on it more often to make sure the lentils don't soak up all the liquid. Don't want burned stew. More photos of my easy wood stove beef stew.

Kristine brought home two loaves of French bread yesterday, so I didn't make biscuits. A lady Kristine knows was given a lot of loaves and she gave two to Kristine. Good thing I didn't buy bread.

[1 egg today]

Smiles

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Treasure For Some

For a short time we lived quietly.

But this could not last.

White men had found gold in the mountains...

~ Chief Joseph

I am grateful for the mountains.

Took this photo from my favorite lookout spot on the way home from the dentist. The rain seems to be passing us by headed east somewhere. I love these mountains and yes there is gold out there. I often think about the Indian tribes who lived here and who lost their homes. It looks so peaceful now and there was so much sorrow. I don't think people would have bothered the Indians so soon if not for the gold. But they would have come for the timber eventually. Well, then there were new diseases, the bigoted, and the religious who came to save them and ended up wiping them out. The Indians didn't have much of a chance.

I tried to train a climbing rose to cover the ladder, but I don't think there is enough sun and the rose is barely growing leaves. So, I'm going to cut the rose bush back, clean off the ladder and train the ivy to cover the ladder. At least I know the ivy can grow there under the huge pine tree. I'm glad the ivy is covering the top of the fence. I want a green wall. The oak leaves are finally getting some color.

Chickens in the woods.

Two Light Brahmas, two Australorps, an Orpington

and I think that is a Wyandotte back there

or it could be another Australorp.

PS ~ I have no idea how many people read this bog or if they ever look on the sidebar and check out the blogs I read. But, there is a blogger (Chickens In The Road) who could use some votes to get a job she really wants and needs. Here's why. It would only take a click to help make her dream come true. Click Vote here to go to the page to vote.

[3 eggs today]

Low on chicken feed. No corn.

Smiles

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Mending Fence

I let my neighbour know beyond the hill;

And on a day we meet to walk the line

And set the wall between us as we go.

~ Robert Frost - Mending Wall

I'm grateful for good neighbors.

Kristine let Morgan out this morning before she fed her and Morgan was gone. Kristine called her. I called her. No Morgan. Finally Kristine had to leave for work and I went out walking the fence line calling and looking for Morgan. I thought maybe a tree had fallen and knocked the fence down and Morgan had left for parts unknown. As I was walking and checking the fence I noticed several places where the barbed wire was loose or broken. Eventually, I found Morgan staring up at the tops of some trees. Entranced. Wonder what was up there? She doesn't miss breakfast for squirrels. And she was quiet. Not one bark.

Later I hauled some tools out to the fence to do some repair work and Kristine came by with the chicken killer. Lucky is Tom's dog. After the chicken incident, Lucky spends most of his time inside with Tom. We used to let him run around when the chickens were locked up, but he went over the fence one day and went after my neighbors goats. So that was the end of that. Inside! I would need an eight foot anchor fence to keep that dog on the property. As it says in the poem Mending Wall, "Good fences make good neighbours."

My brother built this fence and had to put extra supports in the area shown in the photo because at that time there were people around here who would drive their cars through peoples fences. The area around here is pretty much fenced now and there are even some paved roads, so there haven't been anymore cars smashing the fence down. Now I just have to worry about the trees falling on the fence. Well, there was the time a bunch of horses got loose in a storm and knocked the back fence down. You never know.

When I was a kid I lived in an area that had stone fences that had been built it was said by the Chinese. I don't know about that, but I loved the stone fences that ran over the rolling hills not following the new barbed wire fence lines. I always wondered about the early farmers and their adventures settling the countryside. Did they hire the Chinese or were the Chinese the settlers? Lots of gold mining in that area too with huge hills of dirt and rock all over the place from hydraulic mining. The poem above is about neighbors mending a stone fence. I always wanted to build a rock wall. Never had any rock. I guess those farmers plowed up lots of rocks. Why not make fences? I've got lots of leaves. I could make wreaths?

I had to take a photo of one of the Light Brahmas new pin feathers growing out on her neck. These Brahmas are hopefully going to have all new feathers in time for winter.

[3 eggs today]

Tom collected the eggs. Yea!

Smiles

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Home Alone

To see a world in a grain of sand,

And a heaven in a wild flower,

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,

And eternity in an hour.

William Blake - Auguries of Innocence

I'm grateful for my sight.

I have lost a bit in one eye, but that makes me even more thankful.

Tom has gone down the mountain to provide transportation for his Mom. Kristine got hit in the head with a branch falling from a tree. She forgot to wear the hard hat while walking the dog. She's OK. I had a nice quiet restful day. I listened to the latest chapter of Alexander McCall Smith's book, "The Dog Who Came In From The Cold." I read, did laundry and house stuff. Then I watched Castle, Dancing With The Stars and listened to some astronomy lectures on iTunes. The three Light Brahmas are now all molting. Bad timing.

[1 egg today]

At least the broody Wyandotte got out of the nest box today.

Smiles

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Novel Tax

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy;

they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.

~ Marcel Proust

I'm thankful for friends past, present and future.

Doggies too.

Morgan is such a sweet dog.

Today and most of last night I spent reading the new Dan Brown book, Lost Symbol. Once I got started I couldn't put it down. Well, I finally did to get a little sleep and then started up reading again this morning and missed breakfast and lunch. This is a photo from yesterday's search for November photos. I like the play of light and shadows in the picture. Reading can be taxing!

[no eggs]

Smiles

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My Treasures

We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.

~ Thornton Wilder

This month I'm going to think of things I am grateful for and list one on the blog everyday.

Living in the forest is a treasure.

Today I walked around trying to find some November photos, but things haven't changed very much from October. More leaves have fallen and we got some rain, but things look much the same. I love the crisp cool air. I really enjoy Autumn.

This photo is for my brother and Sandy to show them how much the ivy has grown and covered the fence here in the front and pretty much all the way around the side. You planted a great ivy!

This is the broody Wyandotte. Sheesh! I wish she would give up her efforts to hatch eggs. Today when I checked under her I found two wooden eggs. I moved one over to the right for the photo where it belongs. She had moved it. Poor hen. No chicks.

This is the smaller planter box.

I took the day off and didn't work in the garden.

The bigger planter box.

I checked online for information about putting chicken wire down to keep out the gophers before I put in the dirt. That seems to be a good idea. While I was searching around I found a lot of information about squirrels tearing up planter boxes, either burying nuts and/or eating the vegetables. Some blame the squirrels interest on the type of soil put in the box because it is easy to dig holes in so the squirrels attack. I may have to build some kind of chicken wire cage if the squirrels become a problem. Kristine says not to worry. Let's just see what happens. Sounds good to me. But, I think I will line the bottom with small chicken wire.

Talked to Kathleen today! She said this is going to be a weekly call. How great is that!

And she said she is going to send me some photos

of Tristan, Rhiannon and Jaidan

in their Halloween costumes!

So I can post them.

[2 eggs today]

Now two Light Brahmas are molting!

Smiles

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