Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Faux broody

Sigh.

Really, Coco? Again? I mean, I sort of knew trouble was brewing when you started doing that turkey-tail thing this weekend and making that tut-tutting noise, but sitting on the nest ALL DAY when there aren't even any eggs under you. Seriously? I mean, if you're going to act broody then at least sit on a darn egg or three, preferably not your own. Why are you wasting my time, making me push you out of the hen house, lock it down, then find that piece of wood I used last time to block the nest boxes so you couldn't sleep in one of them all night.

Plus, while you were inside all day acting like a big dum-dum, you totally missed out on the strawberries I brought out to the other, well-mannered ladies.

Stupid chicken.

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Lazy Sunday

The ladies spend an awful lot of time lying about these days. Sometimes on the ground, sometimes on their outside perch. My theory is that it's because they are awake for so many more hours than they are during the winter. 

They do live a sunrise-to-sunset sort of life, which is about 16 hours at the peak of summer, and 8 at the peak of winter. I suppose that resting quietly helps them fill some of the hours, and make up for the sleep they're not getting. It's cute, especially when they they actively nap, head tucked under wing. I would love to get a photo of this, but getting close enough would just disturb them and ruin the shot.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Happy Summer!

Do NOT get between a chicken and a watermelon rind, I'll tell you what!

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Beans and broodies

Look at our newly sprouted pole bean seeds!
Look at our first homegrown salad of the season from greens thinnings!
Look at our broody Bob chicken. Yes, again. And she's worse than the first time she went broody for a few days. We were actually getting a little worried, because she's sort of at the bottom of the pecking order (as far as we can tell), and when she started in with the weird vocalizations and feather fluffing that seems to follow getting booted off the nest, the other hens started going after her and preventing her from getting near the feeder.

I finally told the worried Chicken Daddy (that would be Jeff) that we can't stand there all day and hold their hands (OK, wings)...they're chickens, and they would just have to sort it out. And they did, with no lingering harm done. Just occasional screams that I liken to a little girl having her pigtails pulled. Truly, they do act like little girls.

In other farm news, things are looking good. With the slightly warmer temps and enough lingering rain, we're starting to get some serious growth on our seedlings.
Look...kale that looks like kale!
Beautiful baby spinach!
Peas are flowering!
Since the rain won't last forever (Northwest summers are actually pretty dry, with little rain in July, August and early September), Jeff put in a drip irrigation system! I'm so excited! We'd talked about doing it for years, but it's actually happening.
We've been relying on a mix of soaker hoses, overhead sprinklers and overhead hand-watering, and it was just time-consuming, inefficient and not best for plant health (all that overhead water promotes fungal diseases).
We got the last of the tomato starts out last weekend, and our early greens plantings are far enough along that we are planting new crops without concern that they will catch up with the first crop (that's happened to me too many times to count...then you end up with a glut of something, instead of a nice progressive harvest).

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Second thoughts

Hey, maybe I should rip out my garlic and peas and lettuce and kale (etcetera) and plant some soybeans and sorghum and tobacco. What do you think?