There's A House In The Forest

 Just thought I'd share a few photos of the snow we had back in December, before Christmas actually.  It's kinda rare for us to have much snow before January but not unheard of.

 It was a fun, pretty snow and didn't hang around for a very long time, so that was good.

I am trying to get back into the habit of posting and hope to have many new things to share with ya'll soon!

Take care and stay warm!!

Snow Days

I managed to get a few photos of the recent snow but didn't really put a lot of effort into it, to be honest.  I went out a few times to tend the chickens or stoke the wood stove in the basement, but every time I went out and came back inside I would be dripping sweat for half an hour or so from the effort.

It was very pretty though and we got a fair amount.  Some reports said the NE side of our town got 8 inches and our side got about 5-6 inches.  Some parts of Alabama just northwest of here got slightly over a foot, which is rather extraordinary for this part of the South.

It has remained fairly cold here the last couple of days so we still have a fair amount left on the ground but the roads are pretty much okay.

Chigger just loves, loves the snow and colder weather.  She does not have very long hair so it always seems to me she would be cold but she doesn't seem to mind.  In fact, when it starts to get warm here she just becomes slug-like.  I was able to play with her a little yesterday and she was going wild, racing through the snow like crazy.

The chickens were less than enthused.  When we let them out Wednesday morning it was a typical, cool winter day and they gathered up at the house to scavenge the bird feeder drops and graze in the yard.  As the snow began to fall though, they huddled closer to the house or under the trucks.  They will run around in the rain all day but oh no!...we are not getting our feet in that snow!  They steadfastly stuck to any bare ground protected from the falling snow but a few had sense enough to go on down to the coop.   As it eased on towards evening the snow had accumulated to about 4 inches and the rest of the girls were getting nervous.  It was time to go to the coop for bed but they were going to have to trudge across all that frozen stuff!  I finally went out and got a feed bucket to lure them out.  It was snowing rather hard at this point and I could only entice the older girls to hike home.  Zuzu was the only one unafraid and easily followed me down to the coop.  She just wanted her food!  The others clung to one another in a group but they eventually made it with my encouragement.  Big T was a disappointment in this one.  He would not help round them up at all and stayed up at the house by himself.  I think when he finally realized he was alone he got up the courage to run through the snow to the coop.  And my "northern bred" Ameracaunas that are supposed to be made for cold climates??  They were camped out under the trucks and steadfastly refused to come out.  No amount of bribing or threatening was going to get them to step in that snow.  I finally had to catch each one by hand and carry them down to the coop.

I was finally able to get a few decent shots of the feeder and we have been trying to keep it filled for the little birds.  I have been seeing what looks to me to be 2 goldfinches but have yet to be able to photograph them.  I wouldn't think they would be here this early in the year but what do I know?  The other day I went to Mama's and saw a huge group of robins, which I also thought was a bit early, but that's fine by me.  I'm ready for warm weather.

Sick As a Dog

 What???

Unbelievably enough, I still have this crud, head cold/ sinus infection...whatever it is.  I have felt like I was getting better a couple of times only to have it relapse and feel like crap again.  Well, it will eventually go away.  

I don't feel bad enough to lay in bed all day so boredom becomes a problem for me after a while.  Don't really want to spend much time in my studio because of all the dust and stuff there, when I already feel like my facial sinuses are going to explode.  So, I have been cleaning house!  Ha!  Sort of.  I've gone through all my clothes and sorted out a big bag to take to Goodwill and another big bag to recycle.  I redid my new address book, something that's needed doing for a long time.  I've been putting off my taxes but I need to do that soon.  I sorted through and cleaned my desk.  Got up a big pile of magazines and old catalogs to recycle also.  The weather has been very crappy for the most part while we have been sick, so that kinda lends it's self to staying in and cleaning up, sorting and purging.  I'm not done in that department by any means but have made some progress.

They had been talking for a while about us getting a big snow and they hit it pretty good this time.  Everybody was kinda wondering because the morning was kinda nice; not too cold, partly cloudy.  Then about noon it started clouding up and turning colder.  Sure enough, it wasn't much longer it was snowing like hell.  I think our area got some of the heavier amounts but it's still coming down as I write this so who knows.  At dark we had about 4 inches and will probably get another 2 or so tonight.  I know that's not squat compared to the northern states but to us that is a fair snow.  One day I'll have to scan some old photos I have of the one time it snowed about 18 inches here.  I had truly never seen anything like that.

So, I'll be back soon with snow pictures and such.  I have to admit I'm not real enthused about this snow.  Normally we are; ya'll know I love to play in the snow.  I just want warm weather.  Chigger was really wanting to play this afternoon too and she just couldn't understand why I didn't want to.

Dream Baby Dream

As a very heavy snowfall blankets the world outside, I am in another season and the sun beats down instead.

Chickens On Ice

 I'm happy to report I'm feeling much better tonight.  Not great by any means but I think the leak has sealed up and I am mostly headache free.  I've even been able to bathe and walk outside briefly!  I think I came very close to Dr. Nabors making me come back to UAB for a blood patch but thankfully, if this continues, I won't have to. It's kinda odd to me that I was SO sick from that because the spinal tap itself was one of the easiest things I've ever been through.  Honestly, I did not even know when he had put the needle in my spine.  Of course he had numbed my spine a little in that spot and I felt him touch my back but I was just sitting there chatting away when he said, 'OK, not much longer, I've almost got enough fluid'...  Wha???  I never felt the needle go in or anything.  Ha! I guess I paid for that later.  I bleed very easy though and I think the puncture just would not clot up.  When I had that tooth pulled a year or so ago I wasn't sure that thing was ever going to stop bleeding!  But anyway, I hope it's over now.  He did the spinal tap to test for a few kinds of meningitis (I didn't know there was more than 1 kind!) and for MS.  A couple of the first tests came back quickly and my white blood cell count is up just a little, but that's all I know for now.

So...in the meantime....you all know what that means!!!  Yes!!  More chicken pictures!!!  This time it's chickens in the snow.  This all occurred in the week before I had the spinal tap.  We survived the Snowpocolypse just fine, having only received about 1 1/2 inches.  The chickens were not very happy about the whole ordeal though and would not come out of the coop.  Zuzu did come out when I tempted her with scratch, because she is so greedy or tough, I'm not sure which.  I have to give her credit though, she was about the only one even willing to come out and scratch around for the first 2 days.

 Even the Easter Eggers, which are supposed to be a cold weather breed, said the heck with that!  They would not come out at all!  Maybe that's how they survive well in cold weather....they won't go out in it!!

 Poor little PeePee looked so miserable.  I know she was dreaming of warm summer days and green grass.  I let her sit in my lap several times so she could warm her little feets up.  She really liked that.

It was not a very heavy snow, even by our southern standards, but it was pretty.

The garden is snugly tucked away in it's slumber.  There are no greens of any kind left for the chickens now, even the cabbage I had stored in the pump house for them has been eaten up.  I pulled up the brussel sprouts for them and they scarfed those down in no time also. 

After about 2 days they finally relinquished and came out into the yard and into the snow.  If you look closely you can see they are doing their flamingo impersonations.  I guess it let them warm one foot at a time.

Or, they found anything to stand on besides snow while they scrounged around for eats.  Don't worry, we threw them scratch and they always have layer rations in their house and they get any scraps from the kitchen that we think they might like.

I can't remember what day but sometime during this we also set a record low around here of -2 F. (-19 C.) Alabama record books say we have gotten much colder than that in the distant past but I have never seen minus temps in my life here.  We have a little heater in the chicken coop so everybody made it through fine but I think everybody is ready for spring.  I know I am!

Strange Changes

     Well, I would really like to post that my health issues are clearing up and everything is getting back to normal with many posts about future projects and work coming up.  However, that sadly is not the case and I feel bad about continuing to come here writing about the same old stuff.  But then, I feel that maybe I should just make myself write about anything to keep from falling into a state of apathy.  I have ideas, stories, pictures..but when I sit down I find myself just staring blankly at the screen.  Nothing seems relevant.  The incredible brain fog I was having has lifted to a fair extent but that reprieve has only been replaced by more pain, coughing and nausea.  I can stand a fair amount of pain but nausea is something I just can't stomach.  Ha!!  At least I can still make corny jokes.  Thank God for that and Zofran.
     I had read in the past and heard from others that extended illnesses can make the person feel extremely isolated and I would have to agree.  People just don't like being around sick people and in a way you can't blame them.  I suppose that is one reason I insist on continuing this connection.  It affords me some contact with others. 
     There is also some benefit to this situation in that it gives me lots and lots of time to think about stuff I want to do without my normal headlong rush into things before I've fully thought it out.  Of course, I'm sure I'll still screw up plenty when I do get back to working but I have put lots of thought, scribblings and sketches into various projects that I think will be very successful when I'm done with them.  I normally work quite a lot on the trial and error method; I don't always know exactly how something is going to be when I start working, so I think this extended planning time will be beneficial.  Or that's what I'm going to tell myself anyway. 
     We survived the hideous cold without much ado and the past couple of days have been gorgeous, near 60 F.  They are forcasting a little snow in a couple of days though.  Such is the South.  I putter around the garden and clean house.  I managed to erect a little screen around my brussel sprouts and so have let the chickens into the garden.  They appreciate the last remaining greenery and new areas to search for bugs but they are still not above begging for treats whenever I go out.  Numerous seed catalogs are arriving in the mail and I really need to go through my inventory and see what needs restocking.  I suspect many of my seeds are really out of date and need to do a good culling also.  Maybe that would be a good project for tomorrow.  It's supposed to be rainy again.  We had a wonderful, prolonged thunderstorm roll through in the wee hours a couple of days ago.  Anti-nausea med caused me to sleep completely through it unfortunately.  I know many who do not enjoy storms but I have always loved those stormy pre-dawn hours.  It is pure bliss to lie in a warm bed watching the lightning accompanied by the swells of rain on a metal roof.  I suppose my perverted pleasure comes from all those cold, stormy mornings I had to get up and drive to a muddy jobsite in the dark, only to be told a couple hours later we were rained out.  Oh, on really bad days we could just stay home but if you opted to go in you at least got "driving time" and sometimes they could come up with enough inside stuff that you could make a day.  Having once been a job clerk I could often work on those days helping the boss with paperwork.  Ha! I guess that was another reason to like stormy mornings; easy work for carpenter pay.
     Welp, guess that's all for now.  Oh, the doctor from UAB/ Kirklin is still trying to help me figure this thing out.  Cool, huh?  I suppose if anybody can it'd be those people.  I'm not even going to try anymore to make any guesses about what's going on.  I think he has an idea though and I will probably go in for another test or two before long but that's all I got to say about that.

Big Freeze

I guess the big news on many blogs, especially those of a homesteading or gardening nature, is the recent COLD!  Now, I know many of my readers live in such places as North Dakota, Minnesota, Maine and heck, even Russia, so ya'll don't be laughing at me.  7 F. (-13 C.) is COLD to us down here in the south.  I don't wanna even think about what it's like up in those previously mentioned places.  Even though those are lovely places I'm sure, I couldn't live there for love nor money.
At any rate, it's warming up now to a balmy 24 F. (-4 C.) tonight but we did dip way into the single digits the past 2 nights.  In fact, we've stayed below freezing, even in the day, since Sunday night.  It is fairly unusual for us to get this cold but certainly not unheard of.  I remember times of single digit temps all through my life even.  I just wish we got the snow; at least it'd be pretty.  But, for us to get this cold it usually takes no cloud cover, so, no precipitation.
We did a little more winterizing on a few things but for the most part we were already prepared for the cold coming.  The main thing we had to work on was keeping water for the animals.  We don't have heated waterers for the birds so we just had to change out their water a few times a day.  We keep one big tub of water out in the yard for all the animals; Chigger, the cat and the chickens but it was useless.  You can see one big chunk of ice from that I'm holding in the photo above.  We have extra waterers for the hens so we just kept some in the basement warming and when the outside ones came close to freezing we would just switch.  We also ran a little heat from an oil-filled heater in the hen house.  Those type heaters are pretty safe because the surface just doesn't get that hot but it keeps the hen house just above freezing.  I know a lot of people say don't give chickens any additional heat but ours are just not used to cold like that and many of them have combs that can get frostbite.  Besides, the coop only stays at about 33-34 F. so that's really not that warm.  In fact, one day, even with the little heater running, we could not keep the house above freezing for them.  Of course, it's harder to do with the little door open but they didn't seem to mind, they were more interested in being outside as you can see.  I had pulled virtually everything from the garden, except for the brussel sprouts, in advance of the cold so it was okay to let them in to see what they could find.  The sprouts are under the blue tarp there and I just closed the lid on the cold frame etc. to keep them from eating anything we wanted.  You can see there is still some greenery in the garden, some grasses and such that they really enjoy.  It was frozen on this day but they pecked at it anyway.  Wasn't much scratching going on because the ground was way too hard but they found plenty to forage on and they will continue to distribute some mulch and compost piles for me.

Watching them walk around on that frozen ground with their little ol' bare feet just makes me hurt though!  And of course, if I sat down near them Susie and PeePee would run to get in my lap.  Those two are not dumb.  They know they can warm their feets in short order sitting on me.  I don't mind it either because they warm me in return.
We have a dog door on the basement so Chigger and the cat can come and go as they please when they want to warm up etc.  I figured Chigger would be in there by the fire constantly, like the cat was, but she insisted on staying out with the chickens.  She will go into the basement when we do but she usually won't stay when we leave.  She does however, sleep there at night after the chickens are put up.

Waiting To Spring

A friend of mine said the other day that, even though February is the shortest month, it just seemed to be dragging on and on and on this year, and I had to agree.  I think a lot of people have felt that way.  Not sure what it is exactly but March took it's time about getting here it seems and still managed to haul the cold and gloominess of winter along with it.  We woke up to a light dusting of snow this morning but it has at least, turned into a beautiful sunny day and might even warm up a little more than what they are predicting.  Snow in March is not particularly unusual for the deep south, actually.  If I can find my old photos I'll show ya'll some good spring snows we have had in the past.
At any rate, I have been trying to prepare the garden for spring, in between trying to get caught up on my pottery.  I am making a little progress on both fronts.  A local store got some rhubarb roots in so I bought a pack of 3 to get a very early start with them.  So far it seems they are loving this cool, rainy weather we are having.  I know they won't make it through the summer but I thought if I planted them early enough I might could harvest enough to make it worthwhile.  One pack of roots was less than a package of stalks for cooking at the grocery store, so I figured what the heck?  I put one root in a pot and will transfer it to a very shaded area after it gets warmer, just as an experiment to see how long I can get it to last.

Most of the garden has pooped out or been harvested and we are waiting on a dry spell to till things up and get the potatoes in.  I hate to mention all the rain we have been getting because I know so many of you all are in drought.  If I could send some your way I certainly would!

I have a surplus of pine straw in the yard right now so I have been raking it up and remulching all the stuff that like an acidic environment, like the blueberries and strawberries.  I have pruned most of the raspberries but still need to remulch them and start getting them lines up on their fence.  I also need to refresh that stone path in the garden!

The blueberries are loaded with buds and ready to pop!  Hopefully this will be a good year for fruit.

I know this is a horrible photo but I was just trying to show some of the broccoli and onions I have started for spring.  This photo is about 2 weeks old so they are a bit bigger now and I also have a flat of new cabbage plants started.  This is my first time to try onions from seeds so I don't know how well that is going to go.  I'll probably order some starts shortly just to make sure something makes it!

Just more gratuitous daffodil shots.  I was afraid the snow and 20 degrees temps would kill the flowers back but they seemed okay this morning. 

I add to them each fall and would like to just have blankets of daffodils all over the front lawn.  I like all the colors and varieties.

The chickens have been getting lots of cabbage and broccoli stalks after I harvest what I want.  You can see many of the plant skeletons laying around there.  They are pretty thorough in their scavenging and eventually pick the stalks down to nothing.
I've also got a crop of new lettuce and carrots planted in the cold frame and am just waiting on that to come up.  I am very slowly getting over the bronchitis and catching up on pottery and getting a jump on some spring cleaning but this winter has left me with some severe wanderlust and cabin fever.  The sadness of this past winter still clings and leaves me with a chill that even the sunniest day or warmest fire has trouble dispelling.

Warm Tummies

 Blustery...No better word to call to mind the sleet and wind swept days of this past week.  Damp, bone-chilling cold with marshmallowy, grey clouds that settle so low on the surrounding hills and mountains it's hard to tell where earth ends and the heavens begin.  Days and nights best spent next to a warm fire and an equally warm drink.
I fully intended to be a slug this week and rest up from the holiday production rush but I honestly didn't mean to carry it this far! 

I have been cooking a little but saving the grand effort for New Years Day.  I took that turkey leftovers and made this wonderful pot pie.  I don't mean to sound like I'm bragging; I mean, it wasn't my recipe, I just copied what somebody else had done.  It was wonderful though and the pastry topping was really nice.  Fresh out of the oven it was the perfect thing for a cold, winter's day and there was enough of it to last for 2 suppers and a couple of lunches.  (Supper in the South is what most people refer to as dinner.)

If any of you would like the recipe I'll be happy to share.  So, every scrap of that ol' turkey got ate up and we certainly appreciated it.

Don't worry though, we don't leave the animals out of it!  Chigger always get a warm meal and I often fix a warm oatmeal and rice breakfast for the girls.  They LOVE oatmeal and they are steadily laying more and larger eggs.  We should be back to selling eggs soon.  That will be good as feed prices have continued to rise.  I'm so thankful we went to the trouble to get these hens and provide a good place for them to live and in return they provide us with a wonderful (and tasty) protein source.  I'm even going to try an authentic eggnog for our New Year's celebration, since we have such a surplus of eggs.

I am going to have to start supplementing their food with a little more greens from the garden though.  Since the cold has really hit, the grass is gone and they really love any greens we can come up with.  I'll tell ya'll a little more about my plans in another post.
All in all it's been a lovely, quiet week and I've been feeling rather blessed.  I hope you all have time to relax also and maybe grab a nap and snuggle here and there. 

Winter's Work

Caution:  the following post contains photos that some people may find objectionable.  Viewer discretion advised.  I'm serious; there is chicken bodies and blood.









Even though the garden is pretty much out of commission right now and most chores associated with that, there is still plenty to do around here where food is concerned.

Cool weather is historically the preferred time for slaughter and I agree with that myself.  The yellowjackets are just too bothersome in the warmer months to do something like this outdoors. So, Sunday we finally got to the task and harvested 10 of the meat birds.  That is a good number for us to do in one day it seems.  We usually pick a nice sunny, cold day.  I do this for me and for the chickens.  Nice for us because you don't want to do this in impending bad weather.  Better for the chickens because they are running around outside enjoying themselves and have no clue what is transpiring.  We only bring down 2 at a time so they don't see anything going on and are happily oblivious.  I don't like to have a bunch sitting in a cage waiting their turn, you know?  Jack and I don't enjoy this at all and a lot of people can't understand this part but I do not wish to participate in the abusive, industrial food system anymore, where chickens and other animals are raised in horrible conditions out of sight and no one cares.  It's hard to walk these guys down to the awaiting table but I know they had a good life and enjoyed running around outside in the sunshine.  If I'm going to ask for their life I should have the cahoonies to do it myself.  So, we both 'do the deed', so to speak and as quickly as possible.  Me holding and Jack wields the knife.  Then, after they are bled, he scalds them and we both pluck and I do the dressing out while he plucks more. 

I was very pleased at how well developed these were.  Very plump all over, no scrawny legs and such.  After they are completely dressed out and washed very well they get packed in coolers with ice and salt and aged for about 3 days.  This draws any last bit of blood out so you don't get any gamey taste.  I then divide them up and freeze some whole for roasting and then cut up the rest for stir fries, frying and so on.  We had let these get bigger than most do just for lack of time and such to deal with it.  Christmas had me so busy we just couldn't find the time.  As a result, the hanging weight (after dressing out) of these were all around 6 lbs.  

So, what did the other chickens think about it all?  I have to admit, they kinda gross me out.  They always come down to see what's going on and end up scratching around for bits and pieces.  Yes, you got that right...they eat whatever they find of their brethren.  I even chopped up a little fresh liver for them, just to see.  They fought over it.  Almost knocking each other down to get to eat it.  I have to say in their defense though that Runt, the rooster there, was very upset when we caught the first 2 meat birds to process.  I slipped in and picked them up gently but they are not used to being carried and so squawked a little.  Runt came running let me tell you! He sensed something and went into protector mode, even going after Jack.  We shooed him off finally though and he ran back to his girls.  Most people would never believe a chicken will eat meat but they love it.  I used to have a good frog population here.  Used to.  Frog is a great delicacy to them, apparently.  I even once saw Big 'Un, the Barred Rock rooster we raised, down a small field mouse whole.  I didn't think a chicken's mouth could open that wide.  He flipped that thing up in the air and 2 gulps it was gone! 

 So, anyway, on to brighter things... I am running a bit of an experiment this winter.  My land is inundated with Red Maples so I have tapped a couple to see what I can get.  Up north the maple season is usually in February and March and I waited that long last year only to see the temps go up too high and stay.  See, it must be cold enough to go below freezing at night but get above freezing in the day for the sap to flow.  For us, that's January.  So far I only have about 1 1/2 gallons of sap but I've only had the trees tapped for a couple of days now.  I may tap one more as we are supposed to go back into cold weather this week.  So, we'll see.  I just wanted enough to be able to see if this would make good syrup.  The sugar content in Red or Black Maples is not as high (obviously) as Sugar Maples but it is still supposed to make good syrup.

It's fun anyway!  These buckets are quite large.  They would probably hold 3 or 4 gallons of sap.  I think I'll just use plastic buckets or such for any more.  I collect the sap every day and pour it up into 1 gallon jugs that are BPA free and rated for water storage.

It takes 10 gallons of sap to make 1 quart of syrup.  That is quite a lot of sap but you can get about 1 gallon from one big tree each day. 

The sap must be stored around 38 degrees and only for up to 7 days before it is made into syrup.  At first I had no idea where I was going to be able to store that much sap.  You really need to have several gallons to start with or it's just not much worth all that work.  Finally, Jack remembered a small refrigerator he had stored out in the tool shed we built adjacent to the chicken coop.  I had kinda griped about him keeping it but it turned out rather handy I must admit.  The chicken coop/ shed has power already so we just had to plug it up and clean it out a little.  It should work great for storing 10-11 gallons of sap easy and will only be turned on for stuff like this. I can't imagine that our syrup season will last long so it won't be running for weeks on end. 

I had to include this picture of Chigger with her buddy Ramona.  Ramona is the only chicken that will play with her and Chigger is just beside herself!  She loves her chickens!  They do this staring contest thing a lot and Ramona always wins.  That chicken don't back down from anybody!  She is a great hen, very personable and chatty.  If Chigger gets a little too rambunctious Ramona will peck her on the behind to show her who's boss! 

Beyond The Gray Sky

Well, now that the festivities are all behind us the gray, dreary days of January have settled in and it's all I can do to muster much enthusiasm for anything more than reading a good book while soaking up the warmth of the wood stove.  We have had an unseasonable warm spell, as it seems many parts have, so I did take advantage of that and spread a good layer of chicken poo and saturated straw over the entire garden area.  That should do wonders come spring.  I've continued the mulching and planted a few new evergreens to increase the visual interest of the gardens.  The chickens completely shred any annuals or tender flowers I try to keep in pots, so I ripped their sorry remains out (the flowers that is) and planted some sturdy small shrubs in their place.  At least it will give us a little more greenery to look at in all this gray.
The cold returned today with a vengeance, even a little snow this evening, so we can now butcher the meat birds.  We had put it off for a few days because it was just so dang warm and I prefer to do that when it's fairly cool if possible. The broccoli has completely pooped out but I have let the plants stay in order to give the meat birds a treat.  I throw them 1 or 2 a day to devour with some other greens.  They really enjoy that.  The cabbage are still holding on pretty good but I don't know if they'll make it to spring. 
As I stated in an earlier post, things are going well and this stage of our homestead is really coming together.  We are seeing some definite rewards from all our hard work and it's great.  But, there are always trials to overcome in this type of life.  Sometimes bad things happen no matter what we do.

Ya'll remember that we had one hen die a few weeks back, just out of the blue.  Well, the week after New Years Jack and I were inside eating lunch and I heard Chigger barking a bit.  I didn't think much of it but did go out a few minutes later to take some scraps to the chickens.  We let the hens free range during the day and Chigger does a pretty good job of looking out for them.  Well, as I approached the garden area I saw Henny (the red hen above) laying on the ground and Chigger was pacing back and forth beside her growling and obviously agitated.  She kept looking off into the woods but didn't seem to know what to do.  I could tell Henny was in bad shape and ran down to see.  Long story short, she had apparently been hit by a hawk and Chigger interrupted before the hawk could carry Henny off.  She didn't seem terribly bad hurt in a way but I could see two small puncture wounds on her head and she seems stunned, her eyes dilated.  I looked around for the other chickens and there was no one anywhere.  Even the meat birds had ran for the hills.  They were all crammed in the coop house and completely silent, which for them is quite a feat!  I ran in the direction Chigger kept looking but couldn't see any predator or anything or the other hens.  I guess Chigger sensed my intention because she ran down the trail a bit and stopped.  She barked a small bit and ran a little farther, stopping to look back at me.  I followed her and she actually led me to the other hens who were hiding in a clump of blackberry brambles.

I ran back to the house and called for Jack, who was already coming outside and we herded the chickens up to the coop house and inside.  We debated whether or not to try to take Henny to a vet and finally decided just to doctor her a little and see if we could tell how bad it was.  (Turns out we wouldn't have made it anyway.)  So, we wrapped her in a towel and put her in my studio by the stove.  She didn't seem that bad at first but then I noticed it seemed her head was swelling and I saw more puncture wounds.  They were small, like pin pricks right around her eye.  Suddenly she started to have a seizure and I scooped her up to keep her from hurting herself more as I ran up to the house to find Jack.  I knew we would have to put her down; her injuries were too bad but she heaved a big sigh and died in my arms before I could reach the steps.  I sure hated to tell Jack.  Henny was his favorite and a real good hen.  She laid every day right before sunrise, almost like clockwork.  Back in the summer she had developed a tumor on one of her feet, which we had to surgically remove.  She took it all in stride; no problem.  We buried her in the shady area behind the coop house where the chickens like to rest and scratch in the leaves.
So, things go pretty good for a while and then things go crappy but things go on.  We may go pick up a couple more hens if we can find some for a reasonable price.  We'll see.

A Cold But Sunny Day

This is the creek that marks the border of my property on one side.  It runs alongside the driveway for a bit as you first come in.  Then the drive turns sharply to the left and runs alongside a smaller creek or stream really.  I need to do some cleaning and clearing so you can see the water better as you drive in.  It's very lovely.  Every morning, after I do the second check and feeding of the chickens, Chigger and I go for a walk down the drive, all the way to the road.  It's not quite a quarter mile round trip.  On nice days I like to sit by the creek for a bit and let it talk to me.  There's an old saying around here that, 'there's a lot of wisdom in a fire'.  Meaning I think, the peace and insight conjured up by the mesmerizing quality of flame would lead one to at least a few decent thoughts.  By that same measure, I think there's a lot of wisdom in a creek also.

And every day Chigger finds a stray limb down by the gate and carries it all the way back to the house.  I figure if I take her on enough walks she may get that whole end of the drive cleaned up.  Most of them are good for kindling so I break them up to put by the stove. 

Today was what we would call 'brisk'.  A stout wind blowing and very clear, cold air.  I hope the wind dies down tomorrow.
Most all of the holiday festivities are over so it was back to the grindstone today.  It's a pleasant grindstone though.  You can't much beat working by a nice warm woodstove making art that people are actually buying! 
And speaking of art and festivities....Ya'll know I adhere to the 12 Days of Christmas right?  Well, most of the celebrations are over but the one last biggy is coming up; 12th Night!  or Epiphany.  Traditionally it is a night for partying and eating and such but I live out in the boonies and it falls on a Thursday this year, so....I am going to have a 12th Night Party here, on the blog.  Now, usually you would bake a King's Cake or similar and inside the cake is a coin or bean.  Whoever gets the coin or token in their slice is crowned "king" and is supposed to have good luck that year.  There are many variations to this depending on your denomination or heritage.  Anyway, you all come by here Thursday and leave a comment.  I will bake something that can be divided up.  I thought about cupcakes but Jack and I have eaten so many sweets and such I may use something else.  Now, whatever it is, it will have a coin inside and I will put a little flag on each section for every person that leaves a comment.  Maybe I'm explaining this right.  Anyway, as we eat whatever this is, we will come across the coin and if your name is on the corresponding flag, you win one of my mugs! and the coin!  Some of you may be more excited about the coin I know, but anyway, I thought it would be fun!  And who knows, there might be some other goody thrown in.

I will accept names from 6 a.m. to midnight Thursday and then start the flagging and eating Friday.  And yes, I will show ya'll the baked product with all the little named flags before the chowing begins.  Fun, Fun!!!  I will probably have 2 or 3 mugs that you can even choose from.
Oh, the picture above is of the spring overspill and the watercress that grows there.  I guess the recent bout of warm weather has brought it forth.  I picked some today and was amazed to taste it was already hot!  Normally it stays mild until the weather gets really warm.
So, don't forget Thursday!!!!