Ugly!

I know it’s not nice, but Jenny Hen is down right ugly!  She’s the oldest gal at nearly 4.  She’s on tenure now and thinks it’s her job to sit on anything that doesn’t move.  She sat on a bunch of golf balls for nearly 3 weeks!

She’s molting and is walking around nearly butt naked!  I realized the other day, that if I don’t start culling out my old ladies I’ll soon have a petting zoo and I don’t think Honey would be too big on that.  I ought to do Jenny Hen in now while she’s naked, then I won’t have as many feathers to pluck.

A face only a mama could love.

The new pullets ought to start laying next month.  Fingers crossed.  Our egg ration has been 1-2 eggs a day for quite some time. I’ve been dreaming of deviled eggs, eggs a la golden rod, egg salad…..anything with golden eggs.

I was looking for Annie’s egg today.  She usually lays it in the new hen house.  As I rounded the corner, I was chitter chattering to myself about goodness knows what….and I didn’t expect to catch her sitting on the nest….well, I startled her to death, and she squawked.  She jumped up and nearly scarred me to death.  I screamed, she screamed and then I laughed.  She gave me a working over about it too.  I heard about that for at least a half an hour….I sure didn’t mean to disturb her.  Heavens knows we need that second egg.

I’ve only named the two Silver Laced Wyandottes.  I ordered 5 of everything, but lost nearly half…so I’m only left with two Wyandottes.  They are Wyonna and Naomi Judd.

I’ve got 4 Buff Orpingtons, 4 Black Australorps, 2 Barred Rocks and 4 Rhode Island Reds.  Since they’ve hardly developed personalities yet, I haven’t given most of them names yet.

It’s lookin very rednecky and I need to get it cleaned up a bit.  But heck they love climbing and roosting all of the stuff.  The Buffys are really cute.  My gates need some repairs before winter settles in.  If we get iced like last year, the gate might fall clean off it’s hinges….or rather electric ties.

Raising chicks has been so easy.  My friend Carol told me it was but I didn’t believe her…ok Carol, it is easy.  I’m ready for some meat birds next spring!  But I’m gonna have to get some help with the butchering…I really do hate that job of slitting their throats.  A turkey would be a great adventure too.  Heck I pay a small fortune for a pastured organic turkey.

Now if we could only get some of our own fresh milk and these girls would really be eating in style.  Clabber for everyone.  All in God’s good time.

Throwing Mud

This is my very first attempt at ever trying to throw on the wheel. It was not centered. As I was bringing it up one side was thin and the other thick…so I pulled a spout on it! I wish I’d of thought to put a little handle on, but I’m so thrilled with my first piece on the wheel.

I sorta like this color Orcher. Non of us know how to say it, but it sounds like Okra. On the red clay it’s very earthy and I like earthy.

This little cup turned out to actually be useful. It holds my tea strainer perfectly. It was suppose to be a mug, but it turned out way too small for me and the handle wasn’t right, so I cut it off. If I’m learning one thing from Pottery, it is patience. I hate to admit that I’m not a patient person. But pottery is not something to rush. It takes time and lots of patience to get each piece just right….and if you are me, then sometimes, it’s never JUST right, but good enough!

In some ways, I’m like the Amish. They don’t believe we can do anything perfectly….because only God is perfect, so they always leave an imperfection in their quilts. A visual reminder that only God is perfect. Mine are usually not an intended imperfection, but a reflection of who I am…..very imperfect.

I discovered today when some new pieces came out of the kiln, that the red clay shrinks considerably after the second firing! I mean considerably. So, in the future I need to make a mental note of that and expect my pre-glaze firing pieces to be bigger than I want. Hopefully I’ll be able to gauge it right since I love using the red clay. I’m attempting to replace all our store bought dishes with hand thrown/built pieces!  A lofty goal.

(I’ll be so glad to be rid of my Pfaltzgraff dishes I’ve had for almost 30 yrs!)

Pasture Walks

Thank you PhilipFr for the photo from Flickr.com

I went on my first Pasture Walk last evening sponsored by our local Soil Conservation Agency. I remember when Honey was a Wildlife Biologist he often had meetings with the Soil Conservation folks over beaver dams and wetland issues. Since they are a local government agency they offer advice & plans on land management.

The ad in our local paper didn’t say that this Pasture Walk was strictly for Horse folks, so I chanced it and went. We live in the rolling hills of Maryland’s horse country, so I wasn’t surprised that there were only horse lovers at this walk, other than me a cow lover! I felt a little discriminated against….“cows?!!”

Then I found out that it was called “HOW…Horse Outreach Workshop”. It would also work to call it “COW” with no explanation needed!

We got an elaborate tour of the barn and paddocks. A lengthly talk on how this particular homeowner (notice I didn’t say Farmer) managed his pastures. Then right before dark we finally got to go into the manicured pasture and see it as the darkness settled around us. I was appalled. He had about two acres fenced and only two pastures within the two acres. They were over grazed and under nourished.

This particular homeowner lives on a more prestigious side of the county and wants to maintain an “appearance”, so he picks up horse poop every single day!!!!!! And he was wondering why his pastures weren’t fertile!

The “Soil Expert” talked about using “Allied” herbicide and how to plant grass seed. What they failed to talk about was how allowing the grass to grow to a height of 6-8″ and then mowing would encourage the favorable grasses to do their own weed control. (I sure hope I’m getting this right….it’s all so new to me and I’m cramming as much into my menopausal brain as possible….not an easy task!) The length of the grass indicates how deep the root system is and the deeper the roots the greater nutrients in the grass (of course up to a certain height and depth). (did I get that right??) That is if you have any nutrients. If of course your pasture is purely weeds than you can bet your soil is mostly acidic and the nutrients are lacking….Hey I thought I wasn’t getting anything out of Acres USA…..but maybe I am gleaning just a glimmer of info. I can guarantee you that I’ve only begun to crack the surface and I’m afraid that my leaking brain won’t be able to grasp it all.

I’ve recently been learning about Brix. I’m going to explain this as simply as I can. First let me explain that I have minimal knowledge of Brix….so you can take this or leave it. But I find this topic fascinating. So I asked the “Soil Experts” to explain Brix and most of them who are recent college grad’s were clueless and couldn’t believe that this simple country bumpkin could know something they didn’t! The “older” “Soil Expert” looked at me funny and was really SHOCKED that I knew about Brix and said, “what is it you want to know?” gruffly….like maybe I asked about Area 51! I told him I’d like him to explain it a bit….so he said he would….”LATER”.

This is how it was explained…“Brix is something that we don’t concern ourselves with in this country. They use this system in England mostly. You use a device (refractometer-which he didn’t mention) to measure the sugar content of the grass.” Now, he said all this as if to say, “hey look we’re the experts and if we say you don’t need to know about this then you don’t…..we wouldn’t want you to know too much….BECAUSE then you wouldn’t need us!”

Ok, no one could of cared why I asked this question. They all had horses. They don’t care about the nutrients that their horses eat….I’m not sure why….but I care about what my cows eat cause they feed me! Some folks gave me the most in quizzical looks.

My friends over at Jehovah Jireh Farm, have been teaching me about Brix. And I’m not going to go into it now until I really get it under my belt….but it’s fascinating stuff! I began to search the Scriptures for what the Lord called “fatness” and that reference to “fatness” is thought to be Brix! It’s so cool and I can’t wait till I understand more so I can share it with you.

Anyway, I came home with a contact at the Soil Conservation Agency so I can at least be taught how to pick out “good” hay. Then I’ll even be able to go to the Auction for hay sometime. Although the “Soil Expert” said that due to our weather conditions this year the hay at Auction is mostly undesirable. So maybe I ought to stick to what my girls seem to like and are eating. I’ve been able to find some pretty good hay close by.

I guess I also learned that with enough money you can do just about anything! Even pick up horse poop EVERYDAY in your pasture!!!!

I didn’t need a Pasture Walk to teach me that!!!! Maybe I’ll do another….now I know not to mention I have “cows!”.