Proverb in Our Yard

Some of you may think that all we do around here is stare at chickens. Well, to some degree we do a lot of that because they are so darn entertaining. But I thought you would all appreciate a non-chicken update. What else do we do around here?

Well, for one thing, Rex absolutely loves to cook. Just last week he made a delicious kiwi tart with Neni. I can't believe I ate the whole thing! But it was worth it. He says he wants to take French as his foreign language in high school and enroll in a Parisian culinary school. Right on!



In other news, we have finally received some rain in these parched parts. I was all set to plant potatoes when I went out yesterday and there was a fine crop of weeds in the row I had set out for spuds. Well, I was about to grab the hoe and take care of those guys when I realized I was standing in knee high weeds in the yard. I realized I was going to have to prioritize. First, I should mow the knee high weeds. Then I should hoe up the row. Then I should plant the spuds. Sounds easy enough, right?

Well, I had to dump the mower bag in the compost just about every pass because it filled up so fast. Also, I cruising through a particularly thick and high patch under our solar clothes dryer (Michael gets credit for that name) when the mower blades made a crazy sound and just stopped.

Now, we've all heard about the people who've gone digging under the mower and lost a few digits. I wasn't going to be one of those people. I carefully placed the mower in the stop position and flipped it over to see what was going on. Apparently someone thought it was a good idea to toss what was basically a log in the yard. Granted, it was a small log. Just big enough to get solidly wedged between the blade and the housing. So, again, I didn't want to loose any fingers, I kicked the blade a few times with my foot (I don't know why I didn't think I might lose that?) It was a tough one. But I finally got some movement and it looked like the wood chunk was loosened up enough that I could grab it. I tell you, I'm lucky to have my poor crushed and bruised left index finger. As I pulled the wood, the blade snapped around like a loaded spring jamming my finger hard between the blade end and the housing. Now I couldn't get my finger out. Well, I did finally get my finger out. Ever seen a bruised finger? It's all pinkish purple and hurts like crazy. But at least I have a finger.

Well, it was an exciting day mowing the yard. I decided I was going to have to be a lot more observant and vigilant so I didn't run into a situation like a log in the grass. There I was, sweating, pulsing finger, covered with grass clippings and still had not weeded or planted in the garden. I just wanted to finish this last patch of weeds and pick up the kids from school. I was almost there too. But then this happened.



I decided it was time to put the mower away for the day.



Poor little snake. I apologized for scaring it. It sat there coiled for a loooong time. I think it was paralyzed with fear. Eventually it slithered away like the proverbial snake in the grass.

I think today I'm going to go try and plant some spuds.

Tough Egg to Crack

Is everyone tired of hearing about chicks yet? Well, it seemed to me that I've been doing an awful lot of writing about them. Then it dawned on me that they are the dominant force around here. We have Mr. J plus his eight hens, the twenty seven roasters and now ten little hatchlings from the classroom. That's 46 chickens! And we also brought home one egg that was having a really hard time hatching. I told the kids it may not survive. Another of nature's harsh lessons. But we "helped it" hatch out last night. I guess I'll find out this morning if our total can be updated to 47. But, you know what they say, "Don't count your chicks before they hatch!"

Here's a picture of some of the chicks at home in their box (finally out of the incubator) plus the one egg that stalled out hatching. It is said that if the egg is pipped for more than 24 hours the membrane beneath dries out and the chick is usually so large that it cannot break free of the egg.



Here's another picture of lots of the little ones. You can't see them all but you can see a lot of them. It's amazing that most of them bellied right up to the food and water and started to eat and drink.



We have:
2 brown stripey chicks
2 yellow with spots chicks
4 black and yellow chicks
2 "turken" bald neck chicks (one black and one yellow)

So, after those little critters were settled comfortably, I turned my attention to the peeping egg. Thank goodness for the internet and Backyard Chicken. I guess lots of people want to "help" their chicks hatch. And this is generally a very bad idea. But, in some cases, you may be able to save the chick. There is a long process about temperature, humidity, only removing the shell, not membrane, etc. that one should read before attempting to "help" the chick hatch. And realize that it is quite possible this chick won't make it anyway.

We decided we'd ring the egg shell exposing the membrane and put the egg back in the bator for a few hours with some wet wash clothes and dampen the membrane in the hopes it will hatch itself.



The poor little thing continued to peep and struggle. But I think it was really weak from having tried this for the last 24 hours. So, we have it a little more assistance.



Now, these images can't due justice to what we were experiencing. This egg was peeping and pushing and wiggling so hard. It was so squirmy and stuck. I had lots of kids around me watching and waiting and wondering. No pressure. I was so afraid I was going to accidentally kill the chick. A couple of times I had to stop and moisten the membrane and put it back in the bator because there was some blood on the membrane. I started to worry that maybe this one wasn't "done" yet.

After some more time elapsed and my heart couldn't take all the frustrated peeping and I took it back out and helped wipe away, very gently, the membrane.



Now you see the shell still on the bottom of the chick there. When we removed that, the chick was still attached to some yolk still attached to the shell. I took a pair of clean scissors and cut the yolk as close to the shell as possible.

I put the chick and damp cloth back in the bator. It staggered around like something that had been in a horrible accident, dragging this bit of yolk looking thing behind it. I'm hoping that it will dry up and fall off like an umbilical cord.

The following picture is not a great one. It's of the chick once I put it back in the bator as it crashed out and rested for a bit. For a few hours before we went to bed it peeped and slept and dragged itself around. It was kind of hard to watch.



So, this morning that tough bird was all dry and fuzzy and the yolk was drying up. I popped it in the box under the light with its fuzzy friends. Here's a look:



So, it looks like our new totals for the chicks are 11!!

We have:
2 brown stripey chicks
2 yellow with spots chicks
5 black and yellow chicks
2 "turken" bald neck chicks (one black and one yellow)

Valerie did notice that the brown ones have extra toes. One has like five toes on one foot and six on the other ....?! The rest of the chicks have three toes in front and a back one like they should.

More Chix Pix

This morning I arrived in the classroom to find a total of 9 chicks flailing around the incubator. That's 9 hatchlings out of 14 eggs. But it looked like there were one or two more going to hatch. There was another olive egg with a hole in it wiggling around in the chaos. Now, I'm sure that there are two in there that are not going to hatch. So, I'm hoping we'll get about 11 or 12 chicks by the end of the day.



Here are some more photos of the little guys/gals. They were a bit alarmed by the stunning flash and sort of scrambled out of the lime light each time I tried to photo them. It's amazing they all look so different. I can't wait to get them home and tucked into a clean box with a nice warm lamp and some food and water. They might just be wondering where the big feathery momma is that was supposed to have been sitting on them this whole time.




I have to confess that when I saw that first chick hatched out all by itself, my heart went out to it. Seemed sort of an empty way to come into the world via incubator instead of mommy hen. But now that little one has a bunch of siblings/friends/rivals with which to cuddle.

Okay, I think they'll all do well. Valerie can't wait for this next batch of critters to move into her room. I just don't know how that girl can sleep without all the peeping and heat lamp action casting crazy chicken shadows on the wall all night.

In other news, that rain just keeps coming! My plants in the yard must be thrilled. Plus, we can give that pump a break. Even the five and half week old boys are enjoying the wet weather. They still run around outside.



Rex built the "Chicken Hut" to keep their food dry and give them a place to hang out (aside from the inside of their house).



Man, this chicken biz is a little bit addictive. I might just have too many chickens. Heaven help me when I get the call turkey poults are ready to come home.

Hatch Day!

About 21 days ago I set up an incubator in Valerie's fifth grade classroom. Inside I placed 12 of our eggs (hopefully fertilized by Mr. Johnson) and another 6 eggs presumed to fertile that I purchased from Max out at GRUB.

On day 7 we candled the eggs using flashlights and toilet paper tubes. We were able to see a dark spot (without any sort of definition really) in most of the shells that we thought might be a developing chick. Some egg shells the light shined right through. We realized there were no chicks in those guys and discarded the eggs.

On day 14 we candled the eggs again using an 84 watt LED light bulb and toilet paper tube. I was able to rule out a couple more eggs as non-viable. And the olive eggs, well, we were still unable to get any light through them. They are dark and thick. We were pretty sure they weren't fertile as we hadn't seen that chicken especially cozy with Mr. Johnson. But we left them all in the incubator anyway. One egg was particularly accommodating as it allowed us to see not only the shape of the chick, but also what we figured was the heart. Light colored eggs with not too thick of a shell are best for candling.

I figured day 21 would have been yesterday afternoon ... all the kids were hoping they would come into the classroom early Monday morning and find a pile of chicks. Not so.

But today, Tuesday, I arrived at school to find the door to the classroom locked and some very excited kids standing outside the door, "There's a chick! There's a chick that hatched!" I managed to get inside and have a look. Wow! Apparently Valerie's teacher came in earlier and it was still wet. Naturally I had cleaned off the camera card and charged the battery in preparation for this moment. And I put the camera in a very special place where I wouldn't forget it ... and it was still there when I got home. Doh!

By the time I made it back to school in the afternoon there were two more hatchlings and a couple of cracked and wiggling eggs! Oh, this was exciting. The kids told me one of the chicks had a bald neck. I thought perhaps that was a defect and the chick wouldn't make it. But then I remembered that Max has these really ugly chickens amongst his flock called turkens. Here's a picture I pulled of the web:



Well, I guess that little one is one of Max's. And one of our Olive eggs did hatch after all. Oh, that rascal, Mr. Johnson and Olive!!!



It was difficult to get good pictures as I had to take the photo through the window of the incubator. We can't open it until they all hatch. So, I think I will bring home the little ones tomorrow or Thursday and update with better looking pix.



Here you can see an egg with a little hole in it. The kids and I stayed after school for over an hour watching that one and the one next to it wiggle and move. But no chick yet. We expect to see more in the morning.

Shanghai Saturday

~photo by Rex Wilhelm

One thing I love about Friday nights is looking forward to sleeping in on Saturday morning. Do you remember the days when you didn't even shower and get ready to go out on a Friday night until 10pm? Well, I'm usually in bed no later than 9:30pm on a Friday. And that's usually after falling asleep in the living room floor about 8:30pm. When did I get old?

Anyhow, true to my ritual, I fell asleep early Friday night dreaming about luxuriating over a cup of coffee in my PJs Saturday morning. When I woke early Saturday morning I noticed the light streaming through my bathroom window had an unusual color to it. I squinted out to the North West to see a bank of very dark clouds reflecting the early morning light coming from the East. Well, that was unplanned.

I grabbed my coffee and went for the internet weather forecast. What? Rain? Really? The good news was the rain wasn't supposed to hit until Sunday but it was going to settle in for the week. So I had the entire day Saturday to prepare and hunker down for wind and rain.

Of course the kids look forward to goofing off on Saturday morning and that is their special time where they can watch videos. So, I announced over Myth Busters and Phineas & Ferb that they were being pressed into service.

Oh, and there aren't any photos from the travail as some kids filled up my camera card with crazy pix. Well, some of them were nice. Rex is infatuated with the humming birds around here. Actually,he is really into observing all the birds. He keeps a birding book and pair of binoculars handy and he can identify most of the birds by sight and their calls or special mating dances. So, here are a few pix I pulled off the card. These are photos by Rex (as is the blossom at the top of the blog post):







I spent the entire day picking up tools and fencing and putting them away. I filled in trenches that had been opened to run water lines. I planted part of a hedgerow I'd been planning for some time. Thanks to John and Susan I had two red bud trees and a bunch of forsythia, quince and red salvia. I cleaned out both chicken houses and made cover for the food for the little guys so it wouldn't get wet. I had the kids picking up junk from all over the yard and stowing their toys and wagons. Everyone was also requested to do any laundry that would be needed because this was probably the last nice day to hang it out on the line.

When I wasn't digging holes, filling holes, lifting things, hanging laundry, hoeing the garden or scooping poop, shanghaiing kids into service, I was chopping and hauling wood. I had no idea if was going to be cold rain, but why take chances. Always nice to chop on a nice day.

Since we accomplished so much yesterday I was able to have aspirin for dinner and sleep in today ... luxuriating over the newspapers with my coffee while the kids wrestled like puppies all over the floor and the couch this morning. Now that's a weekend!

Rex is always the practical joker. I heard a shriek come from Valerie's room and saw Rex's telltale cap run across my view of the window to the backyard. Valerie came stalking out, "Where is Rex?" I don't know. Why? "Read this!" Rex had slipped a note under Valerie's back door that read: Valerie, taxes are due today, March 11. They will be collected at 10:40AM. Oh, ha ha. I've seen worse.

Rex is really enjoying being home. His sixth grade class went on a week long field trip to an environmental camp in the Sierra Foothills about a week ago. I thought it would be so much fun for him to get all that time in the mountains with his friends. I guess the trouble was that his class was split up and had to share dormitories with kids from a couple of other really tough schools. Also, I think Rex was expecting more of a "survival training" and less of a lecture on saving the forest. He found it ironic that for a place touting the importance of environmental awareness, they served industrially processed food and gave out paper napkins. Ah, well, another of life's lessons.

Here is a letter we received from Rex from Camp Granada. I've edited the spelling a bit:

Dear Mom and Dad,

This is really a poo hole so far. It rained all day and then started to snow and hail. We have a cement cabin with a really high ceiling. So, it's really cold. Most of the kids are jerks! There was a kid Mason was talking about and how he wanted to beat the crap out of. We got him in our cabin and he is so rude. The food is so crappy that it might be worse than the Neal Dow (his former school) lunch food. I hope everything is good at home. I miss the whole family.

Sincerely,
Rex
xoxoxo


In bee news, I finally got hold of Fred Selby (the guy who is selling me bees). He thinks they will be ready the first week of April. Yay! And this is especially good because I've signed up to take a biodynamic bee keeping class at the Steiner College in Sacramento on March 24th. I'll be that much more prepared for the little critters! As I spoke to Fred on the phone I could tell he was working in the bee yard. I could hear his smoker puffing and the buzz and hum of the bees in the background. So I asked him if I needed anything special to pick up the bees. He said, "No. Probably just a truck." I said, "Well, I have a minivan, will that be okay?" He responded, "A minivan?? Welllllll, you coulllllld ... I guess we can try to clean them up as best we can. But they will be flying around inside with you." I really do use the minivan for everything. Even things I shouldn't. I mean, I've hauled goats in that thing. Can't scare me! But even Michael says I should borrow John's truck. (John, are you reading this? Can I borrow your truck some time during the first week of April?)



Well, I'm off to do some less physically taxing errands today. And my plants will look forward to that rain!

Before and After

Taking a walk around the yard is a nice break from sitting in front of the computer. I can see my peas up and happy. And then I can go collect some eggs from the girls.



Here's a shot of the garden in March with the world's largest laundry line behind it. I am so thankful for the abundance of laundry line because, as you can see, I have an abundance of laundry! Wednesday is sheet washing day at Rancho Wilhelm. And, well, any day can be table cloth/napkin/random item laundry day. Yay laundry line! Yay garden!



Michael and Rex worked so hard to divide the chicken palace into two flats. Like most youngin's, when they first get out they wind up in the "too many roommates" situation. But this place has an awesome yard! Totally worth the hassel.



Remember these little guys from a couple weeks ago?



Well, in just two days they will be five weeks old. Now they are these guys:



And in a couple of weeks they will be these guys:



Ouch! Not funny! Seriously, it's kind of funny. But let's not go there yet. Right now they are awfully cute and I really enjoy my time with them. None of them really have names. They are "the boys" or "the chicks". There is one particularly aggressive guy that Michael has marked with a green sharpie. He looks pretty docile in the picture below, but he can drag another one down screaming and frequently does. Bit of a bully, really. Michael is considering an early harvest for "green spot".



Of course, we still also have the little brown chicken. Not sure if it is a hen or rooster yet. Here is a terrible picture:



And for point of reference, I have this photo of one of the little guys in the yard with the big chickens just on the other side of the fence:



Now, the whole time I've been snapping off pix, I've been avoiding things ... like making beds with all the clean sheets, chopping wood, working at my day job and putting together my bee hive and painting it. I took a walk through the orchard this morning to consider putting out the hive when I noticed leaf curl on our arctic star nectarine. Doh! I never did get around to spraying that copper. Darn it. That is where procrastination gets me.

But in other news, I've finally decided to update some of the before and after photos I took of the progress of the inside of the house. Aren't you lucky!

You may have heard me go on about the world's ugliest wood stove with faux river rock behind it and burn marks in the floor in front of it. Yuck! Well, here's a photo. I'm not even sure the picture does my months of complaining justice. I'm sure the picture I painted with my words was ten times worse. But, all the same, I'm glad this area no longer looks like this:



Really, get a good look at this thing. Can you see yourself feeling happy and warming yourself by this big hulking box as a centerpiece all winter long? Blech. It was with great pleasure I paid two guys to rip it out (and the faux rock behind it and shove it out the back door!)



We pulled the stove out and completely re-tiled the hearth and wall. We painted and had new hickory floors put in. Oh, and we got rid of the blue ceiling fan. What's up with that??? We were going to put it in Valerie's room. But somehow during deconstruction it wound up in the back yard and the goats (remember the goats??) broke it. Along with tons of other stuff. Goats!!!



Finally some friends came over and helped us install the new wood stove that we all just love! You can see the empty boxes next to the stove. I'm supposed to be out chopping wood right now. But clearly I'm too busy updating the blog. So, we'll just be chilly tomorrow morning.



Now, the kitchen was functional. But I believe it actually had less storage space than my last kitchen. And that's saying something! It was sort of a joyless utilitarian place.



So, we ripped out the joyless utility, painted a lovely retro avocado-ish color and did not go for matching appliances. Yes, we went for the stainless variety in spite of the fact we have three kids. Yes, I do a lot of wiping up.



Et, voila! An island and everything! I love my kitchen. It's so nice and open to the living room and dining room. I can see out the front and back windows from the stove or island or sink. And I'm never cut off from my company or family.



Now, the dining room also needed a little something. Here you can see it has nothing really going on except some mislaid laminate flooring and a fireplace that is not really usable.



A good coat of paint (to tie it in with the kitchen) and some new hickory floors (tying it to the rest of the house) really spruced it up.



But the best part was putting in a new mantle and built in book shelves. We had something like this around the fire place at our last house and loved it. Of course we then moved waaaay too much stuff into the room. But, hey, it is totally comfy. The fireplace is holding lots of winter squash, kombucha and library books/magazines. So much more usable!



Well, that's all for the tour today. I guess I'd better get working on something around here. Apparently house elves don't actually exist. Or, if they do, they are extremely lazy. Worse than me.

Please pass the wood chuck!

It's been a while since we've had cable. Well, years really. I can't say I miss it. But when I stumble across something on the internet like the video below, I feel reaffirmed that I'm really not missing anything. The best part about the clip is take off on the old Dr. Pepper commercials. (apparently you have to get past a 30 second ad before seeing the clip ... pardon that!) Enjoy.

Oh, and, I'm not a prepper.