Good n' Plenty

Perhaps it's the wind ... the last couple weeks of school for the kids ... the piles of laundry ... the weeds in the garden ... the eclipse ... or the fact that we slaughtered 27 chickens last weekend that is leaving me feeling ungrounded. I'm really not sure.

We had plans to slaughter Mr. Johnson and the Plymouth Rock Roosters on May 27th. But waking up to a cacophony of cockerels daily and having to pack defensive weapons to enter the orchard sort of came to a head when the turkeys escaped their temporary fencing. All the signs were there. It was time. We had been looking forward to and dreading the day of the slaughter. Thanks to Rex and his friend Baily we had them all on ice by noon Sunday. (Michael and I started at 7:30am). We took a quick lunch break down at the taco truck. (Yes, I realize the irony of hitting up a taco truck when growing our own food). I had a veggie tostada. Rex swore he didn't want to eat chicken for a very long time. His friend, Bailey, ordered the chicken supreme burrito. Ha ha. After lunch Michael and I cut the boys loose to have some fun. They had worked really hard that morning. They really only took one break. Poor Bailey showed up to an operation in progress and nearly lost his breakfast. Rex, on the other hand, had not eaten breakfast and all that pluckin' was making him hungry.

We didn't realize just how critical those extra hands were until everything really slowed down. I went to the back door covered in blood and feathers to find Rex standing inside wearing jeans, his shirt off, hair tucked up into a cowboy hat plating a lovely crepe. It was neatly folded on the plate with fresh strawberries and blue berries poking out the ends, a dusting of powdered sugar and a swizzle of pomegranate syrup on the side. Seriously? That's lovely, but can you come back out here and help us with some very yucky business? And the boys came right out.

As I had my hands deep inside the body cavities of the chickens, Michael could only take a few photos of the event. Lucky you! So, Michael and I spent the rest of the day sorting out stock packs and bagging chickens for the freezer and cleaning up the big mess out there. I swore I could not get the stench of feathers and blood off me for two days. Michael has been referring to me as Lady MacBeth. But after two showers that day we headed over to John and Susan's house to view the eclipse.

Those were some funky shadows cast! And thanks to my friend, Caryl, we had the special glasses to view the event. Wild! And Michael did photo some crazy eclipse shadows on our shirts. It looks like we're all wearing tie dye:

Anyhow, that was pretty nifty. Alas, today is Wednesday and I'm still kind of shook up from the events of the weekend I suppose. Valerie gifted a box of Good n' Plenty to me today. And as I'm out of my gourd, I just ate like half the box. Clearly I'm not in my body. And by the time I get back into it, that body might just be a bit larger. Maybe missing some teeth. What was I thinking? I need a summer vacation.

Stranger in a Strange Land

Tifftown takes you off the farm today and into urban Tokyo! (We'll update with stories of escaping turkeys and something digging holes in my peppers later ...) So, thank goodness for iphones. Here comes your Tokyo Tour! And so we begin with those unusual little vehicles and some urban architecture.

Double decker bike parking. How cool is that?

Movin' on up ...

Typical city side street:

So not the kind of truck I see around our town. I mean, how cute is this?

More bikes and flowers.

Apparently one can get anything in a vending machine. Remember cigarette vending machines? Really a thing of the past in the U.S. But not in Japan!

Tokyo Tower, ooh la la!

Urban landscaping:

Side of a vending machine.

Now that's a mini-van!

More vending machines.

Michael took a walk down to the fish market. Here are some boats parked. It was a quiet Sunday.

Dressed up little dogs are all the rage here. Michael says he sees them everywhere. Here's a little doggie denim action:

Apparently lots of warning meant for drunk English speaking people and their precocious children are posted all over the market. We must be a big problem!

Some official building.

More fish!

Lunch before ...

Lunch after ... ha ha! Sort of kidding.

And if only he could still drink beer! Now, these vending machines might be what's prompting all the signage directed to drunken pedestrians on forklifts and whatnot.

Always fun to photo the toilets abroad.

A Tokyo park.

And not sure what the warning is here. But whatever it is, don't do it! It will make your cats sad.

Post Cards from Tokyo

While we are here chasing escaped turkeys, Michael is laboring hard in Japan. Somebody's got to pay for the farm! (Look, Honey, I bought the farm!)

Take me to your leaders

Michael busted out the good camera while the light was good last night. He snapped off some fun photos of the chickens. Someday we might snap off some good photos of the kids! Here's a Buffy & Mr. Johnson collage:

Farm Report and Recitals

Valerie and Amira had their spring recital on Sunday. Amira played "May Time" and Valerie played Minuet by Boccherini. Could I be a more proud mom? Here are some photos of the girls. I can't say I'm proud of the photos. These events are always in-doors with really poor light situations. So, here are my blurry cello playing girls:

Now for the farm report. Margaret (Beaufort) and Elizabeth (Woodville)are probably still alive. Long live the Queens! It's been a full week of observing the bees and only one sting to report. Ah, no. I didn't get stung while observing or working in the hives. Amira, the barefoot princess, stepped on a bee in the yard. It probably wasn't even one of "our" bees. It doesn't matter. If one steps on a bee, one will likely get a nice sting. Anyhow, I haven't wanted to disrupt the girls working back there. I have spent many a day whipping up some nice bee tea for them and making sure they have plenty of food and water. But today was a nice day and about time to lift up a frame and see how they are coming along drawing their comb. I tried to look into the comb to see if I could see eggs. But I had the feeling that I was being terribly disruptive. I was just excited to see the comb. And it looked like it was filling with a golden liquid. Maybe there are eggs in there if the queen is laying? My eye sight is the worst. And it was very sunny. And I was being pretty balsey not wearing a bee suit ... or veil .. or gloves. I didn't even smoke them much. Although I still smell like smoke. A little bit goes a long way. It is fun to puff the little smoker. Okay, so here is the scoop. Compare the activity outside Elizabeth's hive:

To Margaret's hive:

Margaret always has a lot of action going on. She appears to have a bawdy bunch. While Elizabeth is orderly and calm. Here's a frame from inside Elizabeth's hive:

They look busy. And they have lots of comb drawn. Here's inside Margaret's hive:

So, they are both drawing comb from the front of the hive toward the back. They are filling up all of the frames. And they are helping me out by following the guides I put in for them. That is to say that they are not drawing across the frames so I can't lift them out or anything. I'll check back in another week or so and make sure they are really drawing the comb all the way to the back. And I might have to get another box ready for topping them off. It will take them a month from getting in there to actually hatching new bees out. So, it will be some time before the colony really expands. In other farm news, we still have four turkeys. And they are odd birds. Let's just say that. They're getting big pretty fast. Here they are enjoying the sun. Well, enjoy is kind of a strong word. I'm not quite sure turkeys actually enjoy anything. They usually look a little surprised and suspicious. They do not seem as gleeful as chickens. Oh, and turkeys smell bad. I usually greet them with a, "Good morning you stinky turkey lurkeys!" And then they crane their little necks and look at me sideways like they've never seen me before.

Our orchard seems to be doing well. Even the peach/nectarine leaf curl seems to be less gnarly looking than it was a month ago. But, the good news is we are going to get a few plums this year!

Well, I don't want to jinx it. It's quite possible the local blue jays or magpies could get a few plums this year. But I make a mean scarecrow when I want to! Also, I'm counting on a couple of figs:

And, I did get some California wildflower seeds this winter (thank you, Alligator!) And I sprinkled them over our giant weed mountain. Good news! We have some flowers!!

And, lastly on the farm report, my Egyptian Walking Onions are starting to walk like Egyptians! (Thank you, Elizabeth ... not Woodville!)