I just realized Tour de Fleece is coming to an end soon and I haven’t spun since last week. I’m glad I didn’t have too ambitious a goal, because it will be very nice to have a little tasks-to-completion success story. I’d really like to try a little spinning meditation. I’ve tried meditating a few times with the Learn to Meditate podcast. It would be doubly nice to apply the mental/physical benefits of meditation to a productive activity. Laura taught spinning meditation at Winter Woolfest, but I was too busy with my booth to try it out. I think I’ll google it and see what I can find. (…Nothing. Anyone have any links?)
Much of my time and energy has been devoted to fencing and preserving. We’ve stretched all but the last span (maybe 400 feet?) of fencing (we’ll have woven wire enclosing about 8 of our 10 acres when we’re done). [Here is where I deleted the incredibly boring explanation of the math of how many clips I’ve installed and how weary my poor wrists are. I suspect this next part will be equally boring, but, what can I say? I’m a bore.] Unless th is rain makes everything too mucky to get around with the Bobcat, the fence will be all but finished in the next week or so. The “all but” part comes from the fact that we also need to install gates. For the back, I think we can rig an interesting closure for the time being with the length of leftover woven wire that was amazingly exactly the length of the opening. For the sides, I want Ron to build some lovely wooden gates to bolt to the existing heavy pipe gates. I think they’ll look much nicer than tubular ranch gates, and they’ll tie in with the wood courtyard gate. The posts and rails for the courtyard gate have been up forever, but we’re waiting on some more wood from our neighbor with a saw mill. We’ve got some lovely cedar he cut, but the fence is going to be a mash-up of a couple different types of wood, and we need it all from the beginning to get the look right.
The only other part of the fence that won’t be 100% is a spot in the back where we’ll need to raise up the ground level to make a proper path that’s out of the way of the water. To do that, we’ll put in a drain pipe for overflow into our neighbor’s pond (which currently takes the natural runoff from our property), and dig out our own pond in a nice clearing in the woods, and use the earth we dig out to raise up the path along the fence line. (We put the fence in 8 feet from the property line and we’re making a nice walking path all along the perimeter of the fence.) The problem is, we’ll need to hire the trackhoe guy to dig it out, and we don’t have the required funds at the moment. So we sunk a wood post 100′ from the corner so we’ll be able to dismantle that one little span we we’re ready to dig the pond. I’m really glad we decided to wait on the pond, because we’ve since had several big unexpected expenses.
Anyway, I’ll be so thrilled when we’re fully fenced. After the dog episode, I’ve been very nervous about the animals. With a secure perimeter, I’ll be able to relax a little. It will be good not to have to plan my evening activities so strictly around the animals.
I’ve also been preserving and baking a lot. Folks who have attended Yarn School or Felt School may have met June Jones, my friend and neighbor who is our on-site massage therapist at workshops. Her husband Tom has a lovely garden, and he planted some extra for me, so I’m helping harvest and can. June’s been away on vacation, so I wanted to get some of the garden produce put up while she’s gone. I’ve done lots of pickles, some jam, and tonight I’m going to can a small batch of green beans. I’ve also baked and frozen several zucchini bread loaves, and I’m experimenting with a chocolate zucchini cake.
Summer Squash Sandwich Slice Mix-em-ups
Chocolate Zucchini Cake
Bread and Butter Zucchini Pickles, Zany Zucchini Pickles, Zesty Zucchini Relish, and Yellow Squash Dill Spears
Zucchini Bread
British Bread & Butter Pickles
Rhubarb-Orange Conserve
Rhubarb Chutney
The best part of lately is the beautifully mild weather. It’s been in the 70s and 80s lately with overnight lows in the low 60s or high 50s, cool enough to sleep and sleep and sleep.
P.S. Bridgette is two days’ back with the other girls. They were picking on her enough to make a big 1×2″ raw, pecked patch that killed off all the new feathers in that spot and left something of a gooey mess. I tried to switch her back to separate quarters during the day/in at night, but she flew over her fence to get back in with her sisters, so I think she’s there to stay, though I’ll need to keep an eye on that yucky patch. While she doesn’t seem entirely at ease, she doesn’t seem eager to leave, as she did in my early attempts to re-integrate her. She’s strong and feisty enough to stay out of too much harm, and if they’ll leave it alone long enough to grow back her feathers, I think she’ll be in the clear. I repositioned the poultry fence and took down the smaller pen, which has made something of a maze inside their little yard. It may be just enough to cure Faith of her broodiness, because she’s none too clever and tends to get trapped in the open pen if she happens to wander in that way. I’m hoping that will keep her away from the nest box long enough to break her broodiness. (When a hen “goes broody,” she sits on the nest day and night, bristling and clucking whenever you come near, and, leaving just long enough to poop and eat. When you’re trying to hatch eggs, that’s dandy. But when you’re not, it’s a pain in the butt because she’s always hogging the favorite nest box protectively, even when it’s empty. So sometimes the other girls will start laying outside the nest, which can lead to dirty, broken, or lost eggs. In our case, it’s especially annoying because we have no rooster, which means no fertile eggs, which means that unless she’s laying the Immaculate Conception, the only thing sitting on an eggs for weeks would give you is a rotten egg. It can also be bad for the broody hen if she’s not getting enough food and exercise.) But if I can’t keep her out of the nest, I’m thinking of getting some fertile duck eggs for her to sit on, and seeing if she can hatch out some ducklings!
Broody Faith
Your canning and baking looks marvelous. Your friend should be so happy with your help while she is away. You are a real friend.
I feel your pain in the garden & kitchen!!!–lol Love the new spinning colors.
I used to have something called “No Pick” or something similar from the feed store to put on chickens that were getting pecked a lot. It was rather tarry-looking, but did provide protection for the raw healing skin and did seem to be much less interesting to peck at than the wounds it covered. Maybe you can find something like that where you are? I’m glad to hear Bridgitte’s healing up otherwise.
And when we really had to break up a broody hen, we would put her in a wire floored cage by herself for a while. Food. Water. No comfy nest. It usually worked, but not always. Having her hatch someone else’s eggs (even duck eggs) is a good alternative. Start soon if you’re going to, because duck eggs take longer than chicken eggs (28 days instead of 21) and some hens will give up if they feel they’ve set long enough.
Your pictures are looking great!! Hmmm, I may need to get that chocolate zucchini cake recipe from you!
Oh man you preserves pictures are mouthwatering! I had a favourite hen that would go reliably broody. We called her Little Black Hen and she was a silky cross, somewhere in her lineage…or Black Cochin? I forget. Anyways, she was awesome as a little mother. When we got her she had a clutch of guinea keets she’d hatched out. We were working on the theory that Guineas hatched and raised by a hen might not wander the neighborhood quite so much and it was a pretty good arrangement.
But unless you are looking to have chicks, then that ol’ broody biddy is just wasting food until she snaps out of it and starts laying again (earning her keep). :oD
The weird thing is, she’s still laying. I know, because she’s the Welsummer & lays the terra cotta colored eggs, and they’ve been showing up nearly every day. Maybe it’s because I keep clearing all the eggs out from under her, so she keeps trying to fill up the nest? It reminds me of the crazy lady you always see in the movies who carries around a doll like it’s her baby.