Birds, Pumpkins, and Front Loaders, Oh My!
October 13, 2009 at 5:13 pm | In Chickens, Family, Wildlife | 1 CommentWe had a very nice Columbus Day weekend, with lots of highlights. It began when I went out to collect the eggs a few days ago. I opened the rear door to the nesting boxes and there was a hen standing in one. I noticed that her vent was protruding and I realized she was going to lay her egg soon. I figured it would be like having a baby–seems like it’s going to happen any second, but it really takes a while–but I watched her pulse a few time and I saw the egg actually come out!!! In all my years of being around chickens I never actually saw an egg come out of a bird before. It pretty much looked like you might expect. I’m sure most people will be pleased I don’t have a photo to accompany this section 
On Friday morning there was exciting activity across the street from us. We live on a narrow road and directly across from our house there is what we call the “pull out”, because it’s like the road veers off and ends, providing a convenient parking area. Dump trucks started showing up and dumping out giant loads of gravel, big pipes and fire hydrants were placed at the edge, and a front loader was parked. Having a front row seat to this has proven vastly entertaining to both children. And, after they were all done (telling us they’d be back on Monday to start work) we let Clark bring his trucks over and play, climb the mountain of gravel, and sit on the front loader.
Promptly at 7am on Columbus Day they began their work, which is installing city water on our street (due to some fascinating contaminated water years ago from some building settlement. Our well is not affected and we are opting out of the city water.) Apparently we will be getting a fire hydrant in our front yard, too. All day long they dump more gravel and then the front loader brings scoopfuls of it down the road to fill in where they’ve dug up the road for the pipe.
On Sunday we had our annual pumpkin picking out at Norz Hill Farm. We love going there, especially taking the kids’ pictures in front of the “How Tall This Fall?” painted wood sign. We have pictures of Clark for four years in a row in front of it. I’d heard reports of pumpkin crops suffering due to this summer’s weather and it turned out to be quite true. In years past the sight of the fields filled with brilliantly colored pumpkins and gourds was quite breathtaking. This year it felt like there were slim pickings. We did get a couple pumpkins and a few gourds, though, and of course the fun is in the whole outing-the hay ride, the hay maze, the lovely autumn day. It is definitely one of my favorite autumn activities.
Out in the field there arestill pumpkin blossoms for fat bumblebees to stuff themselves into. I was very pleased with this pictures–I basically stuck my camera lens into the blossom.
When we got home we arranged all our pumpkins and things on the front porch with the mums. I noticed my dahlias are still going strong and I think they are such striking flowers. Tabitha beheaded a couple.
While we were sitting on the porch admiring everything we noticed a little sparrow flying in and out of the birdhouse. It’s mate was sitting on the branch next to it and they were very noisy. Could they be building a nest? Or just looking for a nice place to stay? We were just charmed by them. Check out the cute birdie and she peeks out and then launches off.
This and That
September 10, 2009 at 1:27 am | In Big Green Froggie, Botanical Photos, Chickens, Gardening, Sewing | 2 CommentsI’ve been so slow about posting lately (I have quite a backlog of books to do over at The Last Book I Read), but I suppose in part it’s because I’ve been doing a lot of sewing and hobby stuff lately, dealing with a mysterious fever Clark had (swine flu? Lyme disease? It went away and he’s fine), and throwing myself into the change of season. I’m so ready to embrace apple picking, jean wearing, apple eating, and so on. Clark goes back to preschool next week and he’s quite excited about it, as am I for him.
So here’s a rundown of pictures of note and such. First, another bee top for Tabitha. It turned out too large, but since it is summery I decided not to alter it, but to save it instead for next summer. This was my first time making real pleats, which came out pretty well.
In progress: sewing a tote bag
In progress: baby quilt for my dear friend’s baby, who was born today. I’ve got the top and bottom tied together and am going to embroider today’s date and the baby’s name on it now and then bind it. Here’s the top after it was pieced together:
The change in sunrise/sunset and daylight hours is very apparent in the chickens’ laying behavior. During the summer (and as recent as 2 weeks ago) by 9am all 9 eggs would have been laid. However, now they are laying much later in the day and I didn’t get all the eggs today until mid-afternoon. One of the ladies:
Our ladies, by the way, are completely people friendly and always on the lookout for treats. They run up to cars that pull in the driveway. If you call out “here chick chick!” one will run and then all the others will follow. If you are sitting on the front porch, one or two might hop right up there to see what’s going on. They are a delight.
Cooler days are very pleasant for Big Green Froggie-he’s been spending quite a bit of time out on the patio. He was in the pond, though, the other day when a hen fell into the pond! The hen turned out to be fine-I ran outside and scooped her up and wrapped her in a towel.
We saw some interesting fuzzy caterpillars yesterday.
Check out the teeny tiny grippy feet that help it hold on to this thick piece of grass:
And here is Tabitha making the face she does when she says “Nooooooo” Ever since she finally started saying Clark’s name (“Clark-Clark”) she says it all the time. It’s especially funny when she says “Clark Clark No!”, as she is here. By the way, neither of us has ever said “Clark-Clark”, so I don’t know why she does.
In the front the squash plants have run amok, reaching out like a sash across this tree:
What’s neat is the tiny tendrils that reach out to whatever they can and grab on, holding up this big vine and its big leaves and blossoms:
Here is Clark standing next to a very tall…plant. I am holding out hope that it is going to be a beautiful flower (I did plant a lot of seeds here), but I think it just might be a spectacular weed. The other tall plants are zinnias. The black thing behind the plants is our new composter, which Clark won at the Somerset County 4H Fair! Very exciting. We are thinking that by having it closer to the house (and it doesn’t smell, so why not?) we will be more likely to empty our compost into it daily.
Hoping to finish the bag and quilt in the next couple of days, and will certainly have some updates then.
Open for Business
August 30, 2009 at 3:31 pm | In Chickens | 3 Comments
We’ve hung out our shingle! I’m so curious to see if anyone will stop and buy our eggs!
On the Road to being a Roadside Stand
August 17, 2009 at 5:31 pm | In Botanical Photos, Chickens, Gardening, Sewing | 1 CommentI just ordered blank egg cartons! We can make our own labels to put on them and then it will be so fun to give eggs to our friends in their very own Debraski Farm Fresh Eggs cartons. We’ll also be selling them. It’s not uncommon around here to see people with “fresh eggs for sale” signs at the end of the driveway. We will be joining those folks by hanging out our own sign. Paul has been working on it:
What do you do with lots of eggs? Make souffles and custards! I found a recipe in my giant binder of recipes I never seem to use for a “Spinach and Parmesan Fallen Souffle.” I made it and it was quite green (the spinach was blenderized). Clark almost had a tearful meltdown that I’d made something so “disgusting” and not what he’d wanted. Five minutes later he requested a tiny taste. He tasted it and declared it “delicious” and proceeded to tell me I was the best mom ever for making it and ate almost all of it himself! I think that may have been the highlight of my week. I will definitely be making more.
Other highlights? This morning in the garden, while picking some tomatoes, I found a cicada right in front of my face. He was cool looking, but what was really awesome? He then proceeded to make the cicada noise! I got to see it in action, which I never have before. It was really neat. His whole big black body shook like a rattle and vibrated like mad. Again, it was just the neatest thing to get to witness so up close.
Things are cuckoo in the garden. We’re at the point of the summer where I feel like we just venture in to pick stuff, but don’t really tend it anymore. The butternut squashes are crazy. I did pick my first one, though I’m not certain it was ready. I also was yanking out the dead green bean bushes and discovered one that had about 6 nice beans on it. I added them to a vegetable soup. I’m sad to say that every single ear of corn we’ve picked has not tasted good. I just keep giving them to the chickens. Here’s yet another squash on its way (truthfully I’m unclear on whether or not this is a butternut squash, a zucchini, or what)
I finally harvested a couple tomatilloes.
A day’s harvest:
I’ve been doing a fair amount of sewing recently. I’m working on a patchwork ball for a baby. I’ve just
got all the hexagons and pentagons cut out, now I need to stitch them all together.
I also made an apron for a friend’s birthday. I loved this pattern and think it came out really well. I took my time and even made sure to switch out my thread to make it match the binding of it. I really like the scalloped bottom.
We went to the park this morning and picked some interesting mushrooms. I want to go back and take photos of them unpicked because I think they look like cool fairy villages. But these are some neat closeups. Mushroom undersides are so incredibly delicate looking, aren’t they?
and look at this little starfish image on the top of one:
And finally, we went to the county 4-H Fair on Friday, which I’ve been going to since I was a kid. I love it that there are things about it that have literally not changed in 25 years. Here’s a cow getting fresh with Paul:
What’s the Buzz?
August 3, 2009 at 6:46 pm | In Chickens, Cookery, Family, Gardening, Sewing | 3 Comments
Saturday night we had a babysitter and went out to dinner. We followed up dinner out with an exciting trip to Wal-Mart-yes, this is what parents do when they get a few hours to themselves! I picked up a little bit of fabric and Paul chose some bee fabric for Tabitha for me to make her shorts. Yesterday afternoon I sewed them up and I think they came out great! I was really so pleased with them. Paul liked them because he thought they would keep her so busy pointing at all the bees and saying “bee! bee!”, which is indeed true. Here she is in them:
Our chickens are laying like crazy. Now that we are getting NINE eggs a day we see that is a huge difference from a mere 3 eggs a day, even given that two of them automatically go to my friend Jen, who actually owns two of the comets. We need an Egg-O-Mat in front of our house! For those of you who didn’t grow up in Warren, NJ, that would be this.
We have also harvest a bunch of potatoes (why didn’t I take a picture?), the butternut squash are ripening beautifully, the tomatoes are coming in, and for dinner tonight I’m making a tiella-a layered casserole of zucchini, potato, and tomato puree. But I am not Michael Chiarello and so my version is to mix everything up in a bowl and then layer it out, rather than doing his endless step recipe. Check out the far reach of the squash plants:
I’m excited about these bird’s egg gourds:
I am suprised at myself that this month I have much more time to myself than last year, yet last year I did all that canning! Still, this summer I am doing more sewing. I am also looking at my garden a lot in terms of what I’d like to do next year: more flowers, do whatever it takes to get sunflowers and morning glories along the fence, put the herbs in the raised bed with the asparagus, plant more larger perennials in the front, do better with lettuce. I am pleased with what we are producing, though, don’t mean to complain about it!
Yesterday a water lily was blooming and it was lovely. The comets are really enjoying spending time perched in the Japanese maple:
We’ve started work on Clark’s 4th birthday movie. So far we’re in the “selecting photos and videos” phase, which takes a while. We’ve reviewed photos from July, Aug, Sept, and Oct of 2008. If you asked me how Clark is different today as a four year old from a year ago as a three year old, I would have said not at all. But looking at pictures I see that I am wrong-last year his hair was practically a different color, his face looked so much more babyish, and his voice was higher and more babyish. And as for Tabby, well my goodness! First no hair, then finally hair that stood straight up, and now it’s flat and long. Also, when she was a baby she had such a round face with big cheeks. Amazing how easy it is to forget these things. Reviewing the summer photos also has let me see how our yard/garden is different and the same as last year.
OK, must go bring in the two day old laundry from the line (curse you unexpected thunderstorm!).
But wait…You know who else grew up in a year? Our black chickens! I had completely forgotten that when we got them they were small, had tiny combs, and were the same size as our little Comets are now.
BOOOOO! As I was typing this I watched one of them walk up onto our porch, over to the cherry tomatoes, and pluck a ripe one right off the plant!!
When we got them:
And now:
Hot, Wet, Hot, Wet
July 31, 2009 at 1:09 am | In Chickens, Cookery, Family, Gardening, Housekeeping (or Lack Thereof), Uncategorized | 3 Comments
Seems everyone is having weather woes, and here in New Jersey it’s been torrential rains, revolting humidity, and freak tornadoes and storms. We were lucky to have just one tree down in our yard (and not a beloved tree), but many of our neighbors had full mature trees uprooted. It’s been quite spectacular driving around and seeing it all. The upside of our fallen tree is that it has become, of course, a piece of playground equipment for us! We’ve all had so much fun walking up and down it that we want to make a little obstacle course for the kids. Every time the kids play in our yard like this (hitting sticks against a tree, for example) and they look a bit grubby I feel like they are Appalachian kids and we now have an Appalachian playground.
Our corn got knocked down again yesterday. It must be very frustrating being a corn farmer! Paul thinks that their corn grows closer together so it doesn’t tip over so easily as ours. I’m hoping we’ll be able to eat some corn soon. In the meantime we just picked a bunch of lovely tomatoes. (and update: for dinner I cooked a couple with basil, garlic, zucchini, and had it with pasta.)
The day’s haul:
The brown hens are all laying now, which means we are getting maximum egg output: 9 eggs a day! (two of those eggs go to my friend who actually owns two of the brown hens). As I’ve mentioned the comets’ eggs are small and dark brown, but they are getting larger. Today two of their eggs were the size of the black hens’!
Last night I stepped outside and felt something wet on my shirt. My immediate reaction was, “SLUG!” and then I thought “that’s a stupid thing to think-how would a slug get up on your shirt? why not think just wet spot from hand washing or a booger from a kid (which is also gross, but more likely)?” I looked down and apparently my instincts were spot on because it was a teeny tiny slug.
Nothing has made me feel quite so old-fashioned/housewifey/homesteady as this: this week we began line drying our clothes. I’ve wanted to for a while since I read constantly about how the electric clothes dryer really uses so much electricity. I couldn’t figure out a good place for a clothesline, though. A broken fan belt of the dryer force me into action. With two wet loads of mildewing laundry I had to go out to Home Depot and buy a clothespole (and my request for one seemed to cause a lot of confusion-is it really such an odd thing??). I was delighted with the results. The clothes dried way faster than I would have thought and I got three loads dried and folded before we had yet another storm that made everything soggy and wet and knocked the pole over. With pole repaired I headed out again today. It’s definitely not a speedy process but there was something inantely soothing about hanging each piece of clothing (and strategically arranging the underwear on the inside lines so no one sees it, as well as distributing the weight evenly) just so. I have to say I’m enjoying it.
Went to the beach yesterday:
Tonight Pippin was barking and barking and it turns out it was at this lovely large Toad:
Great summer days!
A Lot of Catching Up, A Lot of Pictures
July 20, 2009 at 2:01 am | In Chickens, Crafty, Family, Gardening, Sewing | 4 CommentsI’ve been back for a few days now and very eager to post about our garden, our chickens, sewing, etc, but the need for sleep has consistently won out. So, this will be a long and photo filled post. Speaking of photos, I was able to add photos to my last post, so check it out so you don’t miss seeing Mr. Toad (who is not to be confused with Big Green Froggie.)
So, I’m back. And in a mere six days the garden exploded even more. Apparently we harvest two zucchini, a large cucumber, and a cherry tomato. Which probably doesn’t sound like a lot, but it means things are producing!
I didn’t realize we planted butternut squash (my favorite squash), so this was a wonderful surprise hiding under all those gigantic squash leaves and blossoms:
Another surprise–we forgot we planted tomatilloes, but look what we found!
The green beans are abundant and delicious. Clark is even loving them. The corn was astonishing. It may have literally grown a foot in that time and also all of a sudden there are actual ears of corn on it. I can’t wait until they are nice and big and ready to eat.
I was glad I took pictures on Friday afternoon because Friday evening we had an incredible storm. I actually wonder if it might have been a microburst? It left a fair amount of damage in a pretty localized area. In our yard we had a tree down and half of our corn knocked over (but not uprooted or cracked, so we were able to straighten it.) We also lost power from about 9pm to 2am. A drive through town showed that lots of rather large trees had been downed here and there.
As for our flowers, they look good overall. Some areas of the garden I’m definitely mentally marking for improvement next year with more perennials added. A big disappointment was in a little bed that I usually plant with annuals and let it get big and colorful. Last year I had impatients, but in prior years I did zinnias, cosmos, marigolds, morning glories. I preferred that so this year planted all that again and I have but a few zinnias and all the marigolds died. And one single morning glory is blooming (and it’s not even a Heavenly Blue.)
Another surprise waiting for me? Our chickens are now all free range. Apparently the little ones started flying out of the coop and then the ones left behind would get all mad and noisy. I suppose we could clip their wings, but they are actually doing pretty well keeping to our yard (only one crossed the road) and Pippin has not hurt them (though he follows them around.) And see how frightened they are of him?
And the big news? On Thursday two of the little hens laid their first eggs!! We collected five that day (the three older ladies + two of the littles) and on another day we got one little one, and today we got five again. It’s very clear which ones are the little hens-the eggs are small and a darker brown color. So good for them, and especially good for them that they are laying in their nesting boxes.
On the crafty front….my return from this last conference means that I now have a lot more free time. A lot. And I have promised myself all year that I would now delve further into projects for myself, specifically sewing things. I made a good start this summer with the aprons and the dresses for Tabitha, and now I intend to do more. I’ve got a bunch of baby projects lined up for one thing. Today I visited Pennington Quilt Works, which was a beautiful store with loads of gorgeous fabrics all attractively arranged. Lots of the stuff I admire online at fatquartershop.com and fabric.com was there, including Amy Butler designs and Moda stuff. So I bought a bunch more stuff and then went over to my friend’s house for a little tutorial on using the rotary cutter. Thank you, Pookie! I also ordered funky Christmas fabric from the Christmas in July sale at fabric.com.
Paul was super handy today: he went to the hardware store, came home, and built the kids a seesaw! Clark loves it, Tabby is sort of afraid of it, and I will have decent thighs in approximately one month given what a hideous workout it provides to your quads if you are an adult and solely responsible for the up down action of the seesaw.
Friday we went to Ocean Grove for a day at the beach. The water was icy, but Paul and I both went in. The highlight was finding Crabby.
Other recent pics I took and like:
And finally, today is the 7 year anniversary of my first date with Paul. I’m thinking fond thoughts of our dinner at Martino’s, our hilarious coffee at Brewed Awakening, and what a wonderful start it was to the beginning of our lives together.
How Does My Garden Grow? (While I’m Away)
July 10, 2009 at 11:29 am | In Chickens, Gardening | 2 CommentsI’m away right now in Chicago at the ALA Annual Conference. I haven’t been so great about updating about the garden, but a night in the hotel room means I should be able to post some photos now. I anticipate that when I return after 6 days the garden will have exploded. As it is, the rapidly growing corn and the gigantic and overgrown potato plants have shielded from view all that’s been happening. (OK, this will be a lame-o post because I cannot seem to upload my photos here. But I’ll give you this brief narrative and then add photos later
Turns out we have tons of green beans.I had some with a little salt and butter and to make them extra delicious.
We have a cucumber growing and it has little spikes all over it.
And there many bright orange blossoms on our various melon/zucchini plants (we can’t remember which is which!)
The coneflowers are blooming gorgeously and attracting many bees and a few butterflies. See the pollen the bee has collected?
Pippin has a little dirt spot under some trees that he likes to sleep in. This summer his spot has been taken by a toad. We know when the toad is there because Pippin just barks at it and one time licked it. Mr. Toad looks extremely flat in the one picture I took, but he is normal sized.
The little comets are acclimated fully now and happy to come out (even if the big hens still occasionally peck at them.) They are extremely naughty and keep flying out of the coop. I suppose we’ll need to clip their wings. It’s fun, though, to see them enjoying “having an adventure”, as Clark calls it.
Picnic Dress
July 3, 2009 at 1:35 am | In Chickens, Sewing | Leave a CommentI just sewed another dress! Same pattern, but with wider straps, no pocket, and a ruffle on the bottom. I’m pleased to report that this time around I learned from some of my first mistakes and did them correctly. Unfortunately I was feeling quite skilled with ruffles and gathers and ended up having trouble with this one. I think it looks darling though and Tabitha will debut it at Clark’s birthday party, or possibly a 4th of July party tomorrow. Also, this time around I completed it in two sittings!
A closeup of the fabric. This time I used a nice knit. The picnic pattern is charming, though the bottle of wine leads me to believe this probably wasn’t originally intended as a children’s print!
(I have many garden and chicken updates, but they will have to wait until tomorrow. But first, this big update: Mrs. Hen lives on! Not only that, today she managed to lay an egg and unstop herself. I actually saw her in the nesting box and it appeared she definitely had to work to get it out, but she did and is quite chipper. Hooray! I was so happy I gave her a big kiss and she returned the gesture by pooping on my blouse.)
Update: here is trying on the dress (I was astonished by the giant armholes since this was a size smaller!):
The Ongoing Saga of Mrs. Hen
June 29, 2009 at 6:56 pm | In Chickens | 3 Comments
On Thursday night when Paul went to put the chickens to bed he found that Mrs. Hen has passed two egg yolks (no shells or anything). He cleaned up the mess (well, pulled it out and the chickens descended upon it and gobbled it up-they can be very cannibalistic in that way (though it’s not really cannibalism) and you should not let your hens do it) and we thought it weird, but didn’t think much more. Then, on Saturday afternoon we noticed that Mrs. Hen (they are finally named–Mrs. Hen, Floppy, and Pecky) was lying down a lot and closing her eyes. I picked her up and looked under feathers at her vent (where the egg comes out). It did not look good–a bone was coming out of it. I had read of prolapse in various animals, including chickens, but this seemed especially odd to have this sharp bone coming out of it. I put some antiseptic on it. I sincerely hoped she would die on her own. Sunday morning she looked worse-it was sticking out further and looked kind of gross. We discussed it with our farm neighbor and he agreed that the best course of action would be to wring Mrs. Hen’s neck. As you might guess, neither Paul nor I feel ready to do this. We went off to a birthday party and hoped Mrs. Hen would be peacefully dead upon our return. She wasn’t, she was up on her perch for the night, nestled next to Floppy. This morning she was the second one out the door and started scratching about. This afternoon a check of her vent shows the bone is no longer in sight! It actually looks pretty normal! She happily gobbled up some bread from my hand. I don’t know what the hell this means. I really don’t know how she can survive this, but I’m happy I do not have to put her out of misery for the time being and happy today’s post was not titled “R.I.P. Mrs. Hen”
*full disclosure-the photo is not of Mrs. Hen, I think it’s of Pecky (the mean one, as you might guess), but I really like the picture.
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