It's been a while since I've been able to bring myself to sit down and post, I guess losing Frances sort of put a damper on things. Like Karen said, she really was the best chicken I've ever had. I realize that folks who have never owned chickens will really have no idea how in the world a chicken can be entertaining or endearing, but people who have raised chickens understand. They really are not simply silly, clucking, feather-covered automatrons that lay an egg a day and are otherwise regarded about as friendly or useful as a housefly. They can be real cool. As Birkleigh is discovering, chickens can be as engaging and entertaining as kittens. And I have yet to meet a kitten that would leave me anything I wanted to eat.

We've been staying busy here. I did pick up some cukoo marans chicks at the swap. I was so sruprised to see them there. A rare breed, they are prized for their super dark chocolate eggs. I figured mixing in some dark chocolate eggs with our light brown, white, and olive green eggs would make for some very colorful egg cartons. The marans chicks are doing well and growing fast. We needed to keep a heat lamp on them the first few weeks at night due to the cold temps, but now they have all their feathers and they don't need the extra heat. And yay! says our electric bill! I'm still looking at them with a squint eye and trying to determine if I have 4 hens and one rooster, or 3 hens and two roosters... hm. Either way, it'll be fine.

Our Spring chicks will be arriving in a month! Birkleigh is very excited about baby chicks again.

And we started our tomato and peppers in the house a couple weeks ago. Karen did most all the selection of varities, and she chose some old heirloom tomatoes that sound pretty cool. Some will be for fresh table eating, and some are a bit drier and more suited for canning and making into tomato paste, etc.

We're still in stocking-up and getting equipped mode on this new place. In the last month, we got our meat grinder/sausage stuffer so we can process more of our own meats into sausage. I'm still on the hunt for the right materials to make a good smoker out of. Speaking of smoking...I made some truly fab ribs a few weeks ago, and I had plans to post about it. I took pictures all through the process, so that'll be another post unto itself.

Karen also finally got the grain mill she's been wanting. It attaches onto her Kitchenaid mixer, and it grinds the hard red wheat we get from a neighbor, who grows it organically. It's kind of fun to watch the wheat get turned into flour. And then Karen really goes to work, setting the kitchen apoof with flour and pans and baking stones. She's made some great breads and the best bagels ever! And let me tell you...slathered in the butter we made from the whole milk we get from these same neighbors is heavenly. The cows are grass fed, and you can taste the difference.

Other recent projects include me making Karen an arbor out of an old woooden ladder for her birthday, planing down some barn doors, raking and cleaning up the yard, protecting the bulbs from the dogs' paws, going to auctions, and oh yeah, those taxes.

It's been too wet to till the lawn up into what will be the garden yet, and this situation has made Karen beside herself with anticipation and frustration. She knows it is going to be a great big garden, and take lots of work, and she is as eager as a spaniel at an open pheasant field to get going on this! But the damage that can be done to the soil if it is worked too soon is substantial, and will affect your crops for the rest of the year, so it must be avoided. It's been a mixture of empathy and amusement for me to watch her experience her first real taste of how tied we are to the weather and whims of Mother Nature. We can till when She lets us, and only then. It will be on Her schedule, and not ours. And the right moment will most certainly come at a time when it is impossible for us to comply, such as the middle of a work week, particularly if we will be out of town. Unless of course, it comes on a weekend, which usually means we will be suddenly laid up with a bad back or the car is in the shop and we can't get to the tiller rental center. When we can get there, everyone else will have gotten there first, and the tillers will all be rented out until the next rainy day. I believe this is keeping Karen tossing and turning at night. I, with all my wise and sage farmer experience, instead decide to worry about things I can control, such as the world economy and whether it even makes sense to buy a tractor with an internal combustion engine if we face the end of oil in the next thirty years. We make a great pair!