Quotidian Pleasures

There were frosts and snows here in Heath, but in between we have been having the most delightful weather. Sun and warmth are such blessings at this time of the year that every ordinary (quotidian) task brings an awareness of the pleasures of the earth.  I have my morning routine, beginning with feeding and watering the chickens who are enjoying this weather even though it does not prompt them to lay eggs. I’m down to two or three a day, from the whole flock.

It is such a pleasure to be able to use the clothesline and have all the laundry smell so fresh and sweet after a day in the sun and breezes. A pleasure to hang out and bring in. Pretty soon it will not be so pleasureable. I’ll just use the dryer which is a whole different experience, but still, a pleasure when I consider the alternative of trudging out in snow and ice to let the laundry freeze on the line.

The harvest is over, and the vegetable garden is pretty well prepared for winter, but I’ve only just started on cleaning up the ‘herb bed’ in front of the house. The bed was enlarged this year to accompany the new paved entry leading to the Welcome Platform. The herb bed actually includes Black Beauty lilies, and a new Thomas Affleck Rose, as well as chives, parsley, thyme, bee balm, lemon balm, sage, black stem mint, tarragon and horseradish. This year it also included a couple of tomato plants which ultimately suffered the Late Blight.  The clean up has been such a pleasure in this warm weather.  The weed roots don’t seem to hold as tight, and there are no bugs. I’m not quite done and I hope the weather holds for a few more days.

And at the end of a day filled with ordinary pleasures, there was one of our extraordinary sunsets.  But I still had to look forward to a comfortable and pleasurable dinner with my husband, and being able to slip between those sweet smelling sheets at bedtime. A perfectly ordinary day.

Boy, Worms and Chores

Rory has come to visit during school vacation and the chores begin. We found out the worms are not dead after all. At least not all of them, so we have to feed them eggshells to help reproduction, and squash flesh and seeds.

If you look really closely you can see a couple of worms in their last meal. We also saw very very tiny worms, so I guess the eggshells work. We are not the only ones tending a worm far. Over at Garden Rant I just learned about this NYTimes article and urban vermiculture.

Worms aren’t our only livestock. We have to get out to the chickens. People mostly talk about the romance of chickens, clucking cheerfully, decorating the lawn and producing beautiful eggs. But the winter reality is freezing waterers that need to be rotated, and a difficult trek to the hen house.

Rory was game, and ready to trek in the snowshoes, but you’ll notice he’s not carrying the waterer. That was me.

However, he fed them and made up a song.

My little chickens, my little chickens

Happy as can be.

Makes funny noises,

Plays around all day.

In the big ol’ pile of hay.

My little chickens, my little chickens

Making the best of time,

turning into big egglaying hens

that they are.

My little chickens, my little chickens,

Growing up so fast!

Eggs At Last!

The day old Americauna chicks we got the first of June have matured and are finally laying eggs!
I have always been amazed that Auracaunas which origninated in Mexico did so well in our cold climate. I guess they have been slightly hybridized because the name has changed in the Murray McMurray catalog. We have had many breeds of chicken over the past 25 years, Rhode Island Reds, Barred Rocks, Buff Orpingtons, Silver Laced Wyandottes and even a few mysteries. These breeds are beautiful and I love having a varied flock, but I have to say that the Americaunas seem to lay well in the cold weather and they also lay dependably longer into their maturity.
I do not cull my flock. They are not pets in any sense, but we add a few new layers every spring and keep all the chickens until they die at a dignified age. Or until they get caught by a predator. We protect them as best we can, but nature is red is tooth and claw.