Another One Bites the Dust...

It is with much sadness that I have to report that Thunder has gone on to meet his maker.  Apparently, the other day, he tangled with the dog...they need to either stay far away from Avery, run faster, or get the flying thing down.  In any case, I came home after school Friday, and he looked a bit "down".  He was hanging out near their little trough...tail feathers looking dismal.  Ran some errands, came home, and well...he was no more.  I haven't told husband yet...he is away in San Diego playing in the National Sweet 16s...Thunder was their mascot and I'm a little concerned that his demise might be bad for morale.  The awesome news is that the Thundercocks (hence the name, Thunder) won their games this weekend and earned themselves a spot in the Final Four in Colorado!  Thunder would have been so proud.

Here he is at a Fresno Rugby game.  

The Halfway House continues to have it's fair share of drama.  The babies have been left in there now for the past week.  Enough of the bullying, however, the teenagers have not been listening.  We had a stern talk...seemed like they were listening, but the babies finally took matters into their own hands...wings (??).  I came out the other morning and the scene I witnesses was hilarious.  The babies had staged a coup!  Apparently they've gotten tired of all the harassment...I had put their feed dish up on top of the boxes since they were too scared to ever go down on the floor.  They stayed either on top of the boxes or behind them.  The feed dish was now lying on the floor across the coop and the teenagers were standing in the far corner of the coop looking very surprised.  The babies were on top of the boxes flapping their wings.  I'm convinced that in a fit of exasperation with being treated like lower class citizens, the babies flung the feeder across the coop and said "enough is enough".  This was the scene:

Since that day...Thursday, I think, things have been pretty calm in the halfway house.  I wouldn't go so far as to say "harmonious", but better.  I put fresh water in and the babies ponied up to get a drink.  So proud of them.  Only two and a half more months and then they can all join the remaining hens.  I think that one of my teenagers might be a rooster though.  One of the smaller ones...some sort of bantam, has quite the comb already.  I won't be too disappointed...I miss the daily rooster crowing...

Harmony in the Halfway House...

...will be delayed.  I put the babies in with the teenagers last night.  Permanently, I hope.  Their tub in the garage is too small and smells, well, foul.  Egh.  I put them in there last night thinking that maybe they would be big enough to avoid the bullying by the larger crew.  Nope.  All those two did was cower down in the corner behind the boxes.  I went out, when it was nearly dark, to check on them and they were making the loudest, most pathetic peeping noises ever.  Both of them were on top of the boxes, while all the teenagers were in their teen sized condos.  I hesitantly I left them there, half expecting to find them dead or maimed by morning.  When I went out to feed them this morning, they had resumed their position in the corner.  I coaxed them out of there and they joined the general population.  Short-lived.  The teens started exerting their pecking order and by the time I left for work, the babies were back in the corner.  Ugh.  When I went home at lunch, this was the scene:

Really??  At some point, you'll need to come out of there.

Clearly, we will have to have a talk with the teenagers about bullying and proper manners as far as little ones are concerned.  The little ones are going to have to develop a much tougher skin as well.  Life lessons...

Escapees, Tornadoes, and Fire...OH MY!!

Wow, what an exciting weekend it's been.  I seriously could have done with a lot less excitement though.  Especially since it spilled over into Monday.  Let's see...where to begin...

Saturday started out quite nicely.  Other than getting up earlier than necessary to meet a phantom trailer buyer (husband is selling his duck trailer) the day progressed well and uneventfully.  I suppose the babies wouldn't think it was uneventful at all...I decided to put the babies in the halfway house to start mingling with the teenagers.  They are getting way too big for their current living quarters.  As soon as I put the two of them in there, the teenagers started harassing the littler ones.  They were not happy with the infiltration of "babies".  I suppose it's no different than when human teenagers are introduced to their toddler siblings and now must get along with them.  The babies got really flustered and at one point, I came out to the coop and this is what I saw:

Really a pathetic attempt at an escape.  Only their heads fit through there and then they were super angry when I tried to gently push their heads back through.  The gentle approach did not work, so a little more force was required...and shockingly, not appreciated by either one.  The one in the back of the photo was really stuck and REALLY angry.  Not five minutes later, she had done the same thing.  Ugh.  No wonder the teenagers have so much fun tormenting them.  After a second round of not-so-gentle head shoving, the two of them thought that cowering in a corner was a far better idea:

Later in the evening, I instructed the boy to capture the babies and return them to their tub.  He did this and all was well until...

...Sunday morning.  Husband got up first and I was roused out of bed by shouts coming from outside.  It seems that in the boy's haste to return the babies to their tub and his desire to return to whatever tv show he was engrossed in, he forgot to close the top to the halfway house.  Miscreants all over the place.  Luckily they got scared and huddled up for protection, making it much easier to round them up and put them back in.  The best part, was that Lady Gaga was still in the coop.  When they all were back in, I'm pretty sure she was telling them something along the lines of, "So, I told you guys not to go outside.  It's scary out there, isn't it?? And the humans don't appreciate your shenanigans." They all sat and listened to her.  Funny.

As this was taking place, the sky started turning all sorts of shades of gray.  It had been pretty sunny up until that point.  Husband pointed to the north and we saw some gorgeous clouds and a funnel cloud!  I ran inside and after several attempts at finding a functioning camera (one that had a charged battery and a memory card) I snapped several pictures of the sky.  Pretty awesome.  We watched the cloud form a skinny funnel and could see it twisting off in the distance.  It finally dissipated, which was probably a good thing.  Storm Warn 30 had no mention of this at all.  They call themselves professionals...hah.

This was the sky...pretty fantastic looking, if you ask me.

Here is the shot of the funnel cloud.  We traveled all the way through Kansas and never saw one...wanted to see one, but never did...probably best that way...since we had left our ruby slippers and dog at home.    

So, Sunday it rained the rest of the day on and off.  Loved it!  The chickens seem to enjoy the rain as well.  Makes for a lot of bug movement I guess.  They happily wandered around the yard and sought shelter under the Blazer when it poured.  Smart chickens!  

Monday (that's today!) arrived and the weather is gorgeous!  Overcast...cool...high humidity day according to the weather peeps.  My new neighbor thought that it would be an ideal day to "shred" the dry grass.  And really, in theory, it is a good day, if we didn't live in such a desert.  It rained heavily the last 2 days and you would think the ground would be fairly damp still.  You would think...  I came home for lunch today and saw this:

Our house sits just on the other side of that 5th wheel in the bottom picture.

That's not a fun thing to come home to.  The man in the lower picture, Roger, was shreding the grass with some really cool looking apparatus.  Apparently he hit a rock with the blade and caused a spark.  Poor Roger...he seemed a bit flustered when I got there and I think a day off and a stiff drink may be in order for him.  Luckily we have a hose that's always hooked up for the tile guys working on the new construction next door. It happened to be on and they were paying attention to the events unfolding outside. They were much faster with that hose than CalFire.  No offense to the fire guys, but we are pretty far away from any fire station and I guess it took a while for them to get there.  It all worked out and the boy will be thrilled when we tell him that we no longer want him to mow around the property.  Too dangerous.  

In between all the hubbub, I managed to take some pictures of the garden and all the wonderful things growing!  The weeds are not wonderful, but I will be annihilating those this weekend. The pea seeds have sprouted and are looking quite bushy already.  There are blossoms on the peppers and the tomatoes.  The squash have flowers as well...I am looking forward to harvesting something soon.  Here are the pictures:

Top to bottom:  edame, peas, blue lake beans

Squash

More squash and cucumbers

Peppers and leeks

Tomatoes and peppers & eggplant

Tomatoes!

Herbs...the cilantro is getting out of control!

Here's to an uneventful week and weekend to follow.  Although that tends to make boring reading, I suppose.  

Rain is forecast for tomorrow...we'll see what that might bring.  

Mother's Day

Well, Mother's Day weekend proved to be pretty awesome in terms of weather.  The temperature didn't get over 80...I'm not even sure it got over 75 degrees yesterday.  We all know how I feel about that.  I was able to get so much done this weekend in the yard/garden.  

I started with all the soaker hose issues in the vegetable garden.  I had to rearrange one hose completely so I could splice the incoming water.  The peppers were getting way more water than the tomatoes.  I personally like tomatoes better, so I really want them to grow.  They have been growing, in fact, and the task of pulling up the soaker hose proved to be a little more challenging than originally planned.  I managed to get the hose out and then proceeded to clothesline myself while putting it back down in the reverse direction.  I'm sure it would have been a comical sight to any bystanders, which thankfully there weren't any.  After I got the hose laid out, I tried the new set-up and it works really well.  Everything is more evenly watered.  

I discovered a negative in the awesome watering set-up...possibly fueled by my overzealous watering...weeds!  There suddenly are so many.  Luckily most come out really easily.  All the tall weeds (the ones that grow straight out of the ground) came out with a gentle tug.  The one that is making me especially grumpy is the proliferation of Bermuda grass.  While not technically considered a weed (most of Fresno has this stuff as a front lawn), it is a complete nuisance in the vegetable garden.  Two ways to get this stuff out.  Kneeling and actually getting your fingers around the base of each plant...they have feelers that drop roots as well...and pull out.  Or, spray the stuff with Round Up.  I opted for the latter...I had stopped at the farm store to see when I worked next and they had the stuff on sale.  Yes, please.  I had to spray carefully, so as not to dammage anything good in the garden.  I did well...only inhaled some of it once.  I should be good to go as far as weeds in my lungs.

So, feeling like I should accomplish more in the garden, I heard somewhere that you should plant marigolds in the garden to repel insects, rabbits, and other undesirables.  Me being, well, me...decided to Google it and find out what the story is.  Of course, there is no definitive answer to this question...just a lot of speculation.  Some say that the marigolds will fend off certain kinds of beetles that will cause harm to any plants.  Some say that they will protect your tomatoes from evil creatures.  One article said that planting an entire row of marigolds at the entrance to your garden will keep rabbits away...this seems rather suspect.  We don't have a rabbit problem, so it didn't really concern me all that much.  We do have what appears to be a squirrel problem, but that's an entirely different story and doesn't affect my garden at all.  After reading several articles, which all had conflicting content, I decided to plant marigolds in the garden anyway.  They look nice and cheery.  Reason enough to plant.  

One last note about the garden...my little pea seeds have sprouted and are growing quickly.  Which, of course, has now led to another project.  I only have a trellis for the green beans.  I think I am going to have to put in another t-post and string some string or wire from the t-post to the trellis for the peas to grow on.  Maybe next year, I will do another row of goat fencing, like I did on the other end for the tomatoes.  It works really well, as the tomatoes have already figured out that their job is to scale the wire fence.  Well that and produce pounds of deliciousness. Soon...

Since the demise of Big Bird, Thunder is taking his role as head honcho pretty seriously.  He has been ruling the roost, so to speak.  The hens seem to be pretty happy these past few days.  Egg production has nearly doubled.  About time, I say.  It could also be the cooler weather...I don't know.  I decided that while Fish and her friend cleaned out the babies' tub, I would put the babies in with the teenagers.  While I don't think they are ready to permanently be in there, I though it might be okay to let them hang out for a few minutes.  A few minutes should have been okay, but my distractable mind left them in there for nearly an hour.  First, my child came running in the house laughing...apparently she and her friend had to capture one of the teenagers that escaped the little coop since I left the top open.  Not sure how she got out, but I suspect the babies may have taught the teenagers about the chick stack.  Probably some sort of deal like, we will teach you the chick stack, but you have to leave us alone.  I'm pretty sure the teenagers reneged on that deal.  When I went out to check on them, both babies were wedged in the corner behind the water container, trying to get out of the coop.  All they had managed, though, was to get their respective heads stuck in the chicken wire and were peeping quite loudly.  Part of me wanted to run in and get the camera, but the more reasonable part of me said that maybe it would be best to extricate them from the wire first.  They seemed a little dazed, so that was a perfect time to grab them and return them to the nursery.  While all these shenanigans were taking place, the teenagers were going about their business like nothing had happened.   They are a crafty bunch.  

A rare moment of harmony in the halfway house.  I'm pretty sure this was taken immediately after the "chick stack for peace and quiet" deal was made.  

Quite a productive weekend it was.  Lots of watering issues solved.  Weeds were sprayed.  The last of the herbs planted.  Chairs painted.  Coop water relocated.  Coop cleaned.  But, as always...a long list of things yet to do. 

Obituary and Local News

Big Bird

(March 2010-May 2011)

It was bound to happen.  Big Bird took his role of being the "Alpha Male" just a little too far last night.  Husband and I were out in the yard, surveying the veggie garden and checking on watering, peepers, etc.  I was walking around the Blazer, when suddenly (really...absolutely no warning whatsoever...I mean a squawk or even an evil cackle would have been appreciated) Big Bird flew up, extended his legs complete with that nasty rear talon, and attacked me! He got my leg pretty good with that horrible claw thing...and it hurt like the dickens!  Bled quite profusely too. I'm not sure if I was more upset about the stabbing or the fact that I got blood on my pants...ugh, I forgot to wash those!!!!!  So, husband, being the REAL alpha male in this household, grabbed his pvc egg checking pipe (he lifts Coop Mama up with it to get eggs) and whacked the evil bird quite hard.  I went inside to nurse my wound...blood was spewing and pouring EVERYWHERE...okay, I'm exaggerating...it was dripping down my leg onto my shoe.  When I came back out, I expected to see the vile beast dead.  We figured he would just bleed out.  He was dazed and most likely experiencing the  worst headache of his life.  He was hiding under the trailer in the front yard and husband was trying to whack him again.  Our new neighbors were at their nearly completed house, so he wanted to wait until the deed could be completed without an audience.  Husband took me inside and cleaned (scrubbed=ow!!) and bandaged my wound.  Very professional job I have to say.  After I was bandaged and husband made me promise to keep this very clean...I'm still a little concerned that I may get the Bird Flu or Chicken Pox or something equally annoying...we went back outside.  We figured we would see BB lying on the ground dead.  Nope...what we found was him strutting around, looking a bit like Robot Chicken, still going after his women.  Seriously??  Is there Viagra for chickens?  I wonder...  Husband asked me a very important question...did I want him dead or alive.  My answer?  "DEAD!"  This cannot happen again.  He has already attacked both kids and husband. I would feel terrible if someone else got attacked by this rogue rooster.  On his advice, I went inside while husband made quick work of it.  When I came out a few minutes later, the kids had gotten home and we all stood and looked at what used to be the big guy in the yard.  He was lying in a sad heap in the coop.  I asked husband how it went and he said that when he started going after Big Bird, the hens all ran out of the coop all bug eyed and quick-like.  They knew that was not a good place to be, although secretly I think they are happy to have one less rooster to deal with.  I guess  Thunder came in and tried to get in on the action.  Probably saying something like, "So whose in charge now?  Huh??!!!!"  He has always been low man on the totem pole around here...not anymore!  I hope Thunder got a good look at the evening's events...any sort of undesirable behavior from him will most likely lead to a similar fate.  Once Big Bird was properly disposed of...Hefty, Hefty, Hefty...things went back to business as usual.

The bandaged wound. 

During the melee, where did all the hens go?  They certainly didn't stick around for the violence.  Oh, found them...in my compost pile!  Rolling around, fluffing their feathers, getting all crazy in the pile.  Why?  I have no idea...I understand there are worms and other delicious creatures, however they weren't eating them, just rolling around.  Kind of gross actually.  We throw all the non-meat scraps and garden trash in there and all the poop from the coop.  We also threw a Sun Chips bag in there last year...why?  Well, they redid the bags that the chips come in and they proclaimed on the bag that the new bag was "compostable".  I am concerned that this was false advertising.  I bought the new bag since I love the chips, however the bag turned out to be ridiculously noisy and annoying.  Chips finished...bag went out into the compost pile.  Doing my part for the environment!  I buried it deep too.  So as the chickens are rolling around in the compost pile, what do I see sticking out of the dirt?  Yes, the Sun Chips bag buried over a year ago.  I'm tempted to write a strongly worded letter to the manufacturer.  Lies!

Chickens in the compost pile...ew.

Sun Chips bag complete with proclamation of "compostable-ness".

In other news, the teenagers are very funny...exhibiting typical teenage behavior.  They run in a pack, they chase each other, and they are very loud.  This morning was the best.  I went out to feed them and I only counted five...panic set in.  Where is the funny speckled girl?  Oh wait, there she is! She was head down, butt up in the feeder.  Must have been a hungry girl.  I, of course, ran inside to get the camera, but by the time I got back, she had gotten out and was wandering around with the others acting like nothing was out of the ordinary.  I think they all have a guilty expression on in the photo below.  Typical teens...

Us?  Misbehave?  Naaaahhh...

Last update belongs to the peepers.  They aren't so small anymore and are approaching their teenage years quickly.  I went in to feed them and brought the camera this time.  You just never know when you'll catch them doing something amazing.  I was not disappointed...  I came in and they were practicing some sort of chicken stack.  Awesome!

Chicken stack!

I think that's it for the local news.  Stay tuned...

Clucking Cousins and Thriving Veggie Plants

The chickens are all seem to be in a happy state of being...which is good.  The babies are growing really fast all of a sudden.  Maybe because they have more room to "spread their wings" so to speak.  The teenagers are loving their new halfway house.  They have even discovered how to poop on top of the water dispenser.  Crazy kids. The adults are, for the most part, doing well, although there has been a slow down in egg laying.  Seems that every time the weather changes or they get cooped up for an extended period of time, they protest by not laying prolifically.  I'm not too happy about that, but certainly nothing I can do about it. Right now, they are going to be really angry, as our front gate is broken and we can't shut it.  Hopefully it's just a dead or weak battery and it will be running again by tonight.  For now, they have to stay in the coop.

My sister-in-law's peepers are also getting pretty big.  They are the same age as my babies.  She's trying to make them friendlier chickens by cuddling with them at home.  Will this work?  Probably.  I should have done that too and then maybe Coop Mama wouldn't be such an angry one.  All of her feathered friends have names.  She's got Alice, Lucille, Ginger , and Pat, who may or may not be a rooster.  Time will tell.  Alright, I did name a few of them besides Thunder and Big Bird.  The teenagers have names (I felt some peer pressure)...Lady Gaga, Fog and Horn (they are my Leghorns, duh), Fiona and Penny (the Australorp twins), and "she who has not been named" and probably won't be.  Naming all of the chickens and keeping track of who's who is a daunting task.  I'm hoping that the older crew isn't too upset about the fact that they don't have proper names...is that why we aren't laying??  Probably not the reason.

So, the vegetable garden seems to be flourishing...well, it might be a little soon to use that word, but it is growing!  I have remembered to water every day and more importantly, I haven't had any flooding mishaps.  I saw that one of the pepper plants has a small flower, which means a pepper will be growing shortly.  I still have some fixing to do in the garden.  The soaker hose still needs to be turned around and I need to make some little signs to label the various veggies.  Last year, I thought I was so clever and got these landscaping flags.  White flags on a metal stake.  I wrote the names of the veggies on the flag with a "permanent" marker and stuck them in the ground. Didn't realize our scorching, ever blazing sun would fade out all the writing, so by the end of summer all I had was a garden full of white flags.  Sort of a mass surrender, which by that time, was appropriate for the state of the garden.  The herbs are getting bigger and by the looks of a couple of them, I'm glad I decided to keep them contained in a pot. I need to get another pot or two and I also need to set up some sort of drip apparatus.  The watering can is cute and nice to use now, but when it gets to be over 95 degrees, I won't want to be hanging out there that much.  Weak, I know...  Okay, well time to get out some paper and start planning the herb drip situation.  I always do better with some sort of drawing...although it rarely resembles what I drew in the end.

Halfway House

The teenagers have a new home!  Friday, I worked at the farm store after school and when I got home, there was an amazing structure sitting in the back of the adult hen house.  I'm pretty happy that husband is able to think up things and then put them into reality.  He usually explains what he is planning to do and I usually don't get it.  I used to stress out about it and ask a hundred questions and still not fully comprehend what he had in mind.  My mind pictures work much differently than his most of the time.  I've learned through the years to just nod my head, be supportive, and wait for the finished product.  I haven't been disappointed yet.  My brother-in-law is very similar...in fact, when he planned out their redwood mansion, my sister-in-law said that he was trying to tell her what he had in mind, but was having trouble articulating.  I found that they know what they want to do in their head, but we just don't think the same...no matter though, they produce pretty awesome stuff, so we're ultimately happy.  The teenagers are definitely ready to be out of their tub and I think the little ones will be really happy to get the teens out of their world.  There was a lot of bullying going on...we know how devastating that can be...ha ha.

The little coop has a top door which makes it pretty easy to change out their water and put their food in.  I'm glad we kept the old feeders...they are perfect for the little coop.  Husband even built them two nesting boxes and positioned them so that they can get in the boxes and stay out of the wind.  He's thoughful like that.  The coop also has a front door down low, so they can get in and out and we can clean easily.  I heard the Fish helped with the door design...pretty smart idea.  I'm really happy about the whole set-up. 

Saturday morning, we put the teens in their new temporary home...sort of like a halfway house.  They love it!  First they weren't too sure what to do about all the space they now have.  The other issue was that they were a little intimidated by the big kids...especially Thunder and Big Bird.  Honestly, Big Bird scares me too, so I can only imagine how the teens felt.  They stayed in one of the nesting boxes until they were quite certain none of the big ones were going to come barreling through their new place.  Funny, the shoe is on the other foot now...although that analogy doesn't really work since chickens don't wear shoes...whatever.  The babies in the garage tub also seemed pretty happy about the move.  They had so much room to run around and their water actually stayed clean for most of the day.  No unruly beasts kicking shavings into the water.  Pretty soon, though, the babies will also be teens and will be joining their older siblings in the group home.  They still need a night light, as they still have lots of fluffy feathers.  Down, if you will. Below are som eshots of the teenagers at home.

Discovering food and water.  They still kick the shavings in the water, but it isn't quite as devastating as the little water container being completely buried with shavings.

Lady Gaga seems to be enjoying the new space.

Fog and Horn, along with their Australorp sisters...Gaga and "she who has yet to be named" in the background.  More on this naming stuff later.

So, Saturday night went well...the teenagers found solace and warmth huddled in one of the nesting boxes and by morning were exploring all aspects of their new home.  I came out at one point and one of the Australorps was on top of the water dispenser.  She slid off shortly after and we all had a good laugh.  By all, I mean me and the chickens.  Such an entertaining little crew.  Sunday, they found the top of the nesting boxes and at one point, they were taking turns jumping off og the top.  Typical teenage behavior.  There is so much more to share, but will save that for a future blog.