Category: Turkey Tracks: My Life in Maine

Our Life in Maine, My Craft Projects, Quilting, Recipes, Book and Media Reviews

Turkey Tracks: The Dog House Chickies”

Turkey Tracks:  July 25, 2012

The Dog House Chickies

As you may know from earlier posts, Americauna Wheaten hen Sally started getting broody in June–followed now by her sister Nancy.  Both are about three years old this summer.  All the hens started laying eggs under Sally–in the egg box she chose and, later, in the little doghouse–until finally I gave up and let her sit on four eggs–two blue eggs from the Wheatens and two brown ones from the Copper Black Maran hens, who are paired by a CBM rooster, Cowboy (picture below).  I marked each egg with a black cross so I could tell them from the eggs the other hens continued to lay under Sally–who sat with eyes glazed over, “in the zone,” day after day–not eating or drinking unless she did so in short bursts at night.  “Those hens want babies” was John’s comment one day when I fished 10 eggs out of the dog house before I agreed with Sally that she could have some eggs now as I would be home to oversee her care.

I allowed only 4 eggs as I wanted to see if letting a broody hen sit in the coop would actually work as the other hens and the rooster are also there with Sally at night.  Also, I have limited space, so I can’t manage a lot of new baby chicks who will grow up and need to live in the coop this winter.  Also, we cannot keep any new roosters, and half of whatever hatched will be roosters.  I’m going to have to rehome (very difficult) or kill the roosters.  Roosters fight each other fiercely, and the object of our small flock is having eggs, first and foremost.

At one point I tried to move Sally to the dog house with her eggs, but she would have none of it.  She did not recognize her own eggs; she ran around the pen screaming in outrage and panic before retreating to her egg box.  I had to move all the eggs back beneath her in the coop.

I neglected to write down the actual start date, and it has seemed like the longest 21 or so days ever.  Every day I had to go out and pick up Sally to get the fresh eggs from beneath her while leaving the marked ones–while she puffed herself up and fussed at me and while Cowboy threatened to attack me from behind.  Some days, Sally would have moved all the eggs out of the egg box to the main part of the coop.  Some days Nancy would be sitting on two of the eggs–always the brown ones though.  It was as if Sally always knew which eggs belonged to her breed.  There was so much moving around of eggs–and sometimes leaving one out overnight–that I had little hope that they would actually hatch.  I wondered when they would start stinking, and Sally would give up.

Two days ago, I lifted Sally, and beneath her was a wet clump of black feathers.  Startled, I put her right back down.

A baby chick had hatched.

I called Rose Thomas immediately–my chicken guru.  “Move her and the chick into the doghouse tonight and put the three other eggs under her.  She’ll stay there now that she has a chick,” said Rose.  I reprepped the doghouse–getting water and feed bowls ready and grinding up feed for the baby to eat when ready.

With shaking hands, I moved hen and chick–now a handful of black squirming feathers and long, long legs.  It was dark, so I couldn’t get a really good look at her (oh I hope it’s a “her”), and I didn’t want to upset them more than I had to.  She popped right in that doghouse, and the new baby popped right under her mother.

Nothing happened yesterday.  I could not see under Sally to check on the hatched chick or the eggs.  But, Sally’s eyes were bright, and she was eating again, and I thought could hear peeping.  The chick has survived the night.

This morning early, I could see another of the blue eggs was trying to hatch.  The egg was out in front of Sally, and the chick was about halfway out of the egg, with one long leg pumping the air.  I could hear what sounded like more peeping than one chick could make coming from the inside of the dog house.  Had one of the Maran eggs hatched???

Imagine my surprise when I checked on the mother and the babies in the early afternoon as Sally is very near the door, and her movements are causing the bedding to foul the water jar.  The baby chick had made no progress at all in getting free of the shell.  None!

I reached in to touch her and realized she was very dry.  The shell had stuck to her.  So, I took her in my hand and realized that she was really so stuck that she couldn’t get any leverage to get out.  Gently, again with shaking hands–she was so very, very tiny–I began to pull the shell bits from her feathers, trying to free her.

There was one place, near her bottom, where dried blood had really stuck her to the inside of the shell.  I was able to get her free without any further damage.  But, she was tired, and when I gave her drops of water, she drank thirstily.  I don’t know if I did a good thing or not…  But I could not watch her struggle so fruitlessly any longer.

I turned and realized all the hens had surrounded me and were watching, watching, and listening to the cries the tiny grey baby was uttering.  And, probably, the cries from inside the doghouse.

Here she is–she’s a silvery grey color–with  yellow legs–with bits of shell clinging to her feathers:

The camera got some good shots inside the dog house without using a flash, which I didn’t want to do.  Here’s Sally with two of her chicks hatched and the last egg, the fourth egg, hatching.  One chick is in front of the water bottle and the other is just beyond her tucked beneath Sally.   The grey chick is trying to get beneath Sally’s feathers :

Here’s another good shot of the chicks and the hatching egg:

Here’s the proud papa with, perhaps, a mother of one of the two CBM babies–chickie Annie that I raised two summers ago:

Mercy!  What an adventure!  Life happens.  It just happens.

Turkey Tracks: Scrappy Knitted Blanket Growing

Turkey Tracks:  July 16, 2012

Scrappy Knitted Blanket Growing

Believe it or not, I was already running out of leftover yarn to make the blanket of on-point squares I blogged about a few weeks back.  The biggest issue was not having a good choice of pretty colors.

I put out a call to some knitting friends, who responded very generously (and in some cases happily as they got rid of scrap yarn too and it went for a nice purpose).

Now I have lots of colors from which to choose!  Thanks everyone!

I’ll put up a picture of how this project is going soon–it’s slow as it takes about 40 minutes to make most of the squares–but fun as I love working with all the different colors and textures.  It’s like making a quilt out of yarn…

Turkey Tracks: I Have Some Socks For These Feet!

Turkey Tracks:  July 16, 2012

I Have Some Socks For These Feet!

See?

Talula’s are the middle.  She liked the orange/green glitter yarn.  And, Wilhelmina liked the blue/green glitter yarn, so I crafted around those choices.  Bowen’s are less wild, which is fitting for a boy.

These socks will be birthday gifts–to be gifted in September when three of the five grandchildren have birthdays.  All three pairs have been made from leftover sock yarn.  Kelly Enright got a pair back in February for his birthday, as you may recall.  They’re here on the blog.

Let’s hope they will all fit by fall/winter.  These children are growing like weeds!

Turkey Tracks: Saturday Road Trip

Turkey Tracks:  July 9, 2012

 Saturday Road Trip

Last Saturday, John and I took a little road trip west of Camden.

Our primary destination was The Village Farm in Freedom, Maine–home of Prentice Grassi and Polly Shyka since about 2001.  See http://www.villagefarmfreedom.com/

For the past two years, we have raised our year’s supply of meat chickens with Pete and Rose Thomas–and slaughtered them all together.  But this year, Arabella, the wood-fired bread oven, is up and running.  Rose is fully occupied with making pizzas and breads of all kinds.  She is baking or getting ready to bake many hours every day, and Pete is buy cutting wood and filling in all over the farm.

So, I took on the job of researching where we could get healthy, non-Cornish chickens, preferably with the feet still in the mix.

That place turned out to be The Village Farm, so John and I headed out to pick up ten meat chickens–with the promise of being able to get more over the winter when the freezer gets depleted.  Best of all, these Red Bros (a cousin to Freedom Rangers) come with their feet in a separate packet.  And, Prentice and Polly raise them on grass in little tractors that are moved three times a day.

Freedom is about an hour west of us–in the vicinity of MOFGA’s Common Ground Fair Ground.  It’s beautiful country and a beautiful ride through rural Maine to get there.   We crossed the St. George River several times–this time of year it’s full of water rushing over stones and filled with pools where trout would live.  Our route is partly on the St. George River scenic by-way.

Along the way, we were amused at all the creativity we were seeing.  Here’s an example:

 

Gardens were starting to flesh out, and it was really fun to see how many people had vegetable gardens.  There are beautiful fields, glossy-coated animals, interesting houses, glorious barns, beautiful woods.  It’s such a joy!

We had no trouble finding The Village Farm.  Here’s the entrance sign–with some corn (probably sweet corn) planted beyond it:

The main farm buildings and house sit at the end of this longish road, which is bordered by vegetable fields on both sides.  Polly told me they have several commercial customers as well as CSA members.  And she told me that when she and Prentice bought the far in 2001, I think, that it was all commercial corn fields–just corn stubble and dirt.  Now it’s filled with green grass, grazing meat cows, chickens, and vegetables.   That’s a heartwarming story of land recovery, and I am so grateful that there are people in this world like Prentice and Polly who are willing to do this work–and indeed–love this work.  They are the future of America, if we are wise about helping them.

Once down the road we parked, and here’s the first thing we saw.  A lush, fenced enclosure with beautiful little white pet goats:

Here’s Polly bringing us our chickens.  That’s a rabbit hutch to the left.  And you can see three of the chicken tractors way down in the fields to the left–past the fruit trees.

Here’s Polly and Prentice–at the center of this amazing farm they have created:

After we left them, feeling richer because of our chickens and feeling energized by our visit, we traced our steps home–with a small detour.

Mainers who love ice-cream probably know about John’s Ice Cream.  It’s a little store on Route 3, just a few miles beyond Liberty and Lake St. George.  John’s ice cream is all hand-made from whole, rich ingredients.  There isn’t a chemical in it.  And, it tastes like ice cream should taste–a taste long forgotten now by most people who have not had  the real thing with which to compare what they are buying in their local grocery store–or, even, a local ice-cream stand.  Slow down and take a look at the labels, which show the chemical brew that ice cream has become.

Here’s the board of flavors we could chose from Saturday:

I had Rocky Road–chocolate oozing with marshmallow running through it–creamy and dreamy–and replete with big, fat, whole nuts.

John had Chocolate Orange Peel–a dense chocolate with big fat LONG candied orange peels embedded.

The Bay Wrap in Belfast carries a few of John’s Ice Cream flavors–about six I think.  And, you can take home hand-dipped quarts from John’s if you think ahead and bring some ice packs and a cooler.  We brought home peanut something or other.  John loves peanuts.

This ice cream was so rich that we weren’t hungry for lunch.  That’s not a really good thing, but once in a while, it’s a real treat.

I can see a future swim at Lake St. George, an ice cream at John’s, and a slow ride home enjoying the beautiful Maine countryside and the river rushing over stones, big and small and topped up with sunshine and shadows.

Turkey Tracks: Flamboyant Fall Quilt

Turkey Tracks:  July 5, 2012

Flamboyant Fall Quilt

This contemporary bar quilt is another colorway of an earlier quilt:  “Bar None”–which is on this blog.

I started with Flamboyant Fall with bar strips of neutral rectangles–2 by 3 1/2–cut up and saved as I finished other quilts.  I cut up any leftover scrap that was not approximately the size of a fat quarter.  Bigger pieces went back into my stash.  About 2 years ago, I realized that I had bags and bags of pre-cut squares and rectangles, and I began to quilt with them.  I purchased a Handi-Quilter long-arm two years ago and that enabled my production rate to increase sharply.  This past winter, I made a real dent in the saved bags of pre-cut quilting fabric.

At first I thought this quilt would be really pretty with browns, golds, and creams–and here’s what I pulled from my stash to highlight the neutral rectangle “bars.”

Here’s what the dark brown strips and the neutral bars look like on the design wall…

At this point, I headed off to Marge’s Mainely Sewing to get borders.  I had bought some lovely large fabrics for backing at a sale at Quit Diva’s in Rockland–one of which really wanted to be part of this quilt.  TAnd I did not have enough of the paisley to use in the quilt.  The plan for a mostly neutral quilt went right out the window.

Here are the fabrics that came home with me–the backing is the third from the left–the fabric with the leaves.  Marge found the big Kaffe Fasset floral for me, and I loved it at first sight.  (The laundry basket is a dog bed for whichever dog is hanging out with me in the quilt room.)

Here’s the top on the design wall–ready to be put on Lucy the longarm and quilted:

I quilted with a varigated thread that had all the colors of the quilts in it–all the golds, oranges, deep reds, and so forth.  This pic doesn’t do this thread justice, but you can at least see the pantograph pattern:

Here’s a good pic of the outer and inner borders.  Note how the inner border has the dark brown of the bars.  I love how the swirly fabric worked for the binding.  I cut all bindings on the bias these days, so that really made this fabric’s movement shine.

Look at how well the backing and the binding work with the quilt.

Here are two pics of the quilt on a low bed upstairs.  Neither do it justice.  One is faded and the other’s colors are a bit “off.”  But, here they are.

And:

Flamboyant Fall is both wild and controlled, what with the bars in the center.  I love the fabrics in this quilt.  I’m really pleased with how it came out.

Turkey Tracks: It’s Raining Baby Mice

Turkey Tracks:  July 4, 2012

It’s Raining Baby Mice

Last night John opened the grill–which hasn’t been used for about a week–and a mouse ran out, startling him.  She left a nest with at least two baby mice that had to be removed before we could cook our lamb chops.

This morning when I swung open the chicken coop roof, as I do every morning to fluff up the bedding, change the water, and check grain levels in the food bowl, like fat pink raindrops, out dropped five baby mice onto the bedding below.  They must have been wedged into the stuffing in the top of the coop’s roof.  I can’t imagine how the mother mouse accomplished this feat since the roof is steep and metal, except for the stuffing at the roof’s apex.

The chickens promptly ate them.

Turkey Tracks: Using Leftover Scrap Yarn

Turkey Tracks:  July 3, 2012

Using Leftover Scrap Yarn

This blog’s readers know I’ve been engaged all winter with what I call “The Scrappy Project,” which is using quilting fabrics left over from over 80 quilts–and already cut into useable shapes and stored–to make scrappy quilts that I really, really like.  I have only been knitting about six or seven years this go-round, but, already, I’ve accumulated more scrap yarn than I felt comfortable storing.

My friend, master knitter Giovanna McCarthy, gave me two ideas/patterns for using up this scrap knitting yarn.  I chose this one from Shelly Kang’s blog–www.shellykang.com.  Once there, look for “Let’s Do a Gauge Swatch.”  You can even get to the pattern by googling “Let’s Do a Gauge Swatch.”  The directions are perfect and there are lots of pictures so you can clearly see how to proceed.  The project reminds me of making a quilt–it’s little squares of differing colors, knitted “on point.”

First, I made a series of the squares from some of my available scrap yarns.  The top one is made with a thicker yarn and is a bit bigger.  The middle two are made with a normal weight worsted.  And the bottom two are made from fingerling weight sock yarn.  They are waaaaay too tiny, and it would be insane to use them unless one were making some sort of tiny art project.  It does work to knit with two or three fingerling strands of yarn to get size and thickness.

The thicker, bigger square actually combines ok with the worsted squares, so I did use them when I started using Kang’s method of putting blocks together.  Note that the pale green thread is part of a provisional cast-on (which is really easy and can be found easily on-line) and will be taken out when the squares are joined or edged.  I love the textured stripe in the middle of each block.

Here’s what the blanket looked like about 10 days ago.  It’s getting bigger now–but I’ve capped how wide it will be.

Again, note that the  pale green ties will come out of that bottom row.

I’m obsessed with this project.  I have to make myself do other projects for a set period of time before I can work on the blanket.  (I’m working on grandchild socks made from leftover sock yarns, and I’m close to finishing the 4th pair so pics will be coming up soon.)

And I’ve already reached out to knitting friends begging for some of their leftover yarns…

Turkey Tracks: In Soil We Trust

Turkey Tracks:  July 2, 2012

In Soil We Trust

A friend sent me some cartoons she liked, knowing I would as well.

Here’s one:

I’ve been spending hours outdoors with my own soil this past six weeks or so.  The blog has been neglected as a result, but I can see the end of the weeding, reordering, planting and replanting, and so forth.  I was able to find some really terrific help to put out 65 bags of mulch–which the gardens really needed.  And the watering, weeding, and food gathering will go on all summer.

Anyway, I’ll get back to finishing the Paleo essays and will move to the dangers of soy soon now.  And, I have lots of book reviews and lots of interesting information to share with you.  The pile at my right hand as I type this piece is quite tall these days!  I have been spending an hour in the early morning, when the grass is still wet, reading.

Here’s a picture Tami sent me after we got back from Charleston that I really love!

This little plate has gorgeous bees underneath the cherries.  Tami now has two hives and plans for 4 more on Tara Derr Webb’s land.  Best of all, this sweet plate was a gift from a friend of Tami’s as a “thank you” for some homemade soup delivered to her house in a time of need.  That’s what we call community.   Cherries might be my favorite fruit.   I so look forward to them every spring.

The chickens want babies.

Last year, I found the cutest little doghouse at the dump, and John and the grandsons cleaned it up, repaired it, and painted it for me.  This spring I put bedding in it, and John put on a strong door.  We put it under the eaves of the house, back in the bushes, so it would be protected from the rain.  You can see it up next to the house, beyond the chicken coop protected cage.

Here’s a close-up view–the door slides open and shut and has a lock on it.  John reinforced it so racoon can’t pull it out of the sliders.

Those chickens loved nothing better than laying eggs in the doghouse.  One day I realized I had not gotten eggs in a day or so.  I had to get down on my knees and bend way down and reach way back in there with my left hand–to find 10 eggs.  Twice, one of the hens sat through the night, but abandoned the eggs the next morning.  Now, if I keep the house open, the hens line up outside the door and peer in as each hen lays and Cowboy will run at you if you come near it when one or more is inside.

Now we have a broody hen sitting on 5 eggs, as of this morning.  She seems likely to stick to them.  She screams at me and fluffs out her feathers when I check on her.  Only, she’s in an eggbox in the coop, not in the doghouse, which I’ve kept closed up as I got tired of fishing out eggs from inside it.  She’s sitting on 4 Americauna eggs and 1 Maran egg.  It’s the Maran’s we need, since I opened the coop and found one dead about two weeks ago.  Not a mark on her body.  And she was so heavy and solid.  It’s tough to lose a prize year old hen…   Ninja.  She had been kind of sluggish, I realized, after the fact.

We’ll see where all this baby-chickie thing goes…  And of course, half of them will be males, and it is terribly hard to rehome roosters…  I’m hoping if Nancy actually hatches out eggs that she will keep the youngsters in the doghouse as they will be in danger in the coop from the older hens.

Maine has such beautiful gardens and flowers.  The window boxes in town are gorgeous.  Here are two from around the Waterfront restaurant.  I loved all the blues in this box, which is low to the ground.

And this one is very typical of the kind of lush growth we have.

The peonies were gorgeous this year.  We actually got to enjoy them before a rainstorm shattered them–a first in the past few years.  Here’s a clump of them on the walkway to the porch.

 So, on that note, I’ll close out this entry.

Turkey Tracks: Fairy Houses of Maine

Turkey Tracks:  July 1, 2012

Fairy Houses Of Maine

 

Fairy Houses are a big deal in Maine.

I first saw them nine years ago out on Monhegan Island–just scattered about as people had built them along island paths.

Boothbay Gardens–a beautiful place–has a fairy house section now.  Boothbay Gardens are new in the past five years or so and are well worth visiting.

There are books now:  Liza Gardner Walsh’s FAIRY HOUSE HANDBOOK came out this year (Downeast Books).  There are others, like Downeast’s FAIRY HOUSES OF THE MAINE COAST.

My granddaughters and I love to collect materials–which usually involves a long walk and filling up bags with flora and fauna–and then they are happy for several hours building and building.  The grandsons have been known to get involved, bringing tool chests with them.

On our May visit to Charleston, we took a book on fairy houses and spent a few happy hours collecting and building.  Shortly after we left, son Mike went out to the yard early one morning with his coffee and found one of these–among many more all along the pathway beyond these stairs.

Did the children make this house…

Or, did the fairies…

Having discovered a house where fairies are welcomed…

Turkey Tracks: Hope’s Edge: First Pick-up of Season

Turkey Tracks:  June 25, 2012

Hope’s Edge:  First Pick-up of Season

Last Friday was our first pick-up of the season at our Community Shared Agriculture (CSA) farm, Hope’s Edge–where we have been members for at least 7 years.

The first day of visiting the farm is always such a pleasure.  We get to say hello to old friends and get and give lots of  hugs.  We get to savor what is one of my favorite places on this earth.

Here’s a picture from the road–of the growing herd of milk cows and sheep being moved into a new pasture area.  Hope’s Edge is down a road running along the right side of this field of buttercups.  You can see that the cows have grazed the right side of this field and are now being moved onto the buttercups.  Their milk will be absolutely delicious after this treat–and the butter will be a deep yellow color.

This year we are also doing a cheese CSA from Appleton Creamery, and we pick up at Hope’s Edge.  Our first week’s cheeses are beyond delicious!  So, with Cheryl Wixson’s Kitchens CSA (products she cooks using organic foods, like great tomato sauces, jams, pickles, sauces), we are up to THREE CSAs now.