The Willow

 “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”

― Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.”
― Henry David Thoreau, Walden

Saturday mornings are magical.  It is the weekend.  You are the captain of your own vessel.  Adventure awaits.  You can march to the beat of your own drum - or no drum at all.  After morning feeding and milking I walked into the pasture to inspect the grass growth.  The sun has started its ascent in the east, but the June rays still linger, filtered between the limbs of the live oak trees and allow a brief pocket of time to enjoy nature before the oppressive heat and humidity drives you to seek shelter.

As I survey the landscape, my eye catches a willow tree.  Can you see it below?  There is a lesson to be taught in the Creator's creation.  The willow is almost in the center of the photograph, just to the left of the live oak.  It started out growing straight and true, but is now growing at an angle toward the west.  It's almost pointing toward the upper left corner of the photo.  That tree was a mistake on my part.  I dug it out of the garden.  It had leaves that looked like a wild peach tree.  I thought perhaps it was from our compost and planted the "peach" tree in the yard.  Well, it was no peach.  It is a willow tree.

The willow is fast growing!  Except, it is being crowded out by the live oak tree.  As the live oak tree grows upward and outward, the willow tree fights for its very existence, changing its trajectory in order to survive.  The live oak battles the struggling willow.  It seems stronger, mightier, and more majestic.  But the willow adapts.  It bends but does not break.  It keeps reaching for the light amidst the relentless pursuit of the overwhelming oak and it stubbornly resists being swallowed up by the predominant growth of its rival.

You see, I want to be like that willow.  In a culture that wishes to envelope you, crush you into conformity of popular culture and incorporate your thoughts, actions, beliefs, virtues and values into the hive mind of prevailing thought and popular opinion, I want to resist, to bend, to flee from conforming.  I want to 'zig' when the world 'zags.'  

There is a phrase for this - Contra Mundum.  Translated from Latin, it means "against the world," in defiance of all general opinion.  One must be careful, however, as this can quickly become a prideful pursuit, one that forces you to walk a tightrope, but it is a worthy endeavor.  You see, as we see age-old truth under assault by moral relativism, and a culture that increasing loves wickedness and hates godliness, one must fasten your vessel to the moorings of Biblical principles to anchor you - to guide you.  It may not be popular.  It will not be easy.  It probably won't be pretty.  As time goes on, it may be lonely.  But time doesn't matter if you have an eternal perspective.

As worldly branches encroach and threaten to bring shade and darkness to our environment, we must fight.  We must bend and keep stretching upward toward the Light.

Remember the willow and its heart and desire and perseverance.

“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”   Romans 12:2

One More Trick To Try to Get the Hens Laying Again

Yesterday we talked about our hens suddenly stopping laying eggs.  I think it is largely a nutritional deficit, but part of the egg deficit is no doubt due to short days with gloomy, overcast weather.  A chicken needs 14 hours of daylight in order to lay eggs.  Okay, we're going to do something that goes against everything we've always said to help 'jump start' the hens into laying eggs for us.

We're putting a light in the hen house.  GASP!  We have always felt that artificial lighting is what the big egg producers do with their 'warehouse hens' to keep the eggs going 24/7 365.  We want to be more natural with our birds, allowing them a rest.  In doing so, it has given our chickens a long life.  Chickens have a finite amount of eggs that they will lay inside them when they hatch.  If you keep them in an artificial lighted facility, their productive life will be over in a short period of time. 

So that made me wonder, how many eggs can a chicken lay?  I found THIS ARTICLE that said the hen's laying lifetime depends on many things: breed, feed, environment, etc.  The Department of Agriculture puts the figure for American birds at 276 eggs per year.  Due to the rest I spoke about in the first two paragraphs, a backyard chicken in England lived a very long life and squeezed out her last eggs at the remarkable age of 17!  Wow.  As far as a prolific layer, a chicken named Cornell Endurance died when she was 12, having laid 1,232 eggs.

Our hens are old.  I really don't know how old since I don't mark them to track their ages.  We replace about 20 each year with new birds for the ones that die or get eaten by predators.  It would be interesting to know how old our oldest chicken is.  We've had them for about 16 years now. 

Here is the light that we put in the hen house to hopefully encourage them to lay:

As soon as the days get longer and they begin to lay, we'll turn it off.  It is merely a heat lamp that we've replaced the heat bulb with a regular 75 watt incandescent bulb.

We're eagerly awaiting them to start laying.  Our inventory of eggs is down to about 60 eggs now.  C'mon hens!  We'll call your hen house Motel 6 and "we'll leave the light on for ya!"