Dewberry Time!

In past years, the land directly across the street from us was our "dewberry picking" spot.  It was a soybean field that had not been planted in quite a while.  It was plowed infrequently and became a prime spot for dewberries.  Well, the land was sold by the doctor who owned it to a developer.  It was plowed up, and we lost our dewberry spot.

Not to worry.  On the neighboring property behind us, just behind the hen house, there is another patch of land that has grown up in weeds.  The owners are absentee.  From time to time, I'll clean it up with a machete and I'll let the cows and goats in to eat down the weeds.  This piece of land also has dewberries!  On a beautiful Saturday morning, I rounded up Tricia, Russ, Benjamin and Belle to come help.  We each had buckets and we fanned out and picked dewberries.

Tricia was a little concerned about snakes.  To be sure there are snakes in abundance.  We now have two fake eggs missing from the hen house.  No doubt they were eaten by snakes.  Snakes who now have a REALLY bad case of constipation - they aren't going to be able to digest a ceramic egg!  Regardless, most of the snakes in the area are harmless rat snakes, king snakes, and garter snakes.  We still kept our eyes open.  The dewberries were easy to spot.

They were plump and delicious.  Benjamin seemed to pick more than all of us.  We were eating and picking as we walked through the area.  Pretty soon we were done.  In just a few minutes, we picked a half gallon.

We took them inside, washed them up, and we'll eat them in smoothies and in homemade ice cream.  Livin' off the land.  Love it!

The Passover

1 Corinthians 5:7 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

7 Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.

We are not Jewish, but each year we celebrate the Passover from a Christian perspective.  Tricia always cooks a big meal of roast lamb and potatoes, beets, sweet peas, wild rice, and cheesecake.  We have appetizers of olives, hummus, haroset and matzoh.  We feast!  But the main point of the night isn't the meal - it is the story.  What an amazing story it is!

Passover is a remembering.  The children of Israel were called to remember.  They were to mark this remembrance with a yearly feast in which they were to recall the LORD's goodness in delivering them from bondage of the Egyptians.  Moses led the people from slavery into a land flowing with milk and honey.  We go through a little book called the Haggadah "the telling" and read the story.  Each Jew was to tell his son about the Jews' liberation from slavery.

When the plagues struck Egypt, the firstborn son in every household of the Egyptians died.  However, the children of Israel were called to kill an unblemished lamb and put the blood of the lamb on the doorposts of their home.  If they did this, the Angel of Death would "pass over" their home.  Wailing could be heard across all of Egypt as the Egyptians awoke to find the dead in their household.  The Pharoah told Moses and his people to GO!

This night of Passover is very important to a Christian as well.  As the verse at the top of this blog post asserts, Jesus is our Passover Lamb.  He was a sinless sacrifice.  If we believe Him to be the Messiah, the Son of God, we have placed His Blood on the doorposts of our hearts and we are delivered from the bondage of sin and from the penalty of death.

We are called to Remember.  This Sunday we'll also celebrate Christ's Resurrection from the dead and His victory over sin and death.  Halleluhah!  Christ Is Risen!  PAt the end of our Passover meal, we took out an old hymnal and our family sang "Low in the Grave."  It is a song that starts off somber and melancholy and then erupts in victorious exultation!:

Low in the grave he lay, Jesus my Savior, 
waiting the coming day, Jesus my Lord!

Up from the grave he arose; 
with a mighty triumph o'er his foes; 
he arose a victor from the dark domain, 
and he lives forever, with his saints to reign. 
He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose!

Vainly they watch his bed, Jesus my Savior, 
vainly they seal the dead, Jesus my Lord! [Refrain]

Up from the grave he arose; 
with a mighty triumph o'er his foes; 
he arose a victor from the dark domain, 
and he lives forever, with his saints to reign. 
He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose!

Death cannot keep its prey, Jesus my Savior; 
he tore the bars away, Jesus my Lord!

Up from the grave he arose; 
with a mighty triumph o'er his foes; 
he arose a victor from the dark domain, 
and he lives forever, with his saints to reign. 
He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose!

2020 Meat Birds - Week 2

We are currently in Week Two of our Annual Meat Bird Project.  We've continued to move the brooder walls outward.  The different thing about this year is that we put them on grass from Day 1.  They really enjoy the grass.  In prior years, we didn't move them out of the garage and put them on grass until Week Three or Four.  This is a good thing and is more natural for the birds.  One thing we've noticed is that when we expand the size of the brooder, the chicks run to eat the blades of fresh grass BEFORE they eat their Chick Grower Ration.

Over the past week, we've put in larger waterers to meet the needs of growing birds.  We have two of them in the brooder along with 3 feed troughs.  We have heat lamps hanging over the chicks, but really don't need them during the day as it is warming up into the 80's. 

Due to the pandemic we did purchase some feed to have stacked up in the event that the feed stores closed.  We don't have quite enough to get them to butchering size, but if the feed ran out and we couldn't get more, we could always butcher them and eat them as Cornish Hens.

The Stockpile

Each Wednesday, I walk out to the chicken tractor and pull out a random, hot, stinky bird and bring it back to the garage in order to be weighed.  We like to track their weight gain to see how things are progressing.

At two weeks old, the 2020 birds weighed 20 ounces. (A 5 year record!)
Last week, the bird weighed 6 ounces, a gain of 14 ounces.
At two weeks old, the 2019 birds weighed 16 ounces.
At two weeks old, the 2018 birds weighed 18 ounces.
At two weeks old, the 2017 birds weighed 13 ounces.
At two weeks old, the 2016 birds weighed 18 ounces.

The birds are doing nicely.  I must report some "not so good" news, though.  One chick died last week and one died this week.  They were smaller than their peers and may have just gotten trampled.  Rain is forecast for tomorrow.  We'll see how things go.  We hope to keep them dry and warm during the storm.  Tune in next week for the next weigh-in.

Don't Stand So Close to Me

"Don't Stand.  Don't stand so, Don't stand so close to me."  The Police (1980

It was September 1980 when the British rock group, The Police, released a hit song called, "Don't stand so close to me."  I was thinking about that song in relation to our new social distancing guidelines.  How odd is all of this?!  I am a hand-shaker.  I like to meet people and reach out and give them a firm handshake and a smile.  Now, it creates an awkward moment when greeting people, normally just opting for an elbow bump or a fist bump and then realizing that if seen doing this, we may get thrown into the gulag.

There are others right around us that may not be abiding by the six foot minimum distancing guidelines.  I caught three of them today in egregious violation, and I'm considering turning them in to the commissar for re-education and instruction.  In their defense, the bovines told me that they tested negative for COWVID-19 and are out and about only because their jobs are essential.

Mugshot: Rosie, Luna, and Clarabelle

But I'm not so sure I'm buying their story.  I mean, would you look at that!  No mask.  No gloves.  In open defiance of the 6 foot distancing edict.  Why, there's probably a pot of bat soup simmering in a back corner of the barn. 

Our Experiment with the Broody Hen

I posted about the Broody Hen a while back.  She is a determined old bird.  She wants to set.  She desires to raise a family of chicks.  Day after day, we lift her up and snatch the eggs from beneath her.  Warm eggs. Eggs holding promise of a new life within.  Instead, we turn them into scrambled eggs, fried eggs, or fried rice or the makings of a chocolate cake.  The broody hen makes noises letting us know she is very displeased with our theft of her progeny.  She fluffs up her feathers as a signal of angst and ire.

At some point we relent.  I have an idea.  I say to Tricia, "We've lost a lot of hens this year to old age, predators, and injury."  Many birds get crushed underfoot by cows who have no sense of compassion or brotherhood for their barnyard companions.  "Let's allow the broody hen to set and raise a clutch of chicks."

Tricia agrees and a plan is hatched.  (Pardon the pun.)  I put hay, a water container and feed into an old dog kennel we have.  We plan to put the broody hen in this cage, so she'll be isolated away from the other chickens to raise her brood.

I moved a number of eggs into the homemade nest and I went and got the hen, set her in her new 'nursery' and... problems ensued.  First, the broody hen was very nervous, clucking and pacing, uncomfortable with her new abode.  Then, Belle, our new puppy, came and paced in front of the cage, making the hen anxious and jittery.  She clucked and paced back and forth.  We decided to leave her for about six hours to get acclimated to her new surroundings.

The hen never warmed up to her new residence.  She never tried to set on the eggs.  What to do?  Well, we decided to put her back into her nesting box.  We put a dozen eggs underneath her and she was all over them like white on rice.  She fluffed out her feathers and gently pulled her wings over the eggs and sat.  Happy, once again.

The broody hen, determined as ever, gets the opportunity to raise a family.  We'll check in on her from time to time.  We marked our calendars that come April 26th, we should have baby chicks hatching out.

Water Glassing Eggs or Brining Eggs

The virus has a lot of things shut down, but guess what?  Nature, designed by our Creator, moves forward.  As springtime bursts forth, we see blooms on flowers and trees, we see bright, green growth on all the plants.  One other thing we see is the egg production from our hens really picks up.  We hear the song coming from the hen house as the hens fill the egg boxes with fresh, spring eggs.  We pick up the eggs, bring them inside, and package them up either to be consumed by us, sold, or given away.

Sometimes we have more than we can store.  One thing that Tricia found is an old-fashioned means of storing eggs developed in the 1800s.  The process is explained in Carla Emery's "Encyclopedia of Country Living" or any other number of places that you can find on the Internet.  This means of egg preservation was devised specifically for this "problem" we have of having too many eggs.  It is called Water Glassing Eggs or Brining Eggs.

The first thing we did is pour 8 quarts of filtered water into a five gallon bucket.  We cleaned out the bucket very, very well.

Then we take hydrated lime (also called slaked lime) and pour it into the water.  Hydrated lime can be found at any hardware store.  The ratio you want to use is 1 ounce by weight of hydrated lime to 1 quart of water.  So we used 8 ounces, by weight, of lime to 8 quarts of filtered water.

We poured it in...

And stirred...

One thing that you want to be careful of is to use clean, unwashed eggs.  Many times we collect eggs, they'll have mud on them.  Or worse, they'll have some chicken poop.  In these instances, we'll wash the eggs.  To preserve eggs by water-glassing or brining, you don't want to use eggs you've washed.  So for the days we collected, we separated the eggs into two containers - one of washed eggs and one of clean, unwashed eggs.  We collected them like this for several days.

Each night we'd gently put the eggs into the lime-water solution, dipping them down and positioning them under the water.  We tried our best to put them "pointy-side" down.

Once we were done, we stored a little over 100 eggs this way, put a lid on the bucket and we'll store in a cool, dark place.

Here is the crazy thing: eggs stored like this will keep for up to two years.  A video Tricia watched showed someone cracking them open after 8 months, and they looked great.  They just advise to rinse off the lime before using.  This fall, when egg production drops, we'll crack one of these eggs side by side with a fresh one and give it the "eye test," the "smell test," and then the "taste test."  Stand by for that update later on this year.

The Sights of Spring

During this time where lots of activity has just stopped... Spring is still going on - unhindered and unimpeded by the virus.  While many are locked up indoors, there is lots going on outdoors.  It is a good thing, a therapeutic thing to get outside and enjoy God's Creation.  After work and on weekends, I like to do just that.

Tricia has been trying to use up our inventory of frozen blueberries.  That is an enjoyable dilemma.  This week we've consumed blueberry pie, blueberry smoothies, and blueberry ice cream.  We're making room in the freezer because the blueberry bushes have grown and are loading up with berries.

Just to the east of the yard bordering the neighbors is a little grove of "Indian" peaches.  They grow up wild and bear lots of small, tasty, juicy peaches.  The peach trees have no leaves now, but they are loaded up with beautiful, pink blooms.

We take a break from our previously scheduled broadcast of Spring flowers to show a photo of Belle, our 2 1/2 month old Great Pyrenees puppy.  We've currently got her living in the pasture so that she grows up with her charge - the livestock she will be guarding (cows, goats, and chickens).  We like to get her out and into the backyard in the late afternoon so that she can be around us, too.

She has really sharp teeth and we keep having to swat her nose.  She likes to jump up and bite your ankles and your pant legs.  She also likes her ears rubbed and her belly rubbed.  She's got a fat belly.  There are times when she will calmly lay in the clover.

She's developed one bad habit while in the pasture that we'll have to figure a way to break her of.  Hens, from time to time, will lay eggs around the bottom of the round bales of hay that the cows are eating on.  Belle enjoys sniffing around until she finds eggs.  When she does, she'll put them in her mouth and roll around and play with them.  We'll put those eggs aside for us to eat.  So far, she hasn't broken and eaten them, but I'm sure that day is coming.  But tell me, how can you get angry with a face like this?:

Let's get back to spring.  A telltale sign of spring is actually encountered first with the nose.  I'm talking Orange Blossoms!  Walking outdoors smelling orange blossoms is a real treat.  It is one of the best fragrances there is, in my opinion.  I'm not the only one who thinks so.  The honeybees second that motion.

The honeybees work the blossoms hard, flying back and forth gathering nectar to make honey and also gather pollen.  You can see two honeybees in the foreground below along with a very small, green navel orange in the background.

Sunshine, fresh air, along with the sights, sounds, and fragrances of spring are a sure-fire cure to cabin fever.