heat

We're officially into summer now. It's right on top of us, and intends to stay awhile. No more cool mornings. No more mild, 75 degree afternoons. We're done with all that. Now it's days hovering in the upper nineties, nights not cooling much below 80, and no end in sight. This has drastically slowed the pace of farm work. Just this week, our work policy has shifted to:

Do everything as early in the day as possible, or as late in the evening as possible. Sit very still between the hours of 3pm and 6pm. Or, use these hours to run errands and enjoy the air conditioning.

It must be this way.

This is inconvenient, for sure. We still have outdoor projects to complete. We have a full-size chicken coop to build and a poultry yard to fence. You don't get much done when you only have a few hours to work. But it beats killing ourselves. The unintended upside to this method of working is that we enjoy quite a bit of forced downtime that we would never normally allow ourselves. We spend the afternoons talking, reading, practicing fiddle or guitar, or sitting under a big shade tree shooting BB's at cans. The sweating is awful, but the relaxation is pretty great. I still pine for cooler weather, but for now I'll take this unexpected gift of summer. When the chill does return to the air, there will be no rest.

the chicks that almost weren't

Four chicks hatched yesterday, out of a clutch of eight (well, a fifth one hatched and died). These babies were being incubated by our bantam hen, who simply can't resist an egg. She'll sit on any egg, anywhere, anytime. I'm convinced she'd sit on a pile of golf balls, in fact. Everything was going along on schedule, when on Friday, just a day or two before hatch, she inexplicably abandoned the nest. She stretched her legs awhile, had some grain, visited the new arrivals, had a dust bath. We assumed all were lost. In a futile attempt to make something happen with them, we took the eggs and placed them in another, frequently used nest with the hope that someone would sit on them for the mere day or so they still needed. No dice. None of the other hens were buying what I was selling.

Later that day I noticed that the eggs, and in fact the entire nest were covered with ants! A closer look revealed that a couple of them had pipped and the babies were hatching anyway, even with no one sitting them (it WAS nearly 100 degrees yesterday). There were tiny holes in the eggs where the chicks were trying to break free, but ants were moving continuously in and out of the holes. At first we thought the chicks inside were dead, but then we saw movement, and sprung into action. Lots of turning and rocking brought the ants out of the eggs, and we brushed them away one by one. We kept this up until they stopped coming.

Earlier that day, the bantam (we call her Fancy because, well, she is) had resettled herself on a FRESH pile of eggs. Mad though she was, I took them out from under her and replaced them with the ones she had abandoned, just hoping she wouldn't know the difference. It worked! She spread her wings wide and immediately rolled each one under her breast and out of sight. We checked on mama and babies several times throughout the day, and were relieved to see that some of them made it after all. This morning there are still some eggs unhatched, and I suspect that they won't. Four out of eight isn't great, but we're happy to have any at all, against such odds.

Here's the happy family



***UPDATE***
There are now five babies!

Curious Visitors

When we came home from our very long day at work yesterday, we noticed some unauthorized waterfowl hanging around our poultry yard. To be precise, they were standing on top of the chicken house. I was able to get this picture of them. It's not very good, but it was the only shot I could get before they saw me and took off.



We'd seen them once or twice before, but always down at the pond. We were quite surprised to see them so close to the house like this. Turns out they're black bellied whistling ducks. According to Ducks Unlimited, pairs often partner for life, and they feed at night on...grain. Perhaps not-so-coincidentally, we've been finding our chicken feeder tipped over and empty every morning. They're quite lovely, as you can see here in this much better picture (also from Ducks Unlimited):



I'm always amazed at the wildlife we see here. I'd have never thought that we'd see so much in central Texas, and not so far from major cities - animals I never expected to see around my house. We regularly see blue herons, roadrunners, all sorts of wild ducks, egrets, hawks...it's just amazing to me. Ironically, the one thing we most definitely do NOT have out here are deer, and it's always seemed to me that you can't go five feet out of town - any town -without seeing deer. I'm not complaining, mind you. I know what kind of nuisance they can be. It's just interesting that we're in a sort of deer-void.

As for the whistling ducks, I hope they come back.

In Loving Memory

Our girl Lucy left us today. She was an outstanding dog, a tireless worker, and a wonderful friend. Her life was long, happy and well-lived. We miss her terribly.

We love you, Lulu.

Ducks Like The Pool

What's Growing Now

In the garden these days, the radishes have wished us farewell. The lettuce, too, can be seen waving from the rear view mirror. This isn't the last of it, but close. These beans, however - Kentucky Wonder, Golden Wax and Rattlesnake - are newly arrived and look like they intend to stay awhile.

The Swiss chard has gotten comfortable enough to start rummaging through the cupboards.

Up and coming are lima beans and New Zealand Spinach, a hardy, hot weather green. Just in time, too, since we'll be enjoying temperatures in the mid-nineties all this week and probably beyond.

On the fur and feather side of things, 'tis the season for duck eggs, and they are glorious. Big, creamy duck eggs. Beautiful boiled, sublime in egg salad. We're enjoying the easy food now. Pretty soon - in just a few weeks - it will be chicken season, and we'll have to actually work for our supper.

It's Here!

Let the sqwaking begin!

My goal tonight is to try and get it tuned (with the help of my husband the musician, hopefully).

And then....SCALES! Mmmmm. Look out.