without words
almost
I've thought a lot of words but none have made it into computer blips. So it is just this image, which I laughed at that hen so much when I saw this.
But that isn't how it looks today. This is today:
Today is also comfort food (can you say, blueberry cobbler? So glad for the berries in the freezer!). Tomorrow is definitely insulated coveralls.
Which, one thing I notice, one thing that stands out like a sore thumb to me, is the expectation that people have that they should be able to go anywhere they want to anytime they want to. It is painfully cold? Snow? Dangerous road conditions, BE DAMNED! That's what I see as the prevalent attitude.
There was someplace I wanted to go yesterday, just for pleasure, and it had some elements of a commitment to it and I am loathe to break any commitment, but as the snow continued to come down, as we struggled to get the chores done (that all had to be done whether or not we were going to be gone for the afternoon), as we thought about coming home on questionable roads to a cold house, the decision to not go was not a difficult one. It is good at home. It is good with us.
Certainly, there is more than one way to live, but something is lacking when there is an overwhelming need to vacate one's life, or to involve others all the time, to have the psychological need to leave the house when all external factors would say to stay home.
8 comments:
Oh, I LOVE that first picture!
I like that picture too. I've never seen a hen that looks like that before. What breed is she?
fighting rooster stock -- given to us by a guy down the road who raises roosters and has no use for the excess hens. They are wild as in not very domesticated, but they are also wiley and smart and the very best ever hens are half fighting chicken and half araucauna, so we hope some will survive until spring and give us babies! Not all of them look like her but a lot do. Also, the hens are not aggressive.
Interesting. Thanks for the response. I don't see a comb on her. Is she still young? When you say the fighting rooster/aracauna cross is the "best," what do you mean? Best for what? Laying? Meat? Mothering? Self-provisioning? A bit of everything?
Chickens. Sigh. Or Jeeze O'Pete. We're down to two based on stupidity alone. Waddles and The Senator wandered off into the woods wing tip in wing tip despite Simon's better efforts to keep them within the confines of the propery lines and immediately got themselves made into thanksgiving feast. Anabel met some similar fate and Blue, well Blue just passed because it was her time. The two sunset hens have moved into the untility cabinet (smart girls they might turn out to be) for the winter and so we have closed up the big coop. Lulu freaking froze to death out of my own stupidity and so we begin again in the spring. I need some more Americaunas; time to start breeding.
hmmm, "best". I like them best? I like animals that have a mind of their own and take care of themselves and that cross, or our experience of that cross, did that without being too wild. Terrific mothers which we haven't had terrific luck with any other breed with. Good layers. Easy keepers. Good at evading predators. They do tend to hide their nests and make every day an Easter Egg hunt.
But "best" is very subjective, and we'll see if some of these make it through the winter to raise up some crosses and only *then* will we see if the cross works as well this time as it did the last time.
Alecto, that is the way of chickens.
I think that bird is taunting you. What a great picture.:)
Let me give credit where credit is (past) due here: daughter #1 took the photo of the chicken on the ax!
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