Terror From Above...if you are chicken

So I am out working in the garden this morning and the chickens are busy free ranging after I let them out... Yep, I pen them at night so they are only free range during the day.We have been losing a chicken here and there and one duck and out of the 11 chicks I am down to four and for the life of me (or my chickens) we could not find where the fox or coyote was getting in through the fence + electric. 

Anyway the rooster is strutting around looking all tough guy and threatening to peck me if I get to close to the fence...

pretty tough when there is a fence between us...

But he is keeping watch over the hens and telling them to

" Listen to me baby and you'll be safe!"

 The buzzards were flying overhead, the birds were chirping in the trees.

Suddenly old Rudy the Rooster squawks like a baby and runs for the hen house.

The field cleared in less then five seconds, every last chicken! The woods fall silent. I look around expecting to see some daring fox or rattler and don't see anything. i notice that Rudy is peeping from the hen house door looking up at the sky. When I look up I see buzzards circling , but then they circle the mountain top all the time catching thermals and the chickens don't mind. Then I see a smaller silhouette with wings of a different shape, not quite a hawk.

 Peregrine falcon and when it circled back over the house again the feathered heads below clucked a warning and ducked back inside. The falcon continued to circle quietly and the yard remained under lock down by order of Rudy.

  

The falcon circled for quite awhile before it flew out just as suddenly as it flew in.

Only then did the crew slowly, cautiously step out again.

I guess listening to Rudy paid off for the flock and I had to admire how they all knew the dangerous silhouette  from the buzzard's.

Come dusk the hens scramble to get to high ground

Perhaps there is terror from below as well!

Cool Thoughts

Weather got you down? 

Time for a picnic!

...a picnic to cool off your mind

before the gang bellies up to the table...

 make sure there is plenty of ice

and the glasses are frosted

                       invite 

                                                                                 those friends that need cheered up

 introduce them to those that are always stupid happy.

                                                                  don't worry if they don't get along

                                             there are ways to make annoying people disappear

make sure to check the temp of the playground equipment...

or

                                      ... your guest might be surprised! 

                                                                                    don't be on edge...

but if you do go over the edge

                                   just lay back and  relax. 

enjoy that time of being knocked flat out

looking up at the blue sky

get back up and take a long walk

...or stagger.

don't let the weight of the world...

 

bring you down!

                                                 even if you feel like you are about to break loose and go out of control... 

                                                                                                                                ...just roll with it!

and remember that if the weather gets too overwhelming... 

just bring the fun inside...

and try to chill with your friends!

Now keep saying to yourself...

"It's cool man! It's cool!"

There was a moment, it stayed forever...

   There was a moment, the briefest moment when my slumbering mind would craw from the darkness of sleep to the brightness of waking  and my eyes were still shut. In that moment I would hear my brothers voice ...

"Wake up! Wake up!" 

he would shake me like a bag of beans

"Wake UP!"

his voice rippled with excitement and anticipation that could no longer be contained as he said the last word...

"...it is morning!"

It was all I needed to hear, my eyes would pop open and my feet hit the floor.

Morning was finally here! Oh how we loved morning for it was the beginning!

"Come on, come on," he drug me towards the window, but I knew the routing. Stairs were to slow, doors blocked your way. We had a day bright and beautiful to get to and as fast as we could. He threw open the screen of the window and we scrambled to the roof  and sprinted for the edge ...

Yes the edge, it was the quickest way to happiness. We didn't slow as our toes touched the roofs edge and we leaped.

There was a moment, just the briefest moment...

my brother's hand still clutching mine,

when our small bodies hung in thin clear air and time stood still 

 I looked up into the blazing blue sky and white cotton clouds and shimmering emerald oaks

...all the world fell silent and  I stared into the eyes of  a bright and beautiful day and thought

"This is going to be the best day ever!"

Inside that sparkling moment, that sparkling sky

I saw all the wonder that lay before us

all the wonder that was ours for as long as the sun shined.

In that briefest moment anticipation crackled and we seemed to float...

I could taste it, smell it, see it and I loved the excitement of what may come...and then our feet hit the ground and we raced straight into the

the bright and beautiful for we had so much play to do and rivers to splash in before the night claimed back our best day ever.

The best day ever that came every day.

The beauty, the excitement 

 streaks of colors streaming past

as we ran and...

...and ran through our bright & beautiful

I did not know that every color

or sound of whispering rivers

and splash of cold mountain water

would burn into my young brain

and shimmer forever in my dreams...

...like that briefest moment when we hung in thin clear air.

.

The Layered Garden So Far

Click to see the layered garden as we started it!

The layered garden I started in spring has been a wonder to watch!

These pics I took a few weeks ago...

Strawberries & peppers

See the large pieces of cardboard? I add paper or cardboard as I get it to control weeds and then begin throwing layers of straw & poultry litter or weeds on to it to begin a new layer.

Tomatoes basil & parsley

Peas, beans & bright lite Swiss Chard

shallots 

tomatoes & eggplant (under the cheese cloth)

my garden helpers cleaning up bugs from the turnips.

You do have to watch them and make sure they stick to bugs and not eat the plants too much.

Now for pics taken just this week...

Tomatoes, basil & parsley are really taking off!

The largest squash leaves on the largest squash plant I have ever grown

First picking

Time to fry blossoms 

Honestly the tomatoes are out of hand, I can not tie them up often enough.

They are up to my shoulders.I know what you are thinking..."But she is soo short!"

Cantaloupe are doing fantastic! Planted in a layered patch then under black plastic. Hope they all don't ripen at once.

Now for the strawberries that were little pathetic plants being thrown out at a local store, now a strawberry hedge.

Wow! They love the layered garden!

Marigolds are huge, over a foot wide from a single plant, but dwarfed by the tomatoes

These were left overs planted in a newly layered patch. The layers were shallow but the flowers have done well anyway.

The red raspberries sent to me from my Uncle & Aunt in Pa. are really doing well.

Thanks so much to them!

The ducks are mostly penned in the center of the garden now and chickens border the one side, so bugs are at a minimum. Plus we water the beds from the water from the duck pond, added fertilizer! Overall it is a very low maintenance garden and everything is linked together in support of each other. The most successful garden I have grown in the last several years of drought and bugs.

***

A link to

A Duck Story!

We Are the Collective...

 We are the collective, resistance is futile! We shall move as one and...

...we shall be afraid as one! 

Watch us move as the nine headed  beast called the collective.

Here we move through the raspberries together

through the cabbage as one and into the lemon balm 

We are the collective and resistance is futile.

oooooh, water!

BIGGER water... yippy!

Oh No! 

The collective has been separated!

 How do we get out of here?

We cannot be separated...we CAN NOT!!!!!!

Oh that's better! 

You four just stand there all day while we stand on Seven of Nine's back and figure out how to get out of here!

.....

*yes they did have a cinder block and a ramp, but it still took them 45 minutes to decide to use it.

The good news is they are much smarter about hunting bugs & slugs.

***

The Ducks, the whole story!