Hello Folks,
In contrast to Monday, Tuesday dawned bright and clear and breezy and, I might add, still chilly. The high today is about mid-50s, with a north wind that is chilly. Still, today is a much nicer day than yesterday. Remember that nasty dew point I kept referring to over the summer? Well, it is down to 29 degrees. That means the air is cool, crisp, and dry.
After letting out the critters, I ate breakfast, showered, and decided the time had come to take a walk. I walked down to the neighbors and back (meaning uphill). Along the way, I was picking up tree branches and twigs due to the high winds we had last evening. The road was littered with them, so that kept me occupied while I walked. The brook is running quite fast with all the rain we had yesterday, so it was a pretty walk and, with the leaves falling off, even more delightful.
I figure if I can walk twice a week and go to Bone Builders and yoga, I’ve met my quota of exercise for a week. We shall see how it goes and I’ll keep you posted.
Once back, I decided to check on the critters and see if there were any eggs. Sure enough, there were 3 white eggs in one nesting box. I have started noting on the calendar when I get a brown-shelled egg. I got one yesterday and by late afternoon today, there was another one. I still haven’t been able to identify who is laying and who is not laying any eggs at all. Three chicklettes are capable of producing brown shelled eggs. Tough job I have ahead of me!
And here is a funny from yesterday when I took lettuce out to the troops. I have tried to teach (you cannot herd nor teach chickens much of anything) the chickens to wait on my left side for their lettuce and the ducks to line up along the right side of me. It isn’t going well. So I throw bits of lettuce to my left and then to my right for the ducks so that they do not co-mingle. The problem with co-mingling is the ducks can get a bit aggressive toward the hens, but the hens cannot wait long enough for me to throw out pieces of lettuce so they go charging to the right for the lettuce intended for the ducks. Or the ducks get impatient and encroach on the chickens’ territory. So anyway, one hen could not handle the ducks getting any lettuce. Because the tan male duck, Louie, isn’t the brightest star on the ranch, he did not realize he had lettuce hanging out of his bill, but not for long! One of the chicklettes saw it, and snatched it right out of his bill! I couldn’t believe it and, not only that, the hen lived to tell about it while Louie sat there trying to figure out what the heck just happened!
Right now, the two male ducks are not as protective of the female duck, Dewey, as they have been. Dewey has molted and her egg production has tapered off due to the molt and winter coming along. I didn’t realize their aggressiveness towards the hens had anything to do with Dewey’s egg production but I am now quite sure it does. So, life is pretty good between the two camps at the moment.
I met my friend and mentor for lunch today in New London. We had a great time getting caught up and chatting about our lives. Of course, with writing this blog, my life is pretty much exposed, so that gives me ample time to chat about the other person’s life. Still, we volleyed back and forth and it was so good to see her. I know I always seem to say the same thing about every visit with friends, but truly they enhance my life so much and I always come home feeling buoyed up by our visits. My life would be very dull and I would feel very sad if I didn’t have friends (I am including family as friends) to chat with! Today was no exception.
So, back home again, I shared my leftover lunch with B. I found him out in the garage figuring out how to move one of the freezers from the garage into the woodshed for the winter. He said he had given up on me getting home to help, but he was just teasing me! He is always very supportive of me getting out with friends. Anyway, he came in long enough to eat his half sandwich and went back to work.
B is on a mission to clean up the garage (a big job by the way) so that he has space to actually work out there. He used to work in the garage a lot on projects; especially in the winter, using a propane heater to keep the chill out. Once I stopped working, we slowly began to fill up the bay where I used to park. This is his week’s assignment: to clean out the garage so he can once again work there. He can’t do any work in the new building because he hasn’t yet had time to finish the insulation (then the sheetrocking, then the painting). He did work on the plane’s gas tank today, in the living room, with a piece of plastic under it. You have not lived properly until you live with plane parts in your living quarters!
Even though I am in no mood for dinner, it does need to be prepared, so I should go and get it started, as it is now close to 5:00 p.m. I brought in pork chops from the freezer this morning. I found a recipe on the internet for braised pork chops and I’m going to give it a try. Right now, I couldn’t care less, but tomorrow afternoon is going to be busy, so I should get dinner tonight with enough left over for dinner tomorrow. I also managed to get another sink full of dishes that need washing.
We’ve been watching some good PBS shows lately. Last night was “God Knows Where I Am”, a very well-produced and thought-provoking 2017 documentary about mental illness and how we deal with it. The story was about a mentally ill woman who died of starvation in an abandoned house in Concord, NH in 2008. There were some similarities to the Chris McCandless (“Into The Wild”) story. Tonight is an “American Experience” episode about the eugenics movement. It’s nice that I can see these shows that come on after my pre-retirement bedtime.
With that said, I am closing this blog.
Stay well!
The Clampetts 