Random but Interesting Occurrences on the Farm

The day before yesterday, I was cleaning the duck house in the afternoon when it just came over me to go check on Mary Jane. I literally stopped what I was doing, got up, and went to the chicken area. I couldn’t find Mary Jane anywhere after calling and calling for her, so in a panic, I went to the coop to find her in a nest box for some strange reason and in the middle of what looked like a heart attack or heat stroke.

Her mouth was open wide, and she was breathing hard–making terrible noises. I gently scooped her up and brought her outside of the coop to the shade and quickly got her some cool water and fresh berries. It took about an hour for her to completely calm down and be okay, but she was much better. Ron told me I surely saved her life, that she was likely about to die from a heat stroke. I have no idea how I knew to check on her, but I am so glad I did.

Interestingly (and this is going to sound like a wild tale for sure), last winter, when we had our struggles with rats and couldn’t figure out where they were coming into the coop and why they were doing such damage, I had a dream two nights in a row that I was seeing where the rats were coming from. I told Ron about it, and sure enough, we found where they were hiding. I also told Ron about the view I had during this dream.

“It was from the top roost on the left side of the coop, the corner spot,” I said.

“I would be interested in seeing who sleeps in that spot at night,” Ron said. I agreed. So the next night, I checked to see who was sleeping in that spot at that time. It was Mary Jane.

I don’t know how it is or how this works, but I have some kind of connection with that bird. She looks at me differently. Some of my chickens are simple. Some have the “lights on” in a different kind of way. With Mary Jane, the lights are on in a way that is almost haunting to me. I think she’s an empath.

For years, right before a chicken passes, she will hang out with Mary Jane. At first, I asked Mary Jane why hens died when she made friends with them, but then I realized that Mary Jane was being there for them at the end. Usually, I know exactly who is about to die in our flock, but Mary Jane has known at least one I didn’t know.

I don’t know what to make of that girl, but I am going to be an extra mess when she passes. She has had a great life though. I just fed her homemade blueberry pancake. When we kept her, I thought, as a meat bird, she might make it to two years old. She turned six on June 1.

In other interesting news, I planted a Three Sisters garden in the garden plot Ron made for me. I will have to write all about it soon, but I have been watching the green beans and how they reach for the corn. I wondered, at first, if they were going to reach the corn. But then I saw the outreach. This morning, I saw the connection. The green beans have latched on. Isn’t it cool that those beans found the corn?

Relatedly, Ron put strings along the sides of the cucumbers to give them a place to climb. Every year, they spread out wild and take up a ton of space. The cucumbers have not yet touched the string, but they are growing straight up and tall instead of spread out and wild. When Ron showed me, I was so surprised because they almost didn’t even look like cucumber plants. They sensed the strings and changed how they grew. Ron figured he would have to help the plants latch onto the string. I guess it turned out they could handle it themselves.

Yesterday, Ron and I both worked in the garden all day long. Summer harvest is in full swing, and we are putting up food diligently. I picked raspberries and then blueberries and then gave the blueberry bushes some water. Then, Ron and I sat down in the green beans and picked for nearly two hours. Those green beans are so generous–and so delicious. All that rain has served them well. Thankfully, we are having some sun now, and I guess it’s perfect green bean conditions because the green beans I grilled last night were so delicious I thought I was going to cry. I took the first bite and was like, “how?”

It was wicked hot out there picking all day in the garden. We have shade everywhere from all of the beautiful trees, but, for obvious reasons, there’s no shade in the garden. So I baked. I wore my hat and tried to adjust myself to avoid too much sun at one angle for too long, but it was a tough go for me. I am a bit of a heat wimp.

Toward the end, however, the breeze picked up. And there, sitting in the dirt with green beans all around me, I took off my hat and soaked in every breeze. A big one came one time. I could hear it coming before it arrived, and I raised my arms and let the cool breeze cover every bit of my soaked-with-sweat body that I could. When it was over, I said, “oh, that was a bit of heaven.”

Ron didn’t answer, but Rooster did. I could tell he agreed with me.