Tag: farm life

The light and the eggs return

~ Crystal Sands ~ Leave a comment

I just collected the eggs and spent a little time this evening spiffying up the chicken coop. We got just 5 eggs today, which is a treat to me after several weeks of sometimes getting no eggs, but yesterday it was 9 eggs! And on Wednesday, we got a whopping 11 eggs! That’s really good for January, no light in the coop, and no new hens last year.

I am grateful to those hens, and I try to work hard to show them. Today, I delivered a week’s worth of scraps from the kitchen, did some spot cleaning in terms of poop in the coop, opened up the windows for a bit because it was warm, cleaned all the windows, and then made a small dent in the spiderwebs on the ceiling and in the corners. How are there that many spiders in winter? I also cleaned the nest boxes and added fresh straw.

Most everyone seemed pleased, and most everyone is doing well. Rooster is rattling a little bit but hanging in there quite well for a rooster who is going to be 9 years old this summer. Mary Jane is doing remarkably well. She is the queen of that coop and asserts herself when it comes to eating, as well as her personal space.

Ruby is hanging in there. I am actually happy to report that she is adjusting a little bit to life in the winter in the coop. This is the most consistent winter we have had since she has been alive. It’s been an adjustment for her. She’s not hiding in the corner anymore. Of course, I keep the run and some paths in the yard shoveled for all of them, and she seems to be happy using them. It’s too snowy for her to run around everywhere like she likes, but she’s making do with what she has. It’s great to see. I worried she was just going to stress herself of death.

Of course, when I give treats, she is one of a handful of lower-level hens I always make sure get a treat. When I feed scraps, there is usually enough for everyone. I save up all week–everything from crusts that don’t get eaten to the little bits of leftovers sometimes left on the plate–so there is a feast at least one day per week. But even with a good amount of scraps, the hens at the bottom of the pecking order will not get much. So I always keep a secret bowl and then go around to each of them and hand feed them. Kate is the only one who will not take something from me. I have to throw it on the ground in front of her. I don’t know why she doesn’t trust me, but I respect her ways, of course.

Right now, the hens I save up for are Ruby, Kate, Bianca, Juliet, and I always have a special bowl for Mary Jane. She just moves too slow these days and quit trying. She just waits at the door of the coop once she sees me coming with treats and knows she gets her own bowl. It is not often than anyone dares to sneak in a bite from her bowl. She won’t stand for it, though I have to say that I saw her allow Joan and Betty Jr. (two very old hens) to grab a bite or two from time to time.

I am so grateful for the time I get to spend getting to know these birds. I get so busy sometimes with work of all kinds that I don’t get to hang out with them as much as I would like. At the very least though, I get to hang out with them for morning chores, but when I have more time to just hang out with those chickens, I am better for it. I was thankful for today in so many ways.

I read that, in our part of Maine, we have 6 hours and 48 minutes more daylight on the Summer Solstice than we do on the Winter Solstice. The light comes fast. I feel it’s energy. I hope I’m ready for what is ahead.

photo credit: Nicole Wilcox, Unsplash

Today was the day we left the coop!

~ Crystal Sands ~ 2 Comments

I guess my writing last night about the chickens not wanting to leave the coop did some good because we left the coop this morning! I was so grateful. Some of them were outside off and on for several hours today, so maybe, just maybe, we’ll get an egg tomorrow. None for today–but there’s hope for tomorrow.

The humans also had to leave the coop today for a little bit to get a flu shot. There is some risk for people with long COVID getting a flu shot, as well as other vaccines, but we decided that, even though we mask everywhere we go, our son’s girlfriend might accidentally bring the flu to us. And while there is some risk getting the flu shot, there would definitely be trouble for our long COVID symptoms if we got the flu–so flu shot it was. My fingers are crossed. I have made really good progress with my long COVID symptoms of late, so I am hopeful it is all going to be okay.

I didn’t like leaving the coop though, and I am glad to be back home. In my younger days, I used to get a little stir crazy if I didn’t leave the house every few days. Now, I try to see how long I can go without going anywhere. I can’t get a good streak very often because my son has many activities as a cellist, but one time, I did make it nine glorious days!

This time, I made it six days, and I feel like that was pretty good. I would love to know if I have other homebodies following this blog. What is your longest streak of not leaving the house?

Anyway, I have beautiful pictures to share of my sweet flock finally leaving the coop! I’m so proud of them. They were rewarded with treats for sure.

This is Tuesday, Ruby’s biological daughter and only friend. Tuesday is one of the smartest hens I have ever met. I adore her. And isn’t she beautiful?

This is one of our boys, Dvorak. Rooster finally came out of the coop as well, but Dvorak was one of the first ones out. I can tell he’s tired of being cooped up, probably especially since Rooster is and will always be the boss of him.

This is Yoshi. She is a pardoned meat bird from 2023. She’s very sweet, and while I can tell she doesn’t have the genetics to go for the long haul like Mary Jane who will be 8 this summer, she’s a great addition to the flock. She’s so chill and is a great layer.

This is the covered area we call “chicken camp” because it’s where they can camp out and dust bathe away from the coop. We need to add more dirt, but these chickens made do today.

You’re a free girl now.

~ Crystal Sands ~ Leave a comment

I have mentioned that Ruby has been struggling withe her mental health this winter. If you follow Ruby’s story, you know she has a hard time hanging out with the rest of the flock. She’s quirky, a loner, needs her space–all that and more.

It seems funny that she’s so quirky, but I was starting to get really worried about her. With all the snow, she has not been able to run around like she likes and has been stuck in the coop. In the last week, she wasn’t eating well, not even treats, and was so stressed. I was finding her in the coop with her head down in the corner. It’s like she just couldn’t take it all. It was the saddest thing ever.

I had another chicken who was so similar to Ruby. She was Banjo. She had an injury at one point and had to live in the house for about a week where she thrived. She would sit on Ron’s shoulder and watch him while he played video games, but when she got better, though I wanted to keep her in the house, we had three dogs and two cats at the time, and it just seemed impossible to keep Banjo in the house. We put her back in the coop, and she passed away about a year later, just from general health issues, but I always figured her mental state played a big role in her passing.

So, with Ruby, I have been determined to meet her mental health needs, but the house is not the answer for her. She doesn’t like the house. She doesn’t like me that much, I think, though she definitely likes to boss me around. So I have been at a loss as the best way to help Ruby get through the snow lockdown. She has the run, which is shoveled and full of straw, but she didn’t want to come out of the coop at all, yet the coop was making her miserable.

Finally, a couple of days ago, in between work and mom errands, I went to get her, which she complained about mightily, but I put her in the garage for a bit and hand fed her treats. For real, she mostly just sat there and complained at me. I wish I knew exactly what she was trying to say because she talked the whole time I was with her. It was definitely a giant complaint.

After a bit, I would put her back in the coop, and I would put her in a nest box where she could be above any fray (though I have to say that it’s been pretty peaceful in the coop overall). This seemed to help, so I did this the next day as well. Still, I have been anxiously awaiting the warm weather and rain that came yesterday.

I knew it would melt the snow, and it did! It was 55 degrees and rained like 2 inches. The wind was epic, and we lost power. It was worth it.

This morning, when I let the chickens out of the coop, the snow was gone! Lockdown was over!

In Ruby’s life, we have had very warm Decembers here in Maine, so poor Ruby is not used to so much snow so early. This morning, when she saw the snow was gone, I swear, I could see joy in her eyes! She waited in the coop until I came around to the big door to do the food and water, and then she was out and about! She made noises all the way out the door. Truly, I think she was saying to me, “It’s about time!”

I have always thought that there is a Tom Petty song for almost every occasion, and I sang to Ruby, “Hey Ruby! You’re a free girl now.”

She didn’t care for my singing, but she did care for the green grass minus all of her flock mates. I am so happy for her.

I think we have more snow coming next week, but in the meantime, Ruby gets to enjoy freedom for a bit. I don’t think I have ever been so thankful for the rain. I mean, we really, really needed the rain, but Ruby needed it more.

A Season of Harvest in Pictures

~ Crystal Sands ~ 4 Comments

December 2 is definitely the latest we have ever harvested anything, but last night, Ron pulled the last of the carrots from the ground. They were so delicious. We learned to always let your carrots stay in the ground until after the first few frosts. The frost does good things to the sugars in the carrots, and the taste is so sweet.

It seems like forever ago that we started this whole process, and I was so tired this summer and fall from the long COVID that I didn’t post as many pictures as I normally do. With that in mind, I decided to go through all of my photos from the summer and fall and show you what we do around here–and how we eat. There are so many more things to share, but I think this gives you a pretty good idea.

Harvest starts in May, and this year, well, it went until December. Both last night and tonight, we had carrots with dinner. They were magnificent.

It always starts with the rhubarb. I make rhubarb cakes, muffins, and jelly. I didn’t even get to share a single jar of this jelly. I made five jars, and Ron had eaten it all within two weeks. I have to make more next year, but rhubarb jelly is a bit more labor intensive–at least if you want pink. Our rhubarb is not super pink, so I have had to learn some strategies for picking and processing to get more of the pink color.
The first greens! And that’s Saint Saens in the background. That sweet girl will be seven this spring. She really loves the greens. I did share some after this photo.
The green beans did pretty well this year, and we froze a record number of quarts. I have not yet been brave enough to try to can them, but I must try next summer. Also, our neighbor gave us several old harvest baskets years ago, and we use those things all the time. I would love to get a few more.
One of my favorite meals every summer is the organic ramen. When the cabbage and onions are ready (usually we have carrots at this time too, but they were late), I boil duck eggs and warm up some organic ramen. It’s a quick, easy dinner–and it’s pretty!
These were the first raspberries of the season!
Ron planted purple cauliflower this year. I mean, just look at that!
We always have a couple of months between running out of potatoes from last year and the new potatoes of the current year coming to harvest. Every year, when we eat the potatoes, those first meals are so precious to me. I don’t buy potatoes. I just wait until the next crop is ready. It really makes you appreciate good potatoes.
When the blueberries are ripe, I am so excited to put them in oatmeal in the mornings. We all love oatmeal with blueberries around here. This year, the birds ate almost all of our blueberries, so Ron and I spent two days picking at a local farm that has really good prices for beautiful berries. We stocked up and still have gallons of frozen blueberries that we will eat all winter. This summer, on one hot and miserable day of picking (the heat makes long COVID symptoms worse), I said to Ron, “We are the ants, aren’t we?” He agreed that we are, indeed, the ants.
I just had to share this sunflower because neither Ron nor myself planted it. A bird or a squirrel planted it in a flower pot on our deck, and I treasured it. So did this awesome bumble bee.
We had melons this year! They were fantastic! When Ron first tried to grow melons about 10 years ago, it wasn’t hot enough. The Maine summers are plenty hot now.
It was a banner year for tomatoes, and we put up a record number of jars of pizza and spaghetti sauce. This is some of the pizza sauce. Each one of these jars contains enough sauce for two pizzas. We use the tomatoes, onions, peppers, and garlic from the garden to make this sauce. It is slow food that is just so good.
We eat pizzas all fall using vegetables from the garden. This one has onions, peppers, and tomatoes from the garden, and, of course, we make the sauce from the garden too.
Ron chose a hybrid corn this year, so I couldn’t seed save; it was so good it was worth it though. It was a really good year for the corn.
I love apple season. We do not grow our own apples, but we found a local apple orchard with very good prices for pick-your-own, and drops are crazy cheap–and still so good. We load up on apples every fall. We always freeze many gallons of apples, but this year, I started putting up applesauce in jars. I put up eight large jars. They are already gone. My teen son stays up late and, apparently, ate a lot of applesauce this year. I would wake up every other morning or so and find another jar had been opened. Truly, there is nothing like homemade applesauce, right?
Right around apple time is also grape time. We have our own grape vines, and Ron built a beautiful arbor for them this fall. However, we have no grapes yet. Thankfully, I have the kindest neighbor who always shares her grapes with me, and I always make grape jelly. Homemade grape jelly is nothing like the store grape jelly. It’s so tart and so yummy!
Ron plants a fall round of greens each year, so we can have greens when the tomatoes are ripe. This beautiful salad as greens, beets, carrots, peppers, and tomatoes from the garden–and walnuts and dried cranberries from the grocery store.
Our pear trees had a good year. I canned 15 large jars of pears from our trees. We planted two more pear trees this spring, but only one really started to take off. Aren’t pears so beautiful?
I love cranberry beans. A few years ago, we had a bumper crop and haven’t grown any in several years. But Ron planted some this year in his Three Sisters garden, and they are so beautiful. I was glad they were back this year.
We always plant three varieties of carrots–Yellowstone, Scarlet Nantes, and Oxhearts. These are the Oxhearts, and they are great for rocky soils like we have here in Maine.

The First Snow of the Season

~ Crystal Sands ~ 2 Comments

Last night, we had our first snow of the season. I didn’t think I was ready for it because it has been so warm. I always feel like I need a little lead in to that first snow, but the snow came whether or not I was ready. Today, I started the part of the year where I really earn my breakfast.

I shoveled out the chickens while Ron did the driveway.. It was during this process that Ron discovered the heavy, wet snow had brought down a tree–on the fence in the chicken yard–that he just finished rebuilding last weekend! Oh, that man was grumpy. I didn’t even try to comfort him because I felt there was no way to offer comfort for something like that. He was going to have an epic day of work repairing the fence. I just told him I was so, so sorry for him and kept shoveling. Indeed, he had a really rough day. Poor man!

I shoveled out the ducks too, who were far more thankful than the chickens. A few chickens came out, but mostly looked at me from the coop wondering why in the world I had let it snow and ruin their day. I shoveled thoroughly some little paths and areas for them, but it would be several hours before the chickens accepted the reality of the situation and decided to come outside.

I told them it would probably melt soon anyway.

On the bright side of the morning, the snow was beautiful to me. When the white first comes, I always treasure it. And, truly, a Great Pyrenees is happiest when it snows. I got this picture of our little (big) Bairre today. Isn’t he beautiful?

Two eggs per day–sometimes one

~ Crystal Sands ~ Leave a comment

Right around Thanksgiving is always the worst time for egg laying in our flock. Since we do not add light to the coop, our girls rest this time of year, and it’s always a little disheartening when I go collect the eggs. I have been getting two per day most days this week, but this morning, it was just one.

In our efforts to reduce our flock size naturally over time, we did not have any new baby chicks this summer, which means no one is just starting to lay eggs this fall. It’s been awhile since we have not had any new layers, so I have a feeling that this year is going to be extra tough in the egg department.

There is a good chance I am going to have to buy some eggs this week, and I am interested in seeing how much they cost. I will only buy free-range, humanely-raised eggs, so they are already quite expensive. But I was just reading yesterday that egg prices were up 30% in October due to issues with bird flu nationwide and increased demand. I don’t know why demand would be higher, unless all the chicken keepers all over the country, collectively, are having to buy eggs right now like I am about to do.

I’ll have to keep you posted on how much they cost. Vital Farms are my favorite eggs that taste most like our eggs. I hope they aren’t sold out. I have been having a very, very hard time finding organic, grass-fed milk at our grocery stores. I can still find organic, but because of my son’s liver issues due to long COVID, he can only drink grass-fed milk. There is. a dairy here in Maine that I can buy milk from sometimes, but they are often just sold out. This milk shortage makes me a bit nervous.

Anyway, hopefully, I can find the eggs I want tomorrow. Maybe next year we’ll have at least a few baby chicks in the summer, so I don’t have to buy eggs next Thanksgiving. I really want to get some heritage breed chicks. In the meantime, I have dread for the day I go out to the coop and there is not a single egg for me. I think it’s coming.

Win a special gift–just follow my blog!

~ Crystal Sands ~ 7 Comments

In honor of my new regular blogging and the revival of the online journal, I wanted to write a few “follow-my-blog” contests during the holiday season!

The first one is simple. Follow my blog and enter for a chance to win this beautiful handmade mug, made especially for Farmer-ish. It holds 16 ounces, is beautiful blue, and features our Farmer-ish name.

To enter to win this cozy mug, all you have to do is follow this blog and leave a comment on the post. If you are a new follower, you will be entered once for following and once for leaving a comment. If you already follow, you can still enter once by leaving a comment below. You can also get two entries by inviting one person to follow and telling me about it!

In your comments, be sure to also tell me about topics you would like to see me cover in the blog!

We will run this contest until Saturday, November 30, at 10:00 AM. Normally, I limit these contests to the U.S. because of shipping costs, but I am making an exception on this one. Followers all over the world can enter, and shipping will be covered.

On the morning of November 30, which is Small Business Saturday, I am also going to be unveiling a new Farmer-ish store, right here on this site! No more going through Etsy! I still love Etsy, but it’s so exciting to have our own space for shop!

Anyway, leave a comment and enter to win! And stay tuned for more Farmer-ish giveaways coming up throughout the holiday season!

Food System

~ Crystal Sands ~ 2 Comments

Warning: This post includes a brief discussion of processing chickens for food.

This morning, we began processing our last batch of meat chickens for the year. We normally do one batch for our family and one batch for our dogs, but we did three batches this year because our Pyrenees, Bairre, has decided he really only likes to eat chicken for dinner. We can either buy meat from the food system where we know the animals are abused or humanely raise and process the chickens ourselves for our dogs to eat. We choose the latter.

And, when I say “we” process these chickens, I mean mostly Ron. I am just the assistant. Ron humanely culls, cleans most of the feathers, and then cleans the insides. It is my job to then get the chicken looking like one from the grocery store, so, when cooked with vegetables from our garden, our family just sees a beautiful chicken dinner as the end result.

I get the final feathers and hairs, clean the chicken super thoroughly, and process the internal organs for the dogs. We try to avoid waste. After all, a life was given for that food. Waste seems sacrilegious.

Even with my assistant job, I get so worn. I am up and down our stairs a lot, as we keep the chickens in the basement, and I spent a lot of hours leaned over our deep sink. It feels worth it though when I think about the alternative. The “humanely raised” is really important to me, but food safety is becoming more and more an issue.

Recently, it feels more and more important that we choose to live this way.. I have known for a long time that our American food system is in some trouble, but the recent listeria and E. coli outbreaks remind me of how important it is to build our own food system–at least as much as we can. The FDA and the USDA both regulate our food systems here in the United States, but they apparently do not communicate well and are also quite backed up and overworked. On top of these issues, apparently, some states, specifically I read about Texas, have simply quit complying with some required testing from the USDA. This was related to the bird flu, but who knows what else states or companies will decide to not comply with. It’s already quit a bit. Self regulation is not a great plan, at least if experience has taught us anything.

We also have a lot of inexperience and arrogance heading into our government, and in my other life working as an academic administrator who worked with federal agencies to secure grants, inexperience and arrogance are not a great combination when it comes to dealing with the giant bureaucracy that is government.

Yeah, I have some worries. I think we had better start working hard to get our food from a more local system.

I know it’s not possible for everyone who reads this to start raising meat chickens, but it seems important to start trying to remove ourselves from a broken food system in whatever ways we can. Maybe we get chickens for eggs and compost their poop to fertilize our organic vegetable garden. Maybe we connect with local farmers and join a CSA. Maybe we support any local markets that keep their supply chains local. I don’t know how common those are in other states, but we have a lot of them here in Maine. Maybe we work harder to create low-ingredient homes, cutting down on or eliminating processed foods (more on that later).

Pay attention. Wash your food well. Organic carrots were a recent culprit for E. coli. Cook your meats thoroughly. Make sure they reach the proper temps.

I wish I had more answers, but I do think we are on our own more than I feel comfortable with. I’ll always share what I learn to help us get through it all, and I hope you will as well.

photo credit: Anna Jakutajc-Wojtalik, Unsplash

Beautiful Beans

~ Crystal Sands ~ Leave a comment

I can just write a little tonight, but I wanted to share one of my favorite photos from my seed-saving work this fall. Look at this bowl of green beans! Have you ever seen anything more lovely? Well, maybe you have, but these beans have to be up there.

I have the best story about these seeds. It was the end of the harvest season, and I had been working so hard to seed save so many things. I am not super skilled at some of the smaller seeds, so I had some trial and error. I was determined though and worked diligently all fall to save as many seeds and as many varieties as I could. I just had this strong feeling all fall that it was important this year to really step up my seed-saving game. I wanted enough for us and enough to share.

Green beans are the easiest to save and, somehow, I nearly forgot them. The night before our first big freeze, I suddenly woke up from sleeping and remembered I had not saved the green beans.

“There’s time in the morning,” I told myself as I went back to sleep, thankful I had not forgotten.

The next morning, when I got up to collect these seeds, there weren’t as many as I had hoped because I waited so long, but I was in awe of these beautiful beans I was able to collect. What a gift?

Green beans are the food that made me fall in love with garnering and growing food. They are magic, just like in the folktale–only all of them are magic. You plant one little bean and get all of that food. What is more magic than that?

And these look magic, don’t you think?

A Little About Circe–and Why She Hates Me

~ Crystal Sands ~ 2 Comments

Circe is one of the most beautiful chickens we have, and I realized as I was looking for a picture for this post that I do not have a single picture of her since she was a baby. She can’t stand me. For a long time, she couldn’t stand anyone–except her brother. She now has a few friends in the flock, mainly Pumpkin, but she still hates me.

Circe is named after the minor goddess in Greek mythology who makes a famed appearance in Homer’s Odyssey. I was reading Circe by Madeline Miller the year she was born, so we have a Circe and a Penelope. Both of them are strong-willed hens, but Circe acts like I am a monster. Maybe I am.

This is not Circe. This is her biological sister. I have zero pictures of Circe as an adult.

When Circe was little, she loved her brother more than her mother. I have never seen two chickens be so close as Circe and her brother. I kept praying Circe’s brother was a girl, but he was a he. We already had two roosters, so there was no way he could stay. I tried to find him a home but was unsuccessful. It was during the pandemic–EVERYBODY had gotten baby chicks, and EVERYBODY had too many roosters. I knew he was going to have to be food, but I was reluctant because of how close he was with Circe.

“It’s just like in the story,” I told Ron when he asked me about “that extra rooster.” “Her only friend is her brother, just like the real Circe,” I explained.

“The real Circe?” Ron asked.

“You know what I mean. If we take her brother from her, Circe is never going to be same.”

But take him we did, and Circe has hated me ever since. She doesn’t trust people, and you can’t blame her at all.

She keeps her distance from me most of the time. Of course, she comes for treats, but she’s in and out and never hangs around too long. That poor baby.

She is an extra poor baby right now because something is wrong with her. She is having a pretty hard molt, and last night, we heard her with full on rales in the coop. I am constantly terrified of the rales because of all of our trauma with the respiratory infection that hit our flock in 2019. Ron said he thought it might just be something in her throat. I hoped for that to be the case, but I had to isolate her just in case.

I got the dog crate ready for her and then swiped her from the roost last night. Oh, she fought me, and no matter how much I tried to help her feel better, she wasn’t having it.

I took her to the guest bathroom, which is also the animal hospital around our house, and while I was away getting a little olive oil and a syringe to put a little oil down her throat in case something was stuck, she went from the floor to the toilet to the sink and was trying to get on top of the light fixture above the sink.

I got her down with much ado and then had to give her the olive oil. I managed to get it in her. She was shocked at first and when she gathered herself, she leaned in and bit me so hard.

She is also very upset at having to stay in the crate. It’s a big crate with tons of room. but she is the closest thing to a wild chicken we have. None of this medical care is sitting well with her. I was devastated when I woke up this morning to find her still with some rales. They were quieter but still there.

I spent all morning while my son was in his college class looking for some way to get access to antibiotics without going to the vet because we really can’t afford a vet right now, and I know what she would need if it’s respiratory. I need the water soluble version of Tylan. I have all the natural remedies, but her rales were so bad last night that I was thinking we might need the big guns. Of course, no one wants to sell you an antibiotic without a prescription, and that’s understandable. I mean, people have run fast a loose with antibiotics for a long time, I suppose. I think I wouldn’t. I think I would be careful, but I’m sure everybody thinks that.

Thankfully, we may be in luck anyway because, when we got home from my son’s class, she didn’t have the rales–at least not very much. And, this afternoon, when I took her a snack, all was quiet. Maybe it was just something stuck in her throat. I hope so. I hope so.

I really need that little hen to get better, and as soon as she is, I am going to get a really good picture of her. Maybe, hopefully, through all of this, she will find a way to forgive me for my awfulness.

Maybe. Hopefully.