Painting again

Its been so long since I picked up a brush...and this big white surface has been beckoning me for weeks, to paint a mural. Its on the chicken house and will be portraits of my five hens as if the viewer is looking into the henhouse. I started by drawing each hen from photos, on separate pieces of paper and moving them about until they all fit into the background.


Then the design was transferred with carbon paper to the coop.









The dark floor will be mostly covered by painting in the straw litter at some point.


I might get this finished tomorrow or the next day if it doesnt rain. Gee, I look at these pictures and wonder if I'm at the "dotty old lady" stage of life.



Its a fun project, and it gives me something to think about besides worrying about the poor Iranians and their horrible government.

Hammock making

I've been learning how to weave a hammock and I'm quite pleased with the way they are turning out.

Here's my first one in progress on the weaving frame up in my studio. Not much to it : 2 dowels and a 2x4 and a book of instructions. And a LOT of rope, 600 feet in one hammock!

At first it looks very confusing and I had to unravel a few rows when I caught my mistakes, but now I can weave and talk at the same time without any boo-boos.

This one is finished and hanging in the ceiling of Salty Dog Arts, our shop at the local wharf.

Its made of a soft non-cotton military cord, uv resistant and impervious to moisture. I opted not to use cotton as my research told me the squirrels like to chew it up for bedding.

The stretchers are 5 foot birch cut from the hillside behind our farm. They look beautiful finished with a few coats of linseed oil.

It's a cosy fit, designed for 2 adults.......

(Sigh... if we just had time to lie in it!)

Newest addition : Chicken Little

I couldnt resist this goofy looking little hen at the Petitcodiac "Wings and Whiskers" sale. She is a mutt, part silkie and probably part banty.

I traded 3 jars of jam for her and what a sweetie she has turned out to be. I named her Chicken Little because she is the littlest of the flock and she has a startled 'The sky is falling" look about her.

My former favorite, Buffy, a Buff Brahman who was the lowest on the pecking order because she was gentle and small, now has someone smaller than herself to pick on, and oh boy is she showing a mean streak!

I have moved the big hens to the barn for a while so poor little Little has only one at a time to get used to. This could take a while because it was a week before they stopped bullying Buffy. Little must think I am Mommy because she runs to me and tries to hide herself in my clothes, what a funny little bird she is.

The original black hens, a few posts back , enjoyed their retirement for over three weeks without a single egg forthcoming, and sadly have gone the way of all non laying layers.....

Enough said about that..

Their replacements are Serena, a large White Rock who is moulting and can be excused for not laying right now.

And Sonia who is an Ancona, a breed originating in the mediteranian.

Sonia is high strung and flighty with tail feathers like a roadrunner. I dont know what her excuse is for not laying yet. The Rhode Island Red, Rudy, and Buffy lay their predictable egg a day so hopefully the others will take note. The chicken house is full, Ive gotta quit before I turn into one of those warped collector people and the neighbors start talking about me.

Garden progress

Welcome welcome greens! Such a long wait since last garden season for fresh picked organic salads..

The garlic will be sending up scapes soon..

I'm still planting, it takes a month or so to get everything in. Now Im down to the warm weather squashes, peppers and tomatoes that all need protection for a while yet, from our sometimes chilly ocean breezes.

We have voracious flea beetles which love to munch on cabbage family transplants and turnip and radish seedlings. The cloth is thwarting them so far...this is a long patch of turnip that we grow for winter feed for the horses.

A peek under the cloth shows all is well so far...

The broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage transplants go under ice cream buckets with the bottoms cut out, and a fine mesh over the tops. The center is cut out of the plastic lid to hold the mesh in place. This works wonderfully, protecting the little transplants from wind, flea beetles, and cabbage butterflies. They stay in place till the plant begins to outgrow its confines, at which point it's big and tough enough to be unappealing to the bugs.

The tomatoes are going into the ground under their plastic hotcaps, where the'll stay till they outgrow them and hopefully it will be warmer then. These used to be expensive in garden stsupply stores but now you can get them at the dollar store. In that end of the garden is my windbreak of recycled storm windows. Sure it looks like Dogpatch, but hey it works!

The peppers and little sweet million tomatoes get planted right into the greenhouse soil for the summer where they thrive in the heat and humidity. I love to be able to pick their fruits well after frost. Still have a bunch of transplants to go out, at this point they are all in individual 3 or 4 inch pots so I dont have to hurry anything potbound. What a lot of interesting , rewarding, healthy hard work!

A week of Firsts...

First radishes...

First egg!

First flowers around the pond...

First Rhode Island Red....

But the best first of all...ta-da...a grandson born to son Cody and daughter in law Sherin. No photos yet, but I'm going to visit in two days.

The new hen, Rudy arrived 2 days ago and has laid 2 eggs, putting to shame Mariah and Dorothy who are still slacking off after 2 weeks. So much for the theory of "stressed out due to change of environment". The black hens were quite jealous and possessive of their food and water when Rudy arrived, and behaved like playground bullies. They got the sharp points of their beaks rounded off, so they couldnt do her much damage.

The wood is all put up for next winter...we need more roof!

Happy hens

Two chickens have moved in to the new chicken house, Black Maria and Dorothy. They have had a remarkable week from a hen's perspective...when I found them they were living in a battery situation, each in a one square foot cage, standing on wire mesh, indoors, barely able to turn around. They couldnt walk properly at first, with their legs going every which way like intoxicated fowl, and being intellectually deprived they couldnt figure out the ramp or what the roost was for.

So after crawling in the cage for a few nights and shoving them up the ramp, they caught on and now they go merrily up and down just for the fun of it. They learned how to scratch and dig and discovered worms , and now I hear a kind of anticipatory chirruping that translates "Heads up, the worm lady is coming!"

They have been very entertaining all week, but are yet to lay a single egg. Could be they feel they are in some chicken spa with gourmet food and dust baths and on vacation from work.

There is room for two more, but I'm holding out for a poultry show and sale in June where I hope to find a pretty speckled Barred Rock.

Rest in peace Baby Taylor

The tragic death of a newborn baby found dumped in a snowbank a few months ago near Moncton, NB has touched many in the province. He remains unidentified and police have named him Taylor after the road he was found on. Today was his funeral. Tuesdays paper had a story which upset me greatly, and prompted the following letter to the editor, published today . (click on the cutting to enlarge)

The To-Do list

The spring chore list is gradually getting whittled away but its not getting any smaller because new chores keep getting added to the bottom of the page. Like this one.

The first load of next winters wood arrived today, yes the first load, theres more to come. This is my right hand man's chore. I once had a wet heavy chunk of maple land on my ankle, followed by a trip to the emergency room, followed by my hero announcing he would do all the wood piling henceforth, bless him.

Today the first of the potatoes went in, we should be having our first taste of tender new taters by late july. The cloth is covering rows of turnip and radish to protect the leaves from the voracious flea beetles. They also love broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower which they chew to resemble lace so they all need protection until they get bigger and tougher. I found this fine net type material cheap at a Fabricville sale last fall.

All the leafy stuff is in now, chard, spinach, onions, 5 kinds of lettuce, onions, and the garlic is up 6 inches.

In the corner of the photo is my other right hand man, Big Red. My Troy Bilt tiller I bought new in 1978, the only piece of machinery I have ever truly loved. He has some new parts mind you, (my favorite ever Christmas gift from Mr Hero was new tractor tires for Big Red)

We are off to the farm auction today in Sussex to scout out some laying hens and look at something besides a chore list.

Ready for happy hens

Spring is galloping along here with crocus and coltsfoot appearing as patches of cheer, tulips getting ready to bloom, and the grass slowly turning green, much to the horses delight.

The portable chicken house is finished at last. It's made with no bottom in it, a 5'x8' footprint, so the happy chickens (which I dont have yet) can scratch about and eat grass and worms, bugs and clover. Two people can move it to a fresh patch without too much back work.

This end opens up for feed and water.

The other end opens up for egg gathering in the 3 nest box areas.

This door has a translucent window so the hens wont be traumatised if the foxes are trying to peek in at them. It lifts up so I can get at the trap door that can be bolted shut once they have gone up to the roost in the evening.

It's been a fun project using mostly recycled bits and pieces . In fact the only thing I bought new was the chicken wire. Saint John has a Re-Store, a wonderful warehouse where donated leftover building supplies are sold really cheap, as a fund raiser for Habitat for Humanity. They were a real treasure trove of lumber and hardware for my Habitat for Hens.

Maple syrup time

Our neighbor Jean Marc makes the BEST maple syrup and every spring we look forward to the party at his sugar shack. 50 t0 60 people turn up bringing pot luck goodies and enjoy a great feed with copious amounts of sweet syrup,.... eggs poached in maple syrup, ham baked in maple syrup, maple baked beans....mmmmmm.

When the sap has boiled to just the right consistancy, some is ladled onto a bed of snow where it hardens into the most delectable toffee.

It can be rolled up around a popsicle stick for a disolve in your mouth treat, or even better, dribbled on ice cream.

On the home front, I have been working on a movable chicken house for perhaps 4 birds. There will be no bottom in the structure so the happy hens can scratch and eat grass and clover, bugs and worms. This is one of those projects that evolves to use up scraps and leftover wood and plywood from other projects and is sort of made up as one goes along.

I seem to be going from one job to another, spring is such a busy time here. The raspberries and blackberries have been getting a thorough pruning and there's another construction job going on at our summertime shop at the local wharf.

The "carpenters" who built the place 5 years ago neglected to use pressure treated lumber so we tore out the rotting plywood floor last week and this week the black moldy rotten joists are coming out. What did they think would happen to wood sitting in wet gravel??

Rising Tide, St Martins

I've finished this acrylic painting of a pair of our harbor's lobster boats amid a rising tide of concerns about the whole east coast lobster industry. Prices for the catch are so depressed with the recession that many fishers feel it's hardly worth the cost of the diesel fuel to go out. According to the news hundreds of boat helpers wont be called up for the coming season, in order to cut costs. Processers still have huge inventories of frozen lobster from last season so a worthwhile price for the fishermen doesnt seem likely.

On a brighter note, this should be the week we say goodbye to the lingering snow patches, with lots of rain and mild temperatures in the forecast. My sunny studio windows are crowded with seeds I planted today. They'll move to the greenhouse when the nights arent so cold.

Seeds look so insignificant but by midsummer , how amazing to get SOOOO much good food out of almost nothing.
Getting on with seasonal chores, the plastic door and roof covering are back on the greenhouse. I go in and with the sun shining I can pretend it's summer.

The winter storms played havoc with the birdhouses, now they're safely screwed into place awaiting tenants. Song sparrows are everywhere today, what is sweeter than their springtime melodies?