- Every chick deserves a mother: one man’s crazy dream for how chickens deserve to be raised.
Follow "A Man and His Hoe" via Email
Sections
- About My Chickens (547)
- Cooking-Roasting Tips (18)
- Happiness (127)
- How Things Grow (502)
- Purchasing Chickens (5)
- Raising Chicks (138)
- Recipes (19)
- Reflections (407)
-
Recent Posts
- What Sunshine and Warm Air Brings April 5, 2020
- Where Everyone Gathers March 29, 2020
- Enjoy Them Today March 21, 2020
- The Snow Geese Migration Is On March 18, 2020
- The World is Curvy March 7, 2020
- Little Known Connections – Japanese Curry and Vermont March 4, 2020
- Hello Again March 1, 2020
- Edison Chicken Parade 2020 February 24, 2020
- Apple Aged February 15, 2020
- Swan Heaven February 8, 2020
- Winter’s Last Day February 3, 2020
- Take a Shower for Six Months February 2, 2020
- How Does a Trumpeter Swan Wash Its Face? January 26, 2020
- Mystery Solved January 19, 2020
- One Last Wintery Dawn January 18, 2020
- Winter Interlude January 14, 2020
- Worries Away January 11, 2020
- A Mystery Rose January 3, 2020
- An Auspicious Start January 2, 2020
- December Blue and Green December 29, 2019
- Frosty December 28, 2019
- Too Wet for the Ducks December 22, 2019
- For Mid-December It May as Well Be a Sunny Day December 17, 2019
- OK, Boomer December 15, 2019
- Know Your Body – Know Your Feathers December 8, 2019
- Chaos Must Work December 1, 2019
- Not Ready to Grow Up November 26, 2019
- All Together Now November 16, 2019
- (no title) November 15, 2019
- All the Leaves are Gone November 5, 2019
- Indigo Fall October 29, 2019
- Snow Geese and the Last Dandelion October 23, 2019
- Autumn is Just as Colorful as Spring October 18, 2019
- First Frost October 9, 2019
- How Did I Get So Lucky? October 8, 2019
- Who Eats Apples? October 6, 2019
- October Sky October 1, 2019
- Still Alive September 27, 2019
- One of the Best! Or Not September 26, 2019
- What You Don’t Know May Kill You September 25, 2019
- Change Is Coming September 23, 2019
- Learning to Share September 21, 2019
- Barefoot Gardening September 15, 2019
- No Remorse September 9, 2019
- September or May? September 5, 2019
- Summer’s Waning Days August 29, 2019
- Life Without Rhubarb is No Life At All August 21, 2019
- All the Good There Is August 17, 2019
- Luxury of a Cool Summer August 10, 2019
- Home Sweet Home August 5, 2019
Recent Comments
Cindy Dowdell on Enjoy Them Today Ingrid Hinton on The Snow Geese Migration Is On amanandhishoe on Edison Chicken Parade 2020 Marcia Burns on Edison Chicken Parade 2020 Shirley Clift on How Does a Trumpeter Swan Wash… Archives
- April 2020 (1)
- March 2020 (6)
- February 2020 (5)
- January 2020 (7)
- December 2019 (7)
- November 2019 (4)
- October 2019 (7)
- September 2019 (8)
- August 2019 (6)
- July 2019 (6)
- June 2019 (7)
- May 2019 (5)
- April 2019 (9)
- March 2019 (8)
- February 2019 (13)
- January 2019 (15)
- December 2018 (10)
- November 2018 (9)
- October 2018 (13)
- September 2018 (8)
- August 2018 (9)
- July 2018 (8)
- June 2018 (8)
- May 2018 (8)
- April 2018 (10)
- March 2018 (9)
- February 2018 (8)
- January 2018 (9)
- December 2017 (10)
- November 2017 (10)
- October 2017 (17)
- September 2017 (12)
- August 2017 (11)
- July 2017 (8)
- June 2017 (11)
- May 2017 (10)
- April 2017 (12)
- March 2017 (11)
- February 2017 (11)
- January 2017 (15)
- December 2016 (20)
- November 2016 (15)
- October 2016 (14)
- September 2016 (17)
- August 2016 (20)
- July 2016 (20)
- June 2016 (23)
- May 2016 (19)
- April 2016 (19)
- March 2016 (24)
- February 2016 (22)
- January 2016 (24)
- December 2015 (19)
- November 2015 (19)
- October 2015 (24)
- September 2015 (22)
- August 2015 (26)
- July 2015 (26)
- June 2015 (23)
- May 2015 (30)
- April 2015 (35)
- March 2015 (36)
- February 2015 (31)
- January 2015 (35)
- December 2014 (31)
- November 2014 (34)
- October 2014 (37)
- September 2014 (35)
- August 2014 (52)
- July 2014 (54)
- June 2014 (50)
- May 2014 (67)
- April 2014 (55)
- March 2014 (34)
- February 2014 (23)
- January 2014 (33)
- December 2013 (20)
- November 2013 (3)
Monthly Archives: November 2015
Where Chickens Walk
In the shade, the frost is growing every day. It’s covering everything in a coat of white fur. Now I can see where the chickens walk. It would be a good time to study the footprints they leave behind. Knowing … Continue reading
Posted in About My Chickens
Leave a comment
The Softness of Frost
Day by day, frost softens the things it touches. Frost makes the leaves look like soft, supple leather. Dust feathered leaves look soft and cuddly. These cold, clear mornings we are having make for invigorating morning walks.
Posted in Reflections
Leave a comment
散紅葉 • Chiri-momiji
Japan is famous for its fall colors. Tourists from all over the world travel there to walk through temple grounds, resplendent in their colorful foliage. The beauty lingers even after the leaves fall to the ground. When there are more … Continue reading
Posted in Reflections
Leave a comment
Which is More Beautiful?
Special is a beautiful hen, but is she more beautiful than colorful Svenda? It doesn’t matter if one is more beautiful than the other. If you stare at their feathers, it almost looks like they aren’t feathers, but brush patterns. … Continue reading
Posted in Reflections
Leave a comment
A Family of Toadstools
A group of mushrooms is called a troop, but the tight cluster of purple mushrooms I found the other day poking out of a cushion of moss looked like a family to me. You could imagine that I stumbled upon … Continue reading
Posted in How Things Grow
Leave a comment
What Happened Here?
On our way home from a shopping trip to Bellingham, we stopped along Chuckanut Drive to enjoy the evening sun. A boulder at the edge of the cliff was adorned with flowers. Oh, no! What happened here? Did someone fall … Continue reading
Posted in Reflections
Leave a comment
Hoary Daybreak
When I went to bed last night, I knew the morning was going to be magical. I could feel it in the way the cold night air stung my nose. This morning we had our first ice. You can have … Continue reading
Posted in Happiness, How Things Grow
Leave a comment
Just One
Just one melon, that’s all I got from the artemis melon vines I grew in one of the hoop houses. The vines were loaded with ripening melons this summer when one night, something got into the hoop house and destroyed … Continue reading
Posted in How Things Grow
Leave a comment
Be Curious
When I first brewed a cup of Yogi Tea’s Egyptian Licorice tea, I wondered how it could be so sweet. There was no sugar listed on the ingredients, just licorice root, cinnamon bark, orange peel, ginger root, cardamom seed, black … Continue reading
Posted in Happiness
Leave a comment
From Beautiful Flowers
From beautiful flowers come beautiful beans. From beautiful beans come delicious, heart warming meals. I received this text from someone who purchased some of the white flower beans I grew this summer: I just wanted to share this pic of … Continue reading
Posted in How Things Grow
Leave a comment
Autumn Glow
Autumn glow is special. Autumn leaves intensify the brilliance of the sun. Whenever the sun pops out between the rain clouds, it’s time to put on my boots and go for a walk. I’ve got to be outdoors to see … Continue reading
Posted in Reflections
Leave a comment
Give Us This Day
Every day I appreciate how generous nature is. You don’t have to give nature much of a garden to supply you with more food than you can ever eat. After eating more radishes than you can stomach, you get to … Continue reading
Posted in How Things Grow, Reflections
Leave a comment
It Only Happens Once a Year
It only happens once a year, that magical first day of frost. A clear cold night and this morning the grass, fallen leaves, toadstools, and vegetables were fringed with frost. First frost happens only once a year, which means it … Continue reading
Posted in Reflections
3 Comments
If You Can Wipe a Baby’s Butt
If you can wipe a baby’s butt, you can make sausage from scratch. This summer we purchased half of a pig from Akyla Farms. They raised ten pigs on pasture on the banks of the Skagit River in Birdsview. They … Continue reading
Posted in Happiness, Reflections
1 Comment
Siblings in the Rain
Steady rains don’t deter Tangerine’s chicks from roaming the woods. She is no longer caring for her chicks, but the siblings stick together. Sibling relations are one of the pillars of chicken society, but you would never know it from … Continue reading
Posted in About My Chickens
Leave a comment
Mini Spring
After summer’s long draught, the fall rains have given birth to a mini spring. Nettles push up through the damp earth to soak in the morning mist. We’ll get to enjoy nettle soup before the frosts cut them down. The … Continue reading
Posted in How Things Grow
Leave a comment
Vegetables Come from the Sky
Where do vegetables come from? They come from the sky, and this is how. Before you can plant a carrot or lettuce seed, you need living soil. Living soil starts up in the sky where the tips of the trees … Continue reading
Posted in How Things Grow
Leave a comment
Swans-here, Swans-there
Today was an auspicious day. The start of Swans-here. Hearing their distinct honking, we looked up into today’s blue sky and were dazzled by a flock of swans flying in off the bay. There are really only two seasons in … Continue reading
Posted in Reflections
Leave a comment
Flinstonian
I describe this salad fork and spoon set as Flinstonian. The woodcarver who made these, Allen Berry, sells his creations at Bow Little Market and the Mt. Vernon’s Farmer Market. He creates an assortment of boxes, spatulas, stirring spoons, salad … Continue reading
Posted in Reflections
Leave a comment
