- 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 (561)
- Cooking-Roasting Tips (18)
- Happiness (127)
- How Things Grow (507)
- Purchasing Chickens (5)
- Raising Chicks (138)
- Recipes (19)
- Reflections (439)
-
Recent Posts
- When Life Returns to Normal, I’ll Miss Blue Skies December 1, 2020
- Blue Skies in November November 21, 2020
- Sunshine Is Just Beyond the Clouds November 17, 2020
- Winter Returns to the Hills November 14, 2020
- A Squirrel’s Fate November 8, 2020
- November at Last November 3, 2020
- November 1 and No Swans November 1, 2020
- First Frost October 23, 2020
- Too Wet to Burn October 18, 2020
- Eyes Wide Shut October 13, 2020
- The End of Flowers October 11, 2020
- 20201010 October 10, 2020
- Am I Growing the Wrong Grapes? October 6, 2020
- Fog and Less Fog October 5, 2020
- First Blush of Fall September 29, 2020
- A Perfect Fall Day September 27, 2020
- Blue Sky to Rain to Shaggy Parasol September 26, 2020
- Six Short Weeks September 24, 2020
- 317 Days for a Miracle September 23, 2020
- We Can Breathe Again September 22, 2020
- You Can’t Help But Be Sad September 13, 2020
- Duck Serenity September 6, 2020
- August is Coming to an End August 28, 2020
- It’s Easier with Another August 21, 2020
- Hottest Day of the Year August 16, 2020
- Morning Surprise August 12, 2020
- After the Rains August 8, 2020
- An August Morning August 2, 2020
- August Evening August 1, 2020
- When You Are Insane July 21, 2020
- Summer Is Here July 18, 2020
- It Blooms, It Dies July 15, 2020
- A Cool Start to Summer July 7, 2020
- Each Flower Has Its Own Strategy June 29, 2020
- Disaster Averted June 19, 2020
- Cool, Wet June June 10, 2020
- The End of May May 31, 2020
- Newer, Bigger, Better May 22, 2020
- Summer in May May 13, 2020
- Apple Blossoms and Magical Shoots May 2, 2020
- Where is Kaku 隠? April 27, 2020
- How Does a Bee Pick a Flower? April 21, 2020
- Dog or Bear? April 18, 2020
- 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
Recent Comments
amanandhishoe on When Life Returns to Normal, I… Beth on When Life Returns to Normal, I… amanandhishoe on Blue Skies in November M_. on Blue Skies in November Michelle on Tofu Crouton Puffs Archives
- December 2020 (1)
- November 2020 (6)
- October 2020 (7)
- September 2020 (8)
- August 2020 (7)
- July 2020 (4)
- June 2020 (3)
- May 2020 (4)
- April 2020 (4)
- 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: December 2016
Year Passing, Year Coming
It’s still a virescent world, moss soft and fern green. But not for long. A light snow is falling, turning everything white. In the woods a brilliant, yellow Heterobasidiomycetes caught my eye. I went looking to see if anything was … Continue reading
Posted in Reflections
Leave a comment
Lab Girl
I haven’t laughed so hard in a long time. Lab Girl is an autobiographical book by scientist Hope Jahren. She intermingles chapters about growing up and the challenges she faced in her career as a woman scientist, among chapters about … Continue reading
Posted in Reflections
Leave a comment
Out of a Winter Garden
Today’s rain has washed most of the snow and ice away. Surprise, underneath the cold snow, the winter vegetables stayed as fresh as ever. The sprouting onions are as fresh as spring time green onions. There’s no need to truck … Continue reading
Posted in How Things Grow
Leave a comment
No Escaping Beauty
There is no escaping beauty. Sometimes it explodes in front of your face when you least expect it, like this morning when I stepped out onto the back patio and beauty flooded the sky from horizon to horizon. There was … Continue reading
It’s Been a Long Time
It’s been five years since the chickens have had so much snow to run around in. Most of them are new to this and would rather not. The snow fell from early morning through much of the day. Even if … Continue reading
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year! The calendar says New Years is still eleven days away, but today is the beginning of the new year as far as I am concerned. This morning, at 2:44 am Pacific Time, you could hear the earth … Continue reading
Whole Wheat Anpan – A World First?
Hmm, the an, sweet bean paste, I made brought back memories of a staple of my childhood, anpan あんパン, buns stuffed with an. Anpan are always made with the whitest, fluffiest dough imaginable. What would anpan made with 100% whole … Continue reading
Posted in Reflections
Leave a comment
Pastures of Swans
The swans are on pastures by the hundreds. Here a flock, there a flock, everywhere a flock. Swans are constantly moving in small groups from one flock to another. What is that all about? Is the grass better over there? … Continue reading
On a Gentle Snow
A gentle snow fell all morning. As I watched the snowflakes fall, I thought about the stories that each flake could tell. In their short lives, snowflakes have a lot of excitement. One moment they are tumbling tens of thousands … Continue reading
Posted in Reflections
Tagged adzuki beans, あん映画, gentle snow, Sweet Bean movie, the story of vegetables
Leave a comment
It’s a Small World
Impressed with the Shimonita onions I saw on TV, I ordered some seeds from Japan. They arrived yesterday: Thunder Emperor 雷帝 Shimonita Onions 下仁田ネギ! Much to my surprise, on the back of the package, it says that they were made … Continue reading
Ice is Alive
If you watch long enough, you can see needle ice growing out of the ground. It’s as if it’s alive. The hoarfrost grows too, prickling the leaves and branches. December cold turns nature into a fairyland of ice.
Shimonita Onions – 15 Months to Grow
All around the world are special vegetables, and yesterday I heard about a leek type onion which is grown in only one small town in Japan, Shimonita 下仁田. It takes 15 months from seed to harvest. They are planted in … Continue reading
Shh, the Garden Is Sleeping
The garden is fast asleep under a blanket of snow softer than down. It’s been four years since we’ve had a snow this thick. It’s not a heavy snow by no means. Eight years ago we measured the snow by … Continue reading
Posted in How Things Grow
1 Comment
Winter Bites
Winter bites leaving its prickly white teeth everywhere. Step outdoors on a frosty morning, and winter bites your cheeks and nips at your nose. You know you’re alive on a morning so cold.
Posted in Happiness
Leave a comment
Farewell Green?
Snowflakes danced in the air off and on today. Will the coming deep freeze mean the end of green? What will be left to pick for fresh salads by the end of the week? The kale and cabbage will survive. … Continue reading
Posted in About My Chickens, How Things Grow
Leave a comment
A Remarkable Hen and Her Family
MiAsa Hime 美朝姫 is an extraordinary mother. Her chicks are more than three months old and she still spends her days with them and roosts with them at night. I’ve never had a mother hen attend to her chicks for … Continue reading
Posted in About My Chickens, How Things Grow
Leave a comment
Way Off Topic – a Long Way from Here
Having grown up in Japan and having hitchhiked, biked, and ridden trains all over the country as a boy, literally, at eleven years old I took to the roads hitchhiking for days at a time, traveling over a thousand miles, … Continue reading
Posted in Happiness
Leave a comment
