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Recent Posts
- Red Dawn January 14, 2021
- Is It Still Winter? January 12, 2021
- Winter Skies January 4, 2021
- Happy New Year! January 1, 2021
- Stories Untold December 28, 2020
- Blink and You’ve Missed It December 22, 2020
- Chatty Mud Birds December 20, 2020
- Getting the Mail December 10, 2020
- Soothing is Good December 5, 2020
- 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
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Category Archives: About My Chickens
Happy New Year!
2021 is here, the world over. It’s already January 2 in some places. Hopefully 2021 will be a year of recovery and by fall we can greet one another in person again. Here is a 2021 calendar you can download … Continue reading
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Chatty Mud Birds
Just like children in their Sunday best can’t resist stomping in mud puddles, swans love troddling through muddy fields. How they stay pristine white is a mystery. True, they don’t roll around in the mud like swine. Having long necks … Continue reading
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November 1 and No Swans
Today is the first of November. In many years, the swans have flown in from Alaska and Siberia by now. On a number of years, I’ve seen them first flying on November 1, but not this year. Today’s blue skies … Continue reading
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First Frost
We had our first frost yesterday. A very light frost. Just enough to dust the grass and fallen leaves. The forecast is for a freeze this weekend, maybe enough to make the wet ground crunch when you walk on it. … Continue reading
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Too Wet to Burn
The woods are too wet to burn. You could pour gasoline on them and they wouldn’t catch fire. But let there be a sliver of a break in the clouds at sunset, and the whole forest is ablaze. Against the … Continue reading
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20201010
I didn’t realize today’s date was so special until I sat down to write this. 20 20 10 10. Strung together, 20201010, it almost looks like code. I wonder if someone in the year 1010, on October 10, wrote down … Continue reading
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Fog and Less Fog
The morning fog is clearing early today. The past days it has persisted all day. This time of year the sun is not strong enough to burn it away. A few days ago, the fog shrouded the cottonwoods. Each morning, … Continue reading
Posted in About My Chickens, Reflections
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We Can Breathe Again
We can breathe again. Over the weekend cold fronts rolled through off the Pacific and pushed our smoke out of the valley. Gentle rains washed the air. Just in time for a satisfying equinox. With more rain in the forecast, … Continue reading
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It’s Easier with Another
Three days ago the sky was a cobalt blue with wispy clouds. Today’s sky is definitely fall like. Thick, grey clouds accompanied with gusty winds. Summer is coming to an end. The two hens who decided to join forces and … Continue reading
Posted in About My Chickens, Reflections
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Hottest Day of the Year
The forecast yesterday was for a hot day. 87ºF (30.6ºC). This morning the forecast changed to a high of 84ºF (28.9ºC). Our first day this summer above 80ºF. It felt warm from the first step this morning. The sun was … Continue reading
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Morning Surprise
Will she or won’t she hatch those ducklings? That was what I was wondering about Kaku. She’d been sitting on a second clutch of eggs for a long time. This morning I had my answer. She was swimming in the … Continue reading
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After the Rains
Recent rains interrupted our August sun, but it is back. The chickens are happy. Very happy. The end of June chicks are over a month old. They no longer panic when they can’t see their mother. They can take a … Continue reading
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It Blooms, It Dies
I’ve seen bamboo my whole life, but this is the first time I’ve seen a grove bloom. The grove of bamboo next to the cabin is blooming. The leaves are drying and falling. Bamboo can go decades before blooming, but … Continue reading
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Summer in May
Every year an ice shelf forms on one bank of the pond, an ice shelf of cherry blossoms. Wind blows the cherry blossom petals onto the pond and pushes them against one bank. It looks like an ice shelf to … Continue reading
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Where is Kaku 隠?
We only saw four of the ducks this morning on our way out this morning. I searched through the garden but there was no sign of Kaku 隠. But this afternoon she showed up with the others, so I followed … Continue reading
Posted in About My Chickens, How Things Grow
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How Does a Bee Pick a Flower?
The fruiting cherry trees are in full bloom, attracting bees by the hundreds. From late March into early May some cherry tree or another is in bloom. It takes thousands of flowers to feed all the bees. Watching them fly … Continue reading
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The World is Curvy
The Komatsuna 小松菜 survived the winter rather well. So well they are on the verge of blooming. With no other brassicas in bloom, I can let these bloom and go to seed. The nettles are up, a sure sign that … Continue reading
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Mystery Solved
I was gathering eggs at the right time this morning to discover who is laying the rose colored egg. And here she is below. She came squawking out of a nest just as I was about to reach inside, and … Continue reading
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A Mystery Rose
The new year starts with a mystery. One of the hens is laying a rose colored egg, but which one? This is when it would come in handy to be able to talk with them and ask, “Which one of … Continue reading
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For Mid-December It May as Well Be a Sunny Day
There is sunshine filling the horizon, pouring through an opening in the distant clouds. It’s not raining and for a mid December day in the Pacific Northwest, this counts as a sunny winter day. Mynah, like many of the other … Continue reading
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