I am blatantly plagiarizing Kathryn's comment from yesterday...I did, indeed, get the Pullet Surprise! And in more ways than one. I mentioned that one of the chicks was an oddball. The large, black-and-white striped one at upper left bears no resemblance to the black-and-white speckled barred Rocks at bottom right. I have no idea what this fledgling might be, but she sure is pretty.
Growing at the rate they are, it won't be long before the pullets can go into the big hen house, but are enjoying the freedom of their little yard, doing the jump and flutter dance as they tumble out of their little, trash-bag-wrapped crate in the morning. The Araucanas are taking on their beautiful pheasant coloring. They're always a little more skitterish than the others; the Rhodies the calmest of the bunch.
Getting a temporary respite from the heat, I got a lot of yard work done yesterday, mowing and weeding. I took the covers off the window openings in the goat barn for their comfort, as well as my own. Ninety-nine-degree temperatures are predicted for later in the week. (Why don't they just say "one-hundred" and be done with it? One degree isn't going to seem much cooler!) Nature seems to have equalized the odds for gardeners at altitude. While we contend with deer and squirrels both above and below ground, we have no snails whatsoever, and I've only seen two or three slugs, and those were the big, ugly banana slugs that ventured out of the forest. (UC Santa Cruz chose the banana slug as the school mascot...but why?)
Moonrise last night was spectacular, coming up over the hills by Omo Ranch. Those hills are high enough to require the light tower for low-flying aircraft. The earth has turned on its axis...this moon was viewed out the door in the living room. That same full moon in March would be seen far to the left out the big window overlooking the road. It was a fitting end to a productive day.
3 comments:
Well I, for one, think that you should get the REAL Pulitzer Prize for knocking your Mission Statement out of the park, day in and day out. You do indeed share a bygone lifestyle of the day-to-day work on a farm, in an almost lyrical fashion, and you enchant this reader each day. And the pictures are a wonderful bonus. Three cheers I say!
Why not a banana slug? As a banana slug, I can tell you that the mascot was the sea lion. But students had unofficially adopted the banana slug for some time. They decided that they wanted a mascot that lives on campus so it was changed to the banana slug after 5 years of sea lions. It makes for nice junk in the bookstore but my favorite is no longer--the glue slug! The chocolate slugs are delightful, if they still carry them. I have neither stepped on nor kissed a slug.
Outside of the building where I worked was a statue of sea lions and it is customary for the students to splash paint on it to alter the statue to resemble banana slugs.
I think that is a type of aracauna. I got a few aracaunas last year because Drew likes their green eggs and one of them was a twin to her. They are so pretty, aren't they? She was my favorite chicken.
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