Yearly Archives: 2012

1000th Post Giveaway

This week I wrote my 1000th post on HenCam. Instead of petering out, I find myself with more and more that I want to share with you. I have a notebook filled with ideas for posts, and everyday something happens in my backyard that is story worth telling. But, right now I am crazy-busy. I have two publishing projects in the works (more on those when they are closer to being sure things) and I have a lecture and a workshop coming up. I’m also consulting with a nursing home to bring the joy of chickens to their residents. A coop will be installed, and a landscaped pergola will be constructed so that people can sit outside and watch the hens. I’ll be doing programs with their memory-loss residents, bringing feathers, eggs and a live hen for them to see and handle. Such exciting work!

So, as much as I have a lot more posts to post, in the next month or so, I might not be able to get to this everyday. In the meantime, I have a small giveaway to celebrate the 1,000th post. I’ve made this keychain and two magnets from a Layena feed bag.

To enter, tell me what key you would hang on the chain. It can be a real key, like the one to your front door, or one you wish you had (I’d take a pickup truck, horse van and horse!), or one to something intangible, like the key to a loved one’s heart. Leave your comment here for one entry. If you post this contest on FB, let me know here and you get a second entry. If you post on Twitter, come back and tell me and you get a third entry. I’m happy to ship anywhere in the world (I had a reader from Tanzania the other day!) The contest closes on Sunday, September 9 at 9 pm EDT. The winner will be picked by a random number generator.

Thanks for being here with me on HenCam. Good-luck!

Brimfield Chickens

I spent yesterday morning at the Brimfield Flea Market. Of course, I went looking for chickens. The main stretch of road has the sort of dealers that I usually skip because the bulk of their wares are reproductions, but the booths did have big and eye-catching items, like this four-foot tall metal rooster.

As you know, I don’t keep roosters. He didn’t come home with me.

These signs are widely available:

She’s a hen, but I don’t like her glare. She didn’t come home with me, either.

I rather liked this plastic lawn chicken. I could imagine her in a flock of pink plastic flamingos, but she stayed at Brimfield, too.

In all honesty, I didn’t find any chickens that held my interest. Other animals charmed me more.

I was stopped in my tracks by this cacophony of cows.

I have a friend who would have snapped up this deranged squirrel. He? She? is wearing an apron!

And it doesn’t get any sweeter than this threesome.

In the end, I didn’t bring any of these animals home, but I did get something for the chicken house. You’ll have to wait until next week when I put it up and show you.

 

Free Goat Feed

The meadow that I view from my office has gone to weed.

A conservation organization owns it, but no one has been by to caretake all summer. Invasive buckthorn is crowding in along the stonewalls, brambles are growing in what was once a hayfield, and golden rod and Joe Pye weed are taller than me.

Across the street, in my backyard, the goats say that they are hungry. Only boring grass is left in their pasture. All of the good brambly, thorny, leafy things are gone.

So, I cut and gather armloads of weeds and put them in the goats’ manger.

My harvest doesn’t make a dent in the meadow, but the boys are happy,

and that last hay bale in the barn will last a little longer before I have to go to the feed store.

 

(photos taken with Instagram)

Tuppercraft Rooster

It’s a dreary, rainy, back-to-school day, so I thought that I should post a bit of turquoise and pink mid-century baby charm.

This dapper rooster (just look at that bow tie!) held diaper pins.

I read that the rooster’s tail was a way to unlatch the pins one-handed, but I can’t figure out how to do it. Does anyone know?

News flash – I’ve figured it out! Push the pink clasp into the gap in the rooster’s tail, which holds it securely while you twist it open. Brilliant!

I do know how to squeeze the beak in order to release the pins from the gentleman’s neck.

This chicken was made by Tuppercraft. Any collectors out there who can tell me more about the company?

You can still find these vintage diaper pin holders for under $20. Don’t you need one?

Frog Hunting

The little pond is filled with frogs.

Bullfrogs are in the shallows, as still as the rocks that they sit upon.

There are bullfrogs so immobile that they cast reflections in the water.

There are frogs that are half-submerged;  one has a flower petal for a hat.

But, the frogs attract hunters!

One hunter is of no cause for concern. This frog didn’t bother to jump away until Scooter’s nose touched hers.

But Lily is a known threat to the pond’s inhabitants.

The frogs know that she is attracted to movement, and although they try to blend into the rocks, they can’t help but hop when she searches through the water celery.

Bullfrogs can be quite long-lived (up to ten years in the wild.) I have a feeling that the frog smartly hiding from Lily by waiting as still as can be up on the boulder (do you see it?) will be in the pond for years to come.