Scooter turns nine today.

He was not what I wanted. I’m not a toy dog person. I like my dogs mid-sized, active, smart, and focused. Working dogs. I was looking for a corgi mix. Maybe a terrier. A smallish dog that would keep Lily busy. Lily has always been a difficult dog to live with. She’s all of those things that I described above, but also an alarmist and very serious about staying alert. Her job is to keep the animals in the backyard safe. Unfortunately, the biggest threat to the chickens and goats are loose dogs in the neighborhood, so Lily became reactive and she didn’t have any doggy friends. One known dog companion in the house was what she needed.

I brought Scooter home. He was 10 weeks old and not even four pounds. It took awhile to train Lily that Scooter was not a chipmunk.

It took awhile for me to realize that this puppy wasn’t going to be as large as his mother (20 pounds) but would top off at under 11, and that there was no terrier or working dog in him. But, the Rolling Stones had it right: You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometime, you just might find that you get what you need.

Everyone needed Scooter.

The dogs that my sons grew up with had always been my dogs. They weren’t cuddlers. Scooter immediately filled in the job position that called for sitting on the couch, curled up next to a child.

Lily worried all day. Scooter filled in the job position of creating fun distraction. Soon, the dogs were doing the zoomies together (watch this video.) Afterwards, Lily was satisfied and relaxed.

Scooter got as attached to Lily as she was to him. When I took her on hikes and left him at home, he howled. Now that Lily has a cruciate tear, we no longer go on hard treks that Scooter can’t keep up with, and so they are always together. No more howling.

I needed a dog to go through the KPA course with. Lily couldn’t do it because of her reactivity and because she was already clicker trained. The job fell to Scooter, who I affectionately call the “dog of little brain.” Several times we had to go to a training facility, where there were scary smells and sounds and strange dogs. He was miserable traveling without Lily, but he did what he had to. In order to graduate, I had to teach him a 10-part behavior chain. Here we are practicing. (The final chain is more precise. For example, we finessed it so that he touched the ruler with his right paw.) Thanks to Scooter, I passed.

Lily is still the alert dog, and Scooter is the master of naps. Lily knows that Scooter sometimes needs the entire bed. That’s okay. That’s what best friends do.

Happy Birthday, Scooter!

Even before photoshop, people doctored images to get a laugh. What you see going on here is a delivery of poultry via horse power. Farmers were paid for their product by the wagonload. When a poultry dealer came to town and a long line of wagons would line up through main street, waiting their turn to be weighed. The gentleman that you see to the front of the photo is working the weights of the scale. Once a price was agreed upon, the crates of chickens would be put onto a freight train to take to processing near the city.

Recognize the breeds in this wagon? Barred feathers are found on a number of breeds, so they’re not necessarily Barred Rocks. Your guess is as good as mine. Chime in!

I haven’t had much time to sit at the computer blogging. I’ve been busy doing things like this:

Here I’m teaching a client how to bond and communicate with her Morgan gelding via grooming. It’s happy-making work. Once this horse was relaxed and paying attention, the owner tacked up and I helped to finesse her aids and clarify communication to the horse so that he could move enthusiastically and in sync with her.

On January 30, I’m brining this approach to horse training to Connecticut. For more details, go here.

As I write this, it’s 10º F. I’m bundling up. I’ve got more work to do.

Steve and a good friend, Ken, are from the South. On New Year’s day they have to have Hopping John – black eyed peas and rice – which is supposed to bring good luck. I promised them a batch. I altered this recipe a bit, and added homegrown black turtle beans, so that we Northeners would have good luck, too. Hopping John is easier to make in quantity, so I invited a dozen people over for a buffet late lunch. At the last minute, while setting out the food, I thought that the counter looked blah. Not at all as festive as a New Years party should be. I had a moment of inspiration, pulled out some egg cups and set tea light candles into them.

Charming.

A bright way to start 2016!

I begin the New Year tallying up the past year’s egg production. I keep this chart posted in my kitchen:

Here’s a link to a PDF so that you can keep track of your flock’s egg count. Feel free to share.

I started 2015 with 16 hens and ended with 14. Nancy Drew and Opal both died, likely from liver disease. This number of hens was enough to keep my family in eggs through most of the year, and even to provide a few dozen to friends. But, by “real farmer” standards, these hens are old – some are in their fourth year – and in the winter I had to resort to purchasing eggs.

The Girls laid 1826 eggs, about 600 less than in 2014. That averages to only 130 eggs per hen. Modern commercial hens can lay upwards of 300 per year, and even productive backyard birds lay over 200 per year in their prime. Of course, “real farmers” don’t keep chickens of these breeds, either. That cochin? I think I collected 25 eggs from Pearl all year.

When I do sell excess eggs, I charge $4.00 a dozen. If I’d sold all of the eggs, I’d have made just over $600. Enough to keep them in chicken feed and bedding. Barely. Luckily for my hens, I’m not trying to make money or to be 100% sustainable. Some might avoid keeping records to avoid the truth, but I like seeing the patterns that the tallies reveal. Over the years, I’ve learned that the peak egg month is May (this year that month brought 310 eggs.) The tally also has taught me to look forward to February, which is a bleak month weather-wise, but the Girls let me know that spring is on the way. February is when the molting hens gear back up to lay. In 2015 they went from laying 57 eggs in January to 114 in February.

Lastly, the record chart made me appreciate this chicken:

Twiggy was the only hen to lay in the last two months of 2015. She took a 13-day rest at the end of November, but still cranked out 26 eggs over those two months. Each of those eggs were greatly appreciated by me at breakfast.

Here’s to a healthy and egg-filled New Year!