The Garden Tour

The weather couldn’t have been more perfect last Friday for the Concord Museum Garden Tour. Over 500 tickets were sold in advance and many more on the day of the event. It certainly seemed as if every one of them came through my yard! People looked at the chickens. They said hello to the goats.

They marveled at the Beast.

It was a lovely day.

Saturday was not lovely. It rained. It poured. It drizzled. It was cold and damp and miserable. But, still people came.

Sometimes I think that gardens are even more beautiful in the rain. The colors, without the glare of sunshine, are deeper. Water shimmers on rocks and glistens in balls on leaves. After the last visitor drove off, Steve took video of the garden and we put together a rainy day garden tour.

Sunday was overcast, but the chickens didn’t mind at all. As promised, I let them out to free-range.

The garden is fully mature, and it took them a bit of looking to find dirt to scratch in. They wandered about, eyeing the flowers and pecking at the grass. They enjoyed themselves immensely until a hawk swooped low. I hustled the girls back into their secure pens. They’ll get to finish their tour another day.

Betsy and Candy

For years Candy wouldn’t let any of the hens into her hutch. The Empress protected her domain. Just a look and a twitch of the nose would send a wayward hen back down the ramp. But, Candy is now 9 years old. She’s mellowed. And, she’s taken a liking to Betsy. Betsy is small and polite. She trit-trots up Candy’s ramp and stands patiently at the entrance to the hutch. Often, you’ll see both rabbit and Bantam White Leghorn sharing the same patch of morning sun.

Recently, I’ve noticed that Betsy has taught herself how to drink out of Candy’s water bottle, as you can see in this screen shot.

There are benefits to being allowed into the Royal Court.

A Sticky Situation

Why is it always the Speckled Sussex that get into trouble? A couple of days ago I noticed that Florence (the smallest, fastest and smartest of my three Speckled Sussex hens) had something yellow hanging from her bottom. Was it a broken egg? A prolapse? Some horrible, infected wound? I scooped her up and found this:

Florence had gotten tangled in a fly strip.

Along with keeping my barn very clean, and composting the manure, my first line of defense against barn flies are these low-tech, inexpensive and very effective sticky ribbons. I hang them up high, and, I thought, out of the way, where the hens, being fat and not exactly agile and aerodynamic, never go.

Perhaps there was a large, buzzing horsefly that was just too tempting for a curious and hungry Speckled Sussex. I’ll never know. What I do know is that it took quite a bit of careful snipping to remove the sticky strip. Florence was shorn of quite a bit of her fluffy under-feathers. I carefully clipped at her wings. A pile of feathers fell at my feet. Surprisingly, she looks no worse for her adventure.

Chicken Planters and Chickens Planted

There’s been a lot of planting going on around here.

I’ve splurged on new pottery, bags of good soil, and lush plants (no sagging, sorry, spindly ones from the bargain bin this year!)

I always have a large selection of basil planted by the kitchen door.

I’ve filled pots with flowers and placed them are all around the house. These are on the back steps:

Perennials have gone into bare spaces in the flower bed near the meadow. The last remaining spots in the vegetable garden were filled today with peppers and an eggplant.

Most of the digging has required only a hand trowel, but sometimes a shovel won’t do the job. The pumpkin patch was a tangle of tough turf. It needed turning. First, the toads and garter snakes had to be shooed out of the way. Then, Steve and son used a behemoth of a borrowed rototiller to cut through the sod.

When they were done, it was easy to dig a few holes for the pumpkins and butternut squash.

Once that task was complete, a few more holes needed to be filled. What should I plant in these?

Chickens!

 

Ta-Dah! A Revamped HenCam

It’s been a long time in the making, and the revamped HenCam is finally up. There’s a charming new facade and a cheerful logo. Behind the good looks there has been a major reorganization. A priority in the redesign was to improve navigation. The homepage has sidebars so you can see what’s new and interesting at HenCam. There is an obvious, expandable page for FAQs. The FAQ page also has a place for recipes! Events are more clearly listed, and there are pages to explain what my programs are and how to book me.

I’m very excited about adding a second blog, The Vintage Hen! I have a collection of vintage chicken-related objects and ephemera. Now I have a place to share it with you. I’ve also been working on other projects that have led me to do research on our relationship with farm animals. I’m especially interested in women’s work at the turn of the last century. I have photographs that will delight and make you think.

There’s still a lot to do. I’ve already written and posted new FAQs, but I have a list of a dozen more topics that I want to post soon. I now have two blogs to write (one might require me to go to a flea market to be inspired!) Eventually, there will also be a HenCam online store. (Which will sell, among other things, a book I’ve been working on.)

My IT Guy/husband still has lots of glitches to iron out. It’s been crunch-time these last few days. I can’t help with the computer stuff, so I made Rhubarb-Peach Pie yesterday. I’m keeping him fortified! Steve isn’t doing this alone, and there have been two professionals who have worked tirelessly to get HenCam up in it’s new incarnation. Craig, at Edge Design, did the design (and my happy dancing hen logo) and Tim at CodeBrick did the coding. They’re still working (on the west coast, or they’d be eating pie, too.) I’m still writing. Except, right now I have to get outside and weed. Somewhere around 700 people will be touring the property next Friday and Saturday for the Concord Museum Garden Tour. I have a lot to do before they come. Will you be here?

 

As you can see, I’ve been juggling a lot of projects. I am so fortunate that I have people behind me helping to see them to fruition. I hope that you enjoy what we’ve been up to!