Chicken Run
After attending a training session this morning, I came home to work on the chicken run some more.  My chicken population is still under attack by some "fowl"  serial killer.  We're thinking now it's probably a raccoon.  On Monday after school I spent some time tightening up the hen house and putting the electronet back up around it.  The net won't keep the chickens in because they can almost all fly over it, but I am hoping it will keep the killer out. Right now it isn't even electrified, but I do plan adding a charger as soon as I can.

Today I made the chickens a run so they don't have to be cooped up all the time. ( I had to drive six fence posts--pumpin' iron, farm-girl style!)  This is the first of probably three runs which I will attach around the coop.  That way I will be able to rotate them from run to run by opening and closing the pop doors.  It's a far cry from truly being free-range like they were, but on the other hand, they very possibly get to see more of the outdoors than those labeled "free range" in the grocery store.  (The label "free range" means only that the chickens have to have some access to an outside yard, not that they ever actually figure out how to get out there.  "Cage Free" just means that they are not kept in battery style cages, but they are still raised inside. Just FYI.)

I took pictures while I was out there:

"Whatcha Doin'?" 

Farm Girl Weight Machine

Checkin' Out the new Digs

A Good Afternoon's Work

Local Old Timers say that when a snow lies around like this one has, it's waiting on another one.

Snow and other Gifts
Just so you know, I do have other things to write about.  I've been reading Wendell Berry, Charles Spurgeon , and a new writer I just discovered who is as deep and fresh as well, snow. With this eclectic group presently residing in my head, I am not at a loss for topics.
But they will have to wait for another day. I seem to be stuck, metaphorically and actually, in the snow.  Every phase of it-falling, sticking, melting, refreezing, drifting, sparkling- has had a mesmerizing quality to me.  I'd like to be blase about it, maybe complain about it a little, but I just can't.  And apparently I can't stop writing about it either. 
I have been trying to incorporate a little exercise into my daily trip to the barn.  Walking up and down the hill is always a bit of a challenge.  Walking in snow over my boots wearing heavy snow pants and a thick sweater has to qualify as actual exercise, so after chores I decided walk around the north end of the pasture to
check the fence and get in my 30 minutes. 
The fence is a mess. Hardly a fence at all, and it is on "the list" of things that have to be done "when the snow melts".  But I soon forget the sad state of the fence, lost in the maze of rabbit and deer tracks that cross through the pasture's edges.  Can we possibly have that many rabbits?  I notice that now in some places on south sloping hills, when I step I am actually pressing clean through to bare ground. The snow is melting.
The air is crystal clear and the sky is a surreal blue.  I stop, plop down in a snowbank in the pines and just breathe it in.  Tiny flakes of snow are falling out of the trees and sifting to the ground.  On the way down, the  sun is catching each one, turning them to diamonds.  Breathtaking. I am mesmerized again.
But I can't sit in the snow forever, and eventually I get up and for some reason it seems right that I should hike back up to the house via the north trail through the woods.  Crossing out of the fence I come into a little clearing that is still completely unmarked, no tracks of any kind.  It seems almost like desecration to cross it, but I must. Further on, more rabbit and deer tracks cross back and forth across the steep hill, smarter than I am--I am trying to go straight up it.  Along this north-facing trail through thick woods very little snow has melted.  As the treads of my boots fill with packed snow, I lose traction, slip, slide back, grab onto low limbs, pull myself along.  I make the last ten yards to the house on hands and knees, breathless.  This definitely qualifies as exercise. I reach the warmth of the house, shucking boots and snow pants in the mud room, enjoying a sense of accomplishment.  It was good to be out among the snow and sun and pines. 

And Still It Snows...
Out of school again today due to weather...no surprise there.  The main roads are clear but every little hollow and hill in the mountains has its own private road and those are still, as I understand it, impassable.  I know ours is still snow-covered.
After a relatively warm (it got up to 34) day yesterday, temps dropped to the teens last night and today it hasn't been out of the twenties.  The result it that some places that had managed to melt yesterday are now frozen solid and everywhere the snow has  a layer of crunchy ice on top.  When I walked down to the barn today, I enjoyed the sensation of breaking through the crust with every step.  Underneath, the snow is no longer snowball-making consistency, but has frozen into a fine powder that won't stick together at all. 
The birds have been very active at the feeders today so I know it must be getting difficult for them to find anything else to eat out there. I've seen thirty or so at time at the feeders today with more stationed nearby in the trees.

No Need to Knead

The no-knead, dutch oven bread is out of the oven, while there are a few things I will have to tweak, all in all it is a very good loaf of artisan-type bread.  The dutch oven method does indeed give it that desirable crunchy crust and soft inside that is hard to achieve in a regular pan. It has a more rustic texture than my "everyday" whole wheat loaf, and the long rise time gives it a slightly sourdough flavor.  Also, there is no sugar or sweetener of any kind in the recipe--very simple, basic ingredients that you probably have on your shelf right now.  If you want to give it a try, you can find the recipe here. 
Now for a confession:  the recipe says that you should let it cool for at least an hour before cutting.  An hour?  Really?  You have got to be kidding.  Everyone knows bread is best warm right out of the oven, right?  So no, of course I didn't wait.  I sliced off the end, spread on a little butter and ate it for lunch.  And then I had another piece.  And right now I am fighting the temptation to have yet another.   I wonder if my husband remembers that I was baking bread today.  Would he notice if there was none here when he gets back home?  Bread? What bread?  :-)
Meanwhile, the temp has dropped a little, the drip-drip-dripping from the eaves has slowed down and it is snowing again.  More bread anyone?

Embracing The Snow

 We woke up this morning to another foot or so of snow, and immediately there was a decision to be made.  I could (A) fret about the fact that we would now miss several more days of school that will have to be made up, OR I could (B) just embrace the snow: the beauty of it, the novelty of it after so many years without a lot of snow, the coziness of a snow day, the fact that snow adds moisture and minerals to the soil in ways that rain does not.
I chose "B".
So today I have put a big pot roast in the oven, filled up all water containers and the bathtub in case we were to lose power,which thankfully has not happened yet, fed the birds, worked on my blog--see even my blog is embracing the snow--and did step one of a no knead bread recipe I am trying out.
In a little while I will walk, or maybe slide, down to the barn to feed the animals.  And my other big plans are to re-season my dutch oven and maybe try to make a cover for my new kindle.  So, I will keep busy.  And the snow is really beautiful.

Uh oh.  The Seed Catalogs ...   

are starting to arrive, and that is a problem because, you see, I am an addict.  Basically, I want one of everything--every bright flower, every juicy tomato, every green, crunchy lettuce.  The irony of that is that with only two of us to feed, my garden is teeny tiny.  But I am enamored with seeds just the same.  All that life and beauty and potential packed into nifty little envelopes.   Who can resist...especially on a day like today that is so chilly and gray and damp?   I think I will brew a cup of coffee after dinner, curl up somewhere and start planning the spring garden.

Back To The Grind

Long before the USDA started advising all of us to "eat half our grains whole", we began hearing about the benefits of homemade whole wheat bread, especially bread made from freshly ground grain.   Convinced, we bought a grain mill and have been baking most of our own (and a few friends') bread ever since. 
The flavor of this bread is nutty and complex, and of course it fills the house with a heavenly aroma.   All whole wheat bread is high in fiber, but the freshly ground flour also retains more of the wheat's orginal nutrition.  With all the holiday baking I hadn't made any of our basic bread in weeks.  This is our first loaf in awhile and it is calling my name! 

If you'd like to read more about white versus wheat and the value of freshly milled flours, check out the informative articles at Breadbeckers.com.

Taking Back the House

I love the holidays.  I love decorating the house, cooking the foods, enjoying friends and family, being on my own schedule.  BUT  strangely I also love the day we take down the tree, put away the decorations,  get rid of  whatever is left of cookies and rich food and prepare to return to normalcy.  Today was that day.With  everyone helping we had it done by early afternoon. 

We have had a wonderful Christmas break, prolonged for me by all the snow before Christmas, but this evening I am craving my routine, looking forward to getting back to the TLC! kitchen, back on a saner eating plan,  back to some regular exercise and back out of my "fat pants". (  Celebratory foods are a wonderful aspect of food traditions, and my family embraces them...I think the problem for me is that the celebration goes on a little too long.)
So back to school tomorrow.  I will bet the kids are ready and I know the parents are. ( I remember. ) Looks like we have several days of more moderate temperatures ahead and some sun. What a great way to start the year.

Once the Christmas decorations are down, out come the snowmen at our house.   This little guy is from the Ukraine.

"Further Up and Further In"

I woke up this New Year's morning with rain pounding on my roof and this quote from C.S. Lewis echoing in my head.  Since I went to sleep last night in the middle of a prayer (yes, it happens all time) for the new year, I don't think the words are random.  I had to look up the exact context to refresh my memory, but in The Last Battle  Aslan encourages Peter and the others to go "further up and further in" and experience the "real" Narnia and his presence in a new way. 
As I stand at the entrance to 2011, I find that though making plans and setting goals is all well and good,  what I really want for this year is to move further up and further in to my relationship with the Lord.  Now, I have no idea of the specifics of the journey He has planned, but I have walked with Him long enough to be absolutely sure of a few things. I know that it will be surprising, and delightful, and maybe sometimes terrifying.  I know that He will go with me every step, and that if I cooperate, at the end of the year I will know Him better , know myself better and be better equipped to handle the next stage of the adventure.

For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.
Jeremiah 29:11

Save the Chickens

Our poor chickens have been under attack since the weekend of Thanksgiving.  I started out with 40 or so in early fall and today I counted 20, 18 hens and 2 roosters.  Back in late summer we had to put our livestock guardian dog down. I guess I didn't truly appreciate all that Lance did to protect the flock, but I am beginning to get it.  Predation is worse in winter anyway, and apparently something or several somethings are treating our unguarded, free-range flock as its own private buffet. 

I do think part of the losses are from aerial predators.  We have seen hawks about, both red tails and chicken hawks.  And we hear owls.  We have also seen fox, coyote, raccoon and bobcat in the area at times not to mention domestic dogs and cats, so there is no shortage of predators around.

So yesterday when I found yet another clump of owner-less feathers in the snow, I decided enough was enough.  I inventoried what we had around to work with and came up with a plan to quickly attach a run to the hen house.  I firmly believe that chickens allowed to really free range are healthier and produce better eggs, but I guess they would prefer confinement to a house and run rather than say, being dead. 

First I cleaned the bedding out of the house, put it in the composter and replaced it with clean.  I usually use recycled paper shreds from the school for bedding, but this time I used some very old hay that had been stored in the barn too long to be any good for feed.  Next I used a section of our portable electric fence to make the run.  It was difficult to stick the posts in the frozen ground, but doable.  I doubled the fence around twice because it was too long and I didn't want to cut it.  I figured double fencing couldn't hurt anyhow.  Finally, I stretched bird netting tightly over the run and attached it to the fence with cable ties.  Last time I tried the poultry net fencing, my chickens just flew right over it any time they felt like it, so hopefully the top netting will keep them in as well as "death from above" out.



I managed to persuade most of the chickens that this was a good idea.  I still have four renegade hens to capture somehow, but that is a job for another day.

The horses were extremely curious about this new arrangement and were totally in the way during the whole project.  They are inspecting the finished project in the photo above.



A view from about halfway up the hill.  Still plenty of snow here, but it is starting to melt.



Deep and Crisp and Even...

We had snow here on Christmas, and the day after that, and all night last night.  In fact it was still snowing this morning, but it has now finally stopped. We measured 9 inches total.  The sun is out now and the whiteness of it is dazzling.

Christmas Week


The shopping is done, the presents are wrapped. This week is about cooking the foods that have become traditional in our family, enjoying the season together and taking time to reflect on the real significance of the holiday. I thought I'd share a few photos.

Our Tree

The Mantel is Dressed in a Woodland Theme this year

My Santa Collection

A December Sunset from our Porch

Season's Greetings From

Pleasant Places Farm

Gloria Dei Y'all
I think I will spend today unashamedly in my pajamas.  Around noon I have to get ready to go out into the real world, but until then, I am here by my fire and my Christmas tree trying to think great thoughts and trying not to see that the floor needs vacuuming.
In truth, I am not much of a great thought thinker. I have friends who are and their blogs sort of make me envious.  But no, while I occasionally have flashes of profundity, I am mostly a do-er.  My thoughts tend to run more toward the everyday-- how to keep the goats in the fence or stretch a food budget.  And the only thing that is profound about me today is the profound sense of gratitude to God that I feel sitting here warm and dry by the fire, my every need met, my family intact, my land stretching out below me.
Today started out under a sheet of ice but a relatively warm rain is finally melting the frozen stuff away and Pleasant Places is wrapped in a thick, foggy blanket.  Another few months, weeks even, of this and I may be planning a trip to the Keys, but for now it is pleasant to sit and listen to the rain hit the metal roof of the back porch, the slightly damp logs hiss in the fireplace and the clock tick in the back room. 
I was thinking last night about the fact that probably few if any read this blog.  Pretty sure even my own mom and my husband don't read it.  But I decided that was OK.  Some things are worth doing whether anyone else takes notice or not.  I have tried to live by that principle, so I will write by it as well.  Some things you do for yourself and because God grants you the ability to do it.  You do it because it expresses who you are and that brings glory to Him as your creator.
At various times in my past I have tried patterning myself after those I admire.  And I have tried working to please others and live up their expectations. Mostly, it doesn't work and  even when I do seem to pull it off, it leaves me exhausted.  Thankfully, in recent years  I have begun to receive from the Lord the exquisite grace to just be myself.  I serve Him best and others best by just being my best self.  That's pretty freeing.

Day 3...
One snow day is awesome.  It's unplanned, a gift.  I feel perfectly justified in spending it however I choose.  Two days, well, I start looking around for work to do.  Yesterday I made up the school menus for January, cleaned a bathroom, wrapped up some more presents, stacked in some more firewood...it was productive.  But day 3, while not exactly unwelcome, begins to feel a little confining.  I literally can't get out because my husband has to take the four wheel drive truck to get to his job which for some reason never takes a snow day.  So I plot a course to make the most of this third day: write blog, an hour or so of yoga (I used the first two snow days as an excuse to skip the exercise and I am beginning to feel it), bake some bread, more firewood...well, we'll see how that all goes.
Yesterday was one of those beautiful, frigidly crystalline days.  The sky was as clear and blue as I have seen it.  And while it wasn't warm, I think it got up to freezing only very briefly, it wasn't so windy.  The power of the sun interests me on such days.  It marks it's territory on every southern facing slope, scratching off the snow.  I walked down to the southern end of the pasture to check and make sure our spring wasn't freezing over , and I could feel the temperature rise. 
The temperatures quickly fell back into the teens yesterday evening though and very little of the snow actually melted.  DH says the secondary roads are still quite icy and our neighbor slid off of our road twice yesterday evening trying to get up it.  So I do understand why there is no school yet again today.
Today, the sky is gray and heavy looking again as we brace for another round of weather; freezing rain is predicted this time. If that hits then we may be out again tomorrow, and at that point I say, why bother?  Christmas vacation starts Friday afternoon.
I don't see Charlie Cat this morning.  Yesterday he was outside the door when I got up waiting to take his place beside the fire I had just built.  I tried to keep the cats in on Monday night when it was coldest and windiest, but they weren't cooperative at all and had to be put out.  I left the shed open for them and I think L.B. has been sleeping in there but not Charlie.  Charlie probably went back down to the barn to sleep in the hay, but I would feel better if I saw him and knew he was safe.
The horses are a lot more active since the addition of Domingo.  They were up here at the top of the pasture this morning.  How beautiful they look against the snow.  They seem to be enjoying the cold weather.
Looks like the fire needs feeding and I should get a move on "the plan" for today.

First Snow!

It started snowing yesterday morning and by afternoon was beginning to accumulate. By nightfall, the wind was howling and driving the snow against the house like a real blizzard. We awoke this morning to about five inches of the white stuff, the powdery, squeaky kind. It is still snowing now , off and on.

I got up the courage to suit up and head to the barn around 11, worried about the animals in the cold. The constant battle in these temps is keeping water available. The horses have a de-icer in their bucket, but the chickens, mostly huddled in their house, were out of water. I refilled, gathered the eggs and quickly made my way up the hill in the driving snow.

Charlie, one of the cats, insisted that the barn was not warm enough and accompanied me up the hill. He whined all the way, belly dragging the snow. I guess I'd whine too.

I know five inches of snow to a lot of folks is nothing, but here in the south snow is always an event. And this much in December is unheard of. Schools are closed today and they may well be tomorrow. It's not that we don't know how to drive in it, it's that we choose not to. Much nicer to declare an impromptu holiday and sit around the fire drinking coffee and catching up on pleasant tasks. There's a sort of license that goes with snow days to do things normally frowned upon. Right now I am sitting around in furry house booties and purple long johns wondering if I could pass them off as leggings should anyone be brave enough to venture up the driveway. And I am thinking how very many simple blessings I enjoy--a warm house and clothes, a crackling fire, a sparkling Christmas tree and a snow-covered mountain farm.

Autumn Egg Hunt



The pullets I bought in mid-April, around the time of my last post (for shame), should be laying... I say should because they are not, or at least not where I can find the eggs. Oh, one or two of them is dropping me a token egg in the nest every couple of days, but I have 30 plus hens, for heaven's sake, I should be rolling in eggs.


Where are they laying? I have looked all over the wooded areas they frequent, climbed high up on the hay in the barn, checked every likely spot. Nothin'. Supposedly, hens like to lay in nests where there are already eggs. I don't know who asked the hens about this, but I thought it was worth a try. I put ceramic eggs in the nests that look so much like the real thing I had to mark them so I wouldn't pick them up by mistake. I think the only one being fooled here is me.


Meanwhile, these girls are eating me out of house and home.


Here are a couple of the pics of the slackers,







This one below I believe is a Hamburg. Isn't she pretty? Now if only she'd lay an egg.

A cold rain is falling on Pleasant Places, and I am trying to remember which poet it was that wrote "April is the cruelest month..." I should know that. After all, I was an English major, but that was years ago. Anyway, there is a frost warning tonight and I fear for my tomatoes. Surely it won't be cold enough to hurt the tiny baby peaches. I am so looking forward to those peaches.
Cold rain or no, I took a few minutes to walk through the woods today. "Checking the fence" I told myself, which is absolutely unnecessary as there is nothing in the pasture at the moment that requires a fence. Dutifully, I removed sticks and pulled a few encroaching vines, but mostly I looked at the wealth of wildflowers that grow on our wooded slopes: mayapple, solomons seal-real and false, many kinds of trillium, toadshade-which is blooming now, ladyslipper (I think, but it isn't blooming yet), some kind of lily with strappy foliage. and on down into the fields I find violets, buttercups, wild strawberry and barren strawberry and more. All poised to start the spring show...if only this cold rain will let up and the sun will come out again.
Sunday we finished fixing the barn so the chickens can't get in and roost in the rafters. They make such a mess below and they do have their own house after all. The night we finished I stayed down there awhile and watched some of them determinedly inspect every square inch of our work trying to find a weak spot. My persistence gave out before theirs and I went to the house before they went to roost. Today when I went down two hens were in there. One sat on a bale of hay where they like to lay and one perched on the top of the stall. I ran them out and walked around yet again looking for their way in. I plugged a few places under walls, and then took my fence walk and when I got back...there she was again, sitting smugly on her nest. I think that hens are a great deal more intelligent than we have been lead to believe.

Spring Break...
And the gardening season has started in earnest. Mother Nature is apologizing for that long, cold winter with one of those all-at-once, exuberant springs. It feels like if I blink I miss something blooming or leafing or out. Almost all the trees have tiny, bright green leaves now, and in the garden the lettuce and spinach has pretty much just jumped out of the ground this week. We even ate a little of it and some radishes and arugula this week. Tastes like spring. I am so convinced it is really and truly spring that I went ahead and put out the tomatoes and peppers and planted the corn and beans.
But I almost forgot the biggest news...the chicks arrived Monday. Twenty six little peeps. Layers in waiting. I picked them up at the Post Office Monday morning. They spent the first few days inside in a box, but today I put them out in the brooder in the garden. They seemed happy with the arrangement, though it is hard to regulate the temperature. On warm sunny days like today it can get too hot in there and I spent a lot of today trying out various propping and shading arrangements.

Ah, spring...we hope. After roaring in with snow and frigid temps we are finally seeing the softer side of March. Of course, early spring is nothing if not treacherous, promising so much one day and then retreating back into winter again.
But today felt like spring. Yes, it was cloudy and rainy, but it wasn't cold. A few days ago I planted squares of lettuce, spinach, chard and carrots in the raised beds. This afternoon I put in a few new strawberries (tristar, everbearing) and some Martha Washington asparagus. I have to say the asparagus crowns really didn't look alive and I will surprised if they sprout, but I have been surprised by dormant plants before. I bought the asparagus and strawberries in a box along with onion sets and two types of potatoes at Lowes. It was a good deal, if they make it. I also started some peppers and basil indoors today. I would have started tomatoes but could only find seed for so such common varieties that i will do just as well to buy the plants in another month or so.
While I planted I heard peepers and other frogs down at the spring. A good sign. The crocus are all blooming wonderfully, all colors now and the buds on the daffodils are fat and ready to burst open if the mild weather continues. As I worked and walked around this afternoon I got that familiar "so much to do" feeling that always hits me in the spring. I know I need to prioritize because there is simply no getting it all done.

More Snow...
Fell on Pleasant Places this weekend. It started Friday afternoon--huge, wet flakes that covered quickly and hung on every twig. It was beautiful. I have not seen it snow like that in many years. We got about four inches before it turned into a wintry mix that night, into rain most of Saturday and then back to flurries yesterday around dusk.
We still have some snow around and it is colder today, but the sun just popped through. When I stand in it I can feel that it's intensity is gaining ground as the days grow longer. And there are other harbingers of spring. The chickens have begun to give us a few eggs every day and seem to be generally more active. Bulb foliage is peaking up through the snow and wet mulch in my flower beds and the birds are much more vocal and active as well. We are seeing more possums out and about--unfortunately we know this because of their unsuccessful attempts at road crossing. Soon we may see ( or smell) skunks, later peepers, finally hoot owls. That is the rhythm of the progressing season. But, in the meantime, tomorrow is only February 1. We will have more raw, cold weather. Even in the midst of spring, winter will attempt several last stands. Eventually, spring and warmth will win. I look forward to that season, but right now I plan to enjoy this one with a cup of hot coffee beside a fire.