Pictures! Ready, set…. GO!
This flower actually exists. It has graciously decided to bloom right outside my front door, so I can see it every time I go in or out of the house. I love flowers that look made up.
Meet Crouton. He came with the name. We have a rooster that came with a name because we seem to be in the habit of taking on unwanted farm friends. I offered to bring Crouton home for dinner (he was a gag anniversary gift) since we are never ones to turn down a free meal. He arrived, was let out of his box, and ran immediately over to the first hen in sight and shagged her. He took to his rooster duties like he’d been a Poultry Sugar Daddy all his life. Crouton keeps all the girls in a group when they’re out wandering. If one wanders off too far, he runs over to her, yells in her face and herds her back to safety. He watches over them while they lay their eggs. And he helps them forage the tastiest of foodstuffs. Like my flipping peppers, which they have all but decimated.
One mile sandwich. Bread: Biodynamic spelt/rye loaf, grains hand ground the day before baking, made by a neighbour. Summer sausage: Longhorn beef raised by a neighbour and packed by the butcher at the end of our road. Tomato: grown by Amish neighbour with green house. Cheese: sheep’s milk cheddar from an organic neighbour’s flock, made by me in my kitchen and aged in my cheese cave. (Laundry room).
A boy and his Wambie. (Bob can’t pronounce his Ls). Bob never had a ‘lovey’ until a few months ago when his sister was given a stuffed Lambie at a dinner party. Bob embraced Lambie and the two are inseperable around the house. Wambie gets tucked into the cave (covers) at night and gets tractor rides. Wambie needs a bath but Bob is insisting sheep don’t like water.
Bob is an expert chicken catcher. The hens seem to let him catch them, but he actually does a great job of catching the meat birds when they escape.
And that’s it for pictures. Our company just left yesterday. Tim from NYC and Charmaine from Philly. It was great to see friends. Meeps passport arrived not long ago, so I am hoping to be able to have a little girls adventure and visit them both soon.
On the HEPA tip, Mags is in her 6th week of sickness. We all are really, but she’s the worst. She sounds like she’s drowning in goo, her breathing is rattly, she wheezes, she has opaque snot, she coughs till she barfs regularly and her cough keeps her (and us) up all night. We had gotten ABX injections for her (after sitting in the ER with her on our anniversary and the infant chest Xray insanity). They didn’t do a thing. So yesterday I bought a HEPA filter from Canadian Tire. I figured why not try. If it doesn’t seem to help her breathing at night, I’ll return it. WELL. Minus one dry coughing fit at 4am, her breathing was perfect. No drowing in goo, no rattling, no wheezing, no snot filled nose.
While it’s a raging success, I’ve now got to solve the “irritant” problem. Part of me thinks it might be seasonal, since she had mad upper airway noises after she was born until winter. Part of me thinks it might just be dust, because we have a packed bookshelf in our room that does nothing but collect it. Part of me wonders if we have mould because every time I lay down in our bed I smell something that catches my throat (that nobody else smells) that I only smell in our room. We’ve had some water problems with this place (to say the least) so mould is a definite possibility. I just have to find out how one goes about TESTING for the stuff, since there’s no obvious evidence. I sincerely hope this doesn’t get too messy….
*Edit to add, we have been outside running errands, went to the beach and the park, hung out with the neighbour breifly and Meeps is back to her normal gargling, gross sounding self. Seasonal allergies, perhaps?
That flower looks like Dr. Seuss snuck onto your property and left it there. With the dry shitty cough (croup) I put my kids in a nice hot shower and let the moisture into their lungs. It helps. And popsicles are a good way to ease their wee throats in those rough times. Homemade popsicles are easy. You may need to contact the ministry to test for mould but I’m not sure. I know when we got our water tested we had to go through the ministry…….And I am deeply sorry about your pepper plants.
I remember the first time i saw a flower like that. this one was called a passion flower and it was definitely otherworldly. you should google one and see it! i think you can buy mould test kits at hardware stores. its just you have to put a hole or two in your wall where you think its coming from.
I think if you contact someone who can test air quality it would be a good place to start. Because if it’s mold spores affecting Maggie you could have them detected through an air quality test. Just a thought
hope she feels better.
That sandwich looks awesome.
do you have to keep the meat birds away from the egg birds?
regarding the allergy stuff-have you tried eliminating polyester and synthetic fabrics? Freya has an allergy to synthetics and exposure gives her breathing issues and wheezing. Also, I would try to see if there is a chiropractor/acupuncturist out there (mine is a combo-she does both low force chiropractic and accunpuncture) i have friends having their son treated for allergy elimination, and it works wonders-my husband is going to try it as soon as we have more cash for drs.
The meat birds are in a large, Salatin style chicken tractor. So the hens do go visit sometimes, but they don’t get much physical contact.
Are those hens RIR’s?
I finally built a tractor of sorts and now have 6 RIR pullets.
Every day they seem to double in size now. It’s been fun seeing the girls interact with them. Unfortunately they’ve both decided chickens are now off their menu.
looks like you guys are having amazing weather!
what finally helped zoe’s allergies/snoring/asthma/wheezing/rashes was:
- moving out of our mold infested apartment
- moving out of smoggy so cal
- getting rid of wall to wall carpeting in our new house
- getting rid of her conventional mattress/bedding and replacing it with latex and wool <– this BY FAR helped the most!
What a *GEORGEOUS* rooster.
How is Puppers feeling about him?
aw. wonderful photos of the little one with chickens. chickens are so wonderful. when i was a child mine followed me around to be picked up because i loved them so much. it’s great seeing a kid showing chicken appreciation!!
What type of flower is that? I MUST know!
Your sandwich is very similar to my all time favorite, tho much more local. I’m sure this will change as we meet more and more of our farm neighbors.
Tim rocked your new tattoo. I’m swooning over it. I’ve had the tattoo “itch” for what seems like forever now. Oh, so very envious!
You can pick up mold swabs and strips at some hardware stores or order some online. Check around things like window sills- if your mattress absorbed anything, I wouldn’t really know how to go about checking for it other than by eye and replacements are always a kick in the ass. Would you be able to have Meeps checked for allergies?
Woo chicken appreciation!
It’s just hen & chicks!
Definitely going to try to get Meeps allergy checked with our GP. I am sure that’ll be another 6 months, but I’ll do it just the same.
Dianne – Puppers chases the rooster like he does the chickens. Pups ran right up to Crouton when he came, and Crouton won. Pups pays respect.
I bet that was one tasty sandwich. My Uncle has been talking about doing the locavore challenge for awhile, it seems like Ontario is the place to do it.
I loved the pictures! Your rooster is so beautiful in a manly sort of way! I miss having chickens and roosters!
How is Meeps doing? I hope that the HEPA filter thing will help, sounds like your having a horrible time of things with her being so plugged up! I hope she gets better soon and that your able to find the root to her stuffy problems!
~M~