Chicken in the Sky

Instead of ink blots, I am giving you all a Rorschach test with clouds. I see a big chicken stomping across the horizon. What do you see?

We have a conservation easement on our property that protects our 22 acres from any further development. This morning we had our Annual Monitoring Visit from the Otsego Land Trust. I planned on meeting them at the end of our driveway so that we could drive over to the far side of our land first.

They were late in showing up and that turned out to be a real gift for this snapping turtle who was slowly making his or her way across Rte 28. The speed limit is supposed to be 25 mph on our sharp bend in the road, but everyone does 55, the regular speed.

My Chicken Lady Friend Anita had pulled over to help the turtle make it across, or I never would have noticed it. I just happened to be standing out there with my big walking stick ready for my tour through the woods. I had never seen a snapper before, so I might not have been smart enough to go get a stick if I didn't already have one in my hand.

The OLT lady, May, who showed up shortly after, is from Tennessee and Mississippi. She said down South they say that once a snapper latches on, they don't let go until it thunders. Yikes...

And the last pic is from our tour of the even weedier back of our property. I thought this plant could have been Giant Hogweed, but some further investigating online says it is Angelica, a native non-invasive weed that can still cause burns like that evil hogweed. Yikes again.

Backyard musings

We have this small fenced area in the back, off the porch, where we can let the dogs out, and where I can sit and enjoy more of the view than I can see from the screened porch. It is also where I do my grilling, and I have a small flower garden (the purple irises, etc) there as well.

The Husband and I have been discussing enlarging the fenced area to include the bench and big flower pots (my snow measuring devices) outside the living room windows. We also hope to dig a nice big firepit just in front of the bench.

I have been doing my best to convince said husband that we also need a deck/patio where the fence is now. My goal is to move the 2 Weber grills (black circles) and the red table and chairs (red circles) up to the deck so that we don't have to mow around them. I will also find a better location for my big white sink that is between the grills. (Nobody but me feels the love for my big white cast iron sink/grill table). Friend Sue suggested hooking up water to it and making a little fountain/birdbath/pond feature somewhere. Something else to ponder.

After 3 attempts, I am getting closer to a final design for the deck. The sketch here includes my redbud tree (green circle) that we planted when it was just a big twig several years ago. It is suffering the same fate as the huge willow tree just to the right of it in the background, top photo. The willow had 3 main trunks, now just one. The V-shaped trunk on the redbud split after some storm damage and the bee-swarm event, and only one side leafed out in the spring. I had to remove half of the V, which was more than half the tree. The remaining trunk looks healthy enough to survive, but I am not sure.

And I thought I could maybe sneak in this pic of the elusive Husband playing guitar at the Eagle Street house of Tom and Roberta. I really like this pic of him, but he will probably make me take it down.

Don't tell him it's on here Barbara. ;)

Chicken guards and a red streak

Some folks who own small planes think it's fun to streak
the sky as the sun is going down. And when there's more
than one up there, they cross each other's trails.
Some fun, eh?

The end of June has finally provided some really gorgeous sunny warm days, perfect for sitting on the porch in the evening, watching the sun go down. It is mostly peaceful back there (see previous post) other than an occasional deer sighting that will get the dogs barking. I saw a new fawn this week, so the does are in mother-mode. They don't run off when the dogs bark, they just stare them down. So the barking goes on...and on...

I have no story to go with the big chicken pic other than it amuses me. It looks like they are defending the Kia, but really they are begging for food. The gold-laced one (front row left) is the boss hen. She gets along fine with the rooster, but everyone knows she's really the boss.

The little chickens are now regularly closing themselves up inside the coop at night. It was coincidental that they were difficult children while I was in NJ for the weekend. I tried to blame it on The Husband, because I routinely blame him for everything, but in retrospect it just took them a few days to understand where they were supposed to sleep. In the tree, in the rain, turned out not to be their best choice. Little did they know they were also in danger from the big critters out there.

They are still spending their days inside the larger chicken fence by the coop, but just yesterday I saw them out exploring in the driveway, halfway back to the house. That's where the big girls hang out, and they are ready to join the big-girl party. My little babies, all grown up!

I heart NY

So I am having a peaceful evening on the back porch, watching the sunset, having a glass of wine, cat purring in my lap, and I am thinking how much I prefer this peaceful setting to my recent hectic trip to NJ.

No traffic. No crazy rude people. No crazy rude people in traffic. No crowded parking lots. No noise other than birds singing and cats purring. Life is good. I love NY.

This one is for you, Barbara.

And then.

And this weekend is the Truck Pull, right next door. But I still love NY. :)

First baby egg?

The little chicks that I got in April through the mail were only a day or 2 old. I initially had them in a plastic bin, and then a brooder box in the basement until mid-May when I moved them outside to a large dog crate inside a fence, right next to the coop.

It's only been about a week that I let them outside their compound to roam free. For the first few nights they were happy to go back to the safety of the crate at night where I locked them up again.

Then I went to NJ. Mama was away and the kids were misbehaving. Husband called me Friday night, the day I left, and said all 9 of them were in a tree outside the coop, in the rain. And again Saturday night.

When I got back on Sunday evening, I was able to coax them into the coop and then drag the dog crate in there and lock them up. But last night after work, they were busy running away from me. >>>>>

When I went out later, in the dark, 2 gray ones were in the coop on the roost with the big girls, 7 were outside in the tree.

Little stinkers! After all I have done for them!

With much trouble I was able to get them all back in the crate, but tonight I know I will get home really late and I am pretty sure they will be in the tree again, in the rain again.

At least 9 of the 10 have survived long enough (I think) to start laying eggs. Today I found this tiny offering in the nest box with the big eggs. Pretty sure it's from one of the young uns.

Why I left New Jersey

Culture shock.

I went back to NJ this past weekend for a lovely visit with Little Sister, Little Bro, and I even had a chance to lunch with Aunt and Uncle back where I used to work in Abington, PA. Also had a short visit with my favorite renter Lisa at the old homestead on Rowland Street.

I spent most of my life in NJ and probably would have stayed forever in that old homestead until I met (for the second time) and married The Husband. Somehow we ended up here in Central NY. Having lived here for almost 10 years now, I think I forgot why I left NJ. Every time I go back, I am reminded again.

Although every inch of open space (slight exaggeration) was taken up by a road, a home, a strip mall, etc. when we left, to the point where I thought there was no room for more...there's more. New apartment complexes (so they can fit in even more people), a beautiful old house "rehabbed" and added onto to make new senior housing (see above parens), just more more more of everything, including traffic.

When I stopped before my ride back home to get some grocery-store sushi (which was very good BTW) I had to park in the next to last parking spot all the way in the back. Not really a big deal, I don't mind the walk, but seriously... Why is everyone in the grocery store on a Sunday at noon-30?

Those storm clouds disrupted my sushi picnic in the car with some serious rain, but that just reminds me of my new home, also not a big deal. The 18-minute trip from Shop Rite to the Tacony Palmyra Bridge on the other hand, only 2 or 3 miles, was a true reminder that home is where the heart is.

I am happy to be back in NY State.

Shagbark, speedwell, and special dinner

Shagbark Hickory

Hickory close-up

Germander Speedwell

When walking the dogs on our property, I have plenty of time to investigate unknown plants and trees. Woody is a very leisurely walker because Mr Hound Boy has to sniff everything. If he finds something interesting, he will circle the area repeatedly, dragging me along behind. Lately I have been taking pics to remind me to look up the mysterious ones.

We have always wondered about the huge nut tree but never bothered to look it up. As soon as I took a closer look at the tree itself, not just the nuts on the ground, the shaggy bark made for an easy guess, confirmed online with a search for Shagbark Hickory.

And we have no shortage of pretty weeds up here that I don't recognize. I assumed these little blue flowers were some weedy form of forget me not, but I just looked them up today and found out the 4-petalled flowers are speedwell—5 petals for forget me nots. As soon as the dandelions went to seed, these and the buttercups came in like crazy. First time I have seen so many pretty and happy weeds all at once.

Finally, we had dinner at The Horned Dorset in Leonardsville on Saturday night. We had a gift certificate from B&E for Tim's birthday that we held onto until my birthday so we could celebrate together. It was worth the wait, and worth every penny (and that was LOTS of pennies). Beautiful place, beautiful food, beautiful evening.

Asparagus vichyssoise with shrimp

Veal medallions with fried local egg and foie gras