True and Enduring Love in its Purest Form

In honour of my Mom and Dad's 54th wedding anniversary today, I share a tale of unwavering love....

It has been quite some time since either of us have posted. It has been crazy around here, to say the least. Besides the added responsibility of our new flock, Farmer Mac building his veg gardens, we have another home to maintain the landscaping with 7 additional garden spaces. Since we have a small fortune in plants there, we have been making the trek there and digging out plants there to transplant at our new home. Needless to say, we are both exhausted and could use a week of solid rain just so we don't have to go outside and work. Anyway, that is my story for the lack of blogging and I am sticking to it. Let's get on with the show.

On a daily basis, my friends Itchy, Scratchy and I will banter back and forth by email about any given topic. It may start with something silly one of us have done (none of us have ever been accused of being highly coordinated....well, Scratchy is much more stable on her feet than Itchy and myself) that day and the other two will run with it.  It may be an article one of us stumbles upon and the barbs start.  Or, as in this case, it all started with one of this viral email jokes.

A few days back, I opened my inbox to find this joke entitled:

 "MARITAL LOVE".

 "A group of women were at a seminar the subject discussed was 'How to live in a loving relationship with your husband'.

The women were asked, "How many of you love your husband?"

ALL the women raised their hands.

Then they were asked, "When was the last time you told your husband
you loved him?"
Some women answered today, some yesterday, some couldn't remember.
 
The women were then told to take out their mobile phones and text their husband: "I love you, sweetheart."

The women were then told to exchange phones and to read aloud the text message responses.

Here are some of the replies:

1. Who is this?
2. Eh, mother of my children, are you sick?
3. I love you too.
4. What now? Did you crash the car again?
5. I don't understand what you mean?
6. What did you do now?
7. ?!?
8. Don't beat around the bush, just tell me how much you need?
9. Am I dreaming?
10. If you don't tell me who this message is actually for, someone will die.
11. I thought we agreed we would not drink during the day.
12. Your mother is coming to stay, isn't she??

After a few giggles, definitely out loud, I advised my Twisted Sisters, "

I'm gonna try this on Farmer Mac. Not now though, because he  is sitting next to me."

 

"Do it!" was the only encouragement that I needed from Scratchy.

 

Itchy noted that her other half, Deli-J said 'if he got a message like that from me he'd know I was bringing home another un-loved cat or dog.  And, he'd be fine with that."

 

I needed to wait until the ideal opportunity presented itself before I put our love to the test.  The next day I was having some quality time with all of my technology while Farmer Mac was hard at it, doing the people's work so I figured what better time.

I typed in "I love you, Babe", hit send and sat back and waited. Without hesitation, farmer Mac replied, "I luv you too!"  I immediately sent Itchy and Scratchy the update.

 

"Well ladies, I did it. His reply, sorry to disappoint on the humor side, "I luv u too". At least we know he's a romantic sucker!"

 

Scratchy commented, "Perhaps it's a good thing Neon Dave and I don't text."

 So while there was no comic relief provided at the expense of one of our significant others that day, it definitely warmed my heart to know that my Farmer Mac is still hopeless romantic.  Or is he?

 As I mentioned earlier the Soul Patch Farm has been a bustle of activity. The day following the Marital Love debacle was no different. I decided to tackle a flower bed in the front yard. I had at least a half dozen shrubs to plant and another half dozen perennials. For those of you who love to garden you know it's never simple as digging 12 holes and planting 12 plants.  For every plants you add, you have five others that need to be dug out and relocated.  In this case, I needed to dig out a very well established patch of generic orange day lilies.  I'm estimating the patch to be about 5 feet by 3 feet.  At the same time, Farmer Mac decided to tidy the garage a wee bit.  He moved the lawn mower and his motorcycle out into the driveway.  Between being in the shade of the garage, breathing in the fresh cool air caused by the cross breeze with all of the doors and windows open, drinking limonatas, eating popsicles and taking copious smoke breaks -  I think he swept the floor.  He was but a few steps from me and I KNOW he was just standing back and watching the show.

 

With the temperature hovering in the high 20s and the humidity making it feel like the high 30s , at the peak of the day the sun was beating down on my back and I was a dripping mess, covered in bug bites and red dirt. You see, it's a losing battle around here. The ground is bone dry and dusty.  The mosquitoes are plentiful and overly thirsty. Every blood sucker that bit me, I hit myself with a red dusty garden glove. The dirt in turn stuck to my clothes and sweat-soaked body. My glasses were fogged from my own sweat so I would constantly lift my shirt, flashing the neighbours I'm sure, to wipe the sweat from my eyes and face only to transfer the dirt from my shirt to my face and my glasses.

 

I was about ready to give up, but I thought to myself, surely he is going to offer to give me a hand.  So, the more I dug, the louder I grunted.  With the start of each new plant, I would let out a heartbreaking sigh.  I made a spectacle of myself stretching my aching back.  Nothing! All of these tactics usually work.  Not this time.   As the sun got hotter, I could feel my skin begin to burn.  The shoveling seemed to be getting more difficult and each plant I pulled seemed to be heavier than the last.  I glanced at my husband with disgust as the sweat rolled down my forehead into my eyes - blinding me, yet again and stinging from the salt. What the hell!  Where was my chivalrous knight in shining armour when I truly needed him.

 

A moment later, just as I was about to break, I looked up and saw him walking toward me with a plush towel and his most gorgeous smile. He had that twinkle in his eye. You know the one....a little devious, "I've had enough laughs for the day, time to come to your rescue" or better yet, "I really love you.  I'm so proud of  how hard you work to make our house a home."  I had that fluttery feeling in my chest.  What a man I have.  He's coming to wipe away my sweat-filled face and take over the shovelling. Except he didn't.  He walked right past me with that big goofy grin and headed straight toward his motorcycle, wiped her down and announced, "I'll be back in a few minutes. I'm just going for a ride around the block", and he was gone.

 

I stood there for a few minutes, aghast.  For real?  Once I picked my chin up off the ground, I made my way into the garage, and pulled a used and abused dirty old rag out of the car washing bucket and mopped my own brow.  He was none the wiser.

 Romantic?  I did say hopeless, right?

Update. Weeks 3, 4 and 5.

I apologize to you all. I have been very remiss in my blogging. I believe it's been 3 weeks since I last posted (sounds like I'm in the confessional!). What this should tell you all is that we have been VERY busy. The last few weeks have just flown by, and I found that at days end I was just too tired to fire up the laptop.

There's just too much that happened in the last few weeks to attempt to cover it all in writing. I will highlight a few of the more important events.

CHICKS

In a few words: THE GIRLS ARE HUGE! 

The girls are mostly all feathered out and rapidly outgrew the brooder. Trixie and Lola have full combs and wattles. We had been taking the girls outside to the run on nice days (few and far between in the last few weeks as any Islander will tell you) while I continued work on the coop. I hated having to put them back in the brooder as you could tell they love being outside.

We also had a chicken health emergency. A couple of weeks ago we noticed that Ginger was lethargic and just not her usually chicken self. After a little research we found that she was likely stricken with Coccidiosis. Cocci is a bacteria that is common in all livestock, but in chickens the bacteria can multiply very quickly and cause death if left unchecked. Of course all emergencies happen on the weekend. So after a call to the on-call vet we managed to get some med's. We treated all the girls for if one has it they all will get it. I'm proud to say we managed our first emergency well and all the girls are specimens of chicken health.

The Scratch Pad is mostly complete and in place. I have couple of things left to do but for now it is secure and I like the look. The girls moved in this week. They still haven't learned to put themselves to bed at night which means that I'm loading up chickens at 10 pm and putting them in. ("Scratch" that!!!. Last night the girls put themselves to bed on their own. I'm a proud chicken papa!!!.) I'm hopeful that in the next few days they get the hang of it. Of course it's dark at night, and without light they squawk like mad for the first 10 minutes, but then settle down and fall right to sleep. They sleep in one big pile in one corner of the coop. Dummies!!!

FROM THIS.......

AND THIS......

TO THIS....

AND THIS.....

POPPY. YIKES, THAT'S SOME HAIR!!!!

TRIXIE.

LOLA.

POPPY.

WHAT A BUNCH OF TURKEYS! LOLA, GINGER, CINNAMON AND TRIXIE.

HMMM...I WONDER WHAT THESE TWO ARE THINKING?

So as you can see I still have to install the roosts and nesting box, but the girls are quite content in their new home.

GARDENS

With all the other activity going on around here the gardens have been somewhat neglected, at least by me. 

I removed the sod and tilled in the garden. Some tomatoes, corn, beets and a few flowers have been planted. As mentioned, our weather has been the sh*ts lately and only recently has it turned around. I think I shocked the tomatoes by planting them on a nice day but they are slowly starting to grow. I've got some beet and corn shoots finally starting to show. I managed to plant some lettuce, onions, swiss chard, kale, zucchini, beans and cukes in the 2 raised beds. Again, just starting to see some growth. I'm almost embarrassed to post the pictures as the veg. gardens look very pitiful but.....

My lovely farmhand has "flown the coop" for a few weeks to visit family and friends, but before leaving she managed to clean up all the beds and get some new flowers started. The beds are starting to fill in nicely. She and her BFF's, Itchy and Scratchy, have visited almost every garden center and nursery this side of Summerside, and I'm certain that they are all complicit in some "plant crimes".

Well, folks. This farmer is tired and the final hockey game is on. Go Blackhawks Go!!!

I promise to be a better blogger and keep things updated.

The "Chicks" - Week Two Update

It's a dreary day here on the Island and this week hasn't been much better.  Clouds, rain, damp and cold.  None of which is helping me get my "jobs" done while I have some time off.  Even with the rain I managed to get a couple raised beds constructed. 

The one with the trellis (courtesy of my F.I.L. "BG") will contain the cucumbers and likely some peas and beans.  4 more raised beds to build and set and a plot to roto-till. 

There is 6 yards of compost/topsoil mix in the driveway that will be the fill for all.  I should probably make a chiropractic appointment for late next week!.

The garlic is growing nicely and this bed I will hopefully be planting this week.

This week we had full integration in the brooder; the separator has been removed and everyone is starting to get used to one another.  The big girls (Cinnamon in particular) peck at the young chicks but we understand that the pecking order is being re-established and this is normal chicken behavior. Some of the young chicks have become quite brave and are holding their own against the big girls.  I love to see that!!!!.  Despite the squabbles we have seen all the birds snuggling together when they fall asleep.  However, this is usually short-lived as one of the girls invariably needs to adjust themselves and disturbs the entire group.

 All the girls are really starting to feather out and they all look pretty scraggly at the moment as their new feathers replace their downy fur.  Their growth is amazing in such a short period of time!!!. 

Poppy

 We figured we would take some pictures to show the difference in sizes between the 2 groups.  I suggested that we use a can of chicken noodle soup for scale but my farmhand said this was not in good taste.

Trixie (aka "Stinky Pooper")

"Yes, I stinky pooped on the floor after this picture was taken. The world is my toilet."

Poppy. "Yes, I also pooped on the floor."

Lacey. "Ya, I pooed on the floor. What you gonna do?."

Cinnamon (aka "The Bitch/Pecker"). "I did not poop on the floor."

At night we have been treating the girls to some delectable desserts, including all manner of bugs, dandelions, spinach, lettuce and oats.  They love it and it's a feeding frenzy before bedtime.  Feeding them by hand is getting them accustomed to us and it's almost no problem to pet them and pick them up for a daily inspection.

Chickens are the ultimate garburators.  With the exception of a few items chickens can and will pretty much eat anything we can.  From what I've read the more you supplement their diet with scraps and leftovers the better tasting are the eggs.  We will hopefully get to test this theory out in a few more months. 

The "Chicks" - Week One Update

Hectic week here with work, workouts and life in general, however, it has been a week since the chicks arrived and I suspect you are all wanting an update.

Poppy, Daisy, Pearl and Lacey

 Thankfully, all the chicks have survived and, as far as we can tell, they are all healthy.  The young girls are growing by leaps and bounds, and they are starting to feather out.  They are still pretty skittish, but getting used to our voices and they perk up whenever we are out to check on them.

Poppy (Silkie)

Pearl (Silver Laced Wyandotte)

 The big girls are a lot more bold and curious.  I can see a recognition in their eyes when I come into the room and start talking to them.  They crane their necks from side to side and up and down to see who is in the room.  We have no issue feeding them by hand and they will readily jump up on our hands to get the best feeding spot.

Trixie (Barred Rock)

 With all the eating and drinking that goes on between both groups, I can tell you one thing - chickens shit a lot!.  However, the nice thing is that we can collect the droppings and add them to our composters for use in the gardens.

These girls are fun to have and watch; they are very comical and their antics are very interesting.  A simple "wellness check" often turns into a half hour of hand feeding.  As I suspected, my lovely farmhand is quite taken by these ladies and she routinely checks food, water, bums (for pasty butt, which is a deadly condition for chicks) and overall coop cleanliness.  She even asked if "we" were going to the local poultry show this week and "can you buy chickens there?".  Hmmmm.....seems like chickens are the new wool.

In the brooder we have the girls separated given the difference in their age and size.  I wanted to give the chicks a week to grow a little and hopefully be able to fend for themselves when mixed in with the big girls.  Well, we tried to integrate the girls this week and that lasted all of a half hour.  The Spice Girls (Ginger and Cinnamon) and The Tramps (Trixie and Lola) were ruthless in their pecking of The Hippie Chicks (Poppy and Daisy) and The Hick Chicks (Pearl and Lacey).  A couple of the young girls did their darn best to stand up and puff out their chests, but their bravado was no match for the big girls who literally tower over them.  All this to say that the girls are still separated but we have constructed a see-through fence so that they can see each other but no contact.  This will allow them to get used to one another and we will continue to slowly integrate them over the next couple weeks as the young girls continue to grow and catch up in size.

Itchy and Scratchy made a visit this week to see the chicks and talk all manner of gardening, jewellery making, knitting and the like with my lovely farmhand.  While here, Scratchy pondered aloud, "I wonder how many roosters you have?".  Of course we all then wondered for ourselves how many roosters are in this clutch (FYI - my guess is 2).  Scratchy put forward that we should blog about this and everyone can weigh in on how many roosters we may possibly have.  So, in the spirit of good fun, please leave a comment with your guess of how many roosters you think we have.

They're heee-re.......

After a whirlwind trip to Moncton, we are back and I am happy to announce that all the ladies survived the trip. On the ride back my lovely did "wellness checks" every 15 minutes to ensure that all the chicks were fine. Once we arrived home, the chicks were separated into their respective pens. We have 4 chicks that are a couple weeks older than the 4 other chicks, so to ensure that the smaller chicks get a chance to grow we will keep them separated for a few days.

We are both exhausted but knew that you all would be interested to see some pictures. So without further adieu I give the Soul Patch Farm flock. I apologize for the pictures; it's hard to get these girls to stop moving. More pictures to come.

The Hick Chicks (Pearl and Lacey) and The Spice Girls (Ginger and Cinnamon).

The Hippie Chicks (Poppy and Daisy) and The Tramps (Lola and Trixie)

The Countdown Is On.....

We learned on Thursday that our chicks will be ready for pick-up next week.  Five days from now me and my lovely farm hand will make the journey over to Moncton to pick up our ladies.  We unfortunately also learned that one of the breeders sold out of chickens, which means that we are having to find a new breeder for the Buff Orpingtons we wanted; it's getting late in the season for chicks so I will keep you updated on if we find any.  We currently have 6 chicks waiting for us; 2 Silkies, 2 Silver Laced Wyandottes and 2 Plymouth Barred Rocks.  We are hoping for all hens as these chicks can't be sexed because they are only a few days old.  Today, after much discussion, we settled on categories and names for our girls.

Category 1. "The Hippie Chicks" (Silkies) - Daisy and Poppy

Category 2. "The Spice Girls" (if we get some Buff's) - Ginger and Cinnamon

Category 3. "The Hick Chicks" (Silver Laced Wyandottes) - Pearl and Lacey

Category 4. "The Tramps" (Barred Rocks) - Lola and Trixie

These names are not set in stone so I would like for you all to weigh in on your favorites or throw out a name for consideration.

"WTF?" said the Farmer's Wife.

Yup, that was my lovely's reply yesterday when I advised her of a chicken keeping plan. But first, let me bring you all up to speed.

I have a few days off this week and our chicks are scheduled to be available some time at the end of this month.  With this in mind, I reasoned that I had better get the brooder constructed as I am sure the call to come pick up the chicks will be on a day when neither of us is expecting it and I don't want to be caught unprepared.  I couldn't re-use the old doghouse as I had planned, so after a trip to the lumber yard, I had my supplies and in half a day finished the brooder.  It's essentially a box design measuring 5' long, 3' wide, 2' tall.  I elevated it 12" off the ground.  It looks huge, especially when I placed the feeder and waterer inside.  The chicks will definitely have enough space to grow.

After clean-up my lovely and I were enjoying a beer.  I explained to her that when the chicks arrive the brooder will be located in the garage and she will have to park her car outside.  "WTF?" was her reply. 

You see my lovely has become quite accustomed to her vehicle being parked in the garage and not outside, which is where this farmer is relegated to.  She likes that when she leaves for a 6:00 a.m. workout her car is warm and doesn't need to be cleaned off or windows scraped.  Clearly this woman does not appreciate that the chicks need a space that is warm, secure and will allow us to check on them frequently.  No, there were many foul (or fowl?) but good-natured comments about chicken interference. 

What I know is that my wife is one of the most caring people in the world, especially where animals are concerned.  Despite her comments, I know that the day  the chicks arrive she will likely take up residence in the garage just to make sure they are safe and have some company.

The brooder is complete and we have all our supplies.  Now bring on the chicks!!!