Roosterhen Diaries

2011-09-22T04:02:00.000-05:00

OK- It’s nearly three in the morning and I haven’t been able to sleep. I was reading up on the two executions tonight. One in Texas, and one in Georgia. When I closed my eyes, I would see visions of a man being pulled feet first on a chain behind a truck and dragged until his head and his limbs broke away from his body. The man was James Byrd, Jr., a black man who was dragged to his

Some may dream of a White Christmas, but I. . .

2010-12-05T09:37:00.000-06:00

With my heart pounding so hard it scared me, mouth dry as cotton, and feeling totally disoriented in the dark, I reached for the clock: 3:24 AM. I had just awakened from another dream. You know the kind of dream -- or maybe you’re lucky enough not to know. The kind of dream where you find yourself in such a dire situation that if you don’t wake up right now, you’ll never wake up to life as you

Roosterhens are political animals

2010-11-05T20:48:00.000-05:00

I just got into a debate with a friend of a different political persuasion, who was taunting me about the “shellacking" the Democrats and Obama and his anti-business policies took at the polls on Tuesday. I know the press, pundits, politicians and President Obama himself are calling it a shellacking, but I'm not sure that's what it was. We

Redistibution of Wealth- I'm confused

2010-08-29T11:01:00.000-05:00

Today’s newspaper contained a column written by Tom Scarritt, editor of the very conservative Birmingham News. He was commenting on a recent debate between the candidates running for governor of Alabama, Robert Bentley and Ron Sparks. Sparks is in favor of a lottery to fund scholarships in the state; Bentley is opposed. Here’s an excerpt for that column: “…remember government has no resources

2010-06-05T14:15:00.000-05:00

The Rooster Song It's hard to believe that I haven't blogged since Sept. 2008. A lot has happened in the interim, some good, some bad, some happy some sad. One of the sad things is that Sam died last December. A possum got in the coop, and Sam saw this as a big threat. Evidently the two got into it, and decided to fight to the death. The possum was the victor, but Sam got in some blows, too,

"Come into my parlor," said the spider to the fly

2008-09-22T22:35:00.000-05:00

Last month we were graced with a nightly visitor, a nocturnal orb weaver. Each night, as darkness began to fall, she would begin her work. First she would sweep down from the porch roof to the side of the house, laying her first thread. Then she would begin spinning and weaving: up and

A Purely Political Post

2008-09-01T23:06:00.000-05:00

Sam is a feisty rooster, and he has taught me well. So I have decided to be feisty in my own way, and comment on political stuff—something I have avoided until now.First off- let me confess to my political biases: (1)I am a liberal/progressive. (2)I don’t generally like to be privy to information of a personal/sexual nature concerning other people, including political candidates, unless it

An Unusual Sight

2008-07-11T08:08:00.000-05:00

The sun was shining. Streaks of lightning were splitting the sky. Thunder was booming and crashing. Rain was pelting down, pouring like a waterfall off the front porch. We've had TWO days with rain- good, soaking rain. I can almost hear the plants sighing in relief! Sam and Monique, who usually retreat into the safety of the coop when the skies get dark and stormy, were evidently confused by the

Silver Queens and Salsa

2008-07-09T09:26:00.000-05:00

Here's today's meager haul from our little garden. I thought there was something wrong with the okra; it was white. Okra is supposed to be green or burgundy, isn't it? It probably has some disease and isn't edible, I thought. Then I remembered that I’d planted a new (to me) heirloom variety, Silver Queen. Well, duh! Why is it called silver? Silver Queen is NOT green, it’s kind of a pale creamy,

Carrot Conundrum

2008-07-08T09:17:00.000-05:00

Is this just an ordinary carrot that was planted in compacted soil and grew into a forked misshapen carrot?Or is it an overly ambitious and slightly delusional carrot who thought it could turn into a carrot person if only it could grow legs and arms....Sadly, it got yanked before the metamorphosis was complete, so we will never know for sure.

Mimosa Blossom Soap- Sort Of

2008-06-25T20:56:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was a soapmaking day. My plan was to make some small test batches of new soaps. I knew exactly what I wanted the mimosa soap to look like. Sadly, whenever I know exactly what I want soap to look like, it never quite does. My plan was to incorporate the green of the ferny leaves topped with white and pink blossoms and something to give it a fluffy look. Of course, I was working with a

Mimosa Musings

2008-06-21T19:21:00.000-05:00

Living in Alabama as a child during the 50s, I spent summers playing with friends, barefoot and outdoors. One of our favorite pastimes was playing house. We would find a large patch of bare ground, usually under a tall, shady tree, then we’d haul in sticks, stones, dead leaves and whatever else we could find to lay out the outline of rooms, leaving gaps to serve as doors. The daddy, when he wasn’

A Well Traveled Herb

2008-06-20T12:47:00.000-05:00

This was one of those rare Alabama summer mornings--the temperature and humidity low enough to make working in the garden a pleasure rather than a painful necessity. Never mind that the idyllic state lasted only a couple of hours as the clouds drifted off, exposing the relentless rays of the sun. For a brief time, I was able to weed, water and enjoy the garden in blissful early morning

Kudzu- it's everywhere- even in the bath!

2008-06-19T00:34:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I almost sold out of chai tea soap( there's only one bar left for sale on my Etsy site), so had to make more. Now I'm completely sold out of Kudzu again, so tomorrow I must make more kudzu soap. A lot of people buy it to give as gifts to people up north- something quintessentially Southern, they tell me. But kudzu really isn't a southern native at all. It came here as a guest, then

Back from the Alabama Soap Meeting

2008-06-15T12:57:00.000-05:00

Friday and Saturday I drove to Prattville, AL to attend the 10th Annual Alabama Soap Meeting, which was a whole lot of fun. We had wonderful door prizes, goody bags stuffed with neat samples, coupons, magazines and other wonderful things, vendor tables, garage sale tables to buy each other's surplus stuff, and wonderful talks and demos, including how to hand-dip candles, how to make massage

Miserable Manduca Monsters!

2008-06-12T22:36:00.000-05:00

On my way out to close the chicken coop this evening I was shocked to see that the nicotiana plant that earlier had been blooming so merrily in the flower box on the deck had suddenly lost all its leaves and blooms. As I looked closer, I could see the cause. FOUR Tobacco hornworms (Manduca sexta) were chomping away, leaving mountains of frass behind (you can see it in the picture- it looks like

The Hungry Caterpillar

2008-06-11T17:23:00.000-05:00

Caught in the act!I nearly missed this little critter. He's almost the same shade of green as the bean pods that he was happily boring holes in, thinking, no doubt, that he was well camouflaged and would avoid detection.I have no idea just what he is, although in trying to identify him, I've learned a great deal more about caterpillars. I looked here and thought he might be a cabbage or soybean

More Adventures in Cooking

2008-06-10T10:42:00.000-05:00

We've been picking summer squash from the garden for a couple of weeks now, and the bush beans are coming in, too! Not very many at a time, but enough to make a meal for the two of us. This is today's harvest:I used some of our yellow squash last Sunday in a recipe from Tables of Content, the newest cookbook from the Junior league of Birmingham. It's a lovely book; not only are the recipes very

The best laid mulch

2008-06-09T14:01:00.000-05:00

I don't know whether mulch, like plans, can "Gang aft a-gley," but if it can, I have a good idea what it might look like. Yesterday morning I did some weeding in my little herb bed, then laid down some newspaper and covered it with a nice layer of mulch. Once finished, I admired the results: a pristine, weedless area with clumps of herbs and flowers emerging from a layer of pine straw. Yesterday

To market, to market

2008-06-07T10:59:00.000-05:00

For the past three summers, we sold soap from our booth at Pepper Place Market in downtown Birmingham. We loved selling at the market (well, maybe not the part about getting up at 4 AM every Saturday, rain or shine, or the 90+ degree days we often had); there's something very satisfying about being part of the farmers market experience. We weren't able to do the market this summer, so this year

Off the beaten path

2008-05-30T10:24:00.000-05:00

A couple of days ago, I had a meeting in Montgomery. Since my car has been acting strangely, Mr. G drove me . On the way home, I commented that it would be nice to take a side trip and stop off in Jemison to visit one of our favorite nurseries. Mr. G agreed, and we headed off to Petals from the Past, a nursery owned by Jason and Shelley Powell, specializing in heirloom plants, especially

Adventures in cooking

2008-05-29T14:30:00.000-05:00

I just rediscovered one of my herb books- The Herb Garden Cookbook: The Complete Gardening and Gourmet Guide, by Lucinda Hutson. It is chock full of information on growing and using herbs, and the recipes sound wonderful. So I decided to try a couple. Night before last, we had Garlicky Rosemary Shrimp, with rosemary and bay leaves fresh from the garden. Last night I decided to try the recipe for

Back to Blogging

2008-05-26T10:37:00.000-05:00

Egads! It's been over a month since my last post. Since then, I must sadly report that Henrietta died, here's the last pic of her, helping to dig out some new veggie beds last month. Poor Henrietta, blind in one eye, survived a vicious pecking by the other hens and Sam, and seemed to be doing fine, laying an egg a day and digging around quite happily. Then one morning, she didn't come out of the

Gone Fishing

2008-04-20T22:29:00.000-05:00

Today was a beautiful day- and tonight is a full moon. So Mr. G and I decided to go bream fishing on the Warrior River, one of my favorite places to fish. Even when the fish aren't on the beds or biting, the scenery is beautiful, particularly in the spring, when the bluffs along the banks sport a wide variety of flowering native plants. Usually, at this time of year, the mountain laurels are in

The Case of the Pernicious Peony

2008-04-13T19:05:00.000-05:00

Spring is trying to do its thing here- the rose bushes are blooming and budding, as is the yarrow, the deutzia, and much more. After a year of drought that left so many plants gasping, the rains this year have been most welcome. We've had storms, but for the most part, we've had a week of lovely warm weather. All that is about to change, though. The forecast bears an ominous frost warning for the

On a Jelly Roll

2008-04-11T13:17:00.000-05:00

I am getting so domesticated it's scary! It's almost as though some alien domestic goddess lifeform has taken control of my mind and body... I've been baking bread, and even dragged out the sewing machine the other day to do some mending, then today, following the instructions on the Prairieland Herbs site, I made violet jelly. I haven't made jelly in years and could barely remember where I'd

The Sad Truth About Chicken Tractors and Tillers

2008-04-09T23:46:00.000-05:00

Chicken tractors may be a good thing if they’re built correctly. But chickens working as independent contractors outside said chicken tractors are not very efficient. Especially not if the gardener overseeing the chickens is a procrastinator, and an impatient one at that. I reached this conclusion yesterday when faced with the prospect of getting my overgrown veggie beds ready in a hurry. When Mr

Sweet Violets

2008-04-06T21:29:00.000-05:00

Walking in the back yard today, I discovered a treasure growing just under the edge of the deck- a patch of lovely little violets. In years past there have always been a few violets pop up, but never a clump as large as this one.I had been reading The Essential Herbal Blog this morning, where directions were given for making crystallized flowers. I have often seen pictures of cakes and other

Held Hostage by a Rooster

2008-04-05T12:37:00.000-05:00

I had a two day meeting out of town this week and decided since it was only fifty miles away, I’d just drive home on Thursday evening and back again on Friday. My registration covered Thursday night’s supper, a cook-out with steaks cooked on the barbeque grill. When I got ready to leave, the organizers told me to take my steak home and cook it, since I was going to miss supper. I don’t eat steak

Weeds or Faerie Flowers?

2008-04-02T14:04:00.000-05:00

Walking back from the mailbox today I decided to pick a bouquet. These are all "weeds" growing in the lawn. Actually, I use the term lawn loosely, since there's very little grass- but I'm not big on lawns and as long as it's green, holds the soil in a downpour and doesn't require maintenance except for an occasional mowing it's welcome to stay. I don't feel quite so benevolent when weeds invade

Henbit, Henbane and other Poultry Plants

2008-04-01T11:37:00.000-05:00

Our yard is covered with lavender/purple flowers, a combination of purple dead nettle and henbit. They look nice in a field, and sport lovely little flowers, as you can see from the henbit(Lamium amplexicaule) pictured here, but they are murder once they invade your garden beds and are next to impossible to eradicate. The henbit got me to wondering where the name came from- why “henbit”? I read

Lessons Learned

2008-03-30T11:57:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was a learning day for me. Well… every day is a learning day, but some days you learn more stuff than on other days.Lesson #1I learned that most garden hoses contain lead. Other folks may have known this, but it was news to me. I was watering in the greenhouse with the ancient hose that’s been patched and mended once too often, when it suddenly decided it had had enough and decided to

Spring Sprigs and Shuttles

2008-03-28T11:40:00.000-05:00

Spring is a season of gifts from Mother Nature, as trees and plants awaken from their winter sleep, unfurl their leaves and petals, then burst forth in glorious riots of color against the brilliant spring sky. The redbud out front woke up a few weeks ago. In fact, it burst awake suddenly,its empty limbs suddenly awash in deep pink blooms. We've been watching the dogwood outside the

Mouse Seeds

2008-03-28T00:39:00.000-05:00

I convinced Patches the cat that she should spend more time in the greenhouse, thinking she might be the better mouse trap I'd been hoping for. She would actually rather sleep all day, but she reluctantly agreed to spend some time in there with me as I set about planting more seeds to replace those destroyed by mice last week.She looked like she was enjoying herself- staring intently all around

Lazy Loafers

2008-03-25T18:16:00.000-05:00

I had visions of chickens pecking around in the yard, keeping down the population of grubs, bugs and other threats to my struggling plants. Sam and the girls were good at that once and there seemed to be a definite drop in pests. But they've gotten lazy in their old age. They dig in the yard now and then, pulling up a sweet morsel here and there, but when two years of drought turned much of the

Easter Eggs

2008-03-22T23:16:00.000-05:00

It occurred to me that we have never tried to dye brown eggs. Even after the girls began to lay, we bought white eggs at the grocery store to dye. Long after the kids were grown and gone, we continued to dye eggs because it was one of my sister's greatest pleasures. My sister, Jo, was born with Down syndrome. She came to live with us when our mother died over thirty years ago and was always

Rodent Rant

2008-03-21T22:34:00.000-05:00

While Henrietta was recuperating in the greenhouse she must have invited some friends in to share her meals. Every morning I would see mouse droppings around her feed dish, but never saw any mice. I didn’t want to set traps in case she might step on one and trip it, and I refuse to use poison. Besides, since watching Ratatouille I had begun to view mice in a more favorable light.I had cut way

Then there were three

2008-03-20T21:10:00.000-05:00

Sad news- Emily died about a month ago, so now there are only three- Sam, Monique and Henrietta. We don't know what killed Emily and I just wasn't up to performing an autopsy. I suspect that Henrietta might have put a hex on her. But anyway, Henrietta is now back in the coop with Sam and Monique and all seems well- no more fights. At least not yet. Henrietta is laying again now that she's

Sam's Back- sort of...

2008-01-23T11:23:00.000-06:00

Sam and the girls apologize for not being more active here lately, but they have fallen upon hard times, and decided if they didn’t have anything nice to say they should keep their beaks shut, and I should follow suit. It’s not that they haven’t been up to any antics- it’s just that their antics don’t bear repeating. Maybe one day they’ll decide to tell you about how Henrietta lost most of her

Sam's Big Night Out

2006-11-08T22:44:00.000-06:00

I was just thinking the other day about how nice it is to have chickens. They give you eggs, eat your table scraps, keep slugs and bugs under control in the garden, and best of all, you don’t have to chase them down or call them to come in- they just head back to roost in the coop when the sun goes down.That was the other day. Today, I’m not so sure. Well, I guess I still believe that about

Never is heard a disparaging word

2006-10-16T22:50:00.000-05:00

Sam and the girls are molting. Feathers are everywhere except on the chickens! And when it rains, I just can't stop myself from muttering stuff about how bad a soaking wet chicken, or more specifically, a wet rooster missing half its tail feathers, looks when it's all wet and bedraggled. But I will NEVER, ever make a comment like that again. Because today I went to renew my driver's license. And

Sam is back to his old tricks!

2006-05-07T23:59:00.000-05:00

Sam would say hello to y’all and apologize for our extended absence if he wasn’t so busy getting into mischief here lately. Mr. G was working out of town for a couple of months and Sam was kind of well-behaved and somewhat boring during that period. He would strut and do his wing-down dance every once in a while when I went to gather eggs, like he was trying to let me know he was still boss of

The Not-So-Still Night

2006-04-13T10:15:00.000-05:00

Some time ago, at about 3 AM one morning, I was awakened by the most godawful racket coming from the back yard. It sounded like all the chickens were on high alert, clucking, crowing and carrying on, and there was another high-pitched other-worldly growly sound, too, that I didn't recognize. I was pretty sure we had either been invaded by aliens or Sam and the girls had completely lost their

2006-03-02T22:54:00.000-06:00

This is Patches- an aging calico Manx. She is almost fearless, even in her old age. She does NOT like Sam. And Sam does NOT like her. She also does not like the very big black cat who sometimes turns up behind the fence. No matter how badly she wants to go outside she will always pause at the door and look around to make sure the coast is clear. If Sam or the black cat are anywhere in sight,

A brief (I hope) hiatus from constant blogging

2006-02-24T17:54:00.000-06:00

As many of you who read Rurality's blog may know, she and I are soap-makers. And craft show season is coming up waaay too fast. In between blogging and trying to get my company web site finished, I've gotten terribly behind on making,curing, cutting and wrapping soap. So it's now crunch time and I have to start burning the morning, noon and midnight oil gettting enough soap and stuff ready to

Adventures In Chicken Herding

2006-02-24T00:47:00.000-06:00

Another journal entry from last year:I was up before Sam this morning. Thank Goodness I had my wits about me! Mr. G had to leave for a job extra, extra early, so I was up way before the sun. After I got everybody squared away and off for the day, I was piddling around in the kitchen setting up to make soap. The sun came up and Sam began to crow. But something wasn't quite right. I thought to

Comb Credentials

2006-02-22T23:23:00.000-06:00

Monique may be an imposter! All this time, we've believed her when she claimed to be a Dominique, chicken, but recent news articles about questionable credentials led me to wonder whether the critters I have are who and what they claim to be. So I began to investigate further. Seems that Dominiques have rose combs, which are kind of flat and smooth on top. Now, does Monique's comb look like a

The cover-up caper

2006-02-19T19:05:00.000-06:00

I was wishing I had started seeds this year, wondering if it was too late. I guess I really should, seeing as how it was a real battle to reclaim the plastic cover for my seed-starting box. This is a journal entry from the recovery operation:1-24-04Poor old Sam! You should have heard him-- trying to crow, but so upset he sounded like he was crowing with the hiccups. And of course, that got the

Sam is just axing for trouble!

2006-02-18T11:08:00.000-06:00

I was busily working to fill an order the other day- had on my nice clean lab coat (part of my "mad scientist soapmaker" persona) and was sterilizing jars and stuff when I suddenly realized it was past time to let Sam and the girls out for their evening run about. So I asked Mr. G. if he would let them out and make sure they had food and water. He grudgingly obliged. Everything was going well, I

Separation Anxiety

2006-02-08T23:47:00.000-06:00

Nobody told me that chickens have the same anxieties as human children. You know how the child-rearing books tell you that sometimes, when you're potty-training a child, (s)he can get separation anxiety when stuff is flushed?(My kids never seemed to experience this anxiety- they loved to flush all kinds of stuff: socks, toys- you name it. One of 'em even tried to vacuum all the water out of the

A house of ill repute

2006-02-07T23:58:00.000-06:00

That first fall, Sam and the girls "matured" and found better ways to occupy their time than merely scratching up bugs.... 11-19-03 I may get raided for running an indecent establishment or something, and corrupting the morals of little children!The people who live two houses down have children, but they're hardly ever outside. Today the grown-ups looked like they had friends and extra

We interrupt this program...

2006-02-06T00:52:00.000-06:00

to take a break from Sam and his antics, and share some gardening stuff. We have winter storm warnings out now, and there's some freezing rain falling already. Such weather always makes me wish for summer.One of my favorite summer activites is watching the Night Blooming Cereus (I'm not sure whether mine is a Selenicereus or an Epiphyllum purpusii) bloom. We've had it for several years, and most

Green Eggs and Sam

2006-02-05T23:05:00.000-06:00

10-21-03 One of the best things about chickens is that you don't have to call them in- at sundown they just head into the coop. Sam and the girls have always done that- they run around loose just before sunset and then head into the coop to roost. Not any more. Poor Sam is just traumatized beyond hope, it seems.Mr. G just doesn't know when to stop. He built those nice new nest boxes for the

Construction conflicts

2006-02-05T09:58:00.000-06:00

10-19-03Mr. G finally decided (after much nagging and begging on my part) to re-do the chicken coop and make nest boxes I could access from the outside. Sam, of course, did not know what was going on except that Mr. G was tearing down his house and making a lot of noise in the process, what with saws and drills and hammers and such. Sam decided to deal with the whole mess by crowing alllll day

Barking Chickens

2006-02-04T23:18:00.000-06:00

10-03-03 I dunno what's going on- what with Sam acting really strange around the girls, and the girls squawking and carrying on and chasing each other and then flying around and swooping down on me while I'm trying to put their fresh food out and change their water. But the strangest thing happened last night. Sam, Henrietta and Emily were cavorting around outside the run at sunset. Monique

The Diary continues: Summer is winding down- but Sam isn't!

2006-02-04T18:42:00.000-06:00

9-02-03Evidently, the heat has really been getting to Sam and the girls- they are getting more and more impatient to get out of the run and into the garden in the evening- but only after I give them their pasta treat. Mr. G. let them out last night on account of I was still celebrating Labor Day by laboring at cleaning up the den at sundown..but he didn't have their pasta treat ready. Sam really

Roosterhens make good listeners

2006-02-04T18:26:00.000-06:00

In August of that first summer with Sam and the girls, I took on a temporary, high-stress job- one of those jobs that leaves you emotionally and physically exhausted and makes you wonder. "WHAT was I thinking?!" I would come home drained, then head out to the back yard to spend some time with the chickens. This is what I wrote back then:8-20-03You would be amazed at just how perceptive and

More crowing and commotion

2006-02-04T18:04:00.000-06:00

7-8-03First, she thought she was a rooster, what with crowing and all. Now she thinks she's a parrot. Yesterday, when I went to turn them loose for their evening free-range treat, she flew up on my shoulder and perched there like she was a parrot. When she starts to cackle out sea chanteys, I'm gonna ship her off to one of my shanty-singing friends so they can do a

Learning new stuff- and surprises...

2006-02-04T15:50:00.000-06:00

6-6-03My chicken books came from Amazon today- and since it's been raining off and on, I've been reading 'em. Not only have I learned, complete with diagrams, how to clip a chicken's wings, I've also learned how to best kill and butcher one and how to perform an autopsy, should I ever need to do so. I think maybe I should have skipped over those chapters and just read the parts about autosomal

More chicks! The saga continues...

2006-02-04T14:45:00.000-06:00

5-16-03 I had every intention of getting two Dominique chicks today, but ended up getting only one Dominique (we named her Monique) and a Rhode Island Red (aka Henrietta) on account of what I’d heard about red hens being excellent layers. But she's an aggressive little thing- only a couple of days old and she's already pecking at poor little Monique. It'll be interesting to see how they get

The arrival of Sam the Roosterhen

2006-02-04T01:17:00.000-06:00

Here are some excerpts from my "Roosterhen Diary"-- a sort of biography of my critters. We "adopted" Sam Pepys, our first chicken, not knowing whether Sam was a "he" or "she." We really didn't want a crowing rooster, but we did think fresh eggs would be heavenly, so we decided to take our chances and hope for a "she". 4-23-03We brought home a little chick from my mother-in- law’s house yesterday