Monthly Archives: June 2016

27 06, 2016

Wandering and Stories

By |2016-06-23T10:06:15-05:00June 27th, 2016|Make Me Think Monday|0 Comments

A Writer WandersEdie Melson’s graphics always grab my attention and stir my muse. She’s gifted and insightful and incredibly generous to allow sharing of her work.

The quote in this meme especially caught my attention. A writer wanders. And a once-lost story finds a home. I love that thought.

Are you a wanderer? I am.

I wander by foot, by plane, by bicycle and car. I meander through the house, the woods, the store, through cities and towns near and far.

You don’t have to go anywhere particular to be a wanderer. You can mosey in your yard, in your house, or across the ocean. Whatever way you stroll, wherever you roam stories will find you.

In fact, sometimes you don’t have to leave your front porch. Or, at least, that’s been my experience.

Once, sitting in a Dublin train station, an older woman sat beside me and began to share stories of her family and her country. She told me she was returning home after being with her daughter, who had given birth to their twelfth grandchild. Another grandson, she said with pride in her eyes. Yes, there were pictures and lovely stories as only the Irish can spin.

Another time, a young woman waiting behind me in the grocery checkout line patted the multi-colored headscarf she wore. “Chemo,” she said. Her eyes misted. I couldn’t stop myself I squeezed around my full cart of groceries and gave her a hug. She began to share her journey with breast cancer.

My dogs and I go for walks daily. Last summer a little girl playing outside one of the rental cabins nearby ask to pet the dogs. My Old English is old and well socialized. He loved on her. The Maltese jumped around all jealous then relaxed when she petted him too. As we walked away, the youngster plucked a purple wildflower and rushed over to give it to me.

Buried in each of those encounters, and so many more, are lost stories waiting to be told.

What about you? Do you come upon stories in your wanderings?

24 06, 2016

Digging Frogs

By |2016-06-12T21:57:03-05:00June 24th, 2016|Miller Farm Friday|1 Comment

A blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

Over the years, we have had issues with unwelcome animals on Miller Farm – mainly stray cats, rats and possums. We are animal friendly but draw the line at cats and rats and possums.  All three have a tendency to harm chickens.

hole in yardWhen we discovered holes in the back yard, we figured there was another unwelcome guest.

Rachel did some research and concluded that there were Norway rats digging holes in the back yard.  This conclusion was based in part on the attack of one or the chicks in the brooder in the garage and in part on the rat sightings in the garage.

She put rat poison in all the holes and we carefully scanned the yard for dead rats each morning before letting the dogs out.  We saw no more rats and the chicks in the brooder seemed safe so we figured the problem was solved.

The exterminator came out last week and I asked him about Norway rats.  He said they are not usually found in this area but more in coastal regions. He said the more likely culprit is…….wait for it……frogs.

I had no idea that frogs were burrowers. It was somewhat of a relief to think of frogs in the back yard rather than rats.

In fact, I was much less disturbed by the frog in the garage last night than I had been by the rats last month.

The dogs are most interested in the holes.  It is a well-known fact that dachshunds are indeed burrowers.Tucker diggingdog digging

 

I feel a little better about the dogs burrowing for frogs than for rats.

20 06, 2016

Summer at last!

By |2016-06-20T13:36:20-05:00June 20th, 2016|Make Me Think Monday|1 Comment

summer solsticeSummer officially arrives today. Each day forward, we will head to bed later as early dawns, long days, late sunsets, and short nights begin. Today will be the longest day of the year.

Of course, in our little neck of the woods that’s hard to believe. Temperatures in the thirties and forties greet us every morning.

Still today at 22:34 UTC or 4:34 p.m. in MDT the sun will reach its highest point signaling the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. Meanwhile, south of the equator, winter begins.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERASummer solstice has been around since the world begin. Ancient cultures recognized that the sun’s path across the sky, the length of daylight, and the location of the sunrise and sunset all shifted in a regular way throughout the year. Stonehenge stands as a testament to their knowledge.  The summer solstice sun rises directly above the heel stone at Stonehenge.

Psychologists have long suspected a link between our level of happiness and the amount of sunlight in the day. Studies discovered what truly mattered was not the absolute amount of daylight but the relative change in that daylight. Or, was the day longer or shorter than the day that came before?

When the change in daylight was positive (as approaching the summer solstice), people expressed significantly higher positive affect than they did when that change was negative (i.e., approaching the winter solstice).

Therefore, today should be a long, happy day.

Not only will we have more daylight, tonight is a full moon.

Summer_of_Love_thumbIndian tribes called the June full moon a Strawberry Moon while Europeans call it Rose Moon. Whatever you call it, it’s the Northern Hemisphere’s first summer solstice full moon since 1967, the summer known as the Summer of Love.

Personally, I missed the Summer of Love — something about my husband’s Army duty tour in Asia.

In case you missed that summer too, scores of hippies converged in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco. The city became a melting pot of politics, music, drugs, creativity, and total lack of sexual and social inhibition. The birth place of the hippie movement.

Tonight’s phenomenon of a full moon and the June solstice on the same day won’t happen again until June 21, 2062.

Don’t know about you, but I won’t be around for the next event, so I’m going out to peek at the sky. Join me.

17 06, 2016

Surrogate Mother Hen

By |2016-06-12T21:46:05-05:00June 17th, 2016|Miller Farm Friday|1 Comment

A blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

We currently have two groups of chicks in our chicken yard.  We have those who were hatched by Olivia (see last week’s blog) and those who were purchased from our local feed and supply store.

The purchased chicks are light Brahmas and spent time in a brooder before being released into the yard.

Rachel dipped each of their beaks in the water when she put first brought them home. We gave them food and let them grow big enough to join the other chickens. The term “light” refers to their color not their size.  Eventually these hens will weigh 9 lbs.

There is an interesting contrast between the chicks.

Olivia’s chicks follow her around.  The Brahmas, however, follow Rachel or me around.  We put the chick feed down and stand over the chicks while they eat to make sure the big hens don’t bully them out of their food.brooding chicks

I suppose Rachel and I are acting as surrogate mother hens.

That’s not a bad thing to have on a resume.

13 06, 2016

The number 13 and Triskaidekaphobia

By |2016-06-12T20:59:31-05:00June 13th, 2016|Make Me Think Monday|3 Comments

13Today’s date, June 13, got me to thinking about superstitious people who believe the number thirteen is unlucky. When that fear becomes immersive and ongoing, it becomes Triskaidekaphobia.

I’ve  considered making a character in one of stories triskaidekaphobic. It would be a fun character flaw that readers would relate to since around 9-10% of Americans are superstitious about the number 13. Of course, not all of those 10% are triskaidekaphobes.

Why is 13 considered unlucky, anyway? There’s no definitive reason, but a little research turned up these ideas.

  1. Thirteen people were at the Last Supper. Judas Iscariot — the one who betrayed Jesus — was the 13th man to take his place at the table.
  2. Traditionally, 13 steps lead up the gallows.
  3. A hangman’s noose contains 13 turns.
  4. The thirteenth Apollo space mission, Apollo 13 was an unsuccessful moon mission.
  5. In Roman culture, witches gathered in groups of 12 where the 13th witch is the ‘Devil’.
  6. Old superstition says13 letters in your name, brings the devil’s luck. Slightly convincing when you consider the names of Charles Manson, Jack the Ripper, Jeffrey Dahmer, Theodore Bundy and Albert De Salvo all contain 13 letters.

In the late 1800s, a group called The Thirteen Club formed to debunk the legend that seating 13 people at a table would result in the death of one of them in the year to follow. Club members met on the 13th of the month for dinner with 13 people to a table. Members who showed up late were fined – you guessed it, 13 cents. For the next forty years, Thirteen Clubs cropped up all over the U.S. but then faded in popularity.

(Interesting to note, five U.S. presidents: Benjamin Harrison, Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, and Chester A. Arthur were club members. If you remember your U.S. history, two of these presidents were shot — one fatally. Kinda contradictory to the club purpose, don’t you think?)

The belief/superstition that the number 13 is evil and brings bad luck is so strong that many hotels, office, and apartment buildings skip numbering the 13th floor. Airports usually don’t have a Gate 13 and airplane aisles omit Aisle 13.

The fear of 13 can be especially heightened when the 13th day of the month falls on a Friday. Many people don’t even leave their homes when that happens. Fear of Friday the 13 may stem from the fact that Philip IV of France arrested and slaughtered the Knights Templar, an ancient Christian military unit, on Friday, October 13, 1307.

By the way, fear of Friday the 13 is called – paraskevidekatriaphobia  You’re said to be cured when you can pronounced paraskevidekatriaphobia. (Just kidding!)

To counter all of this undue hatred of the poor number 13, there is one very good reason to love the number 13: a baker’s dozen.

cookie monsterYummy, we get an extra cookie!

 

 

10 06, 2016

Mother Hen

By |2016-06-10T13:04:20-05:00June 10th, 2016|Miller Farm Friday|0 Comments

A Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

We have had problems with broody hens in the past. This means they sit on the eggs so when we try to gather them, the hen pecks at us.Usually we throw them off the nest box repeatedly and eventually they give up.

Once we let a bantam hen sits on eggs, but she didn’t stay on them long enough for them to hatch.  They just turned rotten – a very unpleasant experience.

OliviaOlivia was different.  She was persistent.  In fact, Rachel decided to see if she would stay on eggs long enough for them to hatch.  She secured a special hutch and put a fake egg in the nest box.

Olivia found it, stayed there and guarded it fiercely. So one night, Rachel switched the fake egg with one dozen real eggs.  Some were from large fowl and some were bantams from her bantam project.

Olivia was quite content.

Twenty days later, one of the eggs hatched.  They weren’t due to hatch until day 21 but there is always one over achiever.  In all seven hatched.  It was very exciting.  Olivia stayed in the hutch with the chicks all the time.  Rachel had to shoo her out to eat and poop.  Eventually she started to come out on her own.

I guess even chicken moms need a break sometimes.

The week before our oldest daughter got married, I opened the hutch and the chicks started tumbling out.  I wasn’t quite sure what to do.  I watched for a while as Olivia guarded them from the other hens.  She taught them how to scratch the ground and dust bathe.Olivia chicks

In all the stress of the end of the school year, combined with the upcoming wedding, it was very therapeutic to stand there and watch this mother hen with her chicks.  They are venturing further and further away these days.  They still return to the hutch at night and huddle under Olivia.

I don’t think she knows they weren’t her eggs.  She is just being a mother hen.

My now married daughter called this week.  Her husband started his new job.  She said, “I got up and fixed him breakfast and fixed his lunch, and he went to work.  I feel like a wifemiller.”

And just like that she has left the nest.Catherine-Caleb

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