Friday on the Miller Farm Archives - Page 2 of 24

28 05, 2021

Visiting Chicken

By judythemorgan|2021-05-27T10:35:20-05:00May 28th, 2021|Friday on the Miller Farm, Miller Farm Friday|1 Comment

A Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

Last week the 7th grade students discovered a chicken on the playground at school. It was much larger than the chicks we had hatched so they knew it was not one of ours. One of the girls brought it to the front office. I wish I could have been there to see their reaction!

Since there was already a coop put together for the chicks, the principal moved it into the courtyard and put the visiting chicken in it.

Eventually, they moved all the chicks in with the bigger hen and everyone seemed happy.

Until feeding time, that is.

Apparently, the larger hen had not been eating well out in the wild and was quite insistent on getting more than her share of the food. Once she realized she would be fed on a regular basis, she calmed down.

No one knows where she belongs. Maybe she heard that our school was a safe place for chickens and decided to join us. We don’t mind.

The little flock has been temporarily moved to a home in the country. The kids are gone for the summer and one of the teachers was concerned the chicks would not be safe without a hundred little eyes watching them.

I assured her that chickens are quite accustomed to being on their own. Nevertheless, there was not a place for them to live all summer at school and no one is sure when the secure chicken pen will be finished.

Being a chicken wrangler, I volunteered to keep the chickens on Miller Farm if they wore out their welcome in their current home.

After all, we will hardly notice 6 more chickens on our farm.

21 05, 2021

Chick Sitting

By judythemorgan|2021-05-19T08:38:33-05:00May 21st, 2021|Friday on the Miller Farm, Miller Farm Friday|0 Comments

A Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

The chicks at my school are growing quite nicely. In fact, several of them have gone to their forever homes. There were ten, however, who needed a place to stay last weekend. I checked the schedule and Miller Farm and booked them into the brooder outside in the chicken yard. It is plenty big enough and it is out of the way of any curious chickens or dogs or ducks.

I was a little concerned because their previous lodging had been indoors. They did fine outside and will make the transition to their new outside coop very well.

Monday morning I put them back in the travel cage and set them on the ground while I gathered their bowl and feed. The big chickens came to say goodbye.

I returned them to the grass outside the classroom. Someone else is on chick duty during the week.

I believe one of the students is taking several home. The rest will move into the chicken coop at the school – as soon as we build a raccoon-proof fence. That may take some time. I understand raccoons are pretty smart.

Maybe I should make another reservation for the chicks at Miller Farm.

14 05, 2021

Thanksgiving in May

By judythemorgan|2021-05-13T19:23:21-05:00May 14th, 2021|Friday on the Miller Farm, Miller Farm Friday|0 Comments

A Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

My mother recently gave us a turkey she had in her freezer. They had gotten it for free at Thanksgiving last year and thought we would be more likely to be feeding a crowd sooner than they would.

I cooked it yesterday and we took it to our Community Group for dinner last night. Other people brought sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, dressing, rolls, cranberry sauce, and we had Thanksgiving in May. It was a huge success! The weather was even unseasonably cool.

We all decided we should have Thanksgiving dinner more frequently. As a teacher, I am even more thankful in May at the close of the year.

7 05, 2021

Mother’s Day 2021

By judythemorgan|2021-05-07T07:32:57-05:00May 7th, 2021|Friday on the Miller Farm, Miller Farm Friday|1 Comment

A Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

On Mother’s Day 2005 I made of list of things I had learned from my mother and gave it to her.

What I Have Learned from My Mother

Be flexible (moving 18+ times). Any place can be home as long as family is there.
Never give up on your dreams. (she graduated from college when I was in high school)
Put things back where you found them (I have really learned the value of this-now if my kids would listen).
Never be afraid to speak your mind (need I say more?).
Make use of what you have (canning and freezing).
Follow your husband where ever he goes (especially if it is to Ireland =))
Stop and help when you can (as in dogs that have been hit by cars).
Animals are people too (this must have been genetically passed on to my Rachel).
Finding a church home is top priority when you get to a new home.
You never stop being a mom (having your grown daughter move back in with her three children and husband for 6 weeks).

For Mother’s Day 2021, I would like to add to that list:

Be hospitable (even when it means having company all summer long at your lovely home in Colorado).
Sometimes the best view is seeing your family come through the door on a regular basis (moving back to Texas from Colorado).
The best way to handle a difficult situation may be to huddle up under a blanket and wait it out (ice storm 2021).
Being a grandmother is the best thing in the world (welcome to my Alexander!).
A mother’s love just gets deeper and deeper. So does a daughter’s.

Happy Mother’s Day!

30 04, 2021

Hatch Day

By judythemorgan|2021-04-29T08:48:15-05:00April 30th, 2021|Friday on the Miller Farm, Miller Farm Friday|1 Comment

A Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

The school where I teach has several classes that are hatching chicks this spring. This includes the 4^th grade class where I eat lunch every day. The students have been counting the days and eagerly awaiting the arrival of the first chick.

This happened yesterday.

They were all very excited to share this news with me and I must confess I was just as excited to see the new chick. We’ve hatched many chicks but it is still amazing to see them just out of their shell.

The students were served chicken sandwiches for lunch. They were very careful to keep their food away from the chick so as not to upset it.

I found that very thoughtful.

I got a message from a friend last night who had taken some of our duck eggs to hatch. This also happened yesterday.

I guess April 28 was a good day to hatch!

23 04, 2021

Recipes

By judythemorgan|2021-04-21T09:09:07-05:00April 23rd, 2021|Friday on the Miller Farm, Miller Farm Friday|1 Comment

A Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

I collect recipes to help with my stress-relief baking. I tear them out of magazines, cut them out of newspapers and picked them up at grocery stores, back when they handed out recipe cards. I even have some that I picked up at the State Fair of Texas including my famous sweet potato biscuit recipe and the kids’ favorite skillet burritos.

I’ve tried to type them all into a data base so I have digital copies, but my memories of these recipes are attached to where I got them. If they are all in the same format in a digital file, I will never recognize them. I look for the recipe I need based on where I originally found the recipe.

Not a particularly effective way for anyone else to find my recipes, but I know where they all are.

For example, I wanted to make forgotten cookies recently. This recipe came from my mother. Shortly after Beekeeper Brian and I got married, she gave me a notebook with note cards of all our family recipes. It has the forgotten cookie recipe in it along with my Aunt Nita’s mashed potato roll recipe, my Grandmother Hixson’s chocolate and butterscotch pie recipes, and my Mother’s Blueberry Delight. (Notice the lack of vegetable recipes mentioned. =) The notebook is falling apart and so I must gently take it off the shelf and gently put it back.

I suppose I could replace it – but I won’t. Eventually there may be no need for paper recipes at all but that won’t be until after I’m gone. I will always use my various scraps of magazines and newspapers, and especially my notebook with my mother’s hand written recipe cards.

16 04, 2021

Stress Relief

By judythemorgan|2021-04-15T08:07:59-05:00April 16th, 2021|Friday on the Miller Farm, Miller Farm Friday|2 Comments

A Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

Baking is my stress relief and the past year has had plenty of stress to relieve. I particularly enjoy making biscuits and scones – really any breakfast food.

With only Beekeeper Brian and myself at home, I have had to find ways to bake and not weigh 300 pounds. So each Sunday, I take breakfast to the praise team at church. We meet at 7:00 to practice and stay through the service until almost noon so the gesture is much appreciated and there are seldom leftovers.

Both biscuits and scones require the use of a pastry blender. I’ve seen a picture on Facebook of one asking if anyone knew what it was. I was somewhat offended at the suggestion that only old people use pastry blenders.

I have actually been through several pastry blenders in the past few years. I tried one that had a slightly different design and broke two of them before I gave up and went back to the original crescent shape. It has held up to my stress relieving routine but sometimes looks a little worse for the wear.

9 04, 2021

Neighborhood Chicken

By judythemorgan|2021-04-02T15:50:06-05:00April 9th, 2021|Friday on the Miller Farm, Miller Farm Friday|0 Comments

A Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

We got a call from a friend over Spring Break asking if we wanted another chicken. They had a chicken that had started roosting in the tree in their front yard. Who doesn’t want a free chicken?

So off we went with our chicken catcher (coat hanger bent into a hook) and cage to retrieve a random chicken.

Sure enough she was up in the tree in their front yard.

We tried poking her to get her to come down but that only drove her up higher.

When no one was looking, she would come down and eat the seeds that had fallen from the bird feeder.

But as soon as anyone got near, back up she would go.

We finally gave up and left the cage and chicken getter with our friend. He has been researching how to trap a chicken on YouTube. It is amazing what you can find.

Meanwhile the chicken has gotten tired of being harassed and taken up residence in another tree in the neighborhood.

Hopefully she can end up at our house. She is quite a lovely chicken.

26 03, 2021

Smarter Than a Chicken

By judythemorgan|2021-03-19T08:07:42-05:00March 26th, 2021|Friday on the Miller Farm, Miller Farm Friday|2 Comments

A Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

One of our chickens still spends part of her day in the duck pen. I’ve stopped worrying about it. If she can get back and forth on her own, I see no need to slide around the duck pen chasing her and risk falling.

She has started laying eggs in the duck’s nest box.

She may think I will put it with the duck eggs which are saved for baking and mixing in with scrambled eggs. However, I have learned to distinguish chicken eggs from duck eggs by their shell. The duck eggs look creamier while the chicken eggs are bright white.

I may be slower but I am smarter than a chicken!

12 03, 2021

Just Visiting

By judythemorgan|2021-03-11T15:25:52-06:00March 12th, 2021|Friday on the Miller Farm, Miller Farm Friday|2 Comments

A Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

When I got home from work one day this week, there were chickens in the duck pen. When I went out to check on them, the door to the pen was securely closed.

Hmmmm How did they get in there?

They didn’t seem too disturbed and I had to zoom in with a piano student so I left everyone where they were.

When I finished teaching, I looked out and Lucy, one of the ducks, was out in the chicken pen. Perhaps they were trading places?

But then a rooster started to harass Lucy, so I had to go wrangle her back into the safety of the duck pen. I also convinced the chickens to go back to their spot,

Yesterday the chickens were back in the duck pen. I gave up and stayed inside to get the kitchen cleaned up. I looked out and one of the birds was flying over the duck fence back to the chicken yard. At least I know how they are getting back and forth.

As long as none of the birds go visit the dogs, I guess all is well.