Miller Farm Friday Archives - Page 24 of 48

19 10, 2018

The Power of Not Thinking

By judythemorgan|2018-10-18T10:48:06-05:00October 19th, 2018|Friday on the Miller Farm, Guest blogger, Miller Farm Friday|3 Comments

A Guest Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

I have often heard people speak of “the power of positive thinking.” However, I’ve become convinced lately that there is, at times, even greater power in “not thinking.”

For example, when my alarm goes off at 5:15 a.m., I get out of bed, put on my swimsuit, get in my car, drive to the outdoor pool, and jump in before my brain wakes up and realizes that it is January.

No thinking person would behave in such a manner, no matter how “positive” their thoughts.

As moms, I believe “not thinking” is a crucial skill.

For example, when a child (who sleeps on the bottom bunk) comes to your side of the bed in the middle of the night and says, “Rachel (who sleeps on the top bunk) is throwing up and it is dripping down the wall” a mom can get everything cleaned up without giving it a thought.

Most recently, I employed this “not thinking” skill when helping my husband butcher chickens.

I do not usually participate in this process. However, I called everyone I knew who had expressed an interest in observing or even learning this task (a surprisingly long list) and no one was available.

Hesitantly, I donned latex gloves and started plucking chickens. I must say, I felt a certain satisfaction since I was plucking the horrid roosters.

As long as I was “not thinking,” it was not a bad task.

People talked about how bad the chickens smelled, but my nose detected no foul (fowl) odor at all. It made me wonder if perhaps Rachel had secretly bathed the roosters.

I even carried on a pleasant conversation with my husband the entire time. Part of this conversation included, “Hey look what I found!”I kid you not – it was a marble, which made me think of a song (of course):

“I know an old rooster who swallowed a marble…”

I’m so glad that when my brain goes into “not thinking” mode, it still allows songs to float in and out. A silly song seems to make any task a little more pleasant – as long as you don’t think about it.

The Power of Not Thinking originally appeared on February 1, 2013

5 10, 2018

Non-morning Crew

By judythemorgan|2018-10-03T16:32:19-05:00October 5th, 2018|Friday on the Miller Farm, Miller Farm Friday|1 Comment

A blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

It is a well known fact that people can be divided into two groups: morning people and non-morning people. There are some of each in my family.

I happen to be the morning person which is why I go to the pool at 5:30 am. Rachel is not a morning person which is why she has a coffee maker next to her bed.

Bill, the Chinese student living with us, is also a non-morning person. He is a senior in high school this year and I recently asked him what he plans to do in college when I am not there to make sure he gets up. He said he would schedule all afternoon classes. I told him it doesn’t work that way.

The dogs also fall into these groups. Most of ours wake up ready to take on the world. Coco, however, comes out of her kennel just long enough to grump at everyone then goes back inside. Eventually she joins the rest of the pack.

I recently discovered that, contrary to what people think, not all chickens are happy with morning either.

Lily, the D’Uccle (or duseldorfer as I call her) has not been out with the chickens when I feed them in the mornings. I panicked at first because she is littler and could easily be carried off by the dreaded hawk.

I found her, though, in the nest box. She has joined the non-morning crew. At least she doesn’t have anywhere to go in the mornings.

28 09, 2018

Quiet on the Farm

By judythemorgan|2018-09-27T08:21:40-05:00September 28th, 2018|Friday on the Miller Farm, Miller Farm Friday|0 Comments

A Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

I developed a great system for feeding the ducks who, by the way, eat cat food. During the day if I threw it out, the chickens would eat it. If I waited until the sun went down and the chickens were in the coop, I could throw cat food to the ducks and they could eat in peace.

This plan resulted in soft quacking every evening to remind me it was dinnertime. Male ducks have quiet quacks so the noise is soft which is nice.

All our ducks are male and unfortunately could not tell the difference between a duck and a chicken. This is not so nice for our chickens.

We had to pen the ducks up away from the chickens and look for a new home. After several weeks, a man who lives out in the country came and picked up the ducks to put in his pond. His pond was full of weeds and he needed someone to eat them. Enter the ducks!

I was sad at first because it was so quiet at night. Then we got this picture:This is so much better than the kiddy pool we used for them. All the ducks can swim at the same time.

Now when it is quiet, I think of this picture, and smile.

21 09, 2018

Feeding Chickens – Like Feeding Children

By judythemorgan|2018-09-21T11:02:16-05:00September 21st, 2018|Friday on the Miller Farm, Miller Farm Friday|1 Comment

A Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

When I open the back door each morning the chickens run to the fence and begin squawking “Feed me, feed me, I’m starving.”

This continues as I fill the feed bucket and wade carefully through the sea of birds to the food pans. More than once I have stepped on a chicken toe causing even louder squawking. As soon as I put the feed in the pans, all is quiet while they eat.

It reminds me of feeding our children when they were babies. They would scream as if they were dying until they found the food be it bottle or breast. Then there was blissful quiet.

Our church is filled with young families with babies. Wednesday evening I had the chance to hold one of our newest babies as he slept. I thought of our gown son who is struggling with anxiety over a new job right now.

How I wished I could hold and rock him and make it all better. But alas, he’s grown and would squish me.

Perhaps I will put some food out for him. It works with chickens.

14 09, 2018

My Life in Songs, Part 2

By judythemorgan|2018-09-03T09:35:34-05:00September 14th, 2018|Friday on the Miller Farm, Miller Farm Friday|1 Comment

A blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

The duck population on Miller Farm has increased to five. Filling their duck pool is the highlight of my week. They are so fun to watch as they take turns getting into the pool. Apparently sharing is a learned skill in ducks as well as in humans.
One duck hasn’t quite mastered the skill yet. The antics are fun to watch.

Of course this reminds me of a song. I actually have this song in a book all its own.

My copy is falling apart from so much use. Perhaps I should replace it before I introduce this song to my new group of classes. They have no idea what fun we will have! I do love sharing my life in songs.

7 09, 2018

My life in Songs, Part 1

By judythemorgan|2018-09-03T07:33:23-05:00September 7th, 2018|Friday on the Miller Farm, Miller Farm Friday|1 Comment

A blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

I recently started a new job teaching music at a charter school near my house. The private school where I taught for the past 10 years closed at the beginning of July. There was a period of time when I wasn’t teaching music anywhere.

This was very disconcerting. I realized that teaching music is not only what I do but it is a large part of who I am. My whole life is a series of songs to be shared with anyone who will listen – mostly children.

For example, we acquired 4 roosters who were somewhat smaller than our hens so we placed them in a vacant enclosure within the chicken yard. The next morning they were out with the hens.

I chased them back to what I considered safety but the next morning they were out again. I checked on them the following night and discovered they were all flying up into the tree above the enclosure and roosting for the night.

I spotted one in the tree and snapped a picture.

That reminded me of a song:

I realize they are not actually turkeys and there are only four but still, this is how my mind works. I suppose it will always work that way, whether or not I am officially a music teacher. Fortunately I am a music school teacher so I have an excuse to live my life in songs.

27 07, 2018

Missed the Memo

By judythemorgan|2018-07-24T21:59:56-05:00July 27th, 2018|Friday on the Miller Farm, Miller Farm Friday|1 Comment

A Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

I recently did my annual “work in the flower bed in the heat of summer” job. Some pink flowers we dug up at my father-in-law’s and replanted in our flowerbed prompted it. They add some cheer and color to the front of the house.

At one point we had another flower bed that encircled two pine trees. There were irises, a rosemary plant and a couple of althea bushes. Rachel and I worked in that flower bed 2 years ago but then the pine trees died and were cut down and the rosemary didn’t survive our “trimming” so I gave up on it.

Most of it just looks like part of the yard now except for these two amaryllis plants.They apparently did not get the memo that the flower bed was gone and they just keep on blooming.

I received word at the beginning of the month that the school where I teach is closing grades K-12 and will only keep the preschool open. This has made me very sad. Seeing these amaryllis every day reminds me that even though things around me are not the same, I can still bloom.

13 07, 2018

Paper or Digital?

By judythemorgan|2018-07-13T08:43:21-05:00July 13th, 2018|Friday on the Miller Farm, Miller Farm Friday|0 Comments

A Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

One of my goals this summer was to learn to play the organ. My finger injury forced me to put that on hold.

Instead I tackled all the piles of things that appeared during the school year. This included magazines most of which I had saved because they had recipes I wanted to try.

Along with children’s books and chickens I also collect recipes. I tear them out of magazines, cut them out of the paper and print them from Facebook. This has led to piles of papers to go with my piles of magazines and music.

I considered taking pictures of the recipes and storing them digitally on my phone. There are two problems with this plan:

My phone goes to sleep before I am finished with the recipe. I had this problem with a BBQ ribs recipe I was using on July 4^th. Trying to touch the screen often enough to keep it awake while cooking was more than I could handle.
The phone does not fit on my recipe holder.

So I’ll keep my paper recipes and my transition into the 21^st century will have to take a detour.

6 07, 2018

Chicken Little

By judythemorgan|2018-07-05T10:52:45-05:00July 6th, 2018|Friday on the Miller Farm, Miller Farm Friday|2 Comments

A Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

My mom recently gave me a copy of the children’s book Chicken Little to add to my collections of chickens and children’s books.

In case you are not familiar with the story Chicken Little is out in the farm yard one day when an acorn fell on her head. She is convinced the sky is falling and she runs to tell the king. On her way she meets Henny Penny, Cocky Locky, Ducky Wucky, Goosey Loosey, and Turkey Lurkey. The whole brood is headed for the castle when they run into Foxy Woxy who convinces them to follow him on a “shortcut.” He leads them into a cave with the most impure of motives. The whole crew causes a ruckus and runs out of the cave and back to the farm yard. The excitement has completely overshadowed the original dilemma and Chicken Little returns to pecking at corn in the farmyard – blissfully unconcerned about the condition of the sky.

I have thought about Chicken Little a great deal recently.

The school where I teach has undergone some financial difficulties in the last few years. I believe most private schools face this problem at some point. The reaction of the staff has been interesting to watch. Some have continued to do their job knowing that the students deserve their best regardless of what the future holds. Others have adopted the Chicken Little philosophy of “the sky is falling.” Their panic spread to some of the students and parents leading to an uncomfortable period of time.

I love my job as music teacher and strive to have fun with all my classes even if it will only be for a short time. I tried to spread this positive outlook to the faculty and staff as best I could and eventually the year came to an end.

I believe there are parallels in the reporting of current events today. I’ve decided to approach media news the way I do my position at school. I will do my best to enjoy life regardless of the circumstances. Perhaps I will follow Chicken Littles example at the end of the story and look for corn in my own farmyard.

29 06, 2018

More Sticky Notes Tales

By judythemorgan|2018-06-28T08:19:37-05:00June 29th, 2018|Friday on the Miller Farm, Miller Farm Friday|2 Comments

A Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

The great Sticky Note War has died down some but one of my students continues to write notes each time he comes. They are not always directed at the cat lovers, and I am beginning to believe he is using them as a stall tactic.

One of his most recent messages makes me smile every time I see it.

My son gave me a clock one year for Christmas. It is a chicken clock which already makes me smile.

However, my student put a sticky note on it that says “rooster o’clock” and “clockadoodledoo.”

I leave it there even though it makes it hard to tell the time. This student is taking some time off while his family is in a transition. There is a chance they will move which is sad.

I would miss his chicken stories and sense of humor. I’ll be praying for them regularly – that God works things out so they can stay. Us chicken lovers need to stick together.