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26 05, 2017

d’Uccle Chicks

By judythemorgan|2017-05-21T06:48:21-05:00May 26th, 2017|Miller Farm Friday|1 Comment

A blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

Among Rachel’s recent acquisition of chicks is a pair of d’Uccles. This breed has very long feathers on its feet.

For the longest time, I couldn’t understand what Rachel was saying and called the chicks “duseldorfers”.

Rachel, having lived with me all her life, would patiently repeat “d’Uccles, Mom, D’Uccles”

I finally looked them up and seeing the name in writing helped it stay in my head. It also convinced me Rachel was not just making this all up.

She moved the d’Uccle chicks out of the chick pen in with the big girls. Since there are two we figured they would keep each other company. However, they have bird brains and one of them spent much of its time running up and down the chicken wire fence enclosing the chick pen.

The other night I discovered the poor chick with its head stuck in the chicken wire. I was afraid it was dead, but I got to it in time. I carefully removed its head from the chicken wire and returned it to the big pen with the other d’Uccle.

This afternoon I found them both in the chick pen. I have no idea how they got there but I’m leaving them alone. They may have bird brains but they know where they want to be.

24 05, 2017

Wisdom from Rural America – Plowing

By judythemorgan|2017-05-05T13:26:39-05:00May 24th, 2017|Wednesday Words of Wisdom|1 Comment

This farmer’s advice is good whether you have a field to plow or a book to write.Quit procrastinating and Just. Do. It.

22 05, 2017

Are you a Master or a Captain of your writing?

By judythemorgan|2017-05-07T15:31:43-05:00May 22nd, 2017|Make Me Think Monday|1 Comment

We use the two terms interchangeably in common use while each has a distinctive nuance and historically the titles represent unique roles in nautical vocabulary.

Before standing navies were established, armies used civilian ships to transport soldiers and their supplies. When the captain of a company of soldiers came aboard with troops for transport, he assumed military command of the ship. He determined its destination and, if the ship engaged in hostilities at sea, directed the battle.

A captain had overall authority, but the master maintained responsibility for sailing operations. The rise of steam-powered vessels phased out the need for sailing masters and the demise of the term ship’s master.

On civilian ships such as cruise vessels, the one in charge is officially the captain though sometimes called master. In popular usage, captain or skipper prevails over the term master for pleasure craft owners.

You’ll find the term captain employed in fire or police department hierarchies and on sports teams, but not master.

Simply put, the difference between the terms is that a master is someone who has control over something or someone while the captain is a chief or leader.

If we think about our writing as our ship, I prefer the term master of writing.

Why? Because a writer who controls her writing skill and, at the same time, understands the business aspects of publishing is more likely to be successful.

That doesn’t mean a writer can’t be a captain of writing and be successful too.

Being a leader (aka captain) in a genre or professional writing organization is not a bad thing as long as the leadership responsibility doesn’t hinder writing time.There are those rare individuals who can be both master and captain of their writing.

What do you think? Would you prefer to be a master or a captain of your writing?

19 05, 2017

A Frizzle of a Different Color

By judythemorgan|2017-05-18T10:11:19-05:00May 19th, 2017|Miller Farm Friday|2 Comments

A blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

Frizzles are some of my favorite chickens. We had a black one – Frizz – who had the greatest attitude. Now we have Frizz 2 – one of her children. And then there’s Richard, the spastic frizzle rooster. He gets most upset if you try to move him.
My current favorite is a partridge frizzle Rachel has named Watson. She was given this name because she is paired with a very curious red rooster named Sherlock.

Watson is a product of Rachel’s color project and she is wonderful -most of the time.

She and Sherlock like to roost on the chain link fence at night. We have to put them into their coop to keep them safe.

She has inherited the slightly spastic personality of Richard but once you hold her close, she calms down. She did get stuck once between the chain link fence and the chicken wire. It was a little tense because Rosie, the dog next door, was also between the fences.

I had to be careful as I extracted Watson so as not to strip her feathers. Fortunately, Rosie was not interested in Watson and all ended well.

I had hoped she would have learned to stay in her own area. But alas each night we get to snuggle her as we put her and Watson into their coop.

17 05, 2017

Wisdom from Rural America – Watch Your Words

By judythemorgan|2017-05-07T07:15:45-05:00May 17th, 2017|Wednesday Words of Wisdom|1 Comment

15 05, 2017

Writing Mistakes on Social Media

By judythemorgan|2017-05-04T16:11:15-05:00May 15th, 2017|Make Me Think Monday|1 Comment

Copy editing is hard. That’s why I use a professional for my novels, but when I write blogs, FB posts, and tweets, I proofread myself.

Sometimes that’s a good thing. Sometimes not so good.

Recently I ran across this GrammarCheck infographic to use as a fantastic guide for checking for writing errors when writing for social media.

Source: www.grammarcheck.net

Do any of these common writing mistakes pop up in your social media posts?

12 05, 2017

New Business Venture

By judythemorgan|2017-05-10T21:21:00-05:00May 12th, 2017|Miller Farm Friday|2 Comments

A blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

Recently our local feed store was running a sale – on chickens. Buff orpington hens to be exact. Beekeeper Brian and Rachel figured that if we raise them until they lay eggs then we could sell them at a nice profit.

So after just hatching 42 eggs, we bought 14 chicks. After all, who can resist a sale, right? We put them in the grow-out pen with the other chicks.

They are the four lighter colored ones.

I must confess they are kind of cute. Not that I am getting attached. They are a business venture.

They will be sold, they will be sold. I have to keep reminding myself.

One of them is different from the others. She managed to get herself into the live trap that Rachel had set for the baby possums that like to eat the chick feed at night.

At first, I took it as a sign that this chick wanted to stay with us. Then I remembered –

they will be sold.

10 05, 2017

Something to think about this Mother’s Day

By judythemorgan|2017-05-05T11:54:34-05:00May 10th, 2017|Wednesday Words of Wisdom|0 Comments

This Sunday celebrate the women who have brought life to your world.

8 05, 2017

MOTHER – A Word Study

By judythemorgan|2017-05-05T12:51:46-05:00May 8th, 2017|Make Me Think Monday|1 Comment

Mother’s Day, the day set aside to honor mothers and motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society, is fast approaching. This coming Sunday, May 14 to be exact.

Knowing Mother’s Day was so soon, I did a word search on the word Mother and learned some interesting facts.

Mother derives from the Old English term modor and can be used as a noun, a verb, and an adjective. Dictionary.com offered some interesting samples.

How many of these adjective examples do you recognize?

mother love – displaying the characteristics of a mother

mother hen – an overly protective person

mother wit – natural intelligence or wit

mother ship – a ship that serves smaller vessels

And these expressions (idioms) using mother?

a face only a mother could love – an unattractive person

at mother’s knee – learning something as a child

everybody/everyone and their mother – a hyperbole referring to a crowd

the mother of all _______ – the best or greatest of a type of thing

swear/swore on mother’s grave – a solemn confirmation that one is telling the truth because of the association with the sanctity of a parent’s gravesite

tied to mother’s apron strings – someone who has not asserted his independence from his mother

The informal variant of Mother is Mom. The Urban Dictionary provides various meanings for its use. Some like soccer mom I’m sure you’ve used.

Of all my research finds, this poem by Chirag Kapoor best sums up the meaning of mother for Mother’s Day. You might want to recite it for your Mom on Sunday.

5 05, 2017

Rooster Exchange

By judythemorgan|2017-05-04T20:58:19-05:00May 5th, 2017|Miller Farm Friday|0 Comments

A blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

We recently received an update on Tina and Tom, our turkeys who moved away. Their new owner sent a picture to assure us they are doing well.

They seem happy to be with other turkeys and away from the chickens.

Before they left Miller Farm, there was an issue with the roosters. Tom had become a little aggressive to Buffy leaving him vulnerable to attack from Kaboodle – the Polish crested rooster who had never been a problem.

Bull

Buffy

Anyway, we decided to trade Buffy for the Light Brahma rooster we had given to our friend Greta. She’d named him Bull because he tried to run through the sliding glass door to join them in their house.

Since Bull was the only rooster on Greta’s “farm” we thought our Buffy would be safe there. Bull, being a larger rooster, would be able to hold his own against Kaboodle on Miller Farm.

So we made the great Rooster Exchange.

Things are going smoothly so far. Kaboodle and Bull have come to an understanding and Buffy is glad to be apart from the craziness of Miller Farm.

Of course, we do have 20 or so chicks which could be hens or roosters so we may be sorting roosters once again. Oh well, I’ll enjoy the calm while it lasts.