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16 03, 2018

King of the Chicken Yard

By |2018-03-15T15:02:25-05:00March 16th, 2018|Friday on the Miller Farm, Miller Farm Friday|1 Comment

A Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

It is very interesting to watch the relational dynamics of the chicken yard. I have a whole new understanding of the term “pecking order.”

There is a specific spot for each hen in the coop at night.  When I move those who roost on the bee hives into the coop, there is a certain amount of clucking and squawking before everyone settles down.

The roosters have their own way of handling things.

On our farm, many of the roosters are separated by breed – the blue-laced red Wyandottes are in their own space, Richard the spastic frizzle has his own run and the Welsummer rooster is with his hens in another pen. Sometimes the boys will bow up against the chicken wire that separates them but they really can’t do any damage.

That leaves Kaboodle, the Polish crested, and Custard, the Croad Langston, in the main yard.  Custard, you may remember, is named after the Ogden Nash poem, Custard the Cowardly Dragon.  He has earned his name by running from even the small D’Uccle hen.

So Kaboodle doesn’t have to work hard to be the Alpha rooster.  Just in case anyone doubts that, he has taken to jumping up on the fence and crowing.He is very careful to return to his side of the fence.  He may be King of the Chicken Yard but he knows the dachshunds rule the other side of the fence.

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12 03, 2018

The Ides of March – A Time to be Cautious?

By |2024-03-10T15:15:17-05:00March 12th, 2018|Make Me Think Monday|1 Comment

The Death of Caesar (1798) By Vincenzo Camuccini, Public Domain

Thanks to high school English classes where William Shakespeare is required reading the phrase The Ides of March can conjure prophecies of doom and a need for caution. Even if you’ve never read Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, you’re probably familiar with the phrase.

But, The Ides of March did not originally mean anything sinister.

Ides comes from the old Latin verb iduare, which meant “to divide.” March 15 was a normal day in the Roman calendar meaning halfway through the month and coincided with the rise of the full moon.

Every month had an Ides. In March, May, July, and October ides fell on the 15th, and in the other months, it came on the 13th.

During Roman times, the Ides of March was the deadline for settling debts. So perhaps, some Romans considered the date ominous even before Shakespeare dramatized the 44 B.C. assassination of Julius Caesar.

But, it was the soothsayer’s warnings to Julius Caesar in Shakespeare’s play that forever linked the date with bad luck.

Before March 15, Caesar ruled Rome as a temporary dictatorship. He very much wished to make the position permanent. His quest for power triggered a conspiracy to have him assassinated, and he was stabbed 23 times on the stairs of the Senate House.

Perhaps Caesar should have listened to the soothsayer, who it turns out was a real historical figure named Spurinna. According to Roman historians, Spurinna was a haruspex or religious figure who was able to divine the future by examining the dissected innards of sacrificial animals. He’d seen signs in February and warned Caesar, but Caesar chose to ignore him.

Julius Caesar’s murder is not the only bad thing to happen on The Ides of March or March 15. Check out these:

  1.  Smithsonian list of historical events that have occurred on March 15.
  2. The UK’s Independent suggests these five events as the worst things that have happened on March 15
  3. And, lastly, this blog that lists 11 Wonderful Things That Have Happened on the Ides of March

Bad things can happen any day. So can good things.

But I can tell you if I receive any warnings about the Ides of March, I’m going to side with caution. I don’t want a day like the one Julius Caesar had.

Do you think you should be extra cautious on the Ides of March?

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9 03, 2018

Well, Help Yourself

By |2018-03-08T09:54:02-06:00March 9th, 2018|Friday on the Miller Farm, Miller Farm Friday|1 Comment

A Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

Since we have several different feed pans and different pens of chickens, I have developed a system for feeding the birds in the mornings. I tend to work clockwise.

I throw feed into the runs with the Blue Laced Wyandottes and bantams first. Then I put feed into the four pans in the big pen and the one in the Welsummer pen.

The last to be fed are the two roosters in the long run. They were meant to be sent to freezer camp but one is particularly handsome and the other got a reprieve because it got too dark to keep working.

My system works great usually. Then one morning, I set the pail down and turned around to see one of the Buff Orpingtons helping herself to the feed.I guess she was really hungry.

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5 03, 2018

Independence and Texas

By |2018-03-01T17:21:51-06:00March 5th, 2018|Make Me Think Monday|0 Comments

Last weekend there were big doings here in the Lone Star State.

Folks ate lots of barbecue and chili and/or Tex-Mex and Mexican food. Many indulged in a Shiner Bock and Lone Star beers. And, of course, pecan pie (Texas’ state nut) or a Texas sheet cake for dessert.

You see, March 2 marked the 182nd anniversary of the Texas Declaration of Independence from Mexico. That’s a big deal to native Texans.

It wasn’t until April 21, 1836, when the outnumbered and outgunned Texians defeated General Santa Anna’s soldiers on the fields of San Jacinto that independence declared became independence secured.

Maybe you didn’t know Texas was an independent sovereignty once. Let me fill you in…

The Republic of Texas existed from March 2, 1836, to February 19, 1846. Its boundaries were Mexico, the Gulf of Mexico, two U.S. states Louisiana and Arkansas, and U.S. territories that included parts of current Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, and Wyoming.

See, Texas has always been a BIG place.

Citizens of the Republic of Texas were known as Texians. Residents of the modern state of Texas called Texans.

The first Republic flag was known as “The Burnet Flag,” a dark blue background with a single yellow star in the center. The familiar red, white, and blue Texas flag was adopted in 1839.

 

“Six flags over Texas” is more than just a theme park in Texas. Historically, six different flags have flown here:

  • The Kingdom of Spain (1519 – 1685 and 1690 – 1821)
  • The Kingdom of France (1685 – 1690)
  • The Mexican Federal Republic (1821 – 1836)
  • The Republic of Texas (1836 – 1845)
  • The Confederate States of America (1861 – 1865)
  • The United States of America 1845 – 1861 and 1865 – present

Here’s the national anthem (now the official state song) of Texas, “Texas, Our Texas.” It was written in 1924 by William J. Marsh, who was born in Liverpool, England, and emigrated to Texas as a young man, and Gladys Yoakum Wright, a native of Fort Worth, Texas, and selected as the state song by a concurrent resolution of the Texas Legislature in 1929 following a statewide competition.

Probably more Texas history than you wanted to know, but being a native whose family was among the early settlers, I just couldn’t stop myself. You know how Texans can be.

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2 03, 2018

New Olympic Event

By |2018-03-01T12:51:14-06:00March 2nd, 2018|Friday on the Miller Farm, Miller Farm Friday|0 Comments

A Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

We have had a great deal of rain around here lately. I don’t mean to complain. After many years of drought, the rain is appreciated.

However, it does present some unique challenges on Miller Farm.  The chicken yard is very muddy and very, very slick.  We’ve decided to institute a new Olympic event – Mud Sliding.  Points are not given for speed or gracefulness.  The goal is simply to keep from falling down.

So far we have all earned gold medals.

As entertaining and inspiring as the Olympics are, I will be glad when the Miller Farm Olympics are over. I don’t want to push my mud sliding skills (or luck) too far.

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28 02, 2018

Words from Mount Rushmore – Abraham Lincoln

By |2018-02-21T11:17:53-06:00February 28th, 2018|Holidays, Wednesday Words, Wednesday Words of Wisdom|0 Comments

All month we’ve honored Presidents Day with Wednesday’s Words of Wisdom from the Mount Rushmore presidents. Today’s words come from President Abraham Lincoln, the last face on the right.Mount Rushmore is known as the “Shrine of Democracy,” an iconic symbol of the United States carved into the southeastern face of Mount Rushmore in South Dakota’s Black Hills National Forest.

Sculptor Gutzon Borglum created the design depicting the faces of U.S. Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt and oversaw the project’s execution from 1927 to 1941 with the help of his son, Lincoln Borglum.

Borglum along with four hundred workers used dynamite and pneumatic hammers to blast through the rock quickly along with the traditional tools of drills and chisels as the heads of the four presidential heads took shape in the face of Mount Rushmore.

Arduous and dangerous work, it is amazing that no lives were lost during the construction. If you ever see it in person, you will stand in awe as I did.

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26 02, 2018

Happy Blogiversary!

By |2018-02-02T09:54:28-06:00February 26th, 2018|A Writer's Life, Make Me Think Monday, Writer's Life|0 Comments

Anniversaries mark accomplishments and are fun to commemorate. This month I celebrate my blogiversary.

On February 24, 2012, I published my first blog with WordPress.com. You can read that very first blog, here.

My original plan was to blog every day. I quickly discovered creating a daily blog took time from my fiction writing.

That goal gradually evolved into two times a week for me and once a week for my daughter aka Chicken Wrangler Sara who blogs every Friday about Life on the Miller Farm.

Guest bloggers also contribute periodically.

When WordPress.com hosted the blog, I received yearly stats on my blogiversary. I switched to hosting the blog on my own website and don’t have such accurate accounting. I get stats, not cumulative data. But, over the years, I’ve posted hundreds of blogs and had thousands of views, followers, and subscribers.

By the way, it’s easy to subscribe and have the blog appear in your inbox. Simply, go to the home page and enter your email address in the box on the right sidebar.

Chicken Wrangler Sara and I cherish your comments. We respond to every one. We attributed our blog success directly to you readers. As a special thank you, we’re offering a FREE Kindle or paperback copy Love in the Morning Calm to one lucky commenter today.

Blurb for Love in the Morning Calm:

In 1966, while on temporary assignment to South Korea, Green Beret Major Alex (Ace) Cabot meets Lily Reed, a Department of Army civilian at Eighth Army Headquarters. Alex is a high-potential career officer, who should resist the temptation of any woman, but he can’t ignore his interest in her.

Lily is a firm supporter of the budding women’s lib movement. She enjoys her freedom and new life away from her stifling hometown. Her plans leave no room for any man. No matter how captivating his smile.

In an uncertain time, in a temporary safe zone, yielding to temptation changes both their lives forever.

Love in the Morning Calm is Book 1 of my newly created Promises Series, which consists of three published novels grouped into a continuous story of two men and one woman who met at Eighth Army Headquarters, Yongsan, South Korea in the sixties. Each sequel is a standalone novel that chronicles their stories from the turbulent Vietnam War years through the decades that follow.

The book winner will be drawn on Monday, March 2 and notified by email so be sure you include an email contact with your comment.

Thanks for visiting the front porch. We hope to stop by often.

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