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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.

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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!

 

 

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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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6 06, 2016

Recharging the Writer’s Brain Well

By |2016-06-04T12:22:52-05:00June 6th, 2016|Make Me Think Monday|0 Comments

learningIt’s been said, “When you stop learning, you stop growing.”

Or, as Albert Einstein put it “Once you stop learning, you start dying.”

Many professions recognize and require ongoing learning.

As a teacher, I needed 40 hours of professional growth per year.

As an antique dealer, I constantly read price guides, watched Antiques Roadshow, and friended Kovel’s on Facebook to keep up-to-date on antiques and pricing.

As a writer, I attend a writing conferences or workshop every year. Some are on-line or podcasts; others in person.

Those in person conferences are the ones I enjoy the most because I’m not only learning I’m meeting my people. We writers are a breed unto ourselves and networking with those who understand is a treat.

Over the winter, health issues made writing difficult. I sorta lost my momentum. My zeal to write. (In case you’ve wondered, that’s why you’ve been missing new blog posts here.)

I truly needed interaction with my kind and some brain filling.

In May I attended a mini-con presented by the RWA chapter, Colorado Romance Writers. This well-organized conference delivered. And, delivered superbly.

The fellow writers were warm, friendly, and oh so understanding. We spoke the same language.

The daylong lecture from Donald Maass, President of Donald Maass Literary Agency in New York, challenged and charged my muse, as I had expected.

I’ve been attending Maass workshops since 2006. After decades in the publishing business,The Donald truly knows his stuff. His well-used books on craft line my bookcase line my bookcase —Writing the Breakout Novel (2001), Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook (2004), The Fire in Fiction (2009) , The Breakout Novelist (2011) and Writing 21st Century Fiction (2012).

If you’re a writer looking to push your craft to the next level, you should check out opportunities at Free Expressions Seminars and Literary Services  and/or subscribe to the Writer Unboxed blog, where Mr. Maass is a monthly contributor.

That weekend conference  refilled my brain well and supercharged my muse. I’m back on course and busy pushing to have the final book in the Vietnam War Era trilogy released this year.

How do you refill your own brain well?

If you’re a writer, I highly recommend attending an in person writer’s conference or workshop.

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3 06, 2016

Higher Ground

By |2016-05-20T16:41:49-05:00June 3rd, 2016|Miller Farm Friday|1 Comment

A blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

Texas has had a great deal of rain recently.  Considering the drought conditions we have endured over the past several years, I am not complaining.

I do feel sorry for the chickens, though. highwaterchicks1As the chicken yard has filled with water, the birds are seeking higher ground.highwaterchicks2

 

The one advantage to all the rain is  our bluebonnets  have bloomed a second time.

blue bonnetsI think it’s worth the mess in the chicken yard.

 

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30 03, 2016

An Irish Blessing for House Guests

By |2016-03-18T16:37:44-05:00March 30th, 2016|Wednesday Words of Wisdom|1 Comment

Today is the last Wednesday in March will end the Irish sayings, quotes, toasts, and wishes. I hope you’ve enjoyed the witty Irish sayings as much I’ve enjoyed sharing.

blessingThis final wish (blessing) is one of my favorites. It hangs in my guest bedroom for all my house guests to read.

Do you have a favorite Irish saying you’d like to share?

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28 03, 2016

Irish Blarney and the Writer

By |2016-03-18T16:34:54-05:00March 28th, 2016|Make Me Think Monday|2 Comments

Rivers in major cities all over the world have run green this month. Bars filled with people wearing fake beards, green top hats, and sunglasses shaped as twin four-leaf clovers. After all, with or without any Irish heritage, everyone’s Irish at least on St. Patrick’s Day.

For sure, there’s been lots and lots of craic (Irish fun) and blarney (talk that is not necessarily true, but eloquent) going on.

If you’ve read my Wednesday posts, you’ve read a lot of Irish blarney. Some words less well-known idioms and blessings, some more familiar and oft-repeated quotes and sayings  of Irish humor and insight. I’m thinking some of the lessons were  clearly learned the hard way.

Bunrattybig

SOURCE: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bunrattybig.jpg#/media/File:Bunrattybig.jpg

To receive the gift of Blarney, it’s said you should kiss the Blarney Stone located in the tiny village northwest of Cork in Country Cork within the Castle.

The castle itself was constructed in 1446, but the history of the place goes back two centuries before that time. The origins of the Blarney Stone as a magical stone is a mystery.

Some believe the stone at the castle is the stone Moses struck to produce water for Israelites during their exodus from Egypt. Others believe it to be Jacob’s Pillow brought to Ireland by the prophet Jeremiah and became the Lia Fail, or ‘Fatal Stone’, oracular throne of the Irish kings.

Still others tag it as the Stone of Ezel, which David hid behind while fleeing King Saul, and brought to Ireland during the Crusades. Ultimately to be used as the Coronation Stone of Scottish monarchs and St. Columba’s traveling altar throughout Scotland.

After Columba’s death, the stone came to Ireland to serve as the Stone of Destiny, the prophetic power of royal succession.

It is known that the word Blarney itself entered the dictionary during the time of Queen Elizabeth I, when Dermot McCarthy, castle ruler, kept delaying to surrender his fortress to the Queen as proof of his loyalty. When the Queen heard his excuses, she said “Odds bodikins, more Blarney talk!”

Shortly thereafter the Francis Sylvester Mahony, an Irish bard of the early nineteenth century, wrote:

There is a stone there, that whoever kisses,

Oh! He never misses to grow eloquent:

Is all that history true? Who knows? The Irish are, after all, the world’s greatest story tellers.

Whether any of the blarney is true or not, Blarney Castle and its magical stone attract hundreds of thousands of visitors every year.

I’ve been.

And let me tell you kissing that stone is quite a feat. First, you climb up 90+ feet inside the castle stairway then execute a back bend that would cripple a skilled gymnast.

SOURCE: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blarney_stone.png#/media/File:Blarney_stone.png

SOURCE: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blarney_stone.png#/media/File:Blarney_stone.png

The higher I climbed the more my fear of heights and dark, narrow stairways kicked in. I never made it to the top. Instead taking the first exit to enjoy the garden and gift shop.

Personally, I think there’s a touch of the o’blarney in all writers whether they’ve ever been to the isle and kissed the stone or not.

Don’t you agree?

 

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