Back in November, around the fifth at roughly 11am, I was at the computer working on bills and heard my three free range hens start squawking up a storm. Thankfully my computer is right next to the back door. I opened up the door to yell at them (we’ve had some minor pecking issues), only to realize that one of the neighbor’s dogs were attacking them at the compost pile. I screamed a few obscenities at the dog at the top of my lungs. The dog took up over the hill, but at this point the chickens had all high tailed it into different areas of the property, which is mostly swamp and gulley.

I called the hubby and he rushed home from work. It took close to an hour and a half before all three birds were found. Thankfully, we lucked out and none were hurt. They’re in the coop for the afternoon until I can be outside with them while they’re out as the animal control officer won’t be available to talk to the owners and see if the dog has been located until this evening. She did let us know that neither dog to that address has been registered. So, even through she can’t do a thing about the attack on the birds per say, she can fine them pretty heftily for the lack of registration.

On the plus side, at least we know that all three of them know to high tail it. I’ve heard too many stories of birds that just stand there and get eaten. But on that same note, it wouldn’t surprise me if he didn’t. I kept an eye out for him to snap a photo of him on our property, but never saw him after that. He’s not normally lose, either. It looks like he snapped out of his collar.

Apparently he was out for about 8 hours lose. The attack happened at 11am, and around 4pm I decided that the girls should come out to stretch their legs and scrounge. I stayed outside pretty much the entire time with them and our border collie (Belle) on her leash as she was freaked out about her chickens going missing earlier (she’s super protective of them). When my hubby went to come down the road on his way back from work, apparently the dog attacked the truck. Belle had been barking and snarling every once and a while, but I figured it was a combination of smelling the dog from earlier and having the crap jumped out of her by a squirrel. Hubby called to let me know that the dog was still loose. Needless to say, Belle and I backed the girls into a corner by the compost bin and I grabbed the nearby pitchfork just in case. Hubby wasn’t able to finish coming down the road until another neighbor (thankfully in a vehicle) was being harassed by the dog. Once hubby got home, he took Belle in and called local dispatch to let animal control know and we got the girls in the coop.

When animal control showed up, he chased her car down the road before going back and sitting on his property. Needless to say, she was planning on having a hell of a talk with the owners. Hubby’s going to call and follow up today, even though normally that’s not the norm around here. We just want to make sure things have been taken care of.

The scary thing is that this is a highly aggressive dog (the animal control lady couldn’t even get out of her blazer to approach him with the pole) who lives at the same residence as a child. It also seems like there are possibly signs of abuse from what the control officer said. I’m nine months pregnant and expecting our first child. I’ll be damned if I’m going to be afraid to walk down my own road. They also have a huskie and the two dogs don’t get along at all, which is why this one was tied up outside for 8+ hours. You better believe any slight infraction will be called in from here on out. We try to give people the benefit of the doubt, but I’m done.

I’m so thankful everyone made it through okay! (And that I didn’t go into labor dealing with all of this…)

We’ve been using the stove for over a month and love it. We do still have oil backup since Teeny (lovebird) can’t get below 62F for long at all, but it’s barely been running.

Needless to say, we love it!

So this week has been off to a bit of a rough start around this here homestead. Not really the type of post all you lovely readers want after so much quiet time, but it’s reality. While Baby Surprise continues to grow strong, things around here are testing us more than the norm. From a bent wheel on the car, to a furnace without oil, and the financial implications of both, it’s time to tighten the boot straps and belts and get back to living off from a bare bones diet, I think, especially if the girls want to have their chicken coop by the end of the month.

Hopefully I’ll get in a better post later of things that have been done around here, what still needs doing, and what may never see the light of day until next season. Just think, the fall’s almost here. There’s still a lot of crazy to go before this year is even done.

Look at all those wonderful, happy looking yellow flowers! I love the looks of them, and given that they have edible roots, am very happy to know that we have an abundance of food in our backyard that we didn’t even have to think about growing. (Too bad neither of us really care for parsnip.)

From what research I’ve dug up this morning, wild parsnip was brought over by the settlers as a main staple crop. When it was “traded up” for the potato, the plants began to run rampant and now inhabit all but four states of the US – Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, and Hawaii. Like most plants that came over on the ships, it’s considered invasive, but very little has been done to help eradicate it as local plants are not directly harmed by it.

We have even more over in the area across from the main garden!

While the roots are edible, the plant itself is horrendous. Wild parsnip plants contain furanocoumarin, a photosensitive chemical that causes a condition known as phytophotodermatitis, which in a simple way means that the chemical combined with UV rays creates a chemical reaction that will burn. Theses burns will blister in a matter for 24 – 48 hours and dissipate, leaving behind dark spots and lines that somewhat resemble freckles. These markings can take anywhere from two months to three years to go away. If you get the sap on your skin at all, it’s recommended to wash with cold water and stay indoors. Sweat will exasperate the process, as will heat and sun. Some folks suggest seeking treatment from a physician or pharmacist as this is technically a chemical burn, which makes me very glad I had Joe doing a baking soda paste on his arms to help combat it.

The only way to really remove the plant is to mow or wack (with protection obviously) consecutively, pull the plant up roots and all, cut the plant off at the root with a spade, or own a cow. A little area in my mind is now trying to figure out the possibility of owning a cow on such a tiny plot of land…

I apologize for the poorly focused photos (the camera battery was dying), but you can still get a wonderful idea as to her colouring. Skee (as we’ve nick-named her) is a very skittish, two month old Araucana who had been pecked at by the larger one in a mixed flock of twelve birds.

Right now she’s in her own little tractor made out of a portion of my parents’ old cat run.

The plan right now is to not have her out with the others for a week or so, letting her get used to us and them through the safety of a fence. This will also give us time to make sure that she’s completely healthy and healed. We’re going to slowly move the tractors closer to one another so that they can get used to each other’s sounds and company. In about a week or a little more we’ll begin doing supervised free range time as a flock. Given that Edith, one of our comets, is also very docile, and Louise isn’t too big of a bully, they should be able to be a very happy family by the time we have the coop built.

***

On the egging front, all soft eggs have disappeared, as well with the egg eating incidences. We have had close to two dozen eggs from Edith and Louise and both are laying one a day!

These two ladies are a variety of Red Comets and their lineage cross is that of a Rhode Island Red  and a New Hampshire Red.

From the “top down” you can see the two breeds mixed in. Louise, the only on the left, is more stout and wide like New Hampshire Reds are reported to be. Edith is a bit taller and more muscular, bringing to mind the look of the Rhode Island Reds.

Poking around online, and from what we’ve noticed already, they’re very docile, yet wonderfully talkative birds that love to sing at you any time you’re around. They are super curious, but are very well secured in their tractor, thankfully. The plus side to starting off with these two girls will be that they are prolific egg layers and at peak will lay between 4 to 6 eggs, each, a week. We actually had Edith lay one yesterday (within the first 24 hours of us having them in our care), but it was her first, very soft, and of no use — especially once Louise found it. Thankfully it takes more than the one time to create a severe egg eater.

Welcome home, Louise and Edith! We promise you’ll have a coop before hurricane season!

A little over a month ago, with the help of my brother Peter and a family friend on Joe’s part (someone from such-and-such construction), we were able to successfully move both the loader and the plow set up for the tractor to the house. This means that all the available implements that went with the tractor that Grampa Fitch had are finally at their new home.  The only down side to the move was the slight reaction a couple of us had from the “dormant” poison ivy oils. You should have seen the bumper crop of that stuff around the implements last year!

(I should add that these are the first videos I’ve really done with our digital camera. While the quality isn’t anything to write home about, it’s a really cool view of Kevin Brann’s awesome skill with lining things up on the trailers. We couldn’t have done any of this without Kevin’s help.)

It may be years before they see use as we don’t have the time or money right now to repair them, but some day it will happen! The loader will see work first, since for the plow we would need a good size plot to be able to actually use it. Before any of that gets done the tractor needs to be worked on and running. It’ll get there, it just might take a while.

For now, they'll hang out at the eastern end of our northern garden.

Regardless of what your individual stance is on cell phones and their interaction with your own personal being, I think it might be time for this family to put a ban on cell phone use in the yard.

Tornado that touched down in Phippsburg, Maine. (2005)

The weather has me on edge. Tornado warnings have been springing up in areas that otherwise never hear of such a thing. Severe thunderstorms have been moving across from the west with a force that is not to be reckoned with. I know that the husband will laugh when he comes home and sees that the herb boxes have been ducktaped down, but I have this feeling in me that tomorrow might not be simply a thunderstorm. I would rather be laughed at and thought a fool for worrying about my eventual harvest than be a fool for not.