Chickens Evicted

I'm headed up to help the Chicken Lady with her chores. I normally go up every 3 or 4 weeks to help keep the property up, the woods at bay, critters from creeping and wood to cut. I don't mind as it's peaceful and it's away from the rat race. I can take the time to smell the flowers and see the sunset.

I've mentioned before about how her chickens lay eggs in the strangest of places. For example, find eggs in the recycle bin, on the porch swing, in a milk crate or in a bucket.

If she doesn't find all the eggs they hatch and surprise, we have little fuzzy tennis balls with legs peeping showing up out of nowhere.

You read the story about Courage and why she lived in the pole barn.
Well, it turns out she was renting out the place to 13 more chickens, pooping on everything. It's like they were throwing parties at night tipping things over, pulling things off the rafters, jumping on things, and making really big messes.

Spring is here and we needed to reclaim the pole barn back to get work done.

At night, chickens like roost in high areas. It's 10 o'clock at night, we head to the barn to capture chickens. Armed with a flashlight and a fishing net. I wish I could have recorded it because the blood curling sounds were chilling. I did put the video on my phone and put it in  my pocket. It sounded more like a a massacre was taking place.

At first, I was nervous as chickens are really loud and flapping wings flapping. I'm not around this on a regular basis  but as we captured a couple it was getting fun and I wanted to run around like a kid chasing chickens. I understand the concept now.
She showed me how to grab and carry them by the feet. They get real quiet that way I guess they sort of go to sleep.

We put the 2 roosters in a cage (for another story) and put the hens out in the coop with the rest of the gang.  The next day we began to put the place back together from the panicked crazy chickens.

Do you have "Courage"

Every story needs a personality. The Chicken Lady's "pets" are no different.  Like people, our furry or feathery friends have their own stories.

To show you that the Chicken Lady actually exists we capture the story of Courage.

Courage's mother was a small brown Bantam chicken that roosted in the apple tree at night. Because it's what chickens do. In late fall of 2014, she hatched out a nest of baby chicks under my porch. There were 7 of them and they were tiny. Then it snowed and she decided that they should all go up into the apple tree to sleep. But the babies were only a few days old. When it got dark she took them all through the snow to the apple tree. She flew up into the tree, but the babies could not fly. they were not even the size of a golf ball.

I was in bed and heard the babies peeping loudly, so I went out in my nightgown to see what was going on. There they were standing in snow that was deeper then they were tall. Mama was up in the tree calling them to come up with no success.

I put on my boots and started running around to catch them. Mind you, it's snowing and I'm in my nightgown. Unfortunately, 2 had already died from being cold and wet. I caught the remaining 5 and took them into the pole barn and put them in a cat carrier. Mama flew down, went into the barn and got in the carrier with her young and that started it all..

Mama and babies stayed in the barn all winter. The babies grew but never got very big. I think they lacked the sunshine to help them grow. They were about the size of a pigeon. They had never been out of the barn for the first 7 months of their life and have never seen the sun. When it warmed up, Mama started going back up in the tree. The babies still could not fly that high. They would stay under the tree until dark then all 5 went back into the barn to their bed in the cat carrier.

When summer finally arrived they would come out of the barn and walk around the yard with the other chickens, but at night they went back in. Courage never would go very far from the barn, she stayed by herself most of the time.

It turned out there were 3 boys & 2 girls. The boys remained very tiny and were only about 1/2 the size of a regular Bantam rooster, but they learned how to fly. By the fall of 2015 they could fly up to the rafters in the barn. All but Courage. She still slept in the cat carrier. She was the only one that grew to be white with speckles, all the others were dark.

One by one they started to fly up into the apple tree with Mama. Then Mama was gone. I think an owl got her. The young ones went back to the safety of the barn rafters. But in the spring when they came out again they started to sleep back in the apple tree with other chickens. One by one they disappeared. Hawks, Owls or whatever.

Courage had never gone to sleep in the tree and always stayed in the barn by herself. There is a foot problem with the breed of Bantam that she is. She has feathers on her ankles and grows calluses on her feet that cause her toes to get hard and sort of grow together with parts of them breaking off, making it hard to walk. Her nails get very long and I have to keep them trimmed and peel off the callus often. She has already lost part of one toe.

Josh my grandson named her Courage because she had the courage to survive alone after all her hardships.

Because I left the pole barn garage door open a little at the bottom for Courage, other chickens decided that was a good place to sleep too. The barn got the look like a chicken coop inside so, this spring all of the chickens that had taken up residence in the barn except for Courage were removed to chickens coops. But the first night after eviction from the barn they left the coops and all are now in the apple tree at night including Courage who has learned to fly up just like all the other chickens. I opened the barn door for her in the morning and she left it. She is now the first one to fly up into the tree every night.
More to come on the eviction story, stay tuned.

Just run away.

Being able to escape the hustle of life and run away into nature is one of the most glories reasons to be alive. My children have been able to witness life's miracles and the feeling of joy it brings. Life is hard for all of us and many times the Chicken Lady has had to help life along the way. From time to time babies get tossed aside and discarded for a variety of reasons  She intervenes and has saved the lives of many that otherwise would have been doomed.
In this picture, meet Custer, Brownie and Duckie the goose. They are the lastest survivors from abandonment for one reason or another.  They all have a story to tell that the Chicken Lady has told countless times. As a Kid, it wasn't surprising to come home to a new"pet" or learn that something had been rescued.
One time I was mowing the lawn with a push mower and stopped quick as a kitten poked his head up in front of me. The thought of almost running it over mortified me. I had a new kitten and got myself out of finishing the lawn. Countless stories I could share of humanitarian efforts by The Chicken Lady.

It's a blessing that my kids get to experience nature in such its simplest form. We talk all the time about how things come to be. We walk in the woods and turn over logs to see what's underneath or kick over mushrooms, chase each other. It's all about life and balance.

Some days it's only about picking flowers to put on the dinner table as you share a meal. Some days it's about gathering eggs for the next big breakfast. It's about cutting wood for the coming winter.Whatever your day brings the importance is to embrace it and enjoy.

 

Learning about life in these simple forms are the building blocks of growing up a good person and understanding efforts on Mother Earth.
My current profession is sustainability which means to not

Dumpster Diving and Baking

I head up to the chicken ladies house every 3 or weeks to help her with chores and things. I love to get her out of the house for some human conversation.

It's become a thing for us to run up the grocery on a weekend for food to make dinner. Her fridge is usually pretty simple. A few over ripe vegetables that need to be eaten, Margarine bowls of comfort foods like chicken and rice, or goulash and 10 or 12 dozen eggs.  Sometimes spoiled milk. I have been known to drink out of the milk carton only to realize that is on its way to spoiling.

Just after the cold snap last winter, she decided that she wanted to see if we could find some greens and fruits for the chickens and geese. It was a cold winter and she wanted to give them a treat.

Dumpster diving is not new for me. My brother and I learned this art when we were kids.  He has better stories than I do, but you can  find some gems if you are persistent. Most of my college furniture digs were found items behind stores. It's pretty standard practice to carry a milk crate and tongs for the long reaches. I also carry bags too.

Not to mention the food waste in this country is crazy. My mom tells me stories that as a child she would get the old food scraps from grocery stores to feed  her mom's chickens. But, like anything else behaviors and laws change.  Each year, the United States throws away one - third of all food it produces. 133 billion pounds of food.  This is a problem.  http://www.businessinsider.com/why-grocery-stores-throw-out-so-much-food-2014-10 
Anyway, we typically find a broken watermelon, melons or greens that the everyone love to eat. Everyone's happy.  

Not only do we find  tasty foods, look at these bad boys, I found two sets of glass casserole dish sets complete with lids tossed in a box sitting next to the dumpster. One was broke but the other three were fine. I just needed to dig them out.
It was a rainy and cold day anyway and we really didn't what do any work outside. So, we decided to have a baking day.

She pulled out a cookbook that had been my grandmothers. The Settlement cookbook. 1944, 26th edition.What does that even mean?
Anyway, we had the oven on for hours and the house was very warm so no need to build a fire. We made jelly rolls, sponge cakes, bundt cakes. Anything that took a lot of eggs. After all, we did have 53 dozen eggs. Clearly, happy chickens lay eggs.
Not only was the cookbook vintage, I found some cream of tartar in a little metal container dated 1972. Believe it or not, it worked and we used it. The rust around the can was a pretty good sign that maybe it was time to pick up more.

Needless to say, me and the Chicken Lady had a grand old time drinking way too much coffee talking about the past and eating cake. Good visit.

Grand Opening for The Chicken Lady Blog

I have so many wonderful stories to share that I don't even know where to begin. I should have started this blog years ago but, as you all know life has a way of getting away from you and I was afraid of the commitment. I am still afraid of it, but what the hell.

The Chicken Lady aka my mother, is one of the most incredible women I know. She raised two kids on her own with very little to nothing. Putting her self through school, working thankless jobs to put food on the table and being the dad role model.  What started as a single trailer on a hill on a chuck of land has flourished into what is now a paradise that most people only dream of.

My blog isn't about us kids and our hardships growing up.  It's the next chapter in my mothers life. The one where the hard part is over.  When do you get to that point that you in your life that you can enjoy its simplicity?

She's surrounded by nature a on plot of land in the middle of Pure Michigan that she has called her own for over 40 years. She's made a paradise out of nothing and it's  pure serenity to get away from the fast paced life of social media, horrible news, and bad politics.

After my brother and I grew up and flew the coop my mother really started living. Living they way she wanted to live. Peaceful, simple and not answering to anyone.  Total dream right?

No credit cards, no outstanding debt, just living and sharing her life with her pets. She has multiple chickens of various breeds. Bantam chickens that roam free and do just crazy things. Geese that guard her spring fed pond. Cats and dogs that are both entertaining and purposeful when wild life comes creeping up for a snack.

When you're not caught up in dead end job spending more time at work than with family. She's artsy fartsy with wood crafts made out of recycled lumber, she designed hand bags and tote bags made from up-cycled juice bags and animal feed bags, sells crafty items on Etsy and Ebay and not to mention her mad skills with a chain saw cutting down trees the young age of 68.  I don't mess with my mom!

My goal is to share tidbits of her relaxed often humorous world so you can live vicariously through her. Enjoy

Bucket of Chicken?