Hanging Here and New Life

Yesterday I came across a hanging. Over the winter, a couple of birds took up residence in my stove vent. Their nest wasn't interfering with how the vent worked and since I tend to be a terribly lazy person at times, I had pity on them and decided to share the warmth of my house for the winter. Yesterday, I went to evict them because their nest was starting to drop materials on my stove. To my surprise there was a bird hanging by the neck from the vent by a thread! We had heard a lot of fighting out of them over the winter, but I didn't think it was that bad! I am a HORRIBLE person. I laughed.



Grampa has some gardens coming up. He's got beets, radishes, kolorabi, lettuce, spinach,onions and peas coming up. He's hoping he'll be able to get some potatoes, broccoli and tomato plants in this week. The farmer's market in Burlington will be starting May 7th. Hopefully we'll have some veggies ready to go by then.


Mutant chickens anyone? These are Cornish Crosses. I really don't like these birds. They are the ones raised in most commercial poultry opperations. They are bred for meat production at the expense of feather and bone. It's how they get those gigantic chicken breasts you see everywhere, but they never get all their feathers and they tend to have problems with broken legs. To me, they never really look healthy, but Farm & Home was practically giving them away and they were already 2 weeks old. They are ready to butcher between 8 and 12 weeks old so they were pretty big when we got them. They aren't going to be pastured, but we are giving them lots of hay. They don't seem to understand what to do with real vegetables like normal chickens do. We figured if we can't sell them, we will put them in our freezer.




We just got this shipment of baby chicks in this week. We have 100 Golden Comets, 25 Black Asterlops and 25 White Leghorns. These are all breeds that have a high egg production record. The Golden Comets and Black Asterlops have brown eggs and the White Leghorns have white egg. We're planning to alternate new chick purchases between high production and color.

Well, I'm off this morning to work for the US Census. I love this job! I get to tromp around the country side and see all the beautiful places God has created. I get lots of fresh air and exercize and ... I get to punch buttons!


God Bless You All! ~ Love, Grama Sue