Little piggy games.
Funny dog Games.
Yesterday we sowed all the high summer vegetables all over again. The secret to growing lots of food across a whole summer is successive plantings. Already we are eating like kings. Last night we had lamb burgers flavoured with mint and fresh garlic, slathered with a chimichurri made from two different kinds of basil and cilantro and parsley and topped with fat slices of beetroot and freshly lifted onion and lettuce. All on home made, straight from the oven buns. Divine.
The apple tree is a favourite chicken hang-out now.
Look at this bedraggled chicken (below) on the right. I found her yesterday afternoon floating in a deep stock water tank. All I could see was her head and a slowly blinking eye. She had been in there so long that her entire body was below the water line like a fat iceberg. Her terror had gone all the way past desperation to defeat. As I reached her she was listing heavily. Almost gone.
Her whole body was inert and still and heavy. So soaked was she. Even her legs would not work anymore. So I popped her into a warm hay manger and covered her with old hay to soak up all the water, moving her to a dry spot in the hay every once in a while. She flopped with her head down, closed her eyes and shivered in the hot sun as I fluffed her feathers to dry. I honestly thought she would die. But a couple of hours later she climbed out and made her way back to the chookhouse. Tough old bird. She is a layer too. Look at her big healthy comb.
It was hot and still all day. Soaked in deep humidity.
Boo is being taught to climb into this chair and sit there. He gets over-excited when visitors come so I need to be able to command him out of the action quickly and then he has to sit and wait for the command to get back down. Hence the chair. He is doing very well though it is not his favourite trick so far.
Good morning. All round it was a lovely day on the farmy yesterday. The country rhythm was easily recovered. We took out the broken door from the piglets pen with Charlotte barking her encouragement. I am thinking of turning it into a harvest table for the verandah. It is lovely heavy wood. I need to talk to my men.
Today the painter comes, and the roofers come to work on the gutters. I am hoping they will hang the kiwi weather vane that Senior Son gave me for my birthday last year as their last job.
Have a lovely day.
Your friend, celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
64 responses to “I can’t see you, so you can’t see me and a floating chook!”
Glad the chickie made it – how did she get in there in the first place? Boo is looking adorable, bless him. And how wonderful to be able to eat so much home grown/made food – it’s a good feeling.
Lucky, lucky chicken! I bet she’ll be grateful and close to you now. I love the chair-Boo trick. I used to have a similar one with my malamutes, who could on occasion get very territorial. I’d say “place” and command them to the cool marble entry hall of the old house and they’d sulk away and stay there till they were invited back. 🙂 They always looked so pitiful and sighed heavily to demonstrate their protests…lol. 🙂 Hope you’re having a lovely day Celi.
Ah yes the sighing, it is a good idea to have a space nominated.. when they are inside it is “On the Mat” c
Already back into the rhythm of the farmy.
My dad started farming on a larger scale again once he retired…and was busier than ever. Successive plantings kept us all in produce. (and he loved growing and sharing…he was delighted the local food bank welcomed his extras.)
That poor hen. So glad she’s tough…reminds me of a certain frog here…
That chair! Maybe that will work – Molly eats dog blankets and towels…and carries them off, but a heavy chair might work. She’s better but a tad over excited if she recognizes a friend…we prefer she not maul people even in fun. Love the two dogs pix!
Good grief! How long do you suppose that hen could have been in the water?
I had checked the trough the evening before, so if she fell in it that morning i would say a number of hours..or only a short time, hard to tell.. she was heavy with water though and her wee head was sinking so maybe not that long..c
How on earth did the chook get into the water?! So glad you found her in time. It’s nice to be back on the farm with you. Lovely photos today, as always. And your description of dinner had me absolutely drooling.
Sorry to post off-topic, but is that a root cellar the lambs are standing in front of? If so, how was it made and do you use it? The roof looks very sturdy.
yes it is an old root cellar, right by where the original house was .. it is extremely sturdy, made of concrete bricks and a concrete roof.. I don’t use it as it is not a convenient place to store goods, right out in the middle of a paddock!! But if a storm is coming in or excesssive heat I open the door and all the sheep run down the steps and hide out in there! c
Oh and i never mind off topic!! You can steal a thread of my jersey at any time! morning barb! c
Add to your title, C the Rescuer.
So glad you found her. Sounds like it was just in time! Dinner sounded lovely, something that would cost a fortune in a bistro! Enjoy!
Another lovely week in the Kingdom of The Farmy. It is ending well with a rescued water logged feathered creature. an obedient teen-age dog, and a meal that would challange a five-star restaurant. All’s right with the world. V.
I had a chicken fall into our canal here. She was rapidly swooshed away before I could catch her…I ran along the bank but the water is way to fast and way too deep…she was flung and tossed and dunked and battered. I knew she was lost so had to go home. Later that day (like an hour or so later) I found her walking toward me, water logged and terribly confused. I picked her up and she laid her head against my chest and heaved a huge sigh.
Gradually she and I got her dried and recovered … I gave her some nice wet cat food (about two tablespoons full) she perked up, and decided to live and live well, once again.
In two weeks I had eggs from this hen until she left this plane of existence several years later.
I am so glad you found your hen. There is a reason that ‘tough old bird’ saying came into being. Chickens are really strong birds.
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
http://deltacountyhistoricalsociety.wordpress.com
wow what a story, I am often amazed at how much a chicken can endure, they have a very strong sense of will to live I think.. fancy the poor old chook walking home!! c
Yay, sheeps at last 🙂 We haven’t seen them for ages! Long may the drowned chook lay. Looking forward to seeing the weather vane up. Will the Kiwi go on the barn or the coupe? Laura
The Kiwi will be on the Coupe, we lookedd at the barn but it is very high and would need a bracket (and very rotton wood up there, best not to touch!!) I wanted it on the Coupe anyway! c
Nice work saving that chicken 😉
Hot, humid and still here – no breeze to speak-of…Thought about you when we went to the Farmyard section of the Zoo today – they had dumped a bag of ice on the ground for the chickens, who were enjoying it immensely…Ever hear of that trick before?
no!. i am going to do that right now!! what about the pigs, shall i give the pigs ice? c
Can’t see how it would hurt – they’d probably love it, too!
Seems like the farm is happy you’re home. 😀
The chook stories are winners… I also like that the use of the word chook is going global 🙂 I enjoy off topic as well, and that the sheep have their own hidey-hole. But your dinner eclipses all. Of the farmy, for the farmy… in the farmy tummies 🙂