Our John told me that if I showed you these pictures I would be arrested. Only if we are betting I told him.( Just quietly my money is on the biggest ruff.) Elizabeth I would be proud. Ten yards of ruff was sufficient evidently. No-one told the roosters though.
Boys! (snort).
I fell with through a hole in the barn loft floor yesterday. I was encouraging the peahens to go back into their Peahen Palace. One again I was reminded of Hansel and Gretel as I lay a little trail of cat food food for them to follow straight into their big pen. Did that witch have a name? I often feel like her when fattening up my animals.
Anyway I was waving my broom, like witches do, making shoo shoo noises when I stepped backwards and right through the missing boards that allow a hole above the hay manger. It makes life very easy when feeding out in the winter and very easy to fall through in the summer. One leg went straight through the floor, dragging my arse quite literally to the floor, and as I recorrected my weight flew straight out into the void. My bottom is not overly padded, I felt that wack to the bottom. Bounced up, flipped over the rail, caught a post and with the tumbling mometum and flying legs, twirled back to safety, calling a halt to the whole fiasco. Good thing I still do yoga in the morning or the damage may have been worse. I am just sore and strained this morning.
Stupid girl, thinks she can fly, said the two peahens, as they stupidly toddled through the Penthouse door. I raced over and shut the door firmly then harumphed shakily back down the ladder.
The hole is directly below those two roosting chickens in the image above. So you see it wold not have been much of a fall. All’s well that ends well.
l
The September Home Grown Challenge resulted in Gnocchi for dinner last night with a lovely fresh garden sauce. Chicago John makes Gnocchi, Greg makes Gnocchi and when Isaw that Sawson makes Gnocchi too (here is her recipe) I knew I was outnumbered and had to give it a go. 
And it really is as easy as she makes it look. I made enough for dinner, John’s lunch today (John always take left overs for lunch – it saves a lot of money and is so much healthier) and a bag full for the freezer.
Good morning. Have a lovely day.
your friend on the farmy, celi
ps Yummy Tummy Farms produced an alarming article about American processed chicken products being made in China and sold in the US without appropriate labelling. This is a USDA recently approved procedure. So if you do eat processed foods (which I do not) be very careful. Very bloody careful. No-one but you should be in control of what you eat. So step up and take control. If you cannot find a farmer, shop the outsides of the supermarket. Only eat what your great-grandmother would recognise as food. It is getting scary out there. Scarier not safer or healthier.
This is making me think seriously about doing more chickens next year in more chicken tractors and maybe those who live close by can grow their own chickens out here. There must be a way to help get good food to more of you.
c
The Kitchen's Garden 
80 responses to “Flying feathers might get me arrested”
Feel better soon and that article was just too alarming. I’m still trying to find fresh from chicken eggs but I’m always too late to the market to get them 😦 Morning miss c…t
You need to be the early worm, can you ask the man selling them where he is and you can drive out to his farm? He might have some chicken too!.. c
I just need to be an earlier worm because the chicken is always there but the eggs go first. t
Good advice.
Do they have farmers markets in germany, or are they regular fresh food shops like in sens? c
The farmers market in Sens is covered and the one here in Waiblingen is open on the square. Both places have supermarkets but the ones in Sens, I think, are better supplied with a great deal of local products.
I think you’re safe. Roosters will fight no matter where they are. Just don’t make any bets on the winner.lol
They are terrifically focused when they are fighting! c
Apparently cock fighting is only illegal in 50 states, the overseas ones. I half expected it to be legal in Louisiana – it wasn’t banned there until 2007.
I hope you didn’t hurt yourself yesterday 😉
My ego is bruised, i am used to being able to walk along those beams in gumboots without any trouble, then i fall down a hole I knew was there in the first place.. ah well.. c
When on earth do you find time to do yoga in the morning? Seems to me you already get up in the middle of the night to write this blog, then do your feed out at dawn, then begin your day……
The yoga is really only a series of stretches beside the bed when get up, I have done this most of my life. only takes about 5 minutes so it hardly counts really. but it does keep me strong. c
my thoughts precisely 🙂 Joy
Holy shit girl! Acrobatics on all fronts! BE CAREFUL. I am so laughing about the fingerprints on the wine glass…after the day you describe, I’d have been all over that welcome sight!
Yes, I read a warning once about the dangers of drinking while you are cooking, I was aghast, but i would have to give up cooking I thought! c
I, also, had a chuckle about the floury fingerprints…after your day you deserved a nice drink. And the wine looks very nice!
Linda
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I have kept chooks in a past life and they can be endlessly entertaining. I hope you are feeling better soon.
I have adopted that line…If your grandmother wouldn’t recognise something as food, don’t eat it. You really can’t go wrong if you do this. I try to buy from farmers’ markets where possible. We have some great markets in Australia and in my little area of Italy they are just wonderful.
I once went to a farmers market in .. hmm where was that.. oh canberra.. years and years ago, it was HUGE and they even had potatoes from so many different regions with all the red soil still attached, it was a revelation of a market to me.. c
Close call. I hope I don’t read about something like this again. That’s how broken limbs happen. It takes only one misstep…
The fact that i stepped backwards through a hole was a wee bit of a surprise for me too! But it was all over very fast, apparently i still have Bounce! c
Celi! I don’t come around for a few days and your go and decide to take a tumble! Oh my, I do hope you are okay – please be careful and take extra care the next couple of days.
You have been so on my mind the last week since I have had to pick up more of the load around home (not that I mind at all) but I am more and more amazed at how much you accomplish in a day! You are one in a million C! My idol you are!
I also really hope your book arrives soon – seems the postal service between here and there is frightfully s l o w.
Have a happy day friend.
🙂 Mandy xo
I am absolutely fine, it was amusing more than anything else. Snail Mail is actually carried by a snail. But i am sure my book will arrive soon.. i have so few recipe books that it will be well used ..c
😀 xo
How lucky you weren’t hurt in the fall, Cecelia.
And yes, it is a big worry about the lack of adequate labelling on imported goods. I am always worried about the garlic when I (rarely) buy it in the Vietnamese grocer – apparently ? it comes from China and they fertilise the fields with human waste ? I’ve read – a sure way to pick up disease & parasites.
Trouble is that the organic stalls at our local suburban fresh food market are so darn expensive in Australia. I’m still buying mostly organic fruit & veg, but can no longer afford organic meat. A small organic chicken is $32-$35 each. A chicken from the local supermarket is $10-$12. A free range chicken from the supermarket is about $14-$16 (I like to think the ‘free range’ chickens have some space to range over grass in the fresh air at least).
I know what you mean about the garlic.. and the price of organic chicken is outrageous, this is why I am growing my own, all up I think each chicken will cost about 8 dollars to grow i think.. I am sure that you are like me in that you can make a chicken last three meals and that does not include the frozen broth. But still 35 dollars is too much and there is no guarantee that the organic chicken in the supermarket has any better living conditions than the others, they just get organic feed and the organic regulations still allow antibiotics if necessary. And without a car you cannot just drive off and find a farmer. The free range option sounds like the best one. I am not even eating chicken until i get mine in the freezer. c
Oh you clumsy carp. What are you like? 🙂 I’m so glad you’re not hurt worse than a few bumps and bruises. Sounds exactly like what I’m capable of doing. Thanks for the link to the tried and true gnocchi recipes; it’s been ages since I’ve made it.
Sawson’s even has a little video.. which was great as i have NEVER made this before.. c
Your 24 hour is longer than mine, that’s for sure….or you rarely sleep. How do you do yoga, write a post, etc before you start work at 6.00 in the morning? Bowled over with admiration. Fabulous picture of the glass with floury finger marks…..so how it should be 🙂
I think i should start writing my posts the night before, my posts are getting shorter and shorter but maybe that is a good thing!! c
Please feel better soon and be careful. We can’t have our friends feeling ouchies! XOXo – Bacon
morning bacon! c
You worry me, Celie! 6-8 weeks in bed is no joke, so perleeeese look where you’re putting your feet. Cockerels? Nothing but noise and trouble. Capons? Very good to eat! I think US food labelling laws must be much more lax than in Europe. Even in French supermarkets, there are labels on fresh food counters saying whereabouts the food comes from, in many cases as detailed as which Departement. (county?)
Take care.
Love,
ViV
When I travelled about the world on a regular basis, i used to look at a product in Canada or the US then go back to England and look at the ingredient list over there for a better review of what was in it. I don;t know about France but the English labelling is very thorough. Do they label GM products in Europe yet? Or the lack of? c
They’re not allowed in UK, and only experimentally in France, but they do sometimes have a mention “may contain genetically modified …”.
So far they do not grow it, but they do import GM grain, esp soy i believe. That would account for the “may contain GM” I hope they continue to hold out.. the take over is mind boggling here.. c
Yes, you’re right.
Oh dear Cecilia… I am actually laughing my A off… you describe your fall through the hole so well that I picture it… now you did say you had a broom… why didn’t you just jump on, it might have been one of those flying ones…. (not that I’m implying your a witch)… but you do make such magic happen on the farmy that you can’t blame me for thinking you could have magical powers…. (Damn I’m still laughing).. I remember once walking past the dairy where the water and droppings where sent to dry out for use in the veggie garden… it looked so dry I decided to walk across it in a hurry.. it wasn’t dry and I slipped sat full on my arse in 5 inches of cow shit… I looked around to see who was looking… I swear to this day the cows were laughing…
I would have to agree that the cows were definitely laughing or at the very least raising their eyebrows as they watched you flail about! I would have! c