“Fog is made up of condensed water droplets which are the result of the air being cooled to the point (actually, the dewpoint) where it can no longer hold all of the water vapor it contains.”
Well, that is the scientific reason. The real reason is that we all need to rest our minds and have a wee think about what is to come.
I love the word: droplets. I have always been charmed by fog, it has a fat over-full wooly feeling to it. Like the world has exhaled a misty waterlogged breath. Then held it. Held it’s breath. NO blowing, or sighing, just stillness. And I quietly sit in the breath, in a huge pale mouth, buffered and contained, as insulated as Jonah, his whale moving softly around him, all sounds and movements entirely my own. And think. Thinking is vastly under-rated. The world’s breath glides in to match the temperature of my own breath. My own blood. Sounds drift about as though across long, dark water. Muffled, audible.
Kupa said “Thank you very much for locking me up but I am not sending YOU a Christmas card.” and on his release, stalked out of the Peacock Penthouse. He flew with his old determination and vigour straight down to the door and was gone. He is on a break from medicines for a month now. Though you and I will be watching carefully.
He moved so fast I could barely get him in focus.
Must be wintry enough to make Hot Chocolate. I make Ganache and store it in the fridge for just those evenings.
Pour one and half cups of hot cream over 12 oz of broken up good strong chocolate. Pause. Stir. Pour into jar and refrigerate. Add a spoon-full of the ganache (though it really is a diluted ganache) to a cup of hot milk for a hot drink on a cold night. If I have been very good sometimes I add a splash of Kahlua. I am often good.
Yesterday, I very slowly forked all the dry old straw out of the hospital wing pen and threw it to the Plonkers (who were deeply grateful). Mama is looking alarmingly wide already and as you know she always has quads so I have to get ahead of her. (We need to start thinking about lamb coats again soon but not quite yet.) When John got home I had him carry all the heavy things about. Tidying the areas of the barn that are un-used in the summer. Un-used areas become metal magnets for ‘stuff’. Now is the time to be getting them ready for a busy winter. I cannot ignore these chores. My animals depend on me and they care not for injuries and complaints. If I am not very prepared and attentive, animals may die in this environment. We almost lost Kupa because I was not up treading the boards.
I feel better having got this job done. Today is the hen-house. There is a fungus that may grow in dry bird droppings, a nasty one, it is better that this debris is on the field as fertiliser than in the chook house making my birds sick. Also, the droppings dry and are pounded into a fine dust that is very abrasive to a bird’s lungs. I always clean the chook house in the autumn and the spring. This job cannot be skipped. So I shall strap up my back and move as much out the door as I can and then get John to throw a few bales of fresh straw in there. We will load the srapings onto the back of the white truck them I am going to sweep it down onto the fields as John drives slowly around the hay makers paddock. I refuse to let it go to waste, so this will be done as well. One day I will get a manure spreader.
Actually I am hoping that for Christmas this year I get an ark for the layers, then the chooks will only come into the chook house in the winter.
I know you want to say rest rest. But this is not a choice. Animals will die if I don’t get the work done. And none of it takes very long. None of it is heavy. I can do it slowly. So no lectures my darling Fellowship. Miss C has got to get back to work.
I hope you all have a wonderful day. I certainly will.
Your friend
celi
ps. I was first introduced to ganache as a hot chocolate idea over at remedial eating. A beautiful blog.
The Kitchen's Garden 
77 responses to “the mantle of fog settles on the farmy”
your fog blanket extends to Indiana and makes me feel perfectly safe wandering out at 5:15 in the am in admiration of droplets…
always good photos but i like those three ewes especially…
And how good you are (i’d be a bit of a lush myself if I could afford it)
Here is my quote for you from Mr. Doolittle: “The Lord above made liquor for temptation-but. With a little bit of luck, With a little bit of luck, When temptation comes you’ll give right in!”
excellent.. ! c
I really had a good laugh and a giggle…as before opening the post fully, the introduction said ‘we need to rest our minds and have a wee…….
Just the thought of relaxing my mind on the loo brought a big grin and smile on my face..
Sorry C for the error but it was funny…
I am so pleased that Kupa has gotten so well that he is back to the old tricks and it is great to see the foggy day photos.
Take care dear friend
I like your take on the fog. I felt all gloomy and trapped under it all day yesterday here in Arkansas. We have it again today, so I will try your way of thinking about it today! Thank you.
I love your description of the fog. When I lived on the mountain, we’d get fog rolling over the top of the range and plopping into the valley like a fat woollen sausage. The mountain wore a grey angora beret pulled low, so you couldn’t see the top. I get the same feeling from what you’ve written as I’d got looking at the fog on my mountain top.
I can’t believe it’s swung around to nearly being lamb coat time again – I am sure that was just here week before last. It is such an awakening to how reliant the farm is on you being well all of the time Celi and how quickly things could get out of hand if you are not on top of it all, all of the time.
It is beautifully warm here at the moment and am wondering how I could get some of your ganache to mix up in cold milk – reckon I could give it a shake about in a mixer.
Have a super day.
🙂 Mandy xo
Sounds like you are doing awesome! lol photos were great too!
No lectures, promise. Dead animals are not an option. I have a question, instead, about your ganache: how long can I keep that in the fridge (not as if it would stay very long, but still I’m curious). I love fog too. Milan was meant to be enrobed in it. Enjoy that muffle existence while it lasts. xx
I have kept it in the fridge for about three weeks, though mine it is made with raw milk, I have read that it can be kept quite a while..c
OF COURSE you have to work…there’s no alternative. Besides, complete rest makes the healing take longer. Gentle, easy movement…and don’t let Daisy swing her head into you 😉
Going to make up some of your ganache later in the week…we’re warm today, though.
Celi, may I ask the fellowship a rabbit question? It dawns on me that someone here might be able to help me. We have a Dutch rabbit, Lucy, who has been sneezing for months now. We took her to the vet right away, fearing she had “snuffles,” but he said she was fine. “Perhaps it’s allergies.” He had us treat her, according to an exacting schedule, with tiny quantities of something cortisone based. Seemed to help, but not cure. When the sneezing returned, we took her to another vet (in Italy). He confirmed, “Not snuffles,” and sent us away. But she keeps sneezing. Your comment about the chicken’s poo made me wonder if perhaps she’s having an upper respiratory reaction to her own droppings…does anyone know if this is possible? The cleaning of her cage is a matter of contention in the house, and I am trying to convince my eldest child (the rabbit’s “mother”) of how important it is, though I have no proof that it’s linked to her sneezing. Would a rabbit develop a late-in-life allergy to her Alpine hay or to her pure, organic alfalfa feed or to her wood-pellet litter?
Charlott,e I shall ask Daisy’s breeder, who actually breeds show rabbits too.. my first thought is to completely change the type of bedding you are using, unless you know the origin of the wood pellets .. sometimes they are dyed or dusty. The feed is less likely to make her sneeze unless the alfalfa is dusty..when we had rbbits in NZ they only ate what we ate and lived in a cage on the grass, (I know you are in an apartment) so I hope another of the fellowship can help you.. c
Yes! My post is below. Will let you know what I am using.
Thanks Celi!!
We use recycled shredded paper for bedding and we clean it out every few days. Cole is very neat and tidy. He only goes in one corner so that is where we put the bedding. Not all over the bottom. It is his toilet. Everywhere else is very clean. I am with Celi in that the wood chips are made from all kinds of chips and many be an irritant. Good luck! 😀
Charlotte, do your wood pellets have cedar in them? Those cedar fumes we all love make for sweet smelling cages, but they are very harsh to little noses and lungs.
Ahhhh! I’ll check!!
Cedar chips are not good for chickens. We use pine shavings. Maybe the cedar is not good for rabbits, either.
I believe that rabbits eat their own droppings, it’s part of their digestive process – they can’t get all the nutrition from digestion cellulose the first time around. However, I think it’s the soft pellets that they eat and the hard ones that are waste.
Yes! You’re right! I’m just wondering if maybe the poop she doesn’t eat, abd it’s a lot, could possibly be contributing to the sneezing.
Dust from your litter that you are using may be the culprit. Are you using the same litter you have been or has there been a change a few months back? Also…the litter box has to be changed regularly. We don’t use wood pellet litter. I’ll go out to the barn when it lets up a little out here and check what ours is made from and let you know. Don’t have this problem with ours. We have a Netherland Dwarf. I promise I will get back to you.
We did have one type of rabbit that had to have his teeth cut once a month. So now I am a dentist too! LOL
Same litter, yes. I actually chose it because I thought it would make less dust. Please do let me know what you find out, thank you so much. Their teeth never stop growing, hence the chewing and the dentistry. Ours grunds down her teeth on things she shouldn’t. 🙂
“Our” sheep are certainly photogenic today. Love those shots.
You are so right about the chores and work. The animals do not understand! Good luck. Slow but surely, you will get there.
I just love how the fog makes photography so easy!
I said exactly the same thing to my cabinet maker this morning.. everything looks lovely through a screen of fog.. c
The fog is lovely! Love the 3 sheep posing so nicely for you, and of course Queenie just had to poke her head in the pic at the last minute…she’s just too curious! 🙂
Your wonderful words on fog is so much better than my memories of it growing up in foggy old London – but then that fog was less to do with ‘dew points’ and more to do with coal smoke coming from all the chimneys! I can remember walking to school with a scarf around my mouth and nose and not being able to see further than a foot in front of me! It used to get so thick it was very scary. I even remember my Dad walking in front of my Uncles car with a torch as the road was so difficult to see! Sigh those were the days LOL
Do you have snow from the Arctic Blast on it’s way to you? We are supposed to have 60 and 70 weather over the next couple of days and then the blast hits us with freezing rain over the weekend. Need to get my carrots out of the ground before they freeze solid!
Hugs
Great photos and description of the fog, Celi. It really is a beautiful thing — unless you’re driving in it. As often as I’ve made ganache. Good to see that Kupa is doing much better. Thank heavens you no longer have to go up those stairs again. I’ve never thought to add some to warmed milk. Leftover ganache never seems to go to waste, though. I guess I’ll just have to make more. 🙂
Hope you have a great day.