The frostbitten chickens, now reunited with the rest of the flock in the chook house, are recovering very nicely thank-you. They may not be pretty and cute. But they are bright eyed and beautiful. All bright eyes are beautiful. In fact I have never seen an eye that was not beautiful. At least we have that. 
They are even laying which is a relief. These shots were taken in a hurry as Sheila her Ryoyal Fatness was banging on the chook house door demanding her tax – an egg or maybe Two. Someone had snuck through her field (me) without paying the Troll Toll.
Cheeky Pig. I found a man at the pub last night who knew a man who had a boar. So things are looking up for Sheila. I was going to AI, but she shows no signs of coming into heat. And we need to breed her this month! 
Tui and Pania. Though they lost their favourite Kupa, have shown no signs of succumbing to the cold. They are also bright eyed and beautiful.
Daisy is bright-eyed and beautiful and endlessly hungry but we don’t want fat calves so she only gets as much as she needs not as much as she WANTS.
In the absence of any other greenery Our John put his Still to work and made some pine oil from greenery he found out at the big farmhouse. 
I cannot tell you much more as we are still finding out how to do this. But it seems he has made just enough oil to scent today’s soap. The most wonderful thing about this essential oil mad scientist thingameebobby is that it scents the whole house as it decants. Lovely. 
The weather is holding, not too cold. Just at freezing.
This is an example of what could have been a brilliant shot, if I had drunk one less gin and tonic at the pub (when picking up the pub scraps) and paid attention to my foreground. 
And here is the light I was writing to last night. Not in.. TO. 
The prairie is like the sea, all full moonlight. I wish I were a poet. The rising full moon into the Coupe is an unwrapped gift. More beauty than I can bear. This is for my friend Rose. 
Onwards and upwards.
If any of you have contacts or friends in Europe. Please share this. One of The Fellowship has lost sight of her precious 16 year old daughter – we believe she has been abducted. She has been gone a month and a half. We need to keep Jade’s beautiful face high in the social media. This is a simple task we can all do. Share. And keep sharing. Someone saw something. We need to find that someone. We have built a little internet family here. In times of trial we often say to people -‘ let me know if I can help, give me a call if you need anything..’ instead of saying ‘Here, this is how I am going to help.’ Here is our chance. Anyone at all in France, Germany or the UK. Anyone. Share this. Have you seen this girl? I believe in butterfly wings, a breath here can cause a wave there. There is work to do Butterfly’s.
Thank you. We cannot let our babies be lost.
Such an eclectic page today.
I sometimes think that I should knock each blog page down into one subject, like at school. Into subjects and then into terms. Simplify stuff. Pander to the media formula. How to make a pig sty, how to grow a tomato or how to walk down steps or how to shake salt or something. But I can’t – life on and in the farmy, day to day, is not like that. Your life is not like that, nor is mine. Our lives dive here and there, intersecting and ripping apart, ducking and swerving, loving and caressing if we are brave, teaching and decanting if we are careful, failing horribly, rising in misery, dropping into wrapping and releasing, losing and winning. Laughing until you can’t breathe and then later wondering if you will ever laugh again. Light and awful dark, but always light next – always light to come, every day different, it IS a LIFE, full of bits of this and lots of that, then such joy and light sometimes we gasp if we are of a mind to see it.
But we cannot control anyone but ourselves. That is all I know for sure. We have the option to see the tiny shafts of light or sit in the dark seeing nothing. It is our own choice. We are our own people. Big and strong like rocks and trees. So we are.
I wish you all a lovely day. All the light you can find.
your friend on the farmy
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
45 responses to “Frostbitten chickens and work for butterflies”
I stepped out after dark last night into a heavy fog…but the clouds were only at ground-level, and the moonlight brightened everything with its odd cold glow…no way to capture it with the camera, but what an experience!
Don’t even think about doing single-subject posts – you’re one of those View From Here Voices, and the conversation flows naturally from one topic to another…We’d miss our morning catch-up if you changed!
Being heard at the pub, don’t you think that the man actually said he knew a man who WAS a bore?
That moon is a delight – or a re-light? Anyway, the light is a bright sight!
Moon still shinning here quite brightly as it dips to the horizon ready to give way to the sun on the other side. They said we would have snow this morning but the sky is still crystal clear!
Please continue to flit from subject to subject, it is the way my mind works anyway, and easier to follow. Stay on one subject to long and I start to zone out (like in school “if she spent as much time on her lessons as she does gazing out the window….” said all my reports!)
Off to the farm this morning to pick up my milk and start some more Kefir. Had to order some more crystals as I appear to maybe have drunk the last lot LOL. They were no where to be seen when I strained my last lot.
Hugs Lyn
HI Celi! I needed this today, especially the last part about life, light and controlling ourselves. Such words of wisdom. Thank you! xoxoxo
I wonder if Sheila would come in to heat if she had a suitor?
You’ll need to build her a bridge and get a few goats 😉
I do hope there will be a moonshine project in the future…
All the “experts” say you need to have a specific focus and singular topic for your blog. Well guess what? I don’t and I still have a lot of fun with it and seem to have a following of people that enjoy (or at last pretend to!) what I write. I love how you share on your blog and don’t care a wit if you jump around from subject to subject in the same post. It all works and is part of your charm. I absolutely love the picture of Daisy munching down. 🙂
I think that fact that everything here is derived from these small acres does establish some kind of focus, but there is just SO much going every day and every life is like that.. we are lucky that our people all seem as eclectic as we are! c
Glad the chicks are back home and back to doing what they were meant to do. We didn’t get the snow they were predicting, so we are enjoying another day of clear sidewalks!
You must be so grateful for another days respite, we have snow coming now, not much though I think. Windy too though.. c
I also have a few with frost bite on their combs. I’ve never had a problem with one though. The sky here was amazing as the moon rose last evening. Wisps of clouds flitting from south to north with the full moon rising behind them. I wished for a camera that would capture the changes it went through. It was quite orange here as it set this morning. Have a lovely day, Celi!
The full moon was like a blessing. Is your camera still broken? Or did you leave it on the bench.. c
Michael picked up a little Olympus for me but it doesn’t take good shots at night. We did have a fantastic double rainbow the other day but I have yet to download them onto the computer. It was the brightest I think I’ve EVER seen!
Your “work” here is my morning prayer, a most human prayer, and poetic. I am so blessed to have found you.
I will be the butterfly and share again because there are people in the UK who are in my social network and we must never give up on our children. Wonderful post Celi and I like all over the place posts. Helps my all over the place brain cope. 🙂
Thank you Veronica. If everyone we tell shares and then they share and share again, we can notify 100’s of people a day.. Thank you… c
Reblogged this on Jeanne Kasten Studio and commented:
Celi has given me a reason to re-post her blog today. I know I have a few readers in the UK, so I am sharing for that reason, but also because I love her description of our lives.
A lovely mixed salad of a post. I already shared the missing girl thing on facebook. I do hope someone sees it. Your “still is fantastic. I can just imagine the perfume flooding the house.
Thank you Viv. John is making another batch of the spruce oil this morning so i have enough to scent todays soap with it.. how wonderful!.. c
You have no idea the impact your words have made on me today. Just what I needed to read.
morning audrey, hope all is well.. c
Celi you should ask Your John if he can tap some pine tar – fat chance now I know,tree’s sap is probably frozen – and distil that for you. I have eczema and pine tar soap (pine tar, olive oil, coconut oil, shea butter) really helps. The soap is very dark brown and quite strong smelling – but it works 🙂
Love the multi subject blogs – like newsy letter from a friend – don’t stop. Tell those hens to stop lollygagging and lay some more eggs. Glad to see you have sun today, hoping that nasty cold wind goes away soon. Laura
I hate the nasty cold wind.. c
Your thoughts were just what I needed today, too. Yes, the light in the mind is so much better than the dark. OUT INTO THE LIGHT, I say. You really have a great mixed flock of chickens. We always get our chickens from a hatchery in Iowa. So many wonderful, colorful different breeds.
Poor Sheila…..looking for a boar. Hope you can find her a suitable suitor…..one that matches her intelligence and beauty, if that is possible. That moon shines into the bedroom window and even the blinds cannot keep out the light. It is beautiful, though…..almost as bright as daylight out there.
Women tend to jump around in their conversations, don’t you think? Drives my husband crazy.