Look at Sheila waiting quietly for her dinner while Poppy stomps about shrieking through all the dishes, making it impossible for me to retrieve them. Usually I have all the bowls out of their area before dinner time, but yesterday I forced myself to go to the supermarket and buy fresh vegetables and was late home.
The man at the check-out said: Are you making a big vegetable soup? I said, no, most of this is for my pig. She is a very special pig we want her to live a long time so she eats lots of fruit and vegetables. Is she a miniature pig? He asked. No, I said, as I rummaged about in my handbag looking for a pen, she is about 600 pounds. He blinked, then went back to packing my bags.
No kitten shots today, by the time I got home at 3pm there was no real light coming through the windows at all. The light is heavy as lead.
All six of the kittens are eating their solids very well. Eating and drinking from bowls. Climbing the furniture, playing with anything they can find, balancing on the firewood pile next to the woodstove, sleeping where they fall like little burrs along Boos back and one always under his chin. By my reckoning they should be nearing their 6 week birthdays, which means off to the vet for their worming, health checks etc. And Marmalade goes in for her operation.
Tomorrow I set up a new water arrangement for the calves across the way at the West barn. There is a water fountain for the stock there but the gasket has gone in its centre and it is leaking badly, and as you know, in this environment any leaking water immediately becomes ice. A sheet of ice under cattle is very dangerous. So tomorrow I will set up a trough with a water heater in it to kee it from freezing solid and I will trace the line back to the house and turn the water fountain off. Hopefully we can fix it in the summer. Till then I will fill the trough with a hose, just like I do here at the home barn.
Also tomorrow I bring the ten Rhode Island Reds home. (layers) They hatched in the autumn and have been growing at Jakes – safe from the Bastard Mink. He will keep some for his own flock. This will bring my flock of big birds back up to a reasonable number and they will be all start laying again in March probably.
Good morning. This reminds me of a story one of my house guests told me at Thanksgiving. She grew up in post war Germany. Her birthday is in January. She distinctly remembers when she was a child wanting an egg for her birthday. Not necessarily because of the food shortages, though food was scarce, they lived in a town, but because in those days chickens were not put under lights to force them to lay in the winter, usually a chook will rest in the short winter days, not laying through lack of light, so eggs were simply out of season in January. It was highy unusual to see eggs for sale in her town in the winter.
Interesting how our modern world seems so normal to us but the diverse largesse at our tables is a comparitively new thing. Lucky for me and the pigs I am still getting about six eggs a day though as we near the shortest day even this number is dwindling and then we also will do without eggs until the light returns.
I hope you have a lovely day.
Love your friend on the farm,
celi
c
The Kitchen's Garden 
49 responses to “Eggs”
I hereby call Saint Sheila! Poppy, Poppy, Poppy. Maybe she will calm down once she has little ‘uns. i love that about kittens…I’m tired now..flop…wherever they are. Have a good day.
Pigs do change their temperaments once they have farrowed. Hopefully Poppy changes for the best. This is another nice thing about Aunty Sheila she will always be just as she is.. c
Our hens used to lay sporadically during the winter, so we were never entirely without eggs. There’s nothing like a boiled new laid egg with toast fingers.
I hope the water doesn’t freeze before you can sort it. Have a great day,
love,
ViV
Today is a littole warmer, at least above freezing soon, with sun so i hope to get everything filled and the heaters in without too much trouble.. c
Very funny the grocery boy thought you were making a big soup.
Greetings Cinders. I have been away…sadly my Mum died a week ago Sunday so we turned around and flew back to Michigan after only being home for 4 days. But I was able to see her almost to the end.
I love that you veggie shopped for our darling Sheila! I can just imagine what the store clerk was thinking! 🙂
Oh Chris, I am sorry about your Mum. I remember you sent me a picture of you with her in pink i think. a while ago .. I am so glad you were with her during her last days, and here we were just talking about funerals and so forth the other day.. I will be thinking of you over the next few days.. thank you for letting me know.. love c
I know that without natural light, vitamin D levels drop and so does calcium absorption. I would imagine that shelling the eggs for laying would be too taxing on a chicken’s body without some kind of good light. I never thought of it before. The whole world has a natural rhythm. It’s a beautiful thing to become aware of it and live by it.
Interesting.. it is a natural thing, and it lets the chooks have a down period before they rev up to lay every day again. I worry about the PEOPLE who work and live without the sun.. that must be hard.. c
Upside down world……my chickens go of the lay a bit in summer…..too hot to lay……….and lay all winter long……not too cold and still lots of sunshine. There are many organic farms nearby where I can get good eggs, and we have a Farmer’s Market every week where they’re sold as well, so no missing out. One of my chickens, Brenna, is like Poppy, walks through the food bowls, jumps up to snatch bits form the bucket, then when I’ve managed to get the food down, she walks through it all in a great rush to find the best bits. The others stand around calmly and patiently waiting. Isn’t it wonderful we have all these different personalities to keep us amused and entertained ? 🙂
What I love about the return of plentiful eggs in the spring is that it coincides with a plethora of lemons. I LOVE lemon honey, lemon curd, lemon tart, all those delicious things made with eggs and lemons. I’m busy making jars of lemon honey for Christmas gifts right now. Nature is pretty clever about providing us with what we need through the seasons, maybe we aren’t designed to eat eggs in the short-dark-day period. The other thing I have taken to doing, because it works so well, is using egg shells for seed raising. Eggs are wonderful and now you have caused me to go all mystical and arty 🙂 Off to the studio with me.
I get a bit like Poppy if I go too long without food, and my blood sugar drops! Unfortunately the G.O. isn’t calm like Sheila, he gets a bit frazzled when he’s hungry too… as we found out on the weekend when we both skipped breakfast and were late getting around to lunch!
Sheila with her nice manners and good diet sets a very good example to us all 🙂
[PS, I emailed my shipping address, I hope there is a calendar crossing the globe to me 🙂 ]
yes i do believe there is a calendar crossing the globe.. I MUST get onto telling everyne their shiping costs.. i am terrible.. i need PA. back soon.. c
Thankyou 🙂 If the postage is on the parcel, when it arrives I can add it to the other and Paypal the lot 🙂
i need a PA!
I’d offer but logistics may be a little tricky 😉
Sounds like the Farmy is quietly starting to put itself to sleep for the winter. You’re the one that still has to rush around getting everyone fed, watered and warm, but the rest will go into their low, quiet time, recuperating, resting and getting ready for spring. Like Nanette, here in the tropics we don’t get such a big seasonal change. The difference in day length between winter and summer is only a couple of hours, so hens don’t go off the lay because of the dark, but in the summer because of the heat.
I didn’t realize chickens need light to lay eggs, just assumed it was an ongoing process. That silly Poppy, good job of catching her dance through the food pans!
Ton looks like “What the?” sorry no kitty pix today, they are so cute. Glad mommy will be fixed tho.
has to be done.. if she had SIX the first time.. just imagine!
No eggs at my mom’s farm. I’m back in California and it warm and raining. I will ask at the farmers market if the hens lay here in the winter. I got my T shirt and love it but I couldn’t figure out the PayPal for the calendar , I’ll pay you with a check and put it in the mail this week..
I will save you a calendar.. pay pal uses my email address but franklyy i have never done it.. checks work fine too!.. c
I love the shot with Sheila and Poppy as Ton is there with a memo in his mouth. I can hear him thinking, “Poppy, Miss C reminds you to stop stomping.”
Got my Sheila Shirt today. I love it and will wear is proudly everywhere.
I got mine too! aren’t they grand… pwrfect for the summer so i will be wearing mine in NZ inn January!
What? No eggs??? How ever will we make pasta! I know that life on the farmy could be hard but I’d no idea it could be so harsh. Well, we’ll have to work on this. 🙂
Never thought that about darkness and eggs. Makes sense with Nature’s organization of things. We are whiplashing between too cold for the season back into the upper 70’s. (and I will never get rid of this cold if that keeps up) Several of the smaller palms are pushing up new fronds. No – no – no there won’t be time for them to harden off before frost and kill the whole plant. Sigh. Must relax and learn to live with a cycle out of my control? Stay warm.