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Beautiful Bales

denisemor 2 July 2, 2017

It’s seems early for second cutting local grass hay to be available, but it arrived this morning, and is just gorgeous.

I realize that it might seem weird to describe hay that way, but I tell you what- when it looks right, and feels right, and smells amazing- there’s no other way to put it.

And it should make the sheepers very happy. 🙂

In other news, I tripped and sprained my ankle at my day job, and so am a bit gimpy right at the moment. Icing and elevating the foot makes for good knitting time, though- so I’ve been making pretty steady progress on Dottie’s Oregon Vest.

It’s coming together nicely- just have to figure out what I want to do for the closures. I really like zippers in things like this, I just don’t like installing them….

It’s Hard to Know What to Say

denisemor 7 June 24, 2017

You probably know that Edgar had been having some problems recently.

The seizures seemed to be becoming more frequent, and while he’d come back after some pretty rough moments here over the last three months, it became clear to me on Tuesday that he was not going to be able to recover this time.

If you’re a regular reader of the blog, you know that Edgar was a really special guy.
He was a good friend of mine, and I’m so thankful for the time I had with him.

He is deeply missed, by me and the rest of the flock.

Latest thing in Chicken Sportswear

denisemor 3 June 19, 2017

I never thought I would consider buying clothing for a chicken.
But here we are.

I’d been noticing that one of the little Amerucana girls, who was already missing all her back feathers, had sustained a bad wound on her right side. I think it was the result of too much/ too aggressive rooster attention. I’d sprayed her with Blue Cote, but knew that unless she was able to keep away from the boys that it would never heal up.

So I thought I would give this hen saddle thing a whirl.
It’s a Hen Saver, ordered on Amazon, the most low-key color I could find. Got here in two days, I think.

She wasn’t too pleased with me getting her into it,

But now that it’s all in place, she seems good. It doesn’t appear to impede any of her normal chicken activities- and she’s actually been out of the shed more, so hopefully that’s an indication that she’s feeling better.

I have to say, it seems to be very well made, sturdy but light and breathable, and the elastic straps are doing a good job of keeping it in place. They seem to run a little small, so I’m glad I got the large.

So there you go. Now I have a chicken with an outfit.
Crazy.

And speaking of vests, I’ve started one for myself as well.

It’s an easy knit- The Oregon Vest, by Oat Couture
And a great layering piece, so I’m making one with my heavy worsted weight Dottie yarn-

Because Dottie goes with everything 🙂

Fresh Start for the Pond

denisemor 0 June 11, 2017June 11, 2017

We have a funky little concrete pond in our side yard.
Over the years we’ve had goldfish in it from time to time, mostly just to eat the mosquito larvae that inevitably collect there.

And in recent years we’ve had icky algae issues, due to not enough oxygen/too much organic material.

So this spring we decided to clean it out and start fresh.

I’d emptied it a couple of weeks ago, and it seems like the neighborhood wild birds must have really missed having it as a water source and general hang-out.

We went to a local pond supply place (very nice folks at Mud Pond Koi) and they hooked us up with some submerged plants: Water Lilly and Mare’s Tail), a couple marginal plants for shelf areas (Creeping Jenny, and Houttunynia Cordata Variegata), and some floaters- Water Hyacinth.