Farm Friday, September 2nd, 2022
Drama on the Farma
Regular readers will remember three weeks ago when a guinea hen momma showed up with 17 keets and then disappeared two days later. It was sad, but not unexpected. Guineas have their babies out in the tall grass and then live outside the coop for a month or more until finally joining the flock. These are semi-wild birds. So the hens are vulnerable when sitting on eggs and the little families are vulnerable during that key period. Sometimes we catch the momma and the keets and lock them in the coop for their own safety. They HATE it. And usually, it is not necessary because the mommas are good at hiding. So we tend to let the mommas live their happy but dangerous lives.
Then this week Sunday another guinea hen showed up with more keets. It was another chance! We had high hopes for this momma. And then a huge storm hit us, again. The next day she was there, wet, but still alive with her babies. Then on Tuesday, we brought our own danger to the momma.
It was our first harvest day for market, and we were doing well. We were so ahead of the game that I went into the house and made us some homemade pizza. It is a slow process, and when I was just about done, Ben came in and said that one of the dogs got a guinea. The momma. I swore. Bad words. We knew that dog is fascinated with chickens and guineas. But Ben said that the dog let go and the momma seemed fine.
I was amazed, but probably shouldn’t be. Bird dogs carry birds with “soft mouths” and just use the mouth like a hand to carry things. I have scared a fox that was running away with a chicken and had to drop the chicken and the chicken got up and walked away. So there is precedent.
I didn’t think anything of it until I was trying to get the crew in for lunch. I texted the group and nobody texted back. Silence. And then I heard it through the open window. “Peep, peep, peep, peep.” High-pitched and urgent. I realized what was up. It was all hands on deck to reunite the momma and her babies. The momma had been caught and brought to the back room of the coop and over the course of a long search 6 of her 8 babies had been brought to her. The last two were out there peeping. But any time a human went close, they would either go quiet or run away really fast. It is maddening. After I joined the hunt, I would hear the peeping from far away and then walk in the right direction, only to have it be even farther away. Finally, I would get close to a tall grass meadow and the keet would become dead silent.
I had to go to the market. My co-workers continued the search but those two babies were never found. It is a hard part of having free-range birds, I guess, but we love them too much to coop them up all the time.
Tuesday was a big harvest! We brought red potatoes, red and yellow onions, garlic, shallots, bunch onions, bell peppers, hot peppers, eggplant, green beans, cucumbers, zucchini, yellow squash, kale, collards, sweet corn, tomatoes, basil, cilantro, parsley, other herbs, and cut flowers.
Since the school year hasn’t started yet, We brought home a lot of surplus produce. We have been canning tomatoes and freezing green beans all week.
I went for a hike after the rain and there are a LOT of mushrooms popping up in the woods. We harvested more puffballs and I found our first hen-of-the-woods. I passed up a bunch of coral fungus and boletes. It is fine. I don’t need to eat every mushroom.
On Wednesday we hosted a group from a Native American Montessori school. It was a lovely day of facilitating connections for children to the land and nature. Everyone took home a pumpkin! I could say more, but it was their trip and I will just leave it at that.
Precious has had a different week. She has been standing up for long stretches of time. Sometimes up to an hour. She will eat and drink and poop while standing up, all of which she hasn’t done in a long time. We think this is good. On the other hand, the sores on her knees seem worse. Perhaps she is standing so long when we get her up because of the sore knees from sitting. We got her a pad to kneel on and hope that helps.
In writing news, I have joined Pexels — the free photos website that many people use. I have been sharing farm photos there and they have stats that I can check, just like Medium. It seems like the stats are only updated once a day, which actually works well for me. I think I might write a story about my experience on Pexels. I have also been thinking about my next Genealogy column and my next book club review, both of which are due in about two weeks.
I will be going on our Junior High trip to Mississippi, so I might miss the next few Farm Fridays, but I hope to get photo updates from the team and maybe give you some photos from the trip.
Cheers!
