See Glitter Bones

I have decided to merge my blogs--I probably shouldn't have separated them out in the first place. Anyway, all Martsfarm content is now available on the Glitter Bones blog--so no pictures of plants or animals are missing! Also, I had to enable the comment moderator because of the large number of Chinese spam comments I was getting. I guess real people are doing it because they somehow get beyond the word verification. But I am sick and tired of Chinese porn sites commenting on my blog. Go f--- yourselves, Chinese spammers!!

More Birds!

So I don't think I blogged about this but my incubator failed to hatch the fancy bantam eggs I bought, so I thought I'd do another test drive with our own eggs, and after tinkering with the thermostat a bit I set three eggs in and almost forgot about them. Luckily I had written on my calendar when to remove the turner, so I did do that. Then on Sunday I was cleaning up in the basement when I heard a peeping coming from the 'bator. I looked in and behold! A fluffy yellow chick! I was amazed. The other two eggs had pipped.



Later I checked on the two eggs and was a bit concerned. I knew the humidity in the incubator wasn't as high as it should be and I was afraid of the membrane drying out and toughening such that the chicks could not break through it. So eventually I helped one chick out of the egg and within a couple of hours it was fluffy and alert.




I hesitated about the third egg. It only had a small hole and although the chick was peeping the egg had not been "zipped." It was around dinnertime then and I decided to wait until bedtime to see if the chick had made any progress. At 10 PM the chick still had just that small hole. I took a deep breath and started to peel off the shell. Just as I feared, the membrane had toughened and was stuck to the chick in several places, and in addition the chick was covered with goo from the yolk. I wasn't sure what to do about that but I left the weak chick in the incubator and decided to wait and see how it did. I did not have much hope it would survive the night.

The next morning I was surprised to see the chick was still moving and peeping, but the goo had plastered its down and it was clear that it was not going to fluff up on its own. So I took a wet washcloth and tried to wipe it off and remove a little piece of shell that was still stuck to its wing. I didn't succeed in removing the fragment but I set the chick back in the 'bator hoping that I had been able to remove the goo.

A couple hours later there was no change--the chick was still a sticky mess. Another deep breath. This time I held the chick under warm running water and gave it a shower. I put it back and waited, checked a while later. No luck. Still sticky. So I removed it again and this time put a few drops of baby shampoo on its body and lathered it a little. Rinsed the chick and put it back. A little time passed. Chick was still pretty much plastered with gunk. OK, plan D. Filled a bowl with water and some baby shampoo. Soaked the chick. Got the fragment of shell off, finally. Toweled it off and set it back in the heat. A while later... success at last! Except for the head, which I'd dared not wash, the chick was fluffy. But very weak. It still couldn't stand though it had a strong voice. I dipped its beak in water and sprinkled some feed for it and went to bed, not feeling very optimistic.

This morning the little bugger is hanging on! Still not standing up, but moving around as best it can. I took a dropper with a little sugar water and fed it. It was eager. I put a few sprinkles of feed on its beak. It swallowed them. Instead of lying on its side it is squatting. Things still do not look good for this chick but I'm a tiny bit hopeful. I'll say this for it: the chick is a fighter! No doubt Merle junior, if it survives!

Keets, Peas, Kitties

Lately I have been feeling rather ill. So yesterday evening I had dozed off on the couch. Suddenly I heard the peas making a fuss, so I went out to check and they were all by the car, screaming. Guess what?! Charlie was in the car!! I had left the hatch open while I was getting things out and I guess he went in and got comfy and then I closed it. I'm glad it wasn't hot!! Anyway thanks to peas for letting me know. It's the first useful thing they've done.

The keeters are now in the chicken yard with the rest of the avian gang. (See below: It's hard to get a good photo of Guineas--they really do have great camoflage.) After some initial bullying by peas and hens (mainly Loretta, whose behavior is proof of the adage that those who are abused grow up to be abusers!) things settled down and now there is a kind of detente, though the peas are keeping a close eye on everything. I don't mind as it keeps them out of my garden and away from my flowers, which they have a twisted and destructive desire to behead. They also like to pull plants out of containers and drop them next to the pot.


Another example of bad pea behavior: One morning last week I noticed Sushi staring intently at something on the back deck. I got up to see and there was a beautiful little yellow warbler just sitting there. I called to Shreed and just as he arrived a peahen stepped onto the deck and tried to attack the tiny warbler! Shreed ran out and shooed her away. He almost caught the warbler--it seemed sort of stunned but then flew away. I had no idea peafowl would attack like that. I have often seen them run towards small wild birds. But I always thought they were just curious rather than aggressive. I've started calling the peas "peavils"-- pea + evil.



Tofu continues to grow and to expand his mischievous activities. He has a toy monkey that he loves to carry around--that is when he is not harassing one of the other cats. Wabi is so hefty that when she slams him to the floor it looks and sounds like a WWF wrestling match. Tofu doesn't seem to care though. He keeps coming back for more. He also loves to jump on Crim's head. Crim is a very large, moody, somewhat deranged cat and I am always surprised at how tolerant he is of the little one. When Crim gets sick of being used as a punching bag he just meows unpleasantly and walks away. Of course Tofu's behavior is nothing compared to the tenacious and destructive behavior of Crim-kitten. We were convinced that little Milkweed (as he was named in the beginning) was actually an albino ocelot. He destroyed a very large jade plant and he chased Bella Janey all over until she was panting. And she weighed at least ten times what he did. Eventually Crim shredded the bottom of our box spring cover--he crawled up in there and I had to sew it shut using some heavy duty fabric and carpet thread --after I got him out, of course). It was like having a snow leopard cub in the house. Tofu is a mild mannered little cream-puff compared to that kitten!

Last week Daniel and Elam cut our hay. Extremely early this year! These guys below did most of the work:

The icat

The new icat plugs into your mini mac with a USB cable. It gets hair in your keyboard and types enigmatic sentences...

Catching Up and Thoughts on Mother's Day

I guess I've neglected the blog for a while, for a number of reasons. Busy with other things. Ambivalent about blogging. I feel bad about not posting pictures of my tulips. I did take the pictures though and they're on Facebook, which seems to be my preferred means of communication lately: a pithy statement and a picture of an animal or bird. At least I know someone sees those truncated posts.

We have more birds. I sent for Cayuga ducklings and silkie chicks. Some of the silkie chicks have little bouffant hairdos. The one I picture here is a male, I believe, the bit of fluff on his head makes him resemble Kim Jong Il. Let's hope he is more benign. That would not be difficult.

Tofu and the keets are growing fast--they seem more adolescent than baby now. The keets are outside now though I've been a bit concerned with the low morning temperatures we've had lately--it was 28 this A.M. We protected the tomato and pepper plants and covered up the keets with blankets and a duvet, but I'm afraid we may lose strawberries and apples. Such is the life of a farmer! At least it's not our livelihood.

On Friday the mailman wished me happy Mother's Day. In our family we never observed the Hallmark Holidays--my family has always been rather iconoclastic. But the mailman's good wishes got me thinking. I was instantly pleased, and I am pretty sure he knows I have no children. But clearly he sees something maternal in me, and he's quite right. I am actually one of the most maternal women I know! I think we need to expand the idea of mother's day to include those women who don't have children but choose to nurture other forms of life. In some ways we might be considered more genuinely selfless because we choose to care for that which helps the planet instead of contributing to its ever-bulging population. Of course I don't mean to belittle mothers of children. Many have told me that it's the hardest thing they have ever done and I believe them. At least they have chosen it. Most women the world over have little choice in the matter.

Listening to Mark Knopfler now. The Get Lucky album. Beautiful album. Even better than the Dire Straits days, though I liked them too.

More Better Keet Pictures

I had Shreed take some more pictures of the keets. They are very skittish and apparently that is common for baby Guineas but I think I will work on taming them a bit. They have a total panic attack when they see my hand reaching for them!

In my new incubator I have Mille Fleurs D'Uccle bantam eggs. We will see how the incubator works. This is my first attempt at it. I probably should have tried it out with a few of our own eggs but I really couldn't stomach the idea of more Merles, possibly. I might get some real Auracana eggs from Anita. She has the rumpless tufted birds--not just the Ameraucanas that are more common (and of which we have two).

Raising birds is very addictive!

Springtime and a New Friend

Since I last wrote spring has been upon us with few relapses into winter. It did not snow in March, which is just plain unheard of. It was the warmest, most pleasant March I can remember since I was a child. If every March were like this past month winter wouldn't seem half so bad.

Good weather means more time outside and less time in the studio or at the computer blogging. I have to admit I have become a Facebook regular as well. I never joined during the time I was teaching--I just didn't want to be there with all my students. But it's been a nice way to be in touch with friends from college and my cousins who live in Oregon, New York, and Egypt. And also friends who live just a few miles away.

I've been riding a lot and gardening, getting the plots ready for planting and I did get peas, lettuce, and chard in already. The chickens need to be locked up this weekend so that the plants can grow undisturbed. Chickens can be very hard on gardens, mostly because of their scratching.

Since I last wrote we've had a few additions to the family: some Guinea keets that arrived this week (The pictures of the Guineas were taken through the plastic brooder, so they're a little cloudy), and a little Siamese kitten named Tofu. He is an adorable little baggage and after being here two days slept quietly between us all night. He is a very noisy little kitten and very agile, true to his Siamese heritage. For my sixth birthday my parents gave me two Siamese kittens so I have a sentimental attachment to Siamese cats. Also, our beloved cat Tippy was a Himalayan, but not one of those pushed-in-face Persian types; he looked and sounded and acted like a long-haired Siamese of the old fashioned type. Tofu is also an old-fashioned, "applehead" Siamese, not the elongated Siamese with the wedge-shaped heads you see at cat shows. That type never appealed to me as much.

The other kitties' reactions vary from fear and loathing to curiosity, and I think that eventually everyone will get along. Surprisingly Sushi is the most afraid, which was totally unexpected--she has such a feisty personality. But you never know, I guess.

So our house is now a place of much peeping and meowing, with spring babies among us.