Free at last

The days continue to be long and HOT. It would be nice to retreat to the house in the afternoon, but there is simply too much to do. I keep thinking of the old Noel Coward song, “Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun.” Unfortunately, those are the only lyrics I know of the whole song, so that just goes around and around in my melting brain. I have good intentions of coming in at regular intervals to drink water or iced tea. Once I get busy, though, by tendency is to tell myself I will go in right after I finish one more thing, but that one thing leads to another and another, and before I know it, it’s 4:00, I’m sweat-soaked, dizzy, and suffering from headache and heat cramps. Still I tell myself I’ll quit right after this one last thing.

Life is easier for the cats. Their only concession to the heat, apparently, is to lounge on bare surfaces rather than upholstery or carpet. I have given up trying to keep Bingo off my desk.

Are you supposed to be on my desk? I don't think so.

I had to take a day off today to catch up on some writing tasks, this blog being the first of them. With most of the plants are in the ground, I planned to write yesterday. Then I remembered it was time to put up the chick fence. The chicks are three weeks old now. Once their feathers are mostly in, they can maintain their body heat in cool temperatures. The meat chickens are nearly halfway through their brief lives. Time for them to get out and enjoy themselves.

Chicks getting feathers. Brown are (large) meat chickens. Other colors will be laying hens.

They have also started perching. Terry built this low “practice perch” for them. The male meat chickens can now be distinguished from the females by their larger combs. The two chicks in the middle are males. The ones in the upper right and lower left are, I think, females.

Practice perching: birds with large combs in center are males, birds with less conspicuous combs, upper right and lower left, are probably females.

I hoped we would have rain to soften the ground before we put the chick fence up, but nope, still dry like bone. Terry graciously offered to wield the post slammer, as my elbows were worn out with weed whacking.  Once the fence was up and secured, I took the screen off the door. No one ventured out, probably because it was too bright and hot in the afternoon sun.

This morning, a few brave souls had ventured out.

Early explorers

I shooed everyone out so I could, at last, give the coop a good cleaning and replace the wood chips. Short of rounding all the chicks up and putting them in a bin, there is no way of cleaning the coop. I just let it go until they can go outside. Needless to say, the coop is a big mess by then.

The chicks were mostly traumatized by their sudden eviction. They hovered by the door, which was blocked on the inside.

OMG--what do we do now? Our food and water are in there!

I took out the heat table and put practice perch where the table had been. The coop briefly looked nice with the clean wood chips and clear water.

A clean coop, for a few minutes.

After I opened the door, a few chicks gathered outside to look in. One entered and exited just as fast. Overall, though, they started dispersing little by little. They seemed less anxious when the door was open. 

With access to food and water secured, the chicks begin to roam

The golden laced Wyandottes are beginning to show the brown inside the black edges of their feathers. I am always impressed by the size of their feet!

A Golden Wyandotte with big feet

By the time I got done with about ten “just one more things”, the chicks were lounging comfortably or pecking at the grass. Shortly after I took this picture, they all went in the coop again.

The chicks lounge and forage at leisure.

I’m about done picking asparagus. Bok choy is ready now. I made chicken wonton soup with it last night. Delicious!

Asparagus gives way to bok choy

Terry helped me build Fort Knox around the strawberry beds.

A fortress of bird netting over the strawberries

I checked the strawberries yesterday, but only one was ripe. There were others that looked ripe, until you turned them over. They were all still green on the underside. I’ll try again tomorrow.

Deceptively red strawberries

Last week, I posted pictures of domestic iris, selectively bred for large showy flowers. This week, my wild iris, a.k.a. blue flag is blooming. The flower is simpler with smaller petals. If I were a bee, I think I’d be able to find my way in and out of this one more easily.

Blue flag/wild iris

Penstemon has also started blooming. I’m glad to see these flowers opening. More food for our bees close at hand.

Penstemon