When talking with Laura last night I realized I hadn’t shared these pictures of happy chickens in their new home.
They are so calm and happy in the converted playhouse with Hannah as their protector!
A year ago I got chickens from my daughter for Mother’s Day.
On Friday, just before Mother’s Day, the local fox took 10 of my 21 chickens home for dinner.
Bummer! We knew that letting the chickens free range would increase the odds that we would loose a few to predators, but we had no idea that we could loose half the flock at one time. The chickens love being out of the barn, wander all over the pasture, co mingle with the dogs and the sheep and have developed a taste for worms in wet weather. Hence they were out in the barnyard feasting on worms in the rain when the fox came through looking for food for his kits.
Today Sam (my youngest son) and Kenny (my youngest brother) spent the whole day converting the old playhouse into a new chicken coop.
What a wonderful surprise to come home from working today to see this tidy new home for my chickens!
In a few days we’ll have food and water installed with a secure lock and the chickens will have free roam of the
fenced in yard at my mom’s house with Kenny’s sweet dog Hannah as their protector.
She’s a pyranese/lab mix and needs a job. I think she’ll be a great chicken herder.
In the meantime we’ve ordered some new chicks and are searching Craig’s list for chickens needing a good home.
Happy Mother’s Day!
One of my favorite things to do in the Twin Cities is to visit the Como Park Conservatory in the spring time. The sunken garden is always full of the most beautiful flower displays with combinations seldom seen in nature here in Minnesota; things blooming together that are usually a few weeks apart in our slow to warm up climate.
This year we have those same amazing blooms happening all around us. Tulips, daffodils, lilacs, rhode’s, flowering crabs, bleeding hearts, trilliums, forget me nots, wild ginger and more all in bloom at the same time. The colors, the scents and the beauty are overwhelming.
Nancy and I went to the Arboretum early on Sunday morning to walk among it all. Our walk was interrupted several times with the need to stop and smell the blossoms along the way. I was refreshed and reconnected to Nancy as we drove home. What a treat!
This was the first weekend of the Mpls Farmer’s Market. Even tho it was rainy and cool I couldn’t resist getting up and going downtown. Dan even went with me.
Some of us went for the flowers. Even tho I didn’t buy any it was so good to see all of our growing friends and enjoy the colors of the season.
We came home with green onions, spinach and tomatoes from organic farmers in MN and Wisconsin. I see spinach salads for lunch this week.
Clean water brought to you by all who care about the Earth!
I still remember my first Earth Day! In 1970 I was a senior at Wayzata High School, a long hair, long skirted, flower child desperate to save the world. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle became my battle cry. Wow, that means I’ve been recycling cans and newpapers for 40 years. Wonder how many trees and barrels of oil I’ve saved?
The best thing about Earth Day? It was a grass roots movement. No government spending, no corporate intervention, no big money driving it. It was just people responding to the dirty air, the dirty water, the dirty world we were creating with lifestyle and business choices and saying STOP! So much has happened and changed since that first Earth Day declaring doom and gloom. I’m grateful to everyone who made it happen!
Today I’m celebrating by spending the day outside. I’ll pick up the garbage on my road, do some gardening, take my shoes off and walk barefoot in the grass and dirt, and eat lots of fruit and veges. It’s all about being gentle and respectful of this beautiful world we call Earth.
Remember, it’s Earth, not Uranus. What are you doing today to celebrate Earth Day?
Last week we got rained out on the first Nordic Walking Tuesday, this week it was a beautiful evening and there were 18 of us at Lake Calhoun with our poles. It was a reunion of sorts, walking friends I haven’t seen all winter. It’s like the first ski clinic in the fall when I see instructor friends I don’t see all summer. It was so good to reconnect with all of them. We had just a few new walkers so we really stepped out on the walk around a lake free of ice with wind surfers on the waves and kites in the sky.
It’s only the beginning of what promises to be the summer for Nordic Walking!
Let the season begin!
It’s amazing what a difference a year makes. Last year I got up on April 1 to an inch of wet snow and heavy gray skis. We were kicking off our Nordic Walking season out at the Arboretum and I had visions of being out there all day by myself. After all, who would come to try Nordic Walking in the wet and the cold. Who but Minnesotans! We had about 50 walkers with hats, mittens and Nordic Walking smiles.
Suzanne Nottingham of Nordic Walk Now has confirmed an Instructor Training and Walk to Live Workshop for Friday, June 11 here in Minneapolis. Whether you are a fitness trainer interested in adding Nordic Walking to your offerings or a Nordic Walker enthusiast wanting to introduce friends and family to this great activity you will find these clinics fun and informative!
Whenever I attend a clinic on skiing, Nordic Walking or anything else I’m passionate about I come away energized and empowered from the experience. I always learn something new that helps me when teaching or simply working on my own technique. It’s fun to share time with other’s who share your interests!
The Instructor Training will be from 8am-noon followed by the Walk to Live Workshop from 1-3pm. Qualified Fitness Trainers receive .4 ACE CEC’s upon completion of the program. There is complete information on the website on location, details and registration.
If you do attend the training I hope you’ll consider coming out to the North American Nordic Walking Expo on June 12 and giving us a hand with the event! We are anticipating lots of interest and can use all the help we can get.
My last Dark Days Challenge meal was a real celebration of the end of winter and first beginnings of spring.Searching in cupboards, freezer and pantry I came up with peppercorn fettuccine from Farmer’s Market, strawberries and blueberries, frozen pesto and tomato sauce, and home grown chicken. The coop had local lettuce (it’s packaged with the dirt still on it) and tomatoes. Put it all together with local pull apart dried tomato basil foccacia bread, add my sister, best friend and husband and we had a delightful dinner of fettuccine with chicken and pesto and a light tomato sauce on the side, salad and bread with berries for dessert.The best thing about Dark Days: learning that even in the frozen Minnesota winter you can eat local all through the cold months. With Sam starting the garden in the green house we’ll have even more in our freezers for next year!
Laura called tonite to tell me that Cody, her little horse and good friend had gone colic and they’d had to put him down. It was most unexpected and sad news to get from her. It’s never easy to loose a good friend. Cody had come into her life with spirit and energy and they fit well together. Most recently they were taking riding lessons together, Laura said Cody knew more than she did and the lessons were catching her up. She began and ended her day by checking on him, one final good night before everyone turned in for the night. There is a very big hole in her life right now, he will be missed. My heart is heavy tonight and I wish we were closer so I could help to comfort her and say good bye to her spirited little pony.
