Yesterday was supposed to be the big day. I was going to do all the sowing of seeds for our first crop in the aquaponics test system. And then I woke up with a cold and ended up spending the whole day zonked out on the couch watching Family Guy and sipping chicken broth and tea. Not at the same time.
Today I'm still sick but I took a DayQuil and that has helped me get up off the couch and actually do something. I can't put sowing the seeds off much longer. I have put together a schedule of sowing and transplanting that specifically works around two trips I am taking in the next two months. The first trip, in March, is to Florida to see my Grandma Faye and my cousins Jennifer, Alex and Lily. The second trip, in April, is to visit my friends in NYC and see a play that two of my friends- Casey and Tamar have put together. Casey is the scriptwriter and director and Tamar is the producer. It's called After the Dance and is an interactive play and will be put on in Brooklyn. I'm very excited about both trips. Once I come back from NYC I'll be going at full speed here on the farm, so it will be nice to have a fun trip right before getting my nose to the grindstone.
In regular farm news, Wanda has a permanent roommate. I think I mentioned that one of the other chickens had escaped from the coop and took up residency in Wanda's place. She's been there a while and I've decided to call her Amelia. She likes to roost at night, as opposed to Wanda who usually prefers to sleep in a nesting box. Actually Wanda likes to start her night outside the front porch in the vines and bushes. So now when I scoop her up and take her too the coop for a safe night, I've been putting her on the roost next to Amelia.
Amelia has her own funny way of being. I found her resting behind the nesting box when I went in there Friday afternoon to check for eggs. It's a small space and I didn't know she was there till I heard a funny noise and she peeked her little beany head up over the top of the nest box and clucked at me. She's a funny little thing.
Wanda had a scary adventure yesterday and it's all my fault. My only excuse is that I was really sick and foggy in the head. I had trudged up the hill to the main chicken coop to give the girls some table scraps from the night before. Mostly vegetables. I noticed, as I was going up there, that another chicken had jumped over the gate and was roaming around freely. My opinion is that if they can get out, they can get themselves back in. I haven't lost a chicken to predators. The ones who adventure over the gate always return… so far.
Anyway, I was standing at the gate of the chicken run and started tossing the food on the ground. All the chickens came running, including the ones on my side of the gate. One of the chickens was at my feet and she was making a lot of noise so I nudged the gate open and scooted her inside to the chicken run with my foot. Then I walked back to my studio. (You can see where this is going, right?) Wiley had decided to stay outside and so while I was in my den area, getting ready to settle into a day of being sick, I heard a ruckus up at the chicken coop. When I looked up, I saw they were all jammed up at the front door of the coop. (A different spot than the gate) It looked like one chicken was trying to squeeze her head out of the crack in the door but down at the bottom of it. As I was watching, one of the girls jumped on the one that was closest to the door and all the chickens started squawking and flapping. Wiley came barreling up the hill from wherever he was and they all scattered. Except for one. She just stood there at the gate. She wasn't scared of Wiley and she was looking at the studio….. it was Wanda.
I raced to put my shoes and coat back on to rescue my girl! I got her out quickly and she gave me an earful. She was not injured but she was pissed. I can't blame her. I gave her extra mealworms as a treat and all was forgiven.
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