I drove to Eureak Springs last night to give a talk on entheogens at the Center for Soulful Living. It went well. Twenty-one people showed up. I think I was one of the three youngest people in the room. I had planned to go see Sphongle afterwards, but it was $60. Sixty bucks? HA!
I spent the night at my friend Patrice's house. I consider Patrice and his wife Karen to be the most civilized people I know. He's an organic farmer, and she leads cullunary tours to Paris and works as a caterer. I spent the morning clearing a garden bed and seeding beats. We finished up around 10 in the morining, and had a beer.
We swung by the Sunday Market in Eureka, and I met a guy who sells cacti and knows much about the psycoactive varieties. I made plans to go back and interview him next week.
When I got home I found the hen locked out of the coop where she sits on her eggs and keeps her chicks at night. It was starting to rain, and she was huddled against the side of the coop with four chicks under her. She had three when I left for Eureka.
I marvelled at the hen. She's less than a year old. I got her when she was a day old, and she grew to adolescence in the dog cage that now houses our dog when he's in the house (and my wife is home). After that I moved her to an outdoor run, and then finally to the coop where the dogs got in and killed most of her creche-mates.
If I just brought home four little puff-ball chicks from the feed store, I would not put them out in the back yard and just leave them to their own devises, but with their mother on hand, I can do just that. She basically ignores them unless the dog comes around. When she detects a threat, she cups her wings into protective sheilds for her chicks to hide under, but most of the time, she just scratches in the dirt and wanders in search of things to eat and the little ones stay near her. She's an astounding mother, but she doesn't do a whole lot of active "mothering" most of the time. But when the chicks have her there, they're safe as houses. They're not "perfectly safe," but the adult chickens aren't "perfectly safe." We've lost chickens at every stage of development to predators.
Tags: backyard chickens
Current Location: The Frog House
Current Mood: 
content
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kmo's journal
cuts through all the Traditional Religious and New Age mystic mumbo jumbo to reveal a simple step by step path anyone can follow to the attainment of personal enlightenment and the positive transformation of our world. An amazing achievement!
