Entrance and Tenacious Within Nature

September 9, 2010

As with many things in nature it is very common with our lives.  Each day is an entrance.  Every time we go into Nature it is an entrance. I got to thinking about entrances, and the huge choices it beholds for us.  Going into this entrance above it, says Bless.  But when I get into the garden beyond it leads me to another entrance which is my Vegetable garden.
 Because I was so enraptured with flowers I didn't bother much with vegetables until a couple years ago.  The call to go green by every program and add on TV bombarded me with the danger of chemicals on our produce.  I must have eaten thousands of bad chemicals on my meals without even being aware of it.  I heard two years ago how the grocery stores spray all their produce to get rid of the fruit fly and other bugs that might have slipped into the store unnoticed.  I was stunned.  I saw those crispy clean veg and fruit but never thought what could be on them unseen as I prepared meals for my family.  I wasn't aware of how old those eggs were and that what was in those eggs was what the chicken was exposed to and ate.  Geepers !  Now my chickens eat the best organic food, get lots of vegetables, dandelion leaves and bugs they find while they are scratching and pecking at soil not an empty cage they are crammed in with several other chickens like the store bought ones.

 I give them sunflower seeds in the morning and nite as scratch feed, insuring omega 3 in their eggs.  They get oyster shells ground up for grit making their eggs shells nice and firm. In the video you can see them pecking away at home grown cantaloupe I threw in for a change of menu.  The blue umbrella gives them shade along with the two white shelters shown that Dick built last year to keep the snow and wind off them when they braved the cold pen.  Summer shade shelters them also along with the weeping pine tree that use to be part of a garden before we put up the pen and coop.  The video also shows a better picture of Dicks metal art on the entrance to the pen and coop.

Below is a picture of my egg basket Dick gave me last Christmas.  I don't think I will ever fill it up but they are more than enough for my family and friends. It was mid summer but now the chickens are molting and the egg count has gone down to half of what I got then.

This is one of the chicks from last spring.  Turned out
its mother was Goldy, (a cross from Rhode Island red
and an Orpington) the father the Silver Laced Wyndott.
She was the only hen, her three brothers, roosters,
went to our grandson who is now married
and have two children.
They said they never tasted  chickens so tender.

   In winter they have two cabbages hanging in their coop to peck at which gives them the greens they love, plus any other veg. that I have in the house to share.  Diatomaceous - Earth powder is sprinkled on the clean coop floor which is covered with wood chips a couple inches deep.  It is a natural preventative of insects and keeps lice off the chickens.  You can even put it in the chicken feed to prevent intestinal parasites.  It will not hurt earth worms or beneficial soil microorganisms.  It is non-toxic   I could write three blogs on this good stuff but I will refer you to the link: DIATOMACEOUS-EARTH.NET.  I buy a big sack of it at a local feed mill. Does wonders for roses too.

Back to entrances.....the Chicken Coop  and Pen.....I walk through this entrance several times a day.  Let the Chickens out in morning and put away at night.  Throwing greens to them, checking eggs also can be several times a day using this entrance to this pen. I think there a couple hens eating my eggs!  So do check often trying to beat them to the fresh laid eggs.   Dick did a little metal art on the doorway when he built the pen two years ago.  In the winter the snow blower just makes it between the opening. This has been a total BIG experience for me and I needed lots of  "TENACIOUS"  will power to continue this project.  It is time consuming, has some draw backs like cleaning the coop, culling the flock like when there are too many roosters or there is a bully that won't let up picking on hens.  It has been also rewarding because the bounty of fresh vitamin rich eggs makes me so much healthier. At 68 I can see a great improvement in my memory since I started to eat many of the eggs. 

And I still enjoy watching these critters as they race to get the best peace of greens and then run with it, with the flock right behind it, dropping their prize and then joining the flock to chase the next winner.  I keep bales of hay in the pen to give them something to peck at, sit on, and crow while up there, or just snap up the bugs when I turn it over each day.  Just a couple days ago there was a fat black lizard curled up under it.  A Rhode Island Red hen grabbed it and the race was on.  I think that poor Lizard was exchanged at least 5 times before the last hen found a good hiding place to eat it. 

Entrance to horse barn. 
Been going through that door everyday for 19 years, first thing in the morning letting the horses out and than for sure in the evening to put the horses and outside chickens away for the night.  And in between numerous times to get the horses ready for grand kids to ride.  Cleaning the barn stalls, throwing out the dirty water and and bringing the pails all cleaned back into the tack room.  There are two sliding door in the front of the barn to the right of the picture that we are in and out of thousands of times. The experience like getting the chickens, getting the horses has been a tremendous responsibility.  Horses were a dream come true for me but never dreamt I would need Tenaciousity to carry me through this project of a lifetime.  They will be with us until they are too old or we are too old.....  That Entrance has given us so much joy, heartache, excitement, satisfaction, fear, pride, again I would not trade it for a million dollars.

Entrance to our home for 25 Years.

   Even after 25 years walking through this entrance has been a bit of heaven.  I was 43 when we built, and started the adventure of country living.  I had been what they call around here, a city slicker.  I made lots of flower gardens at first, then went to horses, chickens, and vegetable garden were added to my plate that was plenty full of other activities, like working part time, being in a lot of activities in the city, but which are now a thing of the past.  I love being here, enjoying nature,  27 acres of God's gift to me. Three of my five children lived out their teen years here, and now married and into their own careers, plus children of their own.  Lots of Grand children have enjoyed this green space.
We needed lots of Tenaious fiber in our souls over all those years here.

TENACIOUS:  Holding Fast, Stubborn, Persistent, Holding fast together, Not Easily pulled apart.  descriptions from the dictionary....Holding fast through thick and thin like the tendrils on a grapevine.......on our deck.  almost impossible to get off. 

Tiny feet of the grape vine, tendrils, holding fast.

Life was not always heaven here.  Like everyone else living on this beautiful world of ours, we fill pain, work through it and again taste the joy.  But the important thing is we hold fast, to our beliefs, our dreams and don't become bitter because of our destination.  As with the seeds we drop into the soil, we have to die a little to what we demand, go with the flow and the gentle green pushes its way up to new life.  Our life with resentments laid aside.

I get Max Lucado a famous author blurps for the day on my email and this is one of them I want to share. 


The following quote by Max Lucado   I love his writing, so humorous so fun.

Resentment


Posted: 11 Sep 2010 11:01 PM PDT

“This is my command: Love each other.” John 15:17

Resentment is when you let your hurt become hate. Resentment is when you allow what is eating you to eat you up. Resentment is when you poke, stoke, feed, and fan the fire, stirring the flames and reliving the pain . . .

Revenge is the raging fire . . . Bitterness is the trap that snares . . . And mercy is the choice that can set them all free.

So..... above is the entrance to my new day.  I happen to glance up from my computer and see out of my window the son rising behind what I call my heart tree.  Two oaks in my woods with what looks like a opening in the shape of a heart.  It reminds me to use my heart not my head in dealing with my day!

                                                         Kate