Double-Yolk Egg

I wrote a post a few weeks ago about how large my hens' organic eggs are compared to those I've purchased in the store labeled "large." But sometimes the size changes.

Recently, we added three new hens to the flock. They were only 4 months old when we brought them back to our coop from the breeder, so we knew it would be a few weeks before they could lay eggs. Most hens start laying about 6 months old, and we prefer to purchase them when they are close to that age instead of when they are still in the fragile chick stage of life. This week was the first time any of them laid an egg, and as you can see, it sometimes takes a while for their systems to kick into production mode.

See how little one of the new chicken's eggs is on the left? The one on the right is a little larger, but not nearly as big as the older hens' eggs. That will change in time, I feel sure, as it did with the original hens' production.

Most mornings, I eat eggs for breakfast. I thought I'd crack open both of these this morning since one was so tiny. But no need. See what I found in the larger egg?

Twins!

First time I have ever seen this. Have you?

Happy Day!
TCB

Composting

I am thankful I am able to waste less.

I started composting a couple of years ago, and it has enabled me to keep many food and paper items out of the trash can and ultimately out of the landfill.

Here's one day's worth of compost material. If I'm throwing it away, and it's not right for the chickens to eat, it makes wonderful compost after a few months for my vegetable and flower beds.

By living in the country and having a little space to move around, I feel I must compost to be responsible to Mother Earth. Composting doesn't take much space, and you can compost even in a small backyard. With the right mix of materials, there should be no odor at all. I talk about the proper ratio in this previous post.

Think outside vegetable and fruit peels. Used tea bags and coffee grounds (including the paper filters) make good additions to a compost bin. Flowering shrubs such as azaleas and camellias love the acidity they add to the soil when fully decomposed.

Composting always sounded so difficult to me before, but I have found it is an easy way to live "greenly" and improve my flower beds at the same time. And since it's November, it almost time to rake all the dried leaves from the ground and add them to the bin. By spring, it will all turn into black magic.

Hope you are inspired to do your part, too. It's a cinch!

Love,
TCB

Related Posts

Winter is Ideal for Composting

Country Life

We love living in a rural setting, but it's not always glamorous. Having a piece of land means a few extra chores have to be done outside when you'd rather be chillin' inside (like you might be able to living in a condo!). Hmmmm......

Time to spray some caterpillars who have tented in the trees before they emerge and eat ALL my flowers.

If you want a tree chopped and moved out of the way and you're not old enough to operate a chainsaw, here's how to get it done.

Sometimes you need to burn stuff. Not everyone calls this work.

Even with all the extra work, we wouldn't trade it for anything.

This weekend, I'm determined to do the final trimming of all the landscape plants and bushes around the house. Wish me luck. My sore arms will need it.

Love,
TCB

Cooler Weather Means Bye-Bye Pests

A small line of thunderstorms and some rain pushed through our town yesterday, so slightly cooler weather  is here. It's funny - the cooler weather always arrives in time for our State Fair, which begins tomorrow.

I am a warm weather fan; however, the cool days and nights are a huge plus down South.

They mark the end of scary, hairy creatures for a few months.

Imagine finding this on your bare leg when you remove the grill cover on the outside deck.

I just gave myself the willies all over again.

Happy Fall!
TCB

Summer Nostalgia and Marsh Views

Post-Labor Day, I always become nostalgic for summer. I feel like it's all gone (even though we still have mid-90 temps). Everyone is in the fall rush with work-related projects and school is back in full swing.

So, I was flipping through some of my photos of our summer island visits. Even though there's a beach there, we love hanging out in the tidal creeks and on the marsh just as much.

Isn't South Carolina's coast beautiful?

Can I please go back there?

No deadlines...

No homeschool lesson plans to complete...

and no telephone ringing.

I feel happy and sad all at the same time.

No one call a psychiatrist, please.

I promise I'll have it all together by October 1, when there's no chance of summer's return.

Love from the country,
TCB

A Present for Me

Over the holiday weekend, our kitty cat, Miss Pitty Pat, brought me a present. I was minding my own business, taking a break on the front porch wicker chair when she decided it was the right time to present it.

Hmmmmmmmmm..........What kind of presents do Pitty Pats bring? (Warning to City Girls: Look away now if you get squeamish easily).

Let me tell you, she just plopped it right down at my feet.


I think I was supposed to show my total pleasure, but I wasn't sure how I should do it. At first, I was a little mortified because as a mother, my first thought was of the poor baby bunny's mother. What was she thinking?

Miss Pitty Pat pretended to show indifference, but I could tell she was proud to bring it to me. So I petted her head and said, "What a great hunter you are! Thank you!"

Then I thought about where I had left the shovel so I could kindly take it away.

After a full minute ticked by, and I didn't pounce upon the little bunny and eat it (well, of course not!), Miss Pitty Pat snatched it back up and ran off with it.

I"d like to say that was the end of the story, but later that night, under cover of darkness, I found her doing what all country cats do with their prize hunts.

I'll leave out the details. Let's just say she wasn't interested in dry kitty food for supper that night.

Oh, my. And I thought mothers developed a tough mind and stomach as a result of what their little boys put them through. Apparently, the pets help out, too.

Happy short week to you!

TCB

Something's Burning in the Country

When living in a rural area with a few acres to tend, it's inevitable there will be heavy yard work and maintenance. We are surrounded by hardwood trees, which are quite beautiful but sometimes messy. Take for instance spring pollen season. (We're finished this season, hallelujah! Here's how I deal with that and the mess it makes.)

Besides pollen, our hardwood trees often fall. Whenever we have heavy rains followed by heavy wind, I close my eyes and start praying they'll fall the other way. And by other way, I mean NOT on my roof.

We have found a solution to lots of excess wood.

The pyromania evident in my son from a young age is very satisfied.

Mr. Country Belle, however, needed something larger for the land down by the river.

Why do men like fire so much?

If I lived here alone, I probably would never build a fire. I would just call a nice, burly man with a chainsaw and a big truck. Oh wait, I have that now, only Mr. Country Belle has never been accused of being burly. (I feel a hint of dislike coming on for someone close to *ahem* a certain age that doesn't think twice about weight gain. But I digress....)

Here's the story:

Just a few days ago, Mr. Country Belle said to me (casually, I might add): "The tree in the side yard looks dead. I don't see any leaves on it."

I didn't notice the lack of leaves. After all, spring just started and the tree was lively and healthy last year.

I took a peek.

Uh-oh. I smell something burning.

Happy Day to you! (I'll be out in the side yard trying to nurse a tree back to life before Mr. Country Belle gets back with the chainsaw).

Love,
TCB

Spring Planting Time

It's time for spring garden planting. I am still using the"square foot gardening" method I used the last couple of years. That may seem strange considering we have land to spare living in a rural area, but somewhere along the way I got tired of fighting weeds and deer. Plus, our family is small, so a couple of square-foot gardens are perfect for our needs.

The beauty of a contained, raised garden bed is that once you mix your soil the first year, there is really not much follow-up for subsequent years. Just a trowel-full of compost into each "square" before planting, and you're ready to go.

This year, I mixed commercial mushroom compost with my own backyard compost, made from decomposed fruit and vegetable scraps, yard debris, and chicken manure. (Those chickens are good for something besides eggs. It's a 2-for-1 deal).

Doesn't that look like rich soil?

I'm into simple. This bed contains herbs - rosemary, lemon balm, and thyme with a space left for basil - and vegetables - broccoli and squash. The screen contraption is the only way I can keep out deer and rabbits and supposedly domesticated critters like cats.

This bed is all about the tomatoes - four different kinds. The best part of summer is home-grown tomatoes. I squeezed in a little cilantro and parsley. I love herbs for cooking and fresh ones make a big difference. They are expensive at the grocery store but so easy to grow!

Hope this inspires you to plant a garden even if you only have a small patio. Herbs and tomatoes will grow wonderfully there!

Happy Spring,
TCB

Related Posts:

Spoils of the Day
My Secret to Easy-Does-It Spring Gardening

How to Keep Deer from Eating Your Plants

In the spring, we hear a lot about keeping deer away from our landscape plants; however, it is in the winter we need to be extra alert to deer strikes. Foraging for food in the forest is not as profitable this time of the year. When it gets extra cold for a long period of time, the deer sprint up the hill from the river to see what delicacies are available to eat in my backyard. And of course, they never come during the daytime when I can shoo them away. They come when I am snoozing away. (Although sometimes I am dragging opossums out of the hen house).

There is a list one of my local gardening centers has pulled together of plants typically found in Southern gardens that deer like LOVE to eat. Several of these are in my garden right now and nary a deer has tasted them.

These include:

Fatsia Japonica - Planted near my house - so near, in fact, it is touching brick columns - is too close for comfort for a deer to attempt a nibble.

Pansies - I tried planting these at the front steps. A nasty varmint (that's what we call deer who eat landscape plants and not woodland fodder) plowed through 10 plats of pansies in one night. Do you know how much 10 flats of pansies cost and how much time it takes to plant them? Never again. I have found planting them in a basket that swings on a hanger is a good deterrent. Which is also good for putting a little color at eye level to see through the kitchen window.

Hosta - A candy-lickin' treat for deer, this beauty is best saved by putting them under a motion light and dousing them with deer-off repellent found at garden stores. Sorry, but this one is a struggle to maintain. Most years I do, but sometimes I lose to the deer.

Camellia - Every good Southern garden has one of these shrubs. I have been fortunate. I think my leaves are tough enough and the plants so close to the house, the deer decide to look for better options. Older is better. Young leaves are what deer like to eat best.

Keep an eye out. Baby, it's cold out there!

Love,

TCB

Related information:

List of Deer Resistant Plants

Lurkers at Midnight

What were you doing at midnight last night? Normally, I would be snoozing, but there was some ruckus in the hen house. Let me back up a little.

At 11:30 pm, I was stepping out of a long, hot bath. You know, the kind that makes you want to crawl right into bed? I noticed some chickens cackling.....what? For those of you who have no experience with the critters, chickens go into the hen house on a perch each night to roost. They get very sleepy and stay that way until the sun comes up the next morning.

I decided something must really be amiss for all the chickens to be making such noise. After I went downstairs and got the trusty flashlight with like 2 zillion lumens, I peered out the back door and shone the light into the coop. The chickens were out of the hen house and running around in the chicken yard, trying to escape.

Then from the right corner of the pen, my light picked up two shining eyes....an intruder! I mentally tried to decide if this was an intruder I could take. It didn't lunge toward me (of course I was probably blinding it), so I decided to go take a closer look.

Remember I just stepped out of the bath? I now had on my thin bathrobe and mud boots. Let me tell you, I was some kind of attractive. But I digress.

Turns out, when I got a little closer I saw the two eyes belonged to an opossum. Then I saw two more eyes. No, it was not an opossum wearing glasses, silly. It was TWO of those scoundrely rascals. Dang it! How did they get in again? I thought Mr. Country Belle solved this problem a few months ago (see the past post below under Related Stories).

Speaking of Mr. Country Belle, I needed to wake him up. Now that sounds simple enough, but that is a feat just slightly ranked below me turning a back flip in mid-air in a bathrobe and mud boots. So I trudged in the house and back upstairs (carefully removing my "chicken" boots first) and finally succeeded in rousing him, explaining I had no way to hold the 2 zillion lumen flashlight, keep the chickens from escaping when I opened the door, and herd two opossums out of the coop.

Ever tried to herd an opossum? They are too dumb to walk in a straight line. It was going to take a little more thought than just shuffling them out of the pen.

After some unsuccessful wrangling between myself, Mr. Country Belle, and two opossums, (Me: Get that thing away from me!) (Mr. TCB: Get the door open!) we fashioned a tool like a dog catcher uses. Only ours was made at midnight from scraps found in the garage (a PVC pipe, screw, and length of rope) and in about 3 minutes.

But it worked. Now I only have to figure out how those scoundrels got in in the first place.

I can't complain - mission accomplished, no chickens died of a heart attack, and we still live in the country. It's all a part of it.

Love,
TCB

Related Stories
Strangers in the Night

Life in the Country

I'm feeling a little sentimental today. My son is away for a few days, it's raining outside, and I'm pulling together the finishing touches on the homeschool curriculum and realizing there's only a few days left before the school year starts.

So I'm thinking about what I'm grateful for - and that includes living in the country with all the great opportunities and natural elements that affords me and my family. So today, you get a rural rendezvous of what I love most about summer in the Southern South (is that enough alliteration for you?).

Rare spider lilies grow in the river behind our house. Not many people in the world get to see these live!

Fishing.

No, I'm not thankful for copperheads. I'm thankful for weed-whackers that can get copperheads before they can get Mr. Country Belle.

Flower gardens.

Vegetable gardens.

Our chickens. First, because they give us fresh, organic eggs every day. Second, because they are such great stress relievers. Ever watch chickens take a dust bath or try to peck insects out of each other's mouths? Hilarious!

Blackberry Cobbler.

Make your own list of what you're thankful for - just for today.

Love,
TCB

Strangers in the Night (in my Backyard!)

I'm not afraid of the dark, but during this time of the year I like to keep my outdoor walks in the backyard (which backs up to the woods and a river) to a minimum without a flashlight. I'm a little afraid of stepping on a snake during the prime time May season. Turns out, there's another party going on in my backyard while I'm sleeping, and it has nothing to do with snakes.

Ralph the Raccoon enjoys sniffing around the chicken pen to see if perhaps there is an opening. A chicken would be good tonight, or at least some vegetable scraps from inside. (Pay no attention to the date stamp on the Stealth Cam. It appears Mr. Country Belle does not know how to operate this part of the device.)

Ralph has been a nuisance for a week, so Mr. Country Belle installed a wildlife camera to see what the heck was going on.

Oh, I see Ralphie is the one tearing up the wire on our pen door.

"Knock. Knock. Let me in. I brought a friend. I promise we won't eat you or your delicious food."

Can you see him? That's the chicken feed bin he's sniffing around in the bottom right corner. For a week, the lid has been removed and the bin overturned each morning. I got him this time. There's no way he's getting the lid off that baby tonight.

"I'm Perfect Posture Polly. I'm Perfect Posture Polly." (There's always one in every crowd.)

"Who? What? Let's scram. Someone's taking pictures."

And then along comes Mr. Opportunistic Opossum himself. He's obviously used to Ralphie removing the lid of the chicken food bin each night before he comes sauntering along. Not tonight, buddy.

Good night. And stay out of my yard.
TCB

My Secret to Easy-Does-It Spring Gardening

After many years of gardening as a hobby, I have learned that simpler is more beautiful. I've admired plenty of colorfully packed flower gardens in Southern Living and Better Homes & Gardens.

While in the past I've tried to replicate the perennial and annual flower beds that grace the pages of those magazines and many others, I find by the end of the season they are a bedraggled mess and never really grow together the way they should. You see, I have a job as a writer, PR consultant, blogger, homeschool teacher, mom, and wife and all the extra duties that come with those titles. While my intentions are good (and I truly love gardening), I never have enough time to create the master gardener look, which takes plenty of weeding, moving around flowers, and filling in bare spots continuously throughout the spring, summer, and fall seasons.

I have refused to give up the dream, so through experimentation I've come to realize the most wonderful gardens can be a profusion of just a few colors from a few, trusted, hardy plants. Not including the perennials I have as "foundation" plants in my garden beds, each year I rely on the addition of a few annuals and perennials to fill in the bare spots and make my gardens look like I've spent lots of time on them. In fact, my time is mostly spent at my keyboard or driving to swim team or housecleaning.

Each year, I rely on a formula for the four cast iron urns on top of pillars surrounding my patio.

Plant Spike Dracaena in the middle for height. Surround it with a filler and a trailing plant. This year it's Dusty Miller and Salmon Petunias. This planting is just one week old. Within three weeks, the urns will look like a professional planted them and last throughout the spring, summer, and fall seasons (providing they get water each day during our scorching South Carolina summers).

Planting pots of annuals here and there around the patio and to fill bare spots in my perennial beds works wonders to pull the entire look together. Just two or three plants used throughout the garden make as big a statement as a hodgepodge of plants that may or may not be acclimated to the area.

My tried and true include:

Creeping Jenny as a trailer.

Petunias as fillers and trailers, depending on the type. The red and white ones here are some of my favorite and are called "Red Picotee."

Impatiens to fill the shady planters on my backyard deck, well out of the reach of deer.

Clematis as a climber on my arbor.

Hosta as filler. They are perennials and grow larger each year. There are so many different varieties, they can be a show all on their own in a small bed. Mine are backed by Mountain Laurel up against the back of my home in one small bed.

And Lantana, which now comes in a wide range of colors.

I use these plants over and over each year. Since I have narrowed down the types of flowers I consistently use, I am happy with the results throughout our three warm seasons. I can focus my attention on the other tasks and people that need me (and on sitting by the pool).

Happy gardening,
TCB