Today’s guest post comes from Ben.
This just in:
The chicken / duck / guinea population on our farm has officially spun out of control.
I’m not sure how this happened. Exact numbers are hard to come by, but here’s what I know we have:
14 Ducks of various breeds
20 some-odd Guineas
10 (or 13) pearl (maybe 15!)
4 light gray
11 white
43 Chickens (I think)
That makes roughly Eighty two fowl. Eighty two is too many, that’s for sure.
When birds of a feather get together, there’s often a bully in the group and there is always a disturbance going on. But not this time. They all get along so well, in spite of their different backgrounds and personalities!
The fourteen ducks are a mix of breeds; some mallards, a couple Indian Runner and a few cross-breeding results including the tall brown headed one with the white neck in this picture.
That’s Patrick. He was the duck hatched by a chicken and being all alone I put a Sponge Bob plush toy in the pen with him. (Patrick is Sponge Bob’s best friend in the TV show).
The Mallard ducks I got from the local Tractor Supply Company store this spring. They actually do fly but they know this is home so they don’t migrate. But how neat it must be to hang out on the ground with their other duck friends and then, just every so often, take off and make expanding circles around the farm. And then they circle back in and land and settle down again. Now that’s perspective.
Guineas are native of Africa. I suspect they’re always cold here in the winter. We’ve had guinea fowl for several years; pretty much since we started raising chickens. A neighbor told me if I thought I was going to have trouble with fox or coyotes or raccoons getting my chickens then, I should get guineas because they can fly a bit and get away from varmints. And they eat ticks.
I ordered 30 guinea chicks this spring; a variety of breeds. And for some reason this bunch is just calm and friendly. There were two older ones around and of course at first they had to establish their pecking order, but once that was done, calm all around. And they mix right in with the ducks and chickens. And this group isn’t so psychotic as they are sometimes, so it’s kinda nice.
By the way, guineas are indifferent mothers. They’ll lay a clutch of 20 or 30 eggs, the first 5 or 6 hatch and momma gets up and walks away. And the babies can’t ever keep up. So they’ll only survive if I happen to hear them and intervene. Or find a nest and put the eggs in an incubator. I’ve said it before, the real world is a tough place for baby animals.
About the chickens – We seemed to have enough chickens last spring so I didn’t order any chicks. Although a momma chicken raised 5 of them in a side pen. And put a bunch of eggs in the incubator so they arrived at the same time as the guinea chicks and we got nine more from that.
Everyone seems to be comfortable with their status and company they keep. High scores all around for sociability and variety, but there’s one thing missing.
Productivity.
Sixty some chickens I’m getting 8 eggs a day. Hmmmm, what’s wrong with this ratio?? I think it’s costing me $5 per egg when you factor in feed, water, electricity and heat lamps. Maybe they’ve forgotten there’s work to do.
What’s the secret to getting along with your neighbors?
Trail Baboon 
Nice story, Ben, and I enjoy the way you enjoy your critters.
I’m afraid to post today because yesterday I kept posting and each one did more damage than the last, for I had a head cold (still do) and was feeling “floaty” and not as alert as a sixth grader high on airplane glue. I tried to plan a meeting at my house and managed to conflict with the Blevings meeting and then I set another date that conflicted with the calendar and my own description of it. I shouldn’t have been running a machine any more complex than a pillow.
We talked about a meeting here tomorrow night. Too many people can’t come, and my place is probably infectious now. I need to scrub it down like a cruise ship. Let’s TRY to schedule a meeting here for March 10. Unless I am as addled as yesterday, that might be a Saturday. I have pills that should allow me to be a functioning host on that date. My apologies to Renee for incredibly clumsy questioning on ND geography. Unless someone has a more promising idea for the 10th, I’d still like to talk about Downton Abbey.
Ben, the only way I can please my neighbors is to maintain my property the way they do. Which, on principle, I refuse to do. They have come to expect little of me, so each lawn mowing catches their eye and warrants friendly waves. If I borrow a machine to whip my property into submission, like a weed whip or sidewalk ditcher, they glow. In this neighborhood the god we all worship is Our Lady of Perpetually Increasing Property Values. And I’m the guy snoring in the last pew.
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Steve in St. Paul, Are you entering your Public TV stations contest to visit those real English estates?
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That sounds so cool, Steven, but I don’t expect I’ll be mobile enough to collect on the prize even if I win. I hope you win instead!
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I’m not sure I could handle being in that kind of neighborhood, Steve. That’s amazing. Sidewalk ditcher? What is that? In my yard, I try to live by Miss Rumphius” maxim of making the world more beautiful in some way – but planting and weeding flowers, herbs, etc. means that I don’t always have the energy for weed whacking or other edgy work. So I have some great flowers but the grass in the yard? Lots of weeds in there and they encroach upon the sidewalk and other things. Luckily in this neighborhood, it kind of fits in. So maybe I’m being a good neighbor by giving them something pretty to look at but not being so perfect that they feel bad about their own yards.
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A sidewalk ditcher is a pizza cutter wheel on a wand that you run on either side of your sidewalks, cutting an angled slice out of the lawn so no unsightly grass dares stick its head over your precious sidewalk. I’ve never felt a burning desire for one. Your program sounds good, Edith.
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Keep planting flowers and herbs, Edith, soon there will be no grass left 🙂
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“Not so perfect” is perfect, Edith 🙂
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We have not been a “sidewalk ditcher” household either – but Husband recently learned that along with being something that tidies the lawn (definitely not a concern at our house), it can help with rainwater runoff and irrigation – at least in the city. We might actually invest in one this summer since we are in the Minnehaha Creek watershed and quite near the creek.
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Yeah, madislandgirl – that’s kind of the idea. Just keep planting. Raspberries take up quite a bit of room, too. The grass part of the yard gets tinier each year!
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Help each other out once in awhile. A few days ago I came home from a tough work day to try to shovel out my driveway and sidewalks. My younger neighbor helped me clean the wet snow away. So yesterday when snowplow dumped in our driveways again I cleaned my neighbors driveway as well as mine. Good neighbors just do it with out asking. Great posting about the fowl. Maybe you should change their diet. My mother used to cook potato peelings and feed them to the chickens in Winter. Of course She would cook those peelings in the milk house because they might stink up the house.
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Lovely post, Ben. Must remember, guineas eat ticks (we hate ticks beyond all reason).
Practical question, are your chickens the same breed as always? One year, the Egg Man (coo-coo catchoo) at the Farmer’s Market was sadly without eggs. He said he found out too late that it had something to do with the breed he had bought. You might want to start discussing, in their presence,the fact that you are looking at chicken recipes, as you have no eggs to eat.
We have a lovely neighbor to the west, who is our (and our cat’s) adopted Grandma. I could never live next door to my mother, but ‘Raine is an absolute joy. We work together on a lot of things. My neighbor to the east is also a nice guy, but mostly keeps to himself.
I suspect the reason we all get along is that while we will work together on some things, we actually EXPECT nothing of each other. We tend to approach things with the phrase, “would you mind if I…?” which is usually met with a “not at all, would it help if I….?”
I also think Frost was right-Good fences make good neighbors.
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This “pep-talk” tactic worked like a charm for my son-in-law, mig… the chickens weren’t laying till he went out to the coop to feed the birds and the conversation turned to “a nice big pot of chicken soup”. Amazingly, the first egg was laid within the week.
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I envy you the birds. They are worth the price in entertainment, noise, life.Chickens are a large part of my novel. We had ducks and a neighbor had turkeys, but I left them bot out of the novel. I w3anted to describe a barnyard like yours, but it just was not worth the wordage.
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Ben, I have a book about the complexities of raising ducks, chicken and other fowl together. “Enslaved by Ducks,” by Bob Tarte. If you haven’t read it, send me your snail mail address.
mnstorytelr(at)comcast.net
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I’m not familiar with that book Steve.
When I first got the chickens I checked out a book from the library copyrighted about 1950, called something like ‘You and Your Chickens’ or some such basic approach. It was the best book ever for the beginning chicken keeper. I couldn’t find it again later.
I remember it had descriptions for all the different ways critters would attack and eat your chickens so I could sort of deduce from the remains, who done it. Skunk, you could smell of course, coyote or fox they would just be gone. (Squeamish Alert!): If the head was eaten off, it was probably raccoon. I get a lot of that.
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and thus the reason I will never have chickens, could not start my day seeing that.
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Bacon and eggs for you then
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Good morning to all. Very nice post about your friendly flock, Ben. I have had one exceptionally good nieghbor and one very bad nieghbor. As you might guess, it was very easy to get along with the good one and very hard to get along with the other one.
Our good neighbor was very neat which you might think would put a lot of pressure on us to be neat. However, they told us that we shouldn’t worry about keeping everything neat because we had children and they though we should foucus on them and not put extra time into keeping our place neat. They were an older couple who no longer had children at home. When there was something that they thought really should be kept neater they told us and I was quick to take care of it. I knew they were only telling us about things that were truely bothering them and not being too picky.
Our bad neighbor always seemed upset with just about any thing we did and usually just did a lot frowning and staring without saying anything except for a few harsh comments. Once they complained about a brush pile to a city council member who was asked to give us a warning about the brush pile. If they had told me they didn’t like the brush pile themselves, I would have disposed of it and I did get rid of it when asked to do so by the city council member. The council member said it would make my nieghbors happy if I would get rid of it. I told him that nothing would make them happy.
The short answer is if you have good nieghbors there is no problem and if you have bad ones it is very hard to avoid problems.
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Like hearing about your birds, Ben, and the pictures remind me of a time when 3 ducks from the park almost next door flew up for some reason to the rooftop, Husband still tells stories of when, on the hippie farm, they decided to kill a chicken for dinner, and would intentionally take Alpha Rooster to see what would happen to the pecking order.
Ah, neighbors. Now that I know what I know, I would not get chummy right away with a new neighbor – go kind of slow and easy until you know what you’re dealing with. And doing little things for someone without being asked seems like a good practice, esp. if it’s reciprocated!
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Barbara DOES know whereof she speaks! She’s had the best and the worst. Robert Frost was right, MiG — a little distance is good, close enough that we recognize each other, far enough that we take neighborliness one step at a time, carefully. After all, we’ll be living with each other for a long time.
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Know you are not fond of poetry, Ben, but you and Wendell Berry on Almanac are thinking along similar lines.
http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/
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I do like Wendell Berry’s take on things.
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Yes, me too.
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In our neighborhood the best way to get along is to be quiet and have a neat yard. Keep your dog, children, vehicles, and domestic arguments to to a low roar, and keep the grass mowed and make sure your yard doesn’t look “junky”. Many of our neighbors are retired farmers who believe that you can judge a person’s moral fiber by how neat and tidy the yard is. Our neighbor directly south hates our dog because she barks a little, but he has almost mellowed toward her after we dug up the front yard to put in the vegetable garden. I thought he would be the most critical of us for the garden, but he took such delight watching the garden grow and asking us questions about it. Our neighbors enjoy our flowers. I am less considerate of their feelings of than Edith is of her neighbors’ feelings. We let out all the stops when it comes to flowers, and if the neighbors feel inadequate, well, I hope they will be inspired to grow prettier flowers than we grow. Our neighbors directly to the north have the unenviable reputation of being the only house in memory that has been visited by the police. There was a domestic disturbance a couple of years ago, but i think that resulted in one of the couple going away for a while and taking the cure, so things have been pretty placid and quiet ever since. All neighbor dogs are fenced in, but we have numerous neighborhood cats who roam don’t get along well and who frequently disturb the peace. We have volunteer cat nip on the south side of the house, and the neighbor cats are helpful eating it down to the ground for me. There is a lot of posturing and arguments between them over who owns that section of our yard.
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You have a keen sense of your neighbors, Renee. Farm folk have extremely precise judgments about how other farmers rank, although all they commit to is “he’s a good farmer” or “he’s a bit of a lazy farmer.” They study each other’s operations as they drive by, so they know whose corn is a few inches prouder or weaker than theirs. A neat yard impresses them, although some good farmers have yards that look messy to city eyes but it all is logical enough for rural folks. As you say, these people have a powerful sense of being monitored day by day (“Went by the Peterson place yesterday and he still doesn’t have that hay in.”
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My Uncle Ronald always had the “cleanest oats in the township”.
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Gawd! They could be as picky and censorious as a snobby clique of high school girls!
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Weeds in a soybean field is a terrible sin.
So and so might have the straightest corn rows in the township, but I get more corn in a crooked row.
See the rules of IPM Plowing competition:
http://www.plowingmatch.org/plowing/rules.php
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My college roommate was a North Dakota girl who married a wheat farmer. She was not allowed to help with planting because her rows were never straight enough, and it would shame the family to have them growing that way.
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A good friend of mine grew up on a sugar beet farm in western MN. First time she drove the tractor by herself her father told her to focus on an object on the horizon to maintain her orientation. If you haven’t already guessed, she focused on a moving automobile. 🙂
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I can never get my rows straight either, even in a very small garden/yard. Can’t imagine what it would look like if I planted a wheat field.
Maybe my dream of moving to the country some day is foolish since I hate to feel that I’m being judged harshly.
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Edith, if you’re a “Good Worker” all else will be forgiven.
‘He aint got he sense God gave geese but he’s a good worker.’ ‘A yep’
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Alas, Ben, I’m probably not a “good worker” either.
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Didn’t teach you to be a good worker in the big house eh Edith? Should make you plow acording to the ontarios plow rules. Horse drawn or antique tractor?
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I think you can encourage gardening in your nieghborhood by increasing your own efforts at gardening. Renee, I would be suprised if you don’t see more people planting or increasing their plantings of flowers in response to your flower gardening efforts. I have two locations where I plant vegetables and I have seen an increase in vegetable gardening by people who live near both of the locations of my gardens.
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That is just what we are hoping for, Jim.
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Yes, that’s true. We were the first on our block to plant the boulevard and it’s spreading up and down the street 🙂
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I’m still waiting on that – I was the first 3 years ago, and I’m still the only one.
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Well, Edith, better one than none, yes? Even if no one follows your lead, you can be sure your effort is appreciated. And if it makes you happy . . . All you can do is plant the seed. That boulevard soil is !@#, don’t you agree? What did you plant there and how is it doing?
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Coneflowers – good. Daylilies, various colors – good. Bugleweed – spread like crazy, now I’m giving it away and moving it to parts of the lawn (to try to improve the weed situation). Blue Clips Bellflowers – okay. Nasturiums – very good. Snapdragons – very good. Allium – giant purple ones, did great but people knock them off as they walk by, too tempting. I think I’m forgetting some things…and yes, the boulevard soil is baaaad.
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My gardening efforts seem to have encouraged my immediate neighbors to jump on the bandwagon… flowers abound. My next move is to take up the practice of Guerrilla Gardening as a means of sprucing up neglected plots of public land. Seed bombs seem the least conspicuous method to accomplish that. I have a recipe & targets in mind… all that’s left is to await warmer days.
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Would you share the recipe for seed bombs? A friend of mine asked me today about them and I’ve never made any. I’ve heard clay, paper mache, Could google, but if you have something tried and true. . .
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Who wrote that excellent tile: Love it?
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That’s title. I am giving up on my hands. GRRR. Good day all.
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I only know how not to get along with neighbors: do not put up 4X8′ Obama signs in an ultra conservative city; do not stay married to a hoarder; do not allow five cats to roam the outdoors; do not allow a friend’s small fishing boat to use your otherwise boat-less dock since the city ordinance states “no boat unless you own it at your dock”; and do not expect even small kindnesses when you’re very ill. Living here is straight out of the Great Gatsby novel and has been consistently unwelcoming for a decade. Fortunately, abundance reigns in every other area of this life except “neighborhood”. Besides, I have squatter’s rights!
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I have had good luck with neighbors. I have been careful of them, but it mostly just luck. Our neighborhood on the North Shore was wonderful. Parties on the beach, little Old Swedish lady for our kids to visit to get cookies (Ingeborg Stensgaard Larssen), very helpful neighbors. Between four of use we could help each other with most things. Dogs and carts that roamed to everyone’s pleasure without being a bother. Interesting people. Lake in front, woods full of trails in back. It was close to idyllic.
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Boy, a name like Ingeborg Stensgaard Larssen is a name you won’t hear often today. And more’s the pity, I think.
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5′ 1″ taught first grade for 45 years; my sister had her as a teacher. Lived to 97. Never said anything but an encouraging word. Sweet slight Swedish lilt. Very stylish, current dress style in those last two years in a nursing home when she went blind.
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My neighbor in one direction and I have shoveled for each other for years. She’s retired now and OFTEN gets to mine before I think of shoveling (of course this year I think “why bother?”). The neighbor on the other side is slowed down by what I suspect is arthritis so her grandsons shovel. Bugs me a bit because they don’t even come to what I perceive as the property line and they are strapping young fellows.
I have had some issues with neighbor #1 in spite of our mutual shoveling society. I don’t dare say more than a quick “hi” if I see her in the yard or she’ll talk my ear off for hours, never providing that pause that allows the polite “..well, I really need to get going” or showing the slightest interest in my doings. I’m sure she’s lonely and I should be the good neighbor letting her talk. (Man, I do sound selfish, don’t I).
A few years ago, she griped because my huge maple dug its roots into her sewer line. She hinted that I should take it down. Sorry, but a) that’s life in the city and b) I planted a maple helicopter SEED 3 days after I found I was pregnant with #1 son and the resulting tree now towers over the house. Tons of sentimental value. I did actually give her some money to help pay for digging the roots out of her sewer line (my good neighbor moment).
The latest (sad) development is that the last time she cornered me, she said she might have to move because the “Mexicans in her attic” were keeping her up all night with their loud music. She called the police who wouldn’t go into her attic. Having a son who has had a couple of psychotic, paranoid episodes, I am actually worried about her. I talked to a friend in the mental health field and we agreed that as long as she’s no danger to herself or others, there’s not much that can be done.
She seems to be functional in other ways: shoveling, getting her garage door replaced, taking out the trash.
I love my neighborhood but I guess it’s always a mixed bag.
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Lisa – Do you know if your neighbor attends a church of some flavor or other? My mother had a dear friend who lived alone and was having some medical issues that she was not fully admitting to – my mom was able to contact a parish nurse (seems like a trend in ministries to have a “parish nurse” on staff or on call) and talk to that person about her concerns. Her friend’s closest family was a niece and nephew who both lived out of town – so contacting the parish nurse was a way to alert someone who could then gently talk to her friend about health concerns and issues. If you live in one of the Mpls. neighborhoods with an active neighborhood association, they may be able to point you to similar resources in your community. But, like you say, as long as she is not a danger to herself and is “of sound mind” (from a legal standpoint), there may not be much you can do.
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Anna, I really know so little about her. She has a daughter in Georgia but I’ve never seen anyone come or go from her house (of course, I’m not a front-of-the-house observer).
Except for this one conversation and mention from the MAC airport-sound-insulating project manager who told me that she asked if other people who had the sound insulation work done had started noticing ghosts, I don’t have any way to know how pervasive her hallucinations are. Our church has a relationship with a wonderful Parish Nurse. I’m not sure how I could get her involved with such limited relationship and knowledge of the situation. I’ll keep this idea in mind should I see anything more glaring. Thanks for the idea.
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We have some sort of community seniors’ assistance in St Paul (they take my neighbor to the pharmacy and grocery, check in on her regularly).
Your Parish Nurse might not be able to do much directly, but might be able to give you some good advice/direction.
A few years ago, our neighbor was having some issues with walking. At that time, we decided it was a good idea for me to have a good list of contact information for her close family members, just in case.
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when my wifes grandmother started in with the dimentia and the night visitors she started cooking for them. maybe if she made a little chili and some tacos they could all be happy together. buying a bag of doritos may be an easier answer. make them friends instead of invasive.
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Morning–
Thanks for the compliments.
I wrote a jumbled mess of a story and as usual Dale cleaned it up and made it readable and came up with the title and question.
This is just a fun bunch of birds. I couldn’t decide if they were all ‘fowl’ or what the actual classification would be for chickens, ducks and guineas. I did a little research in the ‘Kingdom, Phylum, Order’ scheme but I didn’t get far in that.
Since I wrote the story production is up. Getting about 15 eggs / day now. Still not a high ratio given the number of hens. And it would certainly be frowned upon by the republicans in the group, but I can tell the smaller eggs from the new ladies and larger eggs from the older ones so I’ll cut them some slack and we’ll call it good.
My family had chickens years and years ago when all farms had them. I remember Mom taking eggs into the back of ‘Stopples Feed Store’ on Main street in Rochester. There was flour on the floor (or something like that is seemed; maybe corn dust??) and a seam where the floor was an inch lower back there than the front of the store and that’s where the gumball machine was.
My sisters job was to collect eggs and the hens would pick at her and she hated the job. My older brothers job was to climb the evergreen trees and chase the chickens out of the trees so they would roost in the pen at night. I wasn’t old enough to do chicken chores before Mom and Dad got rid of them.
When I announced we were getting chickens the family all rolled their eyes at me. “Why would you want to do that?” They all said. It wasn’t ‘fun’ when they had chickens. Mom taught me how to butcher chickens but that wasn’t fun for me. Collecting eggs is fun.
We have good neighbors. Good fences used to be more important. These days I’m the only one with cattle — and they’re summer tenants only. Occasionally we have trouble with hunters; some of the neighbor kids don’t respect the fences come deer hunting season. Only one other neighbor on our road to the highway and we get along well. I agree with the not expecting idea.
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The chickens and other fowl are always one of my favorite exhibits at the county fair. I have heard that some people who have raised chickens are glad to be done with that. I guess that was the thinking of some of your family, Ben. I think it would fun to raise chickens or some other kind of fowl. Somehow, I have never been able to find the right time or place for raising chickens, but I still think I might try it some time.
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Maybe you’ll start getting more eggs as the season warms, Ben. I thought chickens laid eggs in the spring, summer, fall… no?
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I think it is related to hours of sunlight. More light, more eggs.
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We have a good neighborhood, without expectations for neat lawns or houses and gardens to be a particular way. Neighbor to the south has been grand – they have a daughter a year older that mine, and the two of them play well together. Most of the other kids on the block are boys (with the exception of one other girl who is close to Daughter’s age, but they have never quite “clicked” as playmates – it doesn’t help, I’m sure, that Girl Across the Street is quite allergic to our animals, so can never play at our house except when they can play outside). Good neighbors seem to have a sense of when to pitch in and help, and when to leave well enough alone – we have been blessed with a neighborhood that has a lot of folks who share that mindset. We are interested in each others’ welfare enough that we keep up with general news and events, but not to the point of being nosy.
And Ben, it seems you have a very E.B. White approach to farming – at least with your brood of fowl. Love the story of Patrick the mixed breed duck hatched by a chicken and kept warm by a plush toy. Seems like a children’s book in the making.
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Renee — I’ve written up my Strasburg story, only it is too long to use on Trail Baboon.If you or any other Baboon wants it, send an email to mnstorytelr(at)comcast.net
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So there’s a size limit on posts?
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Not really, but there’s a limit to how long a story should be on this venue. Short and sweet. That one at a thousand words is pushing the limit in my view.
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i have two neighbors who are both fine and i dont know either of the well but they are cordial. they are the new guys and i have been there 7 or 8 years now. i know people form waving as i drive by or the fact that they dont wave as they drive by. my obama sign may ward off the friends of rush and mb which is fine but it also attracts the other dems in the area. there are not many of us and i am the only one who puts up signs. i think the best way to have good neighbors is to say hi be real nice, don’t mess up because it wil never be forgotten and mind your own business. i kind of miss having neighbors who were buddies but now i have community friends and blog friends and political friends and business friends so maybe neighbors are more of a incidental occurance than a fator to be dealt with in a serous way. if only we were like bens chickens ducks and guinieas, but then you find like mentioned that you have to hide out or they will keep you from getting stuff done. a beer on the front lawn is enough to screw up my mojo for the work day. let me at i and ill be back to shoot the breeze later neighbor when i am ready. steve send the story about welk and the black man
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And a Partridge in a Pear Tree!
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Ben, if you have 60 fowl and are getting only 15 eggs, you need to make it up in volume – get another 60 fowl.then you’ll get 30 eggs/day. 🙂
loved your way of nurturing those chicks and ducklings and what ever guinea henlings are called. i’m so surprised you have a well-behaved lot. congratulations and thanks again.
Blackhoof is a great neighborhood. the folks that have lived here all their lives have their ways and they let us have ours. no doubt they talk about us, but who cares? yesterday, we were butt-deep in snow (thank goodness and finally) and our lane is a township lane that is often left to the very end of plowing. about 8 a.m. i’m feeding the Girls and i hear what i think is the grader coming down the lane – i go out to see my friend Mike OTLH coming with his new/used tractor – came over just to plow us out. we give him goats’ milk soap in the winter and goats’ milk in the summer. another neighbor brought over three nice-sized tree stumps for the kiddos to play on this summer – brought them over in his tractor loader. he’ll get cheese this summer. i often hear them saying about some other newbies in the neighborhood (and i’m sure they say this of us also) “they’re different, but we all have our ways…..” lovely folks.
btw: OTLH means “of the large hands” – Mike’s hands are bigger than bear paws.
back into lurkitude 🙂
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Barb, I like your additude when you say “no doubt they talk about us, but who cares”. I heard my Dad say something like that and I think you and he are right. It is good to not let what other people say about you bother you too much.
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I’ve always loved the quote “It’s non of your business what other people think of you.” Not sure who to attribute it to… but it’s a good one.
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none* (argh)
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Our new neighborhood in Chisago City is very neighborly. It isn’t posted geezer, but the population is weighted in that direction. There are a lot of us who remember what neighborhoods used to be and liked it. People stop to admire new cars, chat on the front porch, and go for walks and bike rides together. We have a community lodge where there are Friday happy hours, monthly pot lucks, and the entree course for the holiday progressive dinner. You can be as involved or reclusive as you want, but can always count on a wave as you drive by. So far, it’s been great. Can’t wait for the snow birds to return.
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I like it when people wave. I do think they over do the waving around here. Almost every person who drives by me when I am walking or driving will wave and I’m sure I don’t know many of them. I wave back because I don’t want to ignore anyone even thought I would rather reserve my waving for people who I know..
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Waving at everybody is sort of like the Minnesota practice of saying hello to everyone you pass. I was in NYC last weekend and caught myself almost saying Hi to a woman passing on the sidewalk and then I remembered that that’s probably not done in the Big Apple.
After his freshman year at NYU, my son said he found himself scowling at everyone he passed. I like our silly hellos better than that. And waving at everyone seems nice to me when I experience it in the country.
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Where in Chisago City are you? I taught there 44 years ago and my wife has many relatives in the area including in CC.
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This city girl loves all the animal talk. My sister gets to chicken-sit occasionally and she loves doing it and RAVES about how much better the eggs are than store bought. I’d love to be one of those Urban Chicken people but I think my lot is too small and since all my pet and people responsibilities have gone away, I don’t really want to be tied down to another creature’s schedule.
Besides the spring-summer laying cycle, I understood that chickens-of-a-certain-age stop laying. But my impression is that Ben’s ladies are all fairly young.
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That flock sounds like a lot of fun, Ben! It’s interesting how well they seem to get along. They’re probably responding to their harmonious abode.
I’ve not been fortunate in my current neighborhood. Visits to my next door neighbor from the police used to be routine; fortunately that has settled down. There was another place across the street that also had frequent law enforcement visits but it was sold. There have been many nights when I couldn’t sleep all night due to the music and partying going on. A few of the houses on my street rent for peanuts due to the recession and it’s a haven for young people who’ve recently left the family home to begin their life of crime. There is such a thing as rural poverty and it is here.
Most of my neighbors don’t care a tiddly bit about lawn maintenance and that’s fine with me. I mow weekly and have tried to restore native plants on the hill behind my house. I’ve not been entirely successful with landscaping and have come to the conclusion that either a) my site isn’t hospitable to the plants I’ve tried to establish or b) I’m just not good at it. There is one neighbor below me who introduced herself by coming over and announcing that she hates trees and hates my yard and has lived there longer than me and will not tolerate any branches over her yard or leaves or seeds or weeds encroaching on her yard. They sprayed some of my restoration with herbicide and killed three red oak trees. They have removed many lovely ash trees from their own yard and prefer to mow it and use frequent and copious applications of herbicide. I don’t use herbicides and I dislike mowing. I wanted so badly to reduce my impact and I sometimes feel forced to go with the flow so that I can live in harmony like Ben’s fowl.
Hm. A thought. What if I got a flock like Ben’s? I wonder what they’d say to that?
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Wow. That neighbor sounds hard to please. No branches over her yard? No leaves? Spraying your stuff with herbicide? Man oh man.
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I just heard about a blow to the broader neighborhood I live in: the red-headed librarian who has been at my branch library since I was a wee lass (she has been at the branch since it opened 40+ years ago) and who may well have been the librarian who issued me my first (paper) library card is retiring. Her last day at the library is tomorrow. A part of my childhood will retire with her.
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I think I know who you mean! She’s pretty quiet and always smiling. I saw her at a community sing once. I wish her well in her retirement.
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Probably one and the same – always speaks quietly, always smiling, prone to wearing Norwegian sweaters in the winter…
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Love your fowl family fotos, Ben! They look like a most contented brood. 🙂
We’ve been very lucky to have landed in Longfellow neighborhood. When we downsized from Golden Valley 7 years ago, we ended up full circle on the same street where we lived in our first house back in the 70’s. I don’t think we’ve ever had bad neighbors, but our current block is by far the friendliest place we’ve lived.
Gardening – Everyone around here shares plants and extra compost, gets regular neighborhood updates over the fence. Last fall we “chicken sat” for our neighbors–16 Buff Orpingtons and a couple of Araucana (beautiful pale blue eggs) — 18 chickens is apparently the max allowed in the city — two ducks and two very old cats. Plus all the tomatoes and eggs we could eat. We loved the critters and luckily neighbor trusted us enough to ask. I’m glad we didn’t lose any fowl on our watch because neighbor already had had a chicken trauma earlier last year. One of his chickens fell off the garage roof and broke its leg. Neighbor took chicken to the U of M vet for surgery. You’d be shocked how much chicken surgery costs! Factor that into the cost of eggs, and it’s more like running a chicken spa.
Dogs and children – Dog walking is a sure-fire way to meet and greet everyone everywhere in your walking radius. Of course it’s a strange relationship because you know most of these neighbors as “Bobo’s” mom or “Lenny’s” dad. When we first moved in and put up a fence so our dog Gracie could be safely confined out back, a couple of people implied through the grapevine that this was un-neighborly. It actually initiated a friendly conversation “over the fence” and cleared the air. Husband adapted his fence design to chest height and see-through. A perfect compromise. We’ve met neighbor children who peek through the fence and ask to play with our dog and cat. It also doesn’t hurt that we like Girl Scout cookies.
Snow blowing — I know there are many who hate the noise of a snow blower, but in a city neighborhood with lots of walkers, clear non-icy sidewalks are a public service and, judging by the response we get, our neighbors (some are elderly) are mighty grateful when husband clears the whole block. The snow blower was a holdover from a bigger house/driveway and we don’t really need it any more, but it’s been an icebreaker.
I guess we’ve been lucky.
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Oops, looks like my paragraph spacing didn’t take. Kinda illegible. So sorry!
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Don’t ever let it happen again
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Listen to tim – the paragraph police.
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Do I have to take some kind of oath, tim?
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OT – there’s been some confusion about dates of TC Baboon events. Here’s what I think I know –
Game night is at tim’s this Saturday the 3rd at 7:00; some people are doing the Soup Exchange thing.
Blevens Book Club is still Sunday the 18th, 2:00 at Jacque’s.
Steve said this above: “Unless someone has a more promising idea for the 10th, I’d still like to talk about Downton Abbey.”
If you need directions to any of these places, ask and I’ll bet someone will provide an email address…
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My husband is the snow blower of the block also. Our across the street neighbor asked him to hold off because she wants her son to have the responsibility to clear their driveway!!!
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My memories of growing up in the burbs on Minneapolis 1960 was the neighbors who we played with got in trouble with plotted with got forgiveness from learned how to see the world through eir eyes ( he is Japanese and is kind of unsure of how people feel because of the war) she is a crabby lady because her family had no fun and she lived a hard life. She looks scary with no teeth but her house with no running water or electricity was here a long time befo we came. She is afraid to put money in banks because her dad lost everything in the depression. The neighbors were changing every season but lots of them stayed forever. Mny friends are still around from those 20 year relationships. The dewberrys form north carolinam tanaka form l.a. Herboldts been here for years and years but they seem sad. Bruggemeirs are strict an red headed. The people with the German Shepard who didn’t keep their yard up at all. Othe baseball coach who had the big ford station wagon that carried ten kids to practices . Te tv star the guys with cool hair like Elvis or the guy with the club foot and malformed ear who was real nice when you talked to him
The store was a mile away and I had to walk til I learned to ride a bike, the river the creeks the farmers fields to play in. Baseball games with all ages included.nthe mom who looked like a movie star. The people who lived in the underground house. The guy whose mom left and who’s dad had dirty magazines. The fact that everyone had their deal was part of the deal. We all came from somewhere else and had our own quirks and it was fun checking out what the new families deal was going to be , we were the only normal ones. If there was kid who didn’t want to play he was very odd. We all went out all day and all night summer winter fall and spring, fist lite till bedtime part of the deal. Life was easy but fitting it all in was much more up to the kids and the parents just stayed the heck out of it, today if the drop offs and pick ups for the play dates don’t match up it’s cancelled. Heck have em walk home it’s on a couple of miles. Ignorant bliss replaced by paranoid kid stealing psycho.s in the shadows, i think the chickens have a better outlook on life sometimes
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tim, This sounds like a replay of husband’s childhood. You didn’t happen to grow up in Robbinsdale, did you? Not to rag on you, but the thing that stood out in your story was “we were the only normal ones”. Is that your story and are you sticking to it? 🙂
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Just got the Strasburg story from Steve. It is wonderful! Bother Steve right now to have him send it to you!
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Three households on this block have gone in together on a snowblower, bought at the beginning of the season (that’s why we’ve hardly had any snow here this year). No sidewalks on this block, but we’ve all got plenty of driveway. Lives in T’s garage to the north – he uses it first because he has to get up and out earliest. Then he cuts a swath in the street past our place and leaves it at K’s south of us, and we all figure out who needs it next.
And then there’s Lola’s family across the street – (there’s a blog about Lola from 7/16/11). And Tina a couple of doors down hosts parties and sometimes National Night Out… K & K next door tell us when there’s a racoon family to watch in their way back… It’s a good place now – we’re very lucky.
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A jointly owned snowblower? MiGawd, woman, that is Socialism.
I knew it would come to this if we elected a Muslim to be president.
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My secret: I M.M.O.B. and respect their property and freedom and take responsibility for my actions and words, but also expect that from them and hold them to account if they don’t.
It basically boils down to live and let live in a civil manner (as is defined by society today)
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Missed the trail when this posted… very enjoyable, Ben. All your fowl talk brought back wonderful memories of living with Lily the duck (school project turned amazing buddy). I never would have guessed they could make such wonderful companions.
I live in an amazing neighborhood in Kasota… The entire town is about 600 people. We all know pretty much everyone who lives here (or find out who they are within a week of their arrival). We always take the time to wave, stop for a chat, swap gardening tips and/or bounty, watch over each other’s homes, and keep up on how everyone is doing. My immediate neighbors are like my family… we’ve shared in the day-to-day routines and gone through life’s highs & lows together. We’ve gathered to celebrate our childrens’ weddings, welcome their babies, support each other during sickness & tragedy, and to mourn the passing of each other’s loved ones. We’ve all agreed that the best thing about where we live is having each other.
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