Annabelle may think she’s a dog, but even I don’t know what’s going on in the chicken house.

The banty hen is sitting on three eggs.

You’d think that was almost not even worth the trouble, but she has been wanting to sit on a nest since she was big enough to fly up into the nesting boxes. I had three banty eggs in the incubator this spring and not one banty egg hatched, so I don’t have high hopes for her nest.

She will sit on it to the death, though. It’s been almost three weeks, so I’ll know soon if she is doing anything productive or just living out her fantasies.

Meanwhile, something did hatch in the chicken house–wild baby birds!!

There are three baby birds in one of the nesting boxes. My question? How are they getting out of there? I hope mama bird can figure out how to lead the way when they fledge.

What I do know? I’m not feeding them!

Meanwhile, back in the chicken yard, I kept looking and looking at this one little chick from the bunch I hatched out of the incubator. It just didn’t look right. Something was weird…..

Do you see what I see?

Do you see that tuft on the top of its head?

Do you see its nearly naked neck?

The eggs I hatched out of the incubator came from my original chickens, which came from the nearby chicken farm. They keep a grand mix of chicken breeds over there. They order every year from Murray McMurray, playing around with different breeds. They also let them intermingle and hatch out mixes. So, the chickens I got from them are a mix, and an unknown mix at that. They do have some Turkens (Naked Necks) over there, but none of my chickens turned out to be Naked Necks (and I wasn’t particularly wanting any, either).

But in the next generation, hatching out their eggs, the genes rose to the top and I got one.

It’s a mix, of course, not a full Turken, but it’s definitely got some Turken in it.

Turkens are a bit of a novelty chicken. This is what they look like full-grown. (See the odd chicken in the middle of the photo below?) They come in assorted colors.

I regret to announce that Stringtown Rising Farm is no longer 100 percent cute. We now sport a hideous novelty.

We have a Naked Necker!

I’m publishing the June newsletter on the blog for a couple reasons–one, a number of people have told me they didn’t receive it, and two, I’ve been wanting to publish a sample newsletter for awhile so that people know what they’re getting when they subscribe. They can check out the sample first.

The Chickens in the Road newsletter always includes a short story exclusive to the newsletter, a kitchen tip or extra recipe, a favorite something or other I’m excited about at the moment (FYI, this is not a sponsored section), an embarrassing photo, and a blast from the past post along with a round-up of my favorite post links from the past month. Sometimes I let out a special secret in the newsletter. For example, the June newsletter included the news–and a photo preview–of Sprite, our newest (and not yet arrived to the farm) goat.

If you didn’t receive the June newsletter, please check your spam folder to see if your spam filters are tossing it there. If you don’t find it, let me know and I will double-check the subscriber list to make sure you’re subscribed. I’ve had quite a few people tell me they found the newsletter in their spam folder.

If you’re not signed up, don’t miss the next newsletter–register here and check the mailing list box.

June 2009 Chickens in the Road Newsletter


IN THIS ISSUE:

*Story Short: Hiking the Appalachian Trail
*Kitchen Extra: Ice Cold
*Embarrassing Photo of the Month: The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same
*My Favorite Thing Right Now: Thistledew Farm
*Recent Highlights: Planting by the Moon, Pie with Beef & Italian Peppers, Goodbye to a Wash House, and Two, Count ‘em, Two Miniature Donkeys, and More
*Sneak Peek: Yes, Pepsi, There is a Sprite
*Blast from the Past: The Ornery Angel


Newsletter Sponsor

Note: This issue marks the Chickens in the Road newsletter subscriber list topping 1000 subscribers! I just updated my newsletter program and I’m hoping my struggle with some previous newsletters being delivered twice is at an end. If this one goes twice again, bear with me. I’m working on it! (I never send two newsletters at once. If you get it twice, you can feel confident to delete the second one from your inbox without opening it.)


*Story Short: Hiking the Appalachian Trail





I’ve always wanted to hike the Appalachian Trail. It’s been a lifelong dream. Recently, without telling a soul, I headed off to the Shenandoah Valley and hopped onto the trail at Harper’s Ferry.





It was hot. I was courageous in the face of the heat and even sudden rain and beating wind. The geese cheered me on.





Are you buying any of this? I didn’t think so.

Okay, I made a quickie overnight trip to the Shenandoah Valley this weekend to pick up Morgan from camp at Shepherd University. The Appalachian Trail runs right through nearby Harper’s Ferry.





I stopped for a few pics and walked the trail for, oh, about 20 feet.








The Shenandoah Valley is a gorgeous area. Shepherdstown is in West Virginia at the Maryland border. The scenery there is amazingly picturesque–flowing fields of corn, rows upon rows of peach orchards, and incredibly manicured farms. I was lazy and took very few pictures, but I did take this shot of one of our two accidental trips to Pennsylvania. (Wrong turn, both times.)





Other highlights of the trip included the truck breaking down and having to stop for repairs, and getting lost leaving Martinsburg (didn’t even end up in Pennsylvania that time).

I also couldn’t help myself when I saw how close we were to Boonsboro, Maryland, the home of Nora Roberts and her famed little bookshop, Turn the Page.





What kind of Nora stalker would I be if I didn’t drop in?

I mean, you KNOW Nora would be disappointed if I didn’t stop to see her!

Only she wasn’t there. What is up with that?





Next time I’m in town, I’m gonna let Nora know in advance so she can be waiting for me at her shop.

Or, you know, so she can head to Canada or something……

*Kitchen Extra: Ice Cold


Here’s my summertime tip for keeping your glass of wine ice cold on hot days–wine cubes!

Freeze cubes of wine and pop them out into your glass to keep wine frosty-cold without watering it down. You can even add grapes to each cube before freezing, or sliced fresh fruit, which makes the cubes pretty and fun plus leaves you with a little treat at the end of your glass. I’m using sliced strawberries here.


Here’s to lots of summertime wine sipping on the porch in the evening after chores are done!

*Embarrassing Photo of the Month: The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same

Another seriously tragic photo revealed.





My office-slash-soon-to-be-craft-room looks exactly the same as it did in last month’s newsletter. I think I need an intervention.

Even the cat is ashamed of me.

*My Favorite Thing Right Now: Thistledew Farm


I’m always behind and always late. (Just ask my kids.) I ordered both last year and this year for Father’s Day from Thistledew Farm, a small West Virginia company specializing in honey and other bee-related products. I love their decorative honey jars and sent my dad the Honey Moon jars in light and dark honey. Why I love them right now is because I was ordering on Thursday and Father’s Day was Sunday. This is typical for me. They had no dark Honey Moon jars ready, but poured one just for me and then made a special trip to the post office that afternoon to send the honey by the cheapest route possible, U.S. postal service flat rate, and they actually got my gift there by Saturday afternoon. I highly recommend them! (They are perfect for disorganized, late people like me! And you can’t beat West Virginia honey.)

*Recent Highlights: Planting by the Moon, Pie with Beef & Italian Peppers, Goodbye to a Wash House, and Two, Count ‘em, Two Miniature Donkeys, and More

Finally meet Pocohontas, then meet Jack, and don’t forget Sausage and Patty! See all my cute farm animal stories here.

Posts in cooking included Deep Dish Apple Pie, Pie with Beef & Italian Peppers (Oliverio peppers, yum!), and my long-lost and reinvented Gingerbread with Nutty-Buttery Broiled Topping. Don’t miss a thing! Get all my recipes.

June was all about goodbyes in Country Living as I said farewell to the wash house, goodnight to spring, and my eldest said goodbye and good riddance to high school (while I stood by in disbelief). See all my country living stories.

Find out how to plant by the moon, build a truly creepy scarecrow, and what all not to do in your garden. See all my garden stories.

Also see all my posts in crafts.

*Sneak Peak: Yes, Pepsi, There is a Sprite



Photo courtesy Bob Lewis

Sprite has landed! Well, not here as in on our farm, she’s still in Tennessee, but Sprite (on the left in the photo above) has been born and she’ll be coming to Stringtown Rising Farm to join Pepsi later this summer. Here’s how Bob describes Sprite’s coloring: “She’s black with a white forehead and white striping as you can see from the picture. She also has the neatest white pattern inside her ears…looks like she was standing around when someone spray painted and caught the overspray.”

Won’t Sprite and Pepsi make beautiful babies!

*Blast from the Past: The Ornery Angel

It was a year ago that I first posted about my travails with the Ornery Angel. I posted an Ornery Angel update after I tried to kiss up to her to get her to move out of my way on the road, and also posted about when Coco had An Unfortunate Affair with Rat Dog. Here’s the most recent update: Coco’s been in heat again (no, we didn’t breed her this time, either) and the Ornery Angel completely cooperated by keeping Rat Dog at home for the duration.





She even gave us Sausage and Patty. That’s a lot of progress in a year!

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Thank you for your comments, your support, and just for being there. Here’s hoping to see you on the Chickens in the Road Forum (make friends, have fun, come join us!) and every day on the farmhouse blog!

Love,

Suzanne

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You can see more about my trip to the Shenandoah Valley in I Could Have Had a Very Happy Life with That Bee.

If you have any suggestions, requests, or even criticism of the newsletter, let me know here and I’ll do my best!

1. My Kitchen Doesn’t Feel Like Home Unless
2. I Could Have Had a Very Happy Life with That Bee
3. A New Address
4. A Portrait of Three Dogs
5. Gardening By Surprise, and Other Ideas You Might Not Want to Try
6. What Happens After the Cat Gets on the Counter and Licks the Gingerbread
7. Gingerbread with Nutty-Buttery Broiled Topping