Rescued Kitten

This is 'Squeak' as he was called for his short visit with us.  Squeak was rescued by someone I work with at my 'real job' at just 3-4 weeks old.  Covered in fleas, infested with worms and shivering cold, he was a terrible sight.  I brought him home for a couple days, cleaned him up, fed him and gave him a whole lot of love.  I have rescued several animals and adopted them out to forever homes. Therefore I didn't think it was possible to get so attached to this little critter so quickly - was I wrong.

Several days later it was apparent that he was either going to stay with us for the long haul, a proposition which my four adult cats were not at all interested in entertaining, or he was going to need to find a new forever home.  Squeak came from who knows where to my house (20 miles away from where he was found), went with us to NH (230 miles round trip) for a powwow then two weeks later he went to ME to another powwow (292 miles 1 way).  He now lives way up in Millinocket, ME (another 100 miles north of the powwow grounds) with good friends of ours who we met through the North Country Intertribal Powwow - Holly and Frank.

Surprise!

My husband and I had noted a marked decreased in the number of eggs we were getting from our chickens.  We figured that some of our older birds were getting ready to molt and the new layers hadn’t started yet.  We didn’t think much of it… until Tuesday morning.

When my husband got home from work he came inside and asked me if I had work clothes on because I needed to get underneath the porch. (DH and I are not small people).  My expression must have said it all because he told me that he noticed some strange noises coming from underneath the back porch. ‘The eggs we were missing are now up and walking around’, he said.

He found eight brand new little ones running around.  One of the hens that our friend bestowed upon us when she moved in June had made herself a little nest and had been hiding out under there for at least a month now.  It was forecast to get down below freezing on Tuesday night.  We proceeded to dig out the feeder and waterer which was put away after our spring pullets, ran out to the feed store to get some growing mash, got out the heat lamp from the workshop, and began assembling a brooder box.  We took a spare cardboard box outside and I began squeezing my not so little self underneath the back porch.  Momma didn’t mind so much that I was coming under there to visit her, she was used to us collecting eggs from nearby nesting boxes in the chicken coop.  It wasn’t until I started removing her new babies that she got really upset with me.  Imagine lying on your tummy in a two foot tall crawl space, reaching in front of you trying to catch day old pullets and having Momma peck at your hands, your head, your shoulders, etc.  The pecks don’t hurt so much, but trying to protect my face from flying dirt and debris while she was dancing around was interesting.

There are still eight more eggs in the nest and she is still sitting on them.  We are watching every day or two to see if any new little ones have emerged.  Fall pullets were not in the plans for this year due to the lack of heat and some repairs which need to be made to the weatherproofing in the chicken coop.  Apparently Creator decided that more laying birds were in our immediate future.

To-Do List Items for the Chicken Coop:

• 
  
  Re-seal the roof
• 
  
  Wash and paint the exterior walls
• 
  
  Remove hay insulation (doesn’t work together with leaky roof – very messy and moldy), wash down inside walls with mold preventative and replace insulation
• 
  
  Fix drainage problem in coop yard (we are hoping this is as simple as digging out the existing dirt and adding some layers of varying sizes of gravel and sand).
• 
  
  Add roof to ½ of coop yard (tarp is getting worse for the wear).
• 
  
  Replace coop yard fence running chicken wire 8-12 inches under soil level to deter whatever has been digging at the side of the coop yard fence and to keep the ducks from hiding their eggs under the coop itself.

Hopefully I will remember to bring the camera along as we attempt these and other fall projects around the house.

Stop taking my picture!

Do you have any interesting fall projects that you are planning to tackle?

Fresh vegetables abound

Canning, canning, and more canning...

The house smells fantastic.

Brief reprieve

We took a brief reprieve from the farm to enjoy friends and extended family at the North Country Intertribal Powwow in Newport, Maine. It was a wonderful week full of dancing, drumming, celebration, ceremony, and its share of really hard work. My husband has been helping put on the pot-luck feast at this event since 2004. I began helping at my first visit in 2006 and we have been working with the Littlefield and Luce families ever since to make this event better each year. This picture is of the second tipi on Friday morning just as the fog was lifting from the field before sunrise.

We also help with a relatively new powwow only in its third year – the Great Northern Moose Intertribal Powwow in Dummer, NH. This is a small event which feels more like visiting old friends then it does an organized event. The Tessiers have established a great bed and breakfast and they are working on new campground across the road from the lodge. Out in the middle of the north woods, they couldn’t have a better location to gather and celebrate the Native American culture. You can visit the lodge at http://www.greatnorthernmoose.com/.

My first powwow was in May of 2006 in Tamworth, NH. That weekend I was welcomed with open arms into ‘the family’. The powwow trail has some incredible people and my life has only been enriched by knowing and learning from them. Grandmother Two Feathers and Grandmother Awabejiwani took me under their wing and began to teach me the ways of the red road that weekend. I went to six powwows that summer and at each I gained a better understanding of who I am in addition to meeting and becoming great friends with my husband’s extended ‘family.’ Today, I pray each day to Creator for my friends and family who need help and for guidance in the choices I make and the manner in which I live my life. Sometimes I get so mired down with ‘things’ or distracted by everything on the to-do list that I feel lost. Those days I take out the sage, tobacco, cedar and sweet grass, go outside to one of my favorite places on the farm and talk to Creator. I am left with a renewed sense of vigor and almost always with answer to get myself un-mired.

There are several more powwows in New England between now and the end of October. If you are looking for a great, family friendly and even educational event, look one up. We are hoping to get to at least one more, but it is getting cooler and the fall farm chores are at hand.

May your journey be full of learning today.