PRACTICAL PARSIMONY: 101 Degrees Yesterday

Friday, June 29, 2012

101 Degrees Yesterday

Cooling off the right way

Thursday, yesterday, saw 101 degrees in my town. Hens certainly love watermelon on a hot day. Untfortunately, I could not afford a watermelon. Someone had eaten just a bit from this half and it was available as I scavenged for hen food. Louise's comb stays floppy, like she is dehydrated. She really needs a bath since she has such a dirty head! Pepper is still too afraid of me to stay near to get her picture taken.

Your turn
How hot is it where you are? Do your hens love watermelon?

5 comments:

FurtheronJune 29, 2012 at 8:03 AM
It was 28 here yesterday that is about 82 - high enough for us and me... Cooler today down to about 20 much more like English summer
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Barb.June 29, 2012 at 8:17 AM
101, that is warm! I envy your chooks, I love Watermelon and it's best on a hot day.

Barb.
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LindaJune 29, 2012 at 9:18 AM
Furtheron,
It is supposed to be over or slightly under 100 for the next week. I am loving it.

Barb,
Very warm, but I love it this hot. I think I will indulge in a watermelon today! The hens will be able to have my leftovers.
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PattiJune 29, 2012 at 4:08 PM
Well, it's supposed to be hot in Alabama :-) Way up here in N IL it was 100 yesterday. My chickies love melon, too, but have to beat my dog to it. He will literally scrape his teeth across it to get all the juicy part out.
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LindaJune 29, 2012 at 6:36 PM
Patti,
It rarely gets this hot! I finally started sweating when I got out dragging a hose around to try and cool off the hens' pen.

Cats love watermelon, too. I hear possums will eat them from the field. Good eating all around!
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Okay, hoping the annoyances have gone away.

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The Cast

Fancy is my favorite hen. She is one of the three youngest hens I adopted. Because she is so gentle and friendly, she may be the one I rescued when she was being pecked to death after she could no longer stand. She got to live in the house in a box. Sometimes, I let her sit in my lap while she was convalescing. Now, she comes to sit in the swing with me, cuddling up to my body like a cat or dog. She died in February 2012.

Fancy follows me begging, complaining, needing me to do for her. She talks to me in various voices. She allows me to pick her up and carry her. When she became an adult, her head was a darker red and her body was light brown. Around her neck were tips of black feathers. It appeared she had a necklace of jet around her neck. When I showed this characteristic to a friend, he said, "Oh, you have fancy chickens and plain chickens."

Chessie has a broken toe. I broke it! She had a habit of jumping really high and almost sticking. A raccoon ate her in October 2009.

Thelma is the blonde. She is also the largest hen and the alpha hen. I suspect the gigantic eggs are from her. She often squats and presents herself to me. She is top hen, but I suspect she knows she had better be deferent to top feeder of the flock--me.

Louise is the auburn-feathered hen. She looks like the true Rhode Island Reds in pictures. She is almost as large as Thelma. Some days I suspect she is trying to be top chicken. When I got Pepper, I found out Louise is the Alpha hen.

Pepper came here from the same home as the first four. We were discussing putting red pepper on their food, wondering if it really would increase egg production. Pepper is the only name we agreed on. She is terrorized each day by Louise. Even after the worst was over, she was and is still filled with terror and very wary.

Linda is owned by four hens. They allow her to fetch for them. She loves them dearly, so she allows them to boss her around. Linda comes out in the rain to perform chores for them and make sure they have food and water. She begs scraps from all sorts of places to make sure they have fresh fruits and vegetables.

Parsimony is not a vegetable

Parsimony is extreme care in spending money. Stick around and learn about my random thoughts on accomplishing goals economically--dumpster diving aka safari, gleaning, do-it-yourself, sewing tips, recipes, and whatever is happening in my life.

Okay so maybe "parsimony" is not your thing. How about thrift, frugality or just plain saving money? I try not to go the tightwad route as that seems to imply others will suffer from my habits.

Some of my not-spending habits have very much been a part of my lifelong habits. Other habits are newly acquired and are an extension of my lifelong not-spending habits.

I am very imaginative when it comes to substituting or making instead of buying. I will tell you about making a heater for the chickens' water. Not one dime was spent since I had everything I needed right in my basement.

Practicality must rear its head alongside parsimony. For example, I will use the dryer in bad weather or because of allergies in the spring. But, I will not wash clothes in a tub as long as I have a washing machine or can find one.

You may hear more about my four Rhode Island Red hens than you care to hear. They lay delicious brown eggs.

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Friday, June 29, 2012

101 Degrees Yesterday

5 comments: