Women Who Run with Chickens

This is my beautiful cousin Julie. She visited Delta last night with her handsome son, Erik, and her equally handsome dad, my Uncle Reesie.

Julie is an Alabama Girl at heart, I think, though she lives in a very lovely part of Colorado now. We grew up running around the countryside here barefoot, and the red-clay roots run pretty deep.

While we enjoyed appetizers on the back porch, Julie tried her hand at feeding "the girls", and they were exceedingly happy to see her. Here she is with Nilla, our Aracauna hen.

She gave them an ancient chocolate cherry fudge cupcake for starters. That went over very well. After that, the velociraptor chickens and Chuck the Duck became more interested in cracked corn.

The hens will eat you alive if you let them. Chuck is a bit more placid. She does not ask for much; just a nice place to swim.

Diablo and Poseidon joined the fun.

It was terrific to spend time with family. Our daughter came home from school, and we went to explore some local scenery. Even though it was mighty foggy, it was still possible to see Turkey Heaven Mountain.

Another dear and wonderful friend joined us. Her name is Eime, and she's half-Japanese. In addition to being pretty and smart, she is very talented and artistic - I think she gets it from her mother, Takako, who sent me this exquisite bookmark.

 
Tak is seventy-six years old, and truly an inspiration to women everywhere. She can do traditional Japanese dance with grace and style, cook a catfish filet that is out of this world, and do origami like that.

Speaking of out-of-this-world food, here are a couple of ridiculously easy recipes we enjoyed last night. The first is a starter I learned from an old friend, Robin. I have served it a zillion times:


Goat Cheese and Sun Dried Tomato Appetizer

Buy a plain goat cheese log (not spiced with peppercorns, et cetera). Open a jar of sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil and tear or chop the tomatoes into small pieces. Pour this over the goat cheese log (use a fork to press the tomatoes artfully into the cheese). Sprinkle with pine nuts and dribble a bit more oil onto them. Chill and then serve at room temperature with a cheese knife and your favorite crackers.

Dump Cake

Embarrassingly simple, and great for any time of year: Buy one can of cherry pie filling and one of crushed pineapple in juice. Empty every single drop of this into a 13x9x2 pan; spread it around a bit with a wooden spoon to distribute the fruit. Sprinkle Duncan Hines Golden Butter Recipe Cake Mix evenly over that. Put small pats of butter all over the top (I prefer Unsalted Land o' Lakes). Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to one hour (until bubbly and golden on top - you may need to add a teensy bit of melted butter to any dry spots near the end).

This smells and tastes delicious, guaranteed.


I wish I could mail Julie her very own chicken or two. They love her, and so do I.









Love from Delta.

Mr. Fluffybutt

A few days ago, our beloved Mr. Fluffybutt was eaten by a dog.

(A vicious, mean, lower-than-a-snake's-belly, prowling, good-for-nothing - well, you get the idea - dog.) Actually, the dog was just being a dog, and unfortunately chickens are just above Gravy Train on the food chain.

He was a good and gentle rooster, not the kind who would peck at the back of your leg. He seemed to sense that we humans were on his side, and welcome our help in caring for his hens.

Mr. Fluffybutt was very officious in his duties; he would run from afar and stab the ground with his wings in anger or alarm when presented with a problem in his flock. He strutted, but he wasn't overly arrogant.

I miss him a lot.

Mrs. Fluffybutt misses him, too, but has folded herself under the protective wing of Morgana-Turned-Morgan (that is another story you can find elsewhere on this blog.) Morgan is technically her nephew, I think, but that's okay.

We live in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains.

Our adorable, tiny, banty Aracauna hen, Peep, has gone broody (for the uninitiated, this means that Peep will sit on eggs - any eggs - with a sense of duty that defines maternal dedication. You could take an egg from just about anything out to her (newly created) Royal Brood Chamber and get her to sit on it right now.

We have an egg (a very precious egg) from Mrs. Fluffybutt that could hold the promise of a banty Cochin rooster or hen. This is a very exciting proposition, and we are watching closely for the next twenty-one days. (Go, Peep!)

Obviously, you will be updated on this blog, and inundated with pictures of whatever newly-hatched chicks Peep produces. Her "due date" is around April 6th.

We could even have a rooster named Fluffybutter (Fluffybutt - Fluffybutter - Fluffybuttest), but my sense of humor and name selection are not always fully appreciated around here. We'll see.

We also lost one of our terrific Rhode Island Reds in the attack.

R.I.P. Zeus and Mr. Fluffybutt.





Love from Delta.