Penny Sanford Designs

Take Pride in Your Mending

I wish I could tell you when or where I learned to take pride in how I mended everyday textiles. I think it comes from seeing a tidy little patch on my great-great-grandmother's quilt. (No photo available at this time.)

Also, I vaguely remember reading in Gone With the Wind about the meticulous patches on fine tablecloths distinguishing the old families from the nouveau riche. Newly rich were able to buy new damask linen tablecloths after The War Between The States. Old families had to patch their finery, but they used the best sewing skills at their disposal.

Maybe one influence is the Shaker mentality of doing whatever one does as if Jesus were to come back tomorrow, and doing it well enough to last 1000 years. I love the quality of Shaker furniture and textiles.

At any rate, any time I need to patch something I use in everyday life, I try to employ a bit of whimsey or charm. If I were patching a fine textile, I would match fabric and fiber content.

How do you approach mending? 

Roscoe Has Been Found!

My Great Pyrenees Roscoe has been found!!

Photo by Sharon Smith Stone, In Defense of Animals, Hope Animal Sanctuary.

About three weeks ago, he and Willow disappeared. Willow returned that same afternoon, but without Roscoe. We all thought poachers had gotten him because we had heard a lot of unauthorized shooting the day he disappeared.

This is a picture below of Roscoe (on the left) and Willow (right) when I first saw him this afternoon. Willow was especially happy to see her buddy. The way she grieved after he did not come back with her, I felt sure she had witnessed his death. Willow's foster mom kept telling me to have hope. Debra Logan, you were right!

As it turns out, Roscoe stayed at the house of a somewhat-near-neighbor lady for about three weeks. (I would love to give her praise and credit, but I have not yet asked her permission to use her name.) When she could not find an owner, she took him to the Winona Veterinary Clinic to help re-home him.

Sharon Smith Stone at In Defense of Animals, Hope Animal Sanctuary of Grenada photographed Roscoe at the Winona Veterinary Clinic yesterday and posted his pictures on Facebook.

Our mail lady, Eva Joyce Mooney, spotted the Facebook post and today, on her mail delivery to the farm, asked Lindi Turnipseed, a lady who lives on the farm, if it were not the dog protecting the chickens here. It WAS!!!

Lindi rushed to pick him up at the Winona Veterinary Clinic and get him home. I adopted Roscoe over a year ago from Lindi.

How is THAT for a miraculous series of events?

Several people had contacted the vet clinic, interested in adopting him, including one man who has been going twice a day to the vet clinic to walk Roscoe! He was disappointed but very supportive that Roscoe was going home.

Roscoe is extraordinary guarding the chickens! Great Pyrenees have such gentle spirits that they make wonderful companion/guard dogs. On the other hand, Pyrs have sudden bouts of wanderlust which is what happened three weeks ago. 

He and Willow chased a potential predator into the woods and just followed some scent trail too far. I will never know why Willow returned home and Roscoe just kept going until he reached the house where he was well fed for three weeks. I will forever be grateful to that lady (whom I will thank publically when I have her permission to share her name).

From now on, Roscoe will guard the chickens at night from within their complex of pens and covered chicken runs. He will come inside during the day to rest and keep cool.

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As a side note, Roscoe came with that name, Roscoe. I think he deserves a much more regal name to match his gentle giant personality, but I always try to keep the name of an adopted pet, if it is known. That assumes keeping the pet's same name gives that pet continuity or comfort, but perhaps I am personifying the animal. What are your thoughts on the matter?

 

 

 

The Marvelous Major Mackie

My beloved Major Mackie, a rescue Westie, died a little over a week ago.

He had lived here on the farm more than 11 years. I estimate he was 14 years old. That is a good age for a Westie. It was not nearly long enough for me.

Mackie's Gotcha Day was January, 16, 2007. That was the day he came to live on the farm. The foster mom believed he was a Katrina dog, a dog surrendered by a family after Hurricane Katrina or found wandering after Hurricane Katrina.

Mackie died in his sleep after about a week of failing health. He had that Westie Lung Disease, and he managed well with it until that final week.

There are many posts about him on this blog, which I now cherish. I wish I had not stopped blogging for those four years. I would have had many more Mackie memories recorded.

Mackie had a "John Wayne" personality, but he always found a way to discretely tell me he loved me.  

His last best friend was a chicken named Marianne. She grieved Mackie's death for more than a week, and I thought I was going to lose her too. She started eating again two days ago, in day seven of her grieving fast.

Mackie let her eat from his bowl of rice and chicken. She slept next to him or on him. The night he died, she would not leave his side, roosting next to his cold stiff body until it was removed.

Ok, the tears have started. I will add to this post when I can. I love and miss you, my Mackadoo!

 

Staff Meeting in the Chicken Hospital

There is much excitement over a real patient here in the Chicken Hospital on the farm. Marianne, Luke and Ethel just had a staff meeting!

SusieQ spent a restful night in the bathroom, apparently not venturing out of her cat carrier. She has more perk this morning, but she is still greatly favoring her left leg. It may have been twisted painfully in the vermin attack on her nest.

Jeb was quite excited at the prospect of a new chicken patient to sniff and nose-push around. I will not let him do that to Marianne, Ethel and Luke.

He was so dejected when he learned he did not make the cut for SusieQ's medical team.

Marianne's bedside manner leaves something to be desired. She is jealous of SusieQ, and she pecked SusieQ yesterday.

Marianne is not 100 percent yet, but SusieQ's presence has provided a jealous spark to her recovery. She ate real food yesterday and could not get enough of stolen water from SusieQ's cat carrier. Stolen food and water are tastier, apparently, if one is a chicken.

Luke, however, has been perfecting his bedside manner. He may be a diminutive Silkie chicken, but he thinks he is an Adonis. He has not hooked up with SusieQ, but he is flirting like crazy.  

Ethel is too interested in the Western GRIT channel to notice.

 

Where Is Jeb Clampett When I Need Him?

Jeb Clampett would know how to get rid of the vermin that is breaking into my chicken pens at night! And Granny could turn the marauder into a tasty stew!

So far, the varmint has eaten three Cotton Patch Goose eggs, killed and eaten one chicken hen and pushed SusieQ off her nest, injured her, and eaten the eggs she was sitting on!

Other experienced backyard chicken keepers suggest raccoon, o'possum or skunk as the most likely culprit.

SusieQ is in the house "Chicken Hospital" as of last night. She seems to have an injured left leg, but the skin was not broken. 

Her presence has given Marianne, my House Chicken, the needed boost to continue to improve from her grief and illness following my beloved Westie, Mackie's death. (Still not ready to write about Mackie.)

Last summer, my two connected bathrooms and my bedroom were the Chicken Hospital for Ameraucana Brandon and Rooster Tom. That led to Marianne leaving the barn flock to become Brandon's mate.

Then the Silkies Ethel and Luke came inside when the hawk took up residence and decimated the flock. Then I started having covered runs built.

But Brandon and Tom and the Silkies are stories for other blog posts.

How Frozen Oranges Turned Out

Around Christmas, I had too many tangerines. This variety has few if any seed, so "tangerine" may not be the most accurate name.

I tried freezing them. Today I tested them after around five months in the freezer. 

Not bad. Not as good as fresh, of course. They are a little mushy, but not to an objectionable degree. One would never know the oranges had ever been frozen if one used these in a smoothie or any recipe involving chopping or pulverizing the fruit.

I peeled the fruit, packed them in a wide mouth canning jar, added some water, and froze. Apparently I put wax paper under the canning lid and ring, for some reason I cannot remember.

This post from The Zestful Kitchen is what I will follow next time. It has additional methods, tested and critique.

Marianne Still Grieving

Never knew chickens would grieve. Marianne stopped eating the night my beloved Westie Mackie died. They were napping buddies. 

When Mackie was under the weather, Marianne would sleep near him or even on top of him. The night he died, she slept near his body until morning. Here she is napping near Willow.

I have been treating Marianne for a sour crop (pronounced "craw"), but this has been going on for five days now, and she is no better.

She has tried napping with the other dogs, and she has watched a lot of tv. She just refuses to eat.

She has been snuggling with me a lot, sticking her head into my hair to take a nap. I am feeding her water, electrolytes and medicine by dropper. This afternoon, I managed to get a very little bit of plain yogurt down her.  

All I know to do now is pray.

 

Heartbreaking!

Sarah's three eggs were discovered broken yesterday! I do not know what happened. No signs of any predators getting in the pens or covered runs. 

The feathers in this picture are probably Sarah's feathers. She may have been in the process of pulling out her feathers to line the nest in preparation to sit on her eggs. 

Maybe one of the chickens threatened her nest and she accidentally stomped her own eggs? The contents of the eggs had been slurped up, but I have seen a chicken gobble up its own raw egg after the egg broke. The shells were left, so I do not think it was a snake. The only snake predator I have experienced ate the eggs whole.

Other predators possibly small enough to squeeze into the wire enclosures include weezle, rat, mink, ferret, but of those four, I have only ever seen a wild rat or field mouse. I am not sure the others exist around here. If it were a larger predator, we have not found any area of broken fence or dig in.

At any rate, Sarah was wandering around at feeding time this afternoon, looking lost.  I doubt she will lay any more eggs this year.  The second picture is of Sarah "practice sitting" on her nest of three eggs this weekend before going into that 28 day broody stupor.

Poor Sarah and Abraham. Like their namesakes, they have more waiting ahead of them before they can start a family. More of Sarah and Abraham's story here.

New Egg

The Goose House

The Cotton Patch Geese Get a New Pool

 

Photos by Lindi Turnipseed

Hello, Dolly!

Meet Dolly! Dolly started sitting on a nest this week, but her only egg was a wooden egg! 

I do not know whether Dolly was pushed off her nest by the other hens, or whether that Broody Mood hit her, and she just started sitting on the nearest egg-shaped object. LOL!

One puts wooden eggs in some of the nesting boxes to help new layers or flighty laying hens keep in mind why they are sitting in a nesting box.

From watching Marianne inside for a year, I have learned how short her attention span can be when it comes to laying eggs!

But back to Dolly. The other hens, of her size, have not run her off her nest, so we slipped three eggs over two days into her nest with the wooden egg.

I have learned that chicks hatched and raised by mother hens survive the many predators far better than incubator-hatched chickens, so no broody mood will ever be wasted around here.

If everything goes calmly, I will be looking for baby chicks from under Dolly in 21-ish days. I will keep you posted. 

Henrietta, smaller than the large hens, was run off her nest by those bossy larger hens for several days in a row, and her broody mood was broken. She will "go broody" again this spring. Cochin hens make wonderful mamas!

Photo by Lindi Turnipseed

 

 

 

Three Eggs for Sister Sarah

These three goose eggs are as important to me as if they were gold eggs!  In a week stained by the death of my beloved Westie, Mackie, these three new eggs represent LIFE! (Not yet ready to write about precious Mackie.)

Sarah and Abraham are my Cotton Patch Geese, a heritage breed that was close to disappearing across the South.

Sarah and Abraham survived the hawk and fox and coyote predators last summer and fall and winter.  A second female in the breeding trio was not so fortunate. 

This is Sarah's first breeding season. She is still learning what to do as her instinct kicks in. She and Abraham and the chickens have a 1500 square foot covered chicken run to protect them outside the barn.  

Sarah pictured sitting on her actual nest. It is not in her special house, but that will come. It was more important for her to choose her spot and then not be disturbed. 

I have great hopes Sarah will hatch some goslings from this second clutch of eggs, but I am still praying about these eggs. ..just as I am praying over chicken Dolly that started sitting on eggs this week.  God understands.

Sarah Has A New Egg

The Goose House

The Cotton Patch Geese Get a New Pool

Photos by Lindi Turnipseed