I have been very busy with my garden. Yesterday I made raspberry jam... already! Usually I make jam toward the end of the raspberry cycle when everyone gets tired of eating them fresh, but there are so many this year we can't "eat up" with them.
I also have zucchini beginning to grow -- yes! zucchini in my garden. I have never been able to grow Zucchini for some reason. I might get one or two and that is it, but not this year. I also have a green pepper already on the plant and some tomatillos as well. The tomatoes are blooming, the beans are climbing, the beet greens are coming up... everything is doing very very well.
I talked to my daughter-in-law's cousin a couple of days ago. He is an organic farmer up in Washington. He remarked that crops in the Pacific Northwest are about 2-3 weeks ahead of schedule. By the looks of my garden that is more than true. I was able to plant earlier as well since I didn't have to wait until the ground dried out a little as has been the case in normal years. I could never plant in early spring before as the ground would be a muddy sponge. But not this year. This year is different.
Later this week Pope Francis will be publishing his Encyclical on Ecology and Climate. Like many people I am very curious and looking forward to reading what he has to say. I have already heard negative voices and the document hasn't even been printed. Others seem anxious for the Pope to agree with them, whatever that means. The reality is that regardless of what he says, nothing will happen within the faith community unless individual people and the communities they belong too make a decision to change.
There have many good documents written before that simply get sidelined because they are too controversial or inconvenient for the comfortable way people have found to live. Nonetheless there is always a chance that people will take note and feel inspired to reflect on Creation, humanity and the Earth Community in a different way, one that includes the 100% and doesn't allow any group to dominate the other. Wouldn't that be amazing?
Praise Be! Caring For Our Common Home.
Watch for it Thursday June 18th.
Monday, June 15, 2015
Coming Up Strong
I just came in from a walk around the yard and I feel quite elated. All the seedlings and transplants are coming up strong. There are blossoms on the Tomatillos and some of the tomato plants are up tow of three rungs higher in their "cages" and I will have plenty of peppers to pickle and freeze if they continue at the rate they are growing. The lettuce is nearly ready to eat as well as chard and kale that can soon be picked. Even the broccoli is looking like it may grow up straight and tall!
The orange raspberries are ripening faster than the grandchildren can get over to eat them and the red ones have produced abundantly though only a hand full have been ripe enough to eat.
On my next day off it will be time for me to thin the beets and carrots. Soon I will be able to dig up the potatoes that came up early from seed left in the ground and our first crop of garlic will follow right behind.
The orange raspberries are ripening faster than the grandchildren can get over to eat them and the red ones have produced abundantly though only a hand full have been ripe enough to eat.
On my next day off it will be time for me to thin the beets and carrots. Soon I will be able to dig up the potatoes that came up early from seed left in the ground and our first crop of garlic will follow right behind.
Monday, June 1, 2015
Cooling trends
It is cool and raining softly today. All of the seedlings and transplants in my garden seem to be enjoying the change in temperature, even the two little broccoli plants that had part of their roots pulled away in the transplant effort. The last three days were pretty warm for springtime, getting close to 90 degrees one day. It was not good gardening weather except in the early morning before the sun was too hot to feel inspired to work.
I am not complaining though. I was reading about the hot weather in India and the 1500 or more people who have died because of the heat. The normal temperature during May and June, India's hot months, is around 104 with some days reaching 113. This year temperatures have soared over that with average temperatures being two to five degrees above normal. When you start at 104 and add 2-5 it gets pretty hot pretty fast. I can't imagine trying to manage heat over 120 as some parts of the country endured.
The old, the poor, the day laborers: these are the ones who have had the most losses. Elders have a difficult time with heat regardless of circumstances. The poor cannot afford air conditioning and often have homes where there are no trees or water ways close by. The day laborers are compelled to work even in dangerous heat because they don't get paid if they don't work which means their families go without food and in some cases water too. I read about homeless people begging for money to buy water.
The heat wave will break with the monsoon but the cycle of heatwaves that are starting earlier and lasting longer with temperatures going a few degrees higher with each new wave is not going away anytime soon. Clearly people of vast areas of Earth who have learned to live with an amazing amount of heat tolerance cannot physically adapt fast enough to survive a few degrees of change. Yet most of the people who live in the hot areas of the world are not contributing to environmental degradation in ways that contribute to climate changes. The highest consumption of fossil fuels and factory farmed meat and dairy is by people with the most ability to make choices about such use.
The signs of wealth, conspicuous consumption, driving everywhere, temperature controlled environments, meat on the table daily along with out-of-season fruits and vegetables, these are not signs of intelligence when it comes to maintaining the perfect conditions for life on Earth which evolved over millions of years.
When I read stories about people dying from heatwaves, or in the winter dying from intense cold, I wonder why people who can make different choices, don't choose more wisely choices about living within the bounds of what nature has so generously provided. Those signs of wealth I named are advertised with every movie, magazine, poster or televised event, but the long term consequences of indulging are hidden. Profit and convenience cannot remain the bottom line if humanity is to thrive into the future. It is up to individuals and communities that have the time to become educated to become responsible advocates for the people who are most vulnerable. That means changing the way we live so that we can walk our talk.
None of this is easy.
I am not complaining though. I was reading about the hot weather in India and the 1500 or more people who have died because of the heat. The normal temperature during May and June, India's hot months, is around 104 with some days reaching 113. This year temperatures have soared over that with average temperatures being two to five degrees above normal. When you start at 104 and add 2-5 it gets pretty hot pretty fast. I can't imagine trying to manage heat over 120 as some parts of the country endured.
The old, the poor, the day laborers: these are the ones who have had the most losses. Elders have a difficult time with heat regardless of circumstances. The poor cannot afford air conditioning and often have homes where there are no trees or water ways close by. The day laborers are compelled to work even in dangerous heat because they don't get paid if they don't work which means their families go without food and in some cases water too. I read about homeless people begging for money to buy water.
The heat wave will break with the monsoon but the cycle of heatwaves that are starting earlier and lasting longer with temperatures going a few degrees higher with each new wave is not going away anytime soon. Clearly people of vast areas of Earth who have learned to live with an amazing amount of heat tolerance cannot physically adapt fast enough to survive a few degrees of change. Yet most of the people who live in the hot areas of the world are not contributing to environmental degradation in ways that contribute to climate changes. The highest consumption of fossil fuels and factory farmed meat and dairy is by people with the most ability to make choices about such use.
The signs of wealth, conspicuous consumption, driving everywhere, temperature controlled environments, meat on the table daily along with out-of-season fruits and vegetables, these are not signs of intelligence when it comes to maintaining the perfect conditions for life on Earth which evolved over millions of years.
When I read stories about people dying from heatwaves, or in the winter dying from intense cold, I wonder why people who can make different choices, don't choose more wisely choices about living within the bounds of what nature has so generously provided. Those signs of wealth I named are advertised with every movie, magazine, poster or televised event, but the long term consequences of indulging are hidden. Profit and convenience cannot remain the bottom line if humanity is to thrive into the future. It is up to individuals and communities that have the time to become educated to become responsible advocates for the people who are most vulnerable. That means changing the way we live so that we can walk our talk.
None of this is easy.
Sunday, May 24, 2015
beatification
Many years ago when I was at home with small children I had little if any time to look at the news. I did not know it at the time, but I was really out of touch with what was going on in the world - especially here in the Western Hemisphere. Much much later in my life I had the opportunity to get know a man from Guatemala. Over time, he shared his personal story with me. He was a teenager when the Latin America civil wars raged across Central America. His stories were very powerful and because of his stories I was motivated to read some history regarding the revolutions and counter-revolutions that took so many lives and created so much havoc.
I was actually stunned when I learned how involved the United States had been in the on going political chaos. You could call me naive, but really I was just a typical mother whose time was fully taken up with caring for babies and young children who were totally dependent on me. In its own way it was a blessing not to know since I could not have done anything anyway.
Yesterday when Archbishop Oscar Romero was beatified ( a step on the way to sainthood in the Catholic tradition ) the tension of those past times became more understandable to me. I am committed to non-violence and therefore I am not a proponent of war or violent revolution. That does not mean that I advocate pacifism which is an entirely different mindset altogether. I just don't see the point in killing to stop killing. Compassionate living, the kind of compassionate living that avoids harm to all other life forms, is not easy. It takes thought and planning and often requires large doses of humility in order to ask for forgiveness when harm occurs unintentionally.
Being committed to non-violence does not mean never getting angry and wanting to stop someone or something that is harmful. People who actively practice non-violence often put themselves at risk rather than using violence against others. It takes a lot of courage not to run or look for a weapon when there is the potential of harm to oneself.
Archbishop Oscar Romero spoke out against injustice. He repeatedly put himself in between the poor of El Salvador and the oppressive military regime. He pleaded publicly for an end to armed conflict - at times begging the military to lay down their weapons. El Salvador was a predominantly Catholic country so the people who were killing were members of Romero's church as well as those who were being killed. For raising his voice Romero was assassinated. But his strength, and his commitment to non-violence lived on wherever the poor struggled for justice without violence.
The victory that was achieved yesterday when Romero was beatified may be hard for people outside the community of faith to understand because it is rooted in the controversy around Liberation Theology. Liberation Theology has at its core a preferential option for the poor with the belief that all people everywhere have the right to live with their basic needs met and enough freedom to live their lives as they choose. Because of the injustice that exists in post-colonial Latin America, and in other countries where the disparity between rich and poor is not only racially based, but also a direct effect of the conquest of one people by another, Liberation Theology is entrenched. Inspired by Liberation Theology many of the poor and oppressed together chose to stand up to the government and demand freedom from fear and violence. They also demanded access to the goods that met their basic needs. The strategies they used were non-violent and faithful to the teachings of Jesus- and many people were killed. Many people fled over the borders to the north seeking asylum as my friend did. It was a terrible time of death squads and disappearances as some of the oppressed took up the same methods as their oppressors and became armed insurrectionists.
It is because of the fact that some of the poor who were loved and defended by Romero became armed insurrectionists that Romero, and Liberation Theology in general, created such tension within the church. Was Oscar Romero a political figure as his detractors and eventual assassins claimed? Or was he a man of faith willing to stand up regardless of the personal cost?
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi. Sr. Dorothy Stang. Oscar Romero.
It doesn't take too much thought to come up with the names of others who have been in the center of controversy because of their faithful work.
I look forward to the time when Oscar Romero is added to the calendar of Saints
I was actually stunned when I learned how involved the United States had been in the on going political chaos. You could call me naive, but really I was just a typical mother whose time was fully taken up with caring for babies and young children who were totally dependent on me. In its own way it was a blessing not to know since I could not have done anything anyway.
Yesterday when Archbishop Oscar Romero was beatified ( a step on the way to sainthood in the Catholic tradition ) the tension of those past times became more understandable to me. I am committed to non-violence and therefore I am not a proponent of war or violent revolution. That does not mean that I advocate pacifism which is an entirely different mindset altogether. I just don't see the point in killing to stop killing. Compassionate living, the kind of compassionate living that avoids harm to all other life forms, is not easy. It takes thought and planning and often requires large doses of humility in order to ask for forgiveness when harm occurs unintentionally.
Being committed to non-violence does not mean never getting angry and wanting to stop someone or something that is harmful. People who actively practice non-violence often put themselves at risk rather than using violence against others. It takes a lot of courage not to run or look for a weapon when there is the potential of harm to oneself.
Archbishop Oscar Romero spoke out against injustice. He repeatedly put himself in between the poor of El Salvador and the oppressive military regime. He pleaded publicly for an end to armed conflict - at times begging the military to lay down their weapons. El Salvador was a predominantly Catholic country so the people who were killing were members of Romero's church as well as those who were being killed. For raising his voice Romero was assassinated. But his strength, and his commitment to non-violence lived on wherever the poor struggled for justice without violence.
The victory that was achieved yesterday when Romero was beatified may be hard for people outside the community of faith to understand because it is rooted in the controversy around Liberation Theology. Liberation Theology has at its core a preferential option for the poor with the belief that all people everywhere have the right to live with their basic needs met and enough freedom to live their lives as they choose. Because of the injustice that exists in post-colonial Latin America, and in other countries where the disparity between rich and poor is not only racially based, but also a direct effect of the conquest of one people by another, Liberation Theology is entrenched. Inspired by Liberation Theology many of the poor and oppressed together chose to stand up to the government and demand freedom from fear and violence. They also demanded access to the goods that met their basic needs. The strategies they used were non-violent and faithful to the teachings of Jesus- and many people were killed. Many people fled over the borders to the north seeking asylum as my friend did. It was a terrible time of death squads and disappearances as some of the oppressed took up the same methods as their oppressors and became armed insurrectionists.
It is because of the fact that some of the poor who were loved and defended by Romero became armed insurrectionists that Romero, and Liberation Theology in general, created such tension within the church. Was Oscar Romero a political figure as his detractors and eventual assassins claimed? Or was he a man of faith willing to stand up regardless of the personal cost?
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi. Sr. Dorothy Stang. Oscar Romero.
It doesn't take too much thought to come up with the names of others who have been in the center of controversy because of their faithful work.
I look forward to the time when Oscar Romero is added to the calendar of Saints
Saturday, May 16, 2015
mother's day
On Mother's Day I went to see my mother as I always do on Sunday afternoon.
She is tucked safely away in a place where other people, often strangers, bustle about taking care of her. The strangers come and go. Some have cheerful dispositions and lift the atmosphere from foggy depression to misty nostalgia. Others barely notice the way their presence can alter the space as they efficiently place trays of food that is mashed and pureed on the tables in front of the residents and straighten the "clothing protectors" that are really bibs for adult people who have drifted backward to childhood.
My mother is beautiful. She always has been. She is petite and graceful even now with her limited movements, and she is delicate of skin and complexion. Inside she had the strength she needed to raise children and make a positive mark in her sphere of influence. She also had wounds and frailties over which she had no control or understanding. When I see her now I am struck by the grace which she has retained even as she has become dependent and cut off from the world. Nonetheless, it is hard to go week after week knowing that she is often unable to respond with any sign of recognition.
My children and grandchildren came over in the early evening of Mother's Day. My husband had prepared brown rice and some white beans and the children brought fresh vegetables, salsa, seasoned tempeh and corn tortillas. We brought out the wine and it was a delicious gluten free vegan meal. After several hours of talk we decided to go on a walk down the trolley trail which has been entirely renovated since the time our grown children were last out for a walk on the old trail. We walked about a mile together, looking at the art and enjoying one another's company. It was a happy day.
In many ways I am like my mother so her frailty of mind worries me. As I age I pray that I will be able to maintain my mental health a little better than my mom. I accept that this requires action on my part. Unless I am willing to continue seeking knowledge, using my mind actively and working to maintain my overall health prayer will not be enough.
It was not until my mother was 90 years old that her stomach and skin issues were attributed to celiac -- which is an extreme intolerance to gluten. After taking her off gluten her stomach issues decreased and her skin became soft and smooth - something I had never seen before. My mother's awareness increased as well but the many years of ingesting something that had been unhealthy for her had taken their toll. The little strokes that took most of her speech away, the broken hip bones, the twisting progress of arthritis, all of these cannot be undone. Certainly not all of her issues are related to gluten, but a number of them are, either directly or indirectly because the physical strain left her depressed and unable to take good care of herself. The experience has made the rest of the family look hard at how we live and how we eat.
The food industry changed a lot during my mother's lifetime. Foods that she thought of as healthy and good, like milk and meat, were not engineered in factory farms when she was a girl. Pesticides, antibiotics and GMO's were not a worry to her. Like most people of her generation she didn't know when significant changes in agriculture became detrimental to human health and she continued to buy what was cheap, readily available or on sale.
The move away from animal products, from sugary foods and gluten did not come all at once in my family but most of us feel better for the changes we have made. There are no guarantees but if I can do things now that will give me a better chance of having all my wits about me in the future then I want to do those things if for no other reason than to spare my children and grandchildren years of painful visits, or the guilt that comes when visiting seems too hard.
She is tucked safely away in a place where other people, often strangers, bustle about taking care of her. The strangers come and go. Some have cheerful dispositions and lift the atmosphere from foggy depression to misty nostalgia. Others barely notice the way their presence can alter the space as they efficiently place trays of food that is mashed and pureed on the tables in front of the residents and straighten the "clothing protectors" that are really bibs for adult people who have drifted backward to childhood.
My mother is beautiful. She always has been. She is petite and graceful even now with her limited movements, and she is delicate of skin and complexion. Inside she had the strength she needed to raise children and make a positive mark in her sphere of influence. She also had wounds and frailties over which she had no control or understanding. When I see her now I am struck by the grace which she has retained even as she has become dependent and cut off from the world. Nonetheless, it is hard to go week after week knowing that she is often unable to respond with any sign of recognition.
My children and grandchildren came over in the early evening of Mother's Day. My husband had prepared brown rice and some white beans and the children brought fresh vegetables, salsa, seasoned tempeh and corn tortillas. We brought out the wine and it was a delicious gluten free vegan meal. After several hours of talk we decided to go on a walk down the trolley trail which has been entirely renovated since the time our grown children were last out for a walk on the old trail. We walked about a mile together, looking at the art and enjoying one another's company. It was a happy day.
In many ways I am like my mother so her frailty of mind worries me. As I age I pray that I will be able to maintain my mental health a little better than my mom. I accept that this requires action on my part. Unless I am willing to continue seeking knowledge, using my mind actively and working to maintain my overall health prayer will not be enough.
It was not until my mother was 90 years old that her stomach and skin issues were attributed to celiac -- which is an extreme intolerance to gluten. After taking her off gluten her stomach issues decreased and her skin became soft and smooth - something I had never seen before. My mother's awareness increased as well but the many years of ingesting something that had been unhealthy for her had taken their toll. The little strokes that took most of her speech away, the broken hip bones, the twisting progress of arthritis, all of these cannot be undone. Certainly not all of her issues are related to gluten, but a number of them are, either directly or indirectly because the physical strain left her depressed and unable to take good care of herself. The experience has made the rest of the family look hard at how we live and how we eat.
The food industry changed a lot during my mother's lifetime. Foods that she thought of as healthy and good, like milk and meat, were not engineered in factory farms when she was a girl. Pesticides, antibiotics and GMO's were not a worry to her. Like most people of her generation she didn't know when significant changes in agriculture became detrimental to human health and she continued to buy what was cheap, readily available or on sale.
The move away from animal products, from sugary foods and gluten did not come all at once in my family but most of us feel better for the changes we have made. There are no guarantees but if I can do things now that will give me a better chance of having all my wits about me in the future then I want to do those things if for no other reason than to spare my children and grandchildren years of painful visits, or the guilt that comes when visiting seems too hard.
Thursday, May 7, 2015
Adding things up
I remember when pocket calculators first came out. It was such a novel way to find the answer to math problems. I didn't trust them however. I always did the math by hand to make sure the calculator was correct. Today of course I rely on calculators and rarely, when I have done some math by hand I find I will check my answers on a calculator.
I am just about finished with a book by Denis Edwards titled Ecology at the Heart of Faith. Edwards writes of the emergence of life, of the evolution that occurs in the process of living and dying, and the movement from simplicity toward complexity. At one point he refers to Teilhard de Chardin's work with its expectation that future evolutionary increases in complexity will be in the mind having already become complex in the spheres of matter and life.
I am sure that many would see in the technological advances of human society reflections of the growing complexity of the mind. Life in post modern reality is certainly filled with ingenious inventions and complex techno forms of social interactions but there does seem to be some downsides to the advances that have been made. Most children no longer learn to do calculations without the assistance of a calculator of some kind. Most adults have no need to use some of the rote math skills they once learned though I am sure that more than a few people are relieved that they can now carry a calculator in their pocket or purse to make up for what they didn't learn very well.
Memorizing poems or scripture or stories is really a lost art because of course memorizing is not necessary. A favorite verse can be quickly found online and with a smart phone is immediately accessible. The same is true for data of any kind. Need to know who won a world series or what year the Challenger exploded? Just type it in. There was a time when my husband used to be the source of knowledge for a circle of friends because he is a book lover and knows how to look things up. The change from being a wise man to extraneous among a younger generation came quickly, in a matter of a year or two, as the cost of smart phones dropped into the reach of the working class. All of this might be good for information sharing but I don't think that it reflects any increasing complexity of the mind. Data from a computer is generally data without context and is not as likely to be remembered once it is found for its immediate use.
Without memorizing, great blocks of mind are not used. No one needs to remember a phone number or even an address. Stories can be read over and over exactly as they are written but the art of weaving the present moment into a tale from the past comes from the work of memorizing and translating what is known into the story.
I read once that the children of technology giants are sent to schools where they cannot use the technology their parents have contributed to inventing. It seems these people are aware that unless the child uses the mind they have been given, they will not grow up with the intellectual prowess needed to make the advances their parents did. I found that article pretty telling.
My husband uses an abacus weekly as he balances his checkbook. I appreciate that he has the patience and will to do so. I know it keeps his mind sharp. I have never learned to use one. For me it is a relic of a time centuries before the slide rule - another tool I never really mastered. I used to be pretty good at calculating with pencil and paper, and I can still do it if needed but I've grown lazy over time.
When I look around I think that we humans are in a dumbing down phase rather than increasing in complexity. Perhaps the trouble is that we are impatient. We would like to achieve the super mind envisioned in science fiction but we want it now so we imitate the achievement by using smart phones and computers and such and in so doing, we interrupt the evolutionary process of the mind.
Might be time to let the contract on my smart phone lapse.
I am just about finished with a book by Denis Edwards titled Ecology at the Heart of Faith. Edwards writes of the emergence of life, of the evolution that occurs in the process of living and dying, and the movement from simplicity toward complexity. At one point he refers to Teilhard de Chardin's work with its expectation that future evolutionary increases in complexity will be in the mind having already become complex in the spheres of matter and life.
I am sure that many would see in the technological advances of human society reflections of the growing complexity of the mind. Life in post modern reality is certainly filled with ingenious inventions and complex techno forms of social interactions but there does seem to be some downsides to the advances that have been made. Most children no longer learn to do calculations without the assistance of a calculator of some kind. Most adults have no need to use some of the rote math skills they once learned though I am sure that more than a few people are relieved that they can now carry a calculator in their pocket or purse to make up for what they didn't learn very well.
Memorizing poems or scripture or stories is really a lost art because of course memorizing is not necessary. A favorite verse can be quickly found online and with a smart phone is immediately accessible. The same is true for data of any kind. Need to know who won a world series or what year the Challenger exploded? Just type it in. There was a time when my husband used to be the source of knowledge for a circle of friends because he is a book lover and knows how to look things up. The change from being a wise man to extraneous among a younger generation came quickly, in a matter of a year or two, as the cost of smart phones dropped into the reach of the working class. All of this might be good for information sharing but I don't think that it reflects any increasing complexity of the mind. Data from a computer is generally data without context and is not as likely to be remembered once it is found for its immediate use.
Without memorizing, great blocks of mind are not used. No one needs to remember a phone number or even an address. Stories can be read over and over exactly as they are written but the art of weaving the present moment into a tale from the past comes from the work of memorizing and translating what is known into the story.
I read once that the children of technology giants are sent to schools where they cannot use the technology their parents have contributed to inventing. It seems these people are aware that unless the child uses the mind they have been given, they will not grow up with the intellectual prowess needed to make the advances their parents did. I found that article pretty telling.
My husband uses an abacus weekly as he balances his checkbook. I appreciate that he has the patience and will to do so. I know it keeps his mind sharp. I have never learned to use one. For me it is a relic of a time centuries before the slide rule - another tool I never really mastered. I used to be pretty good at calculating with pencil and paper, and I can still do it if needed but I've grown lazy over time.
When I look around I think that we humans are in a dumbing down phase rather than increasing in complexity. Perhaps the trouble is that we are impatient. We would like to achieve the super mind envisioned in science fiction but we want it now so we imitate the achievement by using smart phones and computers and such and in so doing, we interrupt the evolutionary process of the mind.
Might be time to let the contract on my smart phone lapse.
Saturday, April 25, 2015
A fowl warning
My two warring chickens have come to a truce. It may be temporary but a truce it is nonetheless.
When they first began to fight I had absolutely no idea what to do about it. I was frantic like a mother hen worrying that they were going to cause permanent damage to one another and I especially feared for the oldest chicken because, well because she is old. I sought advice and I was told by several chicken owners that there would be nothing I could do except to eliminate one of the hens. A man I trust from my book group commiserated with me as he told me sadly that he had had to chop the head off of one of his hens because she had been caught eating eggs and egg eating is an egregious act for which the only possible remedy is death. Another friend who lives on a farm where chickens are raised said oh that is too bad when I asked what to do with my fighting hens because the only thing to do was to get rid of the aggressive hen preferably to give her away to someone who had no other chickens she could attack. Apparently life in prison was the best that our Rosie could hope for.
I was unconvinced or perhaps I was just chicken but I could never chop the head off of a living creature and isolation was just so complicated. How could I give her away when she was the chicken that my granddaughter picked out and named at the farm store where we went to get some new pullets after another hen died and we thought that others were soon to go as well? I didn't want to disappoint anyone and so I intervened in a rather benign way stepping in between the fighting chickens like they were children and separating them from each other whenever I saw them begin to fight.
I remembered that there was an incident of egg eating that I had stumbled upon a few years ago. The egg was broken and a couple of hens were starting to peck at it when I arrived on the scene. I had not a clue about what to do but the hose was near by so I turned it on the egg to wash it away into a fenced area where the chickens could not get at it. The hens ran away of course since they didn't like the stream of water. I picked up the egg shells and as far as I know there has not been any more egg eating. We keep track, I should say my husband keeps track, of all the eggs that are gathered and so we know when egg numbers are down. This usually means a hen is hiding eggs which we eventually find. We would notice if egg eating was going on.
But, back to the chicken war. When Princess went to brood over her bleeding comb and head, and apparently plan her next move, I stopped to pet her just to give her encouragement. Several times I would pick Rosie up gently since she was easier to catch and take her out of the fray asking do you girls have to fight and is hen pecking the only way to solve your problems? I also noticed that Rosie's comb was showing signs of wear and tear which means that Princess was not as old and frail as I might have imagined.
In the real world violence continues to be the quickest and easiest way to manage problems, especially problems that include violence of one sort or another. I wonder if other people get advice like I did and assume that the best thing to do is to get the problem taken care of right away and since no one wants to be called chicken or passive or unpatriotic they imprison or isolate or execute when really there might be other solutions if only one could be chicken enough to brood about what to do, which of course takes time.
Rosie and Princess have been seen hanging out together. Their verbal cluck cluck clucking that sounds like a fowl warning of impending chaos has come to an end and they are sharing from the same feeder once again.
I don't know. Maybe they are just waiting for the right moment to launch another assault.
But maybe, just maybe, they have resolved their issues without violent intervention from outsiders.
(By the way, the picture was taken hours after this post was first written. I couldn't resist adding it. Rosie on the left, Princess to the right. The sign has been in the yard a long time.)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)