a piggish day

It's hot again. We do have air conditioning, but if we keep windows closed, the house actually does stay fairly cool with minimal extra cooling. Only occasionally, toward the end of the day, will we hear the AC motors click on for a while. Our upstairs bedroom gets the brunt of the heat and that's a tough space to cool down. Or at least, even with covered vents below, you'd have to run things to a pretty chilly level before you could have that cold air drift up to where we sleep. Still, a fan works wonders and rather than crank up the AC, we keep it at a modest 77F (25C) and add a fan upstairs to chase the hot air out of there. So, we're doin' okay!

Outside -- well, what can I say. Hot is hot. 91F (33C) in the early hours and without a breeze. Not pleasant working weather. But pleasant for flower viewing!

Though I spare Ed the porch breakfast. We eat in the cool-ish kitchen. With a Dance tail in the picture, because these days, it's never too far from us at mealtimes.

It is a perfect day for a Zoom call with a good friend. I mean, I could have stayed on, chatting to her for hours! (Thanks for your patience, Diane!) Why move anywhere at all?

And yet, by noon, I close the computer and Ed and I do get going. On his motorbike, just up the road to One Seed Farm. 

You have to understand Ed's thought processes to get why this visit makes any sense. Working in the fields behind the barn (it's where we planted nut trees last year and where we plant all our veggies and, too, lavender), gives him ideas on how to best use that land. His latest? Perhaps throw it open to some more chickens. Not egg layers, mind you, but broilers.

That is what you call an Ed idea. From its inception to reality is a long path and usually, we never get to reality. We get lost somewhere along the way. But not always. Sometimes we actually implement the idea! You never know!

Since One Seed Farm raises and sells chickens, Ed concluded that they have valuable information about the process of raising/butchering broilers. So, we reached out to purchase one of their broilers and in picking it up, Ed opened the door for a general conversation about chickens.

We are coming to hefty stumbling blocks: we don't quite have the stomach for butchering our own animals and finding a place to do it for you in very small quantities is very difficult. Time and again we are told -- do it yourself. Well okay, but we wont. So we keep on exploring the possibilities, even as we have located our most perfect chicken hatchery, raising the very chicken we want (an American Bresse, which would be the French breed, but raised on American terroir). Right about forty minutes south of where we live. Amazing. 

Still there's no reason to go down this lane if we cannot find away to get that deliciously marbled meat from these (one hopes) happy birds. Again, it's a process. 

In the meantime, One Seed Farm has other interesting things going on: they raise other animals. Pigs, for example. And here's a thought: remember how two years ago I was really pining for goats? I may have been barking up the wrong tree. Goats are great. They eat your weeds. But pigs! They're even better: they are smart. They are beautiful. And they actually dig up your weeds so they dont grow back. Remember that these animals are truffle hunters! They root around for roots! I should have pressed for pigs instead of goats.

Of course, I could not give up a pig for slaughter. Never. That happy and smart animal deserves to graze on roots and grasses rather than making an appearance on your breakfast table. 

So we're back to chickens. Hopefully happy, but not too smart. We go back to looking around for someone who will do the dirty work for us. Then, and only then will we drive down to the hatchery that has the best chicken meat on the planet. Only it's still small and cute and you have to pet it and feed it and raise it to grow up to be a fine old broiler..

Storms came tonight. Nothing got knocked down, no trees fell on top of our farmhouse. We are grateful. I'll leave you with two photos that will introduce a new feature (that will probably last all of one month) here on Ocean: farmette gems. Today, I offer you our first day lily. Technically, other small yellow ones have been flowering along the driveway, but those are just little peanuts. This one is a real queen.

And here's success on our picnic table: the three bushes of the potted fraises des bois are producing! Lift up the netting and you get... one or two "wild strawberries.." Not exactly a plateful, is it?

We are not greedy. As I said, we are grateful.

With love...