Headwaters of the Yellowstone Bed & Breakfast

Goodbye Chickens - Hello Beautiful Pitcher!

It appears that Mr. Reid has a gift for raising chickens.  He's the keeper of our coop and he does a fine job keeping them laying eggs and away from grizzly bears.  The chickens flourish under his watchful eye.

Our little flock is a productive one - we get between 10-12 eggs every day and, this time of year, we use every one.  This spring we decided that we needed to add some new chickens to the flock to keep their ages varied.  (So the eggs just keep on coming...)  A friend down the road fired up her incubator (thanks Wendy!) and just after spring break we became the proud parents of 18 new baby chicks.  

The chicks grew and some show signs being roosters.  Eventually these chickens will become part of the great circle of hobby farm life (dumplings, anyone?) and their female companions will stick around and keep our guests in the best eggs we've ever eaten.  

Which brings me back to Mr. Reid and his chicken raising talents.  Usually, you expect about 20 percent mortality with baby chicks.  We didn't lose a one.  We found ourselves with too many chickens.  What to do?    

The heroic teacher of driver's education at our local school (bravest man we know) came to the rescue!  He and his artist wife arrived this evening to take some of the chickens to their new home in Paradise Valley.  We gave them chickens and Sue gave us the most beautiful rooster pitcher.  What a good trade!  

 

You can visit Sue's website and see other examples of her beautiful work at:  www.suetirrell.com

(Ask her about her chickens!)  

DUCK Update

 

We've had a bit of bad duck luck lately.  Several days ago now the kids took all seven of the ducks down for a swim and, thanks to the river levels (still high) and our dog (who really is sweet but who got a little excited about jumping in the river after a stick) five of the ducks swam down river and out of sight.  We spent the next few days walking the banks where navigable and making posters that we distributed to all the local fly and raft shops.  We had one sighting by a kayaker (thanks Ford!) but so far, no luck.  

The two remaining ducks quacked loudly for a couple of days and then escaped from the garden by digging under the fence...presumably heading down the river to join their mates.  

We keep getting sightings of the ducks up and down the Paradise Valley and we check out each one only to find that the ducks are actually geese or not the right kind of duck, or even rocks in the river that look an awfully lot like ducks.  The most reliable sightings of late have been from near Emigrant, Montana (nearly 30 miles away) and among the resident ducks at Sacajawea Park in Livingston.  

So, we head out again today on a duck hunt.  We'll keep you updated in our quest to have them back at home.  Until then, we hope they are having an adventure...  

Growing Hope

Today it Mother's Day and, as a mom myself, it has me feeling introspective.  It occurred to me yesterday as I was driving home with a truck full of garden soil that so much of what Tim and I are spending our time on these days is rooted in optimism.  Hope. 

   As in, I really hope this garden grows.

   As in, I really hope these chickens lay eggs.

As in, I hope my kids turn out to be happy and healthy adults!  

So, on this day that is set aside for our mother's, I like to think that we have, most of all, to thank them for instilling us with optimism.  Like the garden, the chickens and our latest remodeling project, being a mom means spending most of your energy on things that may only come to fruition many years down the road. 

When I think of the challenges I've presented my mother over the years, I'm just glad that she was able to take the long view.  Like her, I hope I'm up for the challenge! 

Happy Mother's Day!

Yellowstone Spring Day

  

Today we finished taking down the last of two sheds that we relocated in the last week, colored Easter eggs, listened to speculation about why the Easter bunny wasn't very ambitious this year, put together most of a basketball standard, and took the ducks for their inaugural swim in the Yellowstone River.  It was a very big day.  

The sun shone, the grass looked green in most places and the trees were starting to get that hopeful yellow-green mist that will magically turn to leaves when you forget to notice.  

The ducks were an interesting experiment.  We put all seven ducks in a carrier and took them down to the river.  Tim released two ducks and they initially seemed kind of freaked out about the idea.  Then, they seemed to have a sudden realization that this was THEIR kind of place.  ("Hey, we can swim!") and then it was clear that they did not want to come out.  Maybe ever.  

After lots of observation (and some stress when the kids realized that their parents had not a clue how to teach ducks how to come OUT of the river), I threw a rock in the river just beyond where they were swimming and, in a flash of preprogramming, the came right out of the river and were easily herded up the hill and into the garden.  Tim and I maintained our cool (as if we knew this would happen) and the girls faith in us was restored momentarily. 

In short, this blog is now officially the home of a much less whiny person who got just enough sun and just enough optimistic progress in her life to declare - HAPPY Yellowstone SPRING!

More snow, duck house and the chicken palace

It's still snowing today.  The wind is blowing, Electric Peak is completely obscured, and the sun has only flirted with appearing.  I'd love to say that I've risen above this external circumstance that is clearly beyond my control...but it would be a lie.  

It's days like today that I think of when our summer guests tell us that they would love to live here.  We earn every one of those idyllic, low-humidity, green summer days in late spring.  It can be a struggle to maintain a positive attitude.  Many of my extended family members are gathered in a warmer spot to celebrate my grandmother's 90th birthday. (Happy Birthday Grandma!)  If she can do it for all these years, I guess I can too.  Even when it is snowing and it's April.   

I went for a walk this morning looking for  signs of spring and did find a few.  Buds on the lilac bushes, strawberry plants in the garden and early spring moss painting the junipers by the river a fluorescent yellow.  

      

Tim has spent all week constructing the chicken coop.  It's based on a chicken tractor design that will allow us to move it when needed.  The chicks arrived on Tuesday (Murdoch's in Bozeman sold 700 chicks in ONE day last week) and we are enjoying their quiet peeping and their rapidly growing feathers.  

The chicks are 6 days old today; it will be about a month before they will be able to live outside no matter what the weather.  Until then a heat lamp in the garage makes for the perfect 90 degree weather.  We have 10 different kinds of chickens - I have no idea what any of them will look like as adults.  Some are quiet, some are bossy, and some are content to sit in the feed dish all day long.  When they fall asleep they stand and wobble for awhile, slowly bow their heads, and then rest their beaks on the floor in a sort of chick tripod until they are jolted awake by one of their nest mates.  The chicks are all pullets (girl chicks) and layers; if all goes well we'll have fresh eggs by the end of summer.  (And no roosters to wake you up at 4:30 a.m. - really!)

Yesterday my youngest daughter and I built a duck house.  It's nothing like the palatial mansion that the chickens require...and, as Tim noted, there is not a square angle anywhere on it...but, it will work and keep the ducks warm at night.  It was an exercise in patience and quite a bit of fun.  According to our neighbor mentors, ducks don't need much more than a space that will stay warm at night and keep them away from the long list of predators that we have in the area.  If the weather will cooperate we'll set it up in the garden along with the run I built out of an old cast iron bed frame.  It's appropriately frivolous for the garden.  We'll let you know if it serves its purpose.  

If the weather ever changes, I'll get motivated and start on the gardening frames.  I'm planting a Square Foot Garden this year - 24 frames of vegetables and herbs.  The basic principal of the method is that you grow your plants in high quality soil in low, raised beds.  The size of the beds allows you to weed and water without compressing the soil and many of my neighbors have had great luck with it. It may be yet another disastrous learning experience or a huge success.  This time of year, all you can do it try to be optimistic and hopeful.  Even when it snows in April.  

"Bad weather always looks worse through a window." - Tom Lehrer