We have a travelling chicken ! Herbie told me this afternoon that when he got to work this morning, one of my brown chickens with no feathers on her neck and back seemingly hopped out the back of the truck at the bulk plant where his truck is based. Then when he got back to the bulk plant after his 12 hr shift, she was pecking at the gravel but he couldn't get within 5 ft of her ! His night driver and the peddle truck driver had both seen her, and that there was fox and o'possums in the surrounding area.
Damn. So I got a grain bucket when Jackie arrived to collect her tomatoes I'd taken in error and she offered to take me to try catch her. 18 miles that girl rode on the truck bed without a tailgate ! We arrived, and I called her and she came running for the grain. She was starving and gobbled up everything she could reach, but Jackie walking around the side and then behind her made her very nervous. I knew I'd only get one chance to snatch her, and it never came. She then ran into the locked shed with the delivery arms and I couldn't reach her, or coax her out. So tonight I found the live trap and put it in the truck for Herbie to set up out there, together with a bottle if water and a bowl for him to pour it into, and a bowl of grain. Hopefully she gets herself trapped in it tomorrow and I can go fetch her.
I mowed 2 pastures this morning with the zero-turn on it's highest setting so that it leaves the pasture about 4 inches long. The grasses were going to seed, so by cutting it down, new, tasty growth is encouraged for the cows. Jackie arrived, waving her arms to me from the back lawn, so I beetled back. We were going blueberry picking :). My hair was a mess and I was dressed for farmwork, but off we went.
The blueberries were just starting, mainly still green. Think next week or even the week after will be better for picking. I got 4lbs, Jackie a pound less. Not bad for organic berries at $1.75/lb. Stopped in at a friend of hers to deliver a plant, but she wasn't home and stopped at a yard sale too. Then we went past the old farmer we bought asparagus from earlier this year. He had thin green beans, broccoli and peas in fat pods, so I got some of each. At Darlene, the Menonite family, it was beetroot, tomatoes and pickling cucumbers. I want to make another batch of the Clausen knock-off pickles so that I can take some down for Tanya when I go to Tennessee in August for my dads' wedding.
Milked late tonight, didn't get to see much of Herbie as I was running around. It was his granddaughters' 1st birthday today. We've seen her three times since she was born, which I suppose is more than we saw of her older brother.
Tomorrow is going to be busy again too. Saw that there's a broken fence post at the back of the one pasture, so have to go and fix that, plus there is some lines down which is why there is not much juice in the fence. Then there's shopping to do, some bills to pay, and then to finish the various jams and fruit I have on the go, plus start the pickles, blanche and freeze the green beans, peas and broccoli, bake the beetroot to make pickles, plus clean the house, pack away laundry, put clean sheets on the bed, do more laundry, plus get into the veggie garden to weed, add some compost, plant out the 2nd lot of cucumbers. And according to the weather report, it's going to be the hottest day so far this year !