Nola Marth

Life happens...
When I look back on my life I see the seasons.
I feel like a 6 pack of Tomatoes.
Each life lived separate from the last.
Was planted in a family til that tore itself apart.
Then free range in a temporary pile of dirt beside the hyway,
The next was a family of my own, feeling picked clean before my fruit was hardly ripe.
Connections, hobbies, interests blossomed and then faded away.
My kids grew away, husband in a care home.
Friends and associates dying so fast that funerals are my most common social event.
I have built my Eden on an acreage many times and seen it rust and fade away.
Happy is no longer a place for me, it's no longer a people.
Being unvaxed cut me loose socially,
The dying of those that did keeps me away and disconnected.
The fact that nobody is talking about it doesn't mean it's not happening.
To invest time and attention in dead men walking is like being a minister on death row in a leper colony.
Your milage may vary but I go to coffee every week and listen to reports of sudden deaths, strokes, anyerisms, heart attacks and turbo cancers.
Who lost a grandkid or their friends to overdoses or suicide this week.
What is our world going to look like in 10 years, 5? 2? Next year?
People are in full rolling crisis all around me.
The kind with so many variables that there isn't a fix.

I am trying to get in touch with my inner hermit.
Tribe?
Give me a sec while I lace up my running shoes.

Sorry to be a downer.. but we are in a paradigm shift..
And everyone is driving full speed backwards while looking in the rear view.

Send me a PM..
I have extra paintbrushes and would love to sponsor a painting.

So.. since this is the time of year when all old hens go to freezercamp.
Let me tell you a story.

When Mrs Brown. Or 'B' ..was 3 years old, she semi retired.
2 maybe 3 eggs a week.
So I got some quail and she happily hopped into their cage and ate their food.
Within 5 days, she was back to full-time laying 5-6 days a week.
I haven't bought chicken food since.
16% is the bare minimum industry has found that a chicken in a cube cage requires to continue producing eggs to a culling age.
23% or 25% Game bird or Turkey food will keep them producing long past the commercial flock re-tred times.

Granted.. B has a very optimal life.
She does have her night perch on a baby blanklet on top of the dresser.
In the morning she asks to be put down, eats a snack and has a drink, poops a couple of times then jumps up on my bed, kicks the blankets into a nest and goes back to sleep.
My naptime she snuggles up and tucks her head under my arm and purrs..
Protected by the Mama bird.

Every molt time she takes an extra week off on vacation every year but has no interest in retiring yet.
She is 11 and a half.

I have enough B stories to fill volumes but I'll just put one here.
Don't want to co-opt your art thread.

There are several things I have learned from 1 on 1 daily exposure with a chicken.
I had a knee operation several years back.
Gently placed my knee on a pillow and laid back with a groan.
She very carefully jumped up beside me and very carefully climbed on top of the bandage and settled down right over the incision.
She started to hum.. like a hen does to her eggs on the nest.
After about an hour she very gently climbed off and did her cuddle for a nap thing.
Just like a cat's purr, a hen's hum has a healing frequency.
She insisted on a daily treatment before we had naptime for months.
She will still notice if I'm limping and insist on doing it a few years later..
Always gets the right knee, and gets really cranky if we are interrupted.
It's not just the frequency but the time and body heat.
So.. if your old hens jump up to sit on your lap..
Pay attention.. and rest those arthritic hands on them.
Let them care for you and enjoy them into their senior years.

Mrs Brown..
11 years old
Americana
Still lays 5 eggs a week.

One year my cherry tomatoes were just getting ripe when an early hard frost was promised.
I went out, sliced a spade straight down into a 5 gallon bucket size plug of roots.

Scooped the shovel under the plug and put it into the bucket.
Watered well.. and put it in my unheated southern exposure sunroom.
A dab with a q-tip  or paintbrush from flower to flower to pollinate...
I had Fresh Tomatoes into the next March.

Another trick is to pick all the green ones before the frost. I put them on newspaper in cardboard beer flats.
Easy enough to stack them crossways 4 or 5 high.
Every Wed before fundraising coffee, I would go through and pick out the ripe ones.
Take them along to gift away to the seniors.
Good til late January.

Excess go into sandwich ziplocks and stack in the corner of the freezer.
No need to wash them, take them out frozen, run them under warm water and it slips the skin off. Pop the frozen tomato into the pot.

I always seemed to run out of time in fall.
Pull them out in winter and steam up the house with marvelous slow cooked crockpot Tomato paste.

What I said is exactly what happens.
I have sat across a table from 50 plus folks who are so far beyond the end of their rope that there isn't a string in sight.
And that negative letter just whacks the breath out of their spirit.
Partly because they are already at a really low point.

I have talked to insurance actuators and the people who's job it is to say yes or no..
They admitted that they even go so far as to time denials around bad news and crisis events.

The goal is to accept the blow.. then get mad..
Because in that anger is action.
And action and resistance is what is needed to appeal.

So..
That post was aimed at one particular person.  
Sometimes people need to know that others are on their side.
In their corner.. have faced the dragons and survived a little scorched but victorious.

I hope the person I aimed that post at felt all of that.
Go ahead and delete it.
Thanks. Nola

I am in an area of a lot of seniors aging out, Downsizing, estate purging.
Ok.. aren't we all?
So I frequent the online auctions, garage sales and Flea markets.
Last week I bought a spokeshave for $2..
There are sometimes things that are hilarious yet sad.
If you want to buy an Antique Smart Water pump.. they run about $300.
However.. If someone runs an electrical cord up the middle and puts a lampshade on it..
It was $5 at the auction so $6.61 with taxes and fees all in.

Thankyou for your patience.
I do wander over and around a topic a bit before I get to the point.
Kinda like a cat in a kid's sandbox.
Quick.. cover it up and walk away all innocent like.. 😏😌

Back to the original topic..
I think things are changing.
Could be a combination of generational, economic, C19..  but at the same time people are more.. Hey.. I want to build a moat around my castle..
They are trying less to keep up with the Jones's, or project an image they can neither afford nor sustain.

People want to belong.. to have a community. and like a family, are realizing that playing to each others strengths just makes sense.
So it's in your best interest to look the other way when the gearhead down the block is tuning his carb at 10 pm..
To listen when the neighbours dog alerts the neighbourhood to a stranger.
To make friends with the green thumb and the best cook.
Have the gramma on the block watch the kids at the bus stop.
Give the frailer neighbours a hand so you can tap their experience and expertise.
Hire the kid down to road and get to know him and his friends.
Give the guy that goes to the range every week a respectful nod.

Tgere is less ego and flash and more cooperation and get along.
Every catastrophe there is someone on Utube talking about community.
Build it now while you have the luxury of time.


Geeze.. someone help me off this darn soapbox.. I'm gonna turn an ankle climbing up on that thing. 🙄

Well...
I live in a resort.. 4.5 star.. so 11 years ago..
Our community garden had an empty shed.
I thought.. ohh a community flock would be lovely.
So.. I got 3 guaranteed hens..as chicks..  just to bring myself up to speed on all things poultry.
Raised the chicks in the condo.. in a dog kennel and taught them to poop on Boot trays either side of the balcony door..
All went well til about month 3.. when 2 of the three started to yodel.
The Roosters went off to farms.. PDQ.

There I was.. with one lone hen..
Who promptly adopted me as her flockmate.
I taught her to ride on the handlebars of my trike on the way to the community garden.

She would request we stop at all little kids..
so they could pet her and feed her a few sunflower chips.
Mrs Brown the wheaten Americauna was a fixture..
I would hand out her daily egg on a regular basis.
She would see the exchange and say.. "Good Girl".

Came the day that one pretentious retiree complained.. B was more popular than their dogs..
The association grandfathered her in.
Turns out everyone voting had enjoyed at least 1 egg.. 😊

She is now 11.. still lays eggs. Only 14 since Jan 1..
So that makes her either semi retired or a consultant.

After my husband went into assisted care,
We went walkabout for 4 years in my Truck Camper.
She sits on her baby blanket on the console.
Tapping my shoulder when she spots the signs for her favorite restaurants.
Flirting with truckers at traffic lights..
Has her bed in the back and her nestbox.

I make no attempt to hide her..she stays close.
She is extremely well trained..
Understands STOP.. Step up.. onto my hand.
Mutters 'Up up up..' under her breath hopping up the camper stairs.
She is allowed to fly up into the camper but not out. So I can load and unload without worrying.

She considers most other humans marginally lesser equals.
Flirts with all Roosters 🐓.  A little species confused.
Any male between 9-90 qualifies because then she gets to go on vacation and doesn't have to keep watch for predators.
That's just a Roosters job. She can't comprehend them doing anything else.
It's wonderful to see youngsters be amazed.. She thinks I'm a MAN?
Yep.. she sees the good man you are becoming and trusts you.

And seniors.. to see an old guy reach down to stroke her.. leaning against his boot..
Mutual admiration.. she can be so sweet.
As she bosses and bullies their wives into giving her snacks.
She likes to be Boss hen #1 In the pecking order.

We are back in the condo.. winters anyway..
And I have been hatching chicks for farm friends all spring.
Many Western Canadian Towns are allowing backyard hens so farmers are having a hard time sourcing chicks...

And a few Celadon Quail.( look that up. )
Quail actually make a lot more sense than chickens in an urban setting.
3 females and a male in a Rabbit cage.
No noise, no smell, eggs and meat.
If you need to go somewhere..
Taking a hamster cage over to the neighbours is easy..
Not everyone wants a cage under the coffee table but a garage or spare room works.
No predator issues, no winter warmth, freezing combs or water problems.
Food conversion is high and they have a fairly short lifespan.

I won't reload after B dies.. but it's sure been a privilege and hoot being her flockmate the last 11 years.
I cringe to think of my blissful ignorance and arrogance starting out on this adventure.

My point.. my long winded stories usually have a point.
Introducing creatures into any situation needs to be considered from the viewpoint of what you can do for the critter.
If you are not prepared and able to care for every aspect of the life and death of it.. don't.
I have lived with my choice for 11 years and counting.

I look at the current backyard hen craze and cringe.
People are doing it with no more thought than they would put into buying a hanging basket for their porch.
Animals as accessories.. not different than pups in a purse?

Lunchtime..
B is tapping on the fridge door. 😳 😂

I did public Community gardens for a bunch of years.
The resort where I live has a community garden and I had a plot in it. 10'x25'
By trellising and intensive farming..
I would habitually mug anyone walking by with Tomatoes, Beans etc.

One afternoon I was having tea on my balcony.
I see a couple in a C class motorhome pull into an RV spot across from me.
She hops out of the passenger seat and tried to guide the fellow in.
It was a lovely windmill impression that seemed to have no plan of avoidance regarding the hedge or picnic table except shrieking and pointing.
Regardless.. by largely ignoring her he used his mirrors to do a decent job.
I raised my coffee cup to signal that he was back far enough to access the water, sewer, power box..
He hoped out with a grin and a wave..
She hustled inside while he started hooking up.
He was just finishing putting the stabilizer jacks down when she came out again and had a discussion..
Lots of handwaving from each side before I see his shoulders slump tiredly..
She goes back inside and I watched him undo everything he had done for the last 20 min..
Onto the RV they went and off they drove..
Come back 30 min later, do the same reversal docking process..
I raised my mug again..
She hustles up to the door of the RV and takes out the reason for the trip.
A plastic wrapped bouquet of Lettuce, a couple of tomatoes and an onion.
He proceeds to start hooking up everything again.
Saw him chewing on a burger later..
Looking like it was going down sideways.
Holidays.. yay?
I looked at the pots of growing stuff on my balcony..
Tomatoes, lettuce.. onions..
The next spring I went to management and said.. Can I put a Free public garden out in front of my place.
I'll put an old waterbed bladder in a raised bed.. so if I need to I can make it disappear.
Got grudging permission to try it for a year.
It was wildly popular.. at its height there were 9 garden beds through 60+ acres.

I learned some things..
You can pick a tomato and give it away..
But invite someone in to select it and pick it themselves..
That's a whole different layer of wonderful.
Kids will eat beans if they picked them personally.
We have hedges and every spring a surplus of 1 and 3 gallon pots.
So I put a couple of Tomato plants in each pot and handed them out.
Give people the joy of their own independence.
Like was mentioned before.. Raspberry canes, Goji berry suckers, Strawberry plants, chives,
Were already potted up and ready to give out.

The more you give, the more is given to you to pass on.

About 3 years in I saw the same couple in the C class pull up..
She hopped out.. left him to park it himself while she grabbed her grocery bag and set off down the street to pick her finds..
I raised my mug again.. when he hit the sweet spot.
Went down to thank the man..
For showing me a need to be filled.

People.. especially men.. like to visit while doing..
Hang them over a truck engine compartment, or side by side in a woodshop..  over a back fence..a garden.
You can't shut 'em up..
But a sit down social face to face is challenging.
People would congregate, pick and munch..
Instruct others to just pick the outside lettuce leaves and let the plant grow.
I learned so much from ex farm wives..
People with Cancer seem to crave cucumbers.
I mentioned this to more than one.. and planted extra.

My point.. how much extra do YOU need?
I would walk their property with them and tell them what you would put where..
And if they show a flash of interest..
Gift them something to put in that spot.
Digging in the dirt 'grounds' people.
Start small.. we all did.. give them ownership and get them hooked.
Loan tools, books, labour and encouragement.

The only way any of us are going to get through the hard times is through neighbourhood resiliency.
Bartering skills and assets, volunteering to water your neighbours garden while they are gone for 2 weeks.
If you see them working on something.. grab your shovel or take them a beer.
Admire their efforts... lend a hand.

And I have to thank the original poster..
Life happened and I walked away.. from my gardens and my community.
Am back and wondering how to restart.
Look at what was and wondering how to get back there.
That's not how life works.. new will be different and that's a good thing.
Start small.. let it grow.