Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Raising Chickens, Writing, Teaching,

CHICKENS: On Saturday I bought a prized black hen from the Enumclaw Sales Pavillion. That auction's location is a story in itself, being how I ate inside at the "Branding Iron Cafe'" there and was served coffee in a chipped mug from "Lee Hill Elementary School" (where I went to grade school, in Auburn). On that mug, there was a saying: "Live purposefully, happily, joyfully."

Doug felt the mug was an omen, since none of the mugs at the Branding Iron match. The chicken I ended up bidding on was the only black hen sold at auction that day. I named her Bastet -- after that nubian Goddess of Egyptian fame (think: Panther Goddess). She's a totally awesome and gentle pet. Trouble is, my existing hens are now going through a terrible time. Soon as I released Bastet into the hen house my Barred Rock hen, Llew, flew at her and her comrade, a reddish-brown Americana hen, named Aphrodite, began attacking as well.

The only chicken not giving Bastet any trouble was Blondie (a Filipino hen) so I locked the two misbehaving birds up in smaller pens to allow Bastet time to get familiar with her new home, unscathed.

Amazingly, Blondie started squawking and kept trying to ram herself through the front of the pen. You'd have thought Bastet was killing her (the way Blondie sounded) but Bastet was simply minding her own business, pecking alfalfa inside the coop.

Ever since then, I've been putting the two naughty hens loose in the fenced yard while Blondie has settled down and she now enjoys the coop with Bastet all on their own (with only the doves for company) . Today, as I was carrying Llew out to the yard, I realized she feels terribly thin; her breast bone is protruding. That really bothers me because I feed the hens corn every day and they always have organic chicken feed filling up their feeder (24/7).

So I toasted some organic multi-grain bread, slathered it with butter and peanut-butter and soaked it in olive oil. Llew's mad at me so she keeps taking her jolly-ol' time accepting food as an offering from my hands. She did finally eat most of it though -- I put the rest down on a flat stone for her but a crow showed up; thieved it.

WRITING: I'm building up a sweat while writing an article about the Law of Attraction. I'm actually employing pirate terminology, to disprove many of the judgmental theories behind that belief without sounding overly legalistic, judgmental or control-freaky. (Totally, this magazine article is a lot of work!).

TEACHING: My next Pallomancy class (pendulum divination) is now scheduled for February 22nd (that's 02-22)/Sunday, from 4-6 at the Crescent Moon Gifts store in Tacoma. I've got a lot of promotional work to do for the workshop.

6 comments:

Hibiscus Moon said...

That's a gorgeous hen. I wish I could attend your class. I have used a pendulum for a long time, but self-taught. I have a good connection with it but could always use instruction.

SunTiger said...

A quick tip: Always, after using the pendulum, ask it: "Is this information complete." (That way you never walk away from your divination work too early) . . . a common mistake many practitioners of pallomancy make.

LearningLifelong said...

Pirate lingo on the subject of the Law of Attraction... that I have to see! :-D

Fijufic said...

Sounds like excitement in the chicken coup.

They will figure it out I suppose.

Pretty bird no doubt.

Hope you find water with that pendulum.

Bobby

SunTiger said...

Pandemona ~ Glad you think it sounds fun. Here's a fascinating tidbit of info I learned while researching pirate jargon: the word "Mum" is simply a popular pirate ale made from wheat and oat malts and flavored with herbs. It originated in Germany where it was called mumme. (The Dutch referred to it as "mom.")

Bobby ~ Your hilarious. While some people are very gifted at dowsing, I still have much to learn from it but I'm actually quite talented with Pallomancy (divination and foretelling the future w/the pendulum!)

Hibiscus Moon said...

OK, good tip! I will use it next time.

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