ChickenSpeak

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I've expanded my vobaulary quite a bit these past 2 months. Not to mention picking up some strange accents. Proudly, mine was deemed - indetectable - until I bust out about coffee, or talking, or walking...or my declination of my favorite 4-letter word...

1) draft
previously: visions of drunk frat boys dance in my head
currently: any animal used as muscle, to move goods or till land

2) skirt
previously: article used to capitalize on female powers
currently: to pound out any large, dirty debris from a fleece after it’s shorn

3) quarters
previously: small coins useful for parking and payphones
currently: division of udder

4) flemming
previously: last name of friend
currently: the upward folding of a goat’s lips when it senses another goat in heat

5) vent
previously: to complain about life’s layers of shit
currently: the porthole for eggs, and shit, on a layer hen

6) tanning
previously: what Jersey girls do inbetween nail appointments
currently: what resourceful people do with hides inbetween scratching out a living

7) scythe
previously: spelling bee word
currently: useful tool in cutting thatch, dry grass, to be woven into shelter

8) dehydrate
previously: what happens when not drinking enough water even during the winter
currently: what happens here to take away water so that we can eat veggies all during the winter and prep seeds for next crop

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Photos

Hide-n-Seek
1) draft: our water buffalo may not be so good at that - but man can she haul a plow - and give us the milky goodness that is turned into mozzerella cheese. authentic "buffalo" cheese.

cartoonish, but warm
2) skirt: the alpaca just crack me up. i can't take them seriously - especially with this one's haircut. man, what i wouldn't give for an alpaca sweater again...

a squeeze with a view
the goat-milking station

resume skill
3) quarters: my first milking was actually a bit bumpy: escaped goats, kicking and stomping, and of course, trying not to cry over spilled mlik.

hey big folder...
4) flemming: spend a little time with me

vent this!
5) vent: as close-up as i could get without being graphic -- or inappropriate

csi: worcester
6) tanning: crime scene? no, but scene of something heinous. the cleaning of hides. we hid in the woods. and did the deed.

the vegetarian conquers again!
showing my tertiary stuff

tool technology
7) scythe: for all the times i saw the bent backs in west african fields, i've had my afternoon. and my fancy leatherman lay useless.

new england thatch
twenty times i passed this lovely pond, never thinking about the usefulness of the grasses that grew around it

another african lesson at home
i remember watching a man on the side of the road who thatched for a living - looking at his chapped hands. i could only imagine. now i can imagine a little more. ouch.

gimme gimme!
8) before dehydration...

organic shine
wholesome, au naturale, juicy redness, and orangeness, and yellowness, and even blackness

2,000 varieties...
and counting. we grow maybe 5 outta those 2,000...which is still more than you see in the average grocery store.