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Home of Michael Perry – Author, Humorist, Singer/Songwriter, Amateur Pig Farmer

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Posts Tagged ‘dumb farmer’

Eggs-plosion

Been having a whole lot of trouble on the egg-laying front this winter. Production dropped off to nearly nothing (there’s always a taper, but this year was especially steep), then when they started laying again, they were devouring all the eggs.

Last week we instituted a program of increased oyster shell, three-a-day collections, and daily re-strawing of the laying boxes. We also added a golf ball to the plastic decoy eggs (supposedly they try to eat the plastic egg or golf ball and get discouraged).

Sixty-some chickens, and yesterday we got 43 eggs.

Including a couple blue ones.

Bounty!

Tractor Oops

On page 225 of Coop, I refer to my father’s Massey-Ferguson 132. It was actually a 135. I am at a loss to explain this error, as I knew very well it was a 135, and have even referred to it as such in a video I did a long time before I wrote the book.

Anyway. Thanks to Dennis, who noted this.

Did Not Fly the Coop

The wind is still freight-training, so I’m not sayin’ we’re in the clear, but I did wake up three times last night to peer out of the window to see if the chicken coop (which is mounted on the running gear from an old haywagon) was still upright, and it was, and is now in the daylight.  I was worried, because when I was in there at dusk, she was just a-rockin’.  It was parked broadside to the wind and the rain had left the ground too soupy to move it.  So, as the blurry rain-whipped cellphone photo below demonstrates, I took measures…

That’s a ground anchor, a boomer, and the chain from my deer-skinner.

Mike on Book Club Girl Radio

Mike did an interview with Book Club Girl Radio, and while the main purpose was to promote the paperback version of Coop, he also discussed what his wife thinks (or doesn’t think) of his writing, took a few questions from Utah, used the word “vicissitude” for the second time in two days, explained “Tiny Pilot,” discussed tuba-playing in the country, verified that logging is tougher than writing, and admitted that there are a couple of chickens he never will be able to butcher.

Listen to internet radio with Book Club Girl on Blog Talk Radio

Chicken on Wheels

Once upon a time I wrote a book about (among other things) building a chicken coop:

Now we have a new project in the works…

Chickens (and…?) on the Radio

When producer Todd Witter came up and spent a morning with me and our chickens, I had no idea what he’d do with the sound…he didn’t really interview me so much as let me ramble.  When the following piece aired on Morning Edition as a “Wisconsin Life” essay, it was fun to re-imagine the morning (it was muddy and soggy as I recall).  But my favorite part of the audio requires a closer listen, and is never explained: All this talk of chickens, and yet…you can hear interlopers…

Mike Feeds Chickens