#unicornduke

It was super fun!

oh, Vegetable Manager (Aaron) had said he’d intended to join us last night, he was interested in the fire experiment, but he actually fell asleep for like four hours in the evening, so he woke up and it was 10pm and he was super disoriented. he’s been on the tractor until dark at least three nights this week though so I don’t blame him.

He said the final deciding reason we went with Chandler strawberries was that they ripened at a time that was specifically good for the CSA, in terms of what else was in the share at that point, but he agrees, there are more flavorful varieties out there. We couldn’t remember what variety you liked best, though.

Tonight he made an angel food cake to go with the last of the strawberries (they’re not going to officially harvest any more, there aren’t enough for shares, but Farmkid has promised me she’ll come picking with me tomorrow to save some of the late-bloomers from the scavenging squirrels), and we invited him to dinner and he said “oh I have a chicken in the oven” and we said “oh so do we” and so he brought his chicken over when it was done and we did side-by-side comparisons and then had twice the side dishes. We both cut the spines out and cooked them flattened, but he did his under a frying pan (to press it flat) on a cookie sheet and at a much higher temperature for a shorter time, and had marinated it first; I hadn’t really, and did it at 400 for like an hour (it only needed 45 minutes but I forgot to check it), and I had left the spine attached on one side figuring I’d just cook it and then make stock from it. He also dries the marinade off the skin before cooking his, and I just marinated it right in the pan I was cooking in, for a really short time, and then cooked it in like a quarter cup of assorted liquids with a bunch of herbs and an onion. 

So his was moister, and mine was more herb-y. Farmkid said she liked his better, but then reassured me that mine was all right. She’s a born politician, that one. 

Anyhow-- we’ve all resolved to practice cooking chickens more. Because, well. I mean. We have a bunch of them around. 

sandrayln replied to your post “My parents signed me up for Nextdoor, which is like some kind of...”

Sam, there's a saying among horse people: 'pony' is a four letter word. Much like shit is a four letter word. They may look sweet and angelic, but they are made of demons that were kicked out of Hell for being a bit too extreme. Miniature horses are much like ponies. I leave you to draw your own conclusions.

unicornduke replied to your post “My parents signed me up for Nextdoor, which is like some kind of...”

horses are like many other creatures: the smaller they are, the bigger the attitude. Every mini I've ever met has been a hellish little beast. I'm glad you get to learn these things lol

I love how many people have been reblogging with their own strong feelings on miniature horses, especially everyone who’s like “They are monsters, tiny monsters, I wouldn’t go near one if I were a farrier either” :D

Also UnicornDuke I feel like your username uniquely qualifies you to comment on this.

decepticonsensual replied to your post “My parents signed me up for Nextdoor, which is like some kind of...”

I am so here for Miniature Horse Discourse. Miniature DisHorse, if you will.

they put up a wind turbine on the mountain behind my parents house, we're all used to it now, no one gives a shit. It's only weird when you get within 200 feet of it and then looking up at it can make you woozy but that's just because they're fucking huge.

So the thing that pisses me off about people like that woman from the town hall is that they look at all this fake information and get in their head that these turbines will bring nothing but pain to our community, while ignoring all the good. The area I live in is a failing agricultural area, our town can barely afford salt for the road much less repairs. 

Turbine bring in revenue for the land owners, while also allowing them to still use the land. They also bring in tax revenue for our town and the turbine company will fix all the roads they use during the construction because with all the heavy equipment it ruins the roadways.  

There are environmental concerns that have to be considered like migratory routes of birds and bats, but those have already been done and we are not on any big migratory routes so the effects on animals will be negligible. 

oh my gosh. sending good thoughts to you guys that you don't lose anymore

We made it through the day with no more fatalities. B-I-L spent almost all day out there trying different things to help them. It’s extremely likely that what killed so many of them was the fact that their waterer was in the sunshine and they wouldn’t walk in the sun to get to it, because they are market-weight slaughter-fattened chickens with no real mobility and also zero survival instinct. He spent forever determining that their water was not too hot to drink, and basically wound up shielding the pasture pens with his body, as it turned out; he managed to get a sunburn in the tiny area of body that he missed with the sunscreen this morning. He’s a bit cranky.

 I drove out to Fort Plain (exit 29 on the Thruway, about 65 miles away) to pick up the just-hatched chicks for our next batch-- everyone agreed it’s Way Too Hot to mail chicks. While we were there, we picked up a batch due to be shipped to another farm an additional 30 miles east of us, so that they could just come get them at our farm instead of driving 90 miles each way. They were extremely grateful, and among all of us we lost not one chick.

the-last-hair-bender replied to your post “ugh it’s so hot! it’s so hot.  I don’t mind so much for myself, I can...”

Sending you hugs. :(

Thanks! I’m not the one really really upset by it. I’m still sad, though. 

missbuster replied to your post “It is so hot. It is SO HOT. ”

Oh god it is. I’m on the other side of Lake Ontario from you and I hate everything.

THIS WeATHer SUCKS

unicornduke replied to your post “It is so hot. It is SO HOT. ”

I'm going to melt tomorrow. Also I'm going to wake up at like 4 am and hopefully I won't surprise the farms I need to visit by getting there so early. stay cool!!!

I am imagining if you turned up here at 5am, what we would do. I was awake at that hour, but Whiskey-cat and I were lying in bed listening to a really elaborate and noisy squirrel serenade. I don’t think there’d be anyone to greet you. Anytime before 7, it’d be people in their PJs at best.

ms-daphne replied to your post “It is so hot. It is SO HOT. ”

Yeah also in the northeast and I am DYING.

UGHHHH

wyomingnot replied to your post “It is so hot. It is SO HOT. ”

here too. i melted a couple of times yesterday walking to/from work. not leaving the comfort of my apartment today. :)

WORST. This weather is the worst. Apparently we’re breaking records.

B-I-L, a native Midwesterner, keeps saying bemusedly, “I know I used to deal with temps like this all the time before I moved here but I guess I’m just out of practice? I might be dying.” 

My favorite is all star, big but more tart, very flavorful to me. My parents favorite is earliglow. Makes sense to fill in the shares with strawberries when there's mostly greens in boxes! and that's so much chicken!

It’s a lot of chicken. We picked both carcasses, and the leftovers from last night, and put them into containers for crew lunch tomorrow, which will be chicken salad-- Veg Manager cooks lunch on Mondays. The stock is, so far, really dark-colored and smoky because of the fire-cooked chicken in it-- I threw the neck in without trying to eat it.

I think once it’s cool tomorrow I’ll pick the meat into it. We go both ways here, with stock-- sometimes we just strain it into jars, and sometimes we pick the carcasses clean and put the meat shreds into the stock. It depends on if there’s time. But this one, I put anything too blackened to be part of chicken salad into it, and so it’s decent meat once the charred skin has slipped off. 

omg omg omg omg

HE! HAS NO IDEA! WHAT A SELF-OWN THAT WAS!!

He probably went home and told his dog no he’s too shitty to have a dog girlfriend AS IF goldfish all about how he owned the libs today by triggering some Lesbaru driver so hard she... took a picture of his sticker. OWNED! He’s doing Kek’s work, there!

For a bit I was pondering how he would know I was a Librul by looking at me-- I mean, it’s a Subaru, right?-- but then I remembered I have a little BB-8 thing hanging from my passenger visor, and just above it I have a tiny Pride flag clamped on by a hair thingy because I never found anywhere better to put it, so he’d probably see the rainbow thing if nothing else, so I guess I’m not exactly stealth, but-- 

Clearly, he wanted me to be offended, but like-- By a super-basic boring decal that I’ve seen thousands of variants of? Or-- really, who gets offended by a Marines logo, they’re on like, every tenth car around here. It’d be like taking mortal offence at-- at something omnipresent, I dunno-- oh! those inscrutable lighthouse bumper stickers. 

Now that I think of it though-- I don’t know what those mean, actually, and it kind of haunts me. 

honestly same, just made it to pa and I was so fucking determined not to stop because the drive seemed to go on forever. we made it without stopping but dang it was a long drive after work

I am in Despair this morning, I haven’t packed and I have an hour and a half to load the car because Farmsister asked if I could get there before 2 to help her with something and really if I did I could stop by the market and get myself some treats so I should get up and go but 

ughhhhh 

Also I would like to bring coffee to help perk me up but if I bring coffee I’ll have to stop and pee and that drags the journey out even longer and I don’t want that. But doing it all in one shot is kind of nuts. And I need to stop for gas because I didnt’ yesterday. So. I can have coffee but God forbid I have to stop twice, that would be unthinkable. Ughhhhhhhhhhhhh

GET UP AND PACK YOUR CAR B