Cosumne Gal

I have probably used this title before. I like it, it can apply to so many things.

This time I'm talking about the Next Gen of show chickens. The babies I raise now will be my show birds in the fall.

My hatching and brooding operation is in full swing. A lot of people get all mushy over baby chicks. I don't. Raising chicks is a mess. If I could just buy the show birds I want as adults, I would do that.

Most people do hatching outside, in a garage or a shed or a barn. I use the den as a hatchery because Bob turned the former chicken barn into a game room. Don't think I haven't eyed it, now that Bob has moved out. But it's full of couches and entertainment equipment that I can't move. Someday soon...

But for now I'm using the den. It's the only place where I can keep the temperature stable and can keep my eye on what's going on. Like most days, I was up at dawn today to check on the chicks. Everything was fine. My main chore today, as it is every 3 days, is a thorough cleaning of the brooders and the room. Instead of taking photos after I've finished that job, I'm going to show you the "before" pictures. There is a lot of untidiness.


This is the incubation and hatching table. The two styrofoam boxes on the right are cheapo Little Giant incubators. I can only use them as hatchers, and even that takes a lot of monitoring. The two well-made machines on the left are RCom incubators from South Korea. They are wonderful. All the junk under the table and on the floor is stuff I use every day. The kind of stuff you need to grab quickly, but never seem to put away neatly.

These are the Little Giants. You couldn't make a cheaper piece of trash if you planned it. They are not much better than a styrofoam cooler with a light bulb inside it. You can keep the temperature maybe within 10 degrees of 99.5. Hatching chicks is not a precise science, the ancient Egyptians did it in a room with a wood fire. Hens do it all the time (though not always as well as you'd think).


I only put eggs in the Little Giants after the babies have pipped (poked a hole in the shell) and hatching is imminent within 24 hours. I hatch in these because hatching is messy and I don't want to mess up my incubators. Also there's not a lot of room in the 'bator. This is the inside of one of the RComs.


The temperature and humidity are reliable and constant. The materials are sturdy. South Korean technology and workmanship, I hate to say, is quite superior to ours. I don't know if people in other countries have the same attitude we here in the U.S. have — that we are the best, that our technology is the most advanced and we have the highest standard of living. Everyday I see evidence that is not true. I'm not sure why we still think that way, I think every advantage we thought we had started slipping away about 25 years ago. Our own businesses treat us as dumb consumers they're entitled to cheat. Made in America? No thanks. I'll keep my Toyota car and my RCom incubators, thank you. And my Mac computers that are sort of half and half.


The incubation table is on the back wall. On both sides of the room, there are tables of aquariums I use as brooders. Most people hatch a bunch of chicks at a time, like 40-50, and put them all together in one big brooder with one lamp and one feeder and waterer. I can't do that because I need to keep track of the bloodlines of each chick. This year I have 11 different combinations, and there are only 5 colors of Sharpie pens I can use. Yes, there are a bunch of colors, but on a chick's head you can't distinguish between red, for example, and pink. Each aquarium has from 3-6 chicks. The little post-it note on the aquarium lists the chicks that are in it.

This is an example of three chicks just hanging out. They're about a week old. I use bricks in the brooders to create a sort of nest where I put shavings. I sweep out the rest of the brooder every day. The bricks are also good because they hold the heat and the chicks like to perch on them.


This is Hatching Central on the dining room table. These are all my tools that I use mostly to keep track of each chick. There is my notebook on the left, the 3x5 cards that I use, a breeding chart that shows which pens the parent birds are in, strawberry baskets I use to separate eggs in the hatcher, and to collect eggs for the next batch. I don't hatch every egg that's laid, I pick and choose. The ones that don't get hatched are collected and given to people to eat. Or I scramble them and give them back to the chickens.




The cleaning and paperwork keep me pretty busy. I spend more time in the house than I want to this time of year. It's so green and lovely right now, the outdoors beckons to me. I can see it out the window.


I get to spend a couple of hours outside every day, there are chicken chores there as well, the feral cats need attention (especially Biscuit), and there are always weeds to pull.

Gotta go clean the hatching room now.

I am a reasonably intelligent person. I have lost my confidence in the medical profession, but I do still insist on a scientific explanation to almost everything.

I have had neuropathy in my lower legs since 2007. Just a couple of years ago, I started getting cramps in my legs at night. Not the "stomp it out" kind of cramps you get down the back of your calf after you spend a day riding your bicycle too far, or maybe square dancing too long. These were cramps that started in my foot and worked up my leg, all the way to my hips. My entire leg would be stiff and hurt like heck. I would jump out of bed, but couldn't stand on a foot that was frozen out of whack, on a leg that didn't function. If you've ever had a cramp on the inside of your thigh, you'll know what I mean about the pain.

I was concerned because I couldn't find a reason for the horrible cramps. They were happening almost every night. And while I've never heard of anyone dying from leg cramps, the heart is a muscle, too. What if it cramped?

I asked the doctor about it. "Take some calcium," she suggested.

"I already take 1200 mg per day," I said. "Is that not enough?"

"Oh," she suggested further, "take some magnesium."

"The calcium I take has magnesium in it, if you take too much magnesium, doesn't that cause diarrhea?"

"Well, then, you should take vitamin D3." That was her third guess, her entire repertoire, as it turned out.

I already take that, too.

Over the years I've tried everything I heard about. Magnesium cream applied on the skin, a heating pad, a whole host of things I tried and forgot because they didn't work. I figured I was the only one suffering from this, and I'd just have to live with it.

When Julie and Marta went to the Red Bluff chicken show with me, the subject of leg cramps came up. Julie suggested putting a bar of soap under the bottom sheet near my legs.

If I didn't know that Julie is also an intelligent person who tends toward scientific explanations, I might have rolled my eyes right out the top of my head. But I listened. She claimed it worked, so I thought "What's the harm in trying? It won't cost anything, I already have soap, and if it doesn't work I can still use it in the bathtub."

I tried it the first night I was home. It worked. I swear it, it worked. I haven't had a leg cramp, a foot cramp, or any other kind of cramp since I started sleeping with a bar of soap in the bed.

I went online, of course, to see why this would be. I couldn't begin to think of any sound reason, based on the science I know.

First, I was amazed (and somewhat relieved) at how many people have terrible leg cramps. What the heck is wrong? And why isn't anyone in the medical profession doing anything about it beyond giving bad advice?

Then I checked the Snopes site, and they had concluded that it's a really stupid-sounding thing that appears to have validity. At the very least, lots and lots of people swear that it works.

In my investigation, I found a company that sells soap that's made specifically to put in your bed. The bars are long and flat (5-1/2 inches long x 2-3/4 wide x 3/8 thick) and it's delightfully lavender scented.

I ordered some. It just came today, so I haven't tried it. But if plain old soap works for no good reason, there's no reason why this shouldn't.

Here are a few views of the box label.




Thank you, Julie, for the good advice. To my doctor: Nuts to you. (After I typed that I wondered, what does that mean? Nuts? I'm assuming it's not nasty.)

I'm really sorry for everyone who lives where it snowed and was nasty cold this week. Here in California we're trying to enjoy every minute of spring while it lasts. In my yard the lilacs and the orange tree are both in full blossom. You can get high on the fragrance. I think it affected Biscuit.


I had to revive him. I wafted a can of stinky sardines under his nose and he perked up.

The ranunculas (above) and the peonies (below) are glorious, but fading fast.


It's going to be rough when summer comes next week and there isn't enough water in the soil to carry the plants very far. My yard will be fine, I have plenty of water, but out in the foothills the native oaks will be hunkering down and waiting it out.

The long range weather forecasters are talking "El Niño" again, so next spring might find us digging out from winter flooding. You can just never tell what changes are in store.

Beyond weather, there have been some local changes recently. My grandmother's old house next door has been sold and will be fixed up.


The house is well-built and sturdy. But even here in California, where we don't have kudzu, it doesn't take long for nature to reclaim its space. This old house was once the store and post office for the town of Cosumne. This is what the room that was used as a store looks like today.


The counter is original. The whole house is pretty much in its original shape. Which is good in some ways and bad in others. For one thing, the electrical setup will have to be completely redone. I don't think there are any light switches on the walls, all the lights have pull cords. They're dangling down so far because the ceilings are very high.


This is the bedroom door. In some ways, it's a piece of art. Crackle art.


There isn't much left in the house, but Jim from the Corn Stand did find this interesting piece. Anyone know what it is?


Do you put it on top of your car and pretend to be a Highway Patrolman? Is it a giant panic button?

There was a major change in my house this week, too. Bob moved out to his own apartment.

He'll be living downtown Sacramento, 20 miles closer to work. Many of his friends also live there, it's the place to be if you're young and sociable.

Anna is going to be Bob's roommate. They moved in her car and Bob's truck.

I'm so happy Bob's finally on his way to his "real" life. It isn't easy for kids these days to get good, reliable jobs so they can build a life.


It didn't take them very long. I only cried for an hour after they left.

We're still in the midst of a drought in California, even though it has rained in the past couple of weeks. Our native plants are well accustomed to living through a drought. When it does rain, they quickly soak up every drop of water that lands near them. Almost overnight, the trees bud and leaf out, and the flowers bloom very profusely, putting out lots of seeds just in case the drought kills them all.

I didn't expect the more domesticated plants in the yard would react the same way, but they have.

Here are a few that posed for me during a break in the drizzle.


The lilacs are blooming. There are 8 different varieties. Their fragrance is quite overwhelming. I love it. I also love that the vegetation in the back yard almost completely covers the view of the dump.

Here is a vulgaris (wild type) lilac.


And this is a French lilac that grows next to the pigeon pen. The peony below it is budding and should bloom in a week or so.


There are pink lilacs and white ones, too. That doesn't sound right...pink lilac? White lilac?

Almost as strange is the name "white" viola.


The daffodils and tulips bloomed here over a month ago. There are only a few remaining camellias on the late-blooming varieties. But the dogwood is in full bloom now.


And the clematis is just beginning to bloom. I have 5 different kinds. This is the earliest.


The lawn is still a little spotty. The freeze we had in November burned it a bit, and I didn't put any fertilizer on it because it had been so dry. I have a few annuals still to plant, but I'm not going to put in a bunch of stuff this year because it may be a chore to keep it watered.

I love to be outside this time of year, I'm so happy to be able to share my yard with you. I just wish I could send you some of this lush lilac scent, as well.

Wesley is not happy with me. I was in the chick room this afternoon and he decided to jump over the gate to join me. He probably meant to be helpful, the same way he "helps" people unroll their toilet paper and the way he "inspects" the garbage cans. But I don't want him in that room. I yelled and stomped and waved my hands and he just ignored me. So I brought the cat-eating, vacuum cleaner monster to life. I know, this is mean. But it's also very effective.

Wesley forgot about going over the top of the gate. He bumped his head trying to squeeze through the bars on the gate. He may have bent some whiskers trying to avoid getting sucked up by the monster. I finally had to open the gate and Wes scrambled out, terrified. He had to hide for a whole hour and work to lick his fur back into place.

Just so you know, Velcro loves the vacuum. It's not evil, it's actually the way she prefers to be brushed. I like that Wesley is afraid of it. It's the only thing in this house that can get his attention when he's bent on destruction. I save it for special occasions so he won't get too accustomed to it.

I didn't tack the tacky box to the door as a barrier, that makes it too difficult to get through the doorway. I jury-rigged an extension on the gate with an expandable screen. If Wes tries to jump on it, it will fall down and make a big noise. And then I can start the vacuum again. I hope he doesn't try this at 3 a.m.


You can tell by his face, though, he WILL try it again.

What is your greatest fear?