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Monthly Archives: March 2014

Noah: a short review

I commend director Darren Aronofsky (who co-wrote the screenplay) for seeing the cinematic potential of the story of Noah and the ark. I mean, who’d have thunk it, since the Noah story is such a short and minor feature of the book of Genesis. But all the ingredients are there for a blockbuster, in particular […]

2014 garden, off and running

The long-range forecast calls for normal-ish temperatures and above-normal precipitation, so Ken planted the early garden today. Spring has sprung. I hope.

What’s blooming in this nasty weather

Spring is late. And who knows if it’s here for good. Last year, the Carolina jasmine bloomed all winter. This year, it’s still dormant. The grass and clover keep trying to make a start, but a cold snap always seems to shut it down again. But a couple of things are blooming — the old-faithful […]

Into the woods, chickens

Yesterday the chickens were allowed into their new woods pasture for the first time. It also was the first time they’ve been in the orchard area since last fall. They’re being moved out of the garden to make way for planting. Today the first cabbages and onions will go in the ground.

Macintosh memory management

This is a nerd post. Sorry, non-nerds… I have been using Macintoshes since the 1980s. The Macintosh operating system has gone through many changes in that time, and it’s one of the best computer operating systems in existence. Though my favorite all-time operating system was Solaris, the version of Unix produced by Sun Microsystems. A […]

Banana-walnut broiler cakes

The abbey is rich with eggs, so eggs are the default breakfast. But variation is needed. The French divide breakfasts into two broad categories — sweet breakfasts and salty breakfasts. Sweet breakfasts are awfully good sometimes, but it’s hard to keep sweet breakfasts from being cloying. Or they’re just too high carb, and one starts […]

Two new chickens

They’re sleeping. We picked up two new chickens today at the mill in Walnut Cove. They’re both Golden Comets. Luckily, we’ve not lost any hens in the last year, so we figured that two new hens would suffice for 2014. Counting the two new girls, there are now eight chickens at the abbey. We got […]

Morning visitor

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Around the abbey, yesterday

Photo taken while lost on some road near the river in Stokes County [click on images for larger version] A cardinal, preparing to steal chicken feed Thirsty chickens Sophia Helen A nuthatch? Photos by Ken Ilgunas.

About those $10 eggs

Last week, Ken told me that he saw eggs at Whole Foods that cost more than $10 a dozen. I just had to see that for myself, so today I looked for them in the egg section. The most expensive eggs I saw were $7.99 a dozen. But, luckily, Whole Foods’ egg guy was there […]