Mrs ERJ and I were invited by Southern Belle and Belladonna, our two daughters, to join them for a fun day at the beach.
We went to our usual spot, Duck Lake State Park which is just south of Whitehall, Michigan. It is a family-oriented spot and not a "meat market" like some of the other beaches. Mrs ERJ likes it because there is no phone reception (other than 911). If you get a signal it is likely to be from Milwaukee, Wisconsin and your phone will change time-zones. One great thing about Milwaukee, though, is that it is always beer-thirty.
After the fun in the sun and surf, the kids wanted to go to a restaurant they had visited before. I only heard dribs-and-drabs of conversation as I was stowing cargo but I thought I heard that this restaurant was popular with "swingers". You can imagine my consternation when Mrs ERJ seemed very excited about visiting this restaurant.
The restaurant's name is "The Deck" and it is in Muskegon, Michigan. Entrees are in the $15-to-$25 range. Food arrived five minutes after ordering. The band was decent.
Work-tickets
We have been getting some spin-off from the storms raging through Northern Indiana for the last half-week. Random sprinkles, mist and fog. It makes cutting grass tedious because I have to stop frequently and clear the deck from wet clippings.
I went for a run this morning. It had been on yesterday's work-ticket but didn't happen. I chugged along for an entire mile at the blistering pace of 13:52. I had not run in over a year. I had no expectations. I hoped to be able to run more than a half-mile and I managed a mile. I was pretty sure that I would not be able to crack 12-minute-miles. 13:52 is a start.
Tomorrow is a lifting day. We are expecting rain the day after tomorrow, so I need to prioritize my outside tasks. Some weeding, which almost always gets pushed to a back-burner, needs to get done. Pushing a lawnmower is on the list. Picking up a half-yard of fill sand to level out a depression and to get water to flow away from the house is another "must".
The four Khaki Campbell ducks I purchased in May are starting to show secondary sexual characteristics. I am pretty certain that one of them is a girl and another is a boy. The other two seem to change characteristics based on the angle of the light. The one senior duck that I thought was a Khaki Campbell is probably a Khaki Campbell x Peking duck. It has many white feathers compared to the KC I purchased in May.
Bonus video
The creator of this video argues that modern chickens had most of their "survival instincts" (street-smarts) bred out of them. They are docile, slow and much too trusting and don't fare well in free-range programs when there is high predator pressure.He contends that there are some "less improved", borderline feral, heritage breeds that still retain the street-smarts of the chickens that survived thousands of years of rough-and-tumble, laissez faire care. He specifically mentions Icelandic land-race, American Game and Old English Game.
In climates that are warmer than his, you can probably add Egyptian Fayoumi, Sumatra, various "fighting" breeds and other "flighty", small-bodied chickens. You might get 100 eggs a year out of each hens. They are likely to go broody and hatch out chicks in the oddest places. They also tend to be very protective mothers.
Try Key West chickens!
ReplyDeleteI think your man is exactly right about chickens Joe. The main line breeds are so optimized - the breeding instinct is almost completely gone. The roosters know what to do but the hens will not tend the eggs or raise the young.
ReplyDeleteKinda like people, these days…
We had some jungle chickens nest around the house. Very flighty birds and small bodied. My daughter robbed two nests for 40 chicks total. We raised them as meat chickens. Not worth the effort. They spooked all the time, the meat tasted like mud. And there wasn't much meat.
ReplyDeleteThat is a pretty creative idea for a restaurant, ERJ.
ReplyDeleteI would tend to agree as well with survival instincts being bred out of some elements of modern livestock. It is a shame that we have lost many regional varieties over the years that had such characteristics. That is why the work of organizations trying to maintain what are called "rare breeds" are so important.
The swing seating looks like a lawsuit waiting to happen. Do you sign a death-and-dismemberment waiver before getting a menu?
ReplyDeleteAnd you never stopped to say hi! I assume you hit up the channel? Always an interesting mix of people there… it’s more of a meat market every year.
ReplyDeleteI’ll have to see about taking my wife to that swingers bar for dinner sometime… that’d be a laugh!
Egyptian Faomi’s… last I heard those are psychotic aggressive birds! At the Wichita city zoo, they were kept locked up behind expanded metal fencing to protect the visitors from the birds. Good luck with that and please, pretty please take videos of someone trying to take care of them and post them to YouTube!
I’m Muskegon