Frosted garlic stalks

Honestly, when I read my post title, all I can think is that it sounds like a really bad idea for a cereal.

But, jokes aside, I'm happy to report that the garlic in my raised beds is sprouting! I don't remember how many cloves I planted, but I have a variety of Georgian Crystal, Lorz Italian, Georgian Fire, and generic store garlic in the blend. To my shock, right now the generic grocery garlic is outperforming the rest. And of course, garlic doesn't mind a little frost, so I'm not worried about the plants in the slightest. To them, this is all just a rehearsal for the main event next spring, when they'll really take off and develop into mature heads of garlic.



In other news, the hens spent yesterday night on lockdown in the barn. Around 5:00 pm, I was standing outside on my front porch chatting with my neighbor Lois. Suddenly she said to me, "Look at that huge bird! What is that, is that an owl?" She pointed in the direction of the pine trees separating our properties, and I saw the large Cooper's hawk perched there, eyeing the flock. As if on cue, he launched out of the tree and swept towards the ground, disappearing around the side of the barn. I could hear the chickens screeching and Lois and I both took off in their direction. I made quite a racket to scare the hawk off, but he just circled and doubled around to land back in the pine trees. The chickens were, thankfully, unharmed, but very anxious; they were all huddled underneath a dense bush in the woods.

When the hawk continued to hang around, I decided to lock the chickens in the barn for the evening. My thinking is, if he takes one hen, he'll keep coming back until he's eaten every last one of them. On the other hand, if I prevent him from taking any, and hide the chickens for an evening, he should move on to better hunting grounds.

This is the second time a hawk has eyed my chickens, and interestingly, the hawk was perched in the same exact location both times. In fact, I even wonder if it might be the same bird.

Other than keeping my eyes open, there's not much I can do; all birds of prey are federally protected. Not that I would, or could, hurt a raptor anyway. Regardless of their hunting habits, I absolutely love and admire raptors, and they are just doing what comes naturally to them.

Still, I'd rather not see any of my birds harmed. I let them back outside this morning, but time will tell if I waited long enough to turn them loose from the barn.