A Visit to "The Hen House" [aka, Fort Bale]

Early and Late in March; At Fort Bale --

The second of March found Grumpy down at Fort Bale -- the straw house that J & H built. [It has no rats, it has two cats; it has no cow with a crumpled horn, it has two goats that'll take you by storm; it has no pigs, but a dog that is BIG; it has no geese, but of chickens it has lots of these.

When I stepped in the door, what to my wondering eye should I see but six [or maybe seven] baby chicks a-peeping in the hallway! [The reddish hue is because of the infra-red heat lamp that substitutes for their mother hen.] There were 25 or 26 chicks in the original incubator hatch, but the Swede [who is more successful in the percentage of incubated eggs hatched than either the owner of the incubator or another user!] had sold or gifted the majority of the chicks. These six or seven have each been claimed [and named!] by the two GGsons and their Swedish mother. The question of what will happen if one or two or three or four are roosters is left for the reader to imagine.

Later (in fact the next-to-last day of March) I was down again, this time with Uncle B to visit the folk on the farm. I had been told by the Swede that another batch of incubator babies was due to pip out of their shell on or about 20 March. I had hoped to be in attendance to watch this miracle of life, but upon arriving at the later date, was told that again 23 or so, out of the original 26 incubated eggs, had hatched. What were the plans for this two-dozen addition the the chicken population? "Well," the Swede said, "They were mostly spoken for originally, but everyone fell through! So I'm not sure -- maybe I'll enlarge my laying-hen flock."

Instead of dwelling on the burgeoning fowl population, we were treated to a sumptuous breakfast of "Jammers". These goodies are made with a scone dough, implanted with the Swedish Chef's choices of different homemade jams. There were Raspberry, Rhubarb, Strawberry and God-knows what all! I believe they all disappeared before the table was cleared [Grumpy can personally admit to having eaten three!].

The other unusual treat that we enjoyed was home-roasted and freshly hand-ground coffee by the talented taste and hand of the Grandson known as Stretch. It was declared that this custom-roasted, gourmet-brewed coffee had a subtle cinnamon-sweet flavor; it came from coffee beans, personally-selected by the Tall One himself. [So this is what a 4-year degree in Botany is good for! Both Grandson and his Swede wife graduated with a B.S. in Botany.]

For the night that Uncle B and I stayed there, the two GGson's were displaced from their very comfortable beds by these two old men. However, J. insisted that it was a welcome opportunity for him and his brother, A., to enjoy "camping out IN". As can be noted in this photo, they "suffered" severe hardships! Now how many camping sites has the reader seen with WiFi and a tile surface upon which to roll out your sleeping bag air mattress? [NOTE: in upper-left corner of photo is a large-screen TV.]