Today was a really happy day: a friend brought us bananas! Not the fruit — two banana plants, both a variety called Brazilian banana. One has a thick trunk and stays short, which makes harvesting easy. The other has a slim trunk and grows tall.
Fun fact: a banana plant isn’t actually a tree. It’s a giant herb, so once it fruits, that stalk dies back. These are the first big plants we’ve ever put in the ground here, so I’m hoping they grow taller than me someday. The slim one went in near the front door.
Dolly’s waterproof coat
Today’s Dolly corner was about her coat. It isn’t made of lots of separate hairs — the fibers mat together into something like a single rug, and it’s supposed to be waterproof (in a long rain it does get a little damp). Because the fibers are woven together like that, you’re not supposed to brush it.
Tomatoes in the garden
Another blue-sky day. We cleared and flattened a strip about 60 cm wide so we could plant tomatoes 60 cm apart. A friend helped pull out the big tree roots, so the bed was finally ready. One row of tomato seedlings is in, and lettuce goes in the next row tomorrow.
Kiwi immediately ate one of the tomato seedlings. Oh, Kiwi.
Meet Sonata
Sonata is the first rooster I ever bought. I spotted him at a pet shop when he was about half-grown and asked why he was there. A customer had returned him because he turned out to be a rooster and they couldn’t keep one. When I put my finger in the cage he was so friendly and gentle-looking that I thought, rooster or hen, it doesn’t matter — and he grew into this handsome boy.
He’s an Easter Egger, a cross between an Ameraucana (famous for blue eggs) and a hen that lays ordinary brown eggs. Look at his comb: it’s a pea comb, three short rows instead of one tall blade. Around two years old he went through a rough phase and wouldn’t let me touch him, but by three he was calm again. These days he leads lots of hens and is about number two in the flock.
Thank you for watching Chicken Paradise! See you in the next episode.