Living in Hawk Holler neighborhood presents its own set of challenges. With only one house and two people living here so far, the main inhabitants are the four-legged, winged ones, and creepy crawly varieties. What to do when these creatures begin to multiply and take over the gardens, threaten the chickens and ducks, leaving little to eat from our hard work?

My answer was to call on the first domesticated animal for help. Yep. The dog. A dog owner for most of my life and experienced with several working breeds, I chose the English Shepherd, also known as the Farm Collie. This breed, familiar from the 1800’s to the 1940’s, began to disappear along with small farms during the industrial farming revolution. Still a rare breed, and one that fortunately is not AKC registered, it is being re-established by some extremely savvy small farmers.

Aggie the farm dog at Hawk Holler has in her heritage hundreds of years of service including hunting, vermin eradicating, herding, and guarding the flock. A few of her chores are: keeping the deer and others out of the garden, rounding up chickens and ducks when needed, and helping with vole, mouse and rat control. She keeps critters out of the chicken house, sniffs out hidden eggs and brings them to me (yes in her mouth, whole), and brings in firewood. And her favorite: watching over the baby chicks and ducklings. She’s one smart dog who took a few years of commitment to train, but is so worth the effort.

 Rae Jean has always lived on the edge one way or another. For the last seven years it has been at Earthaven. Along with raising heritage chickens, ducks, veggies and herbs she designs and creates knitting patterns.

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You are at the whim of nature. This plays out in several ways. The sex of your hatch is up in the air. Not just pullets (females), guaranteed a few or most will be roosters. Are the eggs fertile and will they take?  Candling is an art to figure out. The learning curve is accelerated by the first rotten egg you experience. Will the broody hen be a good mama or will she abandon the nest  for some reason. And with ducks, all domesticated ones except the muscovy came from the mallards, and have had the broody instinct bred out.

Fortunately for us we were able to convince the sort of broody duck hen to sit for 28 days on her nest. So now we have 4 ducklings. They escaped the black snake by the savvy mother getting them out of the nest when they were less then 1 day old. She did abandon the 4 other eggs.  One was actually hatching, so some quick thinking, a hot water bottle, and wool sweater sleeve allowed the duckling to survive.  All are doing well and growing so fast.  Still don’t know if they are hens or drakes, that will take awhile to figure out. And the black snake…it got away. Let’s just hope it’s pulling double duty on the voles and mice!

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Spring of 2009 blessed us with many rain showers and a few wet snow flurries. These rain showers have been sorely missed the past few years by numerous beings, including the plants. After a few years of below normal precipitation, the woods at Earthaven came alive with an abundance of woodland flowering plants.

The last few years I located numerous rare and endangered plants. This year many of the usual places where they live have expanded with the emergence of numerous smaller plants. The rain helped spread their wealth, and hence, ours too.

First out, in March the Bloodroot pops up her lovely white flower. No leaf, this she curls around her stalk. You may find her with the flower open for only a few days, and then her leaf unfurls and becomes a wonderful wide hand of green waving at you in the brown duff.

Once the Bloodroot shows, the search begins for others, for the emergence of the Bloodroot is truly a rite of spring in these Appalachian woods.

Next come the Trilliums. They, for some reason, always find their way to the middle of a trail each spring. I spent a few years marking them with rocks or sticks, but have succumbed to moving them to another off-trail place nearby. Of course, not all end up in the trail and there are numerous gatherings of these beauties. The red flowered ones are called Wake-robin. Beth root or Birthroot are other names for the white and pink flowered varieties. They tend not to mix but rather to find their own separate patches. Many have increased the size of their patch.

Then the Trout Lilly’s leaves appear, with a low-growing variegated leaf that shimmers in the sun. Its speckled greens pop up in large patches that actually do look like a school of little brook trout swimming on the banks of the creek. Not all the leaves or patches bloom. This year the yellow orange blossom appeared in many more of the patches. A delicate little Lilly that is best appreciated lying on the ground and looking up into the bell of her flower – exquisite. Once these three announce that spring has arrived, Dogwoods and Carolina silver bell trees dot the woods with white while the Poplar trees peek green and the Maples show red.

In a the heat of the summer, many of these woodland flowers will disappear into the earth, and with them, our wishes for a long rest with dreams of Spring showers.

Rae Jean is a full member at Earthaven, and is developing a homestead in the Hawk Hollar neighborhood.

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