Sadie, our older chicken (the one that survived the dog attack) quit laying for weeks, but hubby found not one, but TWO eggs in the laying boxes yesterday. One from her, and a tiny pullet egg! I'm so freaking egg-cited! I didn't even get to see it, though, and dh - appropriately so - left it as an offering in our ve. I can't wait for them all to start laying ... fresh eggs! LOTS of them!
OH, and other big poultry news: Buster crowed for the first time this morning. It scared the shite out of me for a second; then I was just so proud of him!
Yay, chickens!!
Friday, September 25, 2009
Thursday, September 24, 2009
I forgot to post my IDC update on Monday, but better late than never, I guess. Here goes:
Plant: STILL nothing planted, but continued cleaning out the beds and preparing for fall planting; noticed more “volunteers” (peppermint is recovering from its near-death experience; basil self-seeded all over the bed, and the oregano and tarragon are trying to take over the world).
Harvest: peppers, basil, oregano, tarragon, okra, peas, eggplant, green tomatoes
Preserve: dried peppers; canned peas
Waste Not: *Pulled 2-liter bottles from the recycling bin, cleaned them up and used them for emergency water storage. Got some nice 1-gallon juice containers from my brother, also for water. *Discovered that my chickens LOVE giant okra, as long as I hack the pods open for them. *Cut up old flannel baby blanket for “family” wipes; haven’t gotten around to sewing them yet. *The usual recycling, clothesline usage, limited a/c.
Want Not/Prep/Store: *Replenished stock of sugar, flour and grits. *Picked up some extra pillows to store for unexpected company. *Picked up a 10-pack of soap to be used for laundry detergent, shampoo, etc. *Cleaned out a closet and found: a bunch of fabric to be used for curtains, cloth TP, costumes, etc.; 2 stereo systems, 2 enormous stuffed animals and 3 lamps (still in moving boxes –we’ve been in this house 2½ years), all to be donated.
Community Food System: Continued sharing the pea harvest. The same friend who picked peas with me brought me a bag of scuppernongs from her yard. Mmmm!
Eat the Food: *Tinkered with my normal bread recipe and LOVE the result – a much more sandwich-friendly slice. :) *Ate many more meatless meals than normal for us, with no complaining from the ranks. *Made beef roast from the local cow in the freezer, and in the process achieved gravy nirvana. Seriously, the best gravy I have ever made in my life, and maybe ever will make. And since I’m the only person in the house who eats gravy … it’s mine. ALL MINE! HAHAHAHAHAHA!
**********************************************************************************
It's been a busy week thus far. We have company coming tomorrow/Saturday, so dh will be straightening the house before he goes to work. Good thing, because I feel like CRAP! Why do I always get sick when we have company? It's frustrating me. :P I made a huge pot of chicken soup last night, with about 5-6 cloves of garlic, loads of onion & peppers and other veggies. Hoping it'll help me feel better soon.
I'm very, very excited about my birthday this year, and not just because it's the last one I'm having (I think it's okay to stop at 39, don't you? After all, once you have kids, nobody really cares about YOUR birthday anymore except you.). Hubby is trading in one of his rifles to buy me a new handgun! It's taken him some time to accept that I'm not the typical girly-girl who loves jewelry, but I think he's finally come to terms with the fact that I'd rather have garden tools or (HELL YEAH!) a pistol. I wondered how he was going to top my Mothers Day/anniversary gift (2 beautiful raised-bed herb gardens), but he did it.
Now, if I can just shake this cold, all will be right with the world. :)
Plant: STILL nothing planted, but continued cleaning out the beds and preparing for fall planting; noticed more “volunteers” (peppermint is recovering from its near-death experience; basil self-seeded all over the bed, and the oregano and tarragon are trying to take over the world).
Harvest: peppers, basil, oregano, tarragon, okra, peas, eggplant, green tomatoes
Preserve: dried peppers; canned peas
Waste Not: *Pulled 2-liter bottles from the recycling bin, cleaned them up and used them for emergency water storage. Got some nice 1-gallon juice containers from my brother, also for water. *Discovered that my chickens LOVE giant okra, as long as I hack the pods open for them. *Cut up old flannel baby blanket for “family” wipes; haven’t gotten around to sewing them yet. *The usual recycling, clothesline usage, limited a/c.
Want Not/Prep/Store: *Replenished stock of sugar, flour and grits. *Picked up some extra pillows to store for unexpected company. *Picked up a 10-pack of soap to be used for laundry detergent, shampoo, etc. *Cleaned out a closet and found: a bunch of fabric to be used for curtains, cloth TP, costumes, etc.; 2 stereo systems, 2 enormous stuffed animals and 3 lamps (still in moving boxes –we’ve been in this house 2½ years), all to be donated.
Community Food System: Continued sharing the pea harvest. The same friend who picked peas with me brought me a bag of scuppernongs from her yard. Mmmm!
Eat the Food: *Tinkered with my normal bread recipe and LOVE the result – a much more sandwich-friendly slice. :) *Ate many more meatless meals than normal for us, with no complaining from the ranks. *Made beef roast from the local cow in the freezer, and in the process achieved gravy nirvana. Seriously, the best gravy I have ever made in my life, and maybe ever will make. And since I’m the only person in the house who eats gravy … it’s mine. ALL MINE! HAHAHAHAHAHA!
**********************************************************************************
It's been a busy week thus far. We have company coming tomorrow/Saturday, so dh will be straightening the house before he goes to work. Good thing, because I feel like CRAP! Why do I always get sick when we have company? It's frustrating me. :P I made a huge pot of chicken soup last night, with about 5-6 cloves of garlic, loads of onion & peppers and other veggies. Hoping it'll help me feel better soon.
I'm very, very excited about my birthday this year, and not just because it's the last one I'm having (I think it's okay to stop at 39, don't you? After all, once you have kids, nobody really cares about YOUR birthday anymore except you.). Hubby is trading in one of his rifles to buy me a new handgun! It's taken him some time to accept that I'm not the typical girly-girl who loves jewelry, but I think he's finally come to terms with the fact that I'd rather have garden tools or (HELL YEAH!) a pistol. I wondered how he was going to top my Mothers Day/anniversary gift (2 beautiful raised-bed herb gardens), but he did it.
Now, if I can just shake this cold, all will be right with the world. :)
Monday, September 14, 2009
September 14th IDC Update
Plant: Nothing, but spent some time cleaning out the herb beds in preparation for a fall planting. In that process I noticed some volunteer basil & cilantro sprouting, and the tomato plants that weren’t destroyed by the worms seem to be making a comeback … more leaves/roots/blossoms and even some tiny, non-worm-eaten green toms!
Harvest: tomatoes, peppers, basil, oregano, okra, peas; lots more worms for the chickens
Preserve: okra (frozen, for frying … mmm!), pepper vinegar
Waste Not: *Only used the a/c one day last week! This was big for us mentally, as it’s been in the upper 80’s and sticky. Having done it, though, it was fine. The warmest the house got was about 85; it was breezy, so we just did outside stuff then. *We had LOTS of extra laundry this week, as we’re battling head lice. I washed everything in hot water and used the clothesline for drying for the first 6 days; on day 7 I decided that maybe the heat from the dryer might actually be necessary to get rid of the little buggers once and for all. L I’m hoping that the lack of a/c might counteract the extra electricity used for laundry. *The usual recycling.
Want Not/Prep/Store: *Used the HECK out of my homemade laundry detergent. I only need to use between ¼ & ½ cup of the liquid/gel to get everything super-clean. I love it so much! *After our bout with lice this week, I’ll be storing a couple sets of delousing combs and a couple of bottles of tea tree oil shampoo & conditioner.
Community Food System: Invited some friends over to share in the pea harvest. Since we put up so many peas earlier in the year, we plan to share this “volunteer” crop with as many people as possible.
Eat the Food: poblano peppers in everything possible; recycling leftovers into various meals; eating almost exclusively from storage and our garden right now, as finances continue to be very tight
Harvest: tomatoes, peppers, basil, oregano, okra, peas; lots more worms for the chickens
Preserve: okra (frozen, for frying … mmm!), pepper vinegar
Waste Not: *Only used the a/c one day last week! This was big for us mentally, as it’s been in the upper 80’s and sticky. Having done it, though, it was fine. The warmest the house got was about 85; it was breezy, so we just did outside stuff then. *We had LOTS of extra laundry this week, as we’re battling head lice. I washed everything in hot water and used the clothesline for drying for the first 6 days; on day 7 I decided that maybe the heat from the dryer might actually be necessary to get rid of the little buggers once and for all. L I’m hoping that the lack of a/c might counteract the extra electricity used for laundry. *The usual recycling.
Want Not/Prep/Store: *Used the HECK out of my homemade laundry detergent. I only need to use between ¼ & ½ cup of the liquid/gel to get everything super-clean. I love it so much! *After our bout with lice this week, I’ll be storing a couple sets of delousing combs and a couple of bottles of tea tree oil shampoo & conditioner.
Community Food System: Invited some friends over to share in the pea harvest. Since we put up so many peas earlier in the year, we plan to share this “volunteer” crop with as many people as possible.
Eat the Food: poblano peppers in everything possible; recycling leftovers into various meals; eating almost exclusively from storage and our garden right now, as finances continue to be very tight
Monday, September 7, 2009
September 7th IDC Update
Plant: The girls planted flower seeds and I made plans for the fall/winter garden.
Harvest: Tomatoes, peppers, basil, parsley; lots more worms for the chickens.
Preserve: Canned pear preserves and the leftover pear "syrup."
Waste Not: *The kids and I raked up five (child-sized) wagon-loads of mown grass to add to the chicken pen; the chicks LOVE scratching in it and we had lots of fun working together. (While we were raking, my 5 y/o announced to me that she wants to be a farmer.) *Leftovers that weren't repurposed into other meals went to the chickens, too. *The nights/mornings have been in the upper 60's/low 70's for the last week, so we've been running the a/c much less. Even though the daytime highs are hitting 90, I completely turned off the a/c the last 3 days. It ends up feeling cooler outside in the middle of the day (breezy!), which means we're spending more time outside ... a win/win! *I ran out of plastic (I know) containers for leftovers, so I used some glass jars to freeze my leftover soup. *The usual recycling.
Want Not/Prep/Store: *Still looking for ways to build community; here's what I came up with this week. I bake bread most weekends, and my favorite recipe makes 4 loaves. We can use 3 before mold sets in, so I usually give a loaf to my parents or freeze one. I've decided to use that extra loaf to build relationships! I made a list of people in our small town that I'd like to get to know better, and every Sunday I'll take a loaf of bread to a new person on my list. *I also did some pantry cleaning/rearranging and made notes of what we need to restock (will have to wait a payday or 2). *Made my own laundry detergent (haven't used it yet, so I can't say how well it works).
Community Food System: Nothing, really.
Eat the Food: We've started using some of the beef we bought from my co-worker. Mmm! Otherwise, I haven't tried any new recipes or anything. Just plugging along, eating a LOT from storage due to financial issues.
Harvest: Tomatoes, peppers, basil, parsley; lots more worms for the chickens.
Preserve: Canned pear preserves and the leftover pear "syrup."
Waste Not: *The kids and I raked up five (child-sized) wagon-loads of mown grass to add to the chicken pen; the chicks LOVE scratching in it and we had lots of fun working together. (While we were raking, my 5 y/o announced to me that she wants to be a farmer.) *Leftovers that weren't repurposed into other meals went to the chickens, too. *The nights/mornings have been in the upper 60's/low 70's for the last week, so we've been running the a/c much less. Even though the daytime highs are hitting 90, I completely turned off the a/c the last 3 days. It ends up feeling cooler outside in the middle of the day (breezy!), which means we're spending more time outside ... a win/win! *I ran out of plastic (I know) containers for leftovers, so I used some glass jars to freeze my leftover soup. *The usual recycling.
Want Not/Prep/Store: *Still looking for ways to build community; here's what I came up with this week. I bake bread most weekends, and my favorite recipe makes 4 loaves. We can use 3 before mold sets in, so I usually give a loaf to my parents or freeze one. I've decided to use that extra loaf to build relationships! I made a list of people in our small town that I'd like to get to know better, and every Sunday I'll take a loaf of bread to a new person on my list. *I also did some pantry cleaning/rearranging and made notes of what we need to restock (will have to wait a payday or 2). *Made my own laundry detergent (haven't used it yet, so I can't say how well it works).
Community Food System: Nothing, really.
Eat the Food: We've started using some of the beef we bought from my co-worker. Mmm! Otherwise, I haven't tried any new recipes or anything. Just plugging along, eating a LOT from storage due to financial issues.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Well that was
one hell of a week! In a good way!
Monday, through a strange set of circumstances, I volunteered to help set up a food bank on our end of the county. Food security, both personal and community-wide, is really important to me, and this was something I'd been thinking about for a while. Pretty funny that the week I made up my mind to get involved in the community this just sort of fell into my lap. :D
Tuesday was our first civic club meeting and it was GREAT! We took the kids and I just sort of assumed that they would play on the playground while we met with the other folks. Well, one of the committee members (that I've known for ... oh ... 25 years? maybe 30?) brought his teenaged daughter, who very kindly watched out for the girls the entire time. I volunteered to help organize the Halloween Carnival (the civic club's biggest fundraiser of the year), which will actually be on Halloween this year. I'm so excited! This meeting was a really, really big deal for us as a family. I've been so worried that all of my grandmother's trash talk about our religion would have the whole group ready to burn us at the stake. I'm pretty ashamed of myself that I made such assumptions about people. Everybody was so nice. :) We even met the people who bought the "pink" gingerbread house across the street from the park: a nice Jewish couple who are apparently pretty serious preppers! I'm hoping to get to know them a little better.
We had F's birthday party at the park yesterday: another Big Deal, as this is the first time any other kids have come to her party. There were 4 5-y/o's and 1 2-y/o, all girls. Glad it was outdoors, as I don't think we could have stood all the squealing inside! LOL Anyway, everybody had a great time.
Today, I picked tomato hornworms off my tomato plants (and some other kind of worm, too) and fed them to the chickens ... who actually ATE them this time! Yay! Now that I know what I'm looking for, I'll be checking the plants every afternoon and giving the chicks an afternoon snack.
I also made my very first "all-by-myself" batch of pickles: dilled okra. Mmmm. AND, I'm marinating (right this second!) a bowl of sliced tomatoes in cheap red wine. Yep, you read that right! Tomorrow, I shall drain them, sprinkle them with salt and dried herbs, and dehydrate them. Mom already did some for me and they are so freakin' delicious I want to eat the entire bag. But I won't: I'm determined to make a homemade pizza with homegrown dried tomatoes. I WILL keep some tomatoes for that. I WILL TOO!
I should be baking bread right now, or folding laundry, or cutting up pears to make preserves, but the girls didn't nap today and I'm frickin' tired. Plus, we ate a LOT of popcorn this afternoon/evening and now I feel kinda sick. :P
OH ... did I mention that we had nearly 10 INCHES of rain last week?!?! Ridiculous ...
Monday, through a strange set of circumstances, I volunteered to help set up a food bank on our end of the county. Food security, both personal and community-wide, is really important to me, and this was something I'd been thinking about for a while. Pretty funny that the week I made up my mind to get involved in the community this just sort of fell into my lap. :D
Tuesday was our first civic club meeting and it was GREAT! We took the kids and I just sort of assumed that they would play on the playground while we met with the other folks. Well, one of the committee members (that I've known for ... oh ... 25 years? maybe 30?) brought his teenaged daughter, who very kindly watched out for the girls the entire time. I volunteered to help organize the Halloween Carnival (the civic club's biggest fundraiser of the year), which will actually be on Halloween this year. I'm so excited! This meeting was a really, really big deal for us as a family. I've been so worried that all of my grandmother's trash talk about our religion would have the whole group ready to burn us at the stake. I'm pretty ashamed of myself that I made such assumptions about people. Everybody was so nice. :) We even met the people who bought the "pink" gingerbread house across the street from the park: a nice Jewish couple who are apparently pretty serious preppers! I'm hoping to get to know them a little better.
We had F's birthday party at the park yesterday: another Big Deal, as this is the first time any other kids have come to her party. There were 4 5-y/o's and 1 2-y/o, all girls. Glad it was outdoors, as I don't think we could have stood all the squealing inside! LOL Anyway, everybody had a great time.
Today, I picked tomato hornworms off my tomato plants (and some other kind of worm, too) and fed them to the chickens ... who actually ATE them this time! Yay! Now that I know what I'm looking for, I'll be checking the plants every afternoon and giving the chicks an afternoon snack.
I also made my very first "all-by-myself" batch of pickles: dilled okra. Mmmm. AND, I'm marinating (right this second!) a bowl of sliced tomatoes in cheap red wine. Yep, you read that right! Tomorrow, I shall drain them, sprinkle them with salt and dried herbs, and dehydrate them. Mom already did some for me and they are so freakin' delicious I want to eat the entire bag. But I won't: I'm determined to make a homemade pizza with homegrown dried tomatoes. I WILL keep some tomatoes for that. I WILL TOO!
I should be baking bread right now, or folding laundry, or cutting up pears to make preserves, but the girls didn't nap today and I'm frickin' tired. Plus, we ate a LOT of popcorn this afternoon/evening and now I feel kinda sick. :P
OH ... did I mention that we had nearly 10 INCHES of rain last week?!?! Ridiculous ...
Saturday, August 22, 2009
2 Months ....
Yeah, clearly I suck at this whole blogging thing. I'm not sure what made me think this would be different than the dozens of times I've bought lovely journals, blank pages that first whispered the promise of quiet reflection. Within days, those clean pages became another chore to complete, and within weeks the journal of quiet reflection was buried in the avalanche of paper that is my life. Turns out I'm even busier now than I was the last time I bought a journal! No beating myself up this time, though. It is what it is, and I'll update when I can. Maybe I can even figure out how to add pictures someday ...
So, the new cat, Henry, is great. He's made friends (sort of) with the dog, and likes F (the most important part, since she's the one who wanted one the most).
The dog killed one of our original 2 chickens and mangled the other one. She eventually recovered and began laying eggs again. Before that, though, we bought 6 more chicks - 5 pullets and a rooster. They've gotten SO big, and they're so stinkin' cute. Of course, to B's chagrin, we've named them all: Rosa, Snowflake, Midnight, Majesty, Brunhylde, and Buster. We hope they'll start laying in a month or 2.
The gardens did okay. Well, mom & dad's BIG garden did GREAT. We harvested and preserved over 400 lbs. of peas! The squash, zucchini and cukes did really well, too. Grean beans, not so much, and the hogs destroyed all but 100 ears of the corn and all of the pumpkins & watermelons.
Our little garden did ... eh. We got some squash and zukes, and about 15 lbs. of potatoes. The deer ate all the sunflowers and the hogs tore up our corn and pumpkins. I got a few eggplants, and thought the plants had died, but lo and behold, they're back and blooming again, and there are a few baby eggplants on the bushes. I think hogs ate some of them, too. Are you seeing a theme here?
The most success we've had gardening this year has been the herb beds. One was planted with basil, 2 kinds of parsley, cilantro, dill, oregano, thyme, tarragon, mint and rosemary. Oh, and one poblano pepper plant! The basil is still going strong! I made pesto for the first time, and plan to make some for the freezer -- the stuff is so freaking delicious that I ate the whole batch with nary a bit of pasta, just on crackers and sandwiches. I cut the flower spikes off the basil plants a couple times a week and feed them to the chickens. The cilantro died in the heat, but I harvested a few tablespoons of coriander which was exciting. The dill did really well, until the Eastern Swallowtail caterpillars moved in and ate the crap out of it. :( The caterpillars are now working on my parsley, but I didn't use it that much so I'm not worrying about it. The little buggers are bitter (so I read) and the chickens won't eat them. Grrr. Oh, we've gotten probably a dozen poblanos ...yum!
The other herb bed was planted mostly with tomato plants that mom started from heirloom seeds. We have a couple of yellow cherries that are producing like mad, a couple of red cherries that are doing just okay, and a few romas that are doing pretty well. Mom is dehydrating almost all of the romas for us. Oh, and there are a few "regular" tomato plants that are giving us enough for slicing/eating out of hand. We haven't gotten enough from our garden to can, which I'm a little disappointed over, but it'll be okay.
We're still trying to figure out goats or a cow, the orchard, fencing, and always $$.
The lack of community is really bothering me lately. Not just heathen community .... ANY community! So, I decided to try getting involved in the local civic club and the local Spiral Scouts group. The civic club president and the SS troop leader neither have answered my e-mails (sent almost 2 weeks ago), but I'm trying not to be discouraged about it yet. Until then ... busy, busy, as always!
Today's to-do list:
* Return books & movies to the library.
* Begin making beef broth (for canning tomorrow).
* Pick up a box or 2 of tomatoes for canning.
* Make bread & muffins.
* Laundry, laundry & more laundry.
Makes me want to go back to bed!!
So, the new cat, Henry, is great. He's made friends (sort of) with the dog, and likes F (the most important part, since she's the one who wanted one the most).
The dog killed one of our original 2 chickens and mangled the other one. She eventually recovered and began laying eggs again. Before that, though, we bought 6 more chicks - 5 pullets and a rooster. They've gotten SO big, and they're so stinkin' cute. Of course, to B's chagrin, we've named them all: Rosa, Snowflake, Midnight, Majesty, Brunhylde, and Buster. We hope they'll start laying in a month or 2.
The gardens did okay. Well, mom & dad's BIG garden did GREAT. We harvested and preserved over 400 lbs. of peas! The squash, zucchini and cukes did really well, too. Grean beans, not so much, and the hogs destroyed all but 100 ears of the corn and all of the pumpkins & watermelons.
Our little garden did ... eh. We got some squash and zukes, and about 15 lbs. of potatoes. The deer ate all the sunflowers and the hogs tore up our corn and pumpkins. I got a few eggplants, and thought the plants had died, but lo and behold, they're back and blooming again, and there are a few baby eggplants on the bushes. I think hogs ate some of them, too. Are you seeing a theme here?
The most success we've had gardening this year has been the herb beds. One was planted with basil, 2 kinds of parsley, cilantro, dill, oregano, thyme, tarragon, mint and rosemary. Oh, and one poblano pepper plant! The basil is still going strong! I made pesto for the first time, and plan to make some for the freezer -- the stuff is so freaking delicious that I ate the whole batch with nary a bit of pasta, just on crackers and sandwiches. I cut the flower spikes off the basil plants a couple times a week and feed them to the chickens. The cilantro died in the heat, but I harvested a few tablespoons of coriander which was exciting. The dill did really well, until the Eastern Swallowtail caterpillars moved in and ate the crap out of it. :( The caterpillars are now working on my parsley, but I didn't use it that much so I'm not worrying about it. The little buggers are bitter (so I read) and the chickens won't eat them. Grrr. Oh, we've gotten probably a dozen poblanos ...yum!
The other herb bed was planted mostly with tomato plants that mom started from heirloom seeds. We have a couple of yellow cherries that are producing like mad, a couple of red cherries that are doing just okay, and a few romas that are doing pretty well. Mom is dehydrating almost all of the romas for us. Oh, and there are a few "regular" tomato plants that are giving us enough for slicing/eating out of hand. We haven't gotten enough from our garden to can, which I'm a little disappointed over, but it'll be okay.
We're still trying to figure out goats or a cow, the orchard, fencing, and always $$.
The lack of community is really bothering me lately. Not just heathen community .... ANY community! So, I decided to try getting involved in the local civic club and the local Spiral Scouts group. The civic club president and the SS troop leader neither have answered my e-mails (sent almost 2 weeks ago), but I'm trying not to be discouraged about it yet. Until then ... busy, busy, as always!
Today's to-do list:
* Return books & movies to the library.
* Begin making beef broth (for canning tomorrow).
* Pick up a box or 2 of tomatoes for canning.
* Make bread & muffins.
* Laundry, laundry & more laundry.
Makes me want to go back to bed!!
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Invasion of the Animals
It's been a while since I've posted anything here. We've been a little busy. Um. A lot busy. The gardens are coming in, but we're being invaded by wild hogs and deer. The deer ate all of my pepper plants down to the nub, and the hogs completely destroyed mom & dad's watermelons and heavily damaged the Merit corn. B & dad have been staying up all night for weeks, trying to catch/kill the hogs, but the damn things are SNEAKY.
In spite of it, mom has managed to can a significant amount of food: strawberry preserves, lots and lots and lots of pickles - both cuke and squash/zuke, several different kinds of peas, corn on the cob. And dear Gods at the squash we've eaten in the last few weeks. Delicious! I also harvested some (small) onions, some (very, very small) potatoes, and my herb garden is a constant delight.
So, the excitement last week was, B agreed to get a cat. The last one we tried to adopt was a terror; the girls couldn't get within 10 feet of the thing without being attacked. Not playfully, either: full-on, teeth-and-claws attacked. It was bad. We tried so hard to make it work, but we had to "rehome" him (don't ask). But this kitty ... he's a dream. Box-trained in a day, soft and cuddly, playful, and lets the 2 y/o carry him around with nary a hiss or scratch. We all adore him ... a GOOD decision! The 4 y/o named him Henry. :)
The excitement today is ... we finally have chickens! Two laying hens at the moment, with a rooster to join them as soon as the neighbor can catch him. The girls have named them Tinker-Chicken and Sadie. They LOVE lettuce and grapes and seem happy enough in their little pen for the time being. Hopefully B and I can get the coop/run situation resolved this weekend and we can get busy establishing our flock. Yay, us!!!
This weekend will be a busy one, too, as the whole extended family is preparing for a visit from my nephew J, his wife M, and their girls, L & M (who are roughly the same age as our girls -- FUN!). We haven't seen each other since M & I were pregnant with our 2 y/o's, so it'll be a fun visit. Hope we're able to manage entertaining, garden stuff, work, and other commitments without too much drama/trauma.
Tomorrow is a vacation day, but I'll be up at my normal time to get the girls to daycare and get started in the garden. We're going to pick and can peas and cukes, inspect and clean mom & dad's camper, and a million other things.
I almost forgot: I installed another clothesline last weekend to replace the crappy kit I bought and B put up for me last year. That was some HARD work, but man, did it feel good. And now I get to line-dry our laundry. Hell yeah!
In spite of it, mom has managed to can a significant amount of food: strawberry preserves, lots and lots and lots of pickles - both cuke and squash/zuke, several different kinds of peas, corn on the cob. And dear Gods at the squash we've eaten in the last few weeks. Delicious! I also harvested some (small) onions, some (very, very small) potatoes, and my herb garden is a constant delight.
So, the excitement last week was, B agreed to get a cat. The last one we tried to adopt was a terror; the girls couldn't get within 10 feet of the thing without being attacked. Not playfully, either: full-on, teeth-and-claws attacked. It was bad. We tried so hard to make it work, but we had to "rehome" him (don't ask). But this kitty ... he's a dream. Box-trained in a day, soft and cuddly, playful, and lets the 2 y/o carry him around with nary a hiss or scratch. We all adore him ... a GOOD decision! The 4 y/o named him Henry. :)
The excitement today is ... we finally have chickens! Two laying hens at the moment, with a rooster to join them as soon as the neighbor can catch him. The girls have named them Tinker-Chicken and Sadie. They LOVE lettuce and grapes and seem happy enough in their little pen for the time being. Hopefully B and I can get the coop/run situation resolved this weekend and we can get busy establishing our flock. Yay, us!!!
This weekend will be a busy one, too, as the whole extended family is preparing for a visit from my nephew J, his wife M, and their girls, L & M (who are roughly the same age as our girls -- FUN!). We haven't seen each other since M & I were pregnant with our 2 y/o's, so it'll be a fun visit. Hope we're able to manage entertaining, garden stuff, work, and other commitments without too much drama/trauma.
Tomorrow is a vacation day, but I'll be up at my normal time to get the girls to daycare and get started in the garden. We're going to pick and can peas and cukes, inspect and clean mom & dad's camper, and a million other things.
I almost forgot: I installed another clothesline last weekend to replace the crappy kit I bought and B put up for me last year. That was some HARD work, but man, did it feel good. And now I get to line-dry our laundry. Hell yeah!
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