Hurricane Ike refugees

Since Tuesday, we've been harboring refugees from the remnants of Hurricane Ike. Jaye, Kelly, Lauren and Matthew have been staying with us because their power has been off since Sunday afternoon when the hurricane-force winds moved through Ohio and on to their final destination in Canada. The wind velocity measured at 75-90 mph. That is more than we experienced in Baton Rouge during Hurricane Andrew in 1992! I thought moving to the midwest would keep me safe from those kinds of storms, but apparently not. At least we didn't have to worry about storm surge as we are landlocked. And we didn't get a drop of rain out of it, although we could really use some.

Thank goodness, we didn't sustain any real damage to property or persons. Just a lot of tree limbs and branches in the yard, and about a gazillion hickory nuts. The squirrels will have a lot less work to do to store up for the winter.

The chickens aren't doing a lot of egg laying yet. I'm not sure what the problem is. Ruby is laying one egg a day since she started two weeks ago. Henrietta laid one egg a week ago and hasn't laid another one since. I've been keeping them penned up until at least noon so they will lay in the coop. Goldie, who I thought would be the first, hasn't laid a single egg yet. She sits on the nest often, but so far, nada. I hope she isn't eggbound. Several of the others are squatting for me, so maybe it's only a matter of days until I start getting more than one a day.

Ruby gave me one double-yolker last week! That was really exciting! Gaige got to eat that one.

Anyway, here are a bunch of photos to catch up the family on the grandkids.