This & That...Happy Birthday, Matt!

Last Friday, the day before the big reunion, our grandson Matthew had his second birthday. We celebrated at our favorite Chinese restaurant.

Matt was sleepy and a wee bit bemused that all the attention was focused on him.

Sister Lauren got everyone going by telling us what we should do.

Cousin Kaitlyn kept things peaceful and on an even keel.

Cousin Gaige thoroughly enjoyed the many buffet offerings.

Cousin Nathan provided the evening's entertainment.

Finally, it was time to get down to business!

There was even singing by a lovely duo.

The very exciting finale!

Lauren was giving more help than was actually needed very helpful.

Happy Birthday, dear Matthew! Happy Birthday to you!

Randomness...

too small for a post, too good to pass up.

Been braiding some garlic.

Picking blackberries and making pies and cobblers.

Little Feather has decided the best place to lay her eggs is on a chair in my 3-season room. I leave Lucy the dog out there with the door slightly propped open when I'm away for more than a few hours, and twice I've come home and found an egg lying in the chair.

Well, it's one I don't have to bring in from the coop, I guess.

A stroll through my gardens

I'm planning to add annuals inside the pots this weekend.

And now the veggies....

Lookie what I found, part two

I've been hearing a strange barking sound in the woods behind the barn for about a week in the early morning and in the evening around dusk. I did a little research on YouTube and found the source of the sound.

(the first 30-40 seconds is the red fox's cry or bark)

I've surprised the fox behind the barn a couple of times and figured she is trying to figure out a way to get to my hens. Well, this evening I found out the primary reason she's hanging out there.

When I first surprised them, there were two kits. When I came back with the camera, only one of them ventured out. All that gravel you see is what the groundhogs have dug out from under the concrete floor of the barn. Obviously we should have been paying more attention to how bad it was on this northeast corner. The kit is actually inside the fence that surrounds the perimeter of the backyard and encloses three sides of the barn. The opening also goes out into the woods and that's how they made their way inside. I temporarily blocked the opening inside the fence while leaving the back open so they won't get trapped inside without their mother. Obviously the electric fence wire is not working. The kit was actually chewing on it while I watched.

Three of the hens were just a few feet away while I took pictures. Can you say sitting ducks?  I really can't believe that I haven't lost any of them. I'm sure the mama must be hungry and also trying to feed her babies. It would be hard to begrudge her a chicken dinner. I just hope there are plenty of non-egg-laying critters out there in the woods to keep them happy and well-fed.

Are you going to Scarborough Fair?

 

Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
Remember me to one who lives there,
She once was a true love of mine.

Simon and Garfunkel's song always reminds me of my very first car date. He was my first teenage crush...well, other than Mickey Dolenz, Bobby Sherman and David Cassidy. I actually got to go out with this one. It was a double date with his sister and her boyfriend. That being the only way my mom would let me go with him. It was the summer of '68, and it was hot, hot, hot. Sis' boyfriend had a convertible and didn't I feel like the coolest chick riding around with the top down in the backseat with an older boy. We went to see "The Graduate" at the historic Keith-Albee Theatre in Huntington, West Virginia. All of my companions had already seen the movie, but they wanted me to see it. I'm pretty sure they wanted to shock me as I definitely consider it an "adult" movie. I'm also sure that I had no understanding of the underlying themes set forth in the movie. Sis and my date sat on opposite sides of me and every time a risque scene was forthcoming, I would get jabbed in the ribs by both of them.

After the movie we went to a popular parking spot called Gobbler's Knob in Ritter Park. I was mighty uncomfortable watching Sis and beau making out in the front seat, while I tried carrying on a conversation with my date. Our relationship didn't last the summer, but I continued my crush on him throughout my high school years along with many others. Luckily I didn't marry him, because I'm pretty confident that I wouldn't be able to stand him now. Doesn't life work out just grand?



Daisy, one of my Buff Orpingtons, was trying to help me take photos. She suggested this spot, but there was too much green in the background. She's still learning.

 

New-fangled solar dryer

After twenty years of not having a clothesline, we finally did it. Now I can have that bury-your-face-in-the-sheets-and-inhale feeling again. I can also feel good about my lower electric bill and helping the environment.




Little Red (Hen) likes to peck at our jeans...and legs, and toes.












A head of cabbage a little past optimum human consumption? No problem for the hens!





Louise, my Easter Egger who lays pinkish eggs instead of green, scores a quarter for herself.

Watching chickens and clothes drying, do I know how to have fun, or what!

Winter....we has it

 

 

That photo isn't blurry, friends. Those are huge, gargantuan snowflakes pouring down. We are definitely having us some winter now.

This is the front of the barn.

 

 

The chairs where we sit in summer to watch the chickens.

 

The chickens' play area is now reduced by two-thirds. The tarp collapsed from the weight of the snow and quarter-inch ice layer. I managed to prop it up so they can at least get outside the coop a little bit and scratch at some hay and cracked corn.

I can't keep up with feeding the birds. As soon as I throw down sunflower seed for the ground feeders, the snow covers it back up. I've decided to give up until it slacks up a bit. They will just have to make do with the hanging and platform feeders.

 

Did you think that was some yummy cookie recipe I was going to share with you? Nah, but the birds love it.

 

 

I mix up lard, peanut butter and corn meal and put the mixture in suet feeders. I used to get fancy and put it in molds, then harden to cut into slices. Now I just cram it in the way it is. It's a lot faster and the birds don't seem to mind. It helps keep them warm in this nasty weather. I bought these feeders-inside-a-cage to keep the starlings from hogging it all up. Only the little birds can get in.

I've been getting complaints requests from some of the family to post pictures of the kiddies, which I admittedly haven't done in quite a while. So here you go, family. They're as cute as ever.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The boys have had a great time dismantling this kiddie karaoke machine. It kept them quiet for hours.