Relaxing week, uh, not so much

This past week was supposed to have been a little stay-cation for me while David was in Germany on business. No cooking, no housework, catching up on some reading, watching the convention, so on, so forth. Just me, the dog, the cats and sixteen chickens.

Okay, just for fun, throw in an almost-seven-year-old boy, a five-and-a-half year boy and an almost-three-year-old girl, the first day of school, and two parents who both started working second shift. I decided to just keep the kids here overnight so I wouldn't have to drive home at 12:30 or 1:00 in the morning. That meant, of course, that I picked up the two youngest at home before going to school to pick up the oldest, big-boy first-grader. Then bringing them back here to play, have dinner (which no one wanted to eat, but Gaige bravely managed to eat some of the fried rice), play some more, have baths, bedtime snacks, teeth brushing, bedtime stories and finally (sigh) singing the usual songs: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Are There Stars Out Tonight?, and Somewhere Over the Rainbow. Yes, there is a theme running through the selections. The selections can never be altered, neither in content, nor in the order in which they are sung. That much you can count on.

Think that sounds like enough? Oh, no, no, no! Said boys are VERY active and love to try and kill their Grammy with their rambunmctiousness (not sure that's a word, but it sure is descriptive!). And the noise level is tremendous! I'm thinking of investing in some Bose headphones!

Hoping to quickly scoot downstarirs to watch television and unwind after a hurried and much-needed shower was beyond the realm of possibility. The hall light had to be on and the door placement just so. And there's no chance of Kaitlyn just going to sleep on her own little Dora toddler bed. No. "Dammy (grammy), you seep wiss me? You lay down wiss me?" There is no bargaining on this point. I learned to just do it, and save myself a lot of grief. Luckily, I have a very comfortable guest bed in that room and it usually doesn't take long for her to fall asleep. Of course, there's the usual litany of excuses not to fall asleep. Each one has to do the following at least once before falling asleep: drink of water, go pee, needs a tissue, one more hug and kiss. (More sighing)

Finally, everyone was fast asleep and I quietly slipped downstairs to watch the convention which had already started, but with the magic of Tivo, I could watch in its entirety sans commercials and speed past the talking heads' commentary and get to the good stuff. What? What is that? Are my eyelids closing involuntarily? How can that be after such a peaceful, relaxing day? Knowing that I would have to get up early in the morning to get Gaige ready for school and the others ready to go home, I gave up and went to bed. It would have been nice if I could have slept on through the night, but, every time Kaitlyn rolled over and opened her eyes a crack, she would call for me and I would have to go and "seep wiss" her.

Caffeine, lots of caffeine the next morning and rewind tape and do it all over again Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. At least David got home last evening and took some of the pressure off me, but he was suffering from jet lag and had to hit the sack early. I'm off for three days and then get to do it again next week while David is in Colorado on his annual bowhunting trip for eight days. I hope he's in jet lag hell he has a great vacation. This time, Nathan will be starting Kindergarten on Wednesday. Sounds like a new layer of fun to be added. I may be posting from the insane asylum after next week. Can you type while wearing a straightjacket?

Big boy's first day of first grade.


Oh, yeah, still no eggs! They're 19 weeks and I was hoping that at least the Golden Comets would be laying. Goldie is sure sitting in the nest box every morning, but nothing but the wooden eggs that I put in for decoys.

Why our garden should have a fence

The chickens have won the battle for who gets to eat the most tomatoes. The blasted things took forever to start bearing, because, of course, the bok-boks ate all the blooms off the bottom half of the plants! Then when they finally started getting some fruit on them, they picked off all the ones they could jump up and reach. Yum! Tasty treat. Oh, yeah, not to mention all the lovely cucumbers, peppers and pumpkins they devoured. Number one on the To-Do List for Fall: build the damn fence!

It seems we can now trust Lucy around the chickens. Of course we can! They're like a walking, squawking smorgasbord. She just follows them around waiting for snacks to pop out their butts! Why would she ever want to limit the amount of chicken poop she can eat in a day!

David left for Germany today and will be gone all week. No cooking for me! I'm planning to reduce the amount of leftovers that threaten to take over my fridge. This evening I've already dined on the remains of Thursday's dinner. Scallops with linguine in tomato-cream sauce. Yum! Awaiting me in the days ahead are spaghetti with portobello marinara, some pork loin that I smoked yesterday with added BBQ sauce and pork fried rice. I love using leftovers creatively.

Goldie is getting vewwwy interested in the nesting boxes. I found her sitting in there this morning after all the others were outside. She was the first one to investigate them. I checked her vent this afternoon and it's nice and moist and seems to be a little swollen, so that's a good sign that it won't be long! Maybe I will win The First Egg contest between Amy, Don, Ron and me.

So, Henry, the champion crowing machine (45 times in a row, dare to compare), is going to live with my mother-in-law, Phyllis. She has been wanting him for a while and I just can't take the incessant crowing anymore. I'm afraid the neighbors will lynch him some day when I'm out. And what's worse, he tried to flog one of the grandkids a couple of days ago. Nathan was chasing Kaitlyn in the yard and she was screaming like a two-year-old is wont to do and Henry flew up at Nathan with his feet going for his face. Thank goodness he doesn't have his spurs yet and he didn't quite have the hang of it, so he was unsuccessful, but it was a little scary when you realize the damage he could do in the future. One more reason to ship him off. If we didn't have that option, he would be Sunday dinner.

And, last but not least, just wanted to add a few cute pics I've taken in the past few days.

Picky, picky, pecky

Are the pullets getting close to laying? Their behavior has altered in the last few days. In the evenings when I gave them their cracked corn, they used to peck and scratch together peacefully. Now they're getting testy with each other, pecking at necks and squawking as if to say, "Hey, that's my piece, get your own!" Henry is getting more aggressive with the girls. He hasn't tried mounting them yet, but I'm sure the time is getting near.

The chickens were penned up in the run last evening before roosting, when they all stopped what they were doing and went to the back fence next to the woods. They were craning their necks looking into the trees and underbrush. There were dogs barking in the distance, an owl hooting and various birds giving their goodnight calls. Those are all sounds they are used to hearing. Maybe they could hear a raccoon or a fox or a coyote starting their nightly rounds early. They were definitely very wary and paying close attention for at least ten minutes. A long time for an animal with a short attention span.

On the way back from a walk with Lucy yesterday morning, I counted twenty crows near our house. That thrills me and gives me hope that they will keep the hawks away from the area around our property. We haven't seen many in the last few years. I'm positive they were decimated by the West Nile Virus epidemic we had several years ago.

Also on our walk, I saw a young red-tailed hawk hanging out near a wooded pond about a mile away. I'm pretty sure it's one from the nest on our property. The parents obviously have left it to fend for itself. Its call sounded plaintive and hungry. I hope it doesn't remember where our barn is, but more than likely it will be back. Like Amy, I'm worried about the Cooper's hawks when the protective tree canopy is gone. We have several evergreen trees in the yard, but not like the cover that all the underbrush under the deciduous trees provides. I guess I'll cross that bridge later.

Why is it I never seem to have my camera with me when I see things that are interesting? I suppose I'll have to start carrying it with me everywhere I go so I will have photos to correspond with every post. Oh well, next time!