Zombie Awareness Month

Squashes!

This, my friends, is a picture of sweet success. Can't wait to bite down into these things. With grass fed beef steaks and new potatoes and local green beans. Come on, Saturday! Get here already!

And I named this chick. Tried hard not to, really, I did! (Resolved for no names until I knew their gender and which ones I'd be keeping.) But this is Moe. Because... black strip on her head only = mohawk = Moe.

Of Dragons and Chickens

Jam packed weekend! That's the trend for the year, apparently.

Dragon Boat Races! The Museum's new fundraiser. So. Much. Fun! My building, known colloquially as the Kress Building, got together a fun and fabulous team - the Kresstonites. While we didn't win any races, we also didn't lose any. BUT. We did win Best Team Costume! If you can't win, lose with style, right? Dragon tail hats for the win (courtesy of moi. Humility is not my strong point.)



Also this weekend? Baby chicks!
So much cuteness it's ridiculous. :)

Final Hatch Count: 20

Though I lost one last night, and have two more that are rather puny looking. Not confident they'll make it through. Sadface. One of the punies is the only Americauna egg that hatched. That's life (and death), though. Spending my lunch breaks this week driving home to feed and water them. They're going through water at a ridiculous pace! Of course, it doesn't help that they kick the pine shavings into the water, soaking a lot of it up that way. Silly chickies.

AND. To add to the insanity that is my life, I'm hemming a wedding dress and the bridesmaid dresses in the next week or so. Also making five (count 'em - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5!) confirmation dresses for my priest friend's church. Deadline? June 12th.

But wait! There's more!! The tension on my fast machine is jacked up, so I need to take it to the shop and see what's up with that. And, of course, the chicks are in their brooder box in my sewing room. Some way I'll also need to build some sort of additional coop to put them in when they can go outside in another couple weeks.

Yikes.

"Worn out with this torture of thought, I rose to my knees. night was come, and her planets were risen: a safe, still night: too serene for the companionship of fear. We know that God is everywhere; but certainly we feel His presence most when His works are on the grandest scale spread before us; and it is in the unclouded night-sky, where His worlds wheel their silent course, that we read clearest His infinitude, His omnipotence, His omnipresence. I had risen to my knees to pray for Mr. Rochester. looking up, I, with tear-dimmed eyes, saw the mighty Milky-way. Remembering what it was - what countless systems there swept space like a soft trace of light - I felt the might and strength of God. Sure was I of His efficiency to save what He had made: convinced I grew that neither earth should perish, nor one of the souls it treasured. I turned my prayer to thanksgiving: the Source of Life was also the Saviour of spirits. Mr. Rochester was safe: he was God's,and by God would he be guarded. I again nestled to the breast of the hill; and ere long in sleep forgot sorrow."

Jane Eyre

Charlotte Bronte

A Dilemma

Of the rooster variety.

My luck has turned, and I now have at least one, maybe two, to many roosters. Reginald and Clarence (and Norman) have beaten Horace up and knocked him off his throne. Pretty sure Reginald was planning a coup that whole time he was just lurking in the corners of the run... So who stays and who goes?

This delightfully 'furry' creature? Pretty sure if he stays, it'd have to be just him. And honestly, he drug Dru to the hen house by the neck last night. Not winning many brownie points with me...

Or this previously nice one? Who used to get along ohsowell with Horace and has enjoyed chasing Norman his whole life there?

Somehow I don't think leaving these two together will work out very well. Pretty sure they'll stay at it till only one of them remains... And I like Horace. He's a good roo. Pretty sure he's gonna win the rooster lottery and get to stay.

Meanwhile - 2 more weeks till chicks! Which means I've gotta figure out a brooder system... yikes. (And I'm not keeping ANY new roosters. Hens only this time.)

Norman's safe. He's such a weanie. :)

Recipe for an Excellent Good Friday

1. Run 3.3 miles in 32ish minutes with a friend.
2. 4 flats of strawberries + friend and her child + 4 hours = 32 jars of jam (various sizes)
3. Sunshine and a breeze
4. Fellowship with the crazies at church tonight
5. Looking forward to a bluegrass festival and planting the last of the veggies tomorrow.

These Boots Were Made For Farming...

... and that's just what they did today. :) 

The final, fenced in garden. Calling this one The Big Z. Many thanks to the little brother for putting the fencing up.

All that work in February has ended up really paying off. so glad I got all that outta the way in advance, as just using the hoe today was starting to get to my hand.

Crops! A row of Roma tomatoes, row of cucumbers (Lemon & Straight) along the back, zucchini, squash (straight and crookneck), 3 sweet heirloom peppers, 1 'medium hot' heirloom pepper, 2 habanero peppers, 3 'Crimson Sweet' watermelons, dill, anise (hyssop) and bee balm. There's room in the back corner still, and I'm pretty sure I'll stick lavender there.

That broccoli I planted to late in the season? Yeah... you can't fool Mother Nature. It's blooming. Quite pretty, actually.

The romaine lettuce is doing quite well, as are is the buttercrunch lettuce and spinach. Nothing from the cauliflower or the cabbage. Better luck in the fall, yeah?

And those potatoes? Doing quite splendidly, thank you very much. :)

Also. I peeked. There are for real potatoes there. So exciting!!!




In other farm news, hoping to take a passel of eggs to the incubator around the 17th.