Sesame, a shock, and sarcasm

Ok. Ok. Clearly, Lisa is the only sane one in the bunch. Sesame Street names are mommy's first preference as of 10 o'clock on Thursday morning. (By the way, did anyone notice that I said "happy Wednesday" on Tuesday's post!? Yikes.)

This post will be short as the 'rents are AGAIN coming into town. They are abusing their priviledges. I had no idea what retirement would do to/for them. But, it's evident they take great delight in traveling and particularly to see their grandson. With Charley working a lot I am thankful for them!

Gotta clean, clean, clean. The house has sorely lacked my touch for the past several days b/c all I can do is moan and groan while I nurse my weeping eyes, running nose and clogged head thanks to the ragweed and whatever else is lurking around outside.

Does anyone have the Sprout channel on their tv? It's nice. And, I like it a lot for John - we keep it on for company sometimes. But, I will be glad when, what I consider, the cheese of this period of my life is over. I try so hard to hold my sarcasm in around John b/c I've heard it's not all that healthy for babies :) If only an adult were around when the monster strikes me...
And, don't get me started on Barney.

Oh, I haven't told you what happened to me the other day! John and I decided to take a walk as we waited for our neighbor and the hens. John was strapped in his hiking backpack on my back. As I reached for the electric fence handle to open the gate I put my hand on the t-post that the gate is attached to...and, you guessed it, I got the shock of my life, literally. It was so powerful it took my breath away. I coughed and sputtered and then was as mad as a hornet. Thankfully John didn't feel a thing. He started mimicking my cough as soon as the crisis was over, though. It was kinda funny. I have learned my lesson...I won't ever hold on to the post as I open the gate again. I might refrain from opening the gate for the next several days. Yes, that's the best idea.

Today, Cookie Monster will be driving the chicken tractor and Bert will be his co-pilot.

With the house finally under a manageable workload, Charley and I are relaxing a little more these days. Last evening we spent a little time watching our new hens. The below pics are not ours, but they give a good idea of what our new hens look like. Names, anyone??? We aren't very original...I suggested "Big Red" and "Little Red" for the two red hens and Charley suggested "Stripey" for the black and white Barred Rock hen. Wow. Not our finest moments. So, any suggestions for names would be appreciated. We also have a Black Star, who is...you guessed it, black, and a Buff Orpington, whose color is nude, like panty hose. She is very unoriginal in her appearance. Though, I'm sure God would disagree. And, upon further inspection, any chicken is anything but unoriginal in appearance. And, if we don't have suggestions from our loved ones, they will be named Faye, Laura, Bob and Leah :).

Barred Rock hen

Rhode Island Red hen

My son has cheese on his head. I think I'd better return to the land of motherhood.

Mom Neal took this picture of John in the garden two weekends ago. He helped me yesterday as I mowed and trimmed and weeded. He is such a good helper. We've had to show him several times, however, that picking the tomatoes before they are ripe is a "no, no." (He likes to collect them like they are rocks.) The shadows are longer and darker these days and the sunsets even more beautiful. It's so cool in the mornings, too. 2/3 of the farm was mowed yesterday and my allergies are going HaYwIrE! But, I'm thankful that most of it is finally done!

Since we lost our two Buff Orpington hens to a fox last month, our neighbor volunteered to give us a few of her laying hens. The one Black Star hen that survived has been so funny the past several weeks. She stays close to the house and to the cats even though they have a love/hate relationship. Anytime she spots a human she runs to them. She likes for me to "pet" her on a regular basis and if I haven't she seeks me out and talks to me. She has all of these different noises that she makes - from a cluck to a thing she does with her throat that is so quiet that I have to listen carefully to hear her. She's a sweet girl. But, she's still a chicken :).

This weekend we spent some time making our "chicken tractor." Here is an example of one that gives a basic idea of our concept. Ours is square and larger, however.



We still need to attach wheels. But, this will work for now to hold the few hens that we do have. The eggs that our Black Star is laying are large. We think the hens from our neighbor will produce medium eggs since that is what the slightly smaller Buff's layed.

Happy Wednesday!

In the Garden...

My mom in law has been asking me to blog about our garden. So, here it goes...

Whoa. Let me first write a disclaimer. It wasn't a very good year, nor was it pretty. Hence, no pictures.

We grew swiss chard, cabbage, herbs, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, zucchini, one bean plant that yielded exactly one bean, cantaloupe, watermelon, a raspberry bush, and a rhubarb plant. Oh, we also have strawberry plants, banana peppers and green peppers.

We did a no till garden this year. We hope to improve the soil each year without chemicals, etc. We killed the grass with layers of newspaper, then sowed in our seeds/plants. The soil has grown fescu grass (and weeds!) for the past 10 or so years. The soil isn't terrible, but it's not rich either.

We planted everything late, as in mid-to late June I think. We didn't have any rain the month of June and it was H.O.T. The months of July and August have brought lots of rain and a few mild weekends. On average, the sun has been hot when it's out and we've had temps in the 80's.

The pepper plants yielded well, but the fruits have been on the small side. The tomatoes are doing great now that they are established. The orange tomato plants are thriving and producing well. The swiss chard was great, but we've not kept it cut down so the leaves are too big. The small ones we cook with are delicious, though. The raspberry bush and the strawberry runners are well established and, though we'll end up moving them later, they are doing well in the plain ol' dirt! The cabbage has had sporadic bugs - mostly when the rain was here. We used organic chemicals and picked them off by hand. Our Black Star hen follows us around when we are outside and she loves the garden. Charley fed all of the juicy green bugs to her :). The cabbage
is not ready to harvest yet.

The herbs are doing really well and I'm going to move them to a small "kitchen garden" by the house when our landscaping is established, hopefully this fall.

Next year we hope to grow corn and maybe start some tomatoes early.

John is much more mobile now, at 18 months. He loves to "help" outside, although it's still so hot during the day to stay out too long. I'm looking forward to the cooler fall weather when we can plant outside together, etc. Although our front yard is level, for the most part, we still don't have grass to play in. So, we are looking forward to that soon!

With all of the rain, the squash and zucchini have not done well. In fact, they began to produce and then bugs or too much rain demolished them. The plants are green, but there is no fruit.

On a final note...we picked our first watermelon too early! It was so sweet, though. Just not red and ripe! We have 4 or so more to harvest. We're waiting until the last possible minute to harvest them, though! And, the same goes for the canteloupe.

The best 'lope we've had this summer has been from Mom Neal's garden stand in Wheaton, IL. It was so delicious...and HUGE.

Suds

I never thought I'd be one of those crazy parents that thought their child was the most beautiful, most talented, most intelligent...but, alas, I do. I think he's amazing in every way.