Quick Update

Just a quick note to let everyone know that our hen who has been sitting on eggs for almost 3 weeks is hatching them now. It's so exciting!  So far four of the six chicks are hatching. More to follow with pictures.

Living room is almost done. Looks so differant.

Kids coming this weekend.

So much to do.

Tata for now.

Kay

Meet Henrietta....

    It's a cloudless day here in Puyallup and there is nothing more
beautiful than that. We don't get very many of those so I try to take advantage of them when I can.  I came outside to eat my breakfast this morning after taking a long walk with a friend and watched as a blue jay flew down into my strawberries and started having his breakfast. I ran out there as fast as I could to discourage him from them. Then went to find the chicken wire to put over them as cages but the wire wasn't wide enough. So I decided to make a scarecrow.  It's not a real scarecrow yet, but it's a start. Her name is Henrietta and she is very basic. She has a bucket for a head and a white t-shirt and some jeans.  She will have to do for now until I can get a real one made.

.  This is one of my Black Sexlink hens who is sitting on six fertilized eggs and we hope to have babies in about 19 days, just in time for my daughter Jennifer and her family to get here from Idado for the 4th of July week.  We are very excited.  We got to see them a couple of weekends ago when Sarah my other daughter and I went on a road trip to Idaho for my grand-daughters graduation. We met my sister there and had a great time surprising everyone with her.

She is sitting in the chicken tractor and is happy as can be on the nest.

    We had a busy weekend with two birthday parties and a graduation party and I so enjoy being able to celebrate all the happy times with good friends.

   We are also in the middle of putting up wainscoting in our living room and painting. We've been here for almost eight years now and it's about time for a little updating. What a job. Mark is doing the majority of the work and is doing such a great job. I will try for some pictures when we're done. I don't seem to be having much luck with pictures today.

We'll, that's all for today. I hope that wherever you are it is as beautiful as it is here. Tata for now.

Kay



Dogwood

This dogwood is about 4 years old now and we were beginning to think it was never going to bloom but it finally did this year and I was so excited! Great big white blooms. So pretty.

Sarah and I are going to Boise this weekend for my 2nd granddaughters graduation from home school.  We are very excited. She is such a beautiful girl and is into photography. Can't wait to see the whole family.  We have a special surprise for them after they get there.

I hope everyone has a great Memorial Day Weekend. Stay safe and enjoy family and friends.  Tata for now.

Blessings,
Kay

Mother's Day Tragedy at the Barbecue and a baby bunnie

     It was a beautiful Mother's Day. I had two of my children here and three of my grandchildren.  The sky was cloudless and it was warm and Mark barbecued steak and prawns. That's when tragedy struck.  We had been noticing that there were a pair of wrens hanging around the back and we thought they had a nest in the yew by the deck.  Such was not the case.  Mark got out the kettle barbecue and put the cylinder in it that he starts the coals in. He kept noticing that the wrens were hanging around and making a lot of noise trying to get his attention. He just kept on getting the barbie ready.  I was by the garden room going through some boxes of dahlias someone had given me.  I came to the back and I noticed that the wren was were making a lot of noise and flying at the ashcan on the bottom of the barbie. Then I noticed that there was small chirping in the ash can and quickly got the cylinder out of the kettle and then saw a couple of flaming sheets of newspaper under that. Thankfully I had gloves on and was able to quickly get those out.
     Now I had to figure out how to help the babies.  Bing and Lola our Pugs were circling around the barbie wondering what I'm doing and one of the babies jumped out and Lola grabbed it and started going way. She was not gentle and the baby was gone.

However, by that time Mark had come out and we were able to save the other two babies and put the barbie back where it was and watched for the mom and dad to come back to check on the babies. They did but all afternoon they looked for the dead baby and just broke our hearts watching them. They cried out for them and looked high and low.
We won't be using that barbecue until we know for sure that they are done using it.  The above picture is the infamous barbie. The two holes you see on the bottom are what they use to go in and out. The babies were so cute.
We now have four nests that we know about around the yard. Juncos, Wrens, Chickadees and sparrows.  I just love it!
Today I was weeding and watering in the friendship garden in the back and found a baby bunny. I picked it up and took it to another part of the yard where it would be able to stay away from the chickens who would find it and hurt it.
Speaking of the chickens they are all doing great. Well integrated and I let them out as much as possible.
The garden is mostly planted and doing well. That's all for today.

Many Blessings,
Kay

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

  I have two beautiful daughters I would like to say Happy Mother's Day  and my Dad married a wonderful gal that we all love that I would like to honor also.


We will spend the morning at church and then come home and barbecue with my daughter Sarah and Jacob and my son Chris and Hailey and Landen.  I am so blessed with a wonderful family.

I hope all you out there who are mothers have a blessed Mother's Day also and spend it how ever you like.

Babies

    


     I found the Junco nest.  I believe there are four babies in the nest. I was able to get two pictures and then I left them alone.  The nest is only about two or three inches from the twig fence of the Half Moon Border.  I will leave them alone now.  I just wanted to know where the nest was. I didn't think there would be babies already. They've been there longer than I thought.

     Here's another shot of them. You lcan just see the yellow beaks.  So very cute and delicate.  I will be watching closely to see if I can see when they leave the nest.

     Here is the father (I think) sitting in the tree above the border.  I just love watching them.  I hope that all of you have a great weekend.

Blessings,

Kay

Plant Exchange, Juncos, Garden Room

So the plant exchange was so fun. It was so cold and cloudy but it didn't rain. Eight gardening friends came and we tour the gardens,
laughed a lot, did some exchanging and ate some goodies and drank hot tea and coffee.  I just love my gardening friends and I want to say thanks for coming out on a gloomy day. When gardening friends get together its always a good time.  We teased Carla who couldn't be here by texting her that we were really glad that it was a progressive exchange and we loved going to her house and taking what we wanted from her flower beds. She was out on the sound fishing with her boyfriend. What would life be like if we couldn't have fun with one another.

 Here is a picture of 7 of the ladies who came. I didn't get a picture of Rita. She came a little later. From the left there was Leanne, Denise G, Candi, (hiding behind Denise) Gloria, Janet, Denise B,
and Yvonne. Not pictured it Rita. Thank you ladies for making this a special day.

I was blessed with some wicker furniture from my friend Janet and was able to get it done by the special day. Here it is in the garden room.  She also gave me a beautiful carpet that worked beautifully in the room.  This is my garden room that I can go and sit out in when its really hot because it stays about 65 degrees all the time. I love it and put everything garden themed in here.

We have Juncos nesting on the ground of the half moon garden.So we have to be very careful walking too close to that part of the border.  I am so excited about this border.  I started it about 2 years ago and already it is looking so full. There's so much in it and I keep adding more. It's our living privacy screen from the neighbors.  It's coming along very nicely. More pictures as the season progresses.

The baby chicks are now nicely integrated into the big flock and seem to be doing well.  There are so many things in the garden blooming right now and getting ready to bloom.  I need to get outside and do some gardening.  My grandson Jacob has a track meet this afternoon at 3 and I want to do some stuff.

I am going to try to keep up better with the blogging. I will leave you with something to think about.

If you treat an individual as if she were what she ought to be and could be, she will become what she ought to be and could be.

Just a thought.

Blessings,

Kay



o

HI

Hi!

I've got to start writing more often because when I wait so long to post Blogger changes the format on me. It's been a crazy 6 months. Do you ever feel like you're busy all the time but when you try to think of what you've been doing you don't know what it is? That's how I feel.

I'll just start writing and maybe it will come back to me.  My friend Linda's sheep had four lambs last month and they were so cute.  I took my grand kids out to see them and it was so much fun. Here is a picture of the mom and her lambs. They are a little hard to see them all. The mom reminds me of a cartoon character with her matchstick legs.

My friend Carla gave me a book on Artisan breads and I made some and here is a picture of my first loaf. It was sooo good. And so easy to make.  The book is "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day" by Jeff Hertzverg,MD and Zoe Francois.

I also have added to my flock of chickens with 3 more Rhode Island Reds and 3 Bard Rocks.  They are now about 6 weeks old and are outside in a small pen beside the big coop so they can all get acquainted. Yesterday after Mark got the lawn mowed I let everyone out together in the big yard so they could start getting used to each other.  It went much better then I thought it would.  The big girls pretty much ignored the little girls except that once in a while one of the big ones would come over and give them a peck. Probably to make sure they knew who was boss. I was surprised it went so well. As soon as the weather gets nice again they will have some more time together outside. I'll maybe have some pictures next time.

Something else I got to do was speak to our Women's group at church about gardening.  When I was asked last Aug or Sept. I said yes because that was months away.  Then it got closer and closer and I got more nervous all the time.  My friend Betty said she would help me and so we both spoke. It needed to be for 30 minutes.  I wasn't sure what I would talk about because there are so many different things and it's so hard to decide what.  But I did it and it went really well.  They seemed to like it and laughed a lot.  I really don't remember hardly anything I said but people keep telling me different things that they are doing  so I must have said something right.  Betty did a wonderful job and then they asked questions for about 15 minutes after we spoke,  Very fun.

This is a picture of my 2nd oldest granddaughter Samantha.  She just turned 18 in on the 11th of this month and will graduate from home school in May.  Sarah (my middle daughter) and I are going to go the Boise at the end of May to her graduation ceremony.  I am so excited to see her and the rest of the family.

This Saturday I will be hosting the 3rd annual plant exchange here at my home. It is so much fun. Everyone brings between 10 and 15 plants that they have brought from their gardens that have needed to be divided and then we all trade.  I have coffee and tea and some people bring goodies and we have a tour of the gardens and just have a good time talking and being together.  I hope to have some pictures next week.

I know there are many things I have left out from the past six month but that's all I can do for now.  I hope you are all blessed and have a marvelous week. 

All for now,

Kay



I'm still here......

It has been so long since I have written anything that the new format is very strange to me.  When did all of this take place?

I've had a really busy summer and there is no other excuse.  I did have a stress fracture in my left foot that slowed my down for about 6 weeks with a walking and was taken out of it Oct 12th and today it is finally feeling better.  I was beginning to feel like I would live the rest of my life with a bum foot. 

The chickens are doing well.  I am going to find a home for Wilmer my remaining rooster because he keeps attacking me when I go into the coop to feed or water them.  Now I know that he is only protecting his hens but I don't wish to have to watch him every second to make sure he is not going to do his kung-fu move at me.  So he is going to go bye-bye.  I get an average of between 5 to 6 eggs a day.  Right now I am selling about 2 dozen a week.  I would love to have enough hens that I could get a dozen eggs a day but that will have to wait.  We put a light in the hen house when we built it and we now have it on a timer so they have heat a night.



Our daughter Jennifer came to stay for 5 days this August when she came home for her 20th high school reunion.  This is a picture of she and our daughter Sarah.  They are the best of friends for which I am thankful.  It was so good to have her.  I hope she gets to come with  the whole family next time.



I have been sewing up a storm this summer also making an Amy Butler Birdie Sling Bag.  So far I have made 16 and have my 17th cut out and ready to go.  I tried to load picture of them but I only seem to be able to do one picture.

There have been so many things that have gone on since I've been on here that's its hard to tell you about them all.  I will go for now and hopefully not be so long next time. 

P.S. Can anyone tell me if it's supposed to take forever for pictures to download on Blogger? I only seem to be able to do the one picture.  Thanks so much 

EGGS!!!

I started getting eggs last week. I have been so excited and I go out to the hen house about every 2

two or three hours to check to see if I have an egg. I usually get one in the late morning. So the one on the left is the one from today. It is significatly bigger than the last five. They all seem to be the same color so I beieve it is either Lucy or Ethal, one of the Rhode Island Reds that is laying. I give them all a pep talk after I collect the one egg and tell them thank you and please would the other girls start laying now?

I only have nine hens and one rooster now. Thelma turned out to be a rooster and she went to live at my friend's plant nursery. Wilmer now rules the roost for the time being.

So now that I can publish posts I seem to have hit the wrong button and hit the button too fast. So I will close for now with more to follow later. Tata.