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.

My Beautiful Granddaughters

I am going to see if I can post this morning. For some reason I have not been able to post for a while. I will have a great post written with pictures and Blogger will not publish it. It has been very frustrating.

I have been having a great time with my granddaughters who are visiting from Idaho. They are Elizabeth and Samantha who are almost 19 and 17.

They are so much fun.

Talk to you soon.

Frustrated........

I am having an issue with Blogger and am wondering if anyone else is having the same issue. I have tried for two days to get on and comment on Lilac Cottage Blog and have not been able to stay signed in. I will sign in and when I comment in puts me on as Anonymous and kicks me off of being signed on. So frustrating!!!!

The other issue is since I got my computer back the last time a week ago I haven't been able to download any new pictures.

So many things have happened in the last couple of weeks The first thing was that our smallest pug Lola was attacked by the two big dogs next door. I won't go into all the details because it would take too long. She ended up having surgery on her leg and neck. A week later she was back in for more surgery because her neck wound fell apart from infection that was still in there and so had to go through all of that again. She is doing much better and the hard part is trying to keep her from scratching the incision and restricting her movements. She wants to run around the yard with her big brother. So she has to go outside with a makeshift harness that won't touch her stitches. But she is on the mend.

The neighbors paid a big portion of her vet bill and are in the process of putting up a much more secure fence on their side of the already existing fence.

The other thing is much happier. My son Chris moved from our house back into his home with his wife Jen and their two children. This is SUCH an answer to prayer. God is SO GOOD. All the time.

The garden is looking so good. I wish I could show you. The chickens are doing well and getting big. I hope big enough to start laying eggs in about a month.

I pray everyone has a good week. I'll say tata for now.

Morning in the Garden and Willow Creation

Wednesday morning I got to play in the garden for about an hour before I was off for the morning. I walked through the garden taking pitures of the flowers that are starting to bloom and here are just a couple of the blooms.

This is a small iris. They were so pretty with the dew drops on them.





A good friend Linda gave me a bunch of Solomon's Seal last year and they are blooming so well.

This was a plant I bought at the Master Gardener's Plant Sale this year. The name of it is on a tag in the next picture.

This next picture is my new willow creation that my brother Randy made me. It's sitting in front of the chicken run and it has a tub with sweet peas, basil and lemon verbena planted in it. I love it. We had such a good time making it together.

Here it is sitting in the middle of the grass with two bunnies.

Here's a better shot of it. The girls were all in a twit over it being in front of their space. They soon got over it. Just more to look at.

We've had some great days that have been wonderful for being out in. The beds are getting weeded and everything is starting to bloom.

I recieved my "Mennonite Girls Can Cook" cookbook today and have hardly been able to put it down. It has many great recipes and the stories from all the girls are heartwarming. If you've never gone to their blog before, there is a link on my sidebar.

I am waiting for my daughter Sarah to come and pick me up and we are going to go the the "Junk Salvation" show tonight. Our friend Tinell has a booth there with one of her friends and we will find lots of vintage items.

So I'll sign off and say tata.

Mother's Day, Chickens, Borders and Blessings

I hope all of you had a great Mother's Day. I know I did. Two of my three children were here to celebrate with me and my husband b-b-cued and they all made me feel really special. My oldest daughter called early in the morning to wish me a Happy Mother's Day.





I know it's been awhile since I was on here so here goes with some catching up. This is my son Chris holding Wilma/Wilmer. We're not sure yet if she's a she or a he. We'll know if she starts crowing. Chris really likes the chickens and checks on them almost daily.

Here some of them are with me in the run. Every time I go near them they all come running to see if I have brought them anything to eat. The great thing is that whenever I weed I just throw everything into the run and they get to go through it and pick and scratch whatever they want. Then I will take it all out and put it in the compost pile and it will make great compost. It's a win-win deal!

Here is our grandson Landen holding Laverne or Shirley. He really likes them too. Just like his dad, who when he was about 2 1/2, we went to see my mom and step-dad who lived on a walnut ranch. They had chickens and Chris decided he wanted to hold one. He went out into the chicken yard with just his shorts and some cowboy boots on and chased them until he caught one. He had a scratch on his chest and the biggest grin on his face. He was so thrilled that he had one.

This is our granddaughter Hailey who likes the chickens also. She is a very beautiful girl and we love her dearly. That day she happened to be wearing a pretty blue flowered raincoat.

I was going to have pictures of the plant exchange that I had on Saturday but the computer says it can't find my picture program. It can however find the pictures that are already on the computer. I want to thank Karen, Carla, Donna, Carla, Denise, Janet, Betty, Linda, Sharon, Yvonne, Paige and Sarah for all coming and making it a great time. Even though it rained during the garden tour there were many great plants here and a fun time was had by all. Leanne, we really missed you.

I have a bigger garden area and Mark has tilled up a new border for me that is 40 or 50 feet long. I was able to fill it with plants from the plant exchange and from other places in my existing borders.

Last but not least I will not complain about the weather or anything else when I see the devastation from back East with the tornadoes and the flooding that's going on and the drought that Texas is having. So we are having a cool and wet spring. I can deal with that when I still have my home and family. We're so blessed here not to have to deal with those events. Robin over at "Robins's Nesting Place" has some very good posts on what's been going on in some places. My heart goes out to all of them. So I count my blessings and will not complain about a little cool weather.

I hope you are all having a good week and I will say tata for now.

Happy Easter

May the joy of the Lord be your strength today and always. HAPPY EASTER!

Almost Done

Here is the front of the chicken coop. It's almost all wired in and the chickens were out
yesterday but back in last night.

Here is a is a picture of a birdhouse my dad made me. It's all lnatural wood and there is moss all over it. I love it.

That's all I have time for now. Tata.

A Quick Update

Here are a few pictures to update you on what's been going on. This is the front of the coop. It will have two clean out doors and two windows and a chicken door. Here is my husband Marvelous Mark painting. We did the body red and the trim white. It looks so cool! And he did almost all of the painting. He's so marvelous.

Another view. The three openings are the nesting boxes. It has a door that will open from the outside of the run so I won't have to go inside of the run to collect eggs.

Yesterday while it was beautiful outside I took some of the girls out for some sunshine. Boy, did they love that. From left to right it was Lucy, Louise, Thelma and Wilma. We think Wilma may be a Wilmer.

Here they are again. Becoming a little more adventuresome.

These chickens have taken over my heart. I really love them. They are so much fun. I would tell anyone that they need to get some chickens just for the pure enjoyment of watching them.

Well, that's all for now. Tata.

Computer problem, cookies and painting

Good Morning everyone! It's supposed to be about 59 degrees today and sunny! As soon as all the marine layer goes away it will be wonderful. I spent 3 days this week baking 250 peanut butter cookies to take to church for Good News Club for an after school program on Wednesdays when our kids get out of school early. I did eat a few! They were soo yummy! I tried to turn on my computer this morning and it wouldn't turn on. I'm on my husband's computer upstairs and I can't put my pictures on it. We are getting the coop painted!!! So far only the trim has primer on it but since it's supposed to be so nice today I'm hoping to get most of it done. I also have to take Bing to the vet's this afternoon for an ear infection. Poor guy! I know it's really bothering him. Well I better make hay while the sun shines. (Hopefully soon.) So tata for now.