New Old Bed

We moved a lot when I was a kid. Started out in Illinois, then to an RV in Louisiana, a condo and several apartments in Virginia, a house in Maryland, up until I went out on my own.

Living in a RV meant there was no need for furniture, so most of our furnishings were sold or given to my Grandmother to hold for us. 25 years ago, when we gave up the RV and moved to Virginia, my uncle sold us some of his furniture and we picked up pieces here and there. My mom liked to hunt for treasure in the trash and in the dumpsters, and living in apartments was a treasure trove of stuff. Mom found this old bed for me from one of her jaunts. It was painted this awful pale green color but I lived with it, then I moved out and went my own way and Mom kept the bed for herself after my parents separated. She painted it white and it looked so much better than that green that was on there.

Now that Mom's home is officially sold and her things are here, she has given the bed back to me to give to one of my girls. After much thought, I gave the bed to Middle. It seems to fit her the best, though there was much protest from her sisters.

The bed looks great in their room, the white pops against the pink walls and it truly seems like a princess bed as the girls like to call it. It could use a fresh coat of paint, but for now, it's perfect the way it is.

I remember when I slept on it, I would poke the paint out of the tiny holes in the headboard with a toothpick. I never finished and then after Mom painted it white, some of the holes are blocked up again. I told Middle she could finish what I started and she seemed like she would, but only time will tell.

Middle is happy to sleep in her "new" bed and I am happy to see it passed on. To whomever threw it away: You don't know what kind of happiness you tossed, but I'm glad to have it now!

Swingin'!

I don't know why it took us so long, but we finally, finally put up swings for the girls.

We have a great old maple tree that has branches just perfect for swinging on. I already picked which would be the best limbs and had Hubby trim a few other branches, already had the rope, already had the wood... what were we waiting for?!? It has been so nice to see the girls swinging to and fro nearly every day and I love the time I have had inside the house without them getting into my hair! Things are getting done now! :o)


I read all the comments regarding Henry and I appreciate the input from everyone. I have this to say:

We got the chickens to provide us with food-- eggs and meat. We are meat eaters and eat meat in some form in almost every meal. That said, I knew that getting straight-run chicks (mixed sexes) meant I would have to cull the males, if I had too many, and they would be destined for the dinner table.

What I didn't expect was to feel so fondly for the chickens as they have grown and we have watched them entertain us with their chicken-y ways. I didn't think I would have favored one or the other the way I do for Henry.

I have been careful not to get attached to any of the other chickens and when the girls come up with names for the hens, I am only half-listening. I don't want to make the same mistake I made with Henry and then when the time comes, for one hen or the other to go into the soup pot, I don't want to cry and wail that I am eating Petunia the Buff or Freckles the Sussex.

I'll be taking 3 roosters to the butcher's soon, I am not yet ready to do the job myself, but I am hoping, one day, to do it on my own. I'll hold on to Henry for a bit until I decide what to do with him. Thanks for the offer, Katherine, to send him to a farm in PA, but I'd rather keep him here with me.

Henry

Meet Henry. He's a Speckled Sussex Rooster and he's my favorite.

He was the first to start his comb and wattle and for a first time chicken-owner, made it easy for me to spot which was the male from a group of straight-run chicks.

He's very tame and lets me hold him and he settles down in my arms and goes to sleep. His beak will rest on my chin and I can feel his warm breath. I never imagined I would come to like a chicken as much as I do Henry.

Here's the sad thing.

Henry is on the bottom of the chicken pecking order.

From my research, that means he gets pecked and cannot peck back.

See his eye? (above) I think he got pecked in the eye and he seems to not be able to see out of that eye. His other eye looks fine.

Here, the chickens are doing their usual chicken business. It's like they're the popular crowd in high school and where's poor Henry?

All the way over there, all by his lonesome.

sigh.

Poor Henry.

That red rooster in the middle is a Rhode Island Red and he takes his job very seriously.
We call him Rocky. (We watched 'Chicken Run' a little too much and borrowed the name from there.. Rocky Rhode? Get it?)

He keeps all his women in check, sometimes even Archie the cat! (that's the other speckled sussex rooster on the right, not Henry)

When they all go to bed at night in the coop, sometimes a hen isn't quite ready to go to bed yet and pops back out. Rocky comes running after her, as if to say,

"Get your feathered butt back in the house!"

Oldest cracks up when we say that.

*****

Here's the thing:: Out of 11 chickens we have 5 roosters and 6 hens. Rocky has taken the lead and has proven to be very good at his job. The one Buff Orpington rooster has been challenging Rocky but so far, Rocky remains on top. There is another Speckled Sussex rooster and both Rhode Island Reds are roosters.

Obviously, there are too many roosters and I have to pick which are destined for the dinner table. I hate to do Henry, as he is my favorite and I really wanted him to be the father of all my future chicken babies. Go ahead and laugh, but I really love him and I want him to have a good life, not a life where he gets pecked on and spends his day all alone, either in the yard or in the coop by himself.

Any chicken experts out there? Any suggestions? If I get new baby chicks and separate them with Henry, will he be King of the Roost or will it be a waste of time?

Did I ruin it for Henry by favoring him over the others? Did they smell human on him and shun him for betraying his chicken-ness?

My uncle tells me I would be wasting my time and to go ahead and take him and the 3 others to be butchered. Is he right? Is there no future for Henry?

A Berry Good Day

Today was such a lovely day, the temps never went higher than 80*. Really unusual for this time of year, but I'm not complaining. It made berry-picking that much more pleasurable. After dinner, we all went outside to take advantage of the cooler evening temps. I went berry picking and took the days' laundry off the line; Husband burned our paper trash and burned the brush we are trying to clear on part of our property; the kids played and alternated between hubby and me.

For an extra treat, we also had toasted marshmallows in the fire with graham crackers-- no chocolate, so not exactly s'mores. All in all, it was a good ending to a good day.


This is about 3 cups worth of black raspberries with a few blackberries mixed in. At their peak, I can pick twice that amount every day. The raspberries are starting to taper off and it takes me a little longer to look for the berries that are hiding underneath the leaves. I'll probably make the rounds on the raspberries a couple more times, and then I'll leave the rest for the birds and the animals that also eat these. I'll focus on my blackberry patch, and judging by the way it looks, I should reap plenty there.

Here's a picture of the cherry sorbet I made the other day. We had it for a snack this afternoon and it didn't take long for the kids to gobble this up. I shared some of mine with Baby and once he got over the coldness of it, he was like a baby bird, begging for more! :o)

I meant to take pictures of the sorbet-making process, but spaced out and didn't. I'll try to remember to take pictures next time, when I make black raspberry sorbet or try the peach sorbet.

Busy Sorbet

As busy as our life is, I wouldn't trade it for anything. Things should start slowing down a little bit soon. My mom's stuff is all here now, and her home is in the process of being sold, the settlement is just days away. Once the home is sold, she will be debt-free and will have no more ties to Virginia, except for her job, which she will retire from soon. With the house sold, there will be no more calls for my husband to make or reply to, concerning the reconstruction or the mortgage or the insurance people. That's a chapter we can finally close.

Life with 4 children doesn't really slow down, though. There is always something to do, and at times, I am needed by 4 children at the same time, sometimes the husband needs me, too and I am pulled 5 ways. It felt like that, last weekend, when my family was here for the 4th and I was non-stop go, go, go. I don't think I sat down all day Friday except to eat, and even then I was constantly getting up to fetch something or other. By the time they left on Sunday, it was almost a let-down, I had nothing to do and I was still wired up and ready to go somewhere, anywhere!

I've been busy berry-picking these days. I go out and do the "rounds", picking all the ripe black raspberries and now the blackberries are just beginning to ripen. I still have plenty of blackberry jam from last year and I really don't want to make more, but I can't let the berries go to waste. Besides, I enjoy the picking process, walking from bramble to bramble, stretching to reach that lone berry all the way in the back, hoping I don't fall and get stuck with hundreds of thorns. It's peaceful for me, to walk and hunt for berries, usually when I put the Baby down for his nap and the girls are playing in the yard.

Anyway, no jam making, so what to do with all those berries?? I found a recipe for making fruit sorbet. I tried it first with the cherries and it was oh, so good! Tried it next with the black raspberries and mulberries and wow! So now I am extracting the juice from the berries and freezing it until I need it for a new batch of sorbet. I have a whole shelf full of cherry and berry sorbet and no more room for more, so we're going to have to eat some to make room. Yum! Twist my arm. It's really easy to make and for someone as busy as me, I can appreciate a quick recipe for something so delicious. Here's the recipe if you'd like to try making it yourself::

4 cups soft fruit (cherries, peaches, berries, melons etc..)
2 cups sugar
1 cup orange juice
2 tbsp lemon juice

Puree fruit in food processor or blender. In large saucepan, heat orange juice, sugar and lemon juice just to boiling. Stir to dissolve sugar. When sugar is dissolved, add fruit puree. Stir to combine. Pour into 10x13 cake pan and place in freezer. Freeze for several hours or overnight. When frozen, cut into small pieces and in small batches, puree again in food processor until light and fluffy. Pour into freezer containers and repeat until all gone.

I plan on trying this with peaches next! Let me know if you try this.

Fireworks and Rhubarb!

Hope you all had a good weekend! It was nice for us-- we had my mom, aunt and uncle here for Baby's birthday/holiday weekend. I always enjoy having them here and I love it when my husband says he loves having them here, too. I can tell he is genuine about his feelings and I feel really lucky when I can say that we both love each others' families.

My aunt's rhubarb patch is doing so well this year, that she can't keep up, so my uncle suggested bringing the surplus to me. I didn't expect the bounty that they gave me!

That was a lot of rhubarb! I chopped and froze 24 cups-- I didn't want to do more because I can't sacrifice more freezer space. I decided to make rhubarb juice with the rest. I'd heard of it and always wanted to try it, but never had enough or, actually, I never wanted to give up the pies for the juice. I made simple rhubarb juice, sweetened with sugar and oh my! It's like drinking rhubarb pie! So, so good! I got 6 quarts of juice out of the remaining rhubarb!

The next small town over was hosting the fireworks display, and I wanted to take the kids down to watch. So after dinner, we piled into the van and snagged a good spot to watch. Nothing like the Washington Monument's fireworks, but pretty good for a small town and just right for small children. I expected Baby to cry, but he didn't. He held on to me and watched.

We had a good time and maybe when the kids are a little older, we'll go earlier to enjoy the festivities and music they had earlier, before the fireworks. Pack a picnic dinner and mingle with the townfolk.

Oldest lost a sixth tooth tonight. She'd been worrying over it for a few days now, afraid it might come out when she slept and swallow it. She never let me get close enough to pull it out and I admit, it frustrates me a little when she wants me to do something about it, but won't let me do anything. Reminds me of when I got a big splinter in my foot and my dad tried to get it out and I kept whimpering and pulling my foot away just as he got close with the tweezers. Karma, eh? Anyway, she finally let me pull it out and that tooth just about jumped into my hand! She's happy now and anxious for the tooth fairy to come in the night.

One

Happy Birthday to my little guy!

A single candle on his birthday cake.

Hard to believe that a year has flown by already and my little baby is now One. He is very vocal and I think he will be saying his first word soon. It already sounds like he is trying to say "da-da" and "ma-ma" and he mimics me when I say "all gone". He is a pro at walking and I love watching him walk around the room. Of course, now that is walking, he is also able to get into things more and he leaves a trail of destruction behind him. I am constantly telling him "don't touch, no-no!" and picking up and putting him away from the bookshelf, only to have him make a beeline right back to where he was before. Just today I caught him with his fingers in the toilet bowl!

He is such a good baby, though, he loves the stroller, which none of my girls did. I always used to wonder how people got their kids to sit in the stroller for so long, as ours always ended up walking and we'd be pushing an empty stroller, feeling a little foolish for bringing it in the first place. But Baby? He is content to sit and watch. We use the stroller with him for so much and it has made it much easier for me when we go cherry picking or to the beach or even at home when I pull the laundry down from the line.

Happy birthday little one, may you have many, many more. I love you.