Go,Go,Go

7 days in a row, we went out somewhere and I am tired. Sunday, I wanted to head into the big town and pick up a few things that were on sale and since Andrew was working and Mom wanted to come, too, that meant all the kids needed to come with us. Gretchen was dragging her feet and taking forever to get her clothes on and when I tried to help her, she burst into tears and said she was tired of going bye-bye and wanted to stay home. I told her that today would be the last time we go out and we'd stay home for the rest of the week and she wouldn't need to go anywhere. She finally picked up the pace on putting her clothes on and we got out the door and on our way. I did have to run out this morning to return Library movies and a quick stop at the food store, but other than that, I have absolutely no plans to go anywhere this week!

Mama Hen and her babies are doing so good! It really helped having some hot days last week and I didn't need to use the heat lamp at all. The babies are getting big and I'm glad I was able to get them into a pen to protect them from pecking roosters. Andrew and I were talking about making a permanent pen next to the coop for future chicks, and also as a holding area for chickens that need to be butchered. With the rain, I've had to come up with a make-shift roof made from tarp that's not exactly the best thing, but it works. Something more permanent would be nice.

Speaking of roosters, my uncle is coming down on Wednesday to help me butcher the 5 that need to go. Finally! I hope after the roosters are gone, the ladies will come out of the coop and forage in the woods and around the yard again. I miss seeing the yellow Buffs and the Black and White Speckled ones around. They got tired of being sexually accosted by the roosters all the time, and they took to staying inside the coop. I'll have just the one rooster that does his job at keeping the ladies in line, but also smart enough not to peck me and the kids.

We have finally got some much needed rain! It's been raining just about 24 hours now; a nice, light rain and you can just hear the ground, trees and grass gulping it all down. Supposed to keep up into Tuesday and I must say, I love when it rains. It gets all grey and misty-looking, the air smells clean and fresh, the grass is all shiny and bright... Rainy days are the best!

I totally failed the Kids Clothes Week Challenge. I was supposed to devote an hour every day to do something related to making clothes for the kids. Well, as I said above, we went out the whole week, and when we go out, it usually throws the whole schedule out of whack and then you spend the rest of the day, after returning home, playing catch-up. By the time the kids go to bed, I have something else that needs to be done that I didn't do earlier so the kids clothes went on the back burner. I still plan to make jammies for the kids and I want to recycle some clothing into clothes for the kids, I'll just do it on my own time.

All the go, go, going has really worn us down, to the point where we haven't been our best today. There's been a little bit too much snapping at each other and patience has been thin. It doesn't help when the kids aggravate things by not listening when you tell them to do something or make a huge mess in the bathroom with water all over the counter and the floor. Can't shoo them outdoors because of the rain, so it's been kind of a rough day for all of us. Hopefully, after a good night's sleep, we'll all feel better tomorrow.

Good Night!
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Jar Finds

I'm having pretty good luck at the yard sales these past couple of weeks. Last week I found a box of a dozen reg. mouth quart jars for $1.50 at a church yard sale. I wish they were wide mouth, but I'm happy with what I can get. Then today, I found a dozen Kerr wide mouth quart jars for $5 and 17 mostly wide mouth pint jars also for $5. My stash of empty jars is getting replenished again-- yay! I know that regular mouth jars, lids and bands are cheaper than wide mouth, but I have big hands, and I find it easier for me to use wide mouth for my purposes. I reserve the reg. mouth jars for jams and sauces, foods that are easy to pour out.

I like the Kerr brand of jars. I used to think Ball jars were the best (still do, sort of) but then a fellow blogger enlightened me to the fact that Kerr jars have the year they were made marked between the threads. How cool to know when the jar was manufactured, knowing a jar has been in continuous use since 1966 or 1981. Since Ball bought Kerr, they dropped the date on the jars and changed the shape, which used to be squarish, to match the current Ball jar shape. A little disappointing.

So now, when I go yard sale-ing or thrifting, I try and keep an eye out for the older Kerr jars. I just like knowing the date of the jars. It's comforting to me, to know that someone took care of it for all those years, filled them with tomatoes or applesauce to feed their families, cleaned them when they were empty and did it all over again, year after year.

My uncle tells me that my Grandmother had thousands of canning jars. She had to can enough to feed 11 children plus her husband and herself and they lived in Minnesota with those long, cold winters. I imagine it was a full-time job to put away enough food for everyone. I don't have that many jars, but one of these days, I'm gonna count, just to see how many I have. For sure, it's not nearly enough jars to put away food for my family if we were not able to go to the food stores, but I don't know if we ever will get to that point. Someday it'd be nice to live solely off what we grow and raise; partly to see if we can do it, but also to reduce our dependency on society and besides, it's better for us in the long run to know exactly where our food came from, what is in it, and what it ate before we ate it.

I bought 2 bushels of apples the other day. I'll make a few pies to freeze for later and then depending on how many are left, I'll probably make apple chips with the dehydrator. It got hot here again, the temps are in the 90s so I'm looking for cooler ways to put away the apples for winter eating.

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Gift Idea

Thanks for all the GREAT Birthday comments!

I had a really good birthday, spent the day with my family

and I didn't have to cook or do the dreaded dishes!

:o)

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My Father-In-Law and I both have birthdays in September, so we had a double birthday party for the two of us a couple weeks ago. When we asked Andrew's Mom what he wanted for his birthday, she said that he'd be happy with his favorite candy-- caramel creams and licorice. I didn't think it was enough, so the kids and I made up a batch of oatmeal-apple cookies to go in the gift bag. But what to put the cookies in? Well the container the oatmeal came in was pretty nifty, and the label peeled right off, which left a nice, white cylinder to play with-- why not? So out came the permanent markers and I got busy decorating it:

To personalize it a bit, Andrew went through his old photos and we copied this one then glued it on the container. It's an old pix of his dad on a ferry and his mom put one of those conversation stickers above the guy next to his dad-- looks like he's not feeling too good. The sticker says, "Don't bother me now!" and then I wrote underneath: I'm tossing my cookies! I've got a sick sense of humor, I know! :o)

Below the picture, I wrote the ingredients: Dash of kisses, Lots of Hugs, Little bit of this, Little bit of that. Calories: Absolutely zero & guilt free!

Good to the last crumb! Yum yum!

What are you looking under here for? Nothing to see- move along!

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I had fun drawing on this and he got a good laugh out of it when he took it out of the bag. I thought it was a good way to recycle a perfectly nice container and I have saved the other oatmeal containers for future gifts. Christmas is around the corner, so I can use them for the holiday goodies I like to make and give as gifts. Just thought I'd share the idea.

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27

I can see why some people choose to lie about their age and make themselves younger than they actually are. I just turned 3 years shy of 40 and I don't feel it. I feel like I'm still in my twenties, like I'm only just turning 27. I'm not about to start lying about my age, but I must say, I don't pay no attention to my years, and I often have to double-check with Andrew how old I am.

So, here I am at 37. I think I'm looking pretty good.

How about 37 things about me?

1. I wear no make-up.
2. I pretty much fit the description of Virgos.
3. But I'm a little more flexible than most.
4. My husband might disagree with that.
5. I laugh exactly like my Mom and my Aunt.
6. High and loud.
7. There's no fighting it.
8. I think it's pretty similar to hyenas laughing.
9. Andrew likes my laugh.
10. Sylvia thinks I'm pretty.
11. Evelyn's hair is the same color as mine.
12. She says it's brown.
13. I say blond.
14. When my hair started getting darker, I told people I was getting smarter.
15. I still have my "dumb blond" moments.
16. That proves I'm still blond.
17. I crack my knuckles.
18. I still bite my thumb nails.
19. I used to be able to hook my legs behind my head.
20. Don't ask how I know I can't do it anymore.
21. I don't know why I thought I could still do it!
22. That hurt!
23. If I could, I would get another tattoo.
24. A turtle with designs in the shell that represent my family.
25. It will probably never happen, though.
26. I dislike doing the dishes.
27. I do them only because I have to.
28. I look forward to when the kids have to do them for chores. yay!
29. I like hanging laundry on the line.
30. It's meditative for me.
31. I'm not allergic to anything.
32. But I might be allergic to exercise.
33. It makes me sweat.
34. That's an allergy reaction, isn't it?
35. I love being Evelyn, Gretchen, Sylvia and Peter's mom.
36. I love being Andrew's wife.
37. I am loved.

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Surprise!!

For months now, I've been trying to get my broody buff hen to hatch eggs. She'll sit on the eggs, move when another hen needs to lay an egg, then sit back on them until, at night, she joins the rest of her fellow chickens and roosts, leaving the eggs to chill and get cold. I've meant to "box" her in so she'll have no choice but to sit, but just haven't gotten around to it.

Meanwhile, the younger set of hens are laying eggs; one by the oil tank we never use anymore, another in the pole barn and another location in the woods I only just discovered today. When I close the coop door at night, there is always one hen missing. She never goes in the coop at night, though I see her during the day. I don't know where she goes at night, I'm so busy I never get to just sit and watch where she goes, so as long as I see her the next day, she must be roosting somewhere safely.

Imagine my surprise this morning when Gretchen yells, "Baby chicks! Baby chicks! Look! Baby chicks!" Looking out the dining room window, there's my missing hen with 9 little babies!

They were obviously born recently, some of them were still wobbly and all still have their egg "tooth".

Mama Hen was doing good, teaching them to scratch and peck for food.


I was surprised she let me get so close, I even held one and she just watched me. I'd like to think it's because she trusts me.


This is the rooster I'm keeping.

I'm sure he's papa to at least one of them!


Hard to believe these little babies will grow into such big chickens!
They're so cute!

Mama Hen was pretty good at guarding her babies, but when we followed her to the coop, we found 2 dead chicks. Their eyes were pecked and bloody. Poor babies.
Then while we were nearby, one of the roosters pecked one of the chicks. Didn't seem hurt it, but it flipped in the air and I knew I would have to quarantine Mama Hen and her babies if I wanted all nine of them to survive.

Who really knows what goes on in a chicken's head, but there is a pecking order and these babies are on the very bottom of it right now. Mom and the kids helped keep the other chickens away while I caught Mama Hen and her babies and put them in a cage. I spent the morning building a fenced-off area and then had to run down to the farm store and pick up a new waterer and chick feed. They are safe in their pen, using the cage as a nesting box that I'll lock up at night and open during the day.

If I had known she was setting on eggs, I would have taken them away, for it's a little late in the season for new chicks. Nights are getting cool now, averaging in the 50's and 60's, but the days are still warm-- today it was in the high 70's. If it get's real cold and the chicks are still young, I'll break out the heat lamp.

I have every intention of butchering the 5 extra roosters, so no harm comes to the babies. I have extra incentive now, the instinct to protect the babies over-ruling my hesitation to kill a rooster. That extra motivation should help me get the job done and keep from putting it off.
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Blah, Blah, Blah

Non-stop go, go, go these days. Part of me enjoys the action, getting out of the house and doing something different; another part of me is ready for staying home and doing nothing-- well, as much nothing as 2, 4, 6 and 8-year olds will let me.

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We had to head into Northern Virginia on Saturday for a family get together and it was nice. Always good to see family and it had been too long between visits, really. The kids got their grandma and granddaddy 'fix' and we're all caught up on family end-of-the-summer activities. We also stopped by to see friends for a quick little visit and wished we could have stayed longer, but we had another stop to make before going home. It was great seeing them, too! :o)

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Our original plan was to stay overnight and then hit the Renaissance Festival the next day, but it turned out that Andrew had to work that day, so we nixed those plans. I'm a little disappointed we didn't go, but it runs all the way through to the end of October, so there's still another chance we can make it. I already made a costume for Peter to wear, and got the materials to make dresses for the girls, but have yet to sew them up. If we end up not going, they can use them for Halloween at least.

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I have a birthday coming up, so I received some gift cards to Walmart. First thing I thought of was getting one of those Bissell green machines so I can finally clean the poor couch. We picked one up today and paid the difference. Since Peter poured the milk all over the couch, it's sort of been shoved aside, the cushions being used on the floor by the kids (milk was poured on the base of the couch, not the cushions). Then the dog vomited on it last night-- ew. Then today, apparently, there was poop on the couch which Peter then stepped in and smeared onto the couch and tracked little poopy footprints all over the living room floor before I caught a whiff of it and grabbed him so I could clean him up. Meanwhile, the girls are sprawled on the chairs seeing all this go down and not one thought to come and tell me about the poo or Peter tracking it everywhere.

So the Bissell came in handy tonight. I fired it up and cleaned the base of the couch, the arm rests and one of the cushions. Man, that water was dirty! It's still damp, so I'll have to wait until it dries to see how much better it looks, but I'm sure it's an improvement from what it was. I'll probably have to go over it a couple of times but it's a start, and I got the poo and vomit all cleaned up anyway.

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My tomatoes are trickling down now. I haven't canned any in a week. Every time I go out there, there's hardly enough to fill a quart jar, even after a couple days of no picking. The potatoes seem to be doing alright. I can see a few exposed here and there and the tops are starting to wilt and wither. I'll wait a little longer before I dig a few up and see what I find.

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The wild grapes have been picked and juiced. I got 2 quart jars full of juice that needs to be sweetened and thinned with water. Wild grapes are pretty sour, but that doesn't stop Peter from gobbling them up! Each of the girls tried them, made faces and spit them out, but Peter just eats one after the other, asking for more after he finishes the bunch I gave him. I had to play keep-away so he wouldn't eat up all the grapes! There aren't very many wild grapes this year, lack of rain, I suppose, so every bit I could find, I needed.

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We are in drought conditions here, and there is a burn ban imposed on county residents. Many of the orchards here had to send away truckloads of apples and peaches to be juiced because they weren't good for much else. When there is no rain, the tree steals the sap from the fruits, so the fruits don't get any bigger and end up getting sunburned. Lots of fruits, but they aren't big and juicy as years with plentiful rain. I suspect the price of a bushel of apples will be much higher this year. Guess I should be happy I have plenty of applesauce left from last year and won't need to buy so many apples this year.

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I have unhappy hens. They keep getting sexually assaulted by the 6 roosters every time they step out of the coop, so they have taken to staying in the coop. They are protesting their living and work conditions and have stopped laying eggs for me. 11 hens and if I'm lucky, I get 2 eggs, but usually just one per day. I had every intention of butchering a rooster last week, but then I chickened out and let him go. Lucky feller. I need to kick myself and get it over with. I'm alright with the butchering part, it's the taking of a life part that gets me. I fudged it the last time and the rooster suffered a little bit and I feel so bad for that. I need better killing tools so I don't make that same mistake.

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I signed up for Elsie Marley's Kid Clothes Week. That's that little picture at the top in the right-hand corner. It's a fun little thing, commit to sewing at least an hour every day for a week to sew clothes for your kids. She did it last Spring and seeing some of the outfits people made for their kids was really inspiring. I decided to try and participate this year and make at least a dress for each of the girls, or maybe night gowns for their Christmas gifts. I have some nice corduroy that would make a cute jumper for one of the girls. When I made Peter's costume for the Renaissance Festival, I didn't use a pattern and I was pretty pleased with how well it came out, plus, it fits him nicely. Maybe a simple shirt for him, dresses for the girls and jammies for all of them. A bit ambitious, maybe, but no one said I had to stop at the end of the week!

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Percy is looking so cute, all curled up into a ball, asleep by my feet. I think I'll follow his lead and curl up in my own bed. No more go, go, go for the week, but there's still things to do around here.

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Maybe We Should Have Named Him Kryptonite

Stopping at a yard sale last Friday, the goodies were lined all the way down the driveway towards the back basement of the house. My mom got to the bottom before I did and when I passed her on the way down, she told me, "don't go back there." "Why not?" I asked. "Free kittens", she said. Uh-oh. My weakness. My kryptonite. I had to peek and see what they had.

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A cute female calico and a black male sat in the cage. Ohhhhhhhhhhh, and I proceeded to melt on the spot. Then worse, the lady let me hold one. That's it, I was a goner. Who can resist fluffy little kittens that lick the tips of your fingers and purr in your ears. Not I. But I thought of all the times Andrew and I said no more cats or dogs until the current ones are gone and I knew I wouldn't be able to bring these kittens home with me. I told the lady I'd love to have one, but I need to talk with my husband first.

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Off we went to other yard sales and I was forcing the image of the kittens into the mental trash bin. I told myself if I was still thinking about them by the time I got home, I'd bring it up, otherwise, no more kittens. I was doing pretty good at resisting the kitten charms and just about closed the lid on the mental trash bin, until we got home and the minute my mom saw Andrew, she opened her mouth and blurted, "free kittens!" I ended up telling Andrew about the kittens and mentioned there was a black kitten-- his kryptonite.

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Well, to make a long story short, Andrew surprised me by letting me get a kitten. Here's the newest member of the family:

Percy

He is a most spoiled kitten, with the kids constantly fighting for their turn to hold Percy. He has made himself quite at home, already learning where to find his food and his litter; already figured out which kid to RUN from and which one will lovingly cradle him in her arms; already claiming a spot on our bed at night. He's a good kitty and has made friends with Maisie the dog and seems to know BC the cat is not quite ready to be best buds just yet.

Percy is meant to be my cat, and I'm happy to share him with the family.

Thanks, honey, for letting me get him. You're the best! xoxo

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