The New Year

Ahhhh it's officially here, with a blustery, cold arrival!

It's been blowing since last night, hard, against this old house.  We listened to it this morning, and then I got up to go to church early, and out to do chores as things blew around on the deck.  The birds are standing with their backs to it, and feathers ruffled.

Even Rambo is standing in the juvenile pen, that badly needs re-tarping, to get out of the relentless wind.  Buffy the Polish girl and several other hens are huddled in there with him.  The younger birds are out and about, blowing back and forth when I went out to replenish pellets and water after the daily Starling Attack.  They literally leave the fortex in the little henyard dry every day.  Luckily, they don't invade the little henhouse, and there is always water in there.

I promised myself that after church today, I would sit down and move pictures into folders on the computer so it will not take me so VERY long to post each night.  Of course, I sat down to do it, but it is now 3:46 PM and I am posting, and have done very little manipulation.  I need an external hard drive to move photos into, and to keep for us.  After 12,000 photos last year (and yes, folks, I DO dump a lot of them now) I need some other means than keeping them all in this hard drive.

Here is something I did with photos today... I got this idea from Brenda, at Cozy Little House.  She did it in a Mason Jar lamp, and I happen to have one of those, too, though not with as cute a lampshade as Brenda's.  I thought I would try it in some old mason jars that have recently been holding Christmas candy.

These are some old photos I happen to have on my computer... the first is two boys racing ponies, the second a girl and her dog (she is on snowshoes) and the third, a streetcar with ladies lining the sides, and the conducter standing at the end, taken in what looks like the 1890's or early 1900's.

With the light from the window behind them, I think they look so neat, except that my picture is a little crooked!  I am going to put them on the sideboard for the time being, and I'm picking out a picture to put in my lamp, PLUS a decent shade for it. Thanks to Brenda for a good idea.  Her blog is full of good ideas for cozy little houses.

Another good one is Kerin, at cottage on main, who is also an inspiration to me for keeping a lovely home, and I should say I am still aspiring to this.  I'm glad to have both links on my blog so you can get to know them.

Keith has gone to play some golf in the blowing wind and cold... he's a glutton for it, obviously, while I went out at 3 to carry more water after the Daily Starling Depredation.  Because they are eating so much in the big henhouse (the starlings), I am going to have to go get another bag of pellets tomorrow.  Keith closed off the holes in the eaves, and there are not as many going inside now, as they have to swoop through the pophole, but they are still decimating the feed and water outside.  It makes you mad.

I was thinking about my last post of the old year last night.  We have tried these last two years to preserve food from our garden, and this morning, Keith talked about making more salsa and spaghetti sauce for ourselves this year, which I agree with.  There is one fact though, that we can't ignore.  There are only two of us here, and we do not eat as we did even two years ago.  We are going to cut down on what we plant this year, and give away more.

I'm also going to try to keep track of the eggs we collect this year, as near as I can.  I've been very happy with the numbers we are getting, and despite those we eat here and use for baking, we were able to give seven dozen to our food kitchen last week, even with our decimated numbers in hens.  No, we can't do that every week, I admit it... most weeks it is two to three... but I would like to aim for five or six regularly, so that means we add more hens.  I am going to get some more Welsummers... they have turned out to be so very quiet and gentle, and lay wonderful dark brown eggs. 

I have been struggling with some hurt feelings towards a child here lately, and in church this morning, our pastor said "The time to really love someone is when they have failed in some way... they need it then"... and I came home and told Keith about this, and he reminded me that I need to apply it to my hurt.  He's right. That will be my first resolution of the new year!