Scenes from Sunday

That's a coyote, folks!



A Sunny Sunday

First off, I want to thank all of you who commented so wonderfully about what I wrote yesterday morning, the loss of the birds and Hannah's eyesight.  I treasure your comments and they DO help me, because I know all of you are reading this because you have animals that are dear to you.  My little doll is here.... helping me write this.

She will be here as long as we know she is not suffering unduly.  She is a wonderful little girl, and I am heartsick at what's coming, but trying to enjoy her every day.

We had the oldest grands here this weekend, and are so thankful for Chris taking on the really heavy tasks, or the ones that require stuff like this:  (sorry for the dark pictures)

He took down the heavy hyacinth bean vines on the arbor for me, and the cypress vines on the single arbor to the right.  I harvested seeds from the hyacinth beans, and then he hauled them to the firepit that you see smoking behind the arbor. 

Keith began burning the woodpile, but the wind came up, and since it is so very dry here now, he stopped burning.

As you see, Keith is making great progress on the henhouse. 

When Chris returns in two weeks, they will be ready to start working on the interior.  Then we will get the pen up, and the birds moved before it hopefully gets too wickedly cold.

Nathan got his Halloween costume, and it was really serendipity.... he had not gotten one before coming up here on Friday evening from Garnett.  We went to Wal Mart after delivering eggs to the Good Shepherd yesterday, and I had no real hopes of finding a decent costume at this late date.

Sure enough, the aisle was denuded of decent costumes, and things were already reduced.

Lo and behold, we moved some bags around on the wall... and there was the very costume he had told me about weeks ago!  It was a men's size XL, but we figured we could cut it down, so I was able to get it for him.

Here he is in it, and if I do say so myself, it is a scary costume!

The "eyes" are on a type of glasses apparatus that rest on his ears, but actually sit below his real eyes, and he lights them up with a little button on a box that he conceals in his arm.  Really, really creepy!

Last night, there was a terrible tragedy at a town hear here, the hometown of Amelia Earhart, Atchison, Kansas.  The head house blew off a grain elevator, some of you may have seen it on CNN.  Keith was called out in the middle of the evening and responded to the incident, and was there until late in the night.  Three men were killed, three are missing, and two are in critical condition at the burn unit at K.U. today.  I prayed so hard for their poor families at church this morning, to have such a tragedy, and so close to the holidays.  OSHA and the grain company have now closed off the site, and the precarious conditions have made recovery of the three missing men very dangerous.  We are praying for all the families and friends of the men involved, and for those risking themselves to help.

So after his trip up there today, and after I took the grands to meet their mom, I came home to fix some chili for a simple evening dinner, and am about to go out and do chores. 

Here is how beautiful the day is here in Tongie:

That's the huge maple tree near the front of the house.  We're so glad for it's shade.  You see the walnut tree on the right and the one over the roof of the house are already naked.

And lastly, Keith will get me for this one... he laid down to watch football and look what happened!

Sorry, Honey (laugh)

I'm going to scoot out and get chores done, and then come in and make two batches of decorated Halloween cookies.  I'll stop by Jim and Amy's tomorrow night to take pictures of the little and middle grands before they go trick or treating.

Have a peaceful Sunday evening, my friends!

A Lovely, Hot Sunday

Got up early, way before church this morning.  It was so hot yesterday, and they predicted more of the same today.  Keith wanted an early start in the yard, and so did I.  After church, I came home and hit it in the garden, finding Keith already hard at work. 

Soon, along came son Jim and his wife, Amy, and the two little ones.  Jim came to borrow the chain saw to finish taking out a stump in their large yard.  They also brought us a load of huge garden pavers, both hexagonal and round, and a sample of some rectangular stones they had taken up in a project yesterday.  Once they found out how glad we were to get everything, they promised to bring the rest of the stones out to us, and we'll be glad to use them. 

Keith worked so hard on the garden beds, and we had planned a nice dinner, but the heat got to me.  I had to stop halfway through chores and come in and sit down for a while.  My poor Butch had a hard time today, I let him and his three girls out of their pen for a while, and thought all the other birds were still locked up in their yard.  One of his clutchmates got him in the llamayard and beat him up, and now his only good eye is swollen shut.  I got him back to his pen, and he and the girls are locked up.  It's a short term solution only... they will be in the new henhouse as soon as it is finished. Once it cools down a little this evening, I'll go out and liberally apply neosporin to his face and eye, and it should open by tomorrow. 

Here is something interesting:

At this stage of the game, I have mostly bantam chickens.  I only have three or four large layers left, but that will be rectified soon by the 3 Welsummer pullets, and the three Plymouth Rock pullets, and the three very young Ameracauna pullets.

In order, left to right, are Buffy, the Polish Hen's egg... Eagle, the Ameracauna's egg, either Birdy or Libby's egg, one of the bantam's eggs (who knows?????) and an anomaly. The egg on the far right was under one of the two hens who have been determined to set in the last 3 weeks.  It is the size of a marble!

I am pulling ALL eggs in the little henhouse, and not letting anyone set after the spring's disaster of the 22 killed chicks.  Also, we had the one chick with the deformed beak, and the eggs I gave to a friend for hatching Easter chicks had two split beaks out of 18 eggs.  Those chicks were red.... and it appears it is Ratchett, the red rooster, who has the defect.  Needless to say, Ratchett won't be fathering any more chicks.  There are four hens now trying to sit in this terrible heat... and they are very indignant because I am pulling their daily output. 

Here is something else interesting, and will be part of my Flag Day decorations, and also for Fourth of July, and I'm very glad to get them.  Patti Leitzel, of Porch Sitting Time , runs the Brickhouse Craft Shop with her husband, Tim, in Pennsylvania.  Last week she wrote about custom-making lights for summer picnics, etc., and described how she dipped the lights, making red, white and blue, and sunflower yellow, to name two.  I wrote her that evening and told her I would be interested in some red, white and blue lights, and lo and behold, she sent some to me immediately ON FAITH!!!  Unbelieveable in this day and age.  I'll send her a paypal payment as soon as she decides on the cost and lets me know, but I believe they are going to be exceedingly reasonable. 

Here are the lights:

As soon as I have my display set up on the sideboard, I'll let you see them "in action".  This was taken this afternoon, while the sun was so bright, on the kitchen table.

We "ate out" again this evening, though we had planned a lovely dinner.  I fell at the office on Thursday and pulled something in the already sore back, so have been limping around all weekend.  I had to come in and rest during chores because of the heat, and Keith had made a last run to the nursery, getting there just as it closed.  He will be gone now on Monday night to go up to Elwood to work on the evacuation plans, and possibly Tuesday.  He has worked so hard in the heat this weekend, on the garden beds, and planting vegetables.  We each ate part of a hamburger and then stopped, it was just too hot.  He found a great recipe for Balsamic Vinegar Snap Peas, so I am going to try it tomorrow night while he is gone, and if they are as good as they look, I'll fix them Tuesday night for him.  He picked the last of the snaps today.

I feel a little guilty sitting in here at the computer while he is out finishing the last bed, but the heat really got me today.  I've learned to pay attention and not press on when it tells me to slow down. I'm listening to South Pacific on the tv in the living room, and have the pugs at my feet, snoring away.

A good Sunday evening to all!