What My Mother Said

My mom died in 2008, when she was in her 94th year. She used to laugh at me when I lamented growing older.... and tell me ... "Little Girl, you have your whole life ahead of you still". My mom was pretty wise.

 

Today I celebrated my 62nd birthday, spending a very quiet day at home after dropping off the eggs and stopping at the store.  In midafternoon, I took Jeff down to the shopping center and to Walmart, and then we stopped to get a sandwich.  I came home to find a book I had ordered from Amazon in the mail, so sat down to have a good read.

 

My dear husband jumped the gun early, and gave me a gift of a day at the spa... so I have something to look forward to in the next few weeks.  What a good guy he is.

 

And the Good Lord gave us another gift....

 

Though we did not get the "waves" of rain that were predicted, we did get several decent soakings.  We still need about ten days of this kind of weather to get anywhere close to normal.  At least I didn't have to hand-water today.

 

And by the time we got to the last T Bones game of the season... it was still raining, but let up in the second inning.

 

 

If you had told me fifteen years ago I would have this wonderful man for a husband and celebrate my birthday at an independent league ball game, I would have laughed my head off! 

 

How blessed I am to still be here, and how I wish my sister were here today, to celebrate with me.  

 

 

Sorry for the Gap

We had wonderful weather and a very happy Saturday here, it was Keith's birthday.  We went to Red Lobster, as he is a huge seafood fan, and we rarely eat it at home. 

We had a lovely meal and then went to a movie, which we do just a few times a year.  We saw "Contagion".  Keith pronounced it pretty true-to-life... since he works in Emergency Management.  I thought it was creepy, because it WAS so true-to-life.  We both, however, fell asleep in it twice.  We're pretty lively people these days (laugh).

Dew on some grass this morning as I went out to do chores.  It was a crisp morning.

I saw this guy on my way home from church!

My neighbor Roxanne, with the Goat Dairy that is called "Screamin' Oaks" because of the sound that these birds make, has numerous peacocks that wander the road off and on.  Usually we see the hens and chicks, but today I saw three cocks. 

After church, we ran down to Garnett to see Nathan for a bit. 

When we got back, I did chores.  

Here is what is in the little henhouse today:

I bought this inexpensive "nest box", made by Ware Mfg., from Tractor Supply a couple of weeks ago.  I put straw in it several times.... the little hens LOVE this box, even though it is not private.  I usually find four to five eggs in it daily, and for tiny hens, they are laying size B eggs.  This little black headed blue silky has gone broody.

These two have also.  Oddly enough, the white one, Snowball, is one of the chick killers from last spring.

The black hen is the one who never goes outside.  I have seen her on the porch of the henhouse maybe twice.

They were NOT happy that I was taking the eggs!

This little blue girl was all by herself in her corner.  I picked her up and took her egg, and she very quietly laid back down and kept still.  She is a very small blue silkie hen.

Here are the Teeny Chicks. They are ALL GIRLS!!!!!

They are also getting half again as big as their mama, so next weekend, I think it will be time for them to go down onto the floor of the big henhouse.  Teeny can teach them, and protect them from the other birds.  The way they are jumping up and down on the waterer and the sides of the cage, I think they are ready to go. 

You can see that they are, indeed, descendents of our Japanese bantams with which we started.

More, tomorrow, about feed, and what it's costing now.  I have kept some old receipts from the feed store and want to compare what we paid "then", and what we are paying now.  Incredible!

End of a Long Weekend

That should be End of a Long WEAKend, since I have been tired out all weekend.  Two drives down to Garnett did not help, even though it's only 75 miles, 10 of it is through Lawrence, and KU is back in session.  The town is packed, and driving through the traffic is heart-stopping sometimes.  We saw a terrible wreck today when going back down south, and paramedics working on some poor person. 

However, the drive was all for a good cause... this one had a great birthday weekend:

After our movie yesterday, he got a birthday haircut from his dad, they went to a barbecue at a friend's house... their "adopted cousin" Nick spent the night, and the boys stayed up until 2 AM.  They had cake and ice cream after breakfast this morning, before coming out to my house so we could head down the road.

First, we had a walnut-throwing contest:

This one must have gone farthest

I finally got them to hold still for a picture

Jacob, "cousin" Nick, Nate, Jim, and Jax in front, styling for the camera

The dogs love this little boy

He was very brave Friday night.  His parents bowl on Fridays, and the league had it's first night Friday.  While playing at the bowling alley, Jax fell and cut his head open. They took Madison, Jake, and Paiton home, and then took Jax to the emergency room.  For four hours he laid in a big bed, waiting for the doctor to come in.  A shot of numbing agent (and he didn't even cry) he bore the three stictches like a little man, only whimpering a little on the third, according to his dad.  I'm very proud of him!

In other news,

I found these two on the (yes, CHRISTMAS LIGHTS) this morning on the porch, before I even did chores before church. 

Their babies are getting very big, and are almost ready to launch. We have found that they usually choose early morning.  Out of last year's hatches, we lost two out of each four.  The others all flew away fine. 

Here is what the nest is looking like now:

I know it's blurry, but you get the idea.  They are almost ready to take off. Remember, this nest is directly over our front door... we are hoping they don't try to launch when Ranger is laying there.

And finally, a last burst of color from Daylillies that have already bloomed once.  You can barely see the butterfly bush behind them that is also having a second burst of color.  Behind them is a trellis, up which is growing cypress vine.  We had so much of this last year, and it had lovely little red and green flowers. This year it did not grow until after the heat wave, and has not bloomed yet, but is now going crazy on two trellises.  I spoke with a market gardener when I stopped to buy some corn on the way home, and he told me that his tomatos did not bloom (like ours)... we got very few tomatos, but it was a very good year for potatos and onions. 

By the way, the corn was so tough, even our ears were given to the vultures chickens.

Powell Gardens for our Birthdays

We decided to celebrate our birthdays with a trip to Powell Gardens in Missouri.  We waited until Saturday, in between mine on August 25, and Keith's on September 10.  We got up early and did chores, and then left for the 50 mile drive to the large gardens.  I had not been there in ten years, and Keith had never been.  We enjoyed seeing the plantings, despite the fact that we had missed the bloom of high summer, and the mums had not come on yet.  There was enough to keep us taking pictures, discussing planting schemes, and hatching plans for Calamity Acres. We got lots of good ideas, and a visit to a nursery on the way home gave us more.  Now Keith has spent the weekend planting four trees we bought on Friday  -- special trees, two dwarf apples and two dwarf pears, the first of our fruit trees! 

The Intrepid Floaters

Okay, I admit it... I had NEVER FLOATED IN A TUBE BEFORE!  Despite being (nearly) 60 years old, my experiences in inner tubes were limited to some previous tries with "blow-up" airtubes at the swimming pool of my youth.  I laughed so hard I cried at trying to get into them, and had to have help getting in and out.  Thank heavens the water was only three feet deep!  The picture shows Grandma, the birthday boy Nathan almost asleep standing on the left, Jacob, and Madison.

Celebrating Nathan's Birthday

Grandson Nathan turned 11 on the 21st, and for an end of summer birthday treat, we hit the Schlitterbahn Waterpark in neighboring Kansas City, Kansas.  Nathan, his stepbrother Jacob, stepsister Madison, Grandma, and mom all spent the day in the sun, floating on the raging waters, or sliding down the slides!  We had a great time, and wore ourselves out.  The birthday boy spent his night with his Dad, his steps and little brother and sister, and Grandma got a rest after spending the day floating in a tube. 

Happy Birthday, My Dear Little Boy

39 years old today, the little boy that was the light of my life is a grown man with prematurely gray hair. A hard worker, he has never married and lives a life of solitude with a small group of friends and minds his own business. Independent from an early age, he never lost his house keys and rarely needed help. His grandma had to beg him to get his "little men" off the floor so she could vacuum...how he loved Star Wars and all his little "people", playing for hours quietly. Even today they continue to fascinate him. He drank coffee at the kitchen table with his grandma while still in grade school, and graduated from high school and made his mother proud. Though he didn't finish college, he has worked hard, paid his taxes and taken care of himself for 20 years, and you just can't ask much more than that. I miss him but know he is self-sufficient and a real man.

Happy birthday, Jeff... I hope you read this today!

Birthday Girl

This week brought another birthday, my first without my dear Mother. Despite the innate sadness of the day, Husband treated me to a wonderful time. We took the day off work, and drove to Abilene, Kansas, where we toured the Eisenhower Museum site. We ate lunch in a wonderful restaurant with delicious food based in a restored Victorian, the Kirby House... and also toured another over-the-top restored Victorian, the Laclede Mansion, which sadly has been sold and will become a private home again. I say sadly for those of us who admire sturdy old Victorians, but not for it's new owners, who will be living in a true gem.

My love of history made the trip a memorable one, as we slowly moved through Ike's museum and his family home. We marveled at how the strapping Eisenhower boys were able to cram into the small home, and the fact that his mother lived there until 1948. It is a beautiful, well-kept site, and also features his presidential library. We also find it shocking that so many of our contemporaries do not know anything about Ike as a general or president, and were truly amazed by that. I guess our love of history has opened us to more than just day-to-day facts.

Coming home to do chores that evening after a second pleasant drive through the Flint Hills, we found our new equine had been delivered. Described as "a small pony", she appears to be a large mini horse. Beau, the Old Gentleman, was staring lovingly at her over the fence. When I let him in, they hauled off and kicked out at each other, and then settled into amicable companionship. She is a second Lily, as she has been called that by her owners, and is loaned to us to keep Beau company. We have found her to be sweet and compliant, as the wild Lacey was not, and follows us around like a puppy. In fact, I thought she was coming right up on the porch several times!

They are out there now in the sun, lazing together, both members of the Long Mane Club!

We are down two chickens this week... the pullet who was raised by Dovey fell prey to Lilly Ann on Friday, we came home from work to find a pile of gray feathers in the yard. Either snatched through the fence or flown over, she was easy work for the hunter. And Husband had to put a cockerel out of his misery, something scared them into piling, and when the pile unfolded, one cockerel could not walk. We put him in the nursing cage for the day, but realized that night that a leg had been disconnected or broken. Husband put him down, so our numbers are reduced to 42. The other 13 silkie/cochin crosses are all healthy and well. As the younger ones get older, I am thinking of re-homing them with someone who likes little birds the way I do.

Mr. T., our resident black snake, has been hiding in these cold, chilly last days of August. Twice this week I found him curled up behind the feed cans, but now he has disappeared again. I think the early chill is driving him and his brothers underground earlier than normal, as long as they don't take any young chicks with them!