Inbox Gem

You may have seen this before. Its seems to happen every couple of months that I get an e-mail forwarded to me of Awkward Family Photos. This one cracks me up every time. I think its the caption. FINALLY!

Do What?

I was speaking with my sister over the phone last night. She let me in on something kind of important to the readers of this blog...

She had no idea what the charts were about.

Sorry 'bout that.

The charts of my "stats" that I was so excited about were showing that not only did my blog get viewed 40 times in one day, 28 of those views happened between 1 and 2 pm. (Hence the rambling about what I was doing at that particular time.)

Hope that clears things up.

The One o'clock Hour

What were you doing during the hour from 1 to 2 this afternoon?

At one o'clock this afternoon I had just finished eating lunch and returned to work. I was pretty productive for the one o'clock hour. (I won't say what time it is now, but you can guess how productive I am being...)

Regardless, I was checking my "Stats" and look at what I saw!

That is pretty darn exciting (and a little reassuring).

March Mathness

57 Eggs!

Our egg consumption has slowed considerably.
If  you can get a carton or 1/2 carton to me or to Aaron we'll fill you up asap.

Spring has Sprung Part II (Survivors)

 

Grape Hyacinth

Red Bud

Dogwood

Hosta

Violet

 

Violet
(the kind that grows in the neighbors' yard)

Azalea

Tulips

Really? Dandelions already? And sideways ones at that. Crazy. 

Now, let me properly introduce you to Violet. Violet shares the neighbors' yard with Ginger. You might remember Ginger from here. Ginger is loud and crafty. Violet is quiet and sweet. But I think she lies. At least I hope she does. I join her at the fence to visit and she tells me she hardly ever gets pet and that I am the only one that loves her.

 

Animal Behavior

I made my way up to the coop last night to visit with the ladies.

They love the rain.

It was raining the first day I brought them home. I was so worried about them getting wet that I chased them around their pen and tried to convince them to go inside the coop.

Last night they were perched outside, gossipping in the drizzle. "Did you see that squirrel?" "Oh, I saw it all right."...

They made their way inside as I walked over to my access door. "Ah hem. Our water could use a little attention. Though it is nice to see you." (My hens are so polite.) 

After setting down the fresh water I just stood and visited with them for a while. The ate and continued to chat, there was some dancing, they pecked at some more food and indulged in the clean water. Then Eleanore straightens up looks Kathy right in the face, and goes in a for a peck/kiss. It looked kind of violent, but considering chickens don't really have graceful, fluid movements I think she was just helping Kathy groom. (Kathy had something stuck to her beak.) Then, of course, it was time for more water.

Will Power

Not only did Tractor Supply have 2 large galvenized tubs of chicks, they had ducklings as well. The minimum chick purchase is 6, ducklings 2. If we only had a pond...  Anyway, I made it out with just my 50 lb bag of pellet. It was tough though with all of the fuzzy, little birds clumsily falling on top of each other trying to get the warm spot.

Remember my boots? I got mine from Target, but they had the same style at Tractor Supply. Somehow that made me feel validated.

Uh Oh.

I was checking prices on layer pellet on the Tractor Supply website and came across this banner.

I'm done for.

If I go missing you can probably find me under the warming lamps playing with the chicks at Tractor Supply.

Bunch of Pansies

Last night I brought the pansies in off of the front porch. I thought it was supposed to get pretty cold and I didn't want to see wilted flowers. (Then again, pansies are pretty hardy- probably could have left them out. Oh well.) 

The daffodils have had their run and they were starting to droop a little anyway. If the tulips were more portable I would have brought them in too. We had quite a few just about to open. I am curious to see how well they survived the mid 30's last night.

Last year when we had similar weather, the azaleas had just blossomed. We used every spare tarp, blanket, sheet we had trying to protect them from frost because...

2 years ago when we had similar weather, the azaleas had just blossomed and we said "Ah, they are plants, they'll be fine." And fine they were, but what an ugly existence. The clean white flowers collapsed, wrinkled, and turned brown.

Guess I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed. (which makes it really difficult to type, by the way)

In the News

Knoxville begins taking applications for chicken licenses.

I may or may not have filled out an application.
I may or may not have to go underground with Kathy and Eleanore and our adventures.
I may or may not be living on the edge.

Spring has Sprung

Look at what I Found

A bloomin' onion!

I had tossed half an onion into the composty goodness of the lasagna garden a few weeks ago and found this when I pulled back the tarp the other day to spread some grass trimmings.

I re-"planted" it in the flower box where all of the rescued worms are residing. Obviously we are not great consumers of onions, so if I start to harvest them - who wants to be on the onion list?

Incredible Edible

Whenever I am out at a restaurant to eat breakfast and the server asks me how I want my eggs I often reply with great confidence, "Over Easy." And then I stammer and shake my head and correct myself after double checking with Aaron that what I actually meant to order was "Over Medium". 

For some reason my mouth must find it easier or more fun to say "over easy" than "over medium."
One day I will be bold and order them Sunny Side Up - but I probably won't eat the whites.

Back in the Saddle again

Yesterday evening I got on my road bike for the first time in 6 months.
All I could hear in my head was this song...



for the better part of 15 miles.

Just thought I would share.

Worms

I tend to do my yard work in stages (i.e - I'm lazy) so the pile of leaves and other plant matter that I had raked out of Charlie's yard a couple of weeks ago sat in the driveway and began to decompose quite nicely with all of the rain we've had recently. When I got around to picking that pile up yesterday there were probably 20 or more worms wriggling on the pavement.

(You know how sometimes after a rain shower there will be a bunch of dried up worms left on the sidewalk or other non porous surface? That grosses me out a little, but it also makes me sad. Worms cannot breathe without dirt. Or maybe more accurately, the moisture in the dirt.)

Anyway, I didn't want a bunch of crispy worms in the driveway, especially since their deaths would have been on my conscience. So for about 5 minutes I picked the worms up off the driveway -first with a stick, then with my fingers after I got over the heebie-jeebies - and placed them in a planter box full of potting soil.

Under one smaller pile I uncovered a family of four. There appeared to be 2 good sized parental units and 2 scrawny children. The mom and dad were laying as parallel lines, touching. I think I may have interrupted something, but my knowledge of worms is pretty limited. And I seem to remember some worms are asexual which means they can reproduce without a partner. But again, I am pretty new member of the Greater Knoxville Worm Rescue, I haven't had time to read all the handouts yet.

Daffodils



Steven N Meyers



I was concerned for the early bloomers at the top of the driveway. I just knew they were going to open, be pretty, and then freeze and turn brown and fall over. But, they didn't. They are still standing tall and delightfully yellow.



NatureMandalas Etsy Shop

Apparently daffodils don't bring out the most inspiration when it comes to photography - at least not with the results provided from Google Image Search. I too have an uninspired picture of the first daffodil to bloom on my camera so I decided to expand my search to Etsy. I highly recommend clicking on the caption.

A Map

 

A map of my poison ivy rash.

Maybe there are not sooo many dots on my stomach and right hip, but a rash exists none the less. 

Yesterday was the first day I didn't have a new blister pop up.

Let the healing begin.

Lasagna

My lasagna garden,  aka: pile of leaves, discarded fruit and veggie peels, hay, newspaper and chicken poop, is now "baking". Before I put the tarp over the pile I mixed up the ingredients a little bit and found an earthworm. I'll take that as a sign of good soil.

Spring Cleaning.

Last weekend I did a little cleaning in the coop.

I scraped and shoveled all of the well-used hay from the winter,

filled up the basin with fresh water,

and brought in some new hay.

I like the put the hay down as tiles to give Kathy and Eleanore a chance to make it their own. You know, give them a sense of purpose.

You can view the fresh hay dance here. It starts around second 20.



Daffodils, Lasagna and Spring Cleaning

I have some photos on my digital camera.
All I have to do is plug my camera in to the
USB port that looks like a lady bug...
and click "OK" or "Next" or something.
For some reason this task has been difficult
to get around to. But none of the topics of the
title would be fully explained without the photos.
(Or, at least would be less entertaining.)
So I am going to try to get to it.

And another thing: Nuggets!

February's Figures

I don't know how many eggs I actually got this month. I have had a few no egg days and a couple of 3 egg days. Mostly 2 egg days, though.

The important part is I still have 2 chickens and they survived yesterday's flood. Does that count as a traumatic experience? The coop is on pretty high ground...

PSA

Public Service Announcement: Poison Ivy is never dormant.

Leaves of three, Let it be.

So what do you do with a vine of brown? 

Let that be too. 

If you don't - like I didn't, and then have a plumbing project going on in the house and can't shower right away like we did - start scratching.

I know that Poison Ivy is never dormant.

I knew this before my morning routine involved calamine lotion.

But spring was in the air and I just couldn't resist getting some yard work done.

Unfortunately, I ran out of the stuff above. Hopefully the stuff below will be comparable. (I was at Target for a multi-purpose shop and this was as good as I could get.)

I'll let you know how it goes.

 

M

I created this several months ago. November, I think.

It was one of those really busy days at work.

I've been toying with the idea of painting it on our mailbox.

This is the kind of post Aaron loves.

A: "What? You have?"

I haven't actually toyed with the idea out loud.

By the way, I changed positions at work.

I am being utilized again.

It is a good feeling.

Basil

I just decided today (after eating my leftover mozzarella, tomato and basil sandwich from Brixx) that I am going to add basil to the herb garden.  With this addition, we'll have rosemary and... well that is pretty much it. Just the two of them .

I doubt I will start from seeds for this. I'll probably just buy the plant and try to keep it alive. Let's hope it goes better than the Crepe Myrtle I bought last month. (I think it was dead when I bought it. Good thing Home Depot has a return policy for plants. Just bring it back, root ball and all, with the receipt of course.)

Basil photo from foodsubs.com

To Seed or Not to Seed

Last year, when I first brought the chickens home the ground of the pen looked like this:

All right, well maybe it wasn't that nice. It looked more like this:

But now, after 5 months, it looks like this:

with a little of this strewn about:

I started to wonder  how I was going to get grass to grow in there again.

Then Aaron cleared this up for me. He said something along the lines of "Chickens don't really need grass, do they?" Short answer - Nope.

Then I said...

That's Good. One less thing, you know?

(I didn't really say that. Do you know who did?)

Pictures of the ground from here, here, here and here.

Thirsty

"I'm thirsty."

I'm Friday.

Come over Saturday.

We'll have a Sundae.

(My mom used to say this to me in response to what was probably whining.)

Kathy and Eleanore stormed the coop one day last week when they saw me coming with some water. It was one of the days of frozen-ness so they were pretty thirsty. As soon as I opened the door, there they were. They were pecking at my hand before I could even reach the jug of water to the basin. Hopefully ice won't be a problem much longer.

Cutting the Cord

...or cable.

Aaron and I weren't too thrilled with our cable bills as of late. Aaron made a call to see if there was anything we could do to get a cheaper rate. Apparently, there was only one way. "You can cancel your cable."
So cancel we did.

We decided we could go without for a little while, see how it goes, look into other companies and services...
Can you guess what we have missed the most?

None of these. It hasn't been too hard to figure out the weather. Aaron might miss having breakfast with Mike and Mike a little bit, but I prefer waking up without them. I/we get my/our Bones fix through Netflix. As for Daniel Tosh, we are probably better off without him. So what is it that gives us withdrawal symptoms?

Joe Rocketh's Flickr

That dang clock on the cable box. We had no idea how hooked/reliant we had become on the green numbers in the living room. (Maybe everybody's does this now, but I always thought it was great that we never had to reset that clock for Daylight Savings or power failures.) Somehow though, I think we will manage.

Farming in Pajamas

I believe I mentioned in one of my earlier posts that I was trying to be a runner again. I'm getting there, but the process sure is time consuming. I neglected to tend to Kathy and Eleanore at all on Monday. They were already tucked in and sleeping by the time I got to them last night - fresh out of the shower, in my p.j.'s. Eleanore wasn't too happy with me. Usually she lets me pet her when she is groggy. Not this time. Kathy could care less. She was just eager to get some water. If they would quit filling the trough of the water-er with hay the supply would last a little longer... I tried to make it up to them though. Extra cracked corn! Mmmmmn.

Date Night

Waaaaaaay back in 2010 (December maybe?) Aaron and I went out on a different kind of date. We went to give blood in the blood mobile and then out to eat sushi. Because we gave blood we were each rewarded with a t-shirt, free Petro, and a pint of Mayfield ice cream.

We made another date out of the free Petro's and coupons for free Mayfield Pints. I think Petro's is a regional chain. So if you've never heard of it or never been in one, here is a handy poster they have to let you know just what a Petro is.

I chose to have corn chips. I think I always will. 

Oh and in case you were wondering... I got a report card in the mail a few weeks after the donation. Apparently I am really good at giving blood - I got an "A+"

Gone to Carolina

Aaron, Charlie and I went to Tryon this weekend.

Kathy and Eleanore stayed home.

They had to work.

Exceprts

Midmorning

Me: Hello?  (Why do I answer like I don't know who is calling when the caller ID says "Mom"?)
Mom: Hello. Your dog is at my house.
Me: Ok....
Mom: He came alone.
Me: Oh!
Mom: And he must have had fun because he rolled in something smelly. He is laughing right now. He is really happy.
Me: I'm sure he is.

Late Afternoon

Me: Hello? (This time the caller ID says a last name - it could be one of several people)
Unknown Caller: Who is this?
Me: Lauren. Who is this? Is this Zach?
Unknown Caller: Yeaaaaah. Haley told me if I called this number I'd get... Haley! It's Aunt Lauren... She gave me the wrong number.
Me: Well, how are you?
Zach: Good. Haley is counting (something - I didn't really understand what he said here) but she's not supposed to.
Me: Oh. How is...?
Zach: Ok I'm going to use this number now. I love you bye.

Me: Love you too. Bye.
Zach: Beep Beep Beep.     Beep.   Beep.
Me: Hey, Zach! You have to
Zach: Beep          Beep.
 I hung up.

Enero's Numeros

2 

Hens

0 

Traumatic Events

4 

Cracked and Frozen

4 

1 Egg Days

1 

3 Egg Day

58 

Eggs for the month