What a Sunday

Brandy from the post office called and was on her way to drop off......

....our latest batch of chicks. Dark Cornish.

After hatching, traveling, getting a beak of water they felt the need to nap. Some even rolled over and slept on their backs. I had never seen that type of behavior before and was a tad worried, but nope, they were all fine.

My 5 two week old Partridge Rocks were sure interested in this corner...

or just terrified of the new comers...

...even though they are quadruple the size. It was too funny.

With the batch came an "exotic" chick.

We think its this one.

Not sure what it is but I think it may be a Silver Spangled Hamburg. We'll see in time if I guess correctly. Do any of you chick experts out there care to guess?

The girl claimed the shiny red fishing pole from Fridays finds....

....so we fished in our front yard.

Her catch, one of many.

(my hands)

The girl used the rubber frog lure.

(note the rubber frog in the mouth)

I used a rubber mouse lure

(Hubbie hands, I didn't want you to think I had man hands)

View from above.

A nice catch an release afternoon.

For any vegetarian readers, I am about to talk about meat.

My hubbie works with a man who has a farm. We ordered half a hog, about 150 lbs.

It was ready, so we went for a drive to Chelsea and picked it up.

http://www.backfortyacres.com/

I like supporting a local farmer, also knowing where our food

comes from is becoming more and more important to me.

We got 10 packs of chops, 2 huge hams, 1 pack of ribs, 12 packs bacon , 30 packs of sausage.

We also got a heart, 3 livers and 1 hock, which I have never cooked any of these before so I am going to have to find some new recipes to try.

I am going to make a food calendar too and make sure i spread this out to last us a year.

My husband usually gets one deer in the fall for our red meat (with luck). Most of the new chicks are going to eventually find a place in the freezer as well. I also plan on plotting out how much veggies, sauce and jam I need to can for the year.

Rascal says,"I'm the only vegetarian in the house."

"Vegetarians Unite!"

One of those days

Did you ever have one of those days that started out a bit rough and ended up turning around and being great?

I knew I had to go to my Moms and feed and water her pets. Not so terrible but she lives 25miles away, so there goes an hour and a half of my day, gas is already being guzzled by Monster Truck due to all the soccer practice trips to town( we are hoping to sell hubbies vehicle and get some little hatchback instead but until then) Then I decide to go and have lady issues.

Oh well, buck up wuss bag and just go. I figure unless I have car trouble, I can just stay in my jammies, who is going to see right? So the Bone and I load up and get going.

The drive to my moms is a beautiful one, all farm houses, fields and such. Only one stoplight. The pets are fine, do my jobs and go.

Driving back I see a moving sale with a big old barn in the distance. MOVING SALE, BARN, I have no choice.

Lookie at what I got for $8!

Chicken wire, tomato cages, 4 fishing poles, and a big chicken waterer.

I got the cigarette butt for free!

The lady wanted $4 for the waterer, I talked her down to $2.

Was it my awesome negotiating skills or......

.....did she feel sorry for me?

Jammie pants, no name brand crocs, and a happy Halloween t-shirt.

I have officially become one of those people who wear their jammies in public.

So at the next sale, yes i said next sale, why stop now? I got a brand spankin new air popcorn popper for $2. It had to be my awesome negotiating skills again, right? Say yes, please.

So at this sale if you buy one popcorn popper they throw in a........

....Metal shelf for free!

It's ugly now but I am going to paint that baby up and you'll see what I treasure I really scored.

By this time T-Bone is tired of things being crammed around him, so we went home.

Then..

.....while weeding in our 78degree day, I discovered my asparagus is starting!

I love asparagus season!

So then I have to blog to you all, T-Bone, Ratface and the chickens don't care, so while I'm down loading photos, 7 of 30 shots were mine. Yep the girl got the camera again, so I'll include just a few for your viewing pleasure.

One of her yarn dolls that she makes, just chillin.

Our tree fort slide.

T-Bone going down the slide action shot.

You can't steal a camera without including many, many, many photos of Ratface (Rascal).

Ratface and his green mustache.

I also want to say thank you to Twinville at http://laughingorcaranch.blogspot.com/, Farm M0m at http://childreninthecorn.blogspot.com/ and Tabbyfactory for making this just just an amazing week for me business wise. I was so close to taking a giant step backwards and now I have the energy and motivation to keep moving forward. Thank you so much!

Earth day 2008

In honor of earth day I ran to the mall, bought some overpriced t-shirts, whose proceeds go to a good earth friendly cause, that proclaimed my love of the earth so everyone would know what a good person I am. NOT!

Instead I....Sewed a bag that I am donating to a local shop that has artists donate small works, auctions them off and the proceeds go to the local food gatherers.

http://www.salinepictureframe.com/showroom/index.php?act=viewCat&catId=368

This will be my third year.

I started more bread for tonights dinner.

I washed some bags. Remember, I'm cheap.

Took one of my 9 day old chicks on a field trip.

Notice those fancy new wing feathers.

Planted potatoes.

The dog gave himself a bath.

Launched the boat. Yes, it was a curbside find. You didn't really think I spent money did you? It's a tad ugly and a bit leaky, but we have fun in it.

Added ham and cheese to bread dough, let it rise, then baked it into.....

Tonights dinner. The family loves it, it doesn't use much ham or cheese (frugal tip),

and with the added grains and a salad on the side, it makes for a tasty, healthy meal.

We have had such nice weather, I am sending good weather vibes to my blog friends in the pacific northwest, and wishing for less winds in the southwest.

More ramblings

I frequently wake up around 3 or 4 am, use the bathroom, then can't get back to sleep due to my brain spinning full of ideas. Not always good ideas, but ideas just the same.

So I got up packed lunches and started another llama bag.

We then missed the bus due to a road nearby being closed, had to run the kids to school, threw off my sewing groove. Read some doom and gloom blogs, worried, cried and went back to sewing.

I finished it and loaded it on etsy.

Does it sound awful of me to think it's really cute and then actually say it out loud?

The chickens had to come and investigate the photo shoot.

ANOTHER LAUNDRY PHOTO? Like we want to see her undies again. Sorry to disappoint, no undies this time. It happened to mostly be my canvas bags and cloth napkins drying in the sunshine. See, even though i wasted gas in the monster truck taking the kids to school, I still love the earth.

I am tired

Friday, if i don't have plans, is usually the day I try to catch up from the week and get ready for the weekend. So here was my morning.....

I cleaned the kitchen, then made bread, 2 for loaves for the weekend one for Friday Pizza night.

Cut some potatoes and set them out to toughen for planting this weekend.

Hung laundry. I don't like to do laundry on the weekends (family project time).

Went for a 5 mile bike ride with my sister.

I can really feel the 10 lbs I gained over the winter going up the hills.

I planted 140 onion sets.

Turn your head to see the photo properly, oops.

Last year I put a pot on the porch with fake eggs to encourage the hens who prefer not to lay in the coop an alternative place, Freckles was taking advantage of the porch pot. Brownie just laid another. Two eggs in the porch pot in one day, cheap thrills for me.

I loaded another chick bag on my etsy shop.

After i loaded it i discovered this photo had my laundry and chickens out the window. Oh well at least buyers know I don't make these in a factory.

Not bad, I still have a half hour left till the bus shows up. I'd better finish that pizza.

The kids have soccer tomorrow and if the weather is good, its family yard/garden work weekend.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

michelle

beautiful days

We are having a stretch of beautiful weather. My crocus (crocuses) are blooming.

The quilt show was wonderful. It was at the Henry Ford Museum, which is an amazing place on its own.

But this Quilt show featured a woman named Susanna Allen Hunter who was poor and made these everyday quilts from old clothing and seed sacks. Even though she had limited access to fabric, she made quilts paying attention to color and placement and had their own rustic charm and beauty.

Throughout the show they had quotes from her family, mostly a grandson, telling about her. I'm sure this hard working creative woman would never have guessed her quilts she made for the purpose of keeping her family warm, would ever be in a museum.

You can see a bit more here.

http://www.thehenryford.org/museum/quiltinggenius2/default.asp.

Today is the first day of hanging my laundry. Yep, there's my bloomers. Being outside makes a mundane task enjoyable. Feeling the breeze and listening to the birds is quite nice.

I wore shorts! Where did I put my lotion?

When we lived in town, every spring on the first week or month wearing shorts, my interesting neighbor (interesting is better than other words I could choose) would always open her window and shout out " Hello Mrs. White Legs!". For some reason I don't miss living in town.

I spent some time transplanting my tomato seedlings.

Back to the window for you little ones.

Soccer practice for the boy is tonight. I hope you all have beautiful weather where you are.